Is 1.2 harder than 1.1?

[grambert]

I have been reading the change logs and it looks like alot of the changes were done to remove scumming and in general make the game harder. Is this correct? It looks like the wish engine no longer works?

[JellySlayer]

Some things are harder; some are easier. If you are heavily reliant on scumming techniques, you'll probably find the game quite a bit harder. Yes, wish engines have been removed, though Archmage is still possible AFAIK.

[iffi]

I have been reading the change logs and it looks like alot of the changes were done to remove scumming and in general make the game harder. Is this correct? It looks like the wish engine no longer works?

I never used any of the hardcore scummies so no opinion there. The game got harder mostly if you relied on the 'fighting in darkness' bug.

But recently I started using the purposely in-built scummy, i.e. the Treasure Hunter talent, and I think the balance there is quite ok. Often I don't need to visit the ID to get more potions of water, and most games I don't have to hunt for any of the specific items needed to pass the mandatory challenges (for normal endings).

[plllizzz9]

seeing how I scored my first Ultra on it, not that much :P

nah, it's not really harder if you never had patience for scumming earlier - then it pretty much plays out normally. lack of item drops from summons is annoying though, since it makes killing them an absolutely rewardless task.

[Dogbreath]

IMO, it's easier in a lot of respects - I've certainly had an easier time. As others said, the only things that were made "harder" is that almost all scumming has been fixed, so if you relied on scumming, you might find yourself in for a challenge.

I never scummed (not enough time), so it only got easier for me.

[Bieks]

The most important change is how herbs can train your stats and how you can make herb farms through the gardening skill now.

I've noticed that later on in the game the PC is still pretty much impervious to anything other than his own stupidity.

[Al-Khwarizmi]

As a non-scumming player, I'd say the game is significantly easier now for players who don't scum.

- Blind raging monsters, which were a death sentence for many PC's, have been nerfed.
- The uberjackal effect has been toned down a lot, removing a major worry from the game (not jackals, but bees, spiders and chaos servants could get really tough).
- The new set of corruptions is much more favorable on average than the old set, IMO. Mind you, there are some nasty corruptions as always, but nothing remotely as annoying as mana battery or poison hands (which appear less often, due to the larger random pool to draw from), and there are some rather good advantageous corruptions.
- Thrundarr gives better rewards than before.
- Some items that can be useful (like scrolls of power) have been buffed, and quest rewards that were not worth it have been updated (for example, the Minotaur Maze - I haven't experienced this first hand, but it looks like a major buff for the kinds of characters that can use the axe).

There have been also a couple of changes that make the game a bit harder even for non-scummers, the two major ones are the nerf to HP-casting and the buff to some bosses (notably the ASB), but I think they are not as relevant in practice as the above changes.

[Blasphemous]

though Archmage is still possible AFAIK.

I wonder how would you suggest to proceed with the game to achieve archmage status.
How reliant on luck would you have to be to get there?
Because becoming archamge was a tedious and long process even in 1.1.1; in pre13, I can't imagine how one would get there.
You'd probably have to spend ~100 in-game days just farming potions from Jharod, and that's just the start.

[JellySlayer]

Scum wands from BDC and greater vaults and use Mana Battery to buff PP. Use Mana Orb + ToTRR to keep your Ma score fixed. Basically same as 1.1.1.

[Grumbledwarfskin]

If you're willing to spend ages scumming for items, a wish engine is still technically possible. It just requires that you find a *lot* of rings.

With 21 non-djinni summoning rings at or below danger level 8 (according to the wiki, note that some rings have no listed danger level, I'm assuming that they're all >8), it would take 379 (21*18+1) to be sure you always have a stack of 19, if it weren't for rings with variable stats. But there aren't that many and I don't think they have that many options, so I'm guessing something like 600 or 800 would be enough to guarantee a stack of 19 rings indefinitely.

Or do the rings come out with random b/u/c status as well? I've never yet had a big enough stack of rings to try dipping myself. Random b/u/c status would triple the number.

Either way, it'd take ages of in-game time running around the ID to collect them all, but I don't think it would be hard to survive doing, if you made a wish engine your singular goal. It might be difficult to win the game, though, if too many 90-day windows pass and the corruption rate gets ridiculously high. But I suppose with infinite numbers of corruption-removal items, it would still be possible as long as you don't gain corruptions faster than you can remove them.