From slaving away in the mines I have passed out a lot because of just focusing on mining and not realising that I was starving.
My suggestion is, when you get hit or badly damaged you get a flashing screen and colours change so do the same but for food and water.
From playing the server for like 2 weeks or so I picked up really quickly that nearly everything from mining to car stealing its all the same skill check.
I think a bit of flair for different tasks should be added to spice it up and make it so it feels like your actually doing what your doing...