Outward uses its survival mechanics with its narrative to create an incentive to engage with them in an efficient and effective manner. Travelling takes time, causing you to get hungry and thirsty. You need to eat and drink to survive.
So spending time or resources to gather food and water directly opposes most quests, by making it that you need to plan your expiditions into the wilderness to make sure you do things in an efficient manner
To continue, food and drinks can provide good buffs to help you with combat, incentivising you to engage with getting better foods. But you have a very limited inventory space, carry too much food and you cannot carry enough loot
Food also degrades over time, so if you don't cook or preserve the food then you miss out on some good buffs like health regen, something that you do not naturally have.
To continue, as you lose health and exhaust stamina, you will 'burn' it as a resource, lowering your Maximum capacity of these resources. You cannot adventure forever and so you must take breaks. Either sleep in town or sleep in the wilderness.
Sleeping in town is very easy, at a player home or inn, your food and water needs are handled for you when you sleep, but in a tent or bedroll, you might not be so lucky. And that is ignoring the ambushes thay could occur.
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