Gameplay changes:
Warp nodes now allow warping to any node as long as a friendly fleet is present, or the node itself is friendly and uncontested
Preset changes:
Standard rules:
Initial resource amount: 100 -> 150
Mine resource amount: 50 -> 60
Max passive income: 150 -> 200
Artillery charge cost: 50 -> 25
Lenient rules:
Initial resource amount: 150 -> 200
Mine resource amount: 60 -> 75
Max passive income: 200 -> 250
Artillery charge cost: 25 -> 20
Punishing rules:
Artillery charge cost: 60 -> 30
Standard complexity:
Base warp destruction multiplier: 0.075 -> 0.035
Warp destruction degradation multiplier: 0.65 -> 0.8
Warp target not warp station multiplier: 1.25 -> 1.5 (Note, this is technically a nerf but it should make for a more interesting value spread)
Artillery damage hop falloff: 0.1 -> 0.05
Simple complexity:
Base warp destruction multiplier: 0.05 -> 0.02
Warp destruction degradation multiplier: 0.8 -> 0.9
Notes:
The warp node has been pretty underpowered since its creation, not only in its stats but also in general functionality. Having to take over a node before being able to send fleets there was expensive and most of the time not even worth the risk if you were pulling a decent flank into enemy lines. With these changes, remotely reinforcing fleets should be a bit more viable. Oh also, I thought about limiting the warp damage reduction when teleporting to an enemy warp node, but I think it's actually kinda funny so I'm keeping it in. If you get a friendly fleet on an enemy warp node, you can teleport fleets in with less damage, just like if it were your own warp node.
The resource changes in the standard and lenient presets should hopefully allow players to do more actions per turn, and also reward having more mines without (hopefully) punishing the losing player into a soft failure state if they fall slightly behind. Feedback on that front would be much appreciated.
The artillery node, while useful in some cases, has also been slightly underpowered for a while. The cost of charging it, especially when charging multiple steps in one turn, would often be far greater than just making a fleet of the same strength and sending it somewhere useful instead. Now the overall cost of charges and the ramp-up have been reduced to a more reasonable level, and the damage falloff has also been slightly buffed in the player's favor, so shooting over long ranges (which is kinda the whole point of artillery) is now less punishing.
All of those changes combined should hopefully make for more varied tactics with more stuff happening per turn. And hey, if you don't like the changes to the standard presets, you can always switch to custom rules and make your own adjustments! If you think that your stat changes feel better than the base presets, feel free to tell me in the feedback form and I'll see if you might be on to something!
General note about updates from v1.2.3 and onward:
Unless I'm fixing gamebreaking bugs, I'll leave the demo untouched. These changes for example won't show up in the demo build, unless I have to fix another issue in the future which also needs to be fixed in the demo.
In general, updating the demo isn't my main priority, and future gameplay modifiers and gameplay types might even be blocked in there entirely. Stat changes like in this update will surely eventually make their way into the demo, but not until there's a valid reason to update all builds of the game. I won't change anything about the fact that players who own the full version of the game can host unlimited demo games for their friends though.