Well, it's partly because of a bug; the game is including Morale hits for things which aren't even known to your Community, such as Infestations ALL OVER THE MAP, instead of in your local area. That's a bug.
I'd say if there's an actual game design problem, it's that the simulation continues on an arc consistent with where you've left it, which means not being able to quit until you've cleared out the Morale hits, Fear, Anger, and supply stuff. Hell, that could be an hour's worth of maintenance work before you can safely quit for any length of time, and that's inconsiderate.
Then you add to this its problem with monitoring the entire map for "shit that's wrong right now," and it's basically impossible to work around. You should give a new shot, from scratch next week, after verifying the Title Update is available.
My biggest issue is actually the fact that, out of the dozen times I've turned it on to play, it always seems to start at night. Playing in the night is really, really difficult. There's no gamma adjustment in Options, and my TV is pretty dark. It's exciting, sure, but the permadeath in this game means I'm doing unintentional Kegel exercises everytime the in-game sun sets. I have to remember to unclench.
And usually, about the moment when the sun comes up, is usually when my kids come home and need help with homework or it's time to eat dinner, or something along those lines. The game lets you decline Trade missions where some dumbass survivor wants to trade something I've got in SHORT supply for something we have in PLENTY. "That's a bad idea!" -25 Influence, though it should be obvious.
Anyway, I'd love to be able to pay a small Influence price like that to have my Community skip running around in darkness and just, you know, HOLE UP FOR THE EVENING, like any actual zombacolypse community would do.
