Initially I thought the new patch which added power shots for CPU was great, but I simply hadn’t played it enough.
There have been fundamental changes to gameplay once again that were not in the patch notes.
People may not have realized this, but the reason that the AI feels more difficult isn’t just because they can hit power shots now. The Devs have changed the playable court width for human players so even if you hold down the shot prep triggers you can no longer paint the lines despite what the tutorial may say. 90% of topspin and flat shots will now not go anywhere close to the lines and most will go just to the left or right of mid court or generally 2-3 feet away from the lines.
This has removed the ability to hit amazing down the line winners and makes the gameplay feel terrible because you can literally feel an invisible force preventing you from using all areas of the court.
But of course now makes the AI far more competitive because they are not having to run down many of your cross court shots that would normally be getting closer to the lines. It is a terrible decision by the devs to increase difficulty by once again limiting the options of human players and I genuinely cannot play the game anymore with it feeling like this.
Other changes that have been made are that the flat shot feels like it has been reverted back to the way it was a couple of patches ago where it is now once again very difficult to get it to go over the net, especially with down the line shots which were working previously.
They have also reverted the left and right trigger mechanic back to the way it was in early access 4 I believe. This is where if you hold down the wrong shot prep trigger it will hit the ball automatically for you regardless. It will no loner do this for you and the ball will just whizz past you. A welcome change because I preferred this as it was harder but the real problem is that this change is completely wasted because you can overcome it by just holding down bother triggers at the same time.
All in all. very nice that the AI can now hit power shots but a terrible terrible decision to now limit court width of all shot types. I cannot state how much of a mistake this is. One of the best things about playing a tennis game is the feeling of hitting amazing and deserved winners which generally get close to the lines or paint the lines when you are hitting a down the line winner. It would have been fine without the restrictive change, please change it back and if changes have also been made to flat shot, please once again revert it back to the way it was previously.
I agree. Not quite sure what they have done but the latest update has changed the gameplay in a hugely disappointing way. The flat shots are once again too difficult to perform and now you can no longer hit anywhere close to the lines with either flat or top spin shots. It is no longer fun to play and feels like you are playing with invisible walls preventing you from hitting to all points on the court. The gameplay previously in the last version was so much better. I have the game on Xbox and it’s now in a better state than the pc version because it is a couple of updates behind
That’s good to know. I can’t beleave, that a game can be released in this condition. AOTennis 2 was amazing, it have the real tennis feeling. This game is horrible. I cant beleave, that this developer makes a game like this.
Is stamina system working yet?
What is slightly perplexing is that some people are defending the change but my brother just played a game on expert and because of the new court restrictions for human players and inability to hit lines like the previous patch he just had a rally that lasted 101 shots. Sadly I only managed to record half of it but it clearly says that it lasted 101 shots at the end of the clip.
I will note that the triggers and being able to hit a precision shot still works off the first shot when you are returning serve just not in normal gameplay.
I cant post links but if you search maxedracer on YouTube you can see two clips of the current Xbox version and current PC build with the 101 shot rally which it says at the end of the clip. My brother in the PC clip was absolutely red lining his shots with angles and down the line but due to the restrictions it just doesn’t look like that.
The tutorial regarding the prep shots still says you can use them to paint the lines which is now obviously not possible unless its an unintended bug. The CPU is still able to use full court width. Its like the triggers are still working for scramble but are having no effect for precision shots.
Agree with you, it’s because we are able to make power shots and run with triggers (and play near the lines with using triggers) that people say the game is easy. @RossSymons@JNT_BA
Don’t use the triggers, just keep run assist, slow down the speed game (player movement and replacement) and add a limit to the maximum power for the shot. Or add sliders for all of this.
With all of that, vary the area where IA send the balls (not only near the lines) and add tactical to IA and not left right rallies
Well now on PC the triggers barely have any effect. They still scramble but getting shots close to lines whether down the line or across court is almost impossible even with triggers. Apparently people are saying that online is different so its possibly a change that was just made to offline mode.
I think I’ve made my point now but just wanted to see how far I could push it. Just managed 530 shots… This was after the game crashed because I hit over 1000…