I. Introduction
Tennis Elbow Manager 2 is a tennis game that lets you become a tennis coach and manage your players.
To configure the controllers and the resolution without running the game, launch "Configuration".
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Minimum system requirements on Windows
- OS: Windows 10/8/7/Vista
- CPU: 1 Ghz Intel Pentium IV or equivalent
- RAM: 1 GB
- DirectX
9.0c
- Video: DirectX 9 compatible 128-MB 3D card
- 200 MB available hard disk space
- Input: Keyboard & Mouse
Recommended system requirements on Windows
- CPU: 2 Ghz or faster Intel Core i3 or AMD K10 processor
- RAM: 2 GB or more
- Video: DirectX 9 compatible 1-GB 3D card
Minimum system requirements on MacOS
- OS: Mac OS X 10.7 or later
- iMac Intel
- RAM: 1 GB
- 200 MB available hard disk space
- Input: Keyboard & Mouse
Recommended system requirements on MacOS
- RAM: 2 GB or more
- Video: 1-GB 3D card
Features
Tournaments
- More than 400 tournaments
- Davis Cup, Masters, Olympics
- 3500 players, over 70 years
- Full dual-ranking system (like the entry one from ATP), both in singles and doubles competition
- Men & Women's Tours
- Junior & Pro Tours
- History of the past years
- Stats, Head To Heads, etc.
Coaching
- Up to 9 coached players
- 5 difficulty levels
- Specialized trainers
- Sponsors
- Injuries
- Coach center & equipment
II. The Shareware
Tennis Elbow Manager 2 is a game published in shareware. You can play it and
test it before to order it, but you have these limitations:
- you can play only 2 years
- you cannot play in final of important tournaments
- you can't enter in the Top 20
So if you want to play it without limit, you will have to register your version to enjoy the totality of the game. Once paid (by wire transfer, paypal, credit card, etc...), a key (a small file) will be sent to you by email, allowing you to unlock the game.
Order the full version now!
You can have a copy of this version on your hard drive or removable media
for test only. You can't sell this version, but you can copy it freely to everybody,
as long as you don't modify it.
If you regularly use this version, you should pay the authors to encourage
them to continue to do quality products.
IV. World Tour
Automatically saved games:
When you exit TEM2 by clicking on the "Exit" button, your game is automatically saved, and you will go on from where you stopped the next time you launch the game.
Moreover, your game is automatically saved over the past 3 weeks of play, over 3 different slots ; therefore,
in case of problem (ie: if the game crashes or hangs for a reason or another), you will still have the possibility
to restart from a recent saved game.
Note
when you play in windowed mode, and you exit the game by clicking on the little cross on top right of its window, your current game will be also automatically saved if you are in a menu with the "Exit" button ; but if this button isn't there, it's possible that your game won't be saved ; in this case, you will lose all your progress since the last automatically saved game.
Men's Rankings
- The total of points for the entry ranking is the sum of the best 18 played
tournaments, within the past 52 weeks, including necessarily the 4 Grand Slams
& the best 8 of the 9 Master Series to which the player had to participate
if his ranking allowed him to enter the final draw
- The total of points for the Race is the sum of the best 18 played tournaments,
since the beginning of the year, with the same rules about required tournaments
than the entry ranking
Women's Rankings
- The total of points for the entry ranking is the sum of the best 16 played tournaments in Singles, and the best 11 in Doubles, within the past 52 weeks, including necessarily all the major tournaments to which the player had to participate if her ranking allowed her to enter the final draw
- The total of points for the Race is the sum of the best 16 played tournaments in Singles, and the best 11 in Doubles, since the beginning of the year, including necessarily all the major tournaments to which the player had to participate if her ranking allowed her to enter the final draw
- The major tournaments are the 4 Grand Slams, plus all the PremiumM, plus
the best 2 results of Premium
Number of sets
Tournament type |
Normal Rounds / Final |
Qualifications |
3 |
Challenger & Future |
3 / 3 |
TET250 & TET500 |
3 / 3 |
Masters Series |
3 / 3 |
Grand Slam |
5 / 5 |
Note: women never play more than best of 3 sets.
The Masters
You'll automatically participate in the Masters if you are in the 8 best players when this tournament begins, or if you won a Grand Slam tournament. If not, you won't play it.
Its planning is a bit special : there are 2 groups of 4 players, and every player plays 3 matches. The 2 best players of each group will play semifinals, afterwards the 2 semifinal winners will meet in final.
The Davis Cup / Fed Cup
These are team tournaments, each team representing a country. There are 4 singles matches and 1 doubles match per encounter. Each match victory earns 1 point and the 1st team to reach 3 points wins the encounter and can progress to the next Cup's round.
First 2 singles occur on Friday ; doubles is on Saturday; last 2 singles are
on Sunday.
There are 2 leagues. Main league is composed of the 16 best countries competing over 4 rounds to win the Cup. The Qualies league is composed of 32 countries ; they play 2 rounds between them. Then the 8 first round losers from the main league will meet the 8 2-round winnners from the Qualies league to do the playoffs. The winners of the playoffs will be in the Main league the following next year, and losers will be in the Qualies league.
When your player is accepted in a round, he'll get a motivation bonus, one
for each competition is playing ; he'll also get a 10% experience bonus from
his matches.
How to change the World Tour's players
You can edit the players by opening the "Data\Players.*.ini" files with an advanced text editor (these files are quite big, so better not to open them with the Windows Notepad).
V. Players' attributes
Each player is defined by 4 kind of attributes :
- Playing style : it defines the base of his game, the way he plays, his main strategy & comportement on the court
- Natural attributes : his height and age, left or right handed
- Talents : those are some innate capacities ; not all players have some ; they give some little bonus in different situations ; they cannot be trained and they don't change over the time
- Skills : those are the main abilities that define the players and his possibilities ; there are separated in 4 groups : technical skills, surface skills, physical skills, mental skills ; the technical skills are divided in 4 additional groups : rally, service, volley and special
Playing styles
When starting a new game, you will have to make several choices, including
the playing style of your main player. This choice is very important as it will
define the main comportment of your player, and on what surfaces his game will
be the most efficient. There are 6 styles :
- Defender : this kind of player stays several meters beyond the baseline, running all around, and waiting for his opponent's faults ; he will attack only when he has a very easy ball, and will go to the net only when he's forced
- Power baseliner : this kind of player likes to dictactes the game from the baseline using powerful attacks, usually from his forehand, but if he's skilled enough, also from his backhand, trying to do winners or forcing his opponent's fault as much as possible ; he will go to the net and volley only on the most obvious and easy occasions or when he's forced to, even if he can do great attacks on a regular basis
- Puncher : this kind of player is similar to the power baseliner, except his final goal can be to win the point at the net, doing easy volleys, when it's needed
- Varied : this kind of player likes to build his game by playing near the baseline, where he can hit some winners, as well as try to create some good occasions to run to the net, and to finish the point there ; he will also play serve and volley sometimes, especially on fast surfaces
- Volleyer : this kind of player runs to the net whenever it's possible, and doesn't like to play long rallies on the baseline ; he will play serve and volley whenever it's possible, even on 2nd serve
- Counter : this kind of player uses his opponent's power to counter him, he likes to exploit his opponent's weakness, to let him make the game, winners and faults, till he has the occasion to hit a winning passing shot, lob, drop shot, or even finish the point at the volley when it's needed
Depending of the playing style, some skills will be more important than others
:
Playing style |
Technical skills |
Physical skills |
Mental skills |
Defender |
rally skills, especially the forehand and backhand consistencies,
passing |
speed, stamina, tonicity, reflexes |
tactic, positioning, self confidence, motivation |
Power baseliner |
rally skills, especially the forehand power and backhand
consistency (or the opposite) |
-- |
positioning, self confidence, motivation |
Puncher |
rally skills, especially the forehand power and backhand
consistency (or the opposite) |
-- |
positioning, self confidence, motivation |
Varied |
-- |
-- |
tactic, positioning, self confidence, motivation |
Volleyer |
volley skills |
-- |
positioning, self confidence, motivation |
Counter |
rally consistencies, passing, counter |
speed |
tactic, positioning, self confidence, motivation |
The less the player will be at the volley, the less he needs to have good volley
skills.
Talents
Each talent gives some little bonus to the player:
- Early ball hit : Ability to hit the ball on the rise
- Ball feeling : Ability to softly control the ball, especially at the net
- Fast learner : Learn faster from training, but also forget a bit faster with time
- Injury resistance : Lower chance to get injured
- Slice serve : Serve giving a slice effect to the ball, most effective on fast surfaces
- Topspin serve : Serve giving a topspin effect to the ball, most effective on slow surfaces
- Kick serve : Serve giving a kick effect to the ball, most effective on normal surfaces
- Slice mastery : Perfect control and use of slice effect during rallies
- Champion : Ability to play your best level against lower ranked players
- Chameleon : Lower the negative effect when changing your playing style during a match
- Globetrotter : Less tired after trips, especially long ones
Skills
The skill percentages show the different level of abilities of the players.
The surface skills don't show the player innate abilities to play on each
kind of surface. They only show if he's currently used to play on each different
type of surface : they raise and drop quickly, depending on what surface the
player is currently playing or training.
Some skills will be more effective and/or useful on fast surfaces, like service and volleys, and other will
be more effective and/or useful on slower surface, like forehand/backhand powers and consistencies, and stamina.
If you don't train them, most skills will lower over the time ; the higher they are, the faster they'll
drop off.
Favorite Doubles Partner
When you look other players' character sheet, you can see the "Favorite Partner" button (2 rackets, the symbol for Doubles), on bottom left of the screen : if you click on it, the player will be added to the doubles partner selection list (available from the "Planning" tab of the "Coached Players" menu), but only when he's free and doesn't already have a partner ranked better than him, and when you're ranked well enough for him (you can have only 1 "Favorite Partner" at the same time).
VI. Training
The training screen in the "Coached Players" menu allows you to trains
your players to raise their skills, and therefore make them tougher competitors
!
You can train all technical skills and mental skills directly : just click
on the skills you want to train. But to train mental skills, you'll need to
have some experience points available ; such points are earned during tournament
matches.
You cannot train surface skills directly : they raise when you practice other
skills or play matches on them, and lower when you didn't play on them for a
while.
You cannot train physical skills directly either : you have to choose a type
of training which can influence several skills at once :
Type of training |
Main improvements |
Side improvements |
Footing |
Stamina |
Tonicity, Speed, Forehand & Backhand
powers & consistencies |
Body building |
Strength, Tonicity |
Stamina, Forehand & Backhand powers,
Concentration |
Bicycle |
Tonicity, Stamina |
Concentration, Speed |
Swimming |
Stamina, Tonicity |
Concentration, Forehand & Backhand
powers, Speed |
Sprint |
Speed, Tonicity |
Reflexes, Stamina |
Yoga |
Not tiring |
Concentration, Cold blood, Tonicity, Reflexes |
From the physical training selection, you also can rest, which raises your short term & long term forms.
Difficulty Level
The difficulty level influences 3 game aspects :
- the training efficiency
- the speed at which skills lower
- the skill potentials
These 3 parameters are lower when the difficulty is higher, even the #2, which means overall, the skills
change more slowly, in better or worse, in higher difficulty levels.
Tiredness
When your player trains, he will get tired, more or less depending of the type
of training. His energy is represented by the Short term form and the Long term
form. The short term form raises and drops a lot faster than the long term one,
but it can't raise above the long term form. When your player's short term form
reaches 0%, he's exhausted and can't train anymore : he can only rest for a
while.
Your player also needs his short term form to play matches, so be sure to send
him to tournament fresh enough !
On trip, forms' recovery is also faster when traveling on higher class of plane,
and sleeping in higher class of hotel.
Combo training
All technical skills (except top spin) can be trained by combo of the same
type : rally, service, special, volley.
When you're doing a combo training, it gives a bonus shown in its tooltip. Example : doing 6 hours of rally training is 50% better than doing 1 hour on each of the 6 rally skills.
Most important skills
- Concentration : this mental skill defines the frequency at which a player will have a bad day, with
low energy; the higher it is, the fewer it will happen
- Consistency : this mental skills defines how much the player's energy can lower, on a bad day
- Service skills : as it's the 1st strike of every point when a player serves,
the service is very important
- Cold blood : this mental skills defines the frequency at which a player will be stressed in important
moments, and when playing against an opponent less strong than him : in this case, his level will lower
a bit, but only to his opponent's level, at worst
- Return & reflexes : as it's the 1st strike of every point when a player
returns, the return is very important, and these 2 skills are the most important
to do successful returns
- Stamina & strength : a good physical condition is very important in
modern tennis, and it's start with a good stamina and a decent strength as
it influences other skills' potentials (see below)
- Rally skills : once the serve & return played, the rally are the most
used skills, and thus, are often quite important, unless for players volleying
a lot
Potentials
Each skill has a maximal value, called potential, which is almost impossible to surpass. Your main male
player has all his potentials to 90-100% (depending of the difficulty level), but the additional players
you could hire will have lower potentials. Your main female player has all her potentials to 90-100%, except
for most physical skills which are lowered compared to male players.
But some skills' potentials depend on other skill values. The main example is the strength skill : if it's too low, it will limit your forehand, backhand and service powers, as well as your smash and top spin skills.
When a skill potential is lowered by another skill value, the capped potential will be shown in red on the skill bar, while the maximal potential will still be shown in blue.
The most close of its potential a skill is, the longest time it will need to
raise.
When your player gets older, his physical potentials will lower.
With a lot of training, you can still raise a skill above its potential, but
it takes much more time than when it's under its potential.
The only skills you can't raise above their potentials are the Short & Long
Term Forms.
In the character sheet, each skill potential is symbolized by the little vertical blue smoke ; if it's thin, it means you know the potential of this skill ; if it's large, it means your potential detection is too low, and thus, the potential of this skill is somewhere inside the smoke.
Top Spin
Top spin is a really special skill, as it's the only skill you can train to lower it in addition to raise it.
Top spin gives your player a bonus on clay & slow surfaces (higher for rally
players, and lower for volley players), but it makes your player tired a bit
faster, whatever the surface is.
The lower the top spin is below 35%, the higher your player will get an handicap
on slow surfaces (ie: clay).
The higher the top spin is above 35%, the higher your player will get an handicap
on fast surfaces (ie: grass, indoor).
At 35%, the top spin is neither a bonus nor a handicap.
So basically, if you have a volleyer playing on fast surface, you'll prefer
to have a low top spin, and if you have a defender playing on clay, you'll prefer
to have a high top spin.
Motivation
Your player's motivation slightly goes up when you win, and goes down when
you lose. It should get a more noticeable boost when you win a tournament.
Motivation's variations also depend of secondary elements like your available
money, the class of hotel & plane your player takes, etc...
Practice with a player
When your player is at a tournament, or at the coach center with other coached
players or with a sparring partner, he can then practice with another player.
Practice gives a great training bonus, but you can't choose which skills will benefit from it ; although it'll have more chance to raise skills you use often. Additionally, the most close your player's level is from his opponent's level, the most effective the practice will be.
Trainers
You can hire assistants, sparring partners and specialized trainers for your
players. To see what bonuses your players get from the team members present
with him, look the "Team" screen in the "Coached Players"
menu.
There you can see your player current location at bottom of the screen, all your team members, alongside their current location, and the different bonuses for all types of training.
You can also decide which players will pay for each trainer wages, and what
player the trainers will travel with.
If your player doesn't travel with the coach, then he will have a 25% handicap
on his motivation. If he's traveling with an assistant, this handicap will be
lowered by the assistant skill percentage of the assistant.
VII. Tournament Match
The goal of your training is to make your player able to win tournament matches. It won't be an easy task,
and you will probably need several weeks of hard work before to win your 1st match !
Entering a tournament
To enter a tournament, you have to go to the "Planning" screen, within
the "Coach Players" menu. There, you can register your player for
all tournaments within 1 year ahead, except the 3 or 4 next weeks : you have
to decide early and wisely where your player will play. But depending of his
ranking, your player can't enter any tournament you want : you'll have to pick
a tournament where he could either enter directly or at least enter in the qualification
draw. The game will warn you when you try to register your player in a tournament
and your player isn't ranked well enough.
Surfaces
Surfaces can be slow, normal, or fast. A slow surface means the players have
more time on it to prepare their strikes, thus it's easier to do ground strokes,
successful passings and returns ; a fast surface means the players have less
time to prepare their strikes, thus volleying is more efficient, as well as
service ; a normal surface is the average between slow & fast, and thus
it doesn't advantage any particular kind of play.
Here the speed for each surface in the game :
Surface |
Type |
Speed factor |
Clay |
slowest |
-1.0 |
Synthetic |
mild slow |
-0.25 |
Cement |
normal |
0 |
Blue-Green Cement |
mild fast |
+0.25 |
Indoor Hard |
fast |
+0.5 |
Indoor |
very fast |
+0.75 |
Grass |
fastest |
+1.0 |
Match tactics
Before each match, you'll have the possibility to define several tactics for
your player :
- playing style : for a little handicap (called "Malus"), your player
can change of playing style for the time of the match ; the malus will be
higher when the new playing style is very different from the natural one ;
the malus doesn't apply on the service and return skills ; the percentage
shown is relative, ie : if your player has 80% in a skill, and a 10% malus,
then his skill will be 72% during the match (because 10% of 80 equals 8)
- experience boost : you can spend some of your player's experience points to raise all his skills ; the more experience points you spend, the higher the bonus will be ; the better your player is, the lower the available bonus will be ; the bonus shown is relative, ie : if your player has 50% in a skill, and a 20% bonus, then his skill will be 60% during the match (because 20% of 50 equals 10)
- energy spending : you can decide to save your player energy ; your player
will get a little handicap (called "Malus") but will get a lot less
tired ; the percentage shown is relative ; if your player loses a set, he
will reset to full energy spending
Once you're ready, click on "Start Match" !
Match progress
On the Match screen, you can see the short term form, the energy and the stress
of every player. The Match energy depends of the Energy Max, the Form of the
day and the Energy spending.
Match Energy = Energy Max x Form of day x Energy spending
The form of the day represents your player ability to take advantage all his
available energy on this specific day : sometimes, your player is in a bad day
even if he's not truly tired, so he just can't play his best tennis.
The Energy Max depends of the Short term form and the Stamina. As long as the
short term form isn't below a certain level, the Energy Max is at 100%, after
it will lower till 0% with the short term form. This level depends of your player's
stamina :
Level = 100 - Stamina x 0.8
Example : if your player has a 50% stamina, then as long as his short term form isn't below 60%, he'll have a 100% Energy Max ; below 60%, it'll lower from 100% to 0%.
During the match progress, the little ball shows who's serving. If a break
is achieved, "Break" will appear on the side of the player / team
who did it.
You can change the speed of the match with the "Speed" setting on the bottom.
Match bonus
For each player, you can see the list of possible bonuses. A bonus is greyed if a player doesn't have it. Bonuses depend on the interactions between the 2 opponents' skills.
Most bonuses only apply to singles, not to doubles.
Here the list of all bonuses :
- Power bonus : rally bonus when forehand and backhand power are too good
for opponent's reflexes
- Drop shot bonus / Drop shot super bonus : rally bonus when drop shot is
too good for opponent's speed and reflexes
- Play Speed Bonus / Play Speed Super Bonus : rally bonus when forehand and
backhand power and consistency are too good for opponent's reflexes and positioning
- Acceleration Bonus : rally bonus when forehand and backhand power and precision
are too good for opponent's speed and reflexes
- Tactic Bonus / Tactic Super Bonus : tactic is better than opponent's tactic,
so the player can force his opponent to play with his weaker rally strike
(forehand or backhand)
- Service Efficiency Bonus : service bonus when service power and precision
are too good for opponent's reflexes
- Left Handed Bonus : rally bonus when player is left handed
Each bonus is very small, about 1% of your player's total force if he's very
skilled, but up to 10% if he's a total beginner.
VIII. Credits
- Emmanuel Rivoire (aka ManuTOO) : Code, Design, Sounds, Animation, Menus
- 3D Art : Novtilus.com
- Graphics Design : Bruno Zmuda
- Music : Robert Engstrand
- Documentation Template : Xiaoying Riley
Have fun with Tennis Elbow Manager 2 !