Becoming a Pro!

Having trouble learning the game? This guide is by a new player, for new players! As I learned how to play the game I discovered that some people get discouraged and leave for good. Instead of leaving, read this information to become a pro! [Work in Progress]

Introduction

I'm kinda surprised that there isn't another gameplay basics guide on steam. The playerbase seems a bit small [at least for english speakers] so that may explain the lack of guides. Nevertheless, I will attempt to aid newcomers in becoming a pro!

*This is only my second attempt at making a guide, first one didn't turn out too well, so any help is much appreciated!

*I only speak English. I know enough French to get around on the street as a tourist, but not enough to translate this entire guide. So if anyone wants to translate, just let me know

Maxou Patch 2016 (Optional)

To make this game more immersive. I'd advise installing the Maxou Patch 2016.


Why would I want this mod?
*It alters the main menu to be easier to navigate.
*Improves visuals like the scoreboard
*For tennis fans, it adds real names and locations.
*More animations and scripts that newbies won't notice, but makes a huge difference
*Better sound

Also it seems that under Maxou my controller seemed to work better. It may be a placebo effect, cause I always mod my games, but there may be some truth to it.

DOWNLOAD LINK
http://www.managames.com/Forum/topic29-24824.php

Follow the instructions carefully and it should work. Make sure you at least launch the game once before installing the mod.

Additonal Setup

I highly advise using a gamepad of some sorts. It makes the game 100% easier to master. If you are using a Xbox One controller I'd advise the follwing remappings:


Button 1 is A
Button 2 is B
Button 3 is X
Button 8 is Start

Finally, remove the danger zone. It's the assist that tells you where to stand. It looks like this:

I personally feel this assist does more harm than good. By the time you look at the gauge, reposition, the ball has passed. I'd advise following the steps to remove it and learn where to stand based off where the ball is headed.

The problem with removing the danger zone in game is that it also removes the aiming preview. It's really difficult to aim in this game even with the preview. So in order to keep the preview while removing the danger zone follow these steps:
*Right click Tennis Elbow 2013 in your library
*Click properties
*Click Local Files then Browse Local Files
*Find Tennis.ini and change HideDangerZone from 0=1
here's a picture of the last step:


Once you have done all that, make sure the preview [found in your character sheet] looks like this:

Now you got the most effective, clean assists to start you off.

Rules of Tennis

It's not that uncommon for someone to come to a video game without knowing the sport. So don't feel alone if you are clueless about rules. Luckily for you, I played Tennis in highschool and I follow the sport as entertainment.

Court Boundaries

This is the area of play for singles. You are only allowed to hit within the green regions.



The extra lines are the doubles alley. Call it laziness, but every professional court h[/previewicon]as the double lines 24/7. Just remember, singles? don't hit in the alley. Doubles? you can hit it in the alley.


Serving
If you want to sound like a cool kid, the serving lines have names:































*the other box is called the "Ad Court"
You always serve first from the Deuce Side. You don't really need to keep track of this cause the game automatically does it, but just in case you want to play in real life...well here ya go.

When serving, you have to hit the ball into the box diagonally from you.


If you hit the net or outside the box it's a fault. You get two chances. If you miss on the second attempt your opponent scores.

The only exception is if you clip the net and it manages to land in the box. In this case, it's a let and you get to do attempt 1 over again.
If the serving player is about to lose. The last point the none-serving player needs to win the game over the server is called the b]breakpoint[/b]

Scoring
I could make a thousand French and other European jokes about not being able to count, but instead I'll save time by just explaining the odd scoring system.
Points are as follows:
15 - First Point
30 - Second Point
40 - Third Point
Game - Fourth Point
Deuce - This happens if both players reach 40
Ad - Whoever scores the next point gets the advantage, one more point and they win. If the don't, it goes back to deuce. There is no time limit. Once in High School we had 48 deuces.

Each set you play is first to 6 games. Whoever gets 6 games wins 1 set. Scoreboard example:

Murray won set 1
Wanderson won set 2
Now it is set 3. Wanderson is about to break Murray's serve to make it 3-3. One player needs to make it 3 more games.

Let's pretend the score is 5-5. The "by-two" rule is in effect. This means you have to has 2 more games won than your opponent. so 7-5 is an example of a winning score.

Controls and Strikes

If you want to see the game manual, in your library click play then select view manual:

IMPORTANT: make sure your game is closed before doing this, the manual is considered running the game even though it just opens your web browser.

If you want view the manual without launching your game, there is full documentation on the developers website. Here it is:
http://www.managames.com/tennis/doc/Tennis_Elbow-Tennis_Game.html#strikes

The important take away here is the strikes. Found in the link above is the following:
Available strikes:
b1 = Normal Strike
b1 + up = Short Strike
b1 + down = Top Spin
b2 = Slice
b2 + up = Drop Shot
b2 + down = Defensive Lob
b1+b2 = Acceleration
b1+b2 + up = Short Acceleration
b1+b2 + down = Aggressive Lob
No button = Safe Strike

So what the heck does this mean? Well, assuming your button mapping is the same as mine, I'll explain how to read this guide. Pretend "B" is "Fire" and go to the controls screen I previously included in this guide.

Since we are pretending Fire 1 is B1, whatever button you have remapped to Fire 1 [button 1 for me which is A] that is your normal strike. Yes it's confusing and you will need to remember this conversion method.

In order to hit the ball with any strike, you need to hold the corresponding button until the strike is completed. If you don't your character will do a safe strike. Thankfully If you forget this, the game will remind you:


While holding, aim using left and right on the joystick. Pushing forward will add backspin making it fall short while pushing backward will add topsin that travels further.

Refer to the controls above to understand joystick and button combinations. You will not need to hold fire 1 and fire 2 to do an aggresive shot, if you can bind it to one button in the control menu.

Stay in practice mode and learn how these shots work. It took me a few hours to get relatively good at it.

Next is Service controls found in the manual:
On Service:
b1+b2 = 1st service at max speed
b1 = Safe 1st service, but slower
b2 = 2nd service, 100% safe
up = Add slice spin
down = Add top spin

Aiming the serve is a little hard, but the rest is just like a normal strike.

Practice Becomes Perfect

I know you may want to jump right into the World Tour and start dominating the ATP, but it's best to go to training club and just play.

The biggest gripe I have with this game is the fact that there is no tutorial. There is no gamemode that teaches you how to do each shot. To combat this handicap, you should just go to Training Club to practice.

Now before you begin there is some setup that needs to be done. When you first launch Training Club, the default player and opponent is "Player 1" and "Player 2". To make sure you are in a position to not be challenged while trying to learn the game, click on character sheet and replace "Player 1" with one of the saved players. For example mine looks like this:


Make sure the options below his feet match mine. Sometimes I forget to make them go from CPU to Human. You do not have to used Andy Roddick, in fact I added him to the list later, any one of the 50 will do.
*NAVIGATE THE MENUS WITH THE MOUSE, CONTROLLER DOESN'T WORK WELL

Now go back and select play options. I found that Hard Court is the best style of court to play on. Just select a court that's hard. As you can see below I currenlty have Dubai selected. Make sure it's best of 5 sets. This ensures you get to practice your serve more as well as learn how a tennis match operates if you are new to the sport. Keep it to singles. Default Camera is fine.


Time to hit play and select match. Here is stress free experimentation in match format. It's better than warmup because you get to practice serving.

Setting Up World Tour

Ready for the next step?
After clicking World Tour, Start New Game and selecting a gender you will be presented with these options:


You have two options for gamemodes
Full Career: Start from a selected rank and play until your play period is over. If you want to play with a custom character, this is the gamemode. It makes more sense and balanced for custom characters.
1 Season: Instead of playing through an entire career, you can choose to only play 52 weeks.

Play period is your years of activity. It's realistic, keeps from a 90 year old from still playing. It also keeps the game stable as people will retire and the game has to fill that void. Leave it at Auto if you are playing as your favorite player and you are unsure of his active years. Does the years matter as far as difficulty goes? Not that I can tell.

Starting Rank is...well your starting rank. Again, if you are using a real player leave it auto for realism. It will ensure you are following history. For example, 2005 Andy Roddick is a different rank than 2006 Andy Roddick.

What does rank do?
Rank just gives access to bigger more prestigous tournaments. Does it have effect on difficulty? Not that I can see....but I imagine you'll be playing tougher opponents the higher ranks you are.
For achievements and for a little more challenge I'd start at 1,000. If you want to use your favorite player when he was amazing, you'll be starting around 10. 10 leaves less satisfaction because there isn't much more ladder to climb.

Difficulty

Top gauge is a set level. So I play on Pro, that sets the AI at a certain level
Bottom gauge is more of a tweak. 1 is easier and 10 is harder. So if you have trouble playing on 10-Pro but 10-Junior is too easy...try setting it to 5-Pro.

I am not an expert on how the difficulty changes the game. From what I gather the difference is AI aim and reaction times. On higher difficulties the AI rarely let's the ball pass them while on lower difficulties you could score winners by shooting the ball right at their feet. Harder AI typically adapts better. An example is net play. If you charge the net, Pro AI will be more likely to lob it over your head instead of shooting it right back at you.

Strategies

While tennis is a pretty basic sport, it's just hitting a ball back and forth, to beat hard opponents you'll need to follow some strategies. NOTE: The names of these plays come from my highschool team days...if you got a better name, I'm open to it.

Alley Hog

Look where I am standing and where the ball is going to land. The trick is to hug the line as much as possible and when the ball is returned hit it as far away from your opponent as possible. It will make your opponent have to run more to get the ball eventually causing fatigue or misplaced shots.


Drop and Lob

See how my opponent is behind the baseline? attempting a drop shot will make him run forward to retrieve it. Sometimes he will return it then run back to the baseline, other times he will stay at the net. If he runs back, do it again, if he stays at the net....it's time to lob.


Notice how my opponent stayed at the net? This is the time to lob it over his head [as you can see by my aim preview]. It doesn't have a 100% success rate, sometimes he will be able to catch it to slam it down. In this case, either try to blow it back at him while he is repositioning or lob it again.

Multiplayer

*I have not played 1 second of multiplayer, this section is a collection of information I've gathered from websites and forums.

Multiplayer is a tad bit dead. At 13:50 EST I checked the online population before begining this section. There were 14 open sessions.

I think the best option for finding people to play with is the developer's website:
http://www.managames.com/Forum/forum17.php
It's a lot more active than the Steam forums.

You also take a loot at the chatroom:
http://chat.managames.com/

If you are playing with a friend and want a more immersive game, take a peek at the ITST Mod:
http://www.managames.com/Forum/topic29-8993.php
*ONLINE ONLY, NO SINGLEPLAYER FUNCTION

Definitions

Just in case I forget to define a term or you just want a quick reference, here is the Tennis Elbow 2013 Dictonary.

Advantage: Whoever gets the next point after a 40-40 tie.
Advantage Court: When serving from left-right, this is the box you aim for.
Aiming Preview: Shows you where your ball is going to land.
Baseline: The line you stand behind when you serve.
Clay: A type of court surface. It makes the ball and players slower
Danger Zone: The assist that shows you where you should stand.
Deuce: Tied 40-40.
Deuce Court: When serving from right-left, this is the box you aim for.
Double Fault: Missing both your serves.
Dropshot: Achieved when the ball barely goes over and drops close to the net.
Fault: Hitting the ball out of bounds or into the net.
Game: What you play to win sets.
Grand Slam: The biggest tournaments in Tennis. Worth the most money and reputation.
Grass: A type of court surface. Makes the ball bounce lower but faster.
Hard: A type of court surface....it's hard
Let: A different way to say net, which is where the serve hits the net but still manages to enter the box. It doesn't count as a serve but also doesn't count as a fault.
Match: After reaching a certain amount of set wins, you win the match.
Net: A different way to say let, which is where the serve hits the net but still manages to enter the box. It doesn't count as a serve but also doesn't count as a fault.
Set: 6 games is 1 set....there is no real definition for this.
Slice: A form of strike that puts sidespin/backspin on the ball making it do wacky movements
Topspin: A form of strike that puts more forward spin on the ball speeding it up and making it bounce higher.
Winner: Scoring by hitting the ball past your opponent or making it bounce twice.

FAQ

Q: Do Mods Disable Achievements?
A: I can only speak to Maxou, but according to what I have read the devs say mods should not affect achievements. There is even an achievement for playing with a mod.

Q: Do Mods Affect Multiplayer?
A: Some do, some don't. It's best to just read the descriptions of the mod in order to figure out what effects it has.

Q: Best Place to Find Mods?
A: http://www.managames.com/Forum/forum29.php

Q: Will this guide be translated to -insert language here-?
A: I only know "tourist-French" and how to order beer in Spanish....that's about it. So if no one comes to translate, it is always going to be English only.

Q: Explain -insert mechanic here- please?
A: This guide is still a work in progress so more contents are coming, but don't be afraid to request a certain thing you'd like to see covered.

Q: I'm having a technical issue?
A: From what I have seen the Devs respond quick to problems in the forums, that's your best option. I haven't experienced any issues that were too difficult to fix.

Q: What about Keyboard Controls?
A: If the want for this continues, I'll add it. For now, I'm going to wait till every other section is finished before I make a Keyboard section.

Change Log

6/8/17
Made Public

6/10/17
Added "Rules of Tennis"
Moved Serve Rules from "Controls and Strikes" to "Rules of Tennis"
Grammar Corrections
Added Extra Pictures

6/11/17
Added "FAQ"
Added "Setting Up World Tour"
Changed Order of Contents

6/12/17
Added "Multiplayer"
Added more definitions

6/12/17
Grammar Corrections

6/15/17
Added "Strategies"
Added more definitions

-The Rest is Under Construction-

Feel free to give advice or feedback as I continue to work on this guide-

[Redkite4u]

Thx for this guide

[明天再减肥]

Is there a WTA & ATP mix version mod to download or recommend?

[MG ♪]

Aiming serves is tricky for sure because it's all about timing. After playing for a while you'll get a feel for how quick you "aim" meaning, if I want my next shot to land far to my right, it takes a bit of time holding the right direction while setting up the strike. You almost need to delay a bit before you hold the direction or else you'll wind up hitting it too far and it goes out. This sort of "aim acceleration" also occurs during serves, however, there is no preview so you are always "guessing", but once you get a feel for it you can pick a point during your service animation to start holding the directional button. When I'm in practice I can usually serve on the corners and hit lines all day long for aces.

[OneMore]

You will need a thirdparty program. Joy2Key or DS3 is usually what I used back when I used dualshock controllers on PC. However, times have changed, so I'd do some research

[milosnikolic852]

Hi, great guide! I have a question about controllers i want to play the game using a ps4 dual shock controller will it work or do i need to download some program for it??? I want to remap the Buttons so that each button performs its own strike can u please help me with this??? I know i have to go to remape strikes in control menue but i don't know what to do after that like How to change the buttons!!!! Thankyou :)

[Booger]

Great guide! Thanks for sharing.

[hellacopters13]

Great guide

[moneylong]

Thanks, dude.Great guide.

[OneMore]

@Musa
I was going to add a section about Sam....but I havent used it so I don't have much to say other than a link ya know?

Though when I make the multiplayer section I probably will include ITST because well....it is THE multiplayer mod

[Musa do Verao]

Great guide. You could add some info about the 2 greatest mods of this game: Sam Megapatch and ITST. Of course, only if you have something to say about them.