Feb 16, 2022

The Hand of Merlin - VS_Dave

Whispers of Doom introduces a complete overhaul of the games VFX for the games hero and enemy classes. Core to the VFX upgrades was the ability for the game to show the sci-fi orientation of the game more clearly. Cosmetically, the visual overhaul now better represents the distinctions of character skills such as the Mystic, who creates effects through knowledge rather than magic like a traditional wizard or mage would.

Also added in this latest update are legendary questline encounters which may reward relics of legendary power, as well as a new Guardian Core from Siglorel. The “Corrupted core” is awarded to players once they defeat the doomed world scenario, beating back the corruption in Jerusalem in Hard Mode with all Curses activated. This features 9 new and unique spells.

Alongside a whole host of bug fixes and performance enhancements, the ‘Whispers of Doom’ update now splits easy mode into two options, easy story and easy roguelike. Easy story mode presents the easiest option for players looking for a more narrative led experience with very little challenge. Easy roguelike on the other hand presents a good starting point for newcomers to tactical or roguelike games but who still want to be challenged.

Additionally, the option to create a randomized party when starting a new game run based on the heroes a player has already unlocked has also been integrated in this update, this also automatically picks Prowess unlocks if available.

Last but not least, 3 new achievements have also been added, Can't Run Forever (unlocking Atlantes' Core), Faevoured (unlocking Oberon's Core), and Legendary (obtaining a legendary relic through a questline).

“Our early access journey with The Hand of Merlin is now complete as we look to align our full version 1.0 launch. Being able to harness valuable community feedback has been immeasurable to us, and has helped us deliver six updates that have enhanced balance, challenge, meta progression and skill sets, not to mention lots of exciting new game content added as well,” Said Robert Sajko, Creative Director at Room C Games.

Patch Notes - Early Access Build 677290

New features:
• Added a new Guardian Core: Siglorel's, with 9 new and unique Spells. It can be unlocked by winning the doomed world scenario: beating back the Corruption in Jerusalem in Hard Mode+ with all Curses activated.
• Added new questlines which may reward relics of legendary power.
• Visual Effects overhaul: Hero classes' (Warriors, Rangers and Mystics) and enemy abilities' VFX updated where appropriate.
• Easy Mode is now split into two: Easy (Story) and Easy (Roguelike). The former is meant to hardly present any challenge at all, and is meant for those seeking a narrative experience above all else. The latter is a good starting point for newcomers to tactical or roguelike games but who still want to be challenged.
• Added 3 new achievements: Can't Run Forever (unlocking Atlantes' Core), Faevoured (unlocking Oberon's Core), and Legendary (obtaining a legendary relic through a questline).
• Added the option to create a randomized party when starting a new run. The selection is made from the Heroes you have unlocked, automatically picking Prowess unlocks if available.
• Added several new encounter illustrations.

General fixes:
• Fixed an issue on macOS where the game could have issues starting in fullscreen mode on Retina displays with resolution scaling enabled in OS settings.
• Fixed an issue on macOS where the Journal could sometimes appear solid red.
• Fixed an issue on macOS where in-game clickable URLs did not work (such as the button to join our Discord server).
• Fixed an issue on macOS where the Command button did not expand tooltips (like Alt does on Windows/Linux).
• Updated hints and tooltips on macOS to refer to the correct keys for that platform.
• Fixed a crash in the Lobby when removing Heroes from the party.
• Fixed a rare crash when using a gamepad during an encounter on the World Map.
• Fixed an issue where the run would be lost if game is stopped and started again during a certain encounter in Al-Andalus which interacts with the Holy Grail.
• Fixed a bug where force-closing the game during a transition between zones could leave that run in an invalid state, causing it to be lost.
• Fixed a bug where the fast-forward feature in skirmishes would affect the menus as well.
• Fixed a bug where enemy wave spawning in the battle of Roncevaux Pass didn't work correctly.
• Fixed a bug where the Blacksmith prices were not reset when arriving to a new Blacksmith.
• Fixed an issue where Salim's Measuring stacks would sometimes not get removed upon moving.
• Fixed an issue where Dire Thorntoad did not use Blast and Jump abilities as often as intended.
• Fixed an issue where the setting to confine the mouse cursor to the screen wasn't saved/restored when quitting/starting the game.
• Fixed a bug where multi-target abilities couldn't be used with the mouse on the same tile without first moving the tile away (i.e. it wasn't possible to double click a single tile).
• Fixed a bug where enemies that die affected by an aura didn't properly unregister themselves from the aura, potentially causing a crash or other incorrect behavior.
• Fixed a bug causing Wyvern to not trigger its Opportunist passive in case it was spawned in an ambush scenario.
• Fixed a bug where the auto-targetting logic of Morgan Tud's Druid Physician passive would not work correctly in certain situations.
• Fixed a bug where some effects could be applied to a unit after it died, if the sequence happened as part of the same ability use.
• Fixed an issue in Mallorca corrupted alternative skirmish map causing a potential AI chokepoint.
• Fixed an issue with the Blessings/Curses screen elements not scaling correctly on 4K / TV mode.
• Fixed an issue with the Blessings/Curses screen where the back button could be repeatedly triggered to constantly restart the animation.
• Fixed various cases of text clipping in Big Picture mode.
• Fixed a bug where the camera could still be manually controlled during the short cinematic momement of revealing the final boss in Jerusalem.
• Fixed a bug where screen fading would sometimes not work correctly when transitioning between game states.
• Fixed an issue where the Bestiary bookmark could reopen itself when not intended.
• Fixed an issue where bookmarks could sometimes not be clickable.
• Fixed an issue where reroll or cancel buttons were not reachable by gamepads when selecting skill cards at rank-up.
• Fixed "The Pen Is Mightier" encounter which would offer recruitment if party is full, rather than if not full.
• Fixed a bug where the portrait tooltip attribute breakdown didn't correctly show the base attributes for heroes with an active prowess unlock.
• Fixed a bug when gaining status effects where the scrolling combat message would show an incorrect number of stacks gained if they were higher than the max possible for that effect.
• Changed the description of Holy Desecration to note that it deals damage only to abominations.
• Changed the wording in the nourishment descriptions from past tense to present tense for the health/armor increased/decreased state, since they indicate state, not change.
• Fixed several typos in various tooltips.

Optimizations:
• Cleaned up and optimized several combat maps, to reduce memory usage and improve performance.
• Greatly reduced the impact of all destruction effects on performance, without noticeable visual differences.

Quality of life changes:
• The intro cutscene is now automatically skipped after being viewed at least once. It can be re-watched by clicking the Intro button in the Lobby.
• The vision pool in Merlin's Cave (the Lobby) will now show a view of the correct zone for the current run, rather than always Albion.
• Relic tooltips will now state the item's rarity, as well as use a color scheme to further help distinguish item rarities.
• The Guardian Core UI can now be accessed even during an encounter.
• Added separate icons for quest start and quest turn-in nodes. In addition, quest turn-in nodes will display the quest name.
• In addition to clicking the Shuffle button, random event cards can now also be clicked directly to initiate shuffling.
• The Hide Cards button, shown while selecting skills during rank-up, now says Cancel to make it clearer what it does.
• The Reroll button for skill cards is now disabled when the player doesn't have enough essence to use it.
• When selecting a skill upgrade, the current (base) skill is shown in the middle, with animated arrows pointing left and right to the skill cards available as upgrades. This should make it easier to compare the choices.
• Improved the Blacksmith tooltips to make it more clear that each upgrade tier is a replacement of the previous tier, rather than a stacking bonus.
• Improved Bestiary gamepad navigation, which should now feel more intuitive.
• Improved the presentation of the card selection screen in Big Picture mode.
• Skills with 0 AP cost which are self-cast now require the specific Hero to be targeted and clicked (or double clicking the ability itself) to activate it. This is to prevent accidently activating an ability when a hero is left with 0AP and is selected.
• Bandit enemy types now have names which should be more evocative of their signature skills, such as Executioner (Execute). This should help make them (and the threat they pose) more recognizable.
• Added prowess indicators to Hero selection screen in the Lobby, to make it clearer which type of Hero is selected for the run.
• The post-run report will from now on also show the modifiers (Blessings and/or Curses) that were affecting the run, if any.
• Changed the wording of the rendering resolution options to make it clear which resolution they represent.
• Added new sliders to the Options / Sound menu, for master volume, overworld music volume and combat music volume.

Gameplay balancing:
• Changed the Fey Touched achievement to have a lower fey reputation requirement (7, down from 10). This will apply to all new runs started with game version 677290 or higher, but not on-going ones.
• Changed the Well Stocked achievement to use nourishment instead of hunger damage for the condition.

Feb 16, 2022

Dev blog 106 - Whispers of Doom Update

The Hand of Merlin - MarkoP

This post is written by Mia, our gameplay designer.

Hello there!

With the new update being released today, we wanted to take the opportunity to talk more in depth about what you can expect from the new Guardian Core.

To start off with, the new Core belongs to Siglorel, a sorcerer like Merlin, who traveled into the most extreme and dangerous dimension. His ventures gained him many new insights and knowledge but left him “slightly” mad as well. There’s small tidbits of information you can find of him throughout the game, but he’s mostly shrouded in mystery. One thing that we can say is that one of the dimensions Siglorel has been to (or perhaps even still is in) is the dimension from which the abominations are invading our worlds. Because of this, Siglorel’s Core is intertwined with corruption.

Thematically, his Core is unlockable by saving a ‘Doomed World’ which even Merlin himself harbors little hope for. A Doomed World is ventured into by selecting all of the negative modifiers in Modified Hardmode difficulty. It’s a proper challenge, even for us who know the game inside out! If you’ve already beaten this mode, I’m afraid you’ll have to do so again as the Core is not gained automatically, but rather as part of the epilogue after defeating the final boss.

Obtaining his Core marks a true achievement and mastery over the game, as such we wanted to have the Core feel truly powerful. The passive gives one mana for each hero at the start of each combat, which should make mana feel cheaper and more expendable, allowing you to test out the spells in earnest.
Sticking with the corruption theme, the spells are modified versions of what the final boss can do, but tweaked and buffed in your favor. Siglorel allows turning their own power against them, quite effectively so!

Among the other content added in this update, being the Questlines, you’ll be able to find a legendary relic made by Siglorel. It’s a relic which combined with any Guardian Core should feel quite powerful, that is, if you manage to find it and repair it..

We hope you will enjoy exploring the new stories added in the update! If you have any questions or feedback for us, or just want to chat, feel free to join us on our Discord server!

Mia

Feb 2, 2022

Dev blog 104 - 1.0 release when?

The Hand of Merlin - MarkoP

Hey folks!

Many people have been asking when we’re planning on releasing the game. I’d like to use this post to outline what’s going on internally regarding this.

Our initial plan when we launched in early access last year was a 4 to 5 months period to polish up the game and then launch 1.0, and boy, was that initial time estimate wrong! After we started getting some good feedback from our players, we had to re-evaluate how to go about working on the game.
All that player feedback directly informed our first content update which featured a skill revamp and making heroes more unique with their passives.
The stuff we planned to do during EA were new heroes, enemies and maps, which all went live in content updates 2, 3 and 4, the last of which also featured the hard difficulty and improvements to meta progression, both of which were influenced by some player ideas. Lastly, the most recent content update featured new guardian cores with 18 new spells.

In a meeting after our winter break, we brought up the topic of a concrete release date/window for 1.0. January was too hard to pull off since we knew we had more work ahead for polishing what we already have, so we looked at February. There’s a lot of big games coming out this month, so we decided to have a chat with our publisher about it.

After that meeting, the decision was made to aim for release in Spring.
We don’t want to commit to any specific day yet, since we want to see what’s going to happen as time goes on, but definitely expect more news in the coming months as we iron out all the details.

All that said, the question came up about what we’d be doing in the meantime.
We’ll be releasing a patch this month, likely within 1-3 weeks. It will contain Legendary questline encounters, the last guardian core from Siglorel and a way to unlock it, all the VFX improvements Will worked on, and some content optimizations.

After that, sometime during March, the plan is to release the editor, so anyone interested in modding the game would be able to start messing with it. We would also start officially supporting Linux and macOS. Keep in mind that just as with all other plans, stuff could happen that messes them up, and I’ll try to keep you informed if stuff goes horribly wrong or we’re forced to re-prioritize anything.

One other thing we’re working on is an additional play mode. We’re currently calling it “endless mode”, which would be a chain of combat maps to test out your tactical prowess. You’d pick out your warband as usual and try to win as many combats as possible with those units until they die, ranking up in between fights and getting random upgrades and relics. We don’t have a lot of details on it other than that, since we basically just started working on it, but as it gets more defined, designed and implemented, we’ll be sure to share information about it.

So tell us what you think! Share your thoughts in the forums or join our Discord server if you want to chat directly with any of us, or want to pitch ideas about endless mode! We’d love to hear from you!

MarkoP

Jan 19, 2022

Dev blog 102 - Abilities Glow Up

The Hand of Merlin - MarkoP

*This post is written by Mia, our gameplay designer.*

Hello there!

With 1.0. release on the horizon we’re digging in and trying to polish the game on as many fronts as we can. A big part of this is in the hands of Will, our VFX artist, as he’s got a plate full of going over all the abilities and status effects and giving them a fresh face.

As we did not have a dedicated VFX artist before, there’s plenty of room for improvement and adding new effects to those we considered good enough as is with animations alone.
The Hand of Merlin is more sci-fi orientated than fantasy - the heroes that you select are still only human. The Mystic, for example, is not a wizard or a mage, they’re more of an alchemist or a shaman who can create these effects not through magic but through knowledge. We want the VFXs to properly communicate this difference as well.

The first thing we did now was to go over all the abilities and try to categorize them depending on 3 factors.

Gameplay Effect
Eg: Damage, Buff (damage, movement, evasion, etc), Debuff (damage, movement, evasion, etc), Movement, AP, DoTs, etc.
Manifestation
An in-character look at how the ability works (eg: physical, emotional, alchemical, corruption..)
Animation Used

Next, we set some visual expectations on certain categories. The best example being the difference between ‘Physical’ and ‘Emotional’ manifestation.

‘Physical’ we want to keep as grounded and realistic as possible while still looking good and distinct. This includes motion blurs and lines, sparks of metal hitting metal, blood splashes and such.
‘Emotional’ on the other hand has more liberty in its visualization since it would not be possible to try and detect which facial expression a unit has (not that we show emotions on their faces or plan to) due to their size. Here the Gameplay Effects influence which color pallet should be used.

The abilities should mostly end up looking quite grounded, but not dull. We hope.
It’s the status effects which will pose a real challenge, as we need to make them stackable, readable, and recognizable while keeping the color pallets consistent.

If you’ve got any questions or are interested in the game feel free to drop by the steam forums or join us on our Discord server!

Mia

P.S. here are some gifs!

Jan 12, 2022

Dev blog 101 - Roadmap to 1.0

The Hand of Merlin - MarkoP

Hey folks!

The team is back from vacation this week. We had a long meeting on Monday to see where we’re at and what we’ve got left to do for the game. We talked about a potential release date, and while some rough dates were thrown around, none of them stuck to the wall yet, because they weren’t sticky enough.

The output of our meeting was a rough list of things we want done for 1.0.

There’s one more Guardian Core we’re working on which is super endgame content and more of a penultimate reward. There won’t be any achievements bound to it since we can’t expect everyone to get it, and it would just feel crappy to have that one thing out of your reach due to difficulty. It's the most powerful core we've made, and will break the game when used, but because it's the very last thing you get, we don't really mind that. :)
We've had legendary questline encounters on our todo list for a while now, and we're aiming on getting those in for 1.0. These encounters span several zones and reward you with very powerful relics on completion, so you'll likely want to chase them. Is Excalibur finally coming to the game? Only Mia knows!
More map optimizations are also in progress.
We’re currently writing guides for modding the game. A bunch of them are already done, and we want to have everything (or at least most of it) covered before release. The editor will also likely come with the 1.0 release, or soon after.
Since we now have Will, our dedicated VFX boi, he’s redoing a bunch of older vfx made by other people to be consistent with the stuff he’s made. We have an internal list of all the things, and Will is hard at work to make all of them gooder.
There are some bugs and issues we need to go through as well. The external QA team has been helpful in finding technical issues. Everyone that reported an issue on either our Discord server or on Steam, thank you!

The list isn’t overly long because these are just the large categories of things we’re doing. We’re confident we can release the 1.0 version anytime after January, we just have to see which date is the best to account for some final testing on our part, and maybe to not clash with some other big titles? Nothing is determined yet, and we’ll keep you informed as the information becomes clear.
If you’re interested helping out with some bug reports, post in the Steam forums or our Discord server.
Thank you!

MarkoP