Mana Games

[CC]

I have posted some pictures below which illustrate the problem. This has happened several times. I will be in position to hit a drop shot, and I will hold the drop shot buttons, with no direction, down well in advance of the incoming ball. When the player goes to strike the ball, he moves to close to the ball, and the resulting drop shot sends the ball out of the court, as if a slice had been used. The first picture shows my player the moment that I pressed (and held) the drop shot keys, with the ball not even to the net. Everything that happens after that is "automatic."











Am I doing something wrong, or is this a problem with the game?

[manutoo]

https://www.managames.com/tennis/doc/Ten ... l#dropshot

either that, or the ball was too difficult to play and thus the strike failed completely...

[CC]

OK. I read the link. I really don't think that this was a difficult shot to make. I was in the right position, and I pressed the keys well in advance. This has happened some in matches, also. What seems to be happening is that the game is moving my player into another position (I have this set to Average) when I think that I was already pretty much in the correct position. So, instead of just hit a drop shot from where I am, my player hits a "jumping" drop shot, resulting in the bad strike. I will adjust my position a little more. Maybe I can turn off completely the auto-positioning.

[manutoo]

So far, I never saw the auto-pos being wrong...
And moving at auto-pos speed won't affect your strike, coz it's not fast enough...

[CC]

Well, there's always the first time ( ? )

I wish that I could record the video for you, but the pictures should help. As you can see from the first picture, I am not at all too close to the incoming ball path. All I do from that point is hold down the drop shot buttons with no direction. As the ball comes closer, the game repositions my player for the drop shot and makes it slide into the shot, so much so that my player is too close to the ball. I did no positioning after holding down the drop shot buttons, where I am no where near too close to the ball. This has happened several times. Is there a way to record this in the game? I can look that up. Anyway, I hate to bother you with this. Maybe someone else has noticed this?

I feel bad to mention things like this, because I imagine you really need a break. The game is very nice. I hope you are having a good week.

Thanks!

[manutoo]

if it's fast, then it's not the auto-pos, it's the auto-jump...
And yup, the auto-jump doesn't position u perfectly, it just tries to make u not miss the ball, and it can be kinda wrong sometimes...

[CC]

OK. I did say that it was "jumping" into position, but I also use the words about positioning. Actually, I failed to realize the distinction until I read your last comment. Thanks. I think that explains it somewhat.

So, there is positioning, and there is jumping. I guess the positioning is very subtle, and I think I agree with you that it works very well. I actually was relying just a little maybe, in this instance, on the jumping, as the documentation says that you can just hold the buttons and the player will jump for the ball. I did not realize that there was a risk in using this. I thought that if I were that close, where I could basically hit the drop shot without moving anymore, that the player would just hit the shot and not jump. However, it does move the player (when I don't think that it should), and it makes it jump into the strike. I'll have to try to figure out what I can correct about my play so that this does not happen. When I hit that drop shop (when I pressed the buttons), I thought that I was in the right spot (but the game thought otherwise?).

[manutoo]

From your pics, I guess u were going to miss the ball if the jump wasn't done.
You should have done 1 step to the right before to start your strike.

[Stefan Edberg]

I have notice this problem too. CC is not imagine it. And its no jumping involved..

[CC]

ManuTOO *may* be right about my needing to take one step in this instance. The problem is when I am that close, I am more focused on selecting the shot type in advance, so I did that. On the other hand, this happens often with the drop shot, and to me it seems that it is not the fault of my positioning or whatever.

On the other, other hand, I'm not the most experienced tennis player, and I realize that ManuTOO has practiced drop shots enough to have seen this if it were a problem. So I am torn. The feedback from others and my continued practice should help here.

Thanks!

[CC]

I think that maybe some Full Documentation needs to be changed a bit in this respect:
"At the net, when the ball is too far away of your player, press the button to make him jump toward the ball."

This doesn't work well when you want to hit a drop shot. With other shots, maybe you can have this work so that the player will jump, or step, or whatever a short distance, maybe just one step if needed, and return the ball well. If the buttons that you press in this situation described are for a drop shot, though, I think that you will have a bad result. Apparently, when I am at the net and the incoming ball may be a bit too far away from me, maybe just a 1/2 step or whatever, and I want to hit a drop shot, I must move the player myself before pressing the drop shot buttons. I will experiment with this change. Hopefully this will help.

[CC]

I have been adjusting my volley position for the drop shot, and things are a little better. However, I still think that what is happening needs maybe to be adjusted, as this is very difficult to avoid. Many times when even a soft strike is coming in, an attempted drop shot results in a hard-hit ball that goes way into the crowd (bounces off of them). The cause seems to be that the player is jumping or sliding into the strike. Here is another photo sequence showing this problem:

First showing how close I was to the incoming ball path prior to my having hit the drop shot buttons:


Next showing the first part of the jumping that results when I press the drop shot buttons:


Third showing the end of the jump, where you can see how far it put me out of the correct position:


Last showing the result of the strike:


I think that the jump in this case was unnecessary; I think that I was in the correct position for the drop shot when I pressed the buttons. I can't seem to make the game not do this. Well, sometimes it does it, sometimes it doesn't, and I am still trying to better position myself, but I am not sure that this is all my doing.

[CC]

OK. I am getting better at the drop shot. I actually won all four point against CPU with drop shot in one game, so that is an improvement. I am learning (hopefully rightly) that the drop shot key pressing takes a special touch (unlike the other shots where the keys can be pressed and held in advance). Maybe this is because when you are at the net, just a short directional input can send the ball very far. However, this with the drop shot seems to apply even when you don't give direction to the drop shot (can't hold it down much in advance). Sometimes, it seems as if the drop shot becomes a hard slice, and the ball goes way off.

I think that there is an issue with the selection of either a forehand or a backhand drop shot. I tested this many times in Warm-Up mode to make sure that this was not just caused by my poor movement. I centered the center line near the net, and I waited for the CPU to hit the ball to me. I carefully watched the ball to decide whether or not I needed to move in order to hit a backhand drop shot, which is what I wanted to hit. At first, I noticed that I was moving just a little too much to the left (as a left-handed player), and so the game would "jump" me too much to the right when I tried to hit the drop shot. So, I adjusted this. Then, I tested some more. I have found that many times, the game is making me hit a forehand drop shot when I have moved my player in position to hit a backhand drop shot. In other words, I have moved just a little bit to the left so that I will be in the right position to hit a backhand drop shot, and the game instead tries to hit a forehand drop shot, and so it jumps me much to the right, when it should not have moved me at all:

[CC]

I just was reading about new gameplay concepts with TE2009. I understand that the drop shot is a very risky shot. I'm not sure that I understand this, though:
"Harder strikes have less precision than easier strikes; ie: short accelerations & drop shots will need more preparation time to achieve the same level of precision than the normal strike ."
I find the opposite of this to be true with the drop shot. I mean, I can prepare by trying to put the player into the right position, but I can't prepare by holding the buttons in advance sooner than I do with easier shots. Maybe if I were in the right position and still had time to hold the buttons in advance of the strike this might be true.

[manutoo]

I checked the FH/BH strike at the net, and it seems to work correctly...

For ur test, u should turn on the aiming helper, it'll greatly help u to understand what's going on, coz so far, u guess very wrong about the drop shot...
And if u turned of the visual helper when u do a fault, u should put it back on right away as well...

In your last pic, the ball was coming to ur FH, but u stepped to play it with ur BH, but the FH anim started before u were really on ur BH, so the jump was decided using the FH zone.