It's been a few months since I've made an update to this post, but I haven't forgotten about it. I decided I needed to take a step back and try to figure out some things bout the game I'm trying to make and what I wanted to get out of this project. I also realized that I needed to get some more knowledge, as far as concept and best practices, in the programming language(s) I'm going to build the project in.
On this internal reflection, I realized that this is potentially something I may want to push forward with, and possibly work with a team on to make an actual viable product. To do that, however, I would need some kind of document to guide me/us. So, I started on an actual design document. At this stage, it's simply a draft, there is much more work to be done, formulas to figure out(I suck at math so this is easily the most challenging part for me), concepts to flesh out, etc.
Right now, the draft is focusing on player combat, however, I do have some more material that looks at things like crafting and gathering, which I'll include in my next post.
If you read it, please, feel free to comment on it. If you think there's something that can be done better, let me know.
Player (armchair) psychology: being tired looks like a nightmare. Flip it around (in graphics, text etc.) so make tired, normal which is not so effective but stimulated/well rested/energized the equivalent of what you now have as normal. On a tabletop RPG, it wouldn't matter so much, probably force the players to role-play and think a bit more, but slowing anyone down in a video game is a nightmare that needs to end as fast as possible.
All that change are your labels and graphics (and bell curve reflecting states/time, etc...).
How you approach this issue will help you with guidance for art style, story etc.