Early Access 6 Feedback

Tiebreak
1

Hello guys,

You are doing a great job and have provided some significant improvements in this new update. It’s encouraging to see that you are listening to us as much as possible. Here are some of the positive changes you brought in EA 6, in my opinion:

  • Movement: Overall, it is better and more fluid.
  • Scramble Animation: The forward scramble animation was changed to be more realistic, which I appreciate.
  • Lunge Animation: The lunge animation was updated as I suggested, and it now better represents how most players lunge.
  • Inertia: Movements now have more inertia.
  • New Shot Types: The new shots using RB are much better than the adrenaline shots and add an interesting level of complexity to the game.
  • AI Movement: AI movement is now much more realistic and even attempts more appropriate shots based on the situation (e.g., baseline play, net play, smashes).
  • WTA Finals: A very good addition.
  • New Players: As usual, new players have been added.
  • Baseline Shot Animations: Improved baseline shot animations with some adjustment steps before hitting, allowing for longer preparation time. This is very good and enhances the fluidity of the gameplay.

Now, here are the main improvements that I still think the game needs to provide a very good simulation experience:

Serves and Return System

This aspect hasn’t changed much, and I recall you mentioning that a new serve system was coming some months ago. I hope you are working on it. For better serves, I think the speed of the shots needs to better reflect the actual speed displayed. Currently, the serves seem very slow even at high speeds. My suggestions for the new system are:

  • Serve Mechanics: Implement a mechanic similar to the current shot system where the more we charge the shot, the faster it is but with more risk. It should be possible to overpower to try a very fast serve, but with a low chance of getting it in.
  • Flat Serves: Make flat serves riskier than others. Even at low speeds, there should be a risk of missing, and at the highest charge/speed, there should be about a 70% chance of hitting. If the player overpowers, the chance should be even lower.
  • Top Spin Serves: Make top spin serves safer than flat serves but not 100% guaranteed. In real life, top spin serves are more commonly used as second serves.
  • Slice Serves: Slice serves can be curvier. With an overall increase in the real speed of the serve mechanic, it will probably increase the chances of aces despite the actual spots where we can always get an ace on AI with wide slice serves (this needs to be fixed).
  • AI Returns: The AI’s reaction time on returns should be slightly lowered.
  • Player Movement: Remove the freezing that occurs if we choose the wrong side when the opponent serves. The inertia in player movements is enough to increase our chances of being aced by the opponent.
  • Underarm Serves: Remove underarm serves completely from the AI’s behavior or make it an option for each player’s behavior (e.g., always, sometimes, never).

Game Difficulty

In EA 5, game difficulty was deeply related to the player’s speed, but the opponent scrambled all over the court without inertia and stamina penalties, which I think is incorrect. To address this:

  • AI Aggressiveness: Make AI more aggressive according to the game difficulty level by using stronger and more varied shots (including the new RB shot types) and reducing their level of mistakes. Currently, even on expert level, the AI is not very aggressive and makes many easy mistakes (e.g., drop shots, volleys, smashes, and midcourt shots).

Player Movements

Regarding player movements, the main area for improvement is the scramble (LT + RT run):

  • Backward Scramble: Replicate the improved forward scramble animation for backward scrambles as well.
  • Lateral Scramble: There are two options:
    1. Remove lateral scramble and make it possible only to run forward or backward.
    2. Maintain lateral scramble but change the animation to match the new forward scramble animation and make stamina more impacted by this type of run. This change should be part of a new stamina system using long-term and short-term stamina as implemented in AO Tennis 2.

Career Mode Feedback

The career mode is quite similar to AO Tennis 2, so it’s very enjoyable and will be excellent at full release. Some improvements I’d like to see:

  • Qualifying Rounds: Include qualifying rounds for all tournament categories. Currently, it works like AO Tennis 2, where players with certain rankings can participate directly in the main draw. Depending on the player’s ranking, they should be able to participate in the qualifiers.
  • Detailed Statistics: Provide more detailed statistics, including the number of titles and which titles, finals and which tournament finals, previous tournament draws (current and past years), and more, similar to what we see on ATP and WTA websites. This information should be available for all players in the rankings, not just our character.
  • Achievements Board: Include achievements such as career weeks as world number 1 and trophies for year-end number 1.
  • Records Board: Include records such as most Masters 1000 titles, most slams (overall and each slam), and most weeks as world number 1.
  • Trophy Room: Add a trophy room feature.
  • Star Player Attributes: Allow editing of star player attributes during the career without the 50-level limit.
  • Outfit Creation: Enable creating new outfits for star players.
  • Bug Fix: Fix the bug where I can’t finish a single match in career mode. After finishing a match, on the screen showing ATP 250 or WTA 500, the game always crashes, so I always need to simulate the last point.

Player Creator/Editor Feedback

Here are some suggestions for improving the Player Creator/Editor tool:

  • Customization Options: Add more customization options, such as earrings (available in AO 2), necklaces, wristwatches, wristbands, arm and leg warmers, compression clothes (some real players already have these in the game), ankle and knee protectors, and the option to use real players’ clothes.
  • Shoe Logos: Allow adding logos to created shoes.
  • Outfit Creation: Enable creating new outfits for real players (star players) and non-real players in the game.
  • Outfit Variety: Add more outfit variety for non-real players already existing in the game.
  • Shot Styles: Allow different styles for different types of shots, like in AO 2 (e.g., Alcaraz forehand and Dimitrov backhand).

Again, thank you for listening to us and for the good work you are doing. Keep it up!

3 Likes
2

I want to have the ability to bounce the ball before serving adds realism to the game. Bouncing the ball helps build short term energy of the player. When doing powerful serves constantly have it affect the energy levels of the player. Ball toss for the serve should be addressed with a timing gauge time the ball toss perfectly improves the overall accuracy and power of the serve. Have a gauge for power and accuracy. If you time the gauges well for ball toss power and accuracy increases the chances of an ace.

I want a serve marker to place anywhere in the square to where I want to serve, serving on the line comes with a risk vs reward with the possibilty of an ace or faulting. Add a timing gauge for ball toss then after ball toss u have 2 gauges for power spin and accuracy this will add a skill to the serving. For slice and top spin serves add a gauge for spin that u can control the amount of spin u want on the serve by using the stick or trigger buttons.

The speed of serve should be displayed on the screen I dont want to know Im forced to check out the speed clock in the stadium or there might not be a speed clock in that actual stadium. Want to see the serving speed displayed in corner of screen beside the scoreboard display.

Have a pressure meter measuring how much pressure the player is under if the player loses a few points in a row in the final set of a game have it impact on the players serves and shot making. If u win a point have a momentum shift bar that builds when winning big rallies.

1 Like
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Serve speed is visible for me above the current score of the players on screen.