It's not that I have not been busy. I probably could have forced the release in October but this would not have been good for the overall result.
I don't want to release the game before the "high level AI"(the one that does strategic decisions and positions the players) works the way it should - but I can not finish the high level AI as long as I keep changing the basic actions a player has available.
Nevertheless, there has been a lot of progress in the last month:
- I added several serve types (jump-float serve!)
- a very versatile standing/running attack was added. This really adds a lot to the gameplay because you can now return the ball much better in situations where you just had to give your opponents a free ball before.
- you now have many options while setting the ball: you can try to help the attacking player to get past the block by intentionally setting the ball a little more inward (or outward) or by quick setting the ball before the blocker reaches the net.
- blocking gameplay was refined
- the flying trajectories of the ball are now even more realistic - every kind of spin is possible and realistically taken into account
- if you don't hit the ball perfectly the ball bounces away much more the way it would in reality(this is surprisingly difficult to get right!)
- the camera view was changed - when you are in the air trying to attack the ball you now have approximately the same view a real player would have - this makes the game more difficult but also a lot more immersive.(if you don't like it i will add an option to turn it off)
- almost ALL animations were improved
- many aspects of the overall look of the game were improved- especially the sand now looks MUCH better
- players can now be left handed
- fixed a lot of bugs that you will never know about :-)
I really really hope I can release the first version by mid-November. To give you a hint of what to expect I added a picture portraying the new sand and I will upload a short gameplay video to the video section. (without sound - sorry!)