There's a couple things I think would be cool to see...
Inclement Weather: Each exploration area is subject to random bouts of inclement weather or storms. During inclement weather, these areas would have a debuff that decrease gathering yield.
Animal Sickness: Every day, there's a small change that one or more random animals could become sick or get injured, and players would have to craft, find or purchase medicine to treat them. Animals would not produce when sick or injured, and untreated animals could cause more animals to become sick.
