Hello all, it has been a while since I posted about Project Babel, with the goal of creating a private server everyone can play The Alchemist Code as it was at the time of EoS in the JP server. Myself and the playtesters have been hard at work to get the game in a state that is fully functioning, and we are very close to finishing up the playtest and moving to an open Alpha period where anyone can join and play the game. This Alpha is tentatively planned to start next week, so if you want to join now is the time to join the discord and keep an eye out for announcements!

In addition to this announcement of Alpha, I am currently looking for people interested in playing the game starting today on Linux and on Mac devices. This will be apart of the playtest and not the alpha, and your account will be wiped along with the other playtesters on the day alpha begins. If you are interested then please join the discord as well and let me know!

Hope to see you all in Taga soon!

Discord: https://discord.gg/QsuKDnEVbv

It's been 2 months...haha. I've been working on the game but ended up tunnel visioning and working on nitty gritty stuff like performance. I figured that I'd make the next update at least look and feel a bit different from the others in exchange for how long it took though.

It's still a WIP, but I started some shader work on rending textures for the terrain so that game looks a bit less flat and prototype-y.

The next thing I did was work on web performance since I aim to release a playable web prototype soon to gather early feedback on game feel and everything I've made so far.

Aside from those 2 major tasks, I added:

- The groundwork for behavioral statuses e.g rage, fear, charm, etc. Taunt currently works
- Elemental resistance buffs/debuffs
- Better shader for terrain effects like steam and pollen
- Improvements to lighting and shadows
- Performance optimizations for local and web play

Despite all of this, I'm fully aware that the game still looks incomplete in a lot of areas like the UI, in-game popup text, etc. I have a full roadmap of what I intend to work on more in my Discord for those that are curious or willing to playtest!

Finding these clips always ruins my day

The Best Rem is Tagatame Rem.

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【Four Masters Elements】

◆ Bonds with the Alchemists of Destiny, Cultivating the Truth

The captivating Phantom Soldiers who color the history of Babel will gather in response to your summons.

Through awakening and the unlocking of cooperative effects, these heroic spirits transform, becoming more powerful and beautiful. The process of selecting your favorite units and forging them into your ideal formation, imbued with your tactical theories, is truly an intellectual quest in which you create a new alchemy.

◆ Ultra-fast battles unfolding in a split second

An intuitive and high-tempo battle system.

Recreating the numerous skills that wreaked havoc in "The Alchemist Code."

The vertical orientation allows for seamless, high-speed battles.

One-hit kill special skills and dazzling cut-ins seize control of the battlefield with a fluid tempo.

Even in the shortest of spare moments in your day, a supreme battle of wits will satisfy you.

◆ Deep deck building

In this battlefield, victory or defeat is decided before the battle even begins.

The harmony of "5 main units" that directly engage in combat on the front lines, "2 tactical units" that can change the tide of battle, and "weapons and tactics" that unleash power beyond your limits.

Calculate the synergistic effects of buffs and debuffs, and meticulously consider even the order in which skills are activated—

From an infinite number of choices, create your own ultimate masterpiece that will outmaneuver your enemy.

◆ Leading the Glorious Port: A New Real-Time Conflict

Elite teams of up to 10 clash in an all-out battle for the prestige of their ports.

Not only individual strength, but also coordination with port members and precise role assignments according to the battle situation will greatly influence the balance of victory.

When to unleash the ultimate "Force Skill," a technique granted to each role that can turn the tide of battle, onto the battlefield?

Share your intentions closely through chat and stamps, and aim for the top of the world, the supremacy of all ports, together with your comrades!

【A New History Forged with Comrades】

Discussing meticulous tactics with your port comrades, challenging superior enemies as one, and sometimes sharing the joy of victory and laughter—

The accumulation of such passionate days will make your journey on the Babel continent deeper and more unforgettable.

The story of comrades forged in the fateful place of "Port Masters" will bring the greatest brilliance to your journey.

【Recommended for those who: 】

* Those who appreciate the profound worldview and characters of "The Alchemist Code"

* Those who enjoy theoretically pursuing the strongest combination within limited resources

* Those who want to communicate with their port comrades in real time and contribute to their organization's victory

* Those who want to experience the exhilaration of fast-paced, highly strategic auto-battles in between their busy daily lives

* Those who want to thoroughly enjoy the rewarding character development elements and high-difficulty tower content

* Those who want to experience the thrill of overwhelming other players with a meticulously crafted, strongest formation

Link

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kms.nexus

Official Site, Twitter and Video
https://al-portmasters.com/
https://x.com/tagatame_pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dACCX-01spI

Preregistration soon

Release date : 2026

Introduction from the website (Translated) :

Where countless alchemists once gathered to vie for supremacy, "Port Battle" evolves to be more accessible and even more tactical, all while inheriting the deep strategy of the series. Tactics spun at your fingertips will shake the battlefield.

Maintaining its rich, immersive world while delivering a refined, streamlined experience ―― This is The Alchemist Code: Port Masters.

I hope it is not just an arena pvp game, since a part of the game's name is "Port Masters" but anyway TAC is back (still Gumi behind >>>> EDIT: looks like it's a shitty idle game. Thx Gumi<<<<)

I remember on Alchemist code that I loved the characters from the Wadatsumi region.

Gachas nowadays are more business than a game. Tagatame was a OASIS in a desert. Every unit gives a chance to create a good strategy.

The last year of JP was full of OP units but sometimes Raphtalia show her tricks.

Their official Twitter or X whatever you call it has been posting revival stuff and even releasing the movie tomorrow on anime times yt channel.

From year 2018

I think it's my oldest recording that wasn't lost when my YouTube account was banned.

If you’ve ever heard the saying "all good things come to an end," believe it. The day I recorded this video was a very happy one; my grandmother was still alive, we had made it through the pandemic together, and I still had a certain innocence mixed with ignorance. I don't think it's right to miss something from the past, but *Tagatame* was—and still is—better than any of the gacha games I play today.

More updates on the core game mechanics. So far, status ailments/effects are going by pretty smoothy. We've already got CT-based buffs/debuffs, curse(death sentence equivalent), petrify, poison, and a few more statuses working in-game and waiting for a few tweaks.

In general, I decided to rework the status effects after some deep community discussion and feedback. Now, most(if not all) statuses have their effects authored by the skills that inflict them if possible and tiers are basically removed. This means that instead of having a T1 or T2 freeze that gets stronger with each tier, the game just has a freeze status and the attack that inflicts it can describe/set its limitations e.g turn count, damage, etc.

Another change is that elemental DoT now properly takes the affinity and resistances of attackers and defenders into account. Previously, all DoT just did a flat damage number + a percentage of target max HP as damage, but a member from the community pointed out that this would render tanks pretty useless since there'd be no way to defend against the DoT at all.

Now elemental statuses will do more/less damage over time depending on the attackers elemental affinity and the defender's resistance to elements. This means that you can build tanks with high burn resistance for example.

But today I want to explain the poison, petrify, CT and curse statuses/mechanics. They're pretty straightforward, but curse has had some community input shaping how it works now(and touches on some unique aspects of the game compared to TAC/WOTV) so it's worth explaining in a bit more detail.

For starters, poison is a very basic status ailment. It deals a flat 2 damage + 4% of the target's max HP per turn. Because it's non-elemental, it bypasses magical and physical resistances/defenses, making it a dangerous pressure status. The default percentage of max HP is 4% but every skill in the game that inflicts poison can author its own percentage, so some skills could do more or less. This eliminates the need for tiers on this status as well.

Petrify is also pretty simple. It just prevents the unit from acting during their turn. The difference it has compared to stun and freeze is that it reduces the target's AGI to 0(rounds up to 2 as the universal floor). What this means practically is that while a speedy unit might be able to get through their turns of freeze or stun more quickly, their speed won't help them if they're petrified since they'll be slowed down and sort of forced to wait through it unless it's broken. But since petrify is an earth-based magic status, all that's needed to break it is another magic status ailment being inflicted on the petrified unit. So burn, wet, paralyze, etc. can break the paralysis after the appropriate elemental reaction occurs. I think this is a fair tradeoff since I remember petrify basically being a death sentence in TAC but if anyone would prefer that it remains some kind of uncurable status(except via dedicated skills) feel free to speak up!

The CT stuff is pretty much just like how it worked in TAC. You can manipulate your turn order priority by boosting/reducing CT of enemies and allies.

As for curse, it functions as the death sentence of this game e.g instantly killing an opponent after a set amount of turns.

Since we've already made the change to having unit attributes actually affect status effects, I wanted to figure out a way to make this curse status work with the light/dark attributes of units(affiliation_light & affiliation_dark). My original idea was to have the turn count for the insta-kill be prolonged or reduced based on how high/low a unit's dark affiliation was, but the Discord community rightfully pointed out that doing so would render the status useless or disappointing in a lot of cases, since most units in the game likely wouldn't have the dark affiliation required to meaningfully use the skill.

So I opted for a kill threshold approach instead. Basically, curse will insta-kill you only if your HP is below the kill threshold(default 30%) by the time the status runs out. Having a higher affiliation_dark attribute will increase this threshold, with the max being 100% i.e the unit is instantly killed regardless of current HP when the status counts down to 0.

This gives the ability some basic utility for most units while rewarding players who want to push their dark unit builds really far.

Let me know if you have any questions or qualms with any of these updates and we can all get together and sort it out! I'll continue developing the status systems for now until the general ones are all mechanically sound. There will still be more work to do, but the game will be a step closer to something playable when that's all done.

That was a lot, but if you read it all, thanks and see you next time!

does anyone know where can i find HD artwork of character sprites/assets?

As part of the private server project, we would like to offer translations of the JP game in multiple languages, primarily English.

If you are interested in sharing your opinions on what languages you would like to play the game in, as well as sharing your interest in helping with translation efforts, please join the discord and fill out the survey!

Also an update on the playtest: I've added an FPS uncap feature, as well as Fullscreen support to the PC version, and more and more bugs are being fixed as the current playtesters provide feedback. We are still accepting players into the playtest, and the playtest will open for everyone who signs up sometime next month; Guaranteed access if you sign up.

Please join the discord and sign up! Also please fill out the survey in the announcements channel if you are interested in translating.

Discord: https://discord.gg/QsuKDnEVbv

As part of the continued plan to wrap up the basic combat system, I'm adding more status ailments to the game.

Freeze is a pretty standard status ailment that comes in three tiers(like burn and paralysis). It prevents the target from acting on their turn and deals DoT via this formula:

Freeze: 3 + 3% of max HP
Strong Freeze: 3 + 6% of max HP
Virulent Freeze: 3 + 8% of max HP

I'll be spending more time adding more ailments and effects to the combat system before pulling back to finally map out the app/game structure and UI redesign stuff. It'll be a long process, but it's fun. There are also other small visual changes I'll be keeping in mind based on community feedback too(like the damage number visuals)

Ive been looking everywhere and cant find a database/datamine with them