Mana Games

[Dani21]

Dear Manutoo,
I don’t know where to post it but this will do. I cannot comprehend why, when there is a competitive tour on going, changes occur mid swing. Most of the best players build their characters with the express goal and intent to reach an optimal build before they play the final tournaments of the swing. Now we are in the middle of the clay swing. Many of us have tweaked their builds and playstyle to build up all the way to RG.
Therefore it is illogical to me why there would be impactful balance changes (772 points), 2 weeks before Roland Garros. Bug fixes and small changes are fine, but a change as huge as this should occur only when the swing changes.
Therefore, as a member of this community if other people agree i propose the following moments for these big “balance changes” to occur (after said tournaments finish) :
1.AO
2.Sunshine double
3. RG
4.Wimby
5. USO
6. Shanghai
7.Atp finals/Offseason
Otherwise what happens is like now: Change is rolled in middle of rome. Players have to change builds mid tournament which may change the balance of power between players. Additionally, if bugs occur matches have to be delayed like what just happened with the accel bug yesterday. Final results may be impacted.
If we want to have a semblance of professionalism during tournaments we should then take minimal measures to ensure said consistency. It isn’t okay that mid tournament there can always be an update to change the balance of power completely. Please keep it in mind 🙏.
Thank you,
Dani

[manutoo]

Hello,

I understand your point, and from a pure Tour organization perspective, it makes sense.

But in practice, I can’t work like that. I’m alone on TE4, and I usually do things when I have the time, the energy, and the motivation to do them ; and often when the request is active in my mind. If I put a task aside for several weeks or months, it doesn’t just “wait safely”; it becomes mental load, and there is a real chance I won’t come back to it at all.

Also, I cannot plan my work around the Tour calendar like a live-service studio would. In 3 months, maybe I’ll be focused on another game, maybe I’ll be exhausted, maybe something personal will happen, or maybe I simply won’t have the will to touch TE4 for a while. That’s not theoretical; last year, my broken foot and near-burnout completely derailed my plans for weeks/months.

So I agree with the principle that big balance changes are better between important Tour periods. When it’s easy for me to wait a few days, I can try to do it. But I cannot make it a rule, and I won't hold finished changes for the "perfect" competitive window.

The Tour has to adapt to the game development rhythm more than the opposite. I’ll still try to avoid obviously terrible timing when possible, but if I start managing patches around every swing, it becomes a mental load I cannot handle.

[Dani21]

I understand that. Thing is this isn’t a typical change. This isn’t the “i added backhand slice slide” change which impacts basically nothing. Or the “i tuned heavy hitter”. This is a complete overhaul of how online works because due to the 772 points the playstyles may change radically. This is a change impacting something which has been the same for 15 years. I think an exception can be made for such huge changes when it comes to timing. Especially since i imagine it was a number tune not something time consuming to change (forgive me if i am wrong).

[Dani21]

Dear ManuToo,
my worry with regard to the update timing has come true. Ever since the update some shot timings have been altered considerably. I have been talking throughout the community and in the last couple of days the topspin shot is genuinely screwed. it drops short, the aim is wild. Also some shot aiming has been weird, with many uncharacteristic misses for both me and my opponents. I can compile a whole list of weird misses that didn't happen before the update that have been happening in recent days. You can corroborate my complaint with Madferit, Javilupsi, Fakefederer, Debuffy, Kingbarboza, etc. The game feels radically different to play and a change as huge as this without any sort of prior testing is not good. The timing of the shots has changed within a small update leading to completely different feel. Was there any shot timing change or what can be the reason for this?
Dani

[javilupsi]

Personally, I am already getting used to the new feeling of the game, but indeed I felt a strange change in gameplay since the update came out. I can not even be sure of this being real or just in my head, but I felt primarily 2 things:

• Players seem to have less arm reach, like if you had to be closer to the ball to hit it.
• Players movement seems heavier, like if the player accelerated and changed direction slower than before.

There are more little things but for me those 2 were the most noticeable.

[Madferit]

Agree with everything Dani said, as I said myself in a post of my own on this forum as well. Nothing has changed. Anims are super weird. Constant micro glitches left and right. And yes, the ball physics seem very strange. Dont know if it's the increased error rate for low height balls affecting every shot more than anticipated. Cause it all feels strange. That with the combination of said weird anim glitches (maybe still caused by the new run around forehand anim), is what's causing all this issues.

[KINGBARBOZA]

Hey Manu

To me it feels like the Ball physics have completely changed, accel feels weaker, short accel weaker, topspin has become a really random unreliable shot now.

Topspin bounces strangely. Even the ball travels through the air differently. Overall my rally length has gone up by 2-3 per set, as the positioning of hitting clean accels feels so much more sensitive than before.

Lot more of strange unexplainable shots (random depth, weird shots hit from body) too.

[manutoo]

Everybody,
nothing has changed that I didn't list in the changelog => topic15-37147.php?start=15 .
To be sure, I checked and there's no chance of having side effects for the special low-ball case.
I just spent 2 days checking all your Bug Reports and didn't notice a single strange thing about the gameplay (but found a bunch of anim bugs, so thanks for pointing these out ! ).

So I guess y’all tripping hard on shrooms... so... may I have some..?