Mana Games

[milos]

today i played online with two players, and they were both using this new type of shot which is absolutley impossible to return as it has sooo much slice and spin on it that it simply goes very low and away from me. i have played these guys before and never have i seen this. this is so sad for me that there are these types of things in this great games (i'm also refering to the "famous" smatch that lands just in front of the net, and also the "famous" drop-shot return both of which are impossible to do in real life... so all people need to do is use them all the time, or in the very critical situations and the win is theirs.

[Guest]

Yes, the drop shot off return and overhead are unrealistic. However, the slice thing is not really a bug because it hardly works. It only happens rarely when you hold the button down extremely long and hard.

[milos]

i dont agree, the slice shot is all over the place now, everyone is using it, and since it is not described in the "read me" file i consider it a bug shot, as people use it off the return of serve, which can be very tricky in the fair mode, when strong serve is disabled...

[guest]

I played someone recently........and after I broke the serve and went up 2-0 in a 3 set match........he starts using this CRAZY slice which was impossible to deal with. I would be in position to hit the ball and at the last second as my player is swinging.......the ball almost zig zags left or right as if I were playing in 100mph wind. I went into chat to ask how he did it and the response was "I just practice alot". He did the same thing as a return of serve. The ball comes back over the net.......then hits the court and angles off to the side at a 90 degree angle. After he went up 4-2.........I retired. Ive gotten lots of tips from very good players who kick my butt..........but this guy refused his "secret". His name is TSONGA I know there are ALOT of very skilled players (maxpoint and brad drive me crazy)..........but not even they have used such a shot.

[Tom Paulman]

I agree that the drop shot return is very annoying and almost can't be seen in real tennis, however lob return is not so unusual.

As far as the bug slice, I don't really know what you are talking about but I never play more than 2 matches a day so maybe I have yet to witness it.

[Tom Paulman]

OK so I´ve seen this today for the first time and this really is not normal. The slice has so much spin that you dón´t have any chance to return it. And the player who does it can´t be holding the button for a long time since it was happening at the return of serve. Next time I will quit the match if I see this. It makes the game really annoying

[manutoo]

humm, what's the difference in direction angles just before & after the rebound ? And the difference of angles compared between just after the rebound & from the initial strike ?

I did some tests, and on the rebound I cannot make it more than 20°, and from the initial strikes, it's something like 50°...

(maybe a screenshot with some direction lines drawn on it would be clearer, but i don't have much time right now )

[Tom Paulman]

I would say that it was almost 90° from the original direction of the shot (after strike) and the player definitely didn't need to hold the key long because it's impossible to hold strike button and run at the same time if I'm correct... and the player made the slice just after running to the ball.

It looked like this:

[Guest]

Very interesting...I have never seen this kind of shot. The only tough slice I've seen is when you hold the key down long during the break after each serve but that slice isn't impossible to return, it's more like a fun tactic.

[manutoo]

Tom Paulman, are u sure the ball fall that close of the net .?
Like this, it looks like it's a drop shot, but drop shot can't be sliced, neither the short shot (b1 + up)...
The shortest I can do with the slice, on a service return is still about 50 cm after the service line...

[Tom Paulman]

manutoo, it wasn't so close to the net, like every slice the ball dropped a bit behind the service line, I just didn't draw it precisely. The main thing on the screenshot is the way of the ball after it drops. It turns to the side very heavily and close to the ground so you don't really have a chance to return it.

EDIT: I updated the screenshot just to make the way of the ball more precise. The only difference from the real match was that the opponent was standing more to the left (out of the court) when returning serve.

[manutoo]

I did some more tries & the slice always crosses the baseline frankly enough, making it totally possible to play from there...

But I found out that the soft strike, if it has been heavily sliced during the preparation, can lead to something close of your graph, but it's still crossing the line in most cases. Moreover, it's a quite slow shot, therefore, it should be still possible to catch it almost easily (except maybe when playing with high lag > 150ms).

Here how to do it :
- preparation : B2 + slice, to raise the slice effect
- run a bit if needed, it doesn't reset the accumulated slice effect
- strike : only B2

[Tom Paulman]

I tried it and it's different from what I've seen. The shot I am talking about is quicker and the slice has much more spin and the ball curves very heavily after it bounces. I don't know, maybe someone else can try what manutoo described and tell if it's the same bug shot we are all talking about?

[manutoo]

Humm, this is really mysterious... I hope someone could figure out how to do it...

[Tom Paulman]

Well, as you can see there are players who know, but won't tell