Insane Difficulty: death penalty idea - Insane Difficulty

Weakness to physical exists too. Also p.def and m.def are not equal, so it can have its niche use.

If you apply the same penalty DS2 does, there's a few differences that deserve attention.

Unlike DS2, unavoidable damage is a thing.

Deaths are not a loss, as you have 3 party members, and as such the penalty can ramp up within a single boss fight.

I believe at -50% health, some unavoidable attacks will kill even at full health, which would be too much. I believe it would be better to cap at a point where you're not one-shot, but the slightest bit of damage will put you into that territory.

Since you can make the effect tied to locations, you could also do away with the demon statues entirely and clear the penalty on the after boss heal.

Valenhil, on 18 November 2016 - 08:02 AM, said:

Maybe, but on the flip side we have:
-3 party members that die in 2-4 hits instead of 1 that dies in about 2-3 hits
-buffs, debuffs that last until dispelled and are more effective
-instant recovery via items
-healing spells can't be cancelled by taking damage

Valenhil, on 18 November 2016 - 08:02 AM, said:

No, it doesn't; during a boss fight you can only revive with a grail which - currently - does not add any penalty.
And I don't intend to change that; grails are expensive/rare enough that they are not a "I still have 99 in storage" ressource.

Valenhil, on 18 November 2016 - 08:02 AM, said:

I have a Lv90 Duran with the absolute minimum of PIE (13) in non-defensive gear (204 m.def); he has 913 HP normally and Heath's summon does 971 without buffs.
Just by equipping 2 magic defense rings it dropped to 788 damage. If I got off a buff and debuff it would be < 450.
So I'd say even without a penalty you're not safe if your stats, gear and buffs suck but even with penalty you can survive 1 hit if you can setup.
For everything else there're the statues.

Valenhil, on 18 November 2016 - 08:02 AM, said:

I'd rather keep them.
For Buccano Island there's NO inn available until you're completely through; endgame dungeons aren't hearmless either. It is a minor safety net, but you only get enough to clear the whole party 7 times, over 25 bosses.

If I cleared it after any boss, the final dungeons would probably become "too easy" since you'd have 5 full heal checkpoints on the whole path (Zable, 1st path unique boss, 3 refights)

I forgot it's only applied on end of battle.

My point about unavoidable attacks is that it goes beyond limiting mistakes. No matter how well you play, you'll be getting hit by those, and as you get hit, it starts chewing through resources. I'm just saying the death penalty should be an encouragement to reach the boss in good health, but if you don't it can't be unwinnable by running out of items. If you feel 50% still doesn't hit that, it's fine.

Now, it's been a while since I played it, and only dragon hole. But I don't think the final dungeon will ever be considered easy by anyone.

50% would be close, but you can play around it with stats, gear and buffs.
Right from the beginning of the hack development I expected players to have access to buffs and debuffs by midgame (classes, black market, chests) - it was a plain hard mode after all - then we got much more diverse equip options and a couple class/spell revamps.
With that combination, we can be quite a bit more cruel/creative than was originally possible.
E.g. if it wasn't for Red Moon Horn, Gorva wouldn't have death spell anymore.

I'm not too happy with the "guaranteed" damage situation in this game, but what are you gonna do about it...
mini-spoiler: that's the reason enemy spells and techs actually have only 80% of the damage increase from normal to hard that regular attacks got.

Valenhil, on 18 November 2016 - 11:02 AM, said:

Well, I put it in quotes for a reason xD

Some Feedback on the Death Penalty as it is in 0.815:

I probably would absolutely have hated playing with the statue only version. As it is right now I think it is in a very good place though.
It still allows you to be a bit sloppy whenever you simply go from Town A to Town B or are grinding for Money, but whenever you know the next destination is a Bossfight you really have to watch yourself. Basically if you are doing monotonous shit it's not a big factor, but whenever you are progressing in the game/story it is a real thing you have to worry about.
I only have experience up to Tzenker so far, but up till now it felt like maybe one death counter would not prevent me from feasibly beating the bosses. Two or more on the other hand would probably put me very near to oneshot territory and basically mean a reset or trip back to the Inn.
For the beginning this seems fine, since the dungeons aren't very long - I will see how this plays out in the later dungeons though.

I just remembered Breath of Fire IV also uses the -10% on death.

That game is so easy, I forgot dying was even a possibility.

Valenhil, on 11 December 2016 - 06:28 AM, said:

Well, this will certainly never be the case here

Wait a sec: What does the Red Moon Horn against Gorva?

The same as for all other:
lowers his level, thereby also all stats and even the effectiveness of his death spell (since it is based on level difference).
Unless you want to grind another 3 or so levels that should be the easiest way to survive the effect there.