Tennis Elbow 4 News

Here the 1st important gameplay update since a while as I'm focusing on the gameplay for now.

I tuned the slice as it didn't have enough backspin rotation to represent the modern tennis (we were closer to the 90's tennis, before the major string change that occurred around the early 2000's).

This makes the slice a bit slower in most situations, and sometimes not just a bit (especially with the Slice Mastery talent).

If the change affects you, either in a good or bad way, please let me know in the comments, so I'll know if I have to tune it more and in what direction. :-)


[h2]New Features :[/h2]
- Player Style : now the Counter Puncher gets a lowered speed handicap when doing an acceleration on a raising ball (and in a smaller way on a falling ball), as well as with the normal strike against a raising ball
- World Tour : can disable or lower by 50% the Skill Decay in the Career mode (in the Character Sheet)

[h2]Changes :[/h2]
- AutoPos : if standing very close after the rebound (eg: 1 meter) of a lob, your player will now walk back to smash the ball if you stand in the middle of the ball trajectory
- Strikes : boosted the smash speed when hitting the ball after the bounce
- Strikes : tuned the drop shot & the slice to get a more realistic backspin rate on them
- Strikes : slightly raised the forehand slice speed, especially when prepared early
- Stadium : tuned the lighting of the Indoor TET250, Indoor Challenger & Cincinnati stadiums

[h2]Bug Fixes :[/h2]
- 3D player : the high-detail mal'se 3rd hat (ie: the open cap) was missing
- Online : tried a fix for the desync occasionally occurring at the end of the 1st set

[h2]Bug Fixes :[/h2]
- Strikes : the woman's acceleration was mostly as fast as the man's acceleration ; now its speed max in ideal conditions with 100% in Power & Consistency is around 162km/h instead of 188km/h ; its global average speed has been lowered by ~10km/h
- Animation : the one & two-handed backhands and the two-handed forehand could be done while sidestepping, leading to completely buggy dynamic animation ; now the player will always run when moving before doing these strikes

[h2]Changes :[/h2]
- Animation : the racket is less low (or high) when a low (or high) ball is too far from the player, so the reach movement looks more natural

[h2]Bug Fixes :[/h2]
- Animation : the player's feet could be above the ground when striking the ball while moving
- AI : the CPU returner had fast reflexes skills when facing a CPU server (instead of a human server)
- Match replay : if the user changed the service buttons during his serve preparation, the match replay could desync
- CPU vs CPU : the Coaching strategy could fail to reload when continuing a saved match, leading to 50% Energy Spending & everything else at 0% (I'm not sure 100% sure it's fixed in all cases :fear: )

[h2]New Features :[/h2]
- World Tour : can start a new career from 2023 instead of 2020
- World Tour : player bases updated to the end of 2022 (this will be effective only once you'll have started a new career)

[h2]Bug Fixes :[/h2]
- Stadium : the time & speed boards were not correctly visible on the back end of the TET250 Stadium

[h2]Notes :[/h2]
- Modding : if you have a Modded player base, you won't be able to start in 2023
- Modding : if you have a Modded player base only to change the player names, grab the new one from the Modding SDK right before the next time you'll start a new career

Here a big update with a bunch of changes and the arrival of the long awaited night sessions !

I hope you'll enjoy it. :-)

[h2]New Features :[/h2]
- Stadiums : night session for all the outdoor stadiums
- Engine : upgraded to Unity 2023.1.16f
- Modding : added the support for the Country in the online mode
- Modding : change this line in your Tennis.ini, under [Display], from : (HowTo => https://www.managames.com/Forum/topic19-32161.php )
[Code] SmokeColor = 0xFFFFFFFF
to :
SmokeColor = 0x1FFFFFFF
for a less visible acceleration smoke.
Or to :
SmokeColor = 0x00FFFFFF
to make it completely invisible.
[h2]Changes :[/h2]
- Stadiums : completely reworked the lighting changes when the sun moves to avoid strange lighting conditions ; in Shanghai, the night session triggers as soon as there's not enough light anymore
- AI : the CPU has now significantly better reflexes on the return of serve, especially on Pro level & better
- AI & gameplay : the left/right human & AI return position tuned, to better take into account the slice effect ; this should significantly lower the sliced aces against the CPU
- Stats : better detection to determine if an Unforced Error is actually a Forced Error
- CPU vs CPU : lowering the Attacking Rate will now have a stronger effect on the player
- Gameplay : the players now rest a tiny bit between the 1st & 2nd serve, but only their Breath

[h2]Bug Fixes :[/h2]
- Physics : the ball possible landing zone shape wasn't an oval as shown by the aiming zone
- online & match replay : desync fixed when the returner moves before the 1st serve of the 1st point of the match and triggers the auto-step back and it's not his or his opponent's 1st match of the game session (this could also lead to an unending desync)
- online & match replay : desync fixed when releasing the buttons early on the service
- online : if had played a match before, the game could desync on the 1st point
- online : the extra service info of Modded anims wasn't loaded, possibly leading to desync
- World Tour : fixed a crash on saved game loading when there was only 1 Country Cup event per year (which is the case with the XKT Patch v2.1, on the Women Tour)

[h2]Notes :[/h2]
- if you play an online tournament match soon, it's strongly recommended to play the game at least 30 minutes to get acquainted with the slight changes in the ball landing zone :fear:
- if you notice some stadiums with bad lighting at certain hours of the day, please let me know


ManuTOO
=== Mana Games ===