Mana Games

[Arvis]

And here I am. I'm registered for this forum, it's on my Steam wishlist, and I'm ready to jump in with both feet. I have dreamt a long time about a tennis game filled with all the current pros and all the tournaments and a World Tour mode with Futures and Challengers and everything else. I was reading the Steam features list and almost started crying. That's not an exaggeration; I felt my eyes burn a little as the excitement in the pit of my stomach began to flutter wildly out of control. I haven't been this pumped for ANY video game in years. I officially care more about getting this game than I do Final Fantasy XV.

However........

After spending way-too-much time perusing this forum and the various information I could find about this game (instead of working), it seems to me like the barrier-of-entry is totally out of this world. I mean... SAM Megapacks and 2D or 3D courts and changing racket strings, and god-knows-what else? I'm ready to learn, and I will pore over the various threads and FAQs that Manu has provided, but... I felt I simply had to create a thread to both express myself and ask my various questions as they occur to me.

1. What am I actually getting when I purchase the game from Steam?
Basically, since so many of the community members here seem to be getting their incredible, realistic tennis gaming experiences by using MANY MANY MANY mods, what do I actually get in the base game? The Steam page mentions 3000 players: who are these 3000 people? It talks about 36 years... what does this mean? Can I start career in... 1999? And if I do, will the tennis players I am facing realistically represent the look of tennis IRL at that year? Will the players stats/etc match mostly what it was at that time? Or do I need mods for this?

2. How much mod support is there for the women's game?
One of my all time favorite tennis players ever is Zheng Jie, and I'd like to play the Career mode as her. What kind of experience can I expect playing the game as a woman? If I choose to play as her, what will she look like? Generic? Or will she look like her real-life counterpart? She turned pro in 2003. If I start a Career as her, is that where it will begin? Do I have some degree of control over this? SO MANY QUESTIONS!

3. How accurately does the Career mode represent the "intangibles" of a tennis career?
In other tennis games, whoever you play in early rounds will always be easy, even if it's Federer or Serena. And then, when you make it to the finals, it's always hard, no matter who it is. Along the way, nobody retires, nobody plays "inspired" or "out-of-form", no one hurts themselves during a match. None of that. Does Tennis Elbow get this right? If I play Qualies for Wimbledon and make it to the main draw, but I draw Federer in the 1st round, will I get creamed? If I am playing a 250 and have Benoit Paire in the final, will he be easy to beat? If I play against Serena, will she ever retire from the tournament inexplicably and for seemingly no reason? Could a player play "inspired" for an entire tournament (a la Gulbis French Open 2014) and then "slump" for MONTHS afterward (a la Gulbis after French Open 2014)? Could a player get on a hot streak for just one match and then go back to playing mediocre for a while (a la Tim Smyczek this year)?

4. How does TE deal with UEs?
I remember playing another tennis video game once (which shall remain nameless but starts with a "V" and ends with an "irtua Tennis 2009") and I had a TWO HUNDRED BALL RALLY because neither play ever hit any errors EVER no matter far away they were or if they were on the run or at full-stretch or anything. Every ball came back. TWO HUNDRED FREAKING TIMES. So how does TE do errors? Are they random? Based on input from the player? Strictly situational? A combination? How does it decide if the CPU hits an error or not? Sometimes Djokovic puts his all-time great backhand into the net. It just happens sometimes. Will it happen in TE?

5. How's the presentation?
Are there interesting/cinematic broadcast-style camera angles between points or during changeovers or anything? Are there any celebrations or player gestures to add to the realism? Trophy ceremonies? In the videos I've seen, they play these great points with really nice stroke animations and the like, and then the point ends and the players just stand there. Is this always what happens?

I am sure I will think of many more questions in the 3 days I have to wait until I can play the game myself. But for now this is it. I do hope I can count on this enthusiastic community to help a PC newbie like myself out a little bit. Thank in advance, and thanks to Manu for making a REAL tennis sim for tennis gamers.

-Arvis

[ZuutCoke]

Hello Arvis ! Manutoo and some modders will do a better job than me to answer you, but I remember how greedy for answers I was when I first discovered this amazing game some years ago

1) You can start your career whenever you like, from 1990 to nowadays
You don't have any mods in the base game, but after having purchased the game, you'll be able to download any mod you want (you'll find the links on the forum).
With the mods, top 100/150 players are very well "modelized", you can identify Federer, Nadal, Tsonga, Fognini, or even Kyrgios or Mahut in a second. On the contrary, past players like Becker, Edberg, Lendl etc...don't look like to the real life.
The best thing is the gestures : forehands, backhand, type of serves are totally crazy, Gulbis' weird forehand preparation is the same than real life for example.

2) I only play the ATP tour, but I know there's a WTA patch too. You can start your career on 2 different ways :
- a real career, based on real life, so with Zheng Jie, you'll start in 2003
- a season mode, you can do the season you like, and stats will be adapted to real life too (I mean, if you play with Djokovic in 2011, he'll have amazing stats, with you play with him in 2007, he'll just be a solid top ten)

3) I know what you mean, in TS 4, reach a Grand Slam semi final was like a walk in the park, and the two last matches were incredibly hard to win, whoever you play, Federer, Tomic or Simon lol.
Tennis Elbow sticks to reality on this. Any match is different from the last and from the next. I mean, in my current career, I'd won against Federer in Dubai, and two weeks later he litteraly wrecked me in Indian Wells semi final.
And yes you can lose on early rounds against an opponent "on fire" (I've made a comeback from 2 sets to love in my UsOpen 3rd round against David Goffin for example).
However, a player can retire from a match or a tournament, but never against you.

4) You can play with arcade, simulation or elite controls. With elite controls in master or incredible level, you have quite the same number of winners and UE, like in real life. However, it also depends on the type of player you play with.
You have a stamina gauge, and unlike to famous tennis games, it really have a effect on rallies !

5) There's the only point where Tennis Elbow is less impressive than commercial tennis games : no cinematic, no trophy ceremonies or changeovers. But there's celebrations (you can throw your racket, raise your hands, applause your opponent, kneel down after a great victory...

Anyway, you won't be disappointed ! The moment you'll beat Federer in a Wimbledon final 11/9 on the fifth, or even have a great match against a Joe six-pack in an obscur ATP 250, you'll be thrilled

[manutoo]

Arvis,
ZuutCoke answered nicely so I'll only have to complete a bit.

1- if you want a very realistic tour experience, you'll have to Mod the game, but the basics in the unmodded game are already pretty strong

2- women have their own gameplay : ball speed & physical are lower than men ; it means you may prefer the men or the women in term of gameplay

4- errors are not 100% realistic, but still way more realistic than your average AAA tennis game ; you can check see the shortcomings of the current system here => topic15-19240.php ("More realism, you said ?" paragraph)

[Arvis]

Thank you both so much for replying. Zuutcoke, I have been enjoying your posts in the "Career Results" thread.

I am going to go see what I can learn from Manu's modding threads and links. I'd love to know EXACTLY what I need to do and how when I purchase this game 60 hours from now.

[ZuutCoke]

So have you succeeded in installing the full game, and the SAM Patch ?
Hope to see you soon in the "career results" thread !

[Arvis]

Indeed I have Mr. Coke! Now I am going to look around for some WTA mods. I'll definitely be posting in "Career Results"!