I honestly like all of those ideas, Whales. Personally, I almost feel like if people want to take the time to do boring grinding behavior like that, it's their option to do so. It would be anice way to increase survival potentially in the long run, and might promote other activities to do if you need to kill time and don't have a book to read. I'd find it akin to lifting weights or something if you had nothing else to do- keeping all your senses in check.
You could always make it an option at startup too, perhaps?
Also, with the outposts I occasionally see- obviously they're not really anything at the moment, but are you planning on implementing things like NPC shops, quests, etc.? That would be pretty damn sweet.
Well, the issue arises when
optimal gameplay is
boring gameplay. This is a problem that plagues things like WoW, Pokemon, etc. I really want to avoid optimal gameplay and boring gameplay overlapping more than just a tiny bit.
Lifting weights is something I'm open to--some long-term action that requires no input on the player's part, just eats up time to let them do something useful.
And yes, those outputs are NPC camps, with shops, clinics, quests, etc. all planned. Though as has been discussed elsewhere, they're very artificial-feeling and doesn't fit with the setting; they will probably be removed wholesale, and NPCs will instead decide to settle down in abandoned malls, airports, prisons, etc. rather than building a small town so incredibly quickly.