Just riffing here to hopefully bring forth some new or old and forgotten ideas… I like to consider other games I like and what kinds of small activities make them fun to play daily and keep coming back to.
Example: I’m really liking this game Among Us which has been out for 2 years and only just recently blew up (so Boundless can too!) One thing that interests me about it is how the ‘tasks’ are basically dumb mini games that nobody would want to do in any other context than the game, because there is a reason to do them. Plus they are quick and keep things moving. Pondering this, I had a thought- What if we could skip crafting time by doing a quick task? It wouldn’t be some awesome mini game but would be worth doing in 30 seconds or so to have an instant mass craft. Quick 50 blocks to get started on something then let the rest of the crafts go by timer as they do now. Maybe you have to put the right ratios of ingredients into a pie then stir it up, or make refined rocks using a grinding stone, and if you do too much of either it makes you restart. Super simple idea, not a selling point, but wouldn’t that be a great compromise to crafting times?
So to the greater reason for this thread, one major lapse in daily playability is lack of functionality in completed builds. I can go weeks without walking into my “house” which is like a 30 second grapple-sprint from my workshop, where all of my characters live and only leave to gather stuff then return to craft before I switch back to Dutch.
What kinds of [indoor-ish] activities can we add to the game, whether intrinsically fun or simply a palatable, uncringey way to help with our current daily grind?
What other games could we adapt ideas from? Do we like potion mixing and forging in Elder Scrolls games? Logistics from games like Factorio? Is there anything in the Sims we could adapt to make our home feel more alive and give us a reason to live there, considering the entire game takes place indoors?
What if our workspace layout could be optimized to speed up crafting times and/or make these proposed minigames easier? Like how farming is (btw I had a LOT of fun designing my farm to optimize outputs), if we had that pie mixing game I spitballed above maybe margin of error on the ratios could be more forgiving if we have shelves above a crafting table that is within 5 spots of a furnace and a water block 
Let’s hear some ideaaaas! And please be positive and forward-looking. We all know everyone wants a hunting update and new chisel shapes and all that so there’s no need to shoot down fun ideas and say those need to come first.
