Mana Games

[Gametestist]

1. When the player stands near the sideline or even further outside, CPU still stays in the middle of the court waiting for the ball. At this time, choosing a cross-court shot becomes the only optimal solution for the player, which weakens the strategic aspect. CPU should adjust their position accordingly based on the player's position before hitting the ball.

2. When CPU faces a ball that is impossible to reach, the most human-like reaction should be to take a tentative step towards the direction of the ball and then give up, instead of either not moving at all, or chasing after the ball even when it's clearly impossible to save (this mainly occurs when the player hits a drop shot at the net).

[Gametestist]

This pic explains the 1st suggestion.

[manutoo]

Hello,

1) the short strike is a very difficult strike and the powerful down-the-line acceleration is much easier, so the CPU takes that into consideration. On your screenshot, he's exactly in the center, but often, he'd be ~40cm to the right.

[Gametestist]

Well in real life it's true, but in the game, short strike isn't much harder to do than a straight shot. That makes huge difference when such opportunity comes: player choose short strike (without high risk of UE) = win the point

[manutoo]

Could you send me a Bug Report the next time you do a winner like that feeling it was too easy coz the CPU wasn't correctly positioned ? (HowTo => topic5-31732.php )

[Gametestist]

OK, I'll try.

[Gametestist]

Just watch the 4 points of the first game.

CPU had enough time to prepare, but sometimes he even stands on the same side of the court where the hitting point is located. this makes short strike the only reasonable choice for the player.

And, the 1st point is a typical point of "chasing after the ball even when it's clearly impossible to save"; the 3rd point is what I meant "not moving at all". The ideal behavior for CPU should be taking a tentative step, quickly realize the ball is out of reach, then stop moving.

[manutoo]

Thanks to your report, I better saw the issues !

1) I found an easy way to make the CPU do 1 step before stopping to run ; I'm not super sure it's better or not, though

2) Indeed, the player was always chasing some balls (eg: very short ones) ; I tuned that

3) For the OP short strike or accel, there are 2 things :
a) the CPU was not using the correct points to check its positioning median ; it's fixed for the next update and it allows him to reach the ball on the 3rd point
b) sometimes the CPU doesn't positioning himself perfectly (ie: he does positioning mistake or wrongly anticipates your strike, by design), so despite the fix in a), he still doesn't reach the ball on the 2nd point, but now he misses it by a tiny distance (something like 20cm), so hopefully, it'll be ok for you

I'm not sure when the next update will come, but very likely within a couple of weeks.

[Gametestist]

1) I found an easy way to make the CPU do 1 step before stopping to run ; I'm not super sure it's better or not, though

Thank you, please give it a shot.