Top Spin 4 - Player Balancing Updates

[zaka]

Secret to defeating S&V net rusher who rushes right after serving:

Short slice right in front of him. This shot is impossible to return with any speed. After that? Depends - if he's at the net, lob it. If he's clearly out of position then top spin away from him to make him reach.

Secret to consistently defeating a net rusher:

There is no secret. It is mind games. Make your opponent think you're going to make a shot that you've been making. You use the short slice I talked about a lot? He will prepare for it. That's when you change it up. ALL mind games.

[PerfectAce]

As much as I like to do it, S&V should be the weakest setup. If this were 1988, it would be different. Plus, I kind of don't like the fact that so many people are S&V'ing now - it was cooler when it was more unique.

Completely agree. I always enjoyed SV, because I grew up watching this kind of game. Sampras and Becker were for a long time my inspiration for watching tennis. But, if we are trying to bring "reality" to our tour, an army os SV players makes the game oldfashioned.

I realy like going to the net sometimes, but see this setups as the strongest one after the pacth shows that 2K has a long road to work on...

[Vieira151]

As much as I like to do it, S&V should be the weakest setup. If this were 1988, it would be different. Plus, I kind of don't like the fact that so many people are S&V'ing now - it was cooler when it was more unique.

?

[Moralspain]

btw i guess people are serving and volleying more now just because of Wimbledon, i actually have created a S&V guy to play there, i think it makes sense.

[Rob ITST]

Hopefully someone will win Wimbledon (in ITST) playing S&V, and then they'll patch the game again.

Or maybe they can keep the patch as some sort of retro mode, with wood racquets and long white trousers.

[sky9753]

the developers in topspin 4 need to decide who there marketing to, the very elite at itst who are a few or the average player (the mass buyer of the game). I liked the original game when you didnt hit any balls out. If you didnt hit a good timing you would still hit it in but dink it over it will still be clobbered by the elite players and by me but it gave the people who are not good or dont want to spend alot of time learning timing to enjoy the game. I just got done playing a person new who was hitting the ball out all the time we couldnt carry a rally really borring game. Not only are you killing the rallies with this update your are killing some of the skill sets for coaches that can be used. What is wrong with hitting the ball in all the time and just wrong foot your opponet, dropshot your opponet, or if the hit a bad shot it will be dinked over and you can put it away at net. You want this to be like topspin 3 and you want everyone to use triggers but instead you want everyone to hit perfect and good shots which is stupied. This game is not just for the elites at itst, this game is for the average person who wants to enjoy playing a game of tennis not to spend hours trying to get timing down in order to play a game. You will make this game so difficult to play that the majority of average players will not be buying the next version. In topspin 3 you could have your stats set high enough on fh and bh so you didnt hit the ball out. This lates patch needs to be reversed. it is a step backward for the game.

[supinesmokey13]

the developers in topspin 4 need to decide who there marketing to, the very elite at itst who are a few or the average player (the mass buyer of the game). I liked the original game when you didnt hit any balls out. If you didnt hit a good timing you would still hit it in but dink it over it will still be clobbered by the elite players and by me but it gave the people who are not good or dont want to spend alot of time learning timing to enjoy the game. I just got done playing a person new who was hitting the ball out all the time we couldnt carry a rally really borring game. Not only are you killing the rallies with this update your are killing some of the skill sets for coaches that can be used. What is wrong with hitting the ball in all the time and just wrong foot your opponet, dropshot your opponet, or if the hit a bad shot it will be dinked over and you can put it away at net. You want this to be like topspin 3 and you want everyone to use triggers but instead you want everyone to hit perfect and good shots which is stupied. This game is not just for the elites at itst, this game is for the average person who wants to enjoy playing a game of tennis not to spend hours trying to get timing down in order to play a game. You will make this game so difficult to play that the majority of average players will not be buying the next version. In topspin 3 you could have your stats set high enough on fh and bh so you didnt hit the ball out. This lates patch needs to be reversed. it is a step backward for the game.

If you read the development dairies you would.know this game was supposed to.be ts3 with simpler controls to.atrract casual players. Instead is almost a.completely different game from the one described in the dairies the.diary said all styles were balanced and success depending on using one strengths to take advantage of anothers weakness yet TSi/MD was the dominant setup along with.constant abuse of.short angles and the serve.and return and slice and uforced erros are part of tennis should be a part of tennis games. and his patch is a.step in the right direction and another patch.will be realeased to.correct the flaws in is one. the controls re still the same the patch has only exposed you level of skill at the game even if you are not elie keeping the ball in play is no difficult so.what it means is your no.good at the game and need to pratice so you dont rely on exploiting faults in the game. Because for me the biggest moaners about the patch rely on exploiting flaws in the game and believe the game was fine pre patch in its heavy flawed state. instead of complaining you should contribute to make the game better for Everyone not just casual players or Itst and hardcore players. stop wasting your energy on the negative focus on postive solutions.for faults of the latest patch.

[PCFitnessDotNet]

The Update

Players are now hitting unrealistic unforced errors, even if they hit a perfectly timed shot. How can this be a good thing?

2k Sports needs to remember, this is suppose to be fun for everyone, not just ITST. Sure, we wanted SIM and still do, but who enjoys hitting "Perfects" just to watch what should have been a well constructed point after a 37 shot rally become an error.

Losing speed, power, reflexes etc over time makes perfect sense to me. I say less unforced errors will make this game more fun again.

Extreme angles definitely was not a problem for me. If you were able to create these angles then you deserve the point, period. This makes the gameplay more fun for the newer players as well.

Who wants to spend 5 minutes constructing a point just to hit an error when you know dam well your perfectly timed shot should not have been an error.

With this update, more times than none the point will end NOT because you hit a winner, but because you hit an error.

I'm not so sure reworking the coaches was needed either, at least not to the extent that 2k did. It was more fun before the update.

[Hawkeye Miihawk]

the developers in topspin 4 need to decide who there marketing to, the very elite at itst who are a few or the average player (the mass buyer of the game). I liked the original game when you didnt hit any balls out. If you didnt hit a good timing you would still hit it in but dink it over it will still be clobbered by the elite players and by me but it gave the people who are not good or dont want to spend alot of time learning timing to enjoy the game.

That is the difference between top spin and virtua tennis. If you want that arcade hit-left-hit-right pong feel then virtua tennis is always there for you to purchase. Before this patch, the game was literally like virtua tennis.

I just got done playing a person new who was hitting the ball out all the time we couldnt carry a rally really borring game. Not only are you killing the rallies with this update your are killing some of the skill sets for coaches that can be used. What is wrong with hitting the ball in all the time and just wrong foot your opponet, dropshot your opponet, or if the hit a bad shot it will be dinked over and you can put it away at net.

That is a problem you and your opponent will have to deal with. The game shouldn't be pong like because a few people always get "too soon/late" and don't like the fact that their "too soon/late" shots aren't always going in all the time like before. Playing top spin 4 is not rocket science, so stop making it out like it is.
The game is trying to be a mixture of sim and arcady. If you want arcady, like I said, there's always VT4.

You want this to be like topspin 3 and you want everyone to use triggers but instead you want everyone to hit perfect and good shots which is stupied. This game is not just for the elites at itst, this game is for the average person who wants to enjoy playing a game of tennis not to spend hours trying to get timing down in order to play a game. You will make this game so difficult to play that the majority of average players will not be buying the next version. In topspin 3 you could have your stats set high enough on fh and bh so you didnt hit the ball out. This lates patch needs to be reversed. it is a step backward for the game.

I don't even know where to begin.

With the little time I spent with TS3, I can tell you that TS3 and TS4 are 2 different games. I find it funny that you say it's "not just for the elites at itst". If it were for the "elites", as you put it, it would be headed down the SIM only direction, and not a mixture of sim/arcade like it is now.

Btw, TS3 was harder to play. TS4 simplified the control aspects of the game, which is a good thing. If by hard to play you mean "I actually have to think, rather than just hit short cross court, and get my timing down", then I can't help but sigh. Once again, playing TS4 is not rocket science. The exaggeration is a bit too much.

I'm actually surprised that people feel like they should be rewarded for getting "too soon/late"? That still puzzles me. So you're saying that you want to play a basket ball game, get bad timing on all your shots, and still want to see the ball go in? You should be allowed to score goals in soccer off mistimed headers, poorly placed free kicks/corner kicks, etc? How about fighting games. I should be able to pick 1 up for the first time, mash the controller and watch my character do advanced combos and pull of high level strategies. C'mon people, enough with the this "I'm so casual that I can only get too late/soon shots, and my too late/soon shots aren't going in all the time anymore. I need to be rewarded for not getting my timing down". It sounds ridiculous.

[Chederer]

i disagree with you.....in the game you can have perfect timing, but if you get jammed up it might go out...how realistic is it to have shots hitting the lines everytime? before the update people were complaining about 68 shot rallies...i think the UE has somewhat take care of this

[djarvik]

I think some people are simply do not want to play a tennis game.

They simply want to have fun Common, there so many fun games out there, take your pick!

So long as any title carries the name "Tennis" - personally, I expect it to be as close as possible to hmm I dont know, TENNIS?

This is my idea of fun.

As far as comparing sales wise between the Arcade and Sim, all you need to do is look at sales of VT games and TS. They are near the same. So it is safe to say that the market is kinda split in the middle.

What 2K is doing is trying to capture both. VERY hard, but so far, I think they are succeeding. There will always be unhappy customers, but bottom line, after the update our member base soared and is growing faster then ever. There are more people online as well.

Keep it up 2K!!!!!

[supinesmokey13]

i disagree with you.....in the game you can have perfect timing, but if you get jammed up it might go out...how realistic is it to have shots hitting the lines everytime? before the update people were complaining about 68 shot rallies...i think the UE has somewhat take care of this

yea and also peeps forget that postioning is important if your supposed to hit a drop shot and do so with perfect timing 5 feet behind the baseline your shot should go out like it does in real life and t is now reflected in the game as postion is just important as timing.

[PCFitnessDotNet]

Before the update the most powerful skill set was Top Spin Invasion and Monster Defense. Now it's the dropshot.. Let's see how they patch that.

[sky9753]

it is funny how if i disagree with itst that i am called a poor player who doesnt know how to play when in fact i have been playing this game since top spin 1. Do you know how many times the pros are out of postion and streached to there limit and they just hit the ball back to get it in the court. they are not hitting perfect or good timings just to get it back into the court it is just to give them time to get back into position to hit a good shot. to have my inperfect timing go out when i am just trying to get it back in the court to hit a better ball is unrealistic. If you continue going down this road of people having to hit perfect or good timings all the time and having the too soon or too late go out you will see the mass audiance of this game put down this game and not come back including me. You want this to be like tops spin 2 and 3 were you have to use triggers to play a good game otherwise you get clobbered. You call this game realistic come on the coaches i can dropshot all the time with dropshot artist. with power server as a skill i ace people left and right. this game is not a sim game the way the coaches are set up and the way the skill sets are.

[PCFitnessDotNet]

I think some people are simply do not want to play a tennis game.

They simply want to have fun Common, there so many fun games out there, take your pick!

So long as any title carries the name "Tennis" - personally, I expect it to be as close as possible to hmm I dont know, TENNIS?

This is my idea of fun.

As far as comparing sales wise between the Arcade and Sim, all you need to do is look at sales of VT games and TS. They are near the same. So it is safe to say that the market is kinda split in the middle.

What 2K is doing is trying to capture both. VERY hard, but so far, I think they are succeeding. There will always be unhappy customers, but bottom line, after the update our member base soared and is growing faster then ever. There are more people online as well.

Keep it up 2K!!!!!

Djarvik nothing personal, but are you undercover for 2k or have you recently submitted your resume? lol

Just kidding!

I'm not so sure I would put VT in the same place as Top Spin, just because I don't think VT is much of a SIM. The Top Spin franchise has always been better to me because there was always a fine blend of Arcade and SIM and I think most of us like that.

Many of us want to have fun and at the same time have that SIM feel, I'm one of those players. But I think everyone has their own definition of what makes a Tennis game fun.

I think there needs to be a balance of the two in order to appeal to everyone, not just ITST. And from a sales perspective, I know 2k is trying to accomplish that. Top Spin 4 is still a good game even after the update. But for me, just not as fun as before. As far as VT4, visually it's a nice game, but I'm not crazy about anything else.