Hello, Manutoo.
First I would like to congratulate you. I've been playing TE2009 and I would say that this is the most realistic tennis game I've ever played. You've made a fantastic job, sincerelly speaking. I hope to buy the full version next month.
I don't if is this the right thread to make suggestions to improve the game, but I'll give my shot. I've been playing online these couple of days and unfortunatelly for me it's very hard to play with colleagues from North America and Europe (as you may know, I'm from São Paulo, Brazil). Lag is almost always at the limit of 250 ms, and sometimes the game crashes with no reason whatsoever. I would suggest that when the lag is above 200 ms the player should be given a bonus on their speed, because when the game starts to freeze you just don't know if your command is been "understood" by the machine. I just can't play 10 % of my game when it's on these conditions (it's so much harder to be precise when accelerating, and it's almost imperative to stay 2, 3 m after the baseline to enjoy a good rally with an online opponent).
I don't know if is it just me, but it's quite hard and annoying to play against pushers (well, to be honest I'd always have this problem when playing in real world ...). I think that the response to those constant lobs that they usually do should be much more agressive. Even though I choose to play with 0% of topspin and start to accelerate very early, in fact it's very, very hard to make a winner or even to unbalance the opponent. The drop shots, in these case, are only relativelly successful when the player is not at the baseline (and honestly speaking, it's kinda boring to make 30, 35 drop shots in only one set).
Another thing is the motion of the player when returning to defend a lob. Though the simulation is close to perfection on the very other aspects of the game (the need to hit the ball at the center of the raquet is superb - finally we've got the chance to miscalculate and hit the ball on the throat or off the sweet spot, what makes the game much more realistic and the rallies relativelly unpredictable, as it is on real life), i think is kinda weird to watch the player trying to comeback without actually turning his body - instead what he does is a series of fast and short steps backwards without getting the ball at least sideways, as the "tennisbook" would teach us. Also I consider to be too easier to respond to a lob, even considering that the stroke generally goes center and at slow speeds. But maybe I'm just being too perfeccionist.
I've seen during online games some crazy service returnings (even when I'm able to serve consistently). Sometimes the opponent blocks the serve with an slice that looks like a powerful acceleration - it's just impossible to make the second ball, even when it's at the center of the court. On other occasions I frequently receive, just after my serve, a very short and angled slice (it kicks very close to the net, always before the T). I know that this type of stroke is possible on high level tennis, even when the receiver gets a 120 mph serve, but he may be effective on that only on 10, 15 % of the attempts, and not over 80 %, as I have seen.
Lastly I would suggest that when returning the players should be able to make a bigger first step to reach the ball (a special situation when comparing it with a regular rally, when it's common to see real players giving their biggest step when it's the last one to reach the ball - Lleyton Hewitt and Pete Sampras were masters when doing that, mainly when doing a running forehand or a consistent counter-attack). I say that because it's nearly impossible to make a powerful response to a second serve (as Agassi and Nalbandian usually do) even when anticipating: the player just can't reach the ball - in fact, this is only possible when the opponent is serving below 150 kmh.
Oh, just another suggestion (but this I'm almost sure that is very, very hard to implement): would it ever be possible to have different motions for the players when serving? The freedom that the software allows us to do in terms of creating outfits and "real" players is impressive (as it's the efforts of the tennis elbow fans to make them look so real), so I was just wondering if there's anything we could ever do to help creating these motions. I'm not a programmer, but I know people who could help and I'm a hardcore enthusiast of immitating the pros' serves, so hipotetically I could help with hints about the nuances of their serves. But okay, I'm just letting my imagination flow too much this time ...
I'v found this software days ago, and thought it may be useful to you someday:
http://www.racquettech.com/store/learni ... peeds.htmlIt simulates the speed of the ball based on its coeficient of restitution (which is directly linked with where it does contact the racquet chords), the speed of the ball itself and the speed of the racquet. Very interesting.
Sorry for this huge post. I was trying to write it for days, but only now I've had some time. My congrats to you and all staff once again.
Cheers,
Sergio.
PS: I'm unable to log in. It says that "It was not possible to convert your password when updating this bulletin board’s software. Please request a new password. If you continue to have problems please contact the Board Administrator." In fact I've request it a few times, but none of the new passwords work ...