Compared to the negative effects brought by rapidly bottoming out energy, the physical punishment caused by not eating or drinking is not worth mentioning,And there doesn't seem to be anything in Cyberware that reduces energy consumption. Now the character needs a deep fucking sleep after every few hours of activity
TL;DR:
Cheat some money, get the best food->energy implants and never be out of energy again. With the money get food/drinks and the only annoying thing is having to use it from time to time. It will hopefully be balanced in the next version and the cyberware stuff is nice.
My experience with v21:
I'm downloading the crack and I know a lot of new mechanics were introduced in the most recent version of this
in development game. This means one thing for me: CHEATS!
But first, let's start a new game. Ok cool, cyberware. These thugs can't steal my metal spine or my next-level eyes with night vision and shit. And it's a nice long-term progression system where you can dump all your money into after having great gear. Noice! Aand survival stuff. So while I'm reading all the new implants effects stupid Ivy is getting hungry and thirsty. Well, shit. The survival stuff is overtuned. Whatever, I'm still in the hideout so I cheat money and trader has everything I need, so no more hungry and thirsty.
Now, starting the first raid and doing the first few story quests highlights the cyberware implants that convert food stuffs into energy. Nice! I don't want buy batteries in addition to food/drink all the time. So after I get back to hideout, money cheat and get maximum food->energy cyber upgrades. Now kickstart the machine with a battery (I was fully out of energy) and since then I've never cared about energy again.
After using the cheated money for quality of life features like the energy implants and more foods, I leave the money at home and try to have a more conventional experience. After playing for a few hours I was used to eating/drinking every few minutes and was fully on the grind for better gear. So now I'm the core gameloop from prevoius versions with the added complexity of cyberware and the new health systems.
I think the game is getting better and better, but while many systems are still changing often and are unbalanced, I am relying on cheats to optimize my gaming experience. But that's what they are for. And I'm having a blast with this game again and again after each update.