Sleep or rest without a bedroll, when inside buildings or under a shelter.

[xenojeff]

The inability to lie down and sleep on the floor is one of the few annoyances with the survival game play.  I understand this isn't some advanced realistic survival sim, but this restriction just makes no sense in-game or IRL, no matter how you look at it.  For example, I spend a lot of time at Jeremiah's home in Mystery Lake but I wasn't allowed to sleep or rest in there.  That's just weird.  Same with several other cabins and shelters.

Of course it can be done in such a way that it doesn't render bedrolls obsolete.  Maybe sleeping on the bare floor wouldn't be nearly as restorative and replenishing.  It could even have a chance of contracting some disease or another condition, especially if sleeping in an exposed area. 

I think the player should have the freedom to sleep anywhere, even if it leads to freezing to death. 

Thanks for considering!

Edited February 7, 2021 by xenojeff

[SpanishMoss]

The fact a player can't sleep anywhere is an intended gameplay feature. If you don't have a bedroll, you should take into consideration where you are going and how far you are away from the nearest bed. That takes a lot more skill than just sleeping anywhere. If we could sleep anywhere, a bedroll we be a less useful item, and more difficult feats, like summiting Timberwolf Mountain would not have the same difficulty.

[xenojeff]

 

26 minutes ago, SpanishMoss said:

The fact a player can't sleep anywhere is an intended gameplay feature. If you don't have a bedroll, you should take into consideration where you are going and how far you are away from the nearest bed. That takes a lot more skill than just sleeping anywhere. If we could sleep anywhere, a bedroll we be a less useful item, and more difficult feats, like summiting Timberwolf Mountain would not have the same difficulty.

I mean with the same logic they could've restricted sleeping to just beds.  We didn't have to have any bedrolls or snowshelters etc.  The point is, that's an arbitrary restriction. Essentially you're saying "that's how they made it, so that's how it is". 

That's why I suggested that sleeping on the bare floor obviously woudln't be as good as sleeping in a bedroll, and could come with negative consequences.  It may have a limit on how much rest you can gain from it, like say 25% of the full rest condition.  There are many ways to do it and balance it for difficulty.  So carrying a bedroll would still be the preferred method.  The game can still be as challenging as the devs want to make it, so your point is moot.  Also, difficulty for difficulty's sake is not the point of the game.  It has to make sense first.

The other thing that makes this even more weird, is that you can craft a snow shelter to sleep outside.  It makes no sense that I can't craft anything to sleep INSIDE.  Go figure. 

Most of the mechanics in the game are to a large extent based on things we can do IRL.  The game restricting me from sleeping or resting in a warm place JUST because I don't have bedroll (which is not even craftable) is an exception which is too far removed from reality.   The game can be made as challenging as you want, with that additional mechanic included.

Edited February 7, 2021 by xenojeff

[Schrodingers Box]

You are totally missing the brilliance of the game developers’  foresight my friend. It is nothing short of genius that a bedroll is required other than a bed. It makes the game. 
  If you want “realism” just tell yourself the floor is way to cold and the heat sink effect would freeze you and not allow condition restoration. 
    The key is to appreciate the brilliant intent behind the mechanics, not to dwell on lack of realism. 

[piddy3825]

2 hours ago, SpanishMoss said:

The fact a player can't sleep anywhere is an intended gameplay feature. If you don't have a bedroll, you should take into consideration where you are going and how far you are away from the nearest bed. That takes a lot more skill than just sleeping anywhere. If we could sleep anywhere, a bedroll we be a less useful item, and more difficult feats, like summiting Timberwolf Mountain would not have the same difficulty.

 

3 hours ago, xenojeff said:

The inability to lie down and sleep on the floor is one of the few annoyances with the survival game play.  I understand this isn't some advanced realistic survival sim, but this restriction just makes no sense in-game or IRL, no matter how you look at it.  For example, I spend a lot of time at Jeremiah's home in Mystery Lake but I wasn't allowed to sleep or rest in there.  That's just weird.  Same with several other cabins and shelters.

Of course it can be done in such a way that it doesn't render bedrolls obsolete.  Maybe sleeping on the bare floor wouldn't be nearly as restorative and replenishing.  It could even have a chance of contracting some disease or another condition, especially if sleeping in an exposed area. 

I think the player should have the freedom to sleep anywhere, even if it leads to freezing to death. 

Thanks for considering!

I would agree that there has to be some logical balancing to being able to sleep without a bedroll.  I also recognize "the fact a player can't sleep anywhere is an intended gameplay feature."  But it does bring up some rather counter intuitive situations where being able to sleep without a bedroll should entirely be possible;
for example, when deep in a protected area in a cave when there is a long term fire burning, or say in a fishing shack that has a burning fire in the potbellied stove.

Seems to me that laying near a roaring fire, that is bringing the ambient air temperature up to 35C should be able to provide sufficient warmth and not make sleeping contingent on whether or not I have a wimpy cloth bedroll.  Sure I may not be entirely comfortable without putting a sleeping bag on the floor, but I fee the ability to have the option makes for more immersive gameplay.  

I think a player should be able to lie down and sleep anywhere they want, with or without a sleeping bag.  if you happen to die in your sleep as a result of your actions, then that to is part of the equation in surviving the long dark.

[xenojeff]

Yes, exactly.  If the devs intentionally decided to prevent sleeping anywhere, because somehow that was the only way to achieve some specific balance and difficulty, that would be very disappointing and lacking creativity, and I hope that's not the case.  Essentially it's like saying "we'll release an unfinished game because it strikes the right difficulty without a feature that would otherwise make sense to include".  Difficulty and balance considerations should come AFTER deciding what mechanics to combine in a logical way that complete the game play experience. 

Here's the really crazy part which I feel needs to be emphasized to the developer - the game allows resting outside IN THE SNOW (via building a snow shelter), but it doesn't provide an equivalent feature for resting inside a warm building.  An equivalent would be like crafting a mekshift bed or bedroll from cloths or w/e.  This is just too much of an omission to ignore for me to be able to fully enjoy the game.  It's like watching a movie with a huge plot hole that's difficult to forget. 

Again, difficulty comes after building a logical feature set.  They can easily keep the game as difficult as before or make it more difficult, even if they add the ability to sleep anywhere.  I wasn't suggesting to just add that, and make the game too easy by keeping everything else the same.  Obviously the sleep/rest mechanic would need rebalancing after adding a feature like that. 

Edited February 8, 2021 by xenojeff

[UpUpAway95]

OP - Just carry your bedroll... which is given to the player at the start of the game in all but one of the standard difficulty levels (and can be added to the player's inventory in an Interloper-type custom game (baseline resource availability = low) by merely changing the "starting gear allocation" from "low" to "medium".   If you don't like not having a bedroll... don't play on Interloper... it's that simple.  (The Interloper start is absolutely unrealistic since pilots are required by law to pack an emergency kit containing means to start a fire, shelter and water and supplies to ensure the survival of every person on board the aircraft (for at least a few days)

Also in all but one difficulty level, there are numerous bedrolls scattered throughout the world.  In most houses and man-made buildings, there are beds.  In some caves, there are beds.  When there is a bed nearby, no one is going to want to sleep on a makeshits mat on the cold floor, so it does make sense IRL.  There are also numerous vehicles that you can sleep in if you want to take the risk of freezing.  Finally, you can craft a bear hide bedroll in unlimited quantities since bears respawn.  There is absolutely no need to allow players to throw down some cloth as a "makeshift" bedroll when IRL, under those weather conditions, a person is absolutely going to carry a bedroll of some tyoe rather than carry around some bits of cloth or unfinished hides for throwing on the floor.

In addition, the snow shelter uses cloth BECAUSE there is a "makeshift" bedroll inside it... and some players deem it too expensive as a result.  You can pass time with or without a bedroll anywhere... and as long as you let the timer complete, you can save the game, so there is already a mechanic in the game that represents "resting" without the regenerative benefit of using a bedroll.  You can also recover some fatigue at any time by drinking a coffee.  You can regenerate some health by drinking a birch bark tea.

 

Edited February 8, 2021 by UpUpAway95

[xenojeff]

On 2/8/2021 at 2:08 PM, UpUpAway95 said:

Just carry your bedroll...

Thanks for the tip I guess... but that doesn't address the issue I raised.  Obviously I know I can carry a bedroll.  And I did for much of the time.  And I lost it a few times. 

It's just bad design to force the player to carry a non-craftable survival item without providing an alternate method for resting inside a warm place. 

 

On 2/8/2021 at 2:08 PM, UpUpAway95 said:

you can craft a bear hide bedroll in unlimited quantities since bears respawn.

No such recipe in my game.  At least not in story mode.  But even if there was, curing a bear hide takes more than 10 days, and finding a bear is rare. 

 

On 2/8/2021 at 2:08 PM, UpUpAway95 said:

There are also numerous vehicles that you can sleep in if you want to take the risk of freezing. 

Right, so I can sleep inside a freezing cold car without any bedroll requirement, but I'm prevented from sleeping next to a warm fire inside an abandoned cabin.  You're making my point here about the logical inconsistency. 

 

On 2/8/2021 at 2:08 PM, UpUpAway95 said:

the snow shelter uses cloth BECAUSE there is a "makeshift" bedroll inside it...

Right, so you can build something that includes a bedroll to sleep outside in the snow, but you can't build anything to sleep inside a warm building.  Again, you're making my point about the inconsistency in the game mechanics.   I shouldn't have to leave the warm cabin to go out into the snow to actually get some rest.  It really sounds ridiculous when you think about it. 😆

And btw passing time increases exhaustion, so it's literally the opposite to 'resting'.

Edited February 9, 2021 by xenojeff

[UpUpAway95]

42 minutes ago, xenojeff said:

Thanks for the tip I guess... but that doesn't address the issue I raised.  Obviously I know I can carry a bedroll.  And I did for much of the time.  And I lost it a few times. 

It's just bad design to force the player to carry a non-craftable survival item without providing an alternate method for resting inside a warm place. 

 

No such recipe in my game.  At least not in story mode.  But even if there was, curing a bear hide takes more than 10 days, and finding a bear is rare. 

 

Right, so I can sleep inside a freezing cold car without any bedroll requirement, but I'm prevented from sleeping next to a warm fire inside an abandoned cabin.  You're making my point here about the logical inconsistency. 

 

Right, so you can build something that includes a bedroll to sleep outside in the snow, but you can't build anything to sleep inside a warm building.  Again, you're making my point about the inconsistency in the game mechanics.   I shouldn't have to leave the warm cabin to go into the snow to actually get some rest.  It really sounds ridiculous when you think about it. 😆

And btw passing time increases exhaustion, so it's literally the opposite to 'resting'.

If you have no recipe for crafting a bear hide bedroll in a survival mode of the game, then your game is bugged.  Story mode is a totally different beast... as different things will unlock as you go and many of the events in the game are totally scripted. 

Finding a bear in survival mode is not rare... there is generally at least one in every zone of the game. 

Yes, it does take 10 days to cure a bear hide.  It takes a similar length of time to cure a moose hide.  So what... you want to beat the entire game instantaneously?

To sleep in a car more safely, just pick a sheltered one and light a fire under it.  The one inside the barn in PV is perfectly safe to sleep in.

To sleep safely in a snow shelter, just build a fire beside it.  To sleep on one of the beds provided in caves, build a fire beside it.

It makes no sense for you to want to sleep on the floor inside a building when there is mostly likely a bed a few feet away... and you will be warm enough to sleep through the night in that bed regardless of having a fire or not because it offers a warmth bonus.  If that building also has a stove or fireplace (as many do), you can also have a fire inside beside you as you sleep (e.g. the fireplace in the Mountaineer's Hut in Timberwolf Mountain).

Passing time allows your stamina bar to increase/regen and it consumes fewer calories and water than being active, so it is still resting.  It is not sleep... and you still have alternatives to decrease your tiredness without sleeping.  Drink coffee or take a Go juice... or use a Stim.

You'll get no support for your request from me, period.  End discussion.

Short version - The bedroll is not non-craftable and you are not forced to carry it with you, since there are many beds provided in the game that will allow you to sleep inside warm places

Edited February 9, 2021 by UpUpAway95

[xenojeff]

49 minutes ago, UpUpAway95 said:

You'll get no support for your request from me, period. End discussion.

I dont' remember asking for your support, or your rude comments.  None of what you said is relevant to the issue I raised here.  You clearly haven't played story mode, or haven't explored much to know that many buildings don't have beds.  I would certainly prefer to sleep on the floor inside a warm place, instead of going out in the snow to make a shelter. 

Edited February 9, 2021 by xenojeff

[odizzido]

Not being able to sleep anywhere, even if it's a bad idea, was certainly one of the strange and to me bad things I very much noticed when starting out in this game. Over time you learn how to get around the issue but it feels like working around a bug. I mean, our character would rather die than sleep on a floor for an hour. What? Then your character has the balls to lie right to your face when they say "I'm so tired I could lay down right here". No, you can't.

Anyways I would totally support sleeping anywhere. It for sure should come with a steep - temperature bonus though. Even sleeping on the floor in a warm +20 degree building can be cold, I know, I tried it a couple weeks ago. The floors in buildings are around 0 so I can only imagine how cold that would be. It would almost certainly be a terrible idea 99% of the time, but I want the option anyways.

[xenojeff]

1 hour ago, odizzido said:

Over time you learn how to get around the issue but it feels like working around a bug.

Thank you for explaining that better than I did.  That exactly describes how I felt about the inconsistency in the resting mechanics.  It just feels like an incomplete or missing feature.  Sleeping on the floor would certainly come with significant disadvantages or debuffs like I mentioned before, so it would be used as a last resort, but it should be possible from a survival simulator standpoint. 

And if you sleep outside completely exposed, that would be really dangerous.  You could either not wake up and freeze do death, or wake up to being mauled by a pack of wolves or worse...  That could actually make the game more interesting.

Edited February 9, 2021 by xenojeff

[Old Hermit]

3 hours ago, odizzido said:

Then your character has the balls to lie right to your face when they say "I'm so tired I could lay down right here". No, you can't.

i LOL on that part hahahaha

[Stinky socks]

1 hour ago, Ps4Methuselah said:

Will permadeath become the next thing on the chopping block. Believe me, you wouldn't be the first to ask for either of these...i have done so myself in the past.

Well, I am backing up my survival gameplay just in case it bugs out at some point or something weird happens. Am I cheating? No. Why? Because this:

Yesterday I got poisoned by bad food, it was like 10% or whatever. Why did I eat it? Well, I didn't want to throw away food. I didn't have pills in my current spot just yet(left them in previous base), so I went outside quickly to start a fire, to boil up healing tea, but it turned out I didn't have enough ingredients! What's worse, as I was panicking, i was standing on fire and getting burned as i am frantically trying to figure out what to do to get out of menus!!!

😬♨️

So here I am, in a blizzard, poisoned and also burned!! I grab my rifle from the house and go out in the blizzard across pond in direction I **think** my next shelter is and hopefully containing some pills. I end up arriving at the road INSTEAD OF THE ISLAND!! garr!!😰🤢

Okay dont panic, theres another house not far that definitely has some supplies! Along the way. I grab some medicinal plants and finally arrive to my known good shelter, didn't have any antibiotics there, so I cooked some up from ingredients.

This taught me I need to have emergency supplies in every satellite base camp. So this is what I'm set out to do from now on.

Could I have reloaded my known good save? Yes. Did i decide to do it? No. I wanted to get out of this unfortunate situation normally, bit if for some reason it was a bug that broke my survival, I'd be very upset.

Point is, we need saves. We dont have to use them if we don't want to, but if something wonky occurred with game engine or if player wants to survive with saves...why not? That's why we have different settings to accommodate different players!:) survival difficulty to your tastes!

Sorry for derail. Back to bedrolls🏕🏚🌨🌪🦌🐻 (I placed story in spoiler)

Edited February 10, 2021 by Stinky socks

[odizzido]

I think asking for saves and asking to be able to sleep anywhere are a little different as sleeping anywhere is something everyone can do, but reloading after getting hit by a bus is, AFAIK, something nobody can do. It's like looking out the back of cars. Unless our character has serious spine damage why is it that we cannot do something that basically anyone can do?

[pocho]

I signed up on this forum to post here.  

5 hours ago, Ps4Methuselah said:

Would you stop playing The Long Dark because you can't sleep on the floor my friend?

Well yes.  You make it sound like everyone should fall over themselves to praise the game.  I did in fact stop playing it because of many little limitations like that which annoyed me, and made the game play feel too formulaic, more like I'm fighting the game engine instead of fighting for survival like I would in real life.  I think it would've been a more 'organic' experience if the player had more freedoms like resting without a bedroll (given some risks of course), or eating snow directly (also given the real-life risks of hypothermia, dehydration, and disease).  They did allow drinking unclean water from toilet tanks, so that shows you that they can do things like that, and they should.  

I don't see the need for people to come to the Wish List topics and reprimand users for posting their requests, and to tell them that they should just love the game as is.  The game is not actually completed and there's a lot of room for improvement, and this forum section exists for a reason.  Let the devs decide what's worth considering, unless you literally speak for them.  I don't think anybody who posts a suggestion here is delusional enough to think that it will definitely be granted.  But if a request gets enough backing, you never know...

So yes, I would be in favor of allowing more freedom in those in-game activities.  I might even pick up the game again if they improved in that department.  

 

Edited February 10, 2021 by pocho

[Stinky socks]

Well I am sure developers are reading and discussing things we post every once in a while.

When Raphael posts videos on youtube, he often mentions community. 

[UpUpAway95]

19 hours ago, odizzido said:

Not being able to sleep anywhere, even if it's a bad idea, was certainly one of the strange and to me bad things I very much noticed when starting out in this game. Over time you learn how to get around the issue but it feels like working around a bug. I mean, our character would rather die than sleep on a floor for an hour. What? Then your character has the balls to lie right to your face when they say "I'm so tired I could lay down right here". No, you can't.

Anyways I would totally support sleeping anywhere. It for sure should come with a steep - temperature bonus though. Even sleeping on the floor in a warm +20 degree building can be cold, I know, I tried it a couple weeks ago. The floors in buildings are around 0 so I can only imagine how cold that would be. It would almost certainly be a terrible idea 99% of the time, but I want the option anyways.

It's not a bug.  Whether you like it or not, the devs intend to not allow the character to just sleep anywhere. 

Also, IRL, when a person who is cold says they could just lie down and sleep right there, it generally is a death sentence if they do.  Also, I have my bedroll, so I can throw it down anywhere and sleep... and I can put a fire beside it and be warm enough... anywhere... or I can walk 10 feet to the bed inside that house and sleep on it instead of the floor.  If I've lost my bedroll, I can craft a new one... I just have to play the game to get the materials to do it. 

It's no where near as restrictive as FO4's survival mode... where you can only craft a bed inside a settlement, you have no bedroll to carry with you, and you absolutely have no way to save the game without sleeping (unless you mod the game, but FO4 does keep your last 3 saves so if something glitches you do have two previous saves to go back to).  There are dirty sleeping bags and mattresses scattered around the game world, but they won't get you well rested or, if you're already too tired, eliminate your fatigue and they'll give you diseases.  Good beds are exceptionally rare in that game... but it makes survival mode at least a bit of a challenge.

I like TLD's sleeping mechanic the way it is.  If the ever do allow the player to just lay down anywhere... it should come with an instantaneous "fade into the long dark." (because that's what would likely happen IRL).

 

Edited February 10, 2021 by UpUpAway95

[Stinky socks]

Maybe @UpUpAway95has a point. When I have to travel, I pack like there is no tomorrow; gotta have everything and hotel has to be clean and bed has to be nice to sleep in. I wonder if Astrid and McKenzie are the same way, cringing at the idea of sleeping somewhere on the floor or some cloths..

[odizzido]

I never said it was a bug, just that it feels like one. Also I know it's an unpopular opinion(or was until FO76?) but bethesda games are all terrible.

Also I bet the people who loaded the game and found out the controls are a little off, you can't sleep or turn your head, etc, are not the people who made an account on this forum. I certainly didn't register on that one batman game that everyone liked's forum. I loaded the demo, couldn't rebind any keys, and just uninstalled it without even getting past the menu.

 

Anyways I can work around the limitation now, but when I was a new player it certainly hurt the game for me. Not enough to make me stop playing obviously, but it did hurt.

[ManicManiac]

I've given this thread time to breath... so now I'll weigh in with my opinion.
By and large my thoughts on this subject have not changed much over the years, so I will echo what I've discussed in the past:

On 10/24/2019 at 3:24 AM, ManicManiac said:

This has been discussed at great length over the years as well... so to try and sum up:

I think the Hinterland team made very specific design choices when they set it up the way they did.  Honestly, I think they made the right decisions.  I think if the player just flop down and sleep any-ol'-place without cost, then it would negate a lot of the strategy to the game and navigating the game world...

Besides, it's usually not long before we run into a bedroll.  At that point you can pretty much sleep where you want to, but at the cost of condition to the bedroll (and I think that's important - everything should have a cost/risk to weigh in a game like this).

Overcomplicating a system with multiple factors to facilitate a simple action, I don't think that's the right answer either... the simple system we have works fine.  I think it accomplishes it's purpose (including the need for a little strategic thinking).

We do also already have places to sleep without a bedroll (other than beds and vehicles I mean)... Hinterland has added several "pine bow beds" (strategically) in various caves around Great Bear Island.

My point is, there are already numerous places to sleep and there options for sleeping in places where there is no "proper bed"... I just don't think we need to muddle up the sleeping mechanics for the sake of player convenience. 

I think that being able to just "sleep anywhere" would undermine some elements of strategy we have now, I think it's good that the majority of our decisions in the  game come with a cost/risk, and I think that some thing like this would only serve to make life easier for the player... and I'm rarely in favor of things that I think just make life easier for the player.

[Stinky socks]

I have an idea: LOTS. OF. COFFEE!!!

I actually used that as an emergency remedy when the trip took a lot longer than I thought and had to "Starbucks" my way home. Glad I brewed like 5 cups with me before travel.

[UpUpAway95]

I'm going to change my position on this - Hinterland should definitely allow the player to lay down anywhere and try to sleep, with or without a bedroll.  However, the action should have a higher than 95% chance of causing the player to immediately fade into the long dark... as they succumb to the fatal combination of cold and fatigue resulting in hypothermia and death in their sleep.  Having a fire or being indoors would keep the RNG at the 95% chance, not having a fire or not being indoors would increase the odds to 99% or above.  Having a bedroll will result in the current situation where it reliably takes about 2 hours for a character at full health to freeze to death if they are not sufficiently warm. 

The actual odds are flexible, of course, as Hinterland sees fit to make them.  The basic idea is to not restrict the player from gambling with their character's life.  Regardless of the dice role, the amount of fatigue reduction from trying to sleep on the snow or on the floor without the benefit of padding the bedroll provides should be minimal regardless of the duration the player opts to sleep.

They should also add a craftable cloth bedroll.  Suggest cost, 30 cloth,  Because it's not made of the same lightweight stuffing as the cloth bedroll found in the world, it should weigh as much as the bearskin one but provide, at maximum, only the same warmth as the found clot one.

Edited February 10, 2021 by UpUpAway95

[xenojeff]

4 minutes ago, UpUpAway95 said:

I'm going to change my position on this...

I'll give you credit for changing from "I don't support this, end of discussion" to "yes, lie anywhere with high chance of death".  That's quite open-minded of you. 

I'd say that 95% chance of death would render this pretty useless, and quite unrealistic if you have a fire going inside a shelter, but hey, even that would be a step in the right direction.  Even that would make me go "hey, it's pretty cool that I can just lie down anywhere, let me see what happens if I do".  It's like what the other person said about having the freedom to make your own decision whether you want to take the risk and maybe die. 

A slightly more sophisticated approach would account for how long you sleep, and environmental conditions.  E.g. the longer you sleep while the weather is changing, the higher chance of catching a disease or going into hypothermia or death.  I'd make it so sleeping without a bedroll grants very limited amount of rest, like a fraction of the normal sleep, and after sleeping exposed the character would get exhausted even faster than before.  They could make a lot of interesting things with that.  But it's understandable if that kind of a change is not feasible at this point. 

[UpUpAway95]

8 minutes ago, xenojeff said:

I'll give you credit for changing from "I don't support this, end of discussion" to "yes, lie anywhere with high chance of death".  That's quite open-minded of you. 

I'd say that 95% chance of death would render this pretty useless, and quite unrealistic if you have a fire going inside a shelter, but hey, even that would be a step in the right direction.  Even that would make me go "hey, it's pretty cool that I can just lie down anywhere, let me see what happens if I do".  It's like what the other person said about having the freedom to make your own decision whether you want to take the risk and maybe die. 

A slightly more sophisticated approach would account for how long you sleep, and environmental conditions.  E.g. the longer you sleep while the weather is changing, the higher chance of catching a disease or going into hypothermia or death.  I'd make it so sleeping without a bedroll grants very limited amount of rest, like a fraction of the normal sleep, and after sleeping exposed the character would get exhausted even faster than before.  They could make a lot of interesting things with that.  But it's understandable if that kind of a change is not feasible at this point. 

Rendering it useless is my point.  If the character cannot make a judgement to walk to the nearest bed inside a building or to throw down a bedroll or to make a bedroll if they don't currently have one, then they are already exhibiting the sort of clouded judgment that is symptomatic of onsetting hypothermia... making it very likely that they will die in their sleep.  At any rate, it is highly unlikely that their fatigue would be reduced anyways.  What you want is to undermine the challenge set up by the devs around sleeping in this game.  Your system is not better... just ridiculously easier.  No support.  End discussion.