FAQ, hints & tips

[kschoice]

List of subjects covered below :

• Installing a mod
  
• I don't understand why I miss so many shots
  
• The game is too hard/too easy!
  
• Lag handling in online mode
  
• Do linesmen/umpire ever make mistakes?
  
• How do characters evolve in career mode?
  
• Why does player X's stats don't reflect real-life? Why is it that player X's serve/shot animations aren't the same as real-life?
  
• Why is there no penalty when a player leaves an online game?
  
• Why do I get high ping with online opponents? What can I do to lower ping?
  
• Does playing with manual prepare give an advantage over automatic?
  
• Does Full Ace run on Steamdeck?

Installing a mod

Typically a mod will consist of a Patch folder and a data.fas file. Both must be installed in SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Full Ace Tennis Simulator\LocalData. (This folder is created the first time you launch the game).
You should never overwrite any file outside of LocalData folder.
Unless you know what you're doing, you should also never copy a Patch folder over a previous one. Instead begin by removing the previous Patch folder or rename it to another name for back-up.

I don't understand why I miss so many shots

Maybe the most important thing to understand about FA timing is :
GREEN IS NOT A GUARANTEE OF THE BALL GOING IN.
This would hardly be a simulation if all you had to do was get the timing right.

The other important thing:
DON'T AIM AT THE LINES!

And one last thing:
SERIOUSLY, DON'T AIM AT THE LINES!

Every attempted shot results in a landing zone that depends upon several parameters, including the quality of your timing. One very obvious thing about that is if you make the same shot and aim for the line, or aim 1 meter away from the line, the landing zone is going to be much more or less contained within the court lines, and therefore the chances of the ball going in are going to be very much different.
As it is explained in the tutorial, there are many other parameters that impact the precision of your shot : character stats, ball height on impact, player speed.
The fact that you miss your shot may have nothing do to with the shot execution itself but rather the spot where you decided to hit the ball, the shot selection you made, where you decided to aim...

The game is too hard/too easy!

Full Ace's gameplay is designed to have a high learning curve. For this reason, we introduced a number of ways for the user to tune the difficulty of the game. Default settings have been set to be friendly to newcomers.

Here are a few tips/hints on how to improve your experience :

1 - Full Ace's gameplay is quite different from any other tennis game you might have played before. Really understanding it will make your life easier in the long run. So make sure you go through the TUTORIAL.

2 - Most players' instinct is to wait until the last moment to push prepare and/or shot buttons. In actuality, it is very important that you try to prepare and arm your shots as soon as a real player would do it: you won't get overwhelmed as much, and you will benefit more from positioning assistance.

• Prepare immediately after you have read the ball trajectory and have decided whether you are going to hit a backhand or forehand. This should come before or simultaneously with beginning to move your character.
  
• Arm your shot early when the ball is coming at you, and your character is in range of hitting the ball. This part is more of an acquired habit.

3 - There are several options to tune the game's difficulty/complexity :

• If you are playing keyboard or are getting overwhelmed by the controls, you may want to use "Auto Prepare" mode. It is available in SETTINGS>CONTROL.
  
• In SETTINGS>GAMEPLAY, changing Ball Type will slowdown the pace of the game, giving you more time to deal with the ball. It will also make it harder to put pressure or score points against AI.
  
• In SETTINGS>GAMEPLAY, AI Agressiveness, AI Reaction, Serve Speed, Serve Difficulty, and Shot Timing Sensitivity settings allow you to tweak the game's difficulty. Lowering AI Aggressiveness will make AI take less risky shots, making them easier to attack but also committing less mistakes.
  
• Playing against low-skilled opponents at first. The lower you go in the list, the weaker characters are.

4 - General recommendations:

• Use topspin shots as your default stroke choice.
  
• Use double tap topspin shots to try to put pressure on your opponent.
  
• Use backspin shots when your opponent puts you out of position and/or you are late on hitting the ball.
  
• Use strong shots when you are able to step inside the court and you have time to adjust your shot.
  
• Keep a margin from the lines when aiming in order to avoid mistakes.
  
• Staying one step or 2 behind the baseline during rallies will give you more time to react to the ball. Only step inside when the ball is short and/or you have an opportunity to be offensive.

Lag handling in online mode

Full Ace online mode was coded to work without any input latency. It means that your character responds to controls without any additional delay compared to playing offline.
This comes with some trade-offs however, that become more or less pronounced depending on ping value and amount of packet loss :

• Your opponent's actions are shown with a time shift, and they may teleport.
  
• If the information about your opponent's shot comes late, the ball will continue to fly, and may even bounce several times before it is teleported back on the actual shot trajectory.

In order to compensate the issue in that specific case, serve information is computed in advance of actual impact (as soon as gameplay interaction is over). Except for very high ping values or big packet loss, you should be able to see the entirety of the ball's trajectory from impact. The drawback is that the impact isn't synchronized with your opponent's serve gesture itself.

Do linesmen/umpire ever make mistakes?

Of course they do! What would be the point of challenging calls if they didn't?
But like everything in Full Ace, this is designed with realism in mind, so it happens quite rarely, and only when the call is really close.

How do characters evolve in career mode?

In career mode, characters's stats evolve in the following manner :

• Physical stats increase when they're young, tend to peak around 26 yo, and then decrease slowly
  
• Technical stats increase all along the player's career.
  
• There is a random element to the evolution, but the character's performance doesn't play a role.
  
• The more a stat comes close to 100, the slower it increases.
  
• Topspin stats don't evolve as more top spin doesn't automatically make a player better. It depends on their style of play. When training becomes available it will be possible to willingly modify those stats.

For now, players don't retire, and no new players join the tour.

Why do player X's stats don't reflect real-life?

Why is it that player X's serve/shot animations aren't the same as real-life?

There aren't any real tennis players in Full Ace because we don't own the rights to have real players appear, and we probably never will. For that reason, we don't strive to have any character shipped with the game closely match any existing player.
We instead provide editing options and modding tools for users to do that themselves.

Why is there no penalty when a player leaves an online game?

It is sad that some players seem to care so much about their ELO score that they use gamesmanship to try and optimise it, instead of striving to actually get better at playing.
At first glance, it seems like an obvious solution to give a penalty to players who leave a match before it ends. However, if this was instituted, those same players would use all ways they could imagine to waste time and drive their opponent to be the first one to quit and take the penalty hit themselves. This would be much more aggravating and frustrating for honest players, and there would be requests for more work to be put in addressing that, which would no doubt create new opportunities for gamesmanship and annoying behavior, and so on.
In the end, this would make me spend months worth of work only for the purpose of adding a slew of additional constraints that would make the game feel much more restricted for honest players. Meanwhile, the basic problem is the frustration of a match being cut short, and I am convinced that this will always remain true because whatever change I make, there is absolutely no force I can exert inside the game that will somehow subjugate someone into picking up their controller and keep playing if they don't want to.
The only definitive way I can think of that could have a chance of addressing this kind of behavior for good is to remove ELO scoring altogether, but the consensus among the online community so far is that it is too much of a price to pay.
So, barring that, the only advice I can provide is to block players who do that. I know it is not ideal especially as the Full Ace online community is limited in numbers. Meanwhile, on the other end, maybe those players not being able to find anyone to play with on a regular basis is the best deterrent against this kind of behavior.

Why do I get high ping with online opponents? What can I do to lower ping?

Full Ace uses the provided Steam API for online play. Lobby handling uses a server connection, while actual matches work peer-to-peer.
Steam's peer-to-peer system is supposed to connect the 2 players in the best way possible for low ping, so if you mostly get high pings, it is because most players are geographically far from you, and unfortunately there's not much to do about that except trying to bring in more players from your area.
It may also be that there are some issues on your side, but then you should be experiencing the same thing in all games. Using google you may find tips on the web for improving network response, such as
https://www.makeuseof.com/how-to-get-the-best-ping/

Does playing with manual prepare give an advantage over automatic?

Preparing early in Full Ace gives an accuracy boost (or preparing late gives an accuracy penalty, however you prefer to see it). If one uses manual prepare and is very fast, they may be able to prepare earlier than the automatic mode does, therefore giving them a (slight) advantage when it comes to controlling your shots. On the other hand, if they prepare later, there will be a penalty.

Does Full Ace run on Steamdeck?

Although it hasn't been officially confirmed by Steam, Full Ace has been successfully tested on SteamDeck by several users:
https://youtu.be/oF2_6nRGahY

[sphanlon01hc]

Oh I see. So my opponent almost never hits the ball out because aggressiveness has been on easy to start? When I do turn it up, how's the balance between unforced errors vs. them making crazy perfect shots?

Also, I know that strong shot is supposed to be risky, but I get annoyed when I hit green on the serve or shot meter and it's still like a 70% chance the ball goes out or hits the net. I'm don't think that's quite right.

[kschoice]

Originally posted by sphanlon01hc:

Oh I see. So my opponent almost never hits the ball out because aggressiveness has been on easy to start? When I do turn it up, how's the balance between unforced errors vs. them making crazy perfect shots?

It depends on how much pressure you put on them. If you give them easy shots, they'll take advantage of them. If you make them struggle to get to the ball, they'll have more trouble.

Originally posted by sphanlon01hc:

Also, I know that strong shot is supposed to be risky, but I get annoyed when I hit green on the serve or shot meter and it's still like a 70% chance the ball goes out or hits the net. I'm don't think that's quite right.

I understand how it can be frustrating and counter-intuitive at first, but if hitting the ball at the right spot was as easy as getting your timing to green, the game would be very arcade and online games would become aces and winners fiestas. You may have a hard time believing it right now, but the more experienced players are already complaining that some shots are too easy to achieve so that is a negative impact on online play.
As pro tennis players have to in real life, you have to deal with a margin of error even when your timing is good, and therefore be careful with your shots. In particular, strong shots are meant to be used when you are in very good situation, inside the court, positioned early, on a slower ball. And even then, it is highly advised to keep a reasonable distance from the lines when aiming.
Also, even a perfect timing wouldn't completely compensate for hitting the ball a few inches from the ground, or while running at high speed, things like that.

[Rainy]

is there any advantage to using manual prepare?, if not then auto-prepare seems to be best option?

[kschoice]

Originally posted by Rainy:

is there any advantage to using manual prepare?, if not then auto-prepare seems to be best option?

Manual prepare is more natural in the long run. And I do have plans to give a slight advantage to manual preparation in the future.

[ryan]

Manually preparing an inside out forehand is p cool

[andy]

Ever since the change to timing I am absolutely terrible at the game. I used to be able to beat the hardest players on real life. Now I can't win a set against a lowly player.

My main problems:

1) I can't judge where the ball will bounce so if the opponent does a short ball unexpectedly I completely fail. Is this a camera angle issue because the default one is almost behind the player - therefore Impossible to judge depth. Is there an option to put a ball mark?

2) My topspin shots have no power. I can't seem to get the hang of the timing where you have to release on green and then somehow fit in another press.

3) Most of the time there's little point going crosscourt against the AI because they just camp there and it sets up a short angle for them.

I would be grateful for any suggestions.

[Bruno28]

Hi andy.

1) I had the same issue, you have to play with display depth hint. You can activate it in (settings > gameplay).

2) Are you talking of the one tap top spin or the double tap top spin shots ? If this is the second one go on training and hit only this strike with the display timing hint. You will get better

[andy]

Originally posted by Bruno28:

Hi andy.

1) I had the same issue, you have to play with display depth hint. You can activate it in (settings > gameplay).

2) Are you talking of the one tap top spin or the double tap top spin shots ? If this is the second one go on training and hit only this strike with the display timing hint. You will get better

I will try those, thank you.

[andy]

Originally posted by Bruno28:

Hi andy.

1) I had the same issue, you have to play with display depth hint. You can activate it in (settings > gameplay).

2) Are you talking of the one tap top spin or the double tap top spin shots ? If this is the second one go on training and hit only this strike with the display timing hint. You will get better

Hi, I have display depth hint checked but I don't see any hint. What does it look like?

[siL]

If I want to hit double tap topspin, should I push second tap when the timing circle turns green? or should I push second tap as soon as possible after the first tap?

[kschoice]

Originally posted by siL:

If I want to hit double tap topspin, should I push second tap when the timing circle turns green? or should I push second tap as soon as possible after the first tap?

As soon as possible !

[siL]

Thank you for the reply. Is the following procedure is right?
1. Push and hold spin /strong button.
2. release button when the the timing circle turns green color.
3. Push and hold button asap after 2.

[kschoice]

Originally posted by siL:

Thank you for the reply. Is the following procedure is right?
1. Push and hold spin /strong button.
2. release button when the the timing circle turns green color.
3. Push and hold button asap after 2.

Yes, this is what you whould strive for

[siL]

thanks, I will practice it hard!

[pablo_machote]

Hi everybody,

As a tennis fan not only in virtual but also in real physical world, this game is superb. No other compares to this one in terms of timing, and accuracy requirements when playing: It is a wonderful experience.

I am afraid I do have a question regarding the returning: I have not been able to return a serve properly; the return goes slow and short, It is really frustrating how the AI moves so well, so close to the line for an angled serve coming out from my racquet!!!!

Any hint please? I have tried to go further from the baseline to have more time... Horrible solution!!!! To much court wide open for a winner. Do I have to prepare the strike at any time...?

Thanks