Yes and no. An economic system is nice if you are going to be taking advantage of buying and selling and moving about a lot. And a persistent world is good if players are actually paying attention to it. You have to get the players to do things and set up the context for them TO take notice. A few examples. If food, and drink, then he won't really care that the prices at one store are better than at another, when he's low on coin. If sleep are not real elements, then a player doesn't have to consider how a lengthy delve into a cave or journey to another hold might be planned out. e.g. trying to find Inns, bringing along a portable bedroll, a bow and some arrows to hunt with, a cooking pot. If you can carry 5 warhammers and 40x other things, then their economic value becomes moot when you're deciding what to take to sell. If enemies are more deadly, and you have fatigue to consider, you might take more notice in the general lay of the land, what factions control what territories, how they like to fight and you'll be more conscientious of how you fight them. As for my contribution, I think it would be nice if some of these player side changes (ie, fatigue, hunger, and thirst.) were to be somehow implemented on the AI side. It'd be neat to be sneaking into a cave, and noticing a bandit falling over as a result of a lack of sleep or sheer hunger. Might make for interesting new gameplay aspects. Lots of bandits in a particular dungeon? if your stealth is good enough, sneak in and steal their food, come back in a couple of days, maybe some have passed out, maybe some have left in search of food. Just an idea. Maybe even add notes or diary entries that state that they're running out of, or going to leave and find more food?
