Mana Games

[manutoo]

Version 0.84 - Build 110 ; SubBuild 2023.5.5:

New Features :
- Gameplay : added the "Acceleration Traits" ; each player can choose between 7 traits, giving speed bonuses & handicaps depending on different situations ; this might require some tuning, so don't hesitate to let me know if you feel something is off, and if you have ideas for new traits as well !
- Modding : added a button to open the Mods handled by ModIO on the bottom left of Settings -> Profiles

Changes :
- AI : the Incredible CPU was almost totally paralyzed by the risk to put the ball into the net, making play way too many slices & safe strikes, and even more with the Elite controls ; now, the Incredible should be back and much more valiant
- Strikes : lowered by 3 km/h the maximum speed of the acceleration and 2 km/h the Shoulder Height bonus, so the maximum strike speed will be about the same when you get a bonus from an acceleration trait

Bug Fixes :
- AI : fixed a bunches of cases where the CPU didn't want to play the ball in doubles, but should have played it
- Menu : it was not possible to open the Match Log (available in Settings -> World Tour & Training Club)

Notes :
- If you want to change your Acceleration Trait in the World Tour, activate the DevMode (HowTo => topic19-32161.php ), then once done turn it off

[manutoo]

Version 0.85 - Build 111 ; SubBuild 2023.5.13:

New Features :
- Gameplay : new Acceleration Trait "Rapid Fire" => the acceleration is 5 km/h slower, but its preparation is 15% faster and it's 10% less tiring
- Modding : you can now change the Country 3-Letter codes by adding codes into Lang_English_Mod.txt ; here's an example : "CountryCHE SUI" => this will show "SUI" instead of "CHE" ; so no need to change the Country files anymore

Changes :
- Strike : tuned a bit the slice so the maximum backspin is done when the ball is around the stomach height instead of the shoulder height
- AI : many improvements & fixes for the doubles CPU
- AI : the CPU should now catch a bit more balls when serving & volleying and when rushing the net

Bug Fixes :
- AI : sometimes the CPU was thinking he'd need a long time to reach his current position and thus was doing a slice instead of a better strike for no apparent reason
- Modding : in some cases, the Profile screen was not displayed after installing a new Mod that was creating a new Profile
- Modding : if a Mod was depending on another Mod, it was still loaded even if that other Mod wasn't loaded with the current Profile

[manutoo]

Build 112 ; SubBuild 2023.5.16:

Changes :
- Strike : it is now a bit easier to keep control of the drop shot

Bug Fixes :
- Gameplay : since the previous update the player movement had a bit too much side inertia
- Gameplay : since the previous update our player was hitting the ball even if it was way out
- AI : the CPU could choose to do a drop shot when it was too hard to accomplish

[manutoo]

Build 113 ; SubBuild 2023.5.20:

Bug Fixes :
- AI : fixed an additional bunch of cases where the CPU wasn't striking the ball in the doubles and other misfits
- Physics : the players were still slightly drifting even after the fix in the Build 112
- World Tour : the saved games could get wrongly marked as invalid when switching between Men & Women saved games

[manutoo]

SubBuild 2023.6.1:

Bug Fixes :
- Modding : if a Modded player base wrongly states it has enough players for a year, then the game won't start for that year but will start on the last year with enough players instead (eg: the XKT Mod ) ; however only the 1st year will be playable : the player base will have to be fixed before being able to play the following year
- Mod Management : the download indicator was stuck at 0% despite the download actually progressing

[manutoo]

Version 0.86 - Build 114 ; SubBuild 2023.6.9:

Changes :
- Acceleration Trait : Heavy Hitter move penalty slightly raised
- Strike : significantly lowered the precision when hitting an incoming heavily sliced ball
- Strike : the Short Acceleration Smash must now be slightly charged to get its full speed
- Strike : Slightly faster Short Accel
- Strike : Slightly faster Normal & Topspin strikes
- Strike : lowered the speed boost for the Smash from the Baseline when the Smash skill is very high (as the Smash, in this case, is already very powerful)
- AI : the CPU could attempt to do a drop shot when standing very far from the baseline

Bug Fixes :
- Doubles : fixed a few more situations where the player was stopping to play and other oddities like that
- AI : big rebalancing of the aggressiveness of the CPU after finding a bad bug at the core of the system ; hopefully, it shouldn't change too much its behavior
- AI : the CPU wasn't doing slices often enough

[manutoo]

Version 0.87 - Build 115 ; SubBuild 2023.6.30:

New Features :
- Match Recordings : now the game will automatically delete all recording older than 2 Builds (if you don't want to delete anything, read the notes below) ; you can also manually delete any recording
- Modding : you can now very easily any player photo ; HowTo => topic60-34846.php
- Modding : press the left or right Control key to prevent the game to load any Mod ; you need to do that on the very 1st instant the game window is visible (this will still show the Modded screen, if any) ; this allows to easily uninstall a bugged Mod, if required

Changes :
- Animation : now the dynamic animation moves a bit less the racket forward/backward to less disrupt the global swing speed
- Controls : added a number after the controller names when there are 2 identical controllers connected to your PC (or more), so it's easier to select them
- Acceleration Trait : Heavy Hitter move penalty slightly lowered (it's still a tiny bit above its value of 2 builds ago)
- Strike : raised a bit the topspin of the Short Acceleration when the ball is hit with the sweet spot, and raised a bit its overall precision

Bug Fixes :
- Animation : having a longer strike animation could bring a very tiny advantage to the run acceleration
- Animation : fixed a couple of bugs where the dynamic strike animation was getting all weird
- Modding : some modded service animations last too long after the ball hit, which prevented the player to run ; now, the player will start his run even if the service animation isn't finished
- Modding : the line judge & the char umpire modded textures could get wrong when alternating between different modded stadiums
- Modding : fixed the creation of new materials
- AI : the CPU doubles partner could try to play ball that his human partner could reach

Notes :
- Old Recorded Matches : if for some reason you want to keep all your old recorded matches, then before launching the game with this new update, add this line to your Tennis.ini, under [Record] : (HowTo => topic19-32161.php )
AutoDelOldBuild = 0

[manutoo]

Version 0.88 - Build 116 ; SubBuild 2023.7.28:

New Features :
- Strike : new acceleration style Momentum, that requires hitting strikes other than the acceleration to raise a bonus on the acceleration
- Audio : outdoor stadiums now have ambiance tracks (you can add your own by Modding the game ; check the "4) Ambiance Tracks" here topic60-33725.php )

Changes :
- Online : changed the Backhand Skills remapping for the Fair Mode to 20-70% instead of 15-65%
- Input : the ignored controllers are now hidden from the controller list (in Settings -> Controls)

Bug Fixes :
- World Tour : way too many players were becoming potential #1 in the fictional years
- AI : the CPU in doubles wasn't hitting a few balls (especially the ones landing near his feet)
- Animation : fixed a couple of dynamic animation glitches
- Rendering : the game was silently crashing when the 2D Background was enabled, leading to a wrong lighting

[manutoo]

Version 0.89 - Build 117 ; SubBuild 2023.9.6:

New Features :
- World Tour : if you have bought TEM2, you can now play it inside TE4 and become a tennis coach
- Localization : Czech translation by MichalR70 and Korean translation by Land of the sky, thanks to them !
- Commentary : about 200 new commentary lines about specific cases on the serve

Changes :
- Strike : the volley drop shop is now a bit less efficient (ie: the opponent has a bit more time to reach it)
- Strike : the drop shot is now a bit more efficient
- Strike : the slice requires a tiny less preparation time to be hit efficiently
- Service : the strong and normal services on the 2nd serve have now significantly less precision (to simulate the stress)

Bug Fixes :
- Acceleration style : the Heavy Hitter handicap wasn't applied
- Service : the services that should have been fast could actually end up being quite slow
- World Tour : fixed a few issues when setting up a doubles tournament, especially with more than 1 human players

Notes :
- I didn't test too much how was working TEM2 inside TE4, so if you notice any issues, please let me know
- If you play with the Mod XKT, you'll have to disable it (by setting the Default profile) to be able to see the TEM2 icon in the Main menu and activate it

[manutoo]

SubBuild 2023.9.11:

New Features :
- Modding : can launch the game without any Mod applied with the command line "-ModsIni #None#"
- Profile : can force a profile to load with the command line "-ForceProfile <ProfileName>" (eg: "-ForceProfile Default")

Bug Fixes :
- Stats : the winner count was wrong when watching a match replay from an online match

[manutoo]

Version 0.90 - Build 118 ; SubBuild 2023.9.29:

New Features :
- Controls : new screen right before playing to easily select the controller for each player
- Menus : in case of a crash during the World Tour process, a menu is shown to tell you to load your previously saved game (instead of being stuck on the waiting screen)
- Menus : in case of a non-stop crash of the menu system, a menu is shown to let you exit the game and possibly restart without Mod or with resetting all your settings
- Menus : added a tip next to the Back button to show what controller button is linked to it
- Settings :can reset all the settings on game launch with the command line "-resetsettings" (without the quotes) ; this includes your current Training Club players, but not your saved World Tour games

Changes :
- Physics : the players (both CPU & Human) now take a bit more margin over the net when they have a low Topspin skill, to avoid doing too many net faults
- AI : the Incredible CPU was still too cautious, leading to too many slices ; now he should do noticeably fewer, especially when his Topspin and/or his Precision are low
- AI : in doubles, now the CPU positions itself correctly after a cross-hit from the baseline

Bug Fixes :
- AI : the CPU could stop running too early when running toward or away from the net, making him miss easy balls ; this fix should greatly improve in some cases the serve & volley of the CPU, and its net rush
- AI : in doubles, the CPU on the baseline wasn't playing the crossed balls ending on his partner's side most of the time
- AI : in doubles, the CPU could try to catch a ball that was actually for his partner
- Modding : wrongly configured Mods could make the game unable to initialize correctly

Notes :
- I'm currently working on improving the menu usage with a controller ; if you have any suggestions, please don't hesitate to let me know !

[manutoo]

Build 119 ; SubBuild 2023.10.7:

New Features :
- Controls : the correct controller is automatically selected when assigning a button or combination in Settings -> Controls (so you don't have to worry about selecting your controller if you have more than 1 connected)
- Controls : option to invert up/down for the strike combinations when your player is on the far side of the court (like in TE2013 ! )
- Animation : smoothing of the reach for the Dynamic Animation system, which should prevent jerkiness when swapping between the regular & slice animations or when doing left/right movements to position your player

Changes :
- Acceleration Trait : slightly raised the threshold speed for the Slow Ball Big Speed trait with men, so the bonus speed will trigger more often
- Menu : moved the Import/Load/Save buttons to the top of the Character Sheet in the Training Club, so they'll be more visible

Bug Fixes :
- Acceleration Trait : the Rapid Fire was getting a 5km/h speed bonus instead of handicap !
- AI : fixed a couple more glitches for the CPU players in doubles
- Controls : the Open Menu button wasn't working during the game
- Menus : the tooltips could be incorrect when using the controller or keyboard
- World Tour : some saved games could be marked as Invalid if you had some saved games using different tour bases
- World Tour : playing with women was deleting the current saved game for the men

[manutoo]

Build 120 ; SubBuild 2023.10.21:

Bug Fixes :
- Strikes : the safe strike done after charging the topspin could get way too much topspin, or even a weird banana lob effect if additionally charged with the slice
- Replay : a crash could occur when exiting the replay
- Replay : since the previous update, it was not possible to close the Replay with a controller
- Controls : the game was crashing when mismatching button/axis for up/down in Settings -> Controls
- Modding : in Tour.ini, only the 1st period of YearPeriod was used
- World Tour : when starting a new career with the TEM2 mode activated, the Tour mode wasn't reset to Career Mode if the current mode was on Seasons or Unique Tournament

[manutoo]

Build 121 ; SubBuild 2023.11.11:

New Features :
- Rendering : ball outline (you can turn it on in Settings -> 3D Match) ; it's especially useful if you play with a low display resolution and/or with the 1st or 3rd person camera
- Modding : it is now possible to Mod the SpotAngle of the lights (see section 6 here => topic60-34047.php )

Changes :
- AI : better net rush on serve & volley for the CPU when the player is slow, and in doubles
- Menu : improved the selection with a controller and the arrow keys in the Settings menus, as well as in a few other menus
- Stadium : tuned the ads' brightness in half of the stadiums and made it possible to change it with Modding

Bug Fixes :
- AI : fixed a couple of bad positioning & reactions of the CPU in doubles
- Controls : the game was crashing when mismatching button/axis for up/down in Settings -> Controls (bis )
- Tutorial : after finishing a Tutorial lesson, it was not possible to continue a saved match, plus it created a couple of little glitches in the menus

[manutoo]

Build 122 ; SubBuild 2023.11.13:

Changes :
- AI : the CPU will now almost never rush the net after a very crossed strike (as it's too open to a down-the-line passing)

Bug Fixes :
- AI : in doubles, the CPU could reposition himself incorrectly after have volleyed on the side of his partner (when the ball comes near the center and the partner is too far from it)
- AI : in singles, since the previous build, the CPU was following the doubles rule which could make him badly positioned
- Modding : having different Grand Slams and/or different Country Cup rounds for different years could lead to some issues