Ok, some thoughts on the new update:
If there's going to be different upkeep for units going forward, we really need to get an "upkeep" statistic for units, so we can see preciously how much upkeep a unit costs. Maybe also add a tooltip to the unit tab to show a units statistics, which should include upkeep when in storage/leader/team.
Having Nycto element power be based on Abyss Power remaining is potentially an issue. Since unit birth chance is based on elemental power, this could potentially cause an issue where rolling poorly actively prevents you from getting advanced nycto churls. But the resting upkeep cost seems low enough that this might not be an issue.
Dark Wedges being one use is a very big nerf. They were the only way to consistently reinforce, since otherwise reinforcing costs one action per team. Yes, it was a bit of a bug, but the central issue is that there's no system of automatic reinforcement. And being able to reinforce all your teams while going into negative action points was the only real way to get around this. If units would automatically pull churls and metal to reinforce to full while in settlements this wouldn't be as much of an issue.
The Nycto Element production reduction was a bit of a surprise. it's now 1/4 instead of 1/2. Does mean that my early strategy needs to be a lot more agressive than I'd like. Since statues now give +200 instead of +100. Means that you basically need to attack Windrise immediately, then destroy the statue and strike at Falcon Coast afterwards. I'm also wondering if the Anti-Element Barrier cost has been reduced? It seems like it costs less to maintain than it did before, but I could be mistaken. In any case, it's still possible to get 8+ Nycto Hilichurls before week 20.
I haven't played long enough to get a feel for how the food/slave situation changes, but I am a bit concerned about getting high enough numbers of the specific slaves needed to colonize Liyue Harbor. If slave income decreases, but attrition doesn't, then reaching the 100 pops needed in multiple categores is going to be impossible. Likewise, food upkeep has always been an issue. And while the Nycto churls aren't going to be contributing to that anymore, these changes are really going to hurt food production. And while sacrificing units will help.... it's still not a great solution.
The new capture percentage is very helpful. Two things though - it seems like this is active by default, rather than being unlocked by the 2nd Katheryne. Which might be a bug? But I'd still like to have some indicator if capturing is likely/possible/unlikely/impossible - and if attempting it will do damage. Like, if someone has a barrier, can you capture from underneath it? Or does it just damage the barrier? Then precice capture chance could be unlocked by the 2nd mission board upgrade. Also, the capture chance only displays for the first attack, but not the second. Bit of a bug.
Finally, the mission board upgrade changes are generally a good thing. Personally, attracting wandering armies is such a situational thing, I honestly wouldn't care if it gets scrapped entirely. I think the mission board should give two types of bonuses - information or colonization bonuses.
