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The Ranked Update is here: Matchmaking, Spectator mode and more!


Hello tamers,

Even in these challenging times, the team has been working hard (although now working from home) and today we bring you a new Temtem update.

This is the first content update we’re releasing after publishing our content roadmap a few weeks ago and it includes most of the features promised for this Spring. We will be pushing the rest of the features (including the chat rework and the club management system) to another content update that will still (hopefully) arrive during this Spring.
What’s new?

The highlight on this patch is, of course, the Ranked Matchmaking. Up until now, players have been forced to organize ladders themselves outside of the game and turn to external tools in order to keep their progress. Not anymore!



We’ve designed a new rating system called TMR (Tamer Matchmaking Rating) which will rate player’s performance and grant you points for winning matches. Players are matched against each other automatically, based on their current TMR. In order to help new users join the matchmaking ladder (and help expert users try new strategies), every Temtem is auto-scaled on ranked battles. This means that their level is upped to the current level cap (48) and all their SVs are maxed (50). TVs remain intact.

Winning matches will net you a pansun reward. Although currently, this is disabled until the system is fully tested. Also, please note that this is our first iteration on rankeds, it will be evolving during the next months and we will be iterating over it. We also plan to include more advanced features in the future like seasons, leagues, medals, more rewards…

Another new feature closely related to the Matchmaking is the Spectator mode, in which the first iteration is also being launch in this patch. We hope this, currently, basic Spectator mode help community tournament organizers with their job.



We’ve been thinking for a long time that PvP matches needed a bit more of shininess. Some more stuff added on top of them to make them more epic and more visually attractive. So, another new feature we’ve been working on for some time is player intros and outros, which will spice things up on PvP matches.
Addressing readability issues

One of the secondary focuses for this content update has been addressing all the readability issues our community has been pointing out ever since Temtem was launched. We’re including a couple of new features in order to fix those issues.



First, introducing the Battle Log. The Battle Log can be seen at any moment during a match and it will display every relevant info you need on both your team and your rival’s: health and stamina points, statuses and yes, finally, stat stage changes. Forget about using pen and paper to make notes on every single thing you do on your rival Tems!

By default, the Battle Log is only enabled on competitive matches, but users can opt to be able to see it on every type of match just by going into the settings.



And second and addressing one of the biggest complains there has been: the Bamboozle rework. In order to fix this issue and improve the visibility on Bamboozle, we’ve created a new Status condition called Evading. Now, Bamboozle will apply Evading to the target Tem. The functionality is pretty much the same you already know (while evading the Temtem will avoid the next offensive technique directed at it) but it will now be displayed on the UI at all times, so players will be able to keep track of which Temtem has it.
And more things!

As usual, we’ve included a bunch more of things in this update. We’ve added another new Status condition called Alerted, which will be instantly applied when a Temtem wakes up from being asleep and will prevent them to fall asleep again. We’ve added four different tiers of rewards in the FreeTem foundation (instead of just one), we’ve added area names in the Map, we’ve done several balance changes and lots of bug fixing… Oh, and we’ve included a shitton of new technique animations!

If you want to read every single thing in the update, you can head over to the patch notes.

Talking a bit about the future of Temtem

Hello Tamers,

It's already been over a month since Temtem's release. During this month we've seen a constantly growing amount of questions around the game, its future, and its planned features. So, we want to take some time to share with you what we have in mind for the game so you can have a peek at what's coming.

Please, keep in mind that every detail discussed here is not 100% confirmed for the game. During the game's development cycle, ideas change constantly and stuff we like today we might not like as much tomorrow. So take everything in here not as confirmed facts, but more like the stuff we would like to include in the game.

The same thing happens with the planned dates. We're not really big fans of having public dates for everything, they add a lot of unnecessary pressure on the team and they make making changes and swapping features around a very difficult task. We know everyone else likes dates though, so we've decided to include open dates for each block of features. Take them with a grain of salt and expect delays and features moved around dates.

Also, one of the motives to write this is to gather feedback around the ideas. So feel free to discuss them in our Discord, our forums or /r/PlayTemtem. Temtem is always built around its community so every idea is appreciated.

We've divided the Roadmap in two and we'll also be talking a little more in-depth about some of the features depicted in the roadmap.
Short-term Roadmap


[h3]Ranked Matchmaking[/h3]
  • Balance

While we plan to do balance patches frequently during early access, our plan is to not be obsessed about reaching a perfect balance until the Temtem roster is complete (in the full final release). Due to having only a limited set of Tems and techniques, it is impossible to balance everything perfectly so we will mostly balance extra overpowered stuff that can break the current meta.

Even with a not so perfect balance, we've seen several team compositions and strategies already, so don't be afraid of trying new things and step into Temtem's competitive scene.
  • Matchmaking V1

The first iteration of the matchmaking will include a player rating system based on ELO (aka TMR - Tamer Matchmaking Rating). Players will start with some placement matches which will define their initial TMR and after that, they will be matched with each other based on their current TMR.

For this first iteration of the matchmaking, we plan to give pansun rewards for each victory as a reward for the time spent battling (based on the opponent's TMR). Although probably this feature will be disabled when the feature launches until the system is fully tested and stabilized.
  • Temtem auto-scaling

This is probably one of the hottest topics in the community. We know it is very important for competitive players to jump into the competitive scene as quickly as possible and reduce the time and friction needed to tweak and test new stuff.

So, our idea to solve that is to introduce auto-scaling into the ranked queue. Auto-scaling will essentially perfect your Tems, upping all their SVs up to 50 for the battle and their level to the current level cap (currently 48). With auto-scaling, players will still need to capture and organize their teams, set their preferred TV spread using fruits or training, obtain the necessary gears completing the main or side quests in the game and breeding for their desired egg techniques. But, players won't need to grind for perfect SVs or spend a fortune breeding to reach that point.

This auto-scaling will only apply to the ranked matchmaking queue, so there will be other game modes where having a perfect Temtem (and breeding for them) will be necessary (in-game tournaments, player organized tournaments and battles, dojo club wars, end-game PvE content, etc...).

[h3]Spectator Mode V1[/h3]
Having a spectator mode has been one of the most requested features so far and while we already had it in our internal roadmap scheduled for later, we've decided to push it to the front due to the number of players requesting it. This first iteration of spectator mode will be a basic one and we will iterate on it in the future adding more options.

Basically, players will be able to spectate other players while they are playing a competitive match. While spectating, only the common info will be displayed (HP and STA percentages, team composition after the pick&ban, stages and status conditions, techniques used, etc.) so players won't be able to use this feature to get leverage over their opponents.

We hope including this feature will also help tournament organizers solve some of the issues they're currently facing.

[h3]In-Game Chat[/h3]
The chat implementation we had during the Alpha / Stress test phases was a temporary one and it was lacking a lot of features, so we decided to disable it entirely for the early access release. Our plan is to remake the chat from scratch, increasing its performance and capabilities.

The chat will feature several predefined chat groups (e.g. Global, Local, Trade, Club...) and it will also support private messaging between users (whispers). We're also going to add chat bubbles which will appear above every talking character. We know some players find chat bubbles a bit intrusive sometimes, so we will give players the choice between two different levels of chat bubbles (displaying the full text or just a notification to know they've talked) or disable them entirely.

[h3]

Temtem early access is now available!

Tamers,

Today is the big day. Temtem is going public in its early access release.

First of all, please check the beautiful animation trailer we've prepared for the launch:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We've pushed a new patch with some improvements and small additions. You can read the full patch notes here.

And last but not least, you can buy Temtem here:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/745920/Temtem/

Announcing early access release time + Recap of trailers

Tamers!

Just a quick PSA. Temtem will release on January 21st at 10 am PST / 1 pm EST / 7 pm CET (you can check your local time here).

The launch is global, so everyone will have access at the same time. Remember, you will be able to buy the game through Steam or the Humble Store, you can wishlist the game right now and be notified when it launches.

Recap of latest trailers


Ever since we announced the early access release, we've created three more trailers and while we've been putting them in our Twitter and our Discord, probably some of you haven't seen them yet. So here they are!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Stress test end of Alpha dates

Happy new year tamers!

2020 is shaping to be a very busy year for Temtem. We're very excited to share with you everything we have ready for the next coming months, but that news will have to wait a bit because today we need to talk about the Alpha and the upcoming Stress test.
The Alpha is reaching its end

After 13 months of continued support and non-stop access to the Temtem Alpha, the time of farewell is coming really soon. As we work on moving forward with the public Early Access launch for Temtem we need to stop the Alpha access so we can work freely on improving the server and doing the final touches to get everything ready.

Alpha will close on Jan 9th @ 10am PST / 1pm EST / 7pm CET.

After this date, players won't be able to log in to the server.
Stress test dates and FAQ

Just before launching publicly, we want to run a stress test to properly test everything out. The stress test will help us test the maximum capacity of our servers and will also allow us to identify potential problems before going public.

These tests are going to be distributed between different days and timeframes:
  • Jan 11th @ 10am-2pm PST
  • Jan 17th @ 11am-1pm PST
  • Jan 19th @ 9am-11am PST
What is the stress test?

It is a public and free test for Temtem. We want to run this test in order to have a better estimation of how the servers will behave on launch day.

As a user, participating in the stress test will allow you to take a first look at Temtem before the game is released and in the process, help us out.

How do I sign up?

You can sign-up using your email on http://playtemtem.com

You will be contacted between Jan 9th and Jan 10th, and you will be given a Steam key which you can redeem for test access.

If I play during the stress test, will I own the game when it launches?

No. The Stress test key will only grant access during the stress test hours. In order to keep playing Temtem when the game is released on January 21st, you'll need to buy the game.

Will progress made during the stress test be kept on the release?

No. Everything will be wiped out from the server before going into the Early Access release.

Are there any limits on available content during the stress test?

No. Everything currently available on the Alpha will be available during the stress test (the campaign, co-op, pvp, trading...).

I am a backer. Do I need to get an invitation?

No. If you currently have access to the Alpha, you'll get access to the stress test. You will be able to use the same player you currently have and the same installation you have for the Alpha.

Will progress done during the Stress Test carry forward when the game launches?

No. Everything will be wiped before launching the game into Early Access.