ITST Mod 1.18 - What do you need to get started!

[Elias]

Update 27/12/2012 :

updated ITST Mod to v. 1.11.

(remember not overwriting the ITST.ini with your previous one because this can lead to textures mismatches, better to re-create your controller mappings manually from scratch or just copy paste your [keys1] or [joy1/joy2] section from your old .ini file to the new one).


Download (115 mb) :


http://www.mediafire.com/?gxuk9wz6qo725r3

http://rapidshare.com/files/186674886/ITST_Mod_1.11.rar


* Updated roster stats.

We know that our roster speeds were to high, especially since 1.0f build. We will probably find the right speeds in two steps, releasing 1.12 in the next weeks after more testing (we lacked some time for it lately). Therefore in this version you'll find a first speed decrease (-3%), especially top roster speeds, heavy and most effective chars also got a standard -3% speed decrease. We took benefit of this first step to close a bit more the gap between Tier1 and Tier2 chars, several Tier2 seeing their speed unmodified or only lowered by 1 or 2%. The overall roster speed may currently still provide too much reach, we know this and will go further in 1.12 after more testing if needed.

Along with this speed tweak, you'll also find a 5% stamina scale down over the whole roster, to promote a bit more stamina management. And finally, slight nerfs (Nadal overall power/consistency, he should still be able to do pretty well, though in a more defensive way, and a -1% BH power decrease on Federer and Nishikori side). Along with these direct stats changes, last TE builds also introduced a slight backhand wing power decrease (meaning that with the same power stat, character backhands are a bit weaker in TE 1.0f compared to 1.0e).

As usual, your feedback will be greatly appreciated to help tweaking properly the next 1.12, as are welcome any end match stats screenshots (important for us to see the rally length ratios on different surfaces), and of course replays.

You can check the stats and the new #CRC's here as usual :

=> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... Ek1ZTgzTHc

=> PDF CRC# File : http://www.mediafire.com/?qqkxu1iqv64kfgd


* Characters

You will find Tommy Haas replacing Robin Soderling (injured list).

* Interface

- Disabled the dialog controls allowing to change the Autopos, within the ingame help screen dialog.

- The Scoreboard positionning is now saved at TE shutdown.

- Enforcing some hosting Parameters, (Free mode forced, Previews : off forced, Controls : all choices still available, Fatigue : on forced, Tagline initialized to "ITST 1.11" at TE launch).

- Allowed a wider zoom distance with the camera zoom slider, to allow far cams in 3D mode.

* Animations

All the following new motions have been added to the mod, though not all of these have been binded to
a character, mainly because of gameplay efficiency considerations. An example is Almagro who kept his Ferrer forehand despite the new one available, wich seems a bit less consistent to hit clean crossed shots, also Federer who kept M4n4cor forehand wich brings a very slight faster execution speed, allowing Federer to hit a bit ealryer, wich is an important perk regarding his playstyle.

I may forget some details so i won't list all the changes for every char, but some got their serve motions replaced
with a better/easyer to use motion, Cilic got a new forehand, Del Potro a serve motion designed after him, Almagro got binded his backhand, Tipsarevic and Haas are binded with Stosur serve, and Federer got binded a new serve animation from Lucian, pretty good one, wich shouldn't be more difficult to use than the previous one (feedback welcome).

As overall anims change, you'll find a new Forehand slice, and new volley anims binded to all the characters.

- Federer FH norm/accel version by Lucian
- Federer BH norm/accel version by Lucian
- Federer new serve by Lucian.
- Federer FH slice by Lucian (binded to all chars)
- Federer return stance by Lucian
- New Volley motions by Lucian
- Nalbandian FH norm+accel version by Lucian
- Nadal BH norm+accel version by Lucian
- Djokovic FH norm+accel version by M4n4c0r & Lucian
- Djokovic BH norm+accel version by M4n4c0r & Lucian
- Djokovic slice by Lucian
- Djokovic return stance by Lucian
- Nadal slice by Lucian
- Nadal return stance by Lucian
- 3 Fed slices. (i think we had only one before, it's just the same but with different follow up length)
- Almagro FH + BH by megyaem30
- Cilic FH by megyaem30
- Roddick FH by megyaem30
- Roddick BH by megyaem30
- Lots of new return stances by Jaydraco.
- Stosur serve by Neeky McDeez
- DelPotro serve v2 by Neeky McDeez

* new courts

Not much new goodies for now in this department, only 3 courts have been replaced with better versions :
Beijing, Tokyo, Moscow.


Note : An unlocked test versions will come a bit later.

[Martan]

Nice job, stamina and speed is perfect now

anyway, have you ever thought about Berdych's net pressence? I'd say 64% is really underrated. He's not S&V player but when you see him at doubles at Davis cup, he's pretty good at net, I'd say 72-74% would be perfect for him

[Florian]

Just played a set against Clog-Nadal on BG, and it seems even more impossible to do whatever with any spinned ball from my side than before...i mean even his bh spin is so big that even if you are very early on the ball and press b1+down for like almost a second, you have no chance to counter it properly (i was using Tsonga).

Don't get me wrong, the whole game is really great and pretty realistic, but in my opinion there is definitely something wrong with the way you think the top spin is compared to real tennis, and not only for Nadal but for 90% of the players.
I mean any player with enough time on his best shot (fh or bh) must be able to produce some decent spin around 45-50%, and the rest of the time between 25 and 35%. I would understand if Nadal was allowed to have 55-60% spin overall, but here with this current pretty ridiculous 84% overall, Nadal defending with b1+down is way enough to put anyone into some massive trouble on any surface, which is, i think, pretty much desperate...

There were many times where i managed to hit a big 148km/h fh, and Clog was just able to spin it and reach my baseline, even preventing me to stand close to it otherwise that would make an automatic red ue...(and, pardon me Clog but your level isn't close from somebody like Voja, so i let you imagine what kind of disaster that will be vs him... )

This is the way i think spin stats should be in such a game where you don't have the possibility to hit flat and risky shots (not even talking of returns...), so if anyone agrees or disagrees with what i ve written down here, please comment

[djarvik]

Some food for though Floriann.

2012 Titles and Finals.


I wont agree or disagree with you, I am simply not at your level of play, but it seems to me this is more of a personal issue with spin? Seems like Rafa is being dispatched from tournaments left and right. Anyway, Vmoe and Elias can explain in better detail.

[Martan]

You should delete Federer from ITST

Anyway, Nadal or Ferrer topspins are so high that is not realistic at all but I think that is not problem of ITST but of the game

[djarvik]

You should delete Federer from ITST

2012 was a good year for him, no doubt. But we have steadily adjusted him and we feel the balance now is VERY good. A lot of these titles were won early, add to that the popularity of Federer and this is what you get. But overall, if you look at it - we have quite a good mix of Titlists and Finalists and after a few updates we made and the latest one - ANYONE has a good chance now.

[Martan]

I hope I will reach the final with Stepanek once

Anyway I am not the biggest fan of Fed but he is a awesome player and I like how he plays. What I hate is everyone is playing for him, everyone, thats what I hate

[Lucian86]

What I hate is everyone is playing for him, everyone, thats what I hate

Well, it's not only because he's strong but also because people like playing with him. At the baseline Djokovic is a lot better for instance.
I use Federer 1st because I'm a big fan, 2nd because he's an all round player which I am everywhere (in real life and also in the videogame)

@Elias
For Djokovic's forehand and backhand, give the credits also to m4n4c0r since I just made some little changes and improvements (I think) of his old animations. Actually, most of the credit goes to him

[C4iLL]

There is a big mistake on the update : nobody uses Llodra because he's weak but once again he has been dramatically lowered... Once too often !

3 points less in speed and -5 in stamina... Whereas it's not the case of every character in the roster : Gasquet, Wawrinka keep their speed for instance !

This raises a serious question : why not definitely erasing this character of the roster ? How can you then be competitive with him now ?

At the Barclays Masters, the best Llodra user lost his 3 matches by playing at its max level. As Llodra is FAR from dominating the tour (no one ever won a tournament with him), what's the point to always lower this player ?

It was already very hard to approach the net during exchange and to keep your serve because of its low stamina and speed , it will now be nearly impossible vs the top 20 !

That kind of strategy is more dangerous for the tour than you think : it will incent people to give up special character like that to only go for Nadal and Federer.
It's not only stupid : it kills the diversity of the tour and that won't motivate people to join it at all.

The fact that i'm only one to regularly use a SV on the tour shows that there is an issue to solve. And constantly lowering the only interesting player of that style is an extremely strange way to deal with this issue !!

A logical proposition : instead of continously lowering the stamina and speed of a character EVERYBODY thinks unplayable except me, you should make him more attractive, by increasing this stats. Like 82 in speed and a more normal stamina. More people will then begin to use him.

[Woowhat]

Hello
This new version looks pretty good. I like new SHB's of Almagro and Federer. They're great. Better serve stats are also nice change. About stamina i wasn't really paying attention while playing but the idea is good. I alsways felt that stamina is a non-factor. The biggest change i noticed is that volleying is much easier, especially with off-centered swings but thats maybe just me.

Neagative sides are that like Florian said the spin is still to high. Nadal's and the rest of Spanish armys topspins are big and hard to deal with but nowhere near like in this game. Lovering spin stats or giving some extra bonus in power/flattnes for well prepared shots would be great.

Keep up the good work

[Lucian86]

If the characters are supposed to be more or less like in the real life then it should be really really difficult to win a tournament with Llodra or Stepanek, isn't it ?

Either you accept that or in order to make every player competitive, you think it in other terms. For instance, a solution might be to individuate a couple of playing styles that players or people have in the game like:
- defender
- baseliner
- all-round
- puncher
- serve&volley
- a combination of the last two (thinking about Tsonga)
- etc.

For each of these styles, you create some standard specific skills in order to allow each one to be competitive. You then take any player from the list and assign him the skills of the style that he fits in..if we consider Federer and Gasquet as two all-round players then they will have the same skills...it's not realistic, I know but in this way people will not complain that they can't win a tournament with the french or someone else

[Woowhat]

Exactly Lucian. S&V is a dying art. Llodra is good, but not that good. I like his game and touch on the net (he was great in Paris) but sadly in today conditions you would need to be some sort of S&V monster like Edberg to have a chance and Llondra is nowhere near to him. Maybe it's not fun but it's realistic.

[djarvik]

Guys, please try to save your definitive feedback until after a good amount of matches played. Preferably a few tournaments. Initial impressions can be very misleading. I suggest you try all the players you are interested in (maybe even the ones you are not).

Pretty much all players were affected by this patch, be it in the stat or animation department. There were a few players that were singled out, Llodra was not one of them, he got affected with the much larger group. The players that got affected the most are Nadal and Federer.

C4ill, Lucian is right, it should be a feat to win a title with a SV player nowadays. We cannot make him "stronger" for the sake of allowing easier title wins, that would not be right. I also think that the reason SV players are not being picked now is not because they are somehow inferior, but generally because of lack of interest in SV game. It is very reflective of today's tennis world. Unfortunately. We are not here to change reality - we ARE here to replicate it as much as we can.

This is from my personal perspective, I could be wrong, but here it goes anyway
- It is my firm believe that the only SV player we have in the roster is quite strong when played right. That means to me personally - keeping the rallies short, SV on all first serves, take risk returning and generally avoid rallies at all cost. This is SV to me, this is how it "supposed" to be played. It is not easy, especially so in Today's tennis. Anyway, my 2C.

[Martan]

You should delete Federer from ITST

the popularity of Federer

[C4iLL]

2 answers to Djarvik & Lucians posts :

1) There's no full realism in the roster. If realism would have been respected, Djokovic would be incredibly fast, regular and powerful, Federer too, Isner would be better at the net and have an unbelieavable serve, Tsonga will be amazing at the net and would have a huge forehand, Nalbandian would be useless and so on...

The goal with the ITST mod isn't to reach 100% realism, it's to find the best balance between strenghts of the real players and a relative balance in the gameplay to have fun.
A second goal is to give to some players of tier 2 and 3 weapons to compete against the best characters of the roster.
A third one to garantee a certain diversity of style.

Regarding that spirit and these goals, lowering Llodra more than other players is not relevant at all : it's the third update he gets touched by these stats change whereas he's among the less used character of the roster !

2) I repeat : Llodra has been made extremely weak with the 1.10. Bad service (I did a lot more double faults than on 1.09), extremely low stamina and wings, lower speed... Everything was almost lowered for him, and now that ?

Nobody ever complained about Llodra... Recently in 1.10 a guy like Florian won like 8 sets in a row with a baseliner against my Llodra ! What's the point to make him even more low ? It will only break the fun me and my opponents had, because they will win more easily...

And if the hidden goal is realism go ahead, but be consistent : put realism everywhere in the roster, give Tsonga what he really deserves, that is to say a huge net presence, a better speed and service ! Because the current ITST Tsonga is far from the real one.
And I will give up Llodra.