It's developed by a one man team as far as I know so it makes his efforts all the more impressive.
In Short:
Details:When : hopefully an Alpha around March 2019, an Early version around June 2019, the online mode around September 2019, and the v1.0 around June 2020, but obviously nothing is set in stone for the moment
Pricing : US$29.95/EUR29.95 ; TE2013 owners will get a 15% discount for TE4 once the Alpha will have been released ; pre-ordering currently gets you a 10% discount => https://www.managames.com/buy.php?g=TE4
Platforms : Windows, closely followed by Mac OSX & Linux ; and hopefully the PS4 & Xbox One versions for June 2020 with the v1.0
New Features :
- Mainly, TE4 will be built with a new 3D Engine with new 3D players & 3D courts, and the menus will be redesigned, so everything will look much better
- The gameplay will also be deeply retouched to produce an even more realistic experience
- Junior Tour will be added to the World Tour
Requirements :
- Windows 7/8/10 or macOS 10.11+
- For the 3D courts with high quality, a 3D card with about 5000 points here https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high ... _gpus.html
- For the 2D courts, an IGP or a 3D card with about 1000 points here https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/mid_ ... _gpus.html
Why 4 ?
- TE 1 is the original TE released in end of 1996, including the enhanced Windows port named TE2004
- TE'98 is based on TE1 but with different menus, so it still counts as TE1
- TE2 is TE2005/2006 : its gameplay is slightly different from TE1, and it's technically better (ie: multi-resolution support), and features a network/online mode, and a greatly improved World Tour
- TE3 is TE2009/2011/2013 : its gameplay is significantly different from TE2, technically it's much better with 3D support, and the World Tour is much more complete
- I'm planning to have the next edition to live for many years, so it won't be named TE2019, but TE4 instead
Production Planning :
Development of TE4 actually started through the development of Tennis Elbow Manager 2, which focused on 3 things related to TE (and also other things related only to the managing side ) :
- a more complete World Tour, with Junior Tour and starting back in the 70's for men and the 80's for women (and no, still no mixing between men & women, so still no mixed doubles )
- the menus new design
- the most possible realistic CPU vs CPU matches
The advantage of this last point was to aim only for realism, without having to worry about the gameplay ; even though the user can optionally take control of their player and manually play matches, it's not the main point of a manager game.
So once TEM2 will be finished, I'll be able to focus back on gameplay and do a synthesis between the improvements done on TEM2 and the need to have smooth & accessible controls, matching the TE spirit built over the years.
The v1.0 of TEM2 should be released within a couple of months, once I'll have finished to port it to the Unity engine. You can follow its development here => http://www.managames.com/Forum/topic11-27585.php
Even More New Features ?
- 3 new player styles to match more closely the global strategy of what I'd call aggressive defensive players (ie: players who base their game mostly on defense, but also can feel pretty aggressive) ; this should help to paint a better picture of modern tennis
- Advanced IA tuning (based on the real-time coaching of TEM2)
The following features may or may not make it into TE4, but are strongly considered at the moment :
- Talent System (from TEM2, improved from TEM1)
- Single tournament mode
- Challenge System (but with a twist )
- Programmable ball thrower
- Service training
- Realtime scoreboard & real-time spectator mode for online matches
More realism, you said ?
TE3 is based on the principle that basic random errors are annoying. This means that in some situations, the ball must pass the net no matter what.
This is why some accelerations can actually end looking like a drop-shot. And if you're into realism, it is actually very shocking.
It's also why so few balls end in the net compared to real life tennis.
TE4 will at least partly drop this base, starting by the acceleration (so no more acceleration-drop-shot ), and for extreme (and not so extreme) cases for other shots. It means if you play a difficult ball, it'll often have a chance to end in the net, and/or to end out.
So the rules for imprecision, loss of ball control & faults have been completely re-hauled and this leads to more realistic variations of the ball trajectories. You can check the result in the 3D matches of TEM2.
I'll probably add some optional helpers and/or simplified control systems so it will still be easy to get into the game, and you'll raise the difficulty and/or remove helpers as long as you'll improve, like it is now with TE3.
Screenshots (Work in progress):
UK Slam
French Slam
Australian Slam
Shanghai Stadium
Miami Stadium
Future & Challenger Indoor Stadium
Side Court for Grand Slams
Tennis Court Props
All information taken from https://www.managames.com/Forum/topic15-30551.php
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