Great update all round. The game is feeling great but there is one big problem at the moment. I am not sure if its just an Xbox issue as I have yet to test the Steam version. CPU error counts are at an all time high again.
The issue a couple of patches ago where the CPU was making constant errors seems to have returned for many CPU players when playing on expert difficulty but all difficulties do suffer with this issue to some extent. While the issue does seem to affect all players, It appears that the occurrence of errors is greatly increased with any players that play with an extremely aggressive playstyle such as Andy Murray or Alcaraz.
Just as an example, I played a two set match against Alcaraz on expert and on grass which is his favourite surface and he made 47 unforced errors to my 5. Please see attached photo. What appears to be happening is that he is just trying too many flat shots. 90% of the shots he is attempting are all flat, even if he is not in position or has enough time on the ball. Murray was similar in the aggressive shots he was attempting all of the time and made similar errors.
I think there is a bit of an issue currently with certain higher ranked players especially those who get a 90+ ratings as they seem to play unrealistically compared to slightly lower ranked players on the same difficulty. Certain players like Alcaraz and Murray are just attempting too many flat shots on expert compared to someone like Thiem on expert who also throws in a lot of top spin shots and the rally’s feel much better and more natural because of this while still being difficult.
I think that a good change would be to reduce the amount of flat shots that certain aggressive players are attempting and possibly reduce their flat shot speed as I may be wrong but the flat shots from certain players feel a lot faster than others, most likely due to the power rating. While it does make sense that powerful players would hit the ball harder, it just seems that its a little too fast and chaotic at the moment and is definitely not helping their unforced error count.
When playing against slightly less aggressive players the gameplay feels so much better. Its more realistic, there is slightly more time for tactical play and both players picking their shots instead of just an entire match or desperate reaction shots.
I also think that from a players perspective it would be a welcome change if the flat shot down the line over the high part of the net was slightly easier to produce as it can feel very random at the moment with some going over the net and others constantly hitting the net for what seems like no reason, where the CPU doesn’t seem to have issues with the same shots
Although I am enjoying the gameplay now despite the amount of errors from the CPU, the reflex shot appears to be happening far too often at the moment when attempting flat shots. There are many occasions where you can be standing on the baseline and have ample time to prep a flat shot and for some reason I would say 60% of the time its defaulting to a reflex even if the ball is high and not coming at you quickly.
Doubles feels a lot better now, although I still think the CPU could do with hitting less errors in that mode also. There is also still a fairly large issue with doubles in that we as players are still being restricted to singles court parameters and are not able to hit into the tram lines as the game still thinks we are playing on a singles court. However the CPU can hit into tram lines.
There is a nice touch in doubles where the CPU partner of who ever is serving can go into the middle of the court by the net and duck so the serve does not hit them. I have figured out that I can direct my CPU partner to do this using the D-pad but note that it is not explained anywhere that this is possible so many people may not know about it. However, as a human player I cannot figure out how to duck myself so that my CPU partner does not hit me, is there a way to do this?
I may be one of the few people that preferred Medvedev’s old model where he still had his goatee. I think it just looked more like him than the newer model. Instead of wasting the old model and filing it away somewhere, would it be at all possible for it to be a selectable option so that players on the roster screen can choose which Medvedev model they would like to play with and possibly the same for any other players that get tweaked?
Many thanks again to the team for the continued improvements.