I have no interest in simming in Fallout.. Maybe drinking water like the water canteen addon that I got for Vegas.. That was cool.. Just getting a message that I took a drink..

Nothing more than that though.

I thought I read somewhere that there is now an animation for using Stimpaks. If that's the case then even if we hot-key it there will follow an animation to take the 'time' to inject ourselves.

I agree with much of what you say, although sleeping was the need I really didn't mind bacuse it only involved interacting with world objects and not going into my inventory.

It's an interesting point you raise about using buffs to encourage eating, drinking and sleeping. I happen to think that could work very well. The Well Rested perk for example, could have varying levels of effectiveness depending on how much sleep your character is getting over a given period. The game could track how long you've been awake and then you'd be required to sleep an appropriate amount to gain its full benefit.

I also think it would be hilarious to have a 'Healthy Diet' perk which activates if you eat your recommended five fresh fruit and vegetables per day for a week and stays active until you miss a day.

Yeah, I've found (with various Skyrim mods) that the best way to get people to eat/drink/sleep regularly is to make those activities useful on their own, regardless of any needs system in place. And, regardless of a needs system, food needs to be more than just "+6 Health, +2 Rads".

This comment reminded me to go to the Fallout 3 wiki and see what the unmodded food effects are. 5-10 HP? Wow, that's it?

It's been so long since I'd had vanilla food (a consumable overhaul is part of FOOK) that I'd forgotten they were so terrible. The modded food that I've been eating is almost all heal-over-time, and it ranges from +1 for 15 seconds (for junk food) to +5-6 for 10 seconds (cooked meals). But there's plenty of variation, depending on how healthy or filling the food is.... +1 for 30sec, +2 for 15, etc. And some things have other bonuses (Yao Guai meat, +10% dmg; something else has an AP boost; etc) It makes food something actually useful to carry & eat.

(seriously? 5hp? That's not even worth the effort to find it in your inventory......)

I am hoping they will have one, but I am not optimistic. Bethesda, never has had a hardcoe mode. Obsidian did, and mods made it possible in 3 and Skyrim. We will likely need to wait on mods for FO4.

Fallout is a lot of things to a lot of people. To me, it is survival in a radioactive wasteland. The more hardcoe they make it, the better I will like it. If done right, you need to plan ahead, make sure you have enough supplies for your expedition, because you might not find what you need on the way. Bethesda had cooking in Skyrim, but it was stupid. There was no point to it. And why do I need salt to cook meat at a fire???!!

I would love to find myself in a position, where I, supposedly the good guy, was forced to robbing food from the caravan or having to resort to cannibalism to survive. That would be hardcoe.

A big problem with hardcoe in NV was that every shack had loads of food and water in it, so it became pointless. Ideally I would like to see Dont Starve food gathering difficulty in a Fallout world. Having a base with a productive farm would actually mean something.

I did play in hardcoe mode, if only because it drove me nuts to have all that food and water around and it not having a use other than HP gain. It also added a nice bit of sim to my RPG.

I played hardcoe, and really liked it, although it could have been better. Hopefully F4 has it, because it really made New Vegas for me, among other aspects of that game.