World Makers
Deceit 2
Published in
4 min readAug 1, 2024

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Greetings Subjects, we’re thrilled to announce a number of additions and improvements this week driven by your feedback!

Introducing the Friends System

We’ve heard you loud and clear. You can now add and invite your friends directly within the game. This new feature allows you to seamlessly connect with your friends (or enemies!) in the game, whatever platform you are all playing the game on.

Final Showdown

We are continuously evaluating the Final Showdown based on player feedback and game data. We know this feature has mixed feedback — it’s difficult to balance social deduction and action gameplay. For example, triggering the showdown only at 3 players creates entirely unplayable game states.

We are focused on developing comprehensive solutions that address all game state scenarios. Here are some of the ways we’ve improved the overall gameplay around the Final Showdown this update:

  • Suspicion-Based Colour Coding:
  • Player outlines are now colour-coded based on the suspicion system, allowing you to quickly identify friend from foe.
  • Yellow Outlines:
  • Non-player outlines and your own decoy are now outlined in yellow, making it easier to distinguish important elements during intense moments.
  • Bug Fix:
  • The Final Showdown now always triggers only when exactly four players remain, addressing an issue last patch with premature activation.

Spectator UI Improvements

For those who have been banished from the ritual, keeping up with the game’s progression is now easier than ever. We’ve updated the spectator interface to provide a more immersive and informative viewing experience, allowing you to stay engaged with the action from the sidelines.

Blackthorne Manor Improvements

With the introduction of a new painting task, Blackthorne Manor has reached a pivotal milestone, marking its transition out of Early Access! The butler has also received animation improvements, UI enhancements, and new sound effects.

Miscellaneous Improvements

In addition to this, we’ve made several technical upgrades to elevate your gameplay experience:

  • Unreal Engine Upgrade:
  • We’ve transitioned to Unreal Engine 5.4.3, bringing various bug fixes and optimisations to the game.
  • NVIDIA DLSS Frame Generation:
  • PC players with 4000 series cards can now benefit from enhanced settings, offering smoother and more responsive gameplay.
  • Optimisation:
  • We have continued to optimise our maps, with some ongoing improvements rolling out with this patch.
  • Character Voice Lines:
  • We’ve begun to enrich the in-game experience with dynamic character voice lines, triggered by various in-game events, to deepen the immersion and storytelling.

Balancing Adjustments

We’ve made several balancing adjustments to enhance gameplay:

  • The Vampire’s bat sanity drain has been reduced from 20% to 15%, creating a fairer experience for all players.
  • Additionally, we’ve reworked the player respawn logic to ensure more consistent distribution across the map.

Patch Notes

Features

  • The main menu now has a friends list — players can add and invite each other in-game.
  • Various in-game events now trigger character voice lines to play.
  • We’ve upgraded from Unreal Engine 5.4.1 to 5.4.3 — this primarily includes various bug fixes and optimisations.
  • NVIDIA DLSS Frame Generation Reflex has been implemented as settings for PC players with 4000 series cards.
  • A new painting task has been added to the Manor, with this addition, Blackthorne Manor is now out of early access.
  • The spectator UI has had an overhaul — making it easier to track what is going on after you’ve been eliminated.

Improvements

  • The butler on the manor has had his animations improved, UI improved, and sound effects implemented.
  • Some small lighting improvements have been made on Wurgen.
  • The wording of the ‘Silence’ mutation has been updated.
  • Translations have been updated.
  • Various optimisations have been made.
  • The Vampire’s bat sanity drain has been reduced from 20% to 15%.
  • The respawning player logic has been reworked to improve distribution.
  • The majority of player outlines are now coloured based on the suspicion system.
  • Non-player outlines are now yellow.
  • Your own decoy is now outlined in yellow.

Fixes

  • [FIXED] The Final Showdown can trigger with more than four players alive.
  • [FIXED] Players can become invincible by using the Confession Booth.
  • [FIXED] The butler can spawn in different locations for each player.
  • [FIXED] Not all nametags on the Game Summary screen can be navigated with a gamepad.
  • [FIXED] Various map exploits.
  • [FIXED] Alex’s eyewater uses the incorrect shader.
  • [FIXED] The ‘Subjects Remaining’ count is off by 1 in death popups.
  • [FIXED] Teammate names overlap portraits if Mimic steals Infected.
  • [FIXED] Inbetween timer ambiance and innocent Inbetween music can play during the enrage period.
  • [FIXED] Animations may not play correctly when spectating someone mid-animation.
  • [FIXED] The role icon colour may be incorrect on the Game Summary screen.
  • [FIXED] The downed player waypoint can show when only one vote is required.

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