Something I'd like people to start testing...

[Rikuto]

As some of you know, the overall life gauge was increased in DOA 5 for normal health. This was, in my opinion, largely unnecessary. To compound this error there are people playing large or largest online and that just baffles me, because those matches take waaaay too long to end.

I came across the idea of changing the life settings down to Small though, as that is the closest you'll get to the normal life settings from DOA 1-4 (no clue on dimensions).

My immediate feeling is... man, you have to respect EVERYTHING a lot more. Getting stunned sucks. Getting hit into a wall REALLY sucks. Getting launched sucks and getting CB'd is pretty much GG.

Now I'm not saying that this should be tournament standard or anything right now, so don't take this the wrong way. But I'd like if some people would start experimenting with it for a while during casuals. The damage feels just... right. It's hard to explain. If you make a logical mistake like putting your back to wall, you really suffer for it and that discourages people from doing unnecessary dumb shit. The level of respect between players seems to increase quite a bit as well, and the mindless guessing tends to drop pretty significantly. Environment hurts a hell of a lot more too, and thats important because environmental damage is directly controllable through logical spacing games and not guessing. Anything that helps to raise the skill ceiling is good, and the skill ceiling can go really high with good spacing benefits.

The hold damage doesn't really seem like it would be as significant of an increase as I thought it would though. Advanced Hi-counter holds from neutral hurt, and thats about it.

Anyway, this isn't to try and get people to change tournament standard (at least not right now), I'd just like people to experiment with it for a while. Give it an honest try, and don't write it off immediately the first time your healthbar vanishes from one killer setup. Instead ask yourself why it happened, and what you could do to make it happen to your opponent instead. The mindgames are pretty fun. Very, very close to the mindgames in 3.1, in fact. I think you'll find this is pretty damn satisfying way to play the game.

Stuff hurts, and stuff should hurt.

 

[Brute]

Personally, I always did feel like people got floored and then returned to standing too much in every battle. Once you've been leveled two or three times, you should be out (not to mention the whole "wake-up kick" guessing game gets old fast).

I hope to play some more next weekend. I'll try out smaller health gauges then. No point in not giving them a shot.

 

[AK The Savage]

Good stuff,i will mos def try it out in my lobbies and try to get some other people to do it as well for at least a week and see how it feels.

 

[Prince Adon]

Okay I made a lobby set to small and I pretty much have to agree here. I think the matches last a perfect length and it doesn't even feel like you're playing on small(compared to past doa games). So it pretty much feel normal.

But I should test out characters who do high damage.

Edit: Okay after playing a match with Tina it looks like the hi counter throws/counter damage remains the same. It doesn't do more damage like you would expect. Which is a good thing. So I may experiment with this setting for now on.

 

[Madian]

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I always felt like earlier DoA games were too high in damage but at the same time I despise how fighting games today give our tremendous amounts of health for no obvious reason. It makes mix ups less effective because tricking someone with a mind game isn't nearly as rewarding since it won't win you a round and your opponent will respect it from then on. Dead or Alive has so much randomness though I prefer having some extra meat to compensate.

 

[DR2K]

How many 1 hit kill set ups would it be? It seems like it would favor high damage characters more than it should.

 

[damedame]

I do find I enjoy "Normal" life settings far more than Largest. Largest really feels like the matches are going on too long sometimes.

I do find that largest favors the "better player" though. Since they'll have more time/chances to demonstrate their superiority.

I've never actually played on small, but I'll give it a go and see how it feels with my friends.

 

[Prince Adon]

Okay I might have to reconsider. I just used Jann Lee and murdered someone. XD

Okay so far I tested out Jan Lee, Kasumi, Tina, some Ayane and others. I have to say Normal may be best bet. Small may be too little. Characters like Kasumi with her speed, and damage can probably be too much on a small setting. Jann Lee I can't say for sure because I'm not a Jann Lee expert and most likely the person I was playing didn't know how to fight him. So I don't know where he stand. Tina is just as damaging as any other setting, really. I would hate to see Bass, though.

I'm going to try and get a lobby going later today with people who are good with different characters I think that'll be the best way to see if its too much for characters who do more damage.

 

[Rikuto]

Okay so far I tested out Jan Lee, Kasumi, Tina, some Ayane and others. I have to say Normal may be best bet. Small may be too little. Characters like Kasumi with her speed, and damage can probably be too much on a small setting. Jann Lee I can't say for sure because I'm not a Jann Lee expert and most likely the person I was playing didn't know how to fight him. So I don't know where he stand. Tina is just as damaging as any other setting, really. I would hate to see Bass, though.

I'm going to try and get a lobby going later today with people who are good with different characters I think that'll be the best way to see if its too much for characters who do more damage.

Jann Lee can do ridiculous amounts of damage, but he can basically do the same thing on normal as well. He doesn't change too much honestly... two VERY bad guesses against jann lee is death under either setting.

With Kasumi, I'm surprised you would say that. Pretty much every Kasumi player out there has been saying that her damage on normal is way too low. This should, if anything, help fix that. I was playing Lei's Christie and the damage out of her was pretty respectable as well.


Bass on small is an overkilling, death dealing monster when combined with a ceiling... but he can overkill on normal, too. So that doesn't really change much. It DOES help solidify the standard of "Don't fucking hold against Bass" that 3.1 had. And really, nobody should ever be getting hit with that fully charged super launcher of his. I know a lot of you guys are, but there's no excuse for that lol.

 

[Brute]

Jan Lee is a speedy, screechy death machine under any setting.

In regard to Kasumi, she doesn't deal whopping amounts of damage per strike, but her almost perpetual speed advantage hardly makes that an issue. If you can knock out 5 attacks in the time a "heavy hitter" can throw out 2, the damage will stack up.

 

[Rikuto]

For those interested, the health values scale by 30 points per setting. so 240-270-300-330-360.

The other idea I was playing with was doing 5 round matches with smallest. That would actually bring meaning to the words "dead or alive" though. You fucking SNEEZE on that setting and you're dead lol. Possibly a little too revolutionary, but if I have a brave subject I may try it out.

 

[Prince Adon]

I actually do like it on small myself. Just think a lot of the players would be too chicken to be down with it. I don't think the damage is bad. Like the key stuff that do major damage like hi counter holds, and throws still isn't that bad. So I would agree. I think small is fine. This should also shut up those who is still unhappy with "not being able to punish enough".

 

[Rikuto]

Just tried smallest. All I can say is, damn. Even the button mashing newbie who came into the room had to start playing respectful. That shit hurts.

 

[UncleKitchener]

So, half-life from a throw and a kick? Sound good to me.

 

[Brute]

Hi-Counter throws from Ryu, Tina or Bass...

God, I gotta see how that would play out, now.

 

[EMPEROR_COW]

After reading this I was inspired to do a bit of testing ...
I dunno, I think Normal health feels just right, especially with all the madness that can happen mid match. I understand that 30 health may not seem like much... but that 30 health can be anything from a throw, to a correct hold to a counter hit strike.. what I'm trying to get at is that that one extra little chance for a mix up is what can turn a match around. Now, the same argument can be had with small and smallest .. or normal and large .. etc... So, I cant really justify why Normal feels better for me.

I dunno, it may be a subconscious feeling since I am personally aware of the health reduction. I think it might be better tested on someone that doesn't know that the setting had been changed .. and see if they make anything of it.

Personally I think that even on Normal setting, DOA5 rounds end way quicker than most fighters out there. I'm quite happy with it the way it is. But, I would hate for anyone to change the setting to large or largest. It really makes the matches drag, especially largest..

 

[Rikuto]

See, from what I've been playing.. people tend to respect your character more on smaller life settings. When you have all this extra health lying around, people do really dumb, random stuff because they know they can get away with it. I think THATS the randomness most people complain about with this game... its the mentality people play with that drive them nuts. But when you rush in like a moron and suddenly lose half of your lifebar before you can even react, suddenly playing like a jackass isn't such a smart idea.

I think I like that hesitation factor.

I was finding that rounds were actually lasting a bit longer on smallest life simply BECAUSE of that additional respect. Even the newbie who came into my room stopped rolling his face on the controller after the first round. He backed the fuck off and started playing the game like a proper fighter. It was rather amusing.

 

[Souichiro]

My close circle of friends with which i had always been playing doa with also felt the need to reduce the life bars to about 50% off of what it is now, being to used to the previous titles. My girl still gets a little itchy though each time i get to connect a D.D.T but we all aggree that its best for us since we more or less have been used to that kind of setting.

 

[Rikuto]

How many 1 hit kill set ups would it be? It seems like it would favor high damage characters more than it should.

How often are you actually being caught in those situations?

If you are, did you deserve it? it's not exactly common to just be perfectly lined up for that kind of situation if you're actually paying attention to the environment. Problem currently is that most people simply aren't paying attention to the environment, because its irrelevant... they have too much health to bother giving a damn.

 

[R4712-VR88]

I've yet to try this out, but it sounds fun. And from the why Rikuto describes it, it reminds me of MVC2. lol!