Mana Games

[Fed1]

Hi Manu, as you requested, here's some feedback from the controller usage in the latest version.
I'll only talk about the settings menu and training club, I haven't played the world tour for a while nor the tennis school, so maybe later I can talk about them. Regarding the mod managment I understand that's an external plugin so no point in mentioning that.

Settings:
Would be nice to be able to iterate across the sections with L1/R1 as navigation would be easier IMO, otherwise you have to go all the way up to change sections. I also think (and this applies everywhere in the game) that the settings that have multiple options should have a dropdown instead of a list (For example the Resolutions setting has a lot of possible resolutions), that way when you click on a setting you could select the option instead of having to iterate across all the options. It's a super nice addition all the visual clues for selecting an option, lower a value and return, however I still struggle with that scheme. For me, A is move forward, B is backwards and start/select to go to previous menu, but this is super subjective and the visual clues really help.

Training club:
Before starting with this, I must add that I really like the squares to separate each section, it's easier to navigate in the screen. I find a bit complicated to use the controller to select the court, specially to navigate on the list of stadiums, as mods will add a lot of stadiums, it's complicated to navigate that list as you have to move the cursor to the edge of the stadium list and move manually. To solve this I'd add the possibility to move that list with L1/R1 or even better with the right stick of the controller.

Character Sheets
This is the main menu where I struggle with the controller because it takes so long to navigate across all the options, it's just faster to use the mouse today. To begin with, to get to the player's list you have to scroll all the way to the left down, and you have to navigate across all the stats, so it takes some time to get to list. And again, to navigate that list you have to move 1 by 1, and if you have a second screen you have to move to the edge again.

I don't have an answer for all the difficulties I experience with navigation, I just know that for some tasks it's faster to use the mouse instead of the controller. Maybe you can make the pointer controllable with the controller as the mouse? Or change the menus a little?

I'm a season player of the game, so I know where all the menus and settings are, how to load players from the world tour and all the little tricks, however I think the games needs to make it easier for a newcomer to select 2 or 4 players, a stadium and just play, getting to that point takes a lot of steps IMO and in some parts it's easier to use the mouse.

Please don't take this the wrong way, I love this game, I'm just trying to give a constructive feedback to improve this area in particular of the game.

[manutoo]

Hello,

1) Yes, I'm planning to add the Tab Left / Tab Right to quickly go through tabbed menus, like in the settings screen

2) It might be a good idea to add the Scroll up & down for the controllers (like it works for the mouse wheel right now)

3) Maybe I could move the 3 icons Import, Load & Save next to the player names in the Training Club's Character Sheet

4) In a general way, it's normal that the mouse is more effective than the controller, as it's a device created specifically to quickly click on stuff...

5) And overall, TE4 has a lot more options than the average tennis game. I played Top Spin 4 & AO2 and I was already annoyed by both menu systems despite their simplicity (TS4 mostly coz it was incredibly slow to load a screen with barely anything in it).
The main issue for TE4 menus is that once there are too many buttons on the screen to put them all on a vertical line (so it's easy to select them by using only up/down), then it gets complicated to navigate, especially when the different columns don't have the same distribution density ; eg: the Character Sheet, where the Forehand Power & Service Power are exactly on the same row, but then there's nothing directly to the right of the Backhand Power. And it's really not possible to cut in 2, 3, or 4 different submenus the Character Sheet, it'd not make any sense...
Thus said, there are likely many little things to tune like the Import, Load & Save position, and shortcuts to add based on the Scroll up & down or similar things.
So any feedback is welcome to outline the shocking points : as I usually don't use my controller in the menus, I might miss them, even if I try to retest all the screens in the next couple of weeks.

6) It's complicated to make a dropdown list system, especially with my simple menu system that was not designed to handle such a kind of things ; I may bite the bullet & make it someday, but it's really not sure

7) Don't worry, I'm always glad when people provide feedback (as long as they are polite & show basic respect ) ; the worst case scenario is that it makes me feel tired by reminding me all the things I should do (or possibly can't do)...

[Actarus69]

Hi Manu, sorry if I don't have any feedback to give you, but I would still like to give my opinion.

I prefer to use the mouse to move between the menus, it's a habit of mine, and I use the controller (I have an x-box 360 gamepad) only to play and when I have to exit the game (quit, continue later). However, this improvement is welcome, maybe I will use it too, who knows

[Fed1]

Hi Manu, thanks for getting back!
I agree that the depth of TE4 is far more superior than any other tennis game out there, so I really appreciate all the options and menus that we have available to us, however I do think that it could use some simplicity in basic tasks as choosing players and venues, I think this is key for new players (and this could also benefit the game in terms of refund as you discussed in the mini blog). It's a really welcome feature the tab options! And also I think the Import, Load and save closer to the player's name is the right move, I'm also glad that you're considering the scroll up&down option

At the end of the day, it's all about what it's possible with the budget you have, I think most of us here understand that developing a game solo with a limited budget is not easy so we can't expect to have AAA budget for UX and UI, we do hope that the feedback we give you can help to improve some areas.

Like Actarus69 said, today I'm using the method as him: mouse for menus and controller to play. Yes, I'd prefer to use only the controller but I think only those little details can make a huge difference.

[bruucee@pacbell.net]

Great suggestions Fed1.

[Fed1]

Thanks bruucee! Hope this helps to improve the game for everyone!