Want to give it another try? I changed a lot of things - survival should be much harder now (still intending to make this really hard to master ;-)). At some points there are still alot of items piling up, but in my test runs there were always moments when most of them needed to be used to overcome critical situations. To catch up with the changes you can have a look here https://humane-tiger.itch.io/9-dayz/devlog/561270/devlog-post-jam-jam-7
I just did two runs and I can definitely feel the improvements, well done!
In my first run I learned the hard way that items are consumed when used in battle, so I ran out of items and got beaten to death by a weak zombie, took him at least a minute xD But I like this, it definitely makes for interesting decisions! I actually don't remember if items were used up in the older version, but I think they were not?
In my second run I got much further, although I didn't make it either. I'm not gonna blame my death on a bug, but I noticed this: If you drink a bottle of water and eat a snack bar quickly after that, then the thirst-refill of the water is cancelled and you will only get your hunger refilled. Might work with any two consumables if you click fast enough, but I didn't test that.
Indeed my inventory didn't get cluttered this time and although I lost twice I do feel like the game is beatable, so good job on the balancing!
The UI feels super smooth, love how everything from cards to gather time info fades in so seemlessly! Will beat this game one day ;)
Thanks for giving it another try and for your feedback :-) Will have a look into the bug, it's noted. The care package might have been a good compensation for that, I mention it in section Reward yourself.
When you played last time, items were not consumed. I also think it changed for good. I often end a turn intentionally, because I prefer to take the damage instead of throwing some precious items.
Also big thanks for noticing and mentioning the UI. I worked really hard on meeting my own expectations for that, which I think are pretty exaggerated.