Immersive Phototrophy

Hate eating all the time? Think that hunger mechanics are more annoying than they are fun?
Become a plant. They can make energy from the sun, skipping the eating process completely!

Simply type /photosynthesis to become a plant. If you type it again, you'll turn back into a boring mundane animal.
While a plant, you restore energy when in light. Not just sunlight, but also held light, block light, and even light coming off of entities.
Your plant skin will also generate sugar and inject it right into your blood, giving you lots of energy. The more light, the faster you go.
Not only that, but you can also sunbathe by sleeping out in the sun in order to gain food at the cost of daylight. Risk and reward!

All values are based on real life. A lot of research and effort went into ensuring a perfect balance, backed up by real world values.
It's not all good though, there's downsides. Your heavy plant skin will make you 10% slower. Clothing and armor also blocks light.
This means that you'll have to put up with harsher winters, will be more vulnerable to enemy attacks, and will likely live in a greenhouse.

By typing /exposure, you can get a quick look at how much energy you are producing and how much skin is exposed.
The more skin is exposed, the more energy you will produce and the faster you will go, negating the downside.
Even at maximum exposure, you'll still move slower than normal when relying on vanilla torchlight.

Here are the following traits you will gain upon typing /photosynthesis. I plan to add more in the future.
All these values assume the default plantlevel of 0.5, but will scale up or down if you adjust it.

<span style="color: #18bc9b;">+ Phototrophic:</span> Generate saturation proprotional to light, allowing you to feed off the sun.
<span style="color: #18bc9b;">+ Thick-Skinned:</span> Damage from armor-blockable sources is divided by 1.5, stacking with armor.
<span style="color: #18bc9b;">+ Oxygenic:</span> Generate oxygen proprotional to light, directly restoring your stamina.
<span style="color: #18bc9b;">+ Solar-Powered:</span> Your move/digspeed is increased by up to +25% based on light level.
<span style="color: #e74c3c;">- Relaxed:</span> Life is good. Both move and dig speed is reduced by a flat -10%.
<span style="color: #e74c3c;">- Sterile Gut:</span> Saturation bar will no longer pause for a time after eating food.

I've had a lot of time to playtest the system and it feels really balanced.

New progression system: Plantlevel

No gameplay yet, but there's now an internal value called "plantlevel"
This level determines how strong the upside and downsides of the traits are.
It defaults at 0.5 (50%) so if you set it to 1 you'll move +40% faster in light and -20% slower in dark.
The same is true in inverse. At 0.25 you'll move 12.5% faster in light and -5% slower in dark.
You can change this value by typing /plantlevel [value] and it acts as a per-player config
The default value of 0.5 should give you the most balanced experience.

Do you think torches are too overpowered? Nerf block light values by downloading World of Darkness!
Want a little more immersion? Look the part with some Phototrophe Class (and skins) for your character.

Hopefully this passion project of mine makes for a unique and enjoyable experience for all who download.
Please leave feedback on the forum thread, and let me know what you think about the new mechanic:
https://www.vintagestory.at/forums/topic/5571-immersive-phototrophy/