2.2 seems a lot harder than 2.1
I can't even clear the tutorial. Wilhelmine somehow ends up with one star of stamina and becomes basically impossible to do anything with.
So I managed to get her obedient without breaking her, but the lack of merit is making training her up very hard. She keeps spiraling into depression and doesn't want to do anything.
It almost seems like I have to reward her when she's guilty which is confusing and goes against convention.
WOW, we actually got into a fight and she died. I'm thinking this is a bit excessive for "normal" difficulty.
So, fragile slaves like Wilhelmine require a gentle touch which seems really hard to pull off without the ability to fully manipulate merit. I tried rotating the skills but even that didn't work. She gets tired of hearing you talk, but you can't really do anything else because physical options will hurt her. I feel like the carrot/stick balance is broken currently.
I've finally gotten her to do what I say by paying extremely close attention to asupex and constantly balancing, however her obedience is wildly fluctuating. It'll be 8 one day and none the next, then back up again.
And now she's back to being difficult again...
Ran out of money before I could finish. At least I didn't kill her this time. This is way harder than it was in 2.1
A more detailed description of what you are doing and what effects you observe afterwards would be helpful.
I just started the tutorial with Wilhelmine and gave her some comfortable clothing to wear (sun dress, slippers, plus an ornamental collar), put on Noble Regalia for the master to make him look more impressive, used "Explain Her Position" from the Influence Slave menu to start her off, then went sequentially down the list of "Question Slave" interactions; she refused to answer most of them, having 1 guilt each time, and I punished her each time with "strictly chastise" from psychological pressure menu (so as not to harm her endurance). After that, she was Hopeful, had 2 fear, 1 awareness and 8 thorns in her aura. Then I cast Magna Magnifika and used "Encourage" from the Influence Slave menu, which raised her mood to Pleased, which improved her aura to 7 thorns. Then I gave her rubber gloves and a frilly apron and invited a tutor to train her in cooking. She got a B+ grade, 4 merit. I promised her a reward. She really liked that. I considered asking her to do more, but decided not to push my luck, so I gave her some rules: bedroll, dehydrated food, supplements, generous meal portion, behave: silence, deny orgasm, no masturbation, enforce rules. Then ended the day.
Second day started with her feeling pessimistic; she had no choice in following the silence rule because I enforced it with a gag, which she certainly didn't like. Auspex and Magna Magnifika again. Encouraged her again; she wasn't as impressed with my words as she was the first time, but nonetheless her mood raised to Pleased again. Another tutor cooking lesson gave 1 merit, then switched to maid outfit and gave her a maid tutoring session. Result: 5 merit. Equipped wizard robes on the master and tried to cast Delikacia on her. She resisted; she is too strong-willed. Change of plan: gave her a sweet treat (Vesturian Ambrosia) instead. She really liked that too. Now she had 1 habit and her aura improved to 6 thorns. Went through the "Question Slave" list again - 2 guilt now for the refusals, punished with "roughly scold". Result: her aura has improved to 3 thorns of rebellion, she is willing to tell how she is feeling, and she has 3 fear, 2 awareness, one habit. I forgot to Explain her Position earlier, so did that too. She wasn't impressed at all, though. Still, progress. She has no more green energy stars, so ended the day again.
Third day started with her feeling depressed. Auspex and Magna Magnifika again. Gave her back the sun dress, raising her mood to Dysphoric. Master was Sullen too, gave him a bath to raise his mood a bit. Asked how she is feeling; she didn't want to answer. Roughly scolded again. Went through the rest of the Question Slave list again from the top, punishing her a couple more times. When I reached how are you feeling again, this time she was willing to answer. She's upset about being yelled at, being a slave, being afraid, and doesn't like the rules, her sleeping conditions, or her food. She likes her clothing... and that's it. So, in short, she has a lot more reasons to be unhappy than to be happy. On the other hand, she is becoming more obedient. Her aura only has 2 thorns now. Try another Encourage... limited success, but she is Optimistic. Aura has no spikes of rebellion. She'll probably accept a cooking lesson from us now, right? Right. And she feels 5 merit for it, too. Promised a gift. She really likes being praised, so that boosted her mood nicely. Now she still had one star of energy, so maid outfit again and master gave a maid lesson. 1 merit; rewarded with "spend time together: stroll on the roof". Aura shows neutral no thorns, no buds, aura is fainter, four fear, 2 awareness, one habit... and still 3 spoil. She's trained enough that Put in Place might be effective, so let's try that... and indeed, it worked. Her spoil level dropped to 2, and she has 2 buds of obedience and her rating has increased from F- to D-. Let's switch her rules; she doesn't like being gagged, but she is willing to cook and clean, so remove "behave: silence" and add "act as cook" and "act as maid". She has no more green energy stars. Ended the day.
Fourth day started with her feeling calm (she's wearing the sun dress again). Auspex and Magna Magnifika. Her spoil level went down again overnight - she has just one left, and her obedience is up to four buds. Let's ask her some questions... She's talkative until asked what she wants to do, that she refused with 1 guilt. Strictly chastised her; she's pessimistic. Encouraged her - optimistic. Explain her position again - not impressed. OK. Let's put her in a leotard and sneakers (reducing her mood to calm) and give her an athletics lesson. 2 merits. We can reward her with a massage now, so we do that. She is now optimistic even with her athletic equipment. Thought to give her merit a boost with Sententia Veritas... but she resisted it. Nonetheless, she is happier
because she resisted it. OK. She has two energy, time for a cooking lesson (with apron) and a maid lesson (with maid outfit). She got 2 merit for cooking, so gave her a gift (plaid blanket). She got 3 merit for cleaning, so gave her a weighty compliment. No more energy - ended the day.
Fifth day, she is hopeful (with her comfortable clothing). Auspex and Magna as usual. She is still weakened, so let's give her an athletics lesson followed by cooking dinner. She's pessimistic with her athletic equipment, so let's try another Encourage. Success - she is Pleased. Athletics went well - 3 merit. Her obedience has increased to 5 buds (she has 2 habit now), and her rating is up to D+. Let's give her another massage, and then since the master has no more energy, let's hire a tutor for her cooking lesson. She got 1 merit. Let's go for another stroll on the roof. Unfortunately, she had a hard time relaxing in the master's company (she has 4 fear ... might be making her just a bit wary). Now both she and the master are a bit dirty, so let's add "bath slave" to her rules. Ended the day.
Day six, she is hopeful again (with her sun dress and slippers). Auspex and Magna as usual. She also gained some weight. Cast the usual spells. Go through the questions again. She answers them all, but doesn't reveal any preferences for training. That's fine. Our priority is still the basics: she's not a very good cook yet, and we're not happy with the quality of our meals. Put an apron on her, cooking lesson with master, 2 merits. She's also graduated to Cook B+; tomorrow's dinner will be better. Give her a massage. Encourage her. Athletics lesson with sneakers and leotard. 1 merit. She has 1 energy left and the master has none, so give her a break: an hour of fun. She is no longer spoiled at all, has 8 buds of obedience, 4 fear, 3 awareness, 2 habit. Add a rule: "behave: humility". End the day.
Day seven, she is pleased. Auspex and Magna as usual. With all her rule-based activity, she only has one free energy, so let's put on her leotard and sneakers, encourage her again and give her an athletics lesson. 3 merits. Give a massage (this gives her an extra energy star because the master knows what he's doing). She's very close to reaching Healthy endurance, so let's give her another athletics lesson. No merit. She has no energy, so end the day.
Day eight, she is Healthy, so we can stop giving her supplements now. Auspex and Magna as usual. We've been doing a lot of athletics, so if we don't take a break from it she probably won't feel much merit, but we want her endurance to keep growing, so let's continue with the daily exercises and give her some variety in other lessons. Perhaps today she would enjoy a dance lesson, which would also serve our sinister purposes in raising her endurance a bit. Or perhaps it's time to do something about the master's withering libido? Choices, choices. Well, we've been feeding her generous portions and she has 1000 calories remaining, so if we don't want her to get even fatter, we probably should focus on calorie burning activities for today, and maybe put her portion size on moderate while we're at it! So: leotard, sneakers, Encourage, athletics lesson. 1 merit. Stroll on the roof. She's still not really relaxing on these walks, though. Well, she is still fearful... Dance lesson next. Also 1 merit. The house is quite Messy now and she still has half an energy star, so instead of rewarding her, let's see if we can accumulate more merit with a maid lesson. Only a little bit; she now has 2 merit. Still, that's helpful - we can give her another massage. That brings her energy back up to a half star again, but unfortunately it also made the house messy again. Let's invite a tutor for another maid lesson. 2 merit again. She gets Praise. End the day.
Day nine, the slave has gained one star of devotion in her aura, has lots of buds of obedience, is B+ in maid and cook skills, is in a good mood, and has enough energy for training a bit while also taking care of daily chores. I'll stop here for now.
Is it harder than 2.1? Yes, intentionally so. Is it too hard? I think not. In less than a decade, she's already starting to become devoted and is ready for further training, including sexual training.