I appreciate the team’s efforts during the early access phase and now after the full release. As a software developer myself, I understand that sometimes things need to be delivered faster than ideal, compromising the highest possible quality. As with the beginning of early access, I still believe that the game can be fully polished in the coming months, reaching its full potential that we are all expecting. Below are my suggestions for improvements and a few bugs I’ve noticed and struggled with during gameplay. I hope this feedback helps you address these issues promptly.
Gameplay
Bugs to Fix:
- Using flat shots, the “lock-in” animation for running shots doesn’t trigger correctly. It only works when both triggers (scramble) are pressed together. The triggers separately are not functioning as expected.
Suggestions for Improvement:
- Add different play styles according to the player’s focus. If possible, implementing specific play styles for individual players in the future would be even better.
- Remove the scramble mechanic for lateral movements or adjust the animation to be more similar to the run when using LT or RT individually. It feels awkward when players suddenly start running with exaggerated arm swings and then stop abruptly to set up shots.
- Make topspin shots on the run riskier, similar to early access 7, and increase the risk for flat shots slightly. Even overpowered shots now don’t go out of bounds. This could also help increase the game’s overall difficulty.
- Make returns harder to perform. Currently, returners seem to have the upper hand over servers, which should be the opposite. Baseline shots appear faster than serves. Serve speeds should be significantly increased, and perfect timing on corner serves should result in more aces or force returners into mistakes. Even a perfect flat serve at 185-190 km/h on the corners should occasionally result in aces. In women’s matches, perfect timed serves sometimes result in aces, but mostly on the T. Wide, fast serves should also yield aces more frequently. The new serve mechanic needs improvement, as there’s currently little risk and even less reward for taking risky serves.
- Add specific animations for drop shots.
- Fix the bizarre repositioning that the AI does after we select slice serves, making it seem like they can predict the serve type in advance.
- Improve net play precision and adjust the AI to perform volleys instead of swing volleys more often. The AI frequently opts for flat or topspin shots when volleys should occur, and when volleys do happen, they are often very weak. The short volley using X (Xbox controller) is difficult to execute because there’s not enough time to charge it, and the ball often ends up too short.
- Add gameplay sliders to customize game difficulty and ball physics according to the surface, like reduced bounce on grass. Currently, all surfaces feel the same in terms of ball physics and game speed, whereas in AO Tennis 2, these differences were more distinct.
Career Mode
The career mode feels heavily based on AO Tennis 2, but it currently seems like a step back in terms of content. We hope you can address the current issues and even enhance the content, especially since you have access to ATP/WTA data. Incorporating elements from these associations’ rankings could enrich the game.
Bugs to Fix:
- Some players (including myself) are experiencing crashes during matches, particularly when trying to pause or right after finishing a match when the ATP or WTA logo appears during a scene transition. When this happens, we need to reopen the game and replay the last point, and sometimes the last match save is entirely lost.
- Currently, it’s impossible to improve player skills, but a significant issue is that attributes seem to have little impact. Even with a player having an overall rating of only 43, we can compete equally against top-rated players. Lower attributes should result in a generally weaker player.
Improvements I Expect:
- Allow us to improve star players during career mode. It doesn’t make sense to start a career with a star player who has lower stats and can’t be developed into a more competitive player. It would also be nice to add new outfits for them.
- Allow created and downloaded players to start a new star player career, not just real players. This option is available in AO Tennis 2, where these players can have new outfits and improved stats.
- Allow us to change opponents outfits before matches.
- Add more in game statistics and predictors like in AO Tennis 2.
- Add the “future” category of tournaments like in AO Tennis 2, even if they are fictional. Without this category, climbing the rankings becomes much easier, and having over 1,000 players in the rankings feels pointless if there aren’t enough tournaments for everyone.
- Make real players’ schedules more realistic. I was playing the ATP 250 of Montpellier in early February, and top ten players like Djokovic, Sinner, Medvedev, and Tsitsipas were all participating, making it look more like a Masters 1000 or Grand Slam, which is unrealistic.
- Implement proper points distribution in the rankings. Currently, the top ten players have far more points than others, with the top three having over 10,000 points.
- Add more ranking details, showing the points each player is defending throughout the year. Include a screen to view all tournament draws and results from the current and past seasons.
- Make ranking navigation easier, with options to jump 10 players at a time or similar, which would also help during player selection in exhibition mode and other areas where players need to be searched and selected.
- Allow adding player lists to career mode, as was possible in AO Tennis 2.
- Add white outfits for all players for use in the English Slam.
- If possible, let us create new outfits for real players, even if only by copying their current outfits and changing colors and patterns.
- Include an achievements board, such as career weeks at world number 1 and trophies for year-end number 1.
- Add a records board, like most Masters 1000 titles, most Slam titles (overall and per Slam), and most weeks as world number 1.
- Introduce a trophy room.
Personal Wishlist
- Update Sinner’s serve motion; the current animation is outdated.
- Add more outfits for Sinner specifically.
- Add more outfits for Brazilian players.
- If possible, add João Fonseca in the future.
- Add at least three outfits for each player, including a “whites” outfit for all.
Thank you for all your hard work. I hope you continue improving the game and adding content, making it an even more solid product. You are on the right track!