My review on Tennis Elbow after 2 years of playing it...

General discussions about the 3rd edition of Tennis Elbow

My review on Tennis Elbow after 2 years of playing it...

Postby markhansavon » 26 Aug 2010, 16:59

I just wanted to say to Mana Games, thank you for making such an amazing game. I play tennis myself at a professional level, and I was looking for a game like this one to satisfy that itch I've had for a good tennis video game. I've tried and beaten a handful of good ones, like Smash Tennis for the SNES, and I've tried and disliked a handful of bad ones, like Virtua Tennis for the Xbox, and this is hands down the best simulation.

Things I had to do to make the game funner:

1- When I first bought the game, ralleys lasted waaaay too long, so I had to set Mtrun settings to 0.68, 0.68 (Acceleration and MaxSpeed of computer and user). The good side of this is that ralleys become much more intense and realistic, a typical ralley only lasting 3 or 4 shots. The negative side is that serves will be overpowering when faced against high ranking opponents.
2- I had to create my own difficulty settings for myself. Someone ranked 1-10 would be set to Pro 8-10 or maybe Incredible 1-3 if they were on a run, while someone ranked 10-25 would be ranked Pro 4-8, etc...

Things that would make this game amazing:

3- To make ralleys last a shorter amount of time, why not have a Short-Term Stamina Bar. Like a "Sprint Bar". No one can just run back and forth for 40-50 ralleys at top speed. After about 5-10 shots, your character should start to dramatically slow down, unless they've trained themselves in this area.
4- Smaller characters on screen, and slower run levels (mtrun set to 0.68, 0.68 is AMAZINGLY fun, and very realistic). Lower serve speed/skill to compensate, so that the user can't just ace every time.
5- An AI mode or two that are amateurish, but more unpredictable. For example, don't just have the computer run back to the middle of the court, have him stay just a taaad to one side or the other, and have an AI mode that "goes for it" like James Blake, or Sarina Williams. Also make a stupid AI mode that's more jerky and all over the place.
6- Make difficulty levels set automatically in Tour Mode. (That one's pretty important)
7- Gain more points to put into your stats per training day.

Thanks for your time.
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Re: My review on Tennis Elbow after 2 years of playing it...

Postby manutoo » 27 Aug 2010, 08:26

Hello,

Points 1) & 3) make me wonder if u're playing with TE2009 or TE2011 ..?
I'd assume u're still with TE2009 and didn't try TE2011 in my answers...

1) TE, with Speed of 100% is slightly above real life for acceleration & deceleration, but not by much ; Maxspeed is realistic enough ; by using 0.68 you're really under what top players can do... TE2009 v1.0e significantly raised the deceleration time, and thus made it quite easier to catch ur opponent against his run (which is still same in TE2011 now)
3) TE2011 features a new tiredness system in which sprint is quite tiring, at about the same level than doing acceleration (while jogrot & normal hit aren't really tiring) ; and a lot of bad things happen when u get tired... ;)
4) "Smaller characters on screen"..? Are u implying the players are too tall ..? :thinking:
6) Humm, I think that the gap, at a constant level of difficulty level, between the #1 and the #10, and the #10 & the #50 is already significant ... Maybe what's missing is to take a better account of mental skills, so top players would be a bit more solid than the average player, especially on important points...
7) If you know how to change [MtRun], then just head a bit back up to [WT_Training] ; there u can change the XP points & training efficiency
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Re: My review on Tennis Elbow after 2 years of playing it...

Postby markhansavon » 31 Aug 2010, 07:25

Well, I've wanted to show you this for a while now. I don't mean to say that playing the game my way, with an unrealistic amount of winners, is any better of course. I've just wanted to show you this, so that you might get even just a whiff of how much fun I've had with this game. x_x

http://rapidshare.com/files/416166416/T ... s.zip.html

I'm seriously outmatched in the videos. It's really intense when you play a game with slower running speed against a cpu that's just about the same level or a tiny bit better than you. There are definitely a couple things that end up going haywire though mechanic wise...

Like:
1. Too many aces > For me I prefer it this way.
2. Drop shots are impossible to get.
3. Now that I've looked it through, all of the stats are unrealistic. I really shouldn't have called it "realistic"....


Honestly I don't think you should change anything. I'm actually really really really really really grateful that the mtrun variable exists in the ini file x____x. You must have remembered me asking you about that 2 years ago.

I really haven't said enough good things about this game here. I want people reading to know that I could write a book on the positive aspects of this game. It's really just the best tennis game ever created, thanks to the ability to customize it the way you want to play it.

I really shouldn't have just listed the things that I might change about the game. x_x
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Re: My review on Tennis Elbow after 2 years of playing it...

Postby markhansavon » 31 Aug 2010, 07:35

P.S,

Is there a way I can change the bounce of the courts in TE2009 to be ridiculously high or ridiculously low?
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Re: My review on Tennis Elbow after 2 years of playing it...

Postby manutoo » 01 Sep 2010, 05:31

Yes, read : "Data\HowToMod.html", and then locate & edit the "Court.ini" file in each "Data\Court0x" folder inside the .Pak file.
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