I'm seeing time and time again with many updates for this game that there's just... no one left around to enjoy this once fine game with and all of the updates it gets. Looking at Steamcharts there was a peak population of 4 between yesterday and today and that's after what I believe is a major update with a role addition.

Rather sad I can't even get a game going to experience this new role, I'm sure others feel the same..

It's clear the developers care for this game, but the community just isn't here anymore. So I have a suggestion. And this again is for the developers. Would you consider making a ToL sequel that aims to refine the current game along with learning from past mistakes? I think your efforts would probably get more appreciation this way, personally.. And to just put it out there now, if F2P didn't work I don't think a relaunch of the current game is doable whatsoever so a sequel is in order imo.

I have 1500+ hours logged in to this game and I honestly loved it and miss it a bit still. I don't mind sharing some feedback to help potentially make a new game better.

1) Iron out balance much more before launch and don't spend post launch changing stuff up heavily all of the time. This was honestly one of the many banes for this game. You don't see this kind of thing in other similar games where roles are changed nearly completely every other patch. (See Noble) Role Identity needs established as soon as possible, and rather than tweaking them so often focus on adding new content instead. The times I have seen things tweaked or removed from ToL greatly outweigh new additions..

2) Deploy other disciplinary measures aside from permanent bans/bans in general. The bans handed out in ToL were far too hamfisted and frequent. I feel in general this game lost a lot of players due to over moderation. I literally bought a friend this game for $10 and he got banned for saying "BD Tarded" for a week, causing us to move on and play something else afterward. This isn't good behavior, I agree, however there are alternatives ways to discipline people. Chat mutes, disabling death notes, limiting logs to only contain certain words, etc. Or even penalizing gold earns for a round. There's many alternatives to banning to consider and explore. Bans should be a last measure.

That aside, I would like to point out Town of Salem has a much more toxic community but at least you can get a game going. Sometimes it's best to tolerate others just so you can actually play..

3) The design of this game and genre has aged some since ToL's launch. I have seen a few games that follow a similar mold ToL uses and sadly they flopped. I think if a sequel were made, taking inspiration from Eville than ToS would be a good decision. Although I will say, Eville is much more complex and may require a bigger studio..

Irregardless, I think it would be good to try expanding both the mechanics of the game and how it's played whilst trying to preserve the overall feel of the game. It's a tall order but it's time for the genre itself to expand/re-invent in order to thrive.

4) Ranked. Lots of people wanted ranked from the beginning and it never happened. Ranked helps with retention of older players and adds a bit of a competitive aspect to this game. Its addition would move the tryhards to their own space leaving new players to play mostly with friendly casuals. it would leave a better impression on them, imo.