Let's ask a different question. How would you envision the ideal 7 Days for survivalists? What challenges would the player face and how would you make sure he doesn't lose interest too quickly?
Ill pitch in just because I was actually contemplating this yesterday. I like to explore new ideas.
I feel, that the wellnes system that was implemented before perks - you would increase it by eating high quality food, lose on death - was pretty good. Death had serious consequences. However, biggest problem was, that you could end up with 50hp 50stam, which for people that died a lot was big deterrence. I would reintroduce this mechanic, but after death, you would never go under 100/100. You could still gradually increase your wellness up to 200/200.
There are now two caps to stamina and health - soft cap and hard cap:
Soft stamina cap - works like in alpha 17. You mine, run etc, it decreases. You eat - it increases.
Soft health cap - works like in alpha 17. You bleed, get hit, break limbs etc, it decreases. You heal with bandage, splint, med kit - it increases.
Hard cap is increased only via wellness and is no longer governed by agility/fortitude.
Currently, killing animals is way too easy. I can just walk right to a pig and one shot him with stealth bonus. Same with deer. I would implement it, so there would be high chance to spawn vultures and/or dogs on animal kill- depending on gamestage. Boars are more agressive and will charge player (which I mean charge as run really really fast) if they get close. Deers are more shy, and will register player from further distance, and run away. Without using stealth, or sniper rifle, you cannot get close to deer. Bear is much less likely to attack, but his speed is increased, so player can never outrun him. His hit poins are increased. You can only kill bear with some serious firepower.
Sealed shamway boxes ALWAYS contain canned food.
Vending machines use prewar cash and do not respawn food every day.
Removing living of the land perk. Harvesting plant always produce two items. Seeds are crafted from single food item instead of four. Time to grow crop is much longer.
*this part would apply only if spoilage was introduced*
Meat needs to be preserved. Four stages:
Salted meat - downside - cooked meals dehydratate
Smoked meat - downside - cooked meals increase wellness less (needs building smoker)
Refridgirated meat - no downsides, but the food still spoils, but slower.
Frozen meat - meat can ve stored indefinitely, but largely increase the cook time. (Cannot be crafted, must be either bought, or find in some high lvl PoI)
Canned meat - lasts indefinitely, but decrease wellness gained from food. (canning station can be found at the end of tier 5 PoI shamway factory)
salted, smoked and refrigirated can be combined for longer even slower spoilage, but negatives stack too.
Quality of prepared dish depends on crafting station used. 3 tiers:
1.campfire
2.stove - perk: does not consume wood, only power.
3.crockpot - perk: much better wellness gained, but takes a lot of time to cook.
Recipes that require meat can use ration cans (beef, chicken, lamb), so you dont really need to hunt and bother with spoilage, if you dont want. However, those cans are more rare, than getting meat from animal.
Cooked meal now spoil within one ingame day. The wellness and health from them decrease down to half.
Cooked meals do not stack.
Microwave can be used once to push back the decay by fixed ammount.
There is limit to how much wellness you can get in a day.
All cooked meal now give various long term buffs - around 30 minutes long. They are also the only way (aside from vitamins) that increase wellness.
Various canned foods can give food better properties or buffs. - increased stats, bigger block damage, bigger damage, better aim, bigger luck looting etc. For example, you put in meat, potato and fat. That would give you steak and potatoes. Say that would increase your STR by 1 for 1 hour. But you add there a can of peaches and Boom! +10%movements speed to add to that. important is, that the buffs are meaningful and impactful enough, that you FEEL more powerful, than when without them. All this hassle needs to be WELL worth it.
You can only have on meal buff. (steak and potatoes, vegetable stew etc.)
You can only have one desert buff. (blueberry pie, tyramisu, cake(is a lie))
You can only have one drink buff. (coffe, tea, yucca juice)
So once you exit your home the next day, you are all buffed up and ready to kick ass.
