Having started playing this game completely blind recently I have recently been enjoying that awkward period of time where you understand basically nothing about the game, it's progression, or what you should even be doing next. Which in all honesty is something that makes games like this all that much more enjoyable and immersive. Although the in-game handbook was helpful and the wiki was a lifesaver. I feel that the in-game handbook is pretty unwieldy for newer players. You open up them menu to try and see what items you might need to make next and you just see pages of stuff you're still ages away from even considering making. Something that may help with this a bit would be to have the in-game handbook progress as you do or to implement some variety of research mechanic.
Progressive in-game handbook:
Having the guide start mostly empty aside from sticks/flint/ect and progressively display/reveal more items as you come across them or their components. Such as displaying copper tools/armor once you pick some copper nuggets up off the ground, or displaying alloy combinations when you have the raw component metals. "Undiscovered" items could be greyed out with hints on how to reveal them, such as "make a new alloy", "discover a new metal", or "hunt a larger animal".
Research mechanic:
This would achieve a similar result as the progressive in-game handbook by having players seek out new items to "research" the uses of and discover the new items. Given how interwoven such a mechanic would likely be to most levels of gameplay, this would probably be something that would be enabled/disabled at world creation. The usual game research mechanic of shoving items into some "magical box of item researching" probably wouldn't fit this game super well. Something somewhat similar to the "progressive in-game handbook" for inventory crafted items would work for most of it. For example, after collecting at least 10 or so Cattails you unlock the recipe to make a hand basket. There should probably be some sort of menu that displays progress towards unlocking these recipes to show what someone needs to collect for them, as well as showing that there are still things to be discovered. The second type of researching would be related to this game's knapping/blacksmithing/pottery mechanics. which would likely involve just messing around making random shapes until your character gets some sort of inspiration to make a particular shape (the recipe displays) and you make whatever it is you discovered. There might also be some element of making a shape close to the real thing accelerating the discovery process. For the blacksmithing and pottery versions of this trial-and-error mechanic there could also be a material "refund" of some scrap metal or clay for the failed versions made before a successfully discovered recipe.
