Well, the LWAMI Mod is still very new, so there has been no consensus reached thus far as to whether future mods should work off of our Database or the stock DB.
Of course, we welcome anyone to come and take a look at what we've done, however, please consult us if you plan on making minor variations and releasing it as a stand alone work, as we may incorporate it into our project with full credit to you or present your changes as a fully supported alternative.
The short answer would be to say, modify off of the stock DB to be sure, but I honestly believe that the old DB is so ineffective that suggesting to anyone to do that is, to me, suggesting that they throw away their efforts, so I'm not saying only modify stock version.
So you know, the "standard" mod for Dangerous Water is supposed to be/will still be perhaps the Dangerous Waters eXtreme (DWX) mod project, which will incorporate many changes made from SC to SCX, however the status of DWX is on hold until the official v1.02 version of the game comes out, and I'd imagine at that point, all mods could be done off of the DWX project with their permission.
So the same with the LWAMI Mod for DW stock version 1.01, if you'd like to add something to our work, let us know, and we will work with you if you'd like in adding the contribution to our mod.
PM me if you'd like to talk about specific ideas for changes. It may help you if you thoroughly read through our readme and use the mod yourself for a time, so you know exactly what we have done and what still has yet to be accomplished.
Cheers,
David