Tennis Elbow 4 News

Here we go with another important update, bringing the Acceleration Traits, fixing the doubles AI, and the performances of Incredible difficulty level.

I hope you'll enjoy all these improvements ! :-)

And here is the complete changelog.

[h2]New Features :[/h2]
- Gameplay : added the "Acceleration Traits" ; each player can choose between 7 traits, giving speed bonuses & handicaps depending on different situations ; this might require some tuning, so don't hesitate to let me know if you feel something is off, and if you have ideas for new traits as well ! ːsteamthumbsupː
- Modding : added a button to open the Mods handled by ModIO on the bottom left of Settings -> Profiles

[h2]Changes :[/h2]
- AI : the Incredible CPU was almost totally paralyzed by the risk to put the ball into the net, making play way too many slices & safe strikes, and even more with the Elite controls ; now, the Incredible should be back and much more valiant :punch:
- Strikes : lowered by 3 km/h the maximum speed of the acceleration and 2 km/h the Shoulder Height bonus, so the maximum strike speed will be about the same when you get a bonus from an acceleration trait

[h2]Bug Fixes :[/h2]
- AI : fixed a bunches of cases where the CPU didn't want to play the ball in doubles, but should have played it :fear:
- Menu : it was not possible to open the Match Log (available in Settings -> World Tour & Training Club)

[h2]Notes :[/h2]
- If you want to change your Acceleration Trait in the World Tour, activate the DevMode (HowTo => https://www.managames.com/Forum/topic19-32161.php ), then once done turn it off

[h2]New Features :[/h2]
- Modding : you can now identify with your Steam account ; note : if you play with both the Mana Games version & the Steam version, identify with your email on both versions so you'll keep your installed Mods
- Modding : you can now specify that your Mod is meant to be applied after another Mod ; for more info, read the "4) Flag your Mod as dependent of another Mod" section here => topic60-34687.php

[h2]Bug Fixes :[/h2]
- Animation : the service animation could be wrongly resync'ed when exiting the replay
- Modding : the game couldn't see more than 1 Mod installed from the Mod Management menu
- Modding : the game couldn't load the saved Training Club players within a Mod
- Modding : the game couldn't load the Profile's _Mod.ini files
- Menu : the mouse cursor could disappear when coming back from the Mod Management menu
- World Tour : fixed a crash when watching a CPU Player's Tournament Titles screen at the end or the start of a year

Here is an important update with the arrival of the ModIO plugin allowing you to subscribe & download Mods from within the game.

This should greatly ease the Modding, just don't forget to restart the game after each Mod change.

For now, you have to log in using your email ; I'll try to replace that with an automatic login when you use the Steam version, but I'm afraid this will not work well for people playing the game both off & on Steam, so I'll have to investigate more to know if I can implement this solution or not.

You'll also find all the uploaded Mods here : https://mod.io/g/tennis-elbow-4 .

Another noticeable addition is the handling of the controller's vibrations. Let me know if you have some ideas to improve them ! :-)

And here is the full changelog.

[h2]New Features :[/h2]
- Controls : now, your controller can vibrate when striking the ball ; activate this with Settings -> Controls -> Player 1 -> Vibration ; the deep vibrations indicate a difficult ball ; the light vibrations indicate a fast strike as well as an off-center ball ; and the light vibration duration indicates an off-center ball
- Modding : you can now download & install the Mods from within the game ! (the Mod authors will have to upload their Mod 1st ; HowTo => https://www.managames.com/Forum/topic60-34686.php )
- Modding : bind your Mod to a Profile, create a Profile .ini, and change the way to put saved Training Club Players in your Mod ; HowTo => https://www.managames.com/Forum/topic60-34687.php

[h2]Changes :[/h2]
- Stadium : moved a bit Rome's roof so its shadow stays farther from the baseline
- Tiredness : the acceleration's tiredness is lowered by 10%
- Strike : with Slice Mastery, the slice speed has been slightly raised around the baseline
- Strike : removed the speed bonus for the Backhand Smash from the baseline (so now it applies to only the forehand smash)
- Strike : lowered the energy bonus when the strike power is more than 20% under the stamina
- Strike : lowered the precision bonus when the strike power is more than 20% under the precision

[h2]Bug Fixes :[/h2]
- Strike : since the previous Build, the drop shot was usually too high, except when executed far from the baseline
- Service : the service could get too slow when the Service Precision was much under the Service Power
- Controls : the Dead Zone was half the value shown, and thus the maximum possible Dead Zone was less than 50%

[h2]Notes :[/h2]
- I have forgotten to change the Build number so the game shows 108 instead of 109... :sweat:

[h2]New Features :[/h2]
- Talents : new Slider talent, which allows starting to slide when running more slowly
- Talents : new Clay Mover talent, which allows to slow down & change direction a bit faster on clay.
- Talents : new Boom Boom Server talent ; the 1st star allows you to do a 1st serve up to 10% faster from time to time ; the 2nd star allows it to also happen when facing a break point
- Talents : new On-time Server talent ; the 1st star lowers by 25% the chance to miss your 1st serve when facing a break point, and the 2nd star by 50%
- Engine : upgraded to Unity 2021.3.22f, hoping it'll fix the rare bug of the fully white screen during the night session :fear:

[h2]Changes :[/h2]
- Gameplay : reworked the sliding so it triggers a bit less often if you don't have the Sliding talent ; also now sliding provides a precision boost and allows stopping to run a bit faster, so it's really beneficial in most situations (you still lose a bit of topspin & backspin, though)
- Online : you can now have 4 Talent stars instead of 2 when playing online
- Online : the Slice Mastery talent is now allowed online (as it's not too overpowered anymore)

[h2]Bug Fixes :[/h2]
- Physics : the ball bounce could get randomly weird when applying backspin to the ball (ie: on slice)
- Strike : the drop shot could get too high if you were standing about 2 meters or more behind the baseline

[h2]New Features :[/h2]
- World Tour : now more than half of the players have one or several talents (if you want to force a player to have no talent, add "Talent = " to his section in the player base)

[h2]Changes :[/h2]
- Physics : tuned the ball bounce when the ball has heavy backspin
- Strike : tuned the drop shot to make it more effective
- Strike : it's now a bit easier to hit a drop shot against a drop shot (ie: a slow ball near the net after the bounce)
- Strike : lowered the backspin of the slice when the ball is low so the strike will still be fast enough

[h2]Bug Fixes :[/h2]
- Strike : the heavy backspin slice could still end too long or even do a home run ! :shock:

[h2]Notes :[/h2]
- Please let me know if the drop shot is too or not enough effective... :fear: