There's no "food mechanics" in the game, though.
There are 84 types of different food that play ALL the exact same role, while filling 84 different slots on the inventory (when we are lucky and they stack properly).
I mean, I'm used to all sorts of inventories, I played Ultima VII gods know how many times after all. It comes the point when you have to accept that something is too much and isn't making the game better.
P.S. I'm also COMPLETELY INDIFFERENT to the argument "Decorating your camp" and in fact possibly even a bit hostile to it, because the idea that we are traveling back and forth across an entire region but we'll have a recurring camp that gets more elaborate and "decorated" over time will never stop being an immersion-breaking annoyance to me.
Yes. 100% agree to all of this. At least if there were food recipes or something like in Pathfinder, it would mean something. Again, can't we have food just auto-filter into the Camp Storage or into Supply Packs? Or, like Niara said, at least make it so that if you are going to drink wine and beer as your sustenance for even an evening there are some consequences the next morning (hangover or something).
For me, it all boils down to value and meaning and purpose. If the item has no real purpose, get rid of it. Don't make me juggle yet another item simply because it has a different picture and label on it but it fulfills the same purpose as another item. If a carrot is Camping Supplies and so is a bottle of wine and so is a boar's head and so is a watermelon, why do I need separate inventory slots for them all, and why not just make them all a Camping Supplies number at the top. However, if a carrot doesn't spoil but a boar's head spoils in 1 long rest after picking it up and wine makes you hung over in the morning, suddenly having different food items makes a BIG difference.
And as for decorating your camp, I am totally against it. This is not some home you're planning on staying at forever. Why would you decorate it? You're not even planning on staying in this area long. From the very beginning of the story, you are pretty much wanting to get out of the region as fast as you can to find a healer and complete companion quests like get Shadowheart to Baldur's Gate and Lae'zel to her people. You would be VERY nomadic and VERY light when it comes to your camp. Travel light would be a HUGE thing for you and your companions; especially in a hostile area.
I think of Maximuus' idea of camp invaders random events even as I'm saying this. The bigger you make your camp, and the more stuff you keep at it, the more likely it should be that you draw unwanted attention like thieves and goblins and animals who want to raid your stores. The more food you keep, the more likely a bear should wander into your camp. So why would you want to decorate it and make it even MORE of a target to enemies?
