Mana Games

[manutoo]

Hello,

I'm considering removing the 3 buttons for normal/safe/strong serve by only 1 serve button ; then when we serve, a charging bar will appear to decide the strength of the serve. The stronger the serve, the less chance it'll have to be in, exactly like currently, except than having only 3 steps, we'll get a lot more.

It wouldn't be dexterity-based, it's only to give choice, not a timing to succeed.

Optionally, the serve chance would appear next to the charging bar.

I would likely put 3 bigger zones where the power would 0% ( = legacy safe serve), 50% (legacy normal), and 100% (legacy strong), and between them the charge would smoothly raise.

Overwell, this would bring more variety in the serve speed.

I think the main downside is that newcomers will be convinced it's a timing bar like in other tennis games...

It could also be a bit cumbersome to charge every 1st serve.

Would you like to see that in the game ?

[Ethanovic]

Just here to say

Please don't ever change the way we can serve in tennis elbow

Lol

[manutoo]

Ethanovic,
why ?

[sixstringseraph]

I would say a big no to that. The serve in this game is the best combination to feel like my actual skill (stats) and consistency don't depend on how well I can hit buttons. Like when my serve skills were low, i had trouble just getting the ball into play, but when i finally raised it to the 90s, now I'm more focused on trying to control it to where I want it to go. Any kind of meter I think makes it more arcadey. It's not like when I serve in real life I'm like thinking weak then normal then strong. I decide the moment I serve and that's what i go for. That and it works absurdly well with the randomness of the errors which feels ridiculously real. Sometimes I would double fault so much, even if I use my safe serve, which just reflects how my actual game goes sometime haha!
Honestly the only thing that annoys me about the serve is how I can't cancel out of the ball dribble, and sometimes it chooses to dribble like 10 times (probably less) and I have to watch it and it disrupts my rhythm.
Thirdly, I think if you really wanted a more precise speed, I would just assign another serve button for it that will show the power meter and not completely replace the current system.
Fourth, I would really like to also have a serve button for an underhand serve Obvious Kyrgios fan here.

[noys390]

Hi Manutoo, please don't fix something that is not broken. The serve has worked well over the years since T13, I do not feel any change or enhancement needed there.
If you still want a power meter then it can be only done for the accelaration serve. Surely as the person above said, an underhand serve can bring in more variety.

[Ethanovic]

Ethanovic,
why ?

Honestly because it's authentic in it's own way it feels the most natural speaking from a realistic standpoint.
It's very straight to the point, toss and choose whatever strike and let form and chance be a deciding factor.

[Sillytone]

I think that you can just incorporate the service bar into the game and have 2 options for the serve, see what's the reaction of people after, basically this game is still in beta state right ?
My view personally is right now i can't predict whether i'm making a bad serve or not, for example talking about safe 2nd serve, i'm doing a top spin serve with exact same process as others, sometimes the ball ends up at the net and i can't understand why. Besides from aiming left or right, there's no proof that the ball will end up at the high or low spot, well you know what i mean.
Option for adjusting power is nice, but choosing aiming position is also important too. If i made a fault service i want to know that i've made a bad control & timing, not just by random.

[TimovieMan]

Option for adjusting power is nice, but choosing aiming position is also important too. If i made a fault service i want to know that i've made a bad control & timing, not just by random.

But that would mean that someone with excellent dexterity and timing could go for a max power accelerated serve and only rarely miss, giving him an excellent excuse to just use his first serve as the second serve again on the rare occasion where he does miss.

Making it random and dependent on the power/constancy/precision stats makes it far more realistic.

As does the three different shot types. Putting the three types in a power bar would be very confusing for new players that don't realize that anything short of max power is even a viable strategy, and "old" players are used to the legacy system with three different buttons for the three different serve strikes.
Plus it just makes sense that the three shot types are the same for the serve as in regular play. Which is why I feel the current system is still best...

[Fed1]

I think it's great to bring a new system for serving in the game, it will add a new layer of fun! However I'm not so sure about a power gauge, I would like it to be more about the toss.

So I would only like one button to start the serve, then use the arrows/joystick to set the toss position and another button to hit it, the closer you hit this button to the sweetspot, the faster goes the serve.

I guess my idea is only to change how we select the serve type but keep the power as if it's now.

Another advantage of having it this way is that you can have varaible serves, so tossing the ball more to the left will serve with more spin (right handed serve) than tossing slightly to the left, which will make it more flatter. On the other spectrum, tossing it waaay to the left and the ball goes to other court

[Casper]

Hi Manutoo, please don't fix something that is not broken. The serve has worked well over the years since T13, I do not feel any change or enhancement needed there.
If you still want a power meter then it can be only done for the accelaration serve. Surely as the person above said, an underhand serve can bring in more variety.

Absolutely agree with you. I prefer the current system. It sets TE apart from other games that we see in the market. Don't think it's a good idea to change it at least from my point of view. It is a new game, sure, but there are more important elements to improve in the game right now than changing something that's unnecessary.

One thing I noticed, however, is the first serve percentage is pretty low on TE 4 compared to TE 2013 even with a better service stat. It's in general harder to drop the first serve in on TE 4.

[Olympian]

I think this could be interesting. At the moment in TE3 I have 100% serve power and 95% consistency and yet sometimes I hit a power serve and it reaches 140mph and other times I time it the same and it only reaches 120mph. It would be good to control this better so maybe on a break point I know I'll hit a 140mph even if less chance of going in.

I do like the current serving mechanics on TE3 but maybe this idea could go on a mode in TE4 to test it (maybe Arcade mode or something at first) and the other modes kept the same...

[topspinbackhand]

I'm not necessarily against this idea, as long as it keeps things similar to the way they are. Most games with a serve bar can be "gamed" so that you basically can't miss. The thing that makes TE's serve system the most realistic is that its rare you'll serve very high percentage numbers if you are blasting strong serves down constantly, even if your serve stats are really good. If the serve bar keeps that, as you said it would, I won't be against it. Just don't turn it into Virtua Tennis

[JiJo]

No, the serve system is fine for me.

[Faddyvandyke]

No, please don't change the serve system. The charge bar on other games is completely unrealistic. The current system on TE is fine.

[Aleg82]

I'm not sure about this one.

I like the current system, but I feel it a bit unrealistic for the 2nd serve. Let me explain: If I choose a slow 2nd serve, there's almost no way I can double fault, but if I choose a normal serve I feel double faults are too high sometimes (as in Guillermo Coria or Sascha Zverev high xD)

Maybe the current system can be adjusted a bit to add more realism if possible. I think that would be the better option personally