Mana Games

[Nicky Gi.]

Hello Manu, I play with Elite controls on Pro 10 difficulty, as I understand this is meant to provide the most realistic experience.

However, I’ve noticed that the CPU very frequently hits extremely powerful, low, short flat shots that are almost impossible to defend against. The CPU seems able to produce these shots regardless of the type of ball I give them, whether it’s a very low slice, a regular flat shot, or a topspin shot. This mainly happens with high rated CPU players, 80% and above on most of their stats, primarily forehand and backhand.

In many rallies, this makes it feel like the CPU is cheating, because realistically it would be extremely difficult to hit such powerful and accurate shots all the time. It feels like I am playing against Alcaraz on steroids.

What do you think about this? Is there something I do wrong that results in the CPU being able to hit these shots?

These players seem impossible to beat, yeah I could lower the difficulty of course but I am afraid this will make the game less realistic.

Low rated players are already fairly easy to beat at Pro 10. When I say low rated, I mean 60% and below on most stats.

[manutoo]

Hello,

yes, Pro-10 is the difficulty meant to give the most realistic CPU abilities overall, but you can still have fun at lower difficulty levels, and the rallies can remain quite realistic at Junior-10 (heck, even Club-10 can still be pretty convincing ! )

With players having 80%+ Forehand/Backhand and other strong skills, though, you're already dealing with top-level players, so they should be able to produce very strong attacks quite regularly when they have enough time and are well positioned. A low slice isn't necessarily difficult to attack : as it is usually slower, it can give the CPU plenty of preparation time. In TE4, preparation time and positioning are very important for the quality of the strike.

However, if the CPU really produces those very powerful, low and accurate shots repeatedly from difficult positions, or regardless of the quality of the ball you give him, and without making errors, that would be surprising. Several people have already sent me Bug Reports about that in the past, and IIRC, every time the strikes weren't actually that fast : it was mostly the flatter trajectory that surprised them, combined with positioning that wasn't ideal for handling those shots; i.e., standing too far behind the baseline after having hit a good strike.

If you want, you can send me a Bug Report after a couple of strikes illustrating the issue, and I'll try to check what is actually happening. (HowTo => topic5-31732.php )

[Nicky Gi.]

On Pro 10, players with stats of 70% or higher hit extremely fast and accurate shots far too often. It sometimes feels like I’m playing against a robot rather than a human player.

Even when I use a highly rated player myself, I rarely manage to win against CPU players with 70%+ stats. No matter how well I play or how hard I try, at some point during the rally, it feels like the CPU suddenly decides to win the point and hits an incredibly powerful shot that is almost impossible to defend.

On Pro 5, the game becomes much easier and more manageable. I could simply play on Pro 5, but since Pro 10 is supposed to provide the most realistic experience, I don’t think there’s much realism in the CPU consistently hitting such powerful and accurate shots throughout games.

It also happens at Pro 5 but less often and the shots aren’t as powerful as on Pro 10.

When do you want me to send the bug report, when the CPU hits a shot like that?

[manutoo]

I think you misunderstand how tennis works at its core : if a player is significantly better than you, even if he's a club player, it can feel like he "suddenly decides to win the point and hits an incredibly powerful shot that is almost impossible to defend".

Realistic Pro-10 means : realistic reaction time, realistic strike speed and realistic running speed ; "realistic" for the top tennis players in the world. If you can't keep up with all that speed, they'll destroy you: it's not a bug, it's a feature.