I've always thought it was weird that there isn't a combat penalty for fighting in dark rooms with no light source.

>>Is there a penalty in fighting if you take eye damage?

You get a fairly large penalty to Perception, and I think Stealth also.

<<Light sources are so uncommon

They're more common than you think. 7 out of the eleven guilds have either a native darkvision or a native light source ability and 2 guilds can use a sorcerous scroll to achieve it. Only 2 guilds are required to use torches and one of those will be able to use a same type mana scroll to achieve it eventually. That said, please don't make darkness more annoying/widespread than it already is.

>>Besides, personally, I like it when a new area has conditions that mix up my hunting strategy.

While I can appreciate the feeling behind such, sadly it usually ends with a neat hunting area EXTREMELY underused. While I've hunted many an out of the way or strange place in my time, when I bring alts through the ladder I avoid any unnecessary annoyance. I suspect that feeling is more common then a desire for an extra layer of difficulty.

Samsaren

>I know making the game harder is never well-received. It just strikes me as unrealistic.

Standard 'reality' response: you're playing a game where humans throw fireballs, anthro-lizard resurrect the dead, werewolves heal people by empathy, and toddlers cast instant teleportation across hundreds, if not thousands, of miles. It's not really great to point out something being less than realistic.

That said...

Many people confuse 'harder' with 'more pointless tedium'. Dark rooms aren't really interesting, from a mechanics point of view. It's a simple binary can you//can't you check, and all you do to bypass it is one of about 400 things. There's a fine line to tread between interesting and difficult and just irritating and pointless command entry.

As Thayet said, if annoying critters offered new, interesting, or more, exp/cash returns, they'd be more used. As-is, they reward exactly the same as less annoying things.