The Hand of Merlin News

Hello, everyone!

The holidays have arrived at last, and do you know what that means? Discounts, discounts, discounts!

Our favorite wacky 1950s-inspired social deduction game, First Class Trouble, recently released a plethora of cosmetic DLC packs! Now you can assist (or viciously betray) your fellow ISS Alithea residents in style!

Get into the Christmas spirit with the Christmas Pack, which includes outfits inspired by Santa Claus, his helpers, and Rudolph!

Feeling cold? The Winter Pack includes warm and cozy options such as sweaters, ponchos, scarves, and even a penguin outfit!

Additional outfits and other cosmetics are also available in the New Years Pack, Runway Pack, Supporter Pack, Vruumba Pack, and Wedding Pack.

Happy Holidays from all of us at Versus Evil! We'll see you all in 2022!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/953880/First_Class_Trouble/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1203710/UnMetal/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/600610/The_Hand_of_Merlin/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1206600/Almighty_Kill_Your_Gods/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1222340/Sockventure/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/888530/Yaga/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/904400/Cardpocalypse/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1003120/Hitchhiker__A_Mystery_Game/

New features:
• Improved visuals of Ranger's Shiv skill.

General fixes:
• Fixed a crash when an enemy is killed in one shot.
• Fixed a possible crash when spawning units in a wave.
• Fixed a rare crash in combat related to using gamepads.
• Fixed an issue with Warrior's Raised Shield skill causing it to expend stacks when not intended.
• Fixed several typos in hints.

Optimizations:
• Cleaned up and optimized several combat maps, to reduce memory usage and improve performance.

Gameplay balancing:
• Changed the order Nourishment's effects are applied in relation to other sources to make Blacksmith upgrades constant.
• Mystic's Flash Hallow skill (upgrade of Hallow) no longer grants 1AP on casting, instead just on turn start.
• Salim's Measuring passive is no longer triggered by Spells.

This post is written by Mia, one of our gameplay designers.

Hello there!

As the year draws to a close, we wanted to take the opportunity to look back at how far The Hand of Merlin has grown and changed. It’s not an overstatement to say that the game has matured significantly since its release into Early Access on March 17th this year.
Out of curiosity we dug through our patch notes and prior dev blogs and have some interesting data to show off!
Since the release in March there have been a total of 19 minor updates/patches, not counting today and not counting the 5 major content updates. Taking into consideration there have been a total of 39 weeks since, on average we’d have a minor patch every other week and a major update every two months. Looking back we are pretty proud of what we’ve accomplished and all that we’ve added to the game itself.

From the artists we’ve gotten hand drawn cutscenes, map variations, new vfx for spells, more encounter images, and their help in the realization of new enemies and heroes, visual improvements of skills, spells, and so much more. They made the game as beautiful as it is.

The programmers have worked their magic to add so many new features, quality of life changes, polishing every aspect of the game to work as seamlessly as it could. They managed to make the most out of our engine to make new things possible. Gamepads, porting, dealing with the designers… They’re the backbone of The Hand of Merlin.

The writers have built the story of HoM and fleshed it out to make it truly feel as if you’re traversing the multiverse, helping these worlds which are all different no matter how similar they may look. They’ve added quests, additional variations, and more stories to be told. Your choices matter thanks to them.

Mat and I as the designers have been doing our best to try and flesh out the direction for HoM to grow. There’s been a lot of balancing, reworking, and questioning old assumptions. From how to set up the different difficulties, making each hero feel unique, or simply adding more content (such as the new guardians, relics, enemies, etc.) to going through a complete skill overhaul. We’ve kept ourselves (and others) busy!

I can’t speak for everyone, but personally I’m very proud of what our team has accomplished this year. Especially for a small indie team, the Hand of Merlin has had a great year, and I hope it’ll continue to improve next year as well with it’s full release coming up soon.

Also, this lovely little team of ours will also be taking a well deserved two weeks vacation over the holidays!

Feel more than welcome to join our Discord server to tell us what you think, to chat, or ask questions if you have any! Or you know, just to hang out. Cheers!

Mia

This post is written by Mat, our gameplay designer.

Hi all, Mat here to give you all another glimpse to the plans we have after our latest patch, The Gathering of the Gods.

So, as MarkoP has been pointing out in both our Discord server and in the Steam page, we’re walking steadily towards a 1.0 (very) early next year. We’re nearing the end of content creation and adjustments, and focusing quite a lot on our console development as well.

Still, here’s a quick rundown of the features you can expect for when we leave Early Access:

• Questlines: We already introduced a few to test out the waters way back then, but we got several more quests spanning all three main zones, including some that feature unique relics, like Tudwal’s Whetstone.
  
• More Common and Rare Relics: If you are starting to see the same old Hunnic Arrows and Thunderstones a bit too often, worry no longer - we’ll focus on getting a few more cool Relics to make your runs a bit more varied.
  
• Capstone Reward: Mia had a pretty cool idea for a reward if you can defeat our hardest challenge - Hardmode with all curses enabled. Look forward to a bit of a gift!
  
• More VFX reworks: Will is hard at work revisiting spells now, but he’ll soon pivot to give the warband’s skills a bit more love and visual polish.
  
• Achievements: Not only do we have a few to rework, we added so much more content that some more achievements could find their way in! If you are the kind of player to platinum The Hand of Merlin, keep an eye out!
  

Your feedback was paramount to changes and adjustments until this point. If you have any other suggestions, feel free to hop on our Discord server and let us know!

Mat

Titled ‘Gathering of the Gods,’ the latest update introduces new features to the game including two new Guardians to aid you in your quest to stop the Cataclysm: Oberon and Atlantes.

As the king of faeries, Oberon communicates only through an emissary, but watches the battlefield closely. Treating the flora and fauna well gains his favor and raises your Faerie Reputation. The value of which can produce either a blessing or a curse upon the party later on.



Atlantes is a cosmic being like Merlin himself, but one who is not particularly bothered by the fall of each world. Amused by Merlin’s desire to save worlds, Atlantes provides aid to the party, but conceals his true motivations.

Each Guardian bestows a unique benefit upon the party, and gives you access to an array of powerful new spells to thwart the invading abominations.



The Gathering of the Gods update also adds a brand new Nourishment system, an upgrade to the current Supplies resource. You will now get stacking buffs (or de-buffs) based on how long you travel well-stocked or poorly stocked. These attributes will affect Heroes’ combat stats in a significant way!

New Relics are also introduced in the update along with sound effects for encounter events and improved visual effects for several existing spells.

In addition to these new features, the latest update will also include various small bug fixes, optimizations, and balancing:

Full Patch Notes – Early Access Build 676569

New features:

• Added two new unlockable Guardians: the scientifically-minded Atlantes, and Oberon, king of the Faeries. And between the two, 18 new Spells total!
  
• Added the Nourishment system. Players will now get stacking (de)buffs based on how long they travel well-stocked, or poorly-stocked. These (de)buffs will affect Heroes’ combat stats (health and armor) in a powerful way.
  
• Added six new Relics: Jade Statuette, Orpheus Set, Giant Cauldron, Irish Gorget, Selkie Medallion and Tudwal Whetstone.
  
• Added sound effects for encounter events, such as the bells tolling during Faerie encounters.
  
• Improved the visuals of several existing Spells.
  

General fixes:

• Fixed a rare crash in combat, related to ground effects.
  
• Fixed a bug causing Windows Mouse Keys to not work correctly with the game.
  
• Fixed a bug where Safir’s Paladin passive would pick its target in a deterministic way, rather than randomly (as is the intention).
  
• Fixed a bug where enemy “prepared shot” abilities could be started while under the Staggered status effect.
  
• Fixed a bug which could allow the “C-Combo” achievement to be awarded when not intended.
  
• Fixed a bug where the camera would not focus on the unit being selected (such as when pressing the Tab button to cycle through units).
  
• Fixed a bug where the tooltips in the Journal could flicker in some cases.
  
• Fixed a bug where relic and spell abilities on the Action Bar would show keyboard hotkeys even when using a gamepad.
  
• Fixed a bug where the map legend could show its tooltip if the currently visited node was underneath it while using a gamepad.
  
• Fixed an issue with the Man’s Best Friend encounter where the options/outcomes could potentially loop indefinitely.
  

Optimizations:

• Reduced the memory footprint of various combat maps, which also improves performance.
  

Quality-of-Life improvements:

• Added an option to confine the mouse to the game’s window, available in the in-game menu.
  
• Removed the unit fill/outline buttons from the Action Bar and added them instead into the Gameplay tab in the Options menu, to help reduce combat UI clutter.
  
• The Lobby and Journal UI now fully support navigational-style control when using gamepads, which should feel more intuitive to players accustomed to console dashboard UIs.
  
• Removed various references to mouse/keyboard controls from hints (and embedded images) when using a gamepad.
  
• Added display of player’s name (Steam profile name) to main menu, options and in-game menu.
  
• The undo operation in combat should now work with a broader selection of movement skills and movement-interacting effects, such as Tariq’s Bladedancer passive, Ranger’s Sprint skill tree, and various relics.
  
• Changed targeting rules for Ranger’s Volley skill (and its upgrades), so it’s more in line with similar skills for different classes.
  
• Hero passives (and some other non-scaling effects) no longer have stacks associated with them, to clarify their static nature.
  

Gameplay balancing:

• Slightly increased enemy stats in Marca Hispanica and Al-Andalus as counter-balance to the overall buffs of the Nourishment system.
  
• Hard Mode no longer requires 3 Supplies per character per node jump. Instead, the Dread Marches modifier is reworked to increase the amount of Supplies required per jump.
  
• Redcap’s tooltip should now better describe its ooze effect.
  
• Dire Redcap no longer restores health from its own oozes.
  
• Ranged bandits should now slightly prefer to shoot decoys over Heroes (but it’s still not a guarantee).
  
• The Reflex Bow, a blacksmith upgrade option for Rangers, no longer relies on a conditional damage effect, now being a flat increase to Power.
  
• Warrior’s Lunge skill (and its upgrades) now only costs 1 AP, but has reduced movement range.
  
• Warrior Heroes should now only gain 2 Health per level up, down from 3.
  
• Heroes hired during encounters will now use a random unlocked prowess, assuming at least one prowess for the hero is unlocked.
  
• Effects associated with Mystic’s Martyrdom skill now only affect allies, not the caster.
  
• Grail of Piety. Instead of reducing Cooldowns when healed, it now increases all healing by 40%.
  
• Grail of Honour. Instead of a refresh effect when killing the last hitter, it now uses a “duel” mechanic, where the target of your last attack deals less damage to other units.
  
• Circlet of Gold. Increased cost to 60 gold (up from 50).
  
• Increased the cooldown of Morgana’s Sacrifice spell to 4 turns (up from 1).
  

Since entering Early Access in May 2021, The Hand of Merlin has had five major updates on its path to 1.0. These updates have added a wide range of new features designed to improve the overall player experience, including new heroes, passive skills, Hard Mode, controller support, alternate maps, meta progression and more. We’re so happy with how the game has progressed since the EA launch, and are excited for what’s still to come as we near the release of 1.0!