Once again, the game is moving in the right direction. I’m sure it’s too late to get most of our feedbacks in before launch but hopefully BigAnt continues to update the game afterwards.
Here are my issues with the current state of the game broken into order of my personal importance.
-Most Important-
Animation is ALMOST in good state. We’ve gone from 2/10 to 7/10. I truly believe one more solid update to the animation smoothing will get this game to the 8/10 or 9/10 that is needed. Inertia for the most part is good now, but there’s just some jerky animations between shots that still look good.
Ball Physics is still a bit floaty. Balls need more “dip” in their top spin. What I think might make more sense is to replace the current flat shot with the current top spin shot. And then, have a new slower more dippy shot replace the current top spin shot.
Slice animations are probably the worst part of the animations right now. Slices generally have a large and slow wind up but in the game the wind up is quick and jerky, make the slice seem more like a reflex shot. And that might be the core issue with the slice. Slices in TieBreak seem as if they were designed to be defensive reflex shots, which is just not how real tennis works. Slices CAN and SHOULD be offensive shots as well, especially for setting up net attacks. However, as they currently are now, the slice just isn’t sharp enough - they all seem floaty and are very ineffective.
-Minor Importance-
Serves are in a solid place right now with just a few minor changers needed. Firstly, if you fault your first serve, a second flat serve should be very difficult to hit. This would mimic the real life aspect of pressure. This is why no one serves a flat second serve in tennis. Secondly, a kick or slice serve should be much easier to hit. They absolute should not have the same sensitivity and difficulty as a flat serve. Flat serves, just like in a real match, should be going in like 95% of the time. Both slice and kick should have little risk and little reward. Leave that for the advanced flat serve.
Serve returns are also just not good. As a receiver, I can hit some 95% of my returns with a full concentrated swing. There’s no real consequence, no real timing, no real challenge whatsoever to returning a serve. Just stand there, wait for the ball, then hit the ball, and it’ll hit just like a regular rally. What we desperately need is more off balance returns. Make it so a fast serve wide or down the T throws my player off balance. And in that off balance, some, if not most, of my returns should fly wild - into crowd, into the net, into the ground. There just needs to be more decision making when returning; should I step left? Should I slice? Should I hit a safe shot instead? As it currently is, you should always go for a full fast swing because there is very little consequences to it.
-Not So Important-
Models are still really ugly for some characters. My two biggest gripes are Iga and Zheng, though some others are still pretty insulting. Skin color seems really “dead” on many characters as well, like they have pasty funeral skin. I think most models could use a bit of redness to give them a bit more life. Sabalenka and Raducanu seem to need it the most; they both have darker skin but it’s just so dreadful and dead looking.
I think that’s all my wishes for release right now. As the game gets more updates these feedback will become more and more nitpicky. A good thing of course.