Warm up tournament - ITST to bottom out issues?

[Baghdad Baghdatis]

Right with the warm up tournaments starting soon I just want to get a bit of an understanding as to what ITST management plans are in respect of assessing and potentially restricting certain stats.

I know it is very early days, and both ITST Management and the players need time, flexibility and experimenting in order to make informed decisions on XP's that are lobbed sided, however...

I suppose my concern early is that once the warm up tournaments take place and the real tour begins the beginning of April that a good few players will be maxing out power, serve etc which from early signs seems to once again hold sizable advantage. Is there work going on in the background Al, Cro, Moral etc to assess whether any early caps can be put on such XP's? Or combinations that you see fit? From my experience any restrictions you have implemented in the past I have always embraced them, even if it took me a while sometimes to get my head around the transition.

I appreciate that players will be customing their players as we speak and having reaching the 20 level with whatever balance will be wanting to use them in the upcoming tournaments, however I think the sooner the restrictions are tested the better in my opinion.

I got an XBL message (as I am sure others did) from a very respectable ITST player who I will not name who mentioned a guy called Sinna having 98 power and 98 serve and the serves and points were practically unplayable

I know I am a SIM lover, however I got to world number 1 SIM (TS3) by being creative in the way I played and embraced the very philosophy that was balanced tennis. Of course I am completely for a custom guy putting 91 on backhand and 85 speed (for example), just like the Pro's but not maxing out the stats that kind of indicate a distinct advantage. Perhaps the above 91/85 do, but I kinda want someone to say "yes they do or no they don't" and get some ground rules laid out. It just does not really excite me the thought of playing 2 months worth of ITST tournaments to find that groups of players are hammering the power or advantage stats (whatever they may be) and in turn reducing the enjoyment and knocking out talented competition.

I don't mind being in the middle of a debate if it is for the better good of the site. I guess I just wish that ITST members especially will use their heads a bit when creating custom players.

[fedfan]

Just wondering why we are waiting another week to start the warm up tournaments?

[Moralspain]

i understand your concerns, and that's actually the purpose of the warm ups, listen all members's opinions, check all those things you mentioned and of course try to fix them as soon as possible

[Capriatifan]

I agree with you on the serve side, however I think instead of ITST putting down serve restrictions I think 2K should tone the serve down. Arguments that having a big serve doesn't win you matches cause you lose all return games don't cut it in my view. It's not about winning or losing, it's about having fun at the game. And when I get aced 90% of the serves and win all my own serve games to love cause my opponent can't play a decent rally, I will quickly lose fun and interest in online play and I am sure I am not the only one. I do think we should have a couple of tournaments before we can judge, but if serve is dominant like it seems now I think Djarvik or other mods should definitely address this in their list to 2K, the same with slices, powershots etc. If a certain shot is way too dominant and is taking the fun out of the game, LOTS of people will lose interest, like in TS3 and 2K can and should tweak this.

[Rob ITST]

I think you guys are seriously jumping the gun. It's going to take a lot of matches, with a lot of different setups, to determine if something's overpowered.

Do you seriously think anyone is already good enough at the game to know what can and can't be countered? It hasn't even been out a week.

[Tantsutallinn]

Just wondering why we are waiting another week to start the warm up tournaments?

because in estonia i can get the game from monday!!!

if a guy wins 90% of service points, you must start to guess the serve, that way he wins less points

[corrbuster]

My opinion is start warm up tournament with only PRO players...

[ANILTJE]

I agree that some setups are rather strong. But as soon as you get to a gold coach your player can become a monster in many ways

Power CAN be an issue but so can high stamina and a bit taller with good reach etc etc.....

BUT they all have some weaknesses. I am first trying to see if it's actually possible to deal with it.

I played a guy on the world tour who had more then 90 serve and power resulting in many aces. I decided to guess the serve and ended up breaking him. I still lost the match in the tiebreaker but maybe it means with pratice and patience it is possible.

But I have to admit. It dit feel a bit like the 100 setups of TS3

[Cro Morgan]

I think you guys are seriously jumping the gun. It's going to take a lot of matches, with a lot of different setups, to determine if something's overpowered.

Do you seriously think anyone is already good enough at the game to know what can and can't be countered? It hasn't even been out a week.

Exactly what Rob said.

It takes time to work trough the complexities of the game. That, and ITST history has proven that many of the early so-called issues turned out to be nothing at all.

History has also proven that games aren't flawless, so the main thing now is is to keep talking about the game: good, bad and ugly. We're listening and taking notes.

[djarvik]

Rob doesn't have the game

sorry, couldn't resist.

For now, I will refrain from posting my opinion. But not because we will need all this time to uncover the problems, but because I haven't done enough testing myself. Only yesterday night I got to Level 20. So now I will experiment.

I still have hope that serve will be OK. I think the biggest mistake players make now, at least from the one I played against - is they don't invest enough in reflexes and a returning coach. So they end up with mediocre serve, great baseline skills, but no return skills. So it feels like even thou you got these all court skills - you don't get to use them - hence serve is too good.

This could be the answer - counter. Could be.

Rob, the game plays exactly like TS3, just way easier. Everything is easier to do in TS4. That is the main concept. But game-play wise, it is one-to-one. We had 3 years in TS3. We should know EXACTLY what is wrong after warm-ups.


First stop would be 2K. Then Rules.

[VillaJ100]

I think (efective) volleying is much, much harder lol. I just cant get the timing right!

[Baghdad Baghdatis]

I think you guys are seriously jumping the gun. It's going to take a lot of matches, with a lot of different setups, to determine if something's overpowered.

Do you seriously think anyone is already good enough at the game to know what can and can't be countered? It hasn't even been out a week.

Exactly what Rob said.

It takes time to work trough the complexities of the game. That, and ITST history has proven that many of the early so-called issues turned out to be nothing at all.

History has also proven that games aren't flawless, so the main thing now is is to keep talking about the game: good, bad and ugly. We're listening and taking notes.

Rob, Cro,

I completely appreciate what you are saying - I understand that my thoughts and others may be premature, that is just natural when you love a game like Topspin. I suppose people could read into my original post that I kind of expect the rules to be put together overnight, thats not what I am saying to be fair.

The overall thoughts I wanted to get across were:

1. My concerns over the tour starting in April without restrictions
2. ITST members to try and be a better more creative early on

The way I see it is that yes the game has just only been released, 1 week at most, and I think warm up tournaments are great to allow members to start playing competitively and allows focus on game styles etc...

However with this in mind, as it takes time to "work through the complexities of the game" (which I totally agree with) I would of scheduled warm up tournaments for the first 6-8 weeks (for example) to allow thorough testing in an ITST environment. I just can't really get my head around starting the race rankings tour on 4th April and players coming in with big red stats or whatever the advantages are and destroying class players who:

A) Would arguably not stand a chance
B) Would get minimal enjoyment watching the ball sail past @ 300mph
C) Result in fewer ranking points and lob sided rankings (which I know is important to some folk out here more than others)

Anyways, I have had my say, and as always I do understand the wider angle and viewpoint and I am pleased all opinions and concerns are being taken into consideration. I wouldn't expect anything less from ITST but good judgement and I have absolute faith that you will make the tour as good if not better than its predecessor...I guess I just like to be the third eye out here at times

[Cro Morgan]

Rob doesn't have the game

sorry, couldn't resist.

Doesn't matter. Has absolutely nothing to do with the game, specifically.

[Cro Morgan]

I would of scheduled warm up tournaments for the first 6-8 weeks (for example) to allow thorough testing in an ITST environment.

Sometimes issues aren't uncovered until months into the game. That happened with TS2 (rule needed well after launch). We just can't wait until all issues are uncovered as it would take too long.

Also, two months of warm-up tournaments isn't going to maintain the interest of many. We have to play. In the end, the overall difference should be marginal.

[GOA MASTER MDMA]

tssssssssssssssss,
the game is out very shortly .
how long ??

1 goddamn week !!!!!!!!!!!

so i would say ,guys relax , only because you can´´t handle things at moment ,means not a player is overpowered ,cheese ecetera

hey maybe your skill is simply not good enough at moment !
maybe next week ,after alot of practice or different setup ,the things are looking different

so ,everybody have to come down and play the god damn game !!

seriously i can´t believe whats going on here .