Before getting into this, let me tell you my usual way of playing:
- My player is custom setup
- I play on training club against a custom setup player, having the same overall level as mine (e.g. is 5% faster but has weaker serve, and so on). This player's intellingence is set up on Junior 10.
- I play only 1st person because I am looking on the "educational" side of the game and for that I need to see how the court is seen from the player's persepctive.
The main reason I bought the game was to simulate tennis play at home and to improve my court and ball positioning through the game. And to test new strategies to find winning ones.
For this I need an realistic behaviour of the opponent, an accurate 1st person view and good control of the ball (shot placement on the court). Having this in mind, I think this game is now around 75% of my expectations. If TE4 will get to 85% or hopefully higher I would definetly buy it even if it costs over 80 EUR. I am not interested into fancy graphics. I can play with Mario on a tennis field in nowhere land. My only interest is in realism of play (that includes AI capabilities), and accurate, clean 1st person view.
Now, the frustrations and the suggestions, in my importance order (most important first):
1/ When I move backwards, left back and righback and sometimes (like 7 cases out of 10) when I approach fwd-right to a short ball, my player keeps it's racquet in the field of vision where I cannot see the ball, forcing me to blindly hit like 6-7 balls out of 10. I asked twice for solving this issue until now, but it seems that I'm the only one asking this, so I lost my hope on that to be fixed.
2/ Very hard to control the length of the ball. It seems that most of my shots fall around the service line. Can't figure out how to send a ball deeper into the court or shorter. I can't send short cross-courts. If can drive me through how to manage shots, please do. If it is because the game is iset up this way, please change it.
3/ When lobbed:
- I change the direction but my player keep running fwd too much before changing direction. Much too much.
- I loose direction of the player (I cannot position myself underneath the ball - I am either left or right); I do not know why, maybe because the player's turn it's head left/right towards the ball?
The result is that 9 times of 10 when I get lobbed I am dead meat. On the real court I am not so easy to be lobbed... Maybe needs more practice in the game.
4/ It seems that my opponent, although it's physically settings are as for a club player (e.g. speed is 65%, accuracy 40%, forehand 50%, and so on) has special powers. For example, I hit an accelerated shot on it's left, he answers short long-line, then I hit cross-court and go for a volley. Although he reaches the ball on the last moment but still he can put the ball anywhere in the court he wants it. If I were him, because I am late on the ball and have no time to set up the shot correctly I would send the ball near center court almost every time (which I think this is the most common situation). If my opponent would have been set up as Top player, yes I would understand that 6 out of ten shots to go uncredible, but a junior 10?
5/ My opponent hits too many shots on the side lines, even if his accuracy is 40%. Maybe in a point we change like 20 rallies and he hits normally, but at one point he hits on the left line. I return and then he hits the second ball on the right line. In 2 cases out of ten when I somehow return this ball, the third goes guess where... yes, you're right: on the left sideline! After one year of playing with this guy my feeling is that he can make a point whenever he wants it. The points I win are because he let me easy on some shots (just to make his percentages lower to fit his profile I set up). Is like playing with Jack Norris
I feel I have no chance on important points (which decide the game). What I expected from my opponent set up like I did, is to have the mind of the junior 10 player (court positioning and tactics) but the physics of the average club player. My feeling is that it's physical abilities and shots work together with the intelligence settings. Maybe the new gameplay of TE4 will change this.
