The Great Migration
Roles, abilities, resources, factions, and classes have all been reimplemented as Data Assets instead of records in rudimentary Data Tables. Data Tables are not scalable, meaning as new content was added, the game was starting to struggle.
This is a significant change to the most core and fundamental parts of the game. Previously all roles were loaded into memory at all times. Meaning at any given point you had all of the Standard Set, Dark Set, and also the Starter set loaded into memory. Data Assets allow for all roles to exist in an unloaded state, meaning you will only load the roles that are relevant to you.
This means that all role replication logic had to be rewritten. Previously changing a house's role involved sending the entire role over the network, putting huge strain on the host's CPU and network. The new system involves sending an "identifier", telling each player which role to fetch from their local game files. This is a massive change, greatly optimizing the game's CPU, memory, and network usage.
All roles have had to be manually recreated, meaning that there is likely errors in specific roles. All UI has also been rebuilt to use the new system, so there is likely a few bugs with the UI at the moment.
Codex
Optimized the loading of the Codex so that it only loads one page as a time, as you view that page. Previously the entire codex would be loaded into memory each time you opened your menu.
Fixed up several references to roles that have been since changed or removed.
Rewrote the Phases Codex Entry to be more clear and concise with easier to follow examples.
Hosting
You can now target on a player's behalf.
Targeting in this way does not have any phase restrictions, allowing you to use abilities during the day and resolution phase.
You can now search by keyword and group when using the manual role picker.
The "Next Phase" button now waits for all background processing to complete before you can click it again.
Redesigned the target tooltip to show which role a target is coming from and to be more clear and concise.
Added meow.
House target icon generation behaviour has been changed to be house specific. Previously each time a player targeted another player, ALL house target icons were regenerated. This UI generation is expensive, which caused hitches on the host, causing players to disconnect. Now if a player targets, only their targets are regenerated, massively reducing the amount of UI generation during the night.
Role Assignment
Any role set saved before this update is now unfortunately invalid.
Removed the confirmation dialogs for importing, deleting and overwriting role lists.
Saved role lists are now sorted in reverse, displaying the most recently saved/edited role list on top.
The format for sharing role lists has changed.
Interactable Objects
Greatly optimized the way that the game traces to check for interactable objects in front of you.
Voting
Accusation and Elimination Vote timers have been normalized to 20 seconds.
Voice Chat
Adjusted the rate at which voice packets are replicated, increasing the "smoothness" of player voices.
Optimized the way that the game lights up the mic symbol to indicate your speaking volume.
Nametags
Completely rebuilt the nametags system from the ground up.
Previously nametags were widgets that existed in the world, which the game then drew to the screen. The game would check if it had recently drawn your character, if so it would update your nametag and all of it's details every single frame. If not it would hide your nametag.
Now all nametags exist completely separate from player characters, as part of a "nametag container" widget part of each players UI. Nametags are drawn onto the UI in the correct locations, and are only updated when relevant variables change.
Targeting
Added keyword tooltips to the targeting menu.
Standard
Role Changes
Ringmaster
Nerf
If a player rolls a 6, the ringmaster dies.
The Blob
Buff
Now grants players permanent defense instead of just protecting them.
Dark
Role Changes
Cleric
Rework
No longer uses mana.
Now heals a player twice each night.
Demon
Nerf
No longer knows the identity of his minions.
The minions still know the identity of the Demon.
Necromancer
Buff
Now protects 2 players each night.
Visionary
Rework
The Visionary has been simplified. The targeted players are now completely unaffected.