How much harder is EX mode compared to regular hard mode? Are damage outputs (given and received) the only difference?
I've been playing with this mod for some time and the game is definitely harder. I didn't use an existing save to unlock EX mode, but so far I've managed to grind my way through to increasingly more difficult areas of the game on the regular 'hard' difficulty. I took your advice and didn't get the early free house by following Ilmeia to Noble, so I scrounged every bit of gold and grinded until I was able to save 2000 to buy the house from the old man in Dominia. Little did I know that after completing Atele's Forest, I'd be given the same free house in Noble that I would have gotten from Frei had I followed Ilmeia in the early game. Oh well, now I have two houses. That being said, it seems like once you get a house, using an Inn is something you never really have to do again (at least in the early game).
Regular hard mode is already quite difficult at times, but if you're careful and take it slow, it's manageable. Increasing mob speeds might make this extremely challenging -- maybe even to the point of being frustrating (at least for me). I've already reloaded a few times when getting stuck in endless rape loops when passing out and ending up in a goblin den.
If I could balance this game in any way, I'd say get rid of houses altogether to make Inn's a mandatory part of the game. To ease the burden that this would undoubtedly cause, make Inn's slightly less expensive per night since item values are all nerfed. Another alternative (though probably not possible without a very extensive mod) would be to implement a simple rent system that requires the player to pay monthly rent to keep their town homes. You would probably have to add new NPC's to allow the player to re-negotiate their rental contracts should they ever lose their home(s) due to lack of funds.
Anyways, I'll keep playing around with this mod and see how it goes. Thanks again!
Which version of the mod are you using? For the increased monster speed versions, I made a point not to increase the speed of monsters (or theives) in their den where you can get captured and taken back to a cell, because I was worried about that type of soft lock loop. I never had a problem with just running away from them at normal speeds. But there were definitely some challenging parts in the original game, especially if this is your first play through. I think after a while I got too used to being able to kite monsters and attack behind walls, which is why I added the optional increased monster walk speed.
I realized in my last playthrough that Frei gives you a house at the end of that early forest dungeon. This is a big oversight on my part for the game balance I had intended. I think you're right about removing houses from the game entirely. Then the player would only have access to a reusable room after liberating Romenia later in the game.
Unfortunately adding new events to the game is still pretty complicated for me. All that I've done so far is edit database values and edit existing events. But it should be easy to just change the dialogue and remove the flags that unlock houses.
The only differences (I think) between Hard mode and EX mode are that you can't sprint in dungeons, time passes at the normal rate in dungeons, and you slow down and can't act for a couple seconds after an orgasm. The most challenging part of EX is getting through some of the five floor dungeons quickly before running out of VIT, as the game removes 5 VIT per hour.
Other than the economy, crime, and EST changes, this mod increases monster HP by around 50%, makes traps invisible (I almost never triggered a trap in my earlier playthroughs), and reduces the recast time on monster attacks.
