Suggestions for improvements

General discussions about the 3rd edition of Tennis Elbow

Suggestions for improvements

Postby Adam XT » 06 Aug 2013, 14:04

Hi manu I bought the game about a week ago and I really like it especially with the mods by Sam and others, in particular the animations. I’d say its overall the best tennis on the market right now, its amazing that you alone have made a better tennis game than teams of people on a bigger budget.

I would like to make a few suggestions that I feel would make it even better and wonder what you think. I play with a wired Xbox 360 controller with simulation controls, no preview, fast repositioning and currently playing on Junior Sub 7. I hope what I am about to say makes sense.


What is bad in most tennis games like Top Spin 3,4, Grand slam Tennis, Virtua Tennis for example is that you can not aim your shots and this game has that but I have a slight issue with it. When you aim the shot with preview on you can see that it keeps moving as you’re striking the ball and makes it difficult to aim for the lines. It seems as though when I try and go for the line it goes out. So what I’m saying is I feel as though there is no point in going for the line and all my shots just go a foot or two near it. The ball only seems to hit line when you’re well inside the baseline but not very often behind. The tennis game I played before this one was Top Spin 2, which before Tennis Elbow was the most like tennis because it has an aim mechanic fairly similar to this. I don’t know whether you have played it or not but it works slightly different. When you push the analog stick in one direction the longer you hold it in that direction the further it goes. The aiming also allows hitting shots with depth by pushing up and angled shots cross court by pushing in-between down and right or left. So if you could do something similar then it would also simplify the controls and improve the aiming but I don’t know if people who play with keyboard would hold this back or not but I would be surprised if anyone did. It’s hard to explain but I feel that’s really the only thing about Top Spin 2 that made it good. Top Spin 2 is on Xbox 360 and PC too. I think it’s worth taking a look at the aiming mechanic if you haven’t played it already.

The other thing is when a player does a dropshot, your player moves really slow it seems. I think that your player should sprint for the ball like Murray, Nadal, Djokovic for example. So when you push forward on the analog stick to retrieve it the player sprints but drain more stamina.

Djokovic’s stats for his forehand are almost as good as Federer and Nadal where it should be more in line with Murray’s. Also his smash and serve I think are too high. When I play as Nadal against Djokovic I can rarely hit a winner against him about 2 or 3 a set yet I win 6-0 or 6-1. Yet when I play as Nadal against federer I can hit a more realistic amount of winners but I struggle against him having really close sets. Ive played as federer also and it’s very easy to hit the ball close to the lines and he seems to hit the ball way harder than Nadal. I don’t know whether it’s because of the heavy topspin or not but he is much harder to hit winners with than Djokovic and Murray.

Thanks for reading.
Adam XT
court crocodile
court crocodile
 
Messages: 24
Gaming Since: 06 Aug 2013, 13:40

Re: Suggestions for improvements

Postby manutoo » 07 Aug 2013, 05:45

Hello,

1- if you play with Sam Patch, that means a lot of people helped your TE experience to be the best ! ;)

2- I played a couple hours TS2 ; I have the (blur) memory it was not possible to aim for the line without doing a risk shot, but maybe I mistake it with other ones of the series.
Anyway, you can aim for the line in TE, just get your timing perfect ; it'll always be hard aim perfectly, though, but this is realistic

3- players always sprint like crazy, whatever the situation is (with 100% speed, they'd be on par with best 100m sprinters)

4- stats change every year ; you may try to tune them by yourself if you want to, though

5- for gameplay balance, higher topspin slows the acceleration down ; but you get more effective short acceleration (from the better topsin), so when you play as Nadal, use it when you see your opponent is far from his baseline, you should be able to do some winners

Note: it's not recommended to play with fast AutoPos, and without preview, you might have a hard time to do the most effective shots (ie: the acceleration & short acceleration)
ManuTOO
== Mana Games ==

>> I don't answer Private Message, except if it's really a _Private_ topic <<
User avatar
manutoo
Game Author
 
Messages: 18692
Gaming Since: 24 Jan 2004, 15:38
Location: France

Re: Suggestions for improvements

Postby Adam XT » 07 Aug 2013, 13:17

Thank you for the reply

I’m still having problems when a player does a dropshot on me. I can move quickly along the baseline and even backwards but my player seems to run in slow motion almost when running forward. You can see his legs move really slowly so I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong or what. I tried one game with average auto positing and I’m hitting more unforced errors than normal when I don’t think I’m going to. Seems too hard for me maybe I need more practice.

What I’m saying with the aiming is that the aim keeps moving around right until you strike the ball if you know what I mean. So it’s like I haven’t got much feel for where the ball is going to land. When you say push right for example and let go of the stick before the player hits the ball you can see the aim on preview moves back towards the center.

So what I think would be better is as your holding a button down to hit the ball when you push the stick in any given direction when you let go of the stick the aim doesn’t move or reposition at the last second if that makes sense.

That’s what its like on Top Spin 2 you don’t push the stick at all it goes to the center. Say your on the left side of the court and want to hit cross court, you have to push the stick in that direction longer than you would if you were in the center for example. But when you release the stick while aiming the aim does not keep moving before hitting the ball, so you get more feel and more consistency for how much you’ve risked hitting the ball close to the line.

Top spin 2 as you say has a risk shot which doesn’t work very well I’m not talking about that. It’s more the basic shots, the A button is for flat shots which don’t go out and you have to hold the button in to get power from it and there are momentum shots as well but again I’m not talking about those either. It’s the slice, top spin and lob shots you have to aim like I’ve explained above but I don’t know whether it makes sense or not.
Adam XT
court crocodile
court crocodile
 
Messages: 24
Gaming Since: 06 Aug 2013, 13:40

Re: Suggestions for improvements

Postby manutoo » 08 Aug 2013, 04:52

1- it's mostly a visual illusion : the service line is as far from your player than the lane lines (when you stand on the center of the baseline), but it looks closer due to the camera positioning & angle, so it makes you feel you run slower forward

2- if the aiming wasn't returning to the center when releasing left/right, it'd be too easy to aim ; there you really have to get your timing right to aim perfectly, which is a nice equivalent of what going on on a real court, even if it's not realistic per se (ie: on a real court, you don't push buttons ;) ).
ManuTOO
== Mana Games ==

>> I don't answer Private Message, except if it's really a _Private_ topic <<
User avatar
manutoo
Game Author
 
Messages: 18692
Gaming Since: 24 Jan 2004, 15:38
Location: France

Re: Suggestions for improvements

Postby Adam XT » 08 Aug 2013, 19:12

How does timing work in this game?

What about putting in the Top Spin 2 style aiming as a control option like there’s arcade, simulation etc? I think I would find the game really addictive then.

I like the new save film feature but is there a fast forward and rewind option?
And is there a way to delete them from the list?

Also what would be better is a way to map the control scheme differently. As at the moment you have to push down I think to do a top spin serve or up for slice and I don’t know how to push down and aim left and right at the same time. I think it would be better to have all the different serves mapped to different buttons for example on a Xbox 360 controller A= Fast Serve B= Top spin X= Slice Y= Safe serve. So you don’t have 2 different serves on one button and would make the controls easier for gamepad.

Also what I think would be a nice touch but perhaps difficult would be to make the vibration function work with the game. So you hit a normal or topspin shot you get a soft vibration and a strong one when you hit acceleration shots. Also my player swings for the ball when I’m nowhere near it or my opponent hits the net.

create or pre-created tournaments so you can play grand slams or ATP events without having to play through the career.

Expand the amount of players beyond current 36 player limit in exhibition.
Adam XT
court crocodile
court crocodile
 
Messages: 24
Gaming Since: 06 Aug 2013, 13:40

Re: Suggestions for improvements

Postby manutoo » 09 Aug 2013, 03:46

1- as you've seen, if u start to aim left/right too early, your aiming will be messed up, if too late, you'll end aiming too far from the line ; that's what I call the timing => you have to start to aim just at the right time ; changing that would change the gameplay too much.

2- no rewind; Forward => topic29-2061.php

3- usually, u have to dose your effect, so having only a button wouldn't be great ; just aim in diagonal
ManuTOO
== Mana Games ==

>> I don't answer Private Message, except if it's really a _Private_ topic <<
User avatar
manutoo
Game Author
 
Messages: 18692
Gaming Since: 24 Jan 2004, 15:38
Location: France

Re: Suggestions for improvements

Postby Adam XT » 09 Aug 2013, 13:10

what do you mean by 'dose your effect' ?

I just think it would be better with separate buttons or at least have the option to like the ground strokes. Like I have short acceleration on a separate button to normal acceleration same with the drop shot. That way i know for sure when I'm out of position for example I'm going to hit the shot i want and be able to concentrate on the aiming more. Don't you think that's more simplified controls? Yet still gives you the same amount of shots.

Also thought of a couple more ideas. How about a highlights of the best rallies at the end of a set?

I think it would be a good idea also to put in a tutorial mode that goes through all the basic and advanced shots for new players and have it available on the demo.
Adam XT
court crocodile
court crocodile
 
Messages: 24
Gaming Since: 06 Aug 2013, 13:40

Re: Suggestions for improvements

Postby manutoo » 10 Aug 2013, 02:24

effects on serve are charged ; the longer you press the more effect you get & the more raw speed you lose, so it's important to fine tune with you do exactly.
ManuTOO
== Mana Games ==

>> I don't answer Private Message, except if it's really a _Private_ topic <<
User avatar
manutoo
Game Author
 
Messages: 18692
Gaming Since: 24 Jan 2004, 15:38
Location: France

Re: Suggestions for improvements

Postby Adam XT » 11 Aug 2013, 12:09

I still don't understand why two different serves are on one button though. I don't get what the benefit is. I'm not using the top spin and slice serves because of having to press down or up while trying to aim left and right is making it unnecessarily complex and difficult. I would just like the option but leave the same for people who are used to it. Like for the drop shot for example with default controls you have to press down to do that shot but it allows you to map to a different button, that's what i would like to see for the serves.

I'm sure something still not right when a player does a dropshot on me. My player moves really slow but when the ball has bounced twice he moves fast again which is really odd, although it doesn't happen every time. I'll have to make a video or something to show you what I mean.
Adam XT
court crocodile
court crocodile
 
Messages: 24
Gaming Since: 06 Aug 2013, 13:40

Re: Suggestions for improvements

Postby manutoo » 12 Aug 2013, 04:48

Let me rephrase that : if you have a slice serve button and press it all the way with the current serve rules, your serve will be too sliced & too slow, and won't be the best sliced serve that can be achieved.
I forgot if it works during serve, but maybe you could use the alternate up/down during the strikes, if it's easier for you.

On running to dropshot, be sure to run straight as much as possible, do not zigzag.
ManuTOO
== Mana Games ==

>> I don't answer Private Message, except if it's really a _Private_ topic <<
User avatar
manutoo
Game Author
 
Messages: 18692
Gaming Since: 24 Jan 2004, 15:38
Location: France


Return to Tennis Elbow 2013

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests