Hiya,
I'll try to point out a few things which might be helpful to you from your notes so far:
ADR:
Basically my practice changes a lot but mostly is in the form of staying with bare-bones sensations. I note sometimes but only when things are troublesome or it strikes me that its the right thing to do.
Attentiveness to bare sensations and noting are basically the same thing, the major difference is the verbalization, silent or otherwise, of the conceptual labels assigned to each sensation. If noting helps you maintain focus and stay with whatever arises then use that, although if you find you're able to observe accurately and consistently at the bare sensate level then you may find it more efficient.
Rather than jump from technique to technique, try sticking to one practice for a predefined length of time, e.g. one week doing nothing but noting, and persevere with it. Flitting between different practices may be what's preventing you from making further progress, if your intent isn't focused then you're going to be treading water rather than moving forwards.
ADR:
I have tried samatha meditation with kasina but have not had a lot of luck getting into stable states and usually feel that I am forcing something in a not so pleasant way.
It sounds like you're probably trying too hard, there's a balance required which you'll only learn through practice but which is easy to identify once you've got the hang of it. Allow your eyes to rest on the kasina, don't fight with it or try to force anything at all, just relax and gently bring attention back to your object if it begins to wander.
ADR:
When in the dark night I will often just follow/count my breaths, resetting my attention at the top and bottom until that is easy enough to stay with the whole breath, breaking into access concentration, then maybe some flavor of vibrating, low jhana with more broad body awareness or getting lost in my thoughts and starting the process over again. This will somtimes take me down into some relaxed state where I am not really awake nor am I sleeping. I then will wake up, maybe take a walk, and repeat said process. [my emphasis added]
Sounds like you're 'zoning out' more than anything, would it be fair to say that your attention becomes quite sluggish and unfocused when this happens? If not, would you mind describing this line in bold in more detail?
You don't need to "reset" the attention, just
stay with the entire breath for as many cycles as you're able to. If you get distracted, go back to the breath. If you're doing samatha, just stay with the breath - If you're doing vipassana, investigate the bare sensations.
ADR:
...that my path moment, if it ever comes, may be through the suffering door. I have had several of what I think are near misses and they are always accompanied by fearful, deathlike visions and/or brain scrambling, hard hitting, shuddering drops.
Don't waste your time on this, you won't know when it'll come and you probably won't even be able to recognize which door it happens through until after the fact, if at all. What you describe as "near misses" sound more typical of Dark Night, particularly the later stages of it.
When it happens, it will happen
now since it can't possibly occur anywhere else. You don't need to look for "it", just stay with whatever sensations present themselves and see each one as an empty unit of bare sensate information which flickers on your 'display' for an instant, only to vanish just as quickly. Look at how even the sense of there being someone who is observing this happening, or whom this experience is happening to, can also be seen to arise and pass away without any input from "you". It can only happen right now, not in the future or in the past so remain attentive.
ADR:
I have also encountered for several months now what I call "little drops" in my field of vision. I am not sure what to think of them. These are usually white or blue/indigo and are basically just little tiny flashes of light. If I am in the early stages I can see the beginning of these well, if in the dark night end, and in equanimity some range of both. Sometimes I can concentrate on them for a while, almost like little kasina objects.
Nikolai did a nice article on "Floaters"
here, although I'm not entirely sure you're describing the same thing.
ADR:
Say I am in the dark night and I practice samatha. Theoretically I would be in third vipassana territory, but if I am starting at a candle it seems that I am developing some kind of new access concentration and first jhana that somehow has to override the vipassana jhana. Sometimes I can focus on a kasina and it feels quite natural, and other times it seems forceful and the wrong thing to do. Could it be that this has to do with some kind of conflict between the two types of jhana?
The differentiation between vipassana jhanas and samatha jhanas is not present in the Buddha's original teachings, it's a later addition to the Theravadan model. Basically it comes down to whether you're focusing on an object, samatha, or investigating the sensations which make up that object, vipassana. Insight practice can dismantle a stable jhana to reveal how even those sensations are still subject the Three Characteristics, however concentration practice can lead to the false solidification of those sensations which may prevent you from seeing their true nature.
They're not really different "types of jhana" as such, it's the same territory but you're either (consciously) solidifying or dismantling the sensations occurring at that moment. Investigating sensations tends to be less pleasant since you're dismantling those pleasant, blissful or joyous sensations rather than 'soaking' in them and thus stabilizing them into a state.