After a short time playing the alpha, here's a few observations/suggestions - I know gameplay/physics are still work in progress so I won't talk about the winner count/overall balance yet. Also I haven't read all this thread so apologies if any of this has been discussed already.
Talents system is a really good idea! It will allow for more variety and more accurate creation of players - if this is not complete yet, here's a few suggestions for new talents to add, or abilities to include in attributes;
- Flat accel - Make the accel shot have 20% less spin, so players can have high topspin when defending but still able to hit flat attacking shots. Similar to the topic I posted about in the mini-blog thread
. - Slice mastery FH/BH - This could be split this between the wings, some players have a great slice on one wing (usually backhand) and not so notably on the other. The same could be true of dropshot/lob/counter skills differing between wings. Maybe slice spin/precision/consistency could have seperate stats, then you could give a player like Karlovic a good BH slice and less reliable topspin BH.
- Squash shot - With reaching animations coming, maybe this kind of forehand slice could be enabled/improved for players with this ability.
- Sliding - If this is implemented in the gameplay, there could be a talent/attribute for if and how well a player can perform it on each surface.
- Running FH/BH - reduce the penalty for hitting while moving or with less charge time.
- Shot direction change - improved ability to change the ball direction to DTL (if any penalty would be introduced for this in the gameplay), for example Djokovic is renowned for his backhand down the line. Some players have better technique at countering the angle of deflection to hit down the line.
Some more general gameplay ideas;
- Block return - Maybe with the context-sensitive button on returns, you could perform a block return which uses more of a volley technique than the full swing all other keys use.
- Forward momentum - A modifier that allows you to move forward through a groundstroke/serve towards the net, currently you have to hit the shot and then move again from a standing start which limits how quickly and effectively you can get to the net. Top Spin 3 and 4 used to have a button to do this (R1 on controller I think).
- Volleys - The context-sensitive button could maybe be combined with other shots to deliberately perform half-volleys/drive volleys. I think these low/half volleys were one of the weaker parts of TE3 (the game would sometimes wrongly trigger groundstroke anim or volley) and currently in this alpha it seems to be similar at the moment.
Just throwing ideas out there - these are early comments after only 1-2hrs, overall I like the changes compared to TE3 and look forward to future updates and online mode.
I think the more animation in this game, the more legendary it will be. Good work 
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