New Top Spin 4 Balancing Update

[redbaron005]

Re: New Top Spin 4 Balancing Update

This game is very frustrating now. Aces are virtually impossible to serve and I was barely able to get a few per match. Now its a miracle if I get just ONE! But the main problem I have is how HARD seems easy and I can beat every player I play (this is all offline), but just bumping it up to VERY HARD makes it impossible to play! Suddenly my timing is garbage, I hit errors left and right, and the CPU goes from hitting returnable shots in HARD to hitting angles and placements I BARELY have enough time to get to leaving the court wide open for a winner in VERY HARD.

I'm playing with Chang vs Wozniacki and if I focus and play hard, I can hold her to 0-1 points on HARD. On VERY HARD she hits shots that land just over the net, hits slices that land right on my toes and also come at me FAST so i cant get a good shot back, and is just generally a totally different player! How can that be? How can they go from beatable 10 out of 10 times to be beatable 1 out of 10 times with just one step up?! It's bull crap!

I like playing because I can win but I hate the zero challenge. But going up just one level makes it impossible to win so where's the fun now? Gone, that's where!

[zoguloth22]

Re: New Top Spin 4 Balancing Update

I need some help guys. I created a serve and volley CAP and reached level 20. Now that I am level 20, the first thing I want to do is create an offensive baseline CAP, how do I do that and have him be level 20? I know that once you have one player reach level 20, you can create another one and have them automatically become level 20, but I can't seem to figure out how to make it work. I tried creating a new guy, but he is level 0 and I can't see how to make him level 20.

An idea:

1. Does it matter if I create the new CAP within the Career mode or not? For example, from the main menu there is a creation zone, if I want a guy to automatically be level 20 instead of having to take him through the career mode to get there do I have to make him in the creation zone or does it matter?

Thanks for the help if anyone knows the answer!

Once you have a lvl 20 created player,you need to youse that player in a quick match agianst a cpu player. after you finish that match youl unlock the thing that lets you creat lvl 20 players. when you creat a new player a option will pop up asking if you want the 50k exp. if you select yes when you go to my player you can put points where you want them.

[ronaldo9]

Re: New Top Spin 4 Balancing Update

So entering my first Grand Slam semi (the French) vs Djokovic - have killed Federer and Tomic on Hard. By all accounts everyone says the semifinals and finals, the difficulty of the opponent increases, so should I drop down to normal and be okay?

[adwait_8]

Re: New Top Spin 4 Balancing Update

The update has changed a lot of things and made serving aces very difficult. The AI on very hard is now just that, very hard. I was able to spank "very hard" before, but after the update it was the opposite. I lost regularly. But persistence has helped. I just beat joker for the US open title. After losing to him in 3 previous semis and 2 slam finals 3-0, 3-0.

My solution was to play more precision/control shots into the corners(I have the counter shot coach) and be more patient.

When you have your opponent on the run and at full stretch, coming to the net to kill the point also helps. The update has made making ridiculous passing shots next to impossible.

[LorenzoDC]

Re: New Top Spin 4 Balancing Update

Just picked up the game again after a while away from it.

This latest patch has changed the game drastically from what it was out of the box, a process already begun by the previous patch.

I don't play online, so it may be that the changes have addressed the imbalances pvp players identified with the first release.

But versus the CPU, by trying to make some things more true to a sim experience, they have broken some others.

As others have noted, after the 1.0 release made it too easy to get aces if you knew how, now it's random and near impossible. Balls that appear to be nailed inside the line for aces are called faults, and the serve stick has been much more difficult to manipulate to get that line precision that existed before. It was too easy before, but now it's gone to the other extreme.

By making the timing more difficult to execute in this last patch, and by making fatigue affect precision and timing for the human player to a greater degree than the CPU player, they've created the net effect of better competitive balance on hard setting at the expense of realistic sim experience.

Playing a CPU player at your level should rely on better execution of a game plan as styles of play collide in order to create balance. It should not artificially gimp the human player and give the CPU better angles for more consistent winners relative to the human. That's not sim, that's the opposite of sim.

It's true there are a few more unforced errors now by the CPU than there were before (when there were practically none), especially as a result of fatigue. But relative to the increased incidence of unforced errors by the human as a result of more extreme tightening of the shot timing mechanism, the net effect is too unequal.

There's a lot of potential in this game, and I do appreciate all the things they get right. But for the offline player, the tuning is just not quite there. And the disparity of difficulty between difficulty settings is just too high, from the default level, to hard to very hard. This is a game that could potentially really benefit from user controlled customizable sliders for offline.

[CMH]

Re: New Top Spin 4 Balancing Update

I can't play this game anymore after the latest update. It went from a fun experience where I was looking forward to leveling up and playing more competitive guys to just mere frustration.

Far too many times I lightly tap the stick and try to hit a passing shot and my player ends up landing it well outside. There's very little visual context to my actions.

The point is, I don't play enough video games to relearn the controls. It took me a lot of time to go from being very bad at this game to finally getting a groove and being good at it. Now they make me feel like I have to start over.

My satisfaction with the game is nil right now. After losing in straight sets to a player nearly 10 levels worse than me, I have decided to sell the game.

The amount of unforced errors my video game counterpart is hitting without me forcing the issue (I am playing beyond conservative tennis at this point) is proof enough that this game is just too difficult for me. I'm simply not good enough and I don't have the time nor patience to master it.

It was a good game for me at one point. I have to move on.

[LorenzoDC]

Re: New Top Spin 4 Balancing Update

I can't play this game anymore after the latest update. It went from a fun experience where I was looking forward to leveling up and playing more competitive guys to just mere frustration.

Far too many times I lightly tap the stick and try to hit a passing shot and my player ends up landing it well outside. There's very little visual context to my actions.

The point is, I don't play enough video games to relearn the controls. It took me a lot of time to go from being very bad at this game to finally getting a groove and being good at it. Now they make me feel like I have to start over.

My satisfaction with the game is nil right now. After losing in straight sets to a player nearly 10 levels worse than me, I have decided to sell the game.

The amount of unforced errors my video game counterpart is hitting without me forcing the issue (I am playing beyond conservative tennis at this point) is proof enough that this game is just too difficult for me. I'm simply not good enough and I don't have the time nor patience to master it.

It was a good game for me at one point. I have to move on.

Yeah, that makes sense. Can't blame you. I don't expect I'll play much at all either, and I may end up letting it just collect dust.

[fearwhatnow]

Re: New Top Spin 4 Balancing Update

It's obvious that the game went from the casual/sim state to the hardcore/sim state after the last update.Why don't you all just delete the data and bring the game to 1.0 default release?
To tell the truth I feel kinda guilty because after the release of the game I was one of those that asked for balancing updates.I even asked for CPU advantage in overall.I wanted a hardcore/sim tennis game and I'm quite happy with all these balancing updates.I wanted to feel the on court pressure and frustration and 2k delivered.
Maybe the solution is the option of sliders in Top Spin 5.

[CMH]

Nah forget sliders. I think they are doing a great job. The game is real close to a true sim. I respect that.

If this were the game on release, I'd just sit down and get better at it.

The issue is I want to feel the challenge and still have a shot at winning. I'm only accomplishing one of those things. Practice would resolve the other but I just want to play a career mode. If I have to practice on the side, play exhibition matches, I'd rather be using that time playing the many other non-sports games I've wanted to try.

Nothing really wrong with the new update. Truthfully, it was getting too easy without it. So I commend them for making a patch the way patches should be done. I just don't want to spend the time relearning the game.

Maybe later.


Sent from my mobile device.

[LorenzoDC]

Re: New Top Spin 4 Balancing Update

Nah forget sliders. I think they are doing a great job. The game is real close to a true sim. I respect that.

If this were the game on release, I'd just sit down and get better at it.

The issue is I want to feel the challenge and still have a shot at winning. I'm only accomplishing one of those things. Practice would resolve the other but I just want to play a career mode. If I have to practice on the side, play exhibition matches, I'd rather be using that time playing the many other non-sports games I've wanted to try.

Nothing really wrong with the new update. Truthfully, it was getting too easy without it. So I commend them for making a patch the way patches should be done. I just don't want to spend the time relearning the game.

Maybe later.


Sent from my mobile device.

How can you say at the same time it's close to a true sim and yet say you have not and are not taking the time to play it enough to test its competitive balance for offline? That doesn't make sense to me.

I get what you are saying, but to go from "I'm not having fun, don't want to put the time in ti regain practice and skill and want to put my time elsewhere" to "the balance is right" is making a big jump based on an assumption, not actual playing experience.

The balance is off now for human versus CPU. What's more, the baseline for balance should not be at the highest difficulty setting. A reasonably experienced console gamer should be able to skill up over thirty hours of gameplay and compete with some success on a setting one step above the default, and I don't believe that's the case today.

I've played over fifty hours of this game and I post patch am now at a place where I can only steal a game or two on hard setting because aces are impossible, timing is way too tight tight and CPU opponents can hit winners from angles I never can even against good or well timed shots deep in the court.

The human player has been too gimped.

[CMH]

Re: New Top Spin 4 Balancing Update

How can you say at the same time it's close to a true sim and yet say you have not and are not taking the time to play it enough to test its competitive balance for offline? That doesn't make sense to me.
.

I never said that. Maybe you're misunderstanding me or I'm not understanding your point?

The game is closer to true sim. Fact. What does that have to do with me choosing or not choosing to play the game?

I don't want to take the time to relearn it. Fact. What does that have to do with whether or not the game is closer to true sim?

Those two things have nothing in common.

[number1thumbs]

Re: New Top Spin 4 Balancing Update

i'm getting better, just picked it up last week(so didnt have to "re-learn")

i'm finding that on very hard you have to finish more points at the net

my player has like a 41 for volley and does a decent enough job at this

lost to Nadal in 3rd set super tiebreak in the semis at the French(TS scoring)

disheartening loss but his butt is grass on grass or hard courts

[woodjer]

Re: New Top Spin 4 Balancing Update

I can't play this game anymore after the latest update. It went from a fun experience where I was looking forward to leveling up and playing more competitive guys to just mere frustration.

Far too many times I lightly tap the stick and try to hit a passing shot and my player ends up landing it well outside. There's very little visual context to my actions.

The point is, I don't play enough video games to relearn the controls. It took me a lot of time to go from being very bad at this game to finally getting a groove and being good at it. Now they make me feel like I have to start over.

My satisfaction with the game is nil right now. After losing in straight sets to a player nearly 10 levels worse than me, I have decided to sell the game.

The amount of unforced errors my video game counterpart is hitting without me forcing the issue (I am playing beyond conservative tennis at this point) is proof enough that this game is just too difficult for me. I'm simply not good enough and I don't have the time nor patience to master it.

It was a good game for me at one point. I have to move on.

This is EXACTLY how I feel. I just tried playing a charity match the other night and got smoked by a level 3 player...and I'm an 11. This is the third straight time this has happened to me with nearly identical level differences. I was getting pretty frustrated at one point so I even hit a shot without trying to aim at all and it went wide. I had to move a little bit but I was there in enough time to prepare a decent return.

Before, the game was challenging but in such a way that I always felt like I could win or lose any match. Now, I just honestly feel like I can't win no matter what I try. Like you said, I would rather not re-learn a game that I was finally getting the hang of.

Anyway, I'm actually feeling sad about this. I really was having a lot of fun in the career mode. Unless this changes, this is getting traded in when I pick up NCAA Football 12 in a couple weeks.

[woodjer]

Re: New Top Spin 4 Balancing Update

It's obvious that the game went from the casual/sim state to the hardcore/sim state after the last update.Why don't you all just delete the data and bring the game to 1.0 default release?

I've actually thought about deleting and going back to the 1.0 release. However, these updates are forced into the game. If I forget to disconnect before starting the game, I'll have to go back and delete everything all over again. If these only affected online or non-CPU matches, I'd be ok since I have yet to play one online.

I'm all for tuning a game after release but this one just went way too far for me. I think you described the shift perfectly. While I do enjoy the sim aspects of this (and others) game, I certainly fall into the casual category when it comes to my abilities and patience.

[BIG CAROLINA]

Re: New Top Spin 4 Balancing Update

I don't know but I am loving this game after the update. 2k IMO has done a hell of job with this game, this is one of the most underrated games out to me.

If anyone wants to play online sometime just hit me up.