Wargroove should be quite a bit more welcoming when an update hits the cheery but tough turn-based romp today. It's not easy to save the kingdom of Cherrystone, but difficulty presets and a new, flexible checkpoint system should make the journey a bit less perilous if you choose. 

The default difficulty has been giving people problems, and changing the sliders to give you even a tiny bit more damage or income knocks the game into 'easier mode', immediately limiting you to a maximum of one star per mission. It's a tad harsh. The update, thankfully, introduces a bunch of presets and reduces penalties. 

Wargroove's default difficulty is Hard and the only way to achieve S-ranks (aside from making it even harder, if you're bold), Medium is a bit easier and lets you get three-star ranks, Easy knocks it down to two, and Story is the easiest of them all, limiting you to one star.

The checkpoint system essentially gives you a single battle save. Instead of having to start all over again because you messed up—maybe you lost a unit you were ordered to protect—you can set a checkpoint anywhere. You only get one in every battle, but it can be overwritten. 

There are plenty of other changes, too, including a CPU player option in multiplayer, shared vision among allies, better unit information and S-rank requirements clearly displayed. The game's pace, which can be rather slow, has also been cranked up a bit. A movement speed option will allow you make battles brisk, and skipping animations should be faster. 

Wargroove's update will be live from 1 pm GMT/8 am EST today. 

Wargroove has its differences from Advance Wars, the Nintendo series that inspired it, but that isn't stopping some players from immediately turning Wargroove into Advance Wars. Thanks to its built-in mapmaking and campaign-building tools, Wargroove already has a bunch of player-created maps to play, including recreations of Advance Wars missions. Here are the coolest Wargroove mods and maps we've found so far. 

How to download Wargroove custom maps 

Wargroove doesn't use the Steam Workshop for sharing maps and mods, because it actually has its own built-in map sharing tools that work across the PC and consoles. To browse and download maps, choose Custom Content from the main menu, then Share. From the Share menu you can browse for maps, see what's currently popular, or click Enter Code to download a particular map. Copy/paste the codes from the maps listed below to download them. 

The best Wargroove custom maps and campaigns 

There are already hundreds of custom maps in the Wargroove community, but these are interesting, polished maps we've tried out ourselves. For more good stuff, check out Chucklefish's community map spotlight.

Indiana Bones and the Angel Statue - 9TBXTXRY

A cute little "adventure" with light puzzle solving as you venture into a ~spooky~ tomb. Nice use of scripting in a simple map.

Triple Trouble - WUJTWQ48

A super cool map concept. It's a 1v1 map but split across three separate lanes, with barracks and strongholds and buildings to capture in each one. Take a single enemy stronghold to win by figuring out how to most efficiently divide your forces.

Yorthendon Citadel - YEGW2QKD

A big symmetrical map for four player versus, with a guarded treasury of valuable buildings locked in the center. Whoever controls that portion of the map will likely have the resources to win.

Capture the Flag - FCC6ZECY

The game's in the name. You lose if the enemy takes over your stronghold or kills your commander, but the real goal here is to grab the flag from your enemy's base and bring it home. The unit who grabs it turns into a defenseless villager, so you'll need to protect them.

2v2v2v2 (pintade) - DQ6DJEWN

A huge map designed for co-op play. You and a partner start in one corner of the map and gradually spread out, while three AI teams move around in the fog of war. If you're hunting for a co-op map you can play for weeks, this is it.

Japan A.I. Large - LCB6RCTG

That's Japan! Neat. It's a large one, so expect some long multiplayer campaigns.

The Defense of Strahnbrad - W6WVJHL2

A Warcraft-themed map that feels like a proper campaign mission, with fog of war and a city to protect.

Advance Wars Alpha - 6FK77AS6

The first four maps from the Advance Wars campaign, remade in Wargroove. The entire campaign is in development, and will eventually contain all the maps from the original game.

There are only a few Wargroove mods (so far) 

Most of Wargroove's community efforts are focused around its built-in editing tools, so there's not much of a mod scene yet. But there are a couple to check out:

Modpacker - A tool for installing and creating mods that will likely become the go-to for modders.

Advance Wars 1 in Wargroove - Don't get too excited—this mod doesn't reskin the game with Advance Wars sprites. But it does rebalance it and globalize the leader powers, bringing combat more in line with Advance Wars' gameplay. You'll need the Modpacker to install.

The CEO of Chucklefish has responded to Sony's claims that Playstation 4 crossplay is available to any devs and publishers that request it.

In an interview earlier this week, Sony chairman Shawn Layden told Game Informer that "we’re open for business on this one. All it takes is for publishers and developers who wish to permission it. As ever, just work with your PlayStation account manager, and they will walk you through the steps that we’ve learned through our partnership with Epic on how this works."

Tiy, Chucklefish's CEO responded to the claim on Resetera,  "We made many requests for crossplay (both through our account manager and directly with higher ups) all the way up until release month. We were told in no uncertain terms that it was not going to happen."

Chucklefish's own game Wargroove has crossplay enabled between PC, Xbox One, and Switch and were keen to include PlayStation 4 players but as Tiy reports, "We were told no." 

PC, Xbox One, and Switch increasingly share multiplayer space (and shared progress in some cases), . Fortnite and Rocket League both have crossplay enabled on PlayStation, but the platform seems closed to others. Sony really isn't doing itself any favours, as Steven pointed out last year:

It makes sense why Sony wouldn't see the need to play ball with its competitors and allow cross-play. But the issue is about more than just protecting a bottom line: Sony's backwards stance on cross-play harms the games industry and players as a whole, including PC gamers.