Mana Games

[tonypitony]

I understand that in real tennis the ball doesn't always reach that part of the court, but **never**? That's absurd. It's as if that area of the court simply doesn't exist in this game.

No matter how well you strike the ball, it only goes a little deeper but never beyond a certain limit. That makes the game feel flat, with less variety and fewer tactical options. It's the exact reason I got tired of playing it.

[manutoo]

Hello,

I'm not sure what's you're talking about. For example, the 2nd and 3rd strikes of the 1st point of that match end relatively close to the baseline :


Would you have wanted the ball to regularly land exactly on it ?

Or maybe you have that length issue with Junior and low-ranked players, who play shorter than the top players ? But even with such players, you occasionally get balls close to the baseline, so you got me confused here...

[Nicky Gi.]

It can reach the baseline during a rally, but there is no shot that you can make to tell your player to shoot the ball close to the baseline. He probably means that 🤔🤷🏻‍♂️

[tonypitony]

Yes, that’s exactly what I mean! Quite often I’d like to hit the ball deeper, closer to the baseline during a rally, but there seems to be no way to do it. It almost feels random or am I missing something?

I also noticed it in the video: the ball still always lands short. I’ve never actually seen it land right on the baseline, except when you mistime the shot and hit it out. So it seems that a properly executed acceleration shot or any other shot can never really reach the baseline; it always lands before it.

[matservant]

I feel that it could happen a bit more often if you play simulation or elite controls, my balls go right on the baseline sometimes when I hit a shot being too far or too close to the ball (actually the opposite of being perfectly on timing and positioning )
https://www.managames.com/tennis/doc/Tennis_Elbow-Tennis_Game.html#arcade
But I agree that it would be great to have a specific type of shot and top spin that would be called "Deep" or "Long" and we can assign a key or combination of key and it would make it happen more often and on purpose, while also embracing gameplay risks and potential errors

[manutoo]

The point is that in real tennis, players don't aim for the baseline itself either. They try to hit deep with some safety margin; actually aiming at the line would mean taking a huge and usually pointless risk of hitting long.

TE4 follows the same logic: there isn't a "depth aiming" control where you directly tell your player "land the ball 20 cm from the baseline". Instead, the depth comes from how you play the shot.

As explained in the documentation ( => https://www.managames.com/tennis/doc/Te ... html#depth ), for non-short strikes :
- preparing earlier makes the ball go deeper
- good positioning and centering prevent the shot from becoming shorter
- higher Consistency increases depth
- standing closer to or inside the baseline usually makes your shots deeper

So the depth isn't pure random at all ; you can actively influence it, just not by directly selecting a landing distance.

Also, a badly positioned shot occasionally landing on the baseline doesn't mean bad positioning produces a "better" shot. It just means an inaccurate shot can occasionally end up extremely deep, exactly like in real tennis ; it can also end up too short or out.

So adding a dedicated "Deep" shot would actually introduce a new artificial depth-control mechanism rather than reproduce something that is missing from real tennis.

If you want to get more often long (and short) balls on well-prepared strikes, you can also switch to the Elite controls.