So my birthday's coming up next week, and there's a couple things I'd like as a belated birthday present come fall.

Scavenging. Please, please try to form a more in depth scavenging system. More reasons to scavenge, more things to do with what you find.

Item assembly. We need more options for item assembly, possibly a system based on experimentation. Example, have a whole list of things that can be assembled using scavenged items, and once you assemble an item you unlock the recipe for it. And you can have schematics littered around the world that unlock recipes not available through experimenting. I feel that adding another layer of make-shift weapons and defenses would really lend a feeling of accomplishment that you dont get from killing npc's with pre-war weapons.

Survival. This is the Nevada desert, and it's irradiated. Logic would dictate that if you dont drink occasionally, your going to die. I always felt that if they added the need to eat and drink in fallout3, it would add more depth to the feeling of despair and survival. And it would give more sense of being to all those food and drink items that served no purpose other than decoration.

Housing. To have more housing options, or even just more unique services, would make me jump for joy. But more so, I need more reasons to come home, and more things to do when i get there.

Thanks for reading!

Yeah, I agree with all of this. They could even make the eating/drinking system optional, so as not to alienate casual gamers, maybe with standard and "hardcoe" mode.

The eating and drinking mode would be a VERY good idea. It would add realism to the game and it would make you more responsible for the actions you take in game, therefore more strategy is involved. Should I eat something before I explore this large area (that may not have food or water) or dive straight in?

i agree with most of what you say but adding a eat and drink system to the game that's freaking stupid.

5 minutes in the game: your character is hungry,
10 minutes in the game: your character has die because you didn't feed him.
11 minutes in the game: welcome to the apocalyptic version of mass effect 2 buddy.

Happy birthday next week, but stick these ideas in the http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1073570 thread, they go better there. Thanks.