Wow! First off, thank you for taking the time to play this much of the demo and write all this up. Seriously. Even through the frustration this is incredibly valuable feedback for me.
You were absolutely right about the freeze/save issues. The procedural decoration generation and map state were not properly persisting between reloads, which caused adjacency bonuses and map layouts to reshuffle after continuing a run. That issue has been addressed along with the end-of-day freeze problem and a new build is going up now.
A lot of the other feedback here also directly aligns with changes I’ve already been making:
pre-battle formation/equipment management has been improved
stationing and hero management have been expanded significantly
the overall village/map flow has been reworked heavily
run persistence and save behavior are much more stable now
I also completely understand the frustration around losing geared units. I’m still actively balancing the tension between permanent loss and player investment, especially for longer runs and stronger heroes.
Again, genuinely thank you for pushing so deep into the demo and taking the time to break all this down. Feedback like this has directly shaped the current redesign and improvements.
New build is going up soon!