Mana Games

[matservant]

Is it possible to significantly improve the success rate and the precision of a drop volley at the net? In terms of both precision and trajectory, I’d like to be able to hit a drop volley that stays much lower over the net and lands just on the other side.

I’ve also noticed that when executing a drop volley, our player makes contact with the ball with the racket held quite high, rather than striking it lower—which would allow to better leverage the incoming ball's trajectory and place it delicately on the other side, just over the net.

This type of shot comes up quite often in real-life tennis, but in the game, almost 100% of the time, the ball ends up wide—either to the left or the right—and it’s not really a "drop" shot at all; it has a very high, looping trajectory and almost never lands just behind the net. It’s quite frustrating.

Thanks!

[Jirafalox]

I don’t wanna sound rude or brag about my skills or whatever but every single player who has faced me can testify that you can totally pull off beautiful and realistic drop volleys in the game just as it is, it’s hard to do but totally doable as I always pull them off in almost every set I play with no major issues

Just before it bounces, low balls, high speed passing shots attempts, loopy high balls you call it I can confirm that you can do the drop volley just fine and sometimes you can pull off some highlights material ones that makes you and the opponent get impressed

[manutoo]

matservant,
as Jirafalox pointed out, it's quite possible to do them, and as they are instant winner, they should be too easy to execute.

Also, the animation itself has 0 influence on the result, it's purely visual.

[matservant]

I don’t wanna sound rude or brag about my skills or whatever but every single player who has faced me can testify that you can totally pull off beautiful and realistic drop volleys in the game just as it is, it’s hard to do but totally doable as I always pull them off in almost every set I play with no major issues

Just before it bounces, low balls, high speed passing shots attempts, loopy high balls you call it I can confirm that you can do the drop volley just fine and sometimes you can pull off some highlights material ones that makes you and the opponent get impressed

Well I play TE for 10 years and still struggling a lot to do these type of shots, even in ball thrower so...
It’s cool when something is doable in the game—but doable by more than just a tiny, select group of players who possess an extremely high skill level and/or a very deep understanding of the gameplay

I'm playing on Pro 6 and never really been able to play above of that, and I assume i'm not the only one

It can be a good way to hook players—making certain challenging gameplay elements slightly more accessible—to provide a sense of satisfaction, or to introduce a bit more variety and interest for a player who has become stuck in their progression through a level.

For me, drop shots from the baseline, loopy high balls and passing shots are way easier to do in game than a volley drop shot, while in real tennis, in my opinion, all these types of shots have the same level of difficulty

[Jirafalox]

Hard disagree, you can't make a shot that's an instant winner when pulled off easier to execute, and pro6 isn't even what the game has a reference for balance purposes as Manu has stated that is pro10. If you make drop shot volleys even easier to execute then you'll make net play just too OP. Even then, when I play net game and I hit the approach shot correctly is basically a garanteed drop volley and if I actually pull it off the opponent has literally 0 counter play. The fairness of it is that it actually HAS to take skill to do bc as the opponent there's nothing you can do after the net player actually hits the drop volley correctly.

If your issue is not knowing how to do it properly you could just ask how to pull it off "consistently" and I can explain it step by step how to do it but that's a separate topic that you could just ask me on DM.

And I also disagree that making drop volleys in real tennis is as easy to do than hitting baseline shots in general like loopy balls or a baseline drop shot, even at the pro level there are some players that are considerably better than the rest at it and go for it way more often but that's because their net skills are way above the general pro player, let alone at club level where hitting drop dead volley dropshots it's extremely hard to do consistently

[matservant]

In real life, I play tennis at a modest level—specifically a 15/4 ranking in the French system (you can look up what that entails)—and at our level, when we’re at the net, we frequently hit drop volleys or short volleys. It’s a safer play than trying to hit a hard, deep volley close to the lines. I know TE4 doesn't aim to simulate 15/4 level of tennis, but to me, this suggests that this shot isn’t necessarily more difficult to execute than others; yet, in *TE4*, I find it ten times harder to pull off. In the game, hitting a drop volley feels significantly more challenging than hitting a powerful, deep volley near the lines—whereas in real life, it’s arguably the opposite.

That’s the point I’m trying to raise. Of course, this is just my personal opinion and perspective—both as a tennis player and as a fairly skilled "casual" player of TE4

[Jirafalox]

Playing under pro 10 can't be really considered a skilled player of TE4, not even for casuals. Nothing wrong with it but you need to raise your skill level to pull it off. A good tip is to approach the net with an inside the court and on the rise normal shot down the line as an approach shot.
This is the most important part to be totally honest, since the execution of the drop volley itself isn't that hard. The hard part is being able to recognize a ball from the opponent that creates a good opening to get inside the court, take time away and hit a precise low approach shot and rush the net as soon as possible.
When the ball bounces in the opponent side stop running forward and let inertia carry you forward inside the service box and start pressing the drop shot button right away while doing so, then react accordingly.
If the ball is coming towards you or very close to you just keep pressing drop shot and at the very last second before impacting the ball tap the direction either left or right once.
And if the ball is not coming close to you let go of drop shot and change to either normal short strike for a more aggresive short angled volley if you're confidend or if the ball is too hard from the opponent you can change to a slice volley instead
(tho if you hit the approach shot as I mentioned before, it's very hard for the opponent to do a hard shot back)
The approach itself for me is 70-80% responsible for the quality of the volley coming afterwards, the other 20-30% is mechanical skill and reflexes.
Try it and tell me if it worked for you or if you didn't understand something I said because this is exactly my approach to net play and I can make it work against virtually every single player regardless of their level because when you do it this way it means you're going forward in your own terms.

[matservant]

Thanks for your valuable advices, but do you realize that pulling off a drop volley requires accounting for all these variables that you explained—along with a certain level of dexterity and skill—to get everything just right? It’s a shot that, in real life, isn't actually any more difficult to execute than other types of volleys. I just struggle to understand why a drop volley in the game demands so many parameters, so much situational awareness, and such high dexterity, when it’s incredibly easy to hit a powerful, well-placed, aggressive volley—a shot that, in reality, seems at least as difficult, if not even harder, to pull off than a drop volley.

That's the whole point of my first post, which is totally open to discussion. I'll try, if I have the time, to practice your advices and see if it works effectively.

[Jirafalox]

You can't compare hitting a drop volley off a decently strong intermediate club level player's strike to a shot from a real life pro top ranked player that TE4 tries to emulate. The running speed, spin, angles and pace of the ball all are not 2 but like 6 worlds apart so again I have to disagree to that part of your argument personally.

And in reality it's not accounting to variables, because tennis is a game of patterns and the more you play you start to recognize all the patterns in which you can pull off different stuff or solutions. Each shot of the opponent is a question that could have multiple answers and the more you play and understand the game the more answers you will know to give. I tried to over explain in my last message just so any player who reads it regardless of their level, can understand that specific scenario and pull the drop volley off but there are dozens or even hundreds of other scenarios where you can do it. You just have to try and try to learn the limits of your game.

[manutoo]

matservant,
I'm with Jirafalox on this one : district-level player (15/x is not club level anymore Jira ) is not a good comparison to the pro level. At the pro level, drop shots from the baseline are relatively common, but from the net, they are relatively rare. If they were that easy, they'd do it all the time, as it's a guaranteed winner most of the time.

Anyway, if you want a noticeably easier time doing drop shot volley, then put 2 stars in the Ball Feeling talent, it should help a lot.