I believe that winter should be something more formidable in the game cycle, somethings that the player needs to be concerned about and prepared for, helping to add to the challenge of the game in a way that makes sense, especially with the changes and additions upcoming over the next few months/years. I feel that the winter in the game right now is not any more than a visual change from rain to snow and a minor inconvenience when it comes to farming and clothing.
Currently the winter only makes it cold, which has a hypothermic effect on the character and increases the chance of sickness, and also negatively affects your ability to farm. The snow that replaces the rain in the winter has no effect on things such as vehicle traction, creates no footprints, and does not collect in barrels (and there is a mod that has already does this).
I believe that actual accumulation of snow would be helpful to make winter more challenging and it would make sense. It would makes cars harder to drive in the snow depending on accumulation levels along with making player movement somewhat slower while also leaving footprints and making more noise. These mechanics would pair well with the ability to shovel or plow snow with vehicles potentially, allowing players to walk and drive normally in areas they have cleared. Accumulation of snow should also fill barrels and other object than can already collect and hold water from rain. With the incoming addition of animals and hunting, the snow would give more importance to hunting during the winter months and the tracks of animals in the snow helping the player to find animals. The amount of snow that falls on average should be moderate, as it is Kentucky, though there should be some more wild storms and accumulation levels to keep things very interesting, or at least leave settings for accumulation in the server settings.
Changes to how the cold and temperature in general work, insulation is something that needs to be looked at in Project Zomboid, currently the only way to heat a house is with an antique oven, which seems a little lacking in variety and limiting since its the only choice, adding things such as a craftable metal oven or fireplace would give insulation a new importance especially if there were greater consequences for not having fully insulated shelter such as broken doors or windows and the cold having an affect on the healing process quality of sleep and possibly making sickness a much more serious problem.
This would add to the experience and importance of base maintenance, giving the player more to do and worry about as the game goes on. I'm also sure there is much more that could go along with this to help the game kept things interesting as I feel many players currently get to a point where they have spent much time preparing and when you're done preparing, there's nothing left to do or worry about.
