I don't plan for it to be as hardcore as it currently is. Currently my aim for the beta is to test for crashes/mod compatibility, which has surprisingly not been a major issue. Having been playing this with my kids for several weeks, I'm pretty aware that the difficulty is much higher than typically you see, we're having a hard time even staying stocked with basics like iron ingots!
Also, screw those flying Lycanite's mobs that spawn when it rains, and those little afrit things that spawn in lava. I hate those SO MUCH I cannot adequately describe it without inventing new words.
One thing I'm noticing is that for whatever reason, armor durability seems to be severely lowered or damage to armor is severely increased, and I can't figure out why. I'm lucky if a suit of iron armor lasts even a full minecraft day currently.