Good suggestions. Essentially, all except making the first three days easier or the old woods easier (get good) is going in in some form.
As for difficulty increase, it is to a degree a focus of the mod, but the hard mode is going to be where the hardcore challenge is at. Normal will still be quite forgiving.
Here's the changelog so far:
DARKWOOD REOCCURRING NIGHTMARE
==============================
Built upon Darkwood v1.4.2 (Latest version as of 21st of June 2024).
Increases difficulty (not extreme, but unintelligent subpar play will be punished), improves balance such as nerfing ridiculously powerful bandages or consumption of odd meat, diversifies encounters and events, empowers the player with some core upgrades (hotbar, control), and rolls back some changes introduced in the latest official update such as neutered late game enemies, forcing controller users to use a bad control scheme, and introducing distasteful casual features to an otherwise prestigious, principled, intelligent masterpiece.
Normal difficulty recommended first time around, same as the base game.
FEATURE LIST:
if an entry ends in *** then this feature is a v1.3 rollback or adjustment to bring it closer to the vision of 1.3.
1. Trader rep gain for surviving a night is reduced slightly.
2. More random spawn free-roaming enemies are encountered. ***
3. You start the game with +1 hotbar slots to bolster equipment tactics.
4. Late game EXP multiplier is reduced, making it take slightly longer to reach max level.
5. Some enemies you may encounter earlier, particularly in hideout night segments. The easier hideouts also get slightly harder than normal as the days go by, and in general nighttime is slightly harder.
6. Most enemies have slighty reduced item drop rates.
7. Daytime free-roam random spawn enemies can spawn closer to hideouts and buildings, as well as on trail paths.
8. All attacks deal 20% less damage.
9. Player location is not marked on the map when at landmarks (except for hideouts) - navigation is harder. Note this also adds value to the (not very good) Navigator perk.
10. Some wolves will immediately attack on sight rather than standing their ground barking.
11. Eating Odd Meat now grants you 15% damage resistance (was 50%) for 3 minutes. Additionally, all stacking armor values cannot collectively exceed 50% damage reduction. ***
12. All healing sources are nerfed, with emphasis on overpowered bandages.
13. The staff only has a 20% chance to appear in the trader's inventory for sale (was 100%). ***
14. Some crafting requirements are increased slightly (e.g bandages, lockpick, chain trap, light armor, weapon repairs). Be prepared to lean on the trader a little more for common items.
15. Shiny Stones have less sell value (130 -> 100).
16. Very slight randomized reduction of resources found in containers. There's still more than neccessary as long as you're thorough.
17. Enemies have a low chance to overrun player hideouts while you're away. The odds are dependent on how well barricaded the hideout is.
18. Random 7% chance for any given wooden door to be locked. Use of lockpicks, breaking down the door or finding an alternate path is required.
19. the sickle has 20% chance to interrupt an enemy attack, drains 10% less stamina per attack and has +15% durability.
20. Trader inventory is randomized (not all his usual stock will spawn every day) slightly.
21. Black chompers will be encountered in the swamp night hideout.
22. Increased the trade value of all ammunition slightly.
23. the indiegogo backer box in hideout 1 now has a random combination (removal of access to balance-nerfing DLC type crap!).
24. Disarming bear traps only gives 1 scrap metal, not 2.
25. Player health is not restored to full after a night anymore. Only up to 1 full bar, if you had less.
26. Free-roam enemies have a 50% chance to respawn every 2 days.
27. Daytime is 5% shorter.
28. Sharp melee kills aren't always guaranteed to split the enemy in half.
29. New night event variation: shadows has a 10% chance to turn off all the house lights. Head for the generator or toss a flare (flares protect you against shadows).
Firearms Overhaul:
Guns have a small damage reduction with the exception of overpowered shotguns which a well-placed shot would kill most things in one hit and so that is no longer the case, however to offset this they have been made a little less cumbersome to use, and other general balancing is present e.g double barrel may be preferred over the pump-action by some players for its handling.
Homemade shotgun: +10% aim speed
Single-Shot Shotgun: +30% aim speed, +30% reload speed, +15% weapon swap speed
Double-Barrel: +25% aim speed, +25% reload speed, +15% weapon swap speed
Pump-action: +10% aim speed, -1 clip size
Pistol: +25% aim speed, +15% weapon swap speed
Bolt-Action Rifle: +10% aim speed
Assault Rifle: +10% aim speed
Single-Shot Pistol: +25% aim speed, +15% weapon swap speed
All shotguns now also have a low chance to dismember enemies at the waist.
Ammo is a little rarer (barely) and slightly higher value for purchase, so be prepared to make use of these to the best of your ability.
Note that aiming speed is not the accuracy cone being faster, but rather the animation speed. It is merely how fast you can open fire after pressing aim, as well as begin performing other actions after releasing aim.
Hard Difficulty:
Hard difficulty does more than just limit lives now. Provides a hardcore alternative to (ironman) nightmare. Includes all features of the mod plus:
-The moth skill (best tier 1 ability) is unavailable on hard.
-Odds of randomized reduction of resources found in containers are slightly more weighted against you.
-Bonus +2% chance for wooden doors to be locked randomly.
-Daytime is 10% shorter on hard difficulty.
-Trader rep gain for surviving a night is reduced further still.
-Random freeroam spawns are increased further still.
-Trader inventory is randomized further still.
-You receive an additional 20% damage from all enemies on hard. This extra damage is not factored into armor degradation rate (armor breaks at same rate as normal).
-Higher workbench upgrade levels are required to unlock weapon upgrade slots.
-Shiny stones have even less value.
-Some new special nighttime spawns happen earlier, and potentially with greater odds.
Late game enemy buffs: ***
-Swampers have a bonus +15% health & stamina.
-Human Spiders run 10% faster.
-Centipedes run 20% faster.
Controller Users: ***
-Autorun is back: left stick gently to walk, or all the way to run. The new control scheme in the latest update not only removed the ability to rebind controls but also forced you to use an objectively (!) bad scheme. This brings the game back to superior twin stick control from prior versions.
-Automated climbing/vaulting is removed, rolling back to previous versions.
-While running, pressing aim will cancel running and begin aiming.
-Input delay for scrolling menus wih the controller is halved. This allows you to scroll through menus faster and most notably the hotbar! Essentially, switching weapons' is now faster comparable to what it is with mouse & keyboard.
-The new aim assist option introduced in the latest update is disabled.
Controls still cannot be rebound. The only way to do that is switch to mouse & keyboard or roll back darkwood to the prior version. With these changes it shouldn't be necessary though.
Mouse & keyboard functionality remains unchanged, as it wasn't touched in v1.4 and works fine.
Some of the character progression systems may receive extension at some point.