1 hour ago, meganoth said:I am calling myself an experienced player and while I know where to find water when I need it, it IS a resource that I never have enough of in the first days of the game.
Sure, I'll grant that water is limited in the early game with the current design; but it's not something I can work for. It, like everything else solves itself by doing the Good Boy -loop. You just "don't craft" for a couple days and you're set. It's not an interesting problem, it doesn't change my choice of actions in any way, it's not a "game problem". Now I don't even need to craft my own jars and pot to solve it, it just solves via quest spam.
Coops, balancing is its own issue, but coops always have the option to divide into single player groups, so it shouldn't be any harder - if the advantages of group play aren't large enough to feed a base mama, then you can't afford to play in such a way. Don't get me wrong, I think group play should have its own balance, but it's even harder to pin down than solo; and its going to be absolutely impossible if solo is already broken.
But this issue is pre-balancing; the crafting system is broken enough to need to limit lake water from being used. Balancing this system will keep both lakes and crafting broken, thus I'm hoping for changes in crafting, not just balancing of this one. I don't think I'll get what I want, realistically; but I'm talking on a forum, so, that should go without saying.
1 hour ago, meganoth said:What are you expecting? Dark Souls?
Dark souls is famous for its realism in nutrition... No, I don't want the game to be SCUM either, with several nutrition types needing to be separately filled. Mostly because that is based on a model of nutrition science that doesn't line up with actual reality, you'll do perfectly fine on just beef alone... 
No, I'm not expecting massively difficult water game play; I'm hoping and proposing a system that
- doesn't break survival realism unless absolutely needed
- introduces "playable" mechanics to solve the issues (ie, going for a "water trip" is different from going to a "gun finding" mission)
- does basic survival things on a level where new players will suffer some ill effects, maybe even straight up death
- AND experienced players will most of the time have to actually DO the survival thing too. Not just skip it via quest spam.