Some more ideas to reduce player frustration, implemented as quick prototype to test before suggesting:
http://s30.postimg.org/rb4aey1gx/interface.png
Major items:
– Click on player to see context menu with most demanded options: REST UNTIL [X], EAT <something>, DRINK <something>.
– “Rest until <morning>” makes resting meaniningful. Current rest is a russian roulette, which stops when *it* wants, not when player wants it to stop.
– Eating/drinking directly from player menu will *greatly* reduce frustration, since I won’t have to scroll through endless inventory just to find that “special” pineapple or meat chunk or water bottle..
– Compactify four stat bars into two lines. There is no need to cover that much screen space with existing bars. I would personally add day/night indicator, because sun is always seen by player unless wandering underground.
– green “running man” on the left is an attempt to combine health indicator with weight (aka “you are overburdened”) indicator. When player suffers damage, green figure will eventually turn half-red (50% red, 50% green – proportionally to damage), than fully red. If player has too much items in the backpack, than running figure will turn into “man with a heavy bag” figure.
– [M], [O], [I] = buttons to show map, options, inventory dialogs.
– there MUST be an option to drink directly from freshwater puddles without a need for a special tool. Most humans are equipped with built-in helping instruments, which allow them to drink bare-handed. Yesterday, my character died from dehydration sitting in the middle of self-digged pool of freshwater just because I used (by mistake!) all my containers to make water stills.
Thanks!