Overall, a game so excellent I subbed on patreon after the first run-through. Honestly love this style of games, wasn't even here for the erotica (although for those curious reading comments, its pretty solid too). Anyways, long and slightly rambling feedback/concept post below so if you are just a player coming by no need to read further - play this game.
That all said, I did want to bring up a proposal/concept for what I think is one of the few "underwhelming" things with the game atm: Patrolling the woods, and its inherent RNG nature. Namely, the fact its possible (if not common at low presence) for it to flat out be *Nothing*. For a game with cool events, an enchanting atmosphere, lovely NPC encounters, and fights to be had - it honestly feels hard to believe to the point of immersion breaking that you could possibly patrol for half a day and find NOTHING of interest you know? Also once on-demand save/load arrives there would be little reason to accept a "nothing" outcome.
Therefore, I'd like to propose an idea: Unlockable Patrol types - Standard, Exploring, Hunting to choose under the "Patrol the woods" option.
Standard is as is - risk of nothing included but also a good balance if you aren't quite sure what you are looking for. Could maybe even come with a slight calming effect if nothing else happens as a consolation? It'd be what you start the game with naturally since you are still familiarizing yourself.
"Exploring" would heavily weight towards events by contributing much of the odds of "nothing"/fights towards an event, but in exchange IF you find a fight encounter you would automatically start at initiative disadvantage (or possibly a winded/fatigue debuff of sorts?) from being caught off-guard. This encourages the player to clear the area very well before simply exploring for events. Could possibly tie that option in with the Forest/Greenhouse or Tower NPCs - either in the sense of "Disturbances/Mana in the forest" or "Some old/archived/magical maps or notes she found" perhaps? Give that sense of "still getting to know the place, but getting more confident"
"Hunting" is the inverse - heavily weights towards fights even at lower presence levels but in exchange often finding tougher/rarer opponents than a standard patrol (maybe buffed even more than normal version?). Could maybe integrate it with [Cellar NPC]'s patrols in story in some way? Maybe needing to complete a few of them before she'd trust to share the locations of stuff she saw but couldn't clear for time's sake. Something for those players who simply cannot be satiated with *just* hunting strong beasts at night, they want a double course at extra risk! Or people who just dislike seeing "Low" but can't find that last fight encounter.
Way WAY overcomplicating it almost certainly, but its just kind of my attempt to take the general ideas of "Some kind of control when patrolling", "Some sense of growing more familiar with the area", and "Reducing/Removing the odds of a nothing outcome" and trying to think of how you could tie that into the world without it feeling too gamey like its some sort of natural progression that over time and with assistance of others you are no longer just patrolling - you KNOW this area now and are actively seeking things. I think that would really elevate the experience to the next level above others I have seen before. Anyways, just wanted to say again that the game is excellent and thanks for making it (and for reading this)