Body Fat!

[spacemoses]

One of the critiques I've seen of the game is that you "need to consume 10lbs of venison each day to stay alive".  This got me thinking about how hunger could be changed a bit.  What if your character in game actually has body fat as a resource?  So, maybe the character starts with something like 20% body fat, and in a day if they eat nothing, their body fat goes down by 1% (or whatever that percentage might be or make sense to be).  When the character gets down to a dangerously low body fat, like 4% or something, then they start taking physical damage.  In addition, with the aspect of character moods, a player might be able to survive the day without eating, but it would make their mood very poor.  This would also put more focus on making sure you have water to drink and might also allow the game to minimize the number of food items necessary for the character to collect right off the bat.

[TLD Survivalist]

That definitely sounds like an interesting idea. Although I feel like the mood system would be quite a pain in the bum bum for the programmers

[Wastelander]

Amazing idea! Would make starvation a lot more interesting. Due to my studies (History and Germanistic Studies) I, unfortunately, know a lot about starvation. Also, such a mechanic would allow us to build up a 'cushion' of body fat. We have a saying in Germany "Spare in der Zeit, so hast du in der Not" - "Save up when you've got the time/means to, so that you have something to spare in dire times". Body fat doesn't spoil as long as you're alive, so that'd make for an interesting mechanic.