Crawl 7.x Harder than previous versions?

[supified]

So I read the log of what updates supposedly this game got, but I can't help thinking they tweaked some other values without mentioning them.

I've noticed for instance I seem to see less items in the early levels and much harder monsters.  I used to be able to get to mid game okay, but now I can barely make it to temple again.  This is frustrating, did this game really need to have a difficult kick at the beginning?

[jim]

I've actually not noticed this, especially considering that I just WON with my halfling crusader. BOOYAH! Glory for the strong! Death to the weak!

[AmnEn]

They introduced a bunch of early uniques. Maybe that's whats causing the problem? Though I also felt that the game got harder somehow.

[jim]

The crazily unbalanced thing I've noticed so far in this version are the "tension" type rooms, jam-packed with some form of baddie. I'm noticing that Crawl has a huge tendency to fill them up with very out-of-depth sorts of monsters, like rooms full of death oozes and acid blobs on level 7-8. The rest, actually, seems pretty okay to me. Sigmund still scares me and the first ogre I run into can often turn out to be a gamebreaker. Glory to the strong etc etc.

[supified]

I've gotten a group of gnolls on level 1, ogre, sigmund level 2 and a friggin steam dragon on level 3! 

The frustration here is that there isn't a lot I can do except go to the next level, but in the first few levels you have so few outs.  Sure it doesn't take long to start over in those cases, but it's just stupid. Make the game harder in the first few levels is just kind of cheap.  I dunno if I'm imagining things, but I really kind of doubt it. 

[corremn]

Yeah I think this started with 0.6 too.  Still if you cant make it though the earlier levels, you wont make it to the end.  So its kind of teaching you to be better by not going soft on you.

[gruff]

Crawl's definitely harder now. I used to be able to clear the Mines and Lair handily with my MDFi but now I feel lucky if I even manage to find the Mines at all. It's worst when you get a string, say ten or twelve, games in a row with supertough situations and you die die die in ways that you could not have avoided. I mean opening a door on level 2 and there's an ogre right there, and you with no speed or tele or anything. Demoralising.

But I'm still playing.