Non-binding, of course, but it would be good to know what the players of the game (or at least the ones active on the forum) are most looking forward to for the next big issue tackled. What do YOU most want to see done?
Farming/ more support for building a base.
This probably falls under NPC enhancements, but FACTIONS. One thing I always imagined would be expanded in Cataclysm (having followed Whales’ posts) was the existence of factions. It seemed like he was working towards the ability to have reputations amongst various factions and the ability to take missions/quests from them. Some ideas for factions were Survivors (city-by-city), Military, Fungus-worshippers, etc. Remember the survivor camps? Yeah, those should be teeming with NPC survivors who will give you something (skills or valuable items) in return for completing a particular quest. Imagine a vehicle mechanic needs a particular tool or part and is willing to teach you something in exchange.
Factions would definitely fall under the umbrella of better NPC support.
Raiding groups, survivor cities and similar things for the NPC part. And pets. Pets.
This and more worked NPCs. Possibility of making survivor villages or raider parties. Trade, do quests, etc…
When I think surviving in the wilderness, I think of living in a tent, cooking squirrel meat on a campfire, fending off wild animals.
To put it short: I want believable camping mechanics. Rollmat was a great addition but I wish there was more.
New option added, since it seems to have some support
Personally I’d rather see stealth and more developed melee combat before any of the NPC stuff is added in.
I’d like to see the “animal spawn like crazy” bug fixed. I wake up, get out of my tent and get mauled by 30 wolves and spiders and bears wtf
And the squirrels oh god the squirrels
But seriously, things like farming and settling down would need to have a risk to it. Maybe someday the hordes will start to leave the cities and towns and we start to see them going about plains and forests. Then you could never say you were safe somewhere.
Having a base and gathering supplies is fine, but there must be an incentive to keep on going. The end game could be about trying to find a cure, a la “I Am Legend” style, trapping zombies and experimenting.
Oh well I can dream.
Cure it with royal jelly, since that seems like the best cure-all for now.
Also: Beeeeeeeeeeeeees! Yes, I would love to see beekeeping implemented. You would need special clothing and to have built a normal sized hive. Then you would find a wild normal sized beehive and 'e’xamine it and collect the bees. Then 'e’xamine the bee box and put the bees in. Then after 2 weeks you could collect 2-4 honey. And after 4-6 weeks you collect royal jelly.
After you implant the hive then you wouldn’t need the beesuit. IRL you just need the suit when feeding the bees, or moving bees. Just collecting the palates of honey doesn’t require a suit if you get docile bees.
Also they would output attack swarms to distract zombies around you base. Since zombies intend to harm anything living (I guess) they would sense the intent of them and attack, doing no damage but distracting them.
And the bee attack swarm would be one entity
Also it doesn’t provide honey during winter.
All of these statements are facts made by an actual beekeeper. Yes I am a beekeeper.
Of those listed, improved NPC’s/quests/factions. I’d like to see the game have more of a ‘point’. Not a storyline or anything, just things you can actually do.
Of what isn’t listed, I’d like the XP system changed. The pool system bugs me, and skill development through skill use inevitably leads to repetitious, grindy behavior. I know it’s ‘realistic’ to get better at something by working at it, but gameplay should trump realism. DCSS-style skill training, or even an old-fashioned level up for skill point allocation setup, would be great improvements over what we have right now IMO.
new map specials and new locations!
but as stated by DW and kev they both hate the mapgen code so that ain’t happen anytime soon it seems whales was the only one who could stand that
PULL THE LEVER
It’s more the infrastructure that’s a problem, I’m actually coming up to speed on making new specials now 
Yeah, NPC improvements for sure. Maybe even a return of the old survivor settlements except as functional towns rather than free loot.
I’m pleased to see that most of the forumites and I agree that the NPCs and Inventory should be the top priorities.
I want to be able to sex up the NPCs.
Don’t know where to put this so I’ll post this here.
Some suggestions and questions.
I have a hard time finding wood axes, found 1 in a forest and a few from NPCs, have yet to see any in hardware shops or other buildings in cities. Found a few chainsaws in hardware shops. So far I get chainsaws first, esp since I can craft them and not wood axes. 
Metal tanks for petrol are rare, found lots of engines and storage batteries in garages but not tanks. Do they spawn there? I found metal tanks in hardware shops. I can find engines on roads but no metal tanks, so far they seem to be the rarest part (like 6.5l engines).
Are your experiences the same or is the RNG bad to me?
Currently cars don’t protect driver from weather as the surrounding squares do not have roofs or are doors. To build a vehicle that protects you from weather will require a big vehicle. Suggest requiring only the driver square to be protected from weather. Does it work when the vehicle is in a diagonal position where there might be gaps around the player?
Boiling water 250ml at a time is boring, is batch crafting going to be implemented?
Another RL, The Unreal World allows the player to destroy items at their feet to save digital space. So far I’ve disposed of some flammable stuff with fire, think this should be implemented? I suppose it the future corpse auto deletion may be implemented but there is still the issue of items.
btw thanks for continuing to work on Cataclysm.
I’ll look into metal tanks and wood axes, 6.5l engines are supposed to be rare.
As for the vehicle thing, doors will protect you from the elements, but only if they are closed! Try closing the car doors and see if that helps.
There is a bit of an issue with boiling water (and making tee, coffee, apple juice, etc.), but if you can get your hands on, or craft, a water purifier, the whole thing is a lot smoother.
Corpses aren’t autodeleted because there exists monsters capable of reviving them!
As for deleting things, items really take very little space compared to the rest of the data in the save files, but it’s something to consider nonetheless.