chore(release): prepare 3.2.1-beta.9 prerelease

[ifBars]

Prepare GitHub prerelease 3.2.1-beta.9 from beta, including merged #353, #354, #355, #358, and #359. Update the project and Melon versions and add curated release notes covering custom NPC lookup caches, reload portraits, workbench animation, and client prefab initialization.

Validation

• Release candidate: 792 Mono / 766 IL2CPP contract tests, no failures or skips; both builds have zero warnings/errors.
• Game beta 0.4.7f11, MelonLoader 0.7.3: 32 custom NPC types, two loads per runtime, 64 nonblank portraits per runtime, and one native NPC component per object. Controlled gender/weight captures and workbench pose checks pass on both runtimes.
• Final beta.9 DLLs: two local peers with separate identities through a Steam emulator, first load and same-process reload/rejoin on both runtimes. Every peer/load has loaded gameplay, completed intro, movement enabled, character creator closed, four role NPCs, one native component per object, and nonblank portraits. Customer data and affinity exist before native Awake; defaults remain 100/400.
• Games are stopped. Proprietary assemblies, probes, saves, images, and logs remain local and ignored. Test-folder deletion was blocked by automatic approval review, so those disposable files remain.

Compatibility

No public/protected signature, namespace, save ID, or network payload changes. The version and release-notes changes do not change runtime behavior. Ordinary and dynamic assembly discovery retain their tested ordering, invalidation, and fresh-list contracts.

Real Steam transport remains untested. Native Contacts warnings remain, and simultaneous IL2CPP test shutdown logged a native LoadManager.ExitToMenu null after both peers passed. No repeatable total loading-time improvement is claimed.

After hosted checks pass, merge into beta and tag the resulting commit as v3.2.1-beta.9. The tag workflow publishes the forked ZIP as a GitHub prerelease and skips NuGet, Nexus Mods, and Thunderstore.

[coderabbitai]

Important

Review skipped

Auto reviews are disabled on base/target branches other than the default branch.

Please check the settings in the CodeRabbit UI or the .coderabbit.yaml file in this repository. To trigger a single review, invoke the @coderabbitai review command.

⚙️ Run configuration

• Configuration used: Repository UI
• Review profile: CHILL
• Plan: Advanced
• Run ID: fb066875-5cef-42f6-a1bf-2a07b1c6137c

You can disable this status message by setting the reviews.review_status to false in the CodeRabbit configuration file.

Use the checkbox below for a quick retry:

• 🔍 Trigger review

• Autopilot · Keep fixing CodeRabbit findings and required CI, and resolving merge conflicts

---

Thanks for using CodeRabbit! It's free for OSS, and your support helps us grow. If you like it, consider giving us a shout-out.

❤️ Share

• X
• Mastodon
• Reddit
• LinkedIn

_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands.}