Tuesday, February 15, 2011

New images and dev-diary for Top Spin 4

Everything to see and read ... 2K Games has released a new developer diary for Top Spin 4, which can be found below. From the press release: Hello everyone, I'm Rémi Ercolani, game designer for Top Spin 4. During development, I had the task of designing and refining the gameplay. My work has influenced the way in which the player performs, the types of stroke and the overall balance.

As a passionate tennis player, was a pleasant process. Today I will explain how each player can have a different experience in Top Spin 4 depending on your gaming habits, creating his own style. When I talk about style of play, I refer to as play tennis and strategies you choose to win a game: the hits to run, field position, the reaction to the blows of the opponent and so on.

In Top Spin 4, we tried to give each player a chance to create their own style of play. Whether you prefer the game from the baseline, or the tactical shots on goal with a volley, you can play and win in Top Spin 4. The team began working on the comments received by fans of Top Spin 3. A regular complaint concerned the fact that the game was too unbalanced in favor of the power players, who were too tough to beat regardless of the strategies used.

We have therefore tried to improve this aspect and provide a wide range of playing styles in Top Spin 4. Balanced game play styles = balanced We spent a lot of energy to find a way to make all styles of play and competitive balance. The result is that Top Spin 4 presents a very accessible gameplay, yet also has a wide range of strokes and movements.

The arsenal of shots at your disposal can tackle the game in many different ways and offers a number of tactics to win a game, depending on the characteristics and style of the opponent. We spent whole months to sharpen and balance the gameplay and we got to a point where we believe that all styles of play are fun and competitive as well.

Of course, every team member has their own preferences and claims to be the master of the Top Spin 4, but that's another problem ... After watching and studying thousands of games and players, the team identified three most common styles of play that we wanted to integrate: attack from the back, the defense fund, service and volley.

These archetypes of players that you can use (and create, with the new player development system which will be discussed in a forthcoming diaries). Each of these styles of play has its strengths and its weaknesses and is best suited for certain strokes and movements. Let's see in detail.

Attack from the bottom: The style of Serena Williams is a perfect example of attack from the bottom. The attack by the fund is an extremely aggressive style of play where you try not to give the opponent the opportunity to develop a counter strategy. The main objective is to win the point as quickly as possible with devastating shots.

Like every other style of play, it is highly recommended that you use a specially designed player, otherwise you will be less effective. The attackers to fund services usually rely on powerful and strength parameters, as well as solid shots from the bottom. On the other hand, the bottom of the attackers tend to be slower and more vulnerable at the net.

Andy Roddick, Jim Courier and Serena Williams are good examples of strikers end. Let's look at the profile of Serena and as we have said influenced his style of play. Note the strong attributes of the game from the bottom of the right (DT) and reverse (RV), apart from the explosive (ERA) and power (POT).

In terms of controls, powerful shots are essential in this style of game. As you will discover in the next few diaries, powerful shots are executed by holding down a command (usually a flat shot) before releasing it with the best possible timing. Services powerful, especially if accompanied by the right stick to perform an advanced service, are very effective and make it difficult for the opponent's response.

Of course, you can neutralize the attackers from the fund carefully choosing the shots. These players are slower and are not able to quickly cover large areas of the field, as a result have difficulty in responding to shots away from the center. Moreover, they are more vulnerable to shocks from the rebound short (cut as the shots), which may lead them to lose power and accuracy and increase the possibility that making a mistake.

One of the best feelings you can experience playing as a striker from the bottom, you see the opponent's reach with a difficulty of your shots and respond with a drop shot and weak, giving you time to attack. In this situation, you will see your player make the shot in advance, move around the field with a beautiful animation (we call "fatality") and then hit the ball as hard as possible, usually the winning point with ease.

Defense from the bottom: Andy Murray is an expert from the defense fund. The defense is quite different from the bottom. It is based on the duration of the exchange on patience and force opponents to make difficult shots, making them move on the ground to drain their strength and lead to error or playing a ball that can not.

Players that use this style usually have excellent skills in law and wrong and are very fast. Be careful, though: the defenders have low basic parameters of power and service, as well as below average skills in volleys. Michael Chang, Caroline Wozniacki and Andy Murray are typical of defenders of the bottom as you can see from the profile of Murray.

Note the attributes of the game background. In addition, the reflections (RIF) and velocity (VEL) have very high values, providing a very quick response time and making it a formidable opponent when Andy is on the bottom line. In defense of the fund is advisable to vary, using topspin shots or cut.

The shots cut to provide a reverse rotation of the ball, making the short rebound and forcing the opponent to lose power and precision. The blows have cut an excellent weapon to neutralize the opponent to dictate the pace of exchange and to decide when to win. The top spin shots, on the other hand, provide a rotation to the ball forward and can be targeted with more precision and angle.

The top spin shots are very helpful to move the opponent from the center and to prepare a winner on the other side of the field. Unlike background of the attacker, the shots are not part of the arsenal of powerful defender of the fund. The key to this style is accuracy. Pressing a command quickly, the player will perform a controlled shot, the slower but more precise than any other shot.

I assure you that winning a point looking at the opponent work hard to meet your shots past him in cunning and tactics rather than power, it is a satisfaction. Service and volley: Pete Sampras was a master of the volley, his talent has yet to be equaled. How can we talk about styles of play ignoring the service and volley? Be '...

we can not. This is the third way that the development team wanted to implement in Top Spin 4. First of all, we worked a lot with the motion capture for all movement and volleys of shots that a player could run: the player who snaps at the net, after which take the shots, the passes, volleys powerful, those of reflection, the smash ...

you'll have all the footage of a player's volley. We have added hundreds of these animations to create a service and volley style of play realistic, both as controls and visually. Pete Sampras and Patrick Rafter service and volley players are pure, exciting style, although this tends not to be exploited by modern players.

Note the very high parameters in the service (SER) and volleys (VOL), which allow you to take Sampras quickly and effectively to the network after the service and win the point. Reflexes (REF) is another critical parameter for these players. The service and volley style is based, of course, the strategy to get on the network at the earliest opportunity, putting pressure your opponent with powerful or well-placed volley.

To play Top Spin 4 in this way, you should use players with good volleys and an effective service. The weak points are right, the reverse and power, resulting in greater efficiency in the network rather than on the bottom line. Volley players also have a full arsenal of shots to choose from.

May decide to run a safe volleys with average precision or take more risks with powerful volleys or aiming line. You can also run volleys muted: it is risky shots, but nothing can beat the satisfaction of seeing their player hit the ball gently, sending it just beyond the network and letting the opponent horrified and stuck on the bottom line.

Of course, you will not have to allow time to prepare for your opponent. Otherwise you will be vulnerable to passing shots or lobs. If you suffered a lob, you still have a chance to run back and try to respond with a shot between the legs or other spectacular shots. All players are different, of course, is very rare for a player to specialize in one of these styles.

It is possible, but it is very rare. Generally the players are very different and have different skill levels in different styles. This means that face is always a different experience. If you want, you can create the perfect player, able to excel in any style of play. As already mentioned, we will discuss the created players in an upcoming diary.

Finally, Top Spin 4 encourages you to play several players trying to find out which one suits you more and become the player to beat. Roger Federer is an excellent example of a complete player, which has no obvious weaknesses, but it is not even the best in all areas of the game (apart from the right, but we're talking about Roger).

Notice how the parameters are balanced by Roger, making it effective in every aspect of the game. Conclusion: As you can see, we have done our best to make each style unique. We have tried long and we made sure that no one was more effective than others. All for today, I hope you enjoyed discovering the variety of playing styles in Top Spin 4 that will allow you to create your own personal style and compete against other players to determine who is the best in the world.

See you online! - Rémi Ercolani Game Designer

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