Strife of Stars – Post-Demo Patch Notes (Aug 29 → Sep 9)

Thanks for all the demo feedback. Here are the changes:

Gameplay & Balance

• Court swarm survival battles end as soon as every enemy is destroyed.
• Action pips and the capacity HUD stay "spent" through the enemy turn instead of relighting on End Turn.
• EMP fixes: correct timing on the target's next turn, no permanent capacity inflation, no zeroed weapon capacity.
• Ptah's Sacrifice Shield is now battle-only.
• Patched Kill Registry pays +2 tokens per kill (was +1).
• One Ascion early-mid encounter trimmed.
• Enemy AI now accounts for the damage floor, flank armor and terrain, and should think ~40% faster.
• Anhur AI predicts its barrage lanes, fires ahead of your movement, and no longer retreats to protect itself.
• Barrage no longer fires after a kill whose shot is still in the air.

Shop & Fleet

• The shop blocks Leave while your fleet is over capacity.
• Flawless-victory prelude bonus is shown on the victory screen.
• Preludes renamed to match the Protocol items they grant.

Tutorials & UI

• New ability intro popup the first time you select a ship with an active ability.
• Assets tutorial fires on the first map visit when a prelude granted ships or items, naming the grant.
• Archetype upgrades in the shop explain their ship-specific effect ("Applied on Vanguard: Unlocks Overcharge...").
• All ship ability descriptions rewritten for clarity.
• Damage previews use the damage-popup digit font, so "1" no longer reads as "7".
• Buff icon rows wrap after 6 icons; buff tooltips should no longer flicker.

Visuals & Settings

• Court and Ascion beams were sometimes sub-pixel thin and sometimes invisible. Should be fixed.
• Replicated Ptahs no longer turn dark on first click.
• Skip Intro toggle now persists across restarts.