Patch Notes 1.13

Features

• Added new swing animations:
  - Powerful strikes that allow you to punish opponents if they throw defensive lobs at you (often nicknamed “penalty” strikes).
  - Quick counters to add hard-hitting options when receiving a fast ball.
• Hundreds of animations have been adjusted to feel more dynamic. The inertia of many animations has been reduced to allow quick come backs in the rally.
• Added a new “3D View” to official players’ profiles that allows you to have a close look at their 3D models, outfits and animations.
• Players will automatically let the ball go out instead of volleying it when they are close enough to the bounce.
• New texture added for the clay courts’ grounds.
• Added clay FX on slides and cutscenes on clay courts.
• New cutscene animations at the start of points, some dedicated to clay courts.
• Improved graphics (lighting and shading has been reworked for all venues).

Balancing (gameplay)

• Greatly increased the overall pace of the game. All shots have been reviewed and tweaked to provide higher ball speeds, and speeds that are better suited to stroke motion.
• Serves are more powerful and will pass the net at high speeds more often.
• Smashes & volleys are much more agile and easy to use, and smashes are much more powerful.
• Increased the sprint speed in all directions.
• Reworked the lateral slice: it will now be applied to inside-out sliced forehand shots.
• Reworked Madison Keys stats and skills to make her more of a hard-hitting baseline attacker.

Balancing (career mode)

• ATP/WTA players ranking and performance has been tuned to match their current real world ranking in the Career Mode.
• Tuned the ranking points earned each tournament to better reflect the real rewards and give more points for the bigger ones.
• Opened 3-stars tournaments to players up to rank 20, making them more challenging.
• Reduced the amount of Rest given by events, to balance the fact that you can choose 2 events per month.
• Better seeding for the top players in big tournaments. Up to 16 players will benefit from top-seed positions.

AI improvements

• New serve strategies for AI.
• Tweaked AI’s response to serves, effectively enabling the player to serve Aces, especially on easy difficulties.
• Improved AI positioning.
• Tweaked the AI’s use of lobs (depending on difficulty).
• Improved the AI’s behavior when a ball seems out of reach.
• The AI will react more aggressively when taken out of position or running to a dropshot.
• The longer the rally lasts, the more aggressive the AI will become.
• The AI will more consistently break the diagonal rally, especially with harder difficulties.

SFX

• Reworked most stroke and rebound SFX to make them sound more powerful.
• Fixed a bug with backhand hit SFX, making them sound like they were played twice.
• Reworked the crowd ambience and reactions.
• Added new SFX to cutscenes, serve rituals, the training ball machine, and more.
• Reworked groans types available (4 male / 4 female).
• Improved the variety of audio commentaries.

Bug fixes

• Fixed sidestep teleportation and sudden opponent sprints during online matches.
• Fixed a bug where the player would be rotating during a strike, when they’re not supposed to.
• Fixed a bug where the point could end as soon as a let occurs, instead of giving the players the opportunity to catch the ball.
• Fixed the end of match cameras for left-handed players.
• Reworked the transition between the rally and the end of point.
• Fixed a bug that was penalizing accuracy in training mode, making all trainings harder to complete than they should be.
• Fixed a bug that was generating unforced errors on charged slices.
• Fixed a bug where two-handed topspin volleys could be used by one-handed backhand players.
• Fixed a graphical glitch with Agassi’s 2018 outfit.
• Fixed a minor bug on the display of community objective thresholds.
• Fixed the shadows in the Mexico venue.
• Fixed a texture on the Paris Major’s ads.
• Fixed some small inaccuracies with London’s court lines.
• Fixed the issue with reversed Yonex bags on the court.