E is supposed to be contextual interactions. So depending on what you're looking at and what you have equipped it will change. I agree that picking things up while you have a torch/lantern equipped feels bad.

We will likely be moving pickup to a different key, only used for picking things up, with a long press grabbing everything near you. That needs to be playtested a bit more though.

As for mounting quickly, I would recommend the long press e menu -> ride. I could see possibly adding a pick me up whistle command you could give when targeting your creature as well.

Managing your creature's hunger should prevent them from eating egg contents. I haven't looked at this recently though so will have to test here to confirm.

Thanks for responding! I understand what you intend it to do, perhaps my wording was a little over-exaggerating, but I can see you do agree with me that some of the more important conflicting controls could or should be changed. E as a contextual interaction is absolutely what it should be, but as you also noticed, players should probably not be confused and hindered by Ui interactions when under duress.

Also the thing about the egg you're definitely correct - it ate them while it was very hungry, but you know as well as I do that creature parts are worth far more than food items (ESPECIALLY in the prerelease where animal parts are a requirement for making tools), so an animal shouldn't just consume them with impunity. Excellent game though, I love following your work.