I've never sneaked around, ever. I don't even know the key.
I... would like to know.
Archers are super good at oneshotting, and while arrows are and were realistically super deadly, it should have no ability to peirce armor. At all.
Leather, realistically, slows the arrow considerably depending on how tough it is. While sharp arrows have little trouble cutting into leather and can easily get a kill shot with this light armor, crude ones will have trouble.
Secondly, if an arrow hits a before it hits an organ, it's stopped. The game can't represent this, so the arrows should be powered down in suit.
While arrows should be able to cut into and get a kill through leather, even, say, two layers, nearly any metal should prevent a kill. We aren't covering ourselves with leaf, and it's not paper-thin sheets, we're wearing actual armor. Bronze *might* get broken by a heavier arrowhead, such as iron, but even so shouldn't be able to do anything to internal organs.
The reason behind this is because leather is easy to cut into, but if you were to take a knife and stab iron or even copper armor, chances are it would barely dent. Metal's molecular bonds... No, the only important thing is cutting force.
I would like to see ranged weapons get severely downgraded, to where it would be as hard to kill an adventurer in full iron armor (as in, the arrows never hit a chink in the armor) as it would to kill a bronze colossus with fluffy wamblers. Doable by only the greatest.
This hints at something that's needed in the future- armor and weapon updates, to include fuller armors and a longbow. In a militaristic age, armor is made to suit the world and the attackers. If attackers can slice at an open spot, you cover it. the result? Armor and weaponry is developed not only based on past inventions but on available technologies and theories.
The main fix? Rebalance arrow's ability to pierce, and possibly do so by edits to the strength of armors and weapons game-wide, so that metal armors allow enough protection to reasonably safely approach a small group of archers.
Furthermore, more forms of armor should be easily obtainable pre-siege. I'm all for goblins having masks as a signature, but every group should have a helmet or two armor pieces that completely protect the face and head, so that when made of metal, arrows have no chance of getting a single shot kill on the the brain.
Body armor should have balance- heavier, clunkier armor that protects the upper and lower body, and the upper arms, and then the kind of metal armor that allows a still very sneaky approach, but offers very little protection other than the metal composition.
From there, gauntlets, gloves, metal pants, leggings and boots complete the full set of armor, which can the have a shield for added guarding.
Bows in general could use a revamp. In addition to adding a longbow, hard to use, slow to fire, and cumbersome due to it's size, but more powerful than the average bow, add different kinds of ammunition beyond material composition. Possibly add the ability to make a call within the raws to a type of venom to cover or inject from the arrows, using the venom or material and a stack of arrows to produce poisoned arrows.
This adds a whole new level to combat somewhat like we have now, but more balanced because bows aren't stupid powerful, they just have different abilities.
As far as ammunition types go, regular arrows are cheap, easily made, and go about as far as getting through leather and flesh before stopping.
Other arrow types can make it through the weaker metal armors, but require more materials. Only advanced metalworkers can make the strongest of arrows (i.e, dwarves can make arrows that can break into relatively powerful metals, humans and dwarves can make the anti-middle grade armor arrows, and everyone can make basic arrows)
Tracking should have an addition, which allows you to sit and stay hidden to watch an area to give you a general idea of what's in an area. Near a bandit camp, you might get a glimpse at what weapons they'll use, and in the wilderness you might be able to stalk a deer. This would require not only to show signs of moving people but also have structures throw out signals, such as when you near a town with a farm "A chicken clucks in the distance." or something similar. For that quote, you'd need:
To be sneaking, or to have activated "watchful" mode, which slows down movement to hide and watch.
The town would have to have a chicken.
You'd have to be near the town.
So, if you were sneaking, say, near a bandit encampment...
"You hear someone sorting coins" if the bandits have coins,
or other things, like somehow noticing what weapons are being used. Things like shining metal for metal weapons in use as a vauge hint, or "you see the "bandit 1" raise the -iron crossbow-" for specific sightings. While this might wind up making some senseless sightings, it would make for a good system that can be polished later.
This post has turned into both a rant and a "what I'd like to see" post, and it's half on, half off the topic, but I felt like I should make my ideas known. I'm not a modder and I'm not the only one with opinions, but I figured this needed to be known.