will reply to a few things!
i hope you find the memory program helpful, also lower UMA textures, really doesn't effect anything visually, yet many find this helps.
the terrain is based off of some awesomeness by Tin on these forums, possibly further tinkered by Jax.
you'll notice we have a lot more towns and cities, and connecting roads in this mod, that is the main reason.
and we have a lot of builders. this mod was created initially, ever evolving, for jax's server, for things his people wanted.
yes! he's managed to accidentally create a bit of a trading card game, it's fun seeing people excited when they get a poster they want
our map never sleeps.. maybe an hour or two a day. 4 in game days happens at least several times a real life day, it would be too much, or the same two people on in the dead of night would get all of them. that aside, it's still editable by game/server i believe.
i like this idea, but will jax? haha. he lowered the chance of mines in the wasteland greatly at least.. but don't thank him they might get raised again
i believe there is a fix incoming for bows, some code gremlins got in and had some fun.
night TERRORS. you're not supposed to kill them easy early on. they're supposed to make you wary of night again.
blame sphere for that, he's been going for his dr. evil degree also.
campfire is intended to be limiting, and be replaced quickly.
cooking skill reduces your crafting time with foods, you cook, you get better at cooking.
getting better with cooking allows you to discover new recipes (adv cooking)
none of this is required, it's player choice. there's also cookbooks in the world that unlock other recipes.
keep in mind no single player is expected to learn every skill possible, and some seek to do just that.
not very familiar with how spider does things, but there are a few un-vanilla things that can happen to you in this mod that you need to handle before they get worse.
been nice having you around!
as an end note i think the main purpose of this mod is not necessarily to make it SO DIFFICULT so as to sap the fun out of it, as to lengthen the span of early game, (ie not face rolling steel mega bases at lvl 40 and then complaining you never had a horde that even had dogs in it before quitting) and bring back zombies and the need to actually go out and explore and loot.
ravenhearst was never self promoted as difficult, (though it can be!) but a conglomeration and expansion of things our server community has come to love and hate as orchestrated by jax.