I've been playing as a tribal group recently, which is a fun challenge even on the easiest difficulty. The one obvious limit I have given myself is to either limit use of technology or eliminate it entirely, so no powered items, modern weapons & armour, or otherwise advanced things. However, there are some things that are vital to long term sustainability that also fall under the category of "Technology" and so I cannot use them. Here are some ideas that would benefit both the early game and tribal colonies:
Fire Pits - A cooking implement made out of basic materials. Something like this would only be able to make simple meals and would take a little longer doing so, with very good cooks being able to make fine meals at best, and if it's not too hard to program, it could be unusable if outside during rain.
Standing Torches - Like a standing light, only made out of wood and powerless. Since it is cheaper, it would not have as high a lighting level, and like the fire pit would go out during rain if left outside.
Tribal Furniture - Cheap, small, and weak in comparison to basic furniture. Things such as sitting rocks for stools, eating basins, and ground-based tribal beds, which give no positive or negative moods. Great for people on a budget, or colonies who are not yet ready to dedicate their resources but still want to keep their people from rampaging.
Totems - Decorative items. They could give buffs to friendly people and debuffs to hostiles, facilitating their use as a psychological weapon.
Smoke Signals - Two items, The Smoke Beacon and Smoke Signaller, that work in tandem like the Orbital Trade Beacon and Comms Console. The Smoke Beacon would have a much smaller radius than the Trade Beacon, and neither would work inside or in the presence of weather (It's hard to see smoke in fog) but neither would require power. Due to their drawbacks they would not be good long-term substitutes for their counterparts.
Muffalo Traps - As basic as it gets. Whoever steps on the trap will have some nasty foot injuries and bleeding to deal with, so even if they don't do much in the way of damage, the slowing effect will surely be very handy! The only drawback would be that AI would typically be too stupid to avoid them, so they might have to be useless against friendlies to offset this.
In my opinion, these cheap objects would make great short-term substitutes for the early game as well as being useful for tribals. Of all the objects in this list, Fire Pits and Standing Torches are possibly the most important ones, since early on most people will want to dedicate electricity to more urgent matters such as security.
Thanks for reading
