SERIOUS MotionPlus problems

I can't tell if it's me, the game, or the MotionPlus (defective?), but even the most basic 1-to-1 controls seem to be failing.

For instance, in practice mode, I stand still in the "forehand" stance, holding the Wiimote properly (buttons up, left side of the Wiimote being the "face" of the "racket"), and as soon as a ball comes in on the right side, the characters will switch to back-hand stance, despite me staying entirely in forehand stance. At this point, the character will always be in back-hand stance, unless I SWITCH to back-hand stance, at which point he switches to fore-hand stance. Sometimes. Around this point is when the game no longer seems to pay ANY attention to what I'm doing, and just switches stances randomly.

Has anyone else noticed this? Is this standard behavior, or is something seriously wrong with my MotionPlus? I've tried it with a second Wiimote and has the same problem. So, either the game is SERIOUSLY flawed, or something is wrong with my attachment.

Please let me know. I may have to take this crap back and try another MotionPlus :/

sometimes when i swing nothing happens, like, nothing at all. This game frustrates me to no end. The controls are way off, not even close to 1:1.

Check your batteries first off. That was my problem. Second, take the M+ unit back.

Works fine for me.

I think the key is getting yourself back to neutral position, which would be facing the tv (or sensor bar) and putting the racket out in front of you before taking your next shot. Bend your knees and use your waist more to turn.

I also had it on easy to figure it out.

I traded in my Wii MotionPlus, but the new one doesn't seem any better.

I assume it's me and/or the game, but basically, I try to emulate this video:

http://tennis.easports.com/onCourt.action

And I simply cannot. My player insists on moving into the backhand stance most of the time, and I can't figure out why. It definitely isn't 1-to-1 with my own actions, however.

Okay, final rundown. Sorry for being so persistent, but I want to enjoy both of these games (Grand Slam and Virtua Tennis), and I think the Wii MotionPlus technology seems to have potential...but I honestly can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

I've rewatched this video maybe a dozen times and I simply can't figure out what I'm doing different:

http://tennis.easports.com/onCourt.action

For people who aren't having trouble:

How often do you "re-calibrate" the MotionPlus? Do you center yourself after every shot? Every game? Between serves? I've tried centering myself after every shot in practice mode, and it seems to work maybe 50% of the time, but often times I can be standing DEAD CENTER, *pointing the Wiimote at the TV/senor bar* - and my player continues to stand in the back-handed stance. What? Why? What am I doing that would convince the game or controller that I want to be in that position?

Based on the incredibly different experiences I'm hearing from people , I can't help but wonder if there's a substantial bug in the hardware/software that isn't showing up for some people and is showing up for others. It has nothing to do with "skill" or a "learning curve" - the game simply isn't behaving how it was advertised to, or how one would expect it to.

I also picked up Virtua Tennis tonight, after sheer frustration with Grand Slam. I can't really tell if the controls are substantially better. It's certainly less ambitious, but it also seems to play a bit better. Either way, I'm definitely not feeling the HOLY CRAP difference of MotionPlus like I expected to. I'm hoping when Tiger Woods gets here from GameFly, I will at least be able to tell if my hardware is working correctly. Leave it to Nintendo to charge $20 for an add-on to an existing controller without even providing SOME sort of calibration test software.

cem_ea_id.Silellak wrote:It definitely isn't 1-to-1 with my own actions, however.

i dont think the game is meant to be 1:1
i read somewhere that they found the motion controls to be too sensitive so they had to scale it back

cem_ea_id.talene wrote:

cem_ea_id.Silellak wrote:It definitely isn't 1-to-1 with my own actions, however.

i dont think the game is meant to be 1:1
i read somewhere that they found the motion controls to be too sensitive so they had to scale it back

So was that video linked above taken before they scaled it back?

Because my experience is not even close to that video. I can't get my character to stop going to his backhand stance in practice mode. I'm not seeing my character take his racket back high or low like i am. The majority of the time i get slice shots and that's it. It takes about 5 tries to get my player to toss the ball in the air to begin the serving motion. I could go on and on, but the bottom line is that my game play is nothing like what's shown in that video.

I too am curious as to what some of us are doing wrong?

Same problems here.

I did try the recalibration method as described in the game video. Wii Mote face down on flat surface for 2-3
seconds.

My game behaved nothing like the video shown, nothing! However, I will double check by batteries tonight and my starting stances between points.

I noticed this right off during the practice mode. My on screen charator would be facing a different way than I was. He would be in a forehand stance while I was in a backhand stance waiting for the ball machine to pitch another ball. I would would attempt a backhand only to see a forehand performed. I was beginning to wonder if my MP was even working. I noticed that if I wanted to make contact with the ball for instance, I actually had to watch myself to how my on screen charator standing and facing the ball machine. I had to mimic him INSTEAD of him mimicing me!!! In other words, if he was waiting for the ball in a forhand position, I had to switch to a forhand position when the ball came if I was going to hit the ball.

So far this game is 1:1 if you choose to mimic your charactor.

I tried a match and noticed the same inconstitances as in the practice mode. So I put in the TW10 game for the first time and went staight to the Disc Golf.

Disc golf was simply amazing. The accuracy displayed on screen and the flight of the disc based on the movement was perfect. So I discovered that my MP was appearntly operating as it was supose to. I played a few holes and notice the Draw/Fade was no problem reading my movements as well.

So, I'll go home tonight and try a couple of things I've read here. If no changes are noticed on my part, I will not hesitate one minute in returning this piece of crap and wait till next year's addition and hope the software's engine is better. I hope I didn't put to much faith in a first year buggy game.

I think this has been addressed in a few other posts, but instead of directing you there, i'll offer my own opinion (which pretty much mimics Betz's)

I have played both GST & TW10. Tiger Woods made me feel pretty confident about the responsiveness of the WM+, the reason being because each shot requires me to aim the "club" down, i was able to get into a groove with consistent swings with the wiimote +. In TW10 (or any golf game) the path of the ball is basically the analysis of your swing, and each stroke i could "dial it in" a bit more until i was consistently hitting straight (okay, so i actually consistently slice the ball every time, just like my real golf swing!). The point being that because i can reflect on each swing, I am better able to understand what the WM+ wants from me.

I think the issue people are having with Grand Slam Tennis is that they jump in, practice court or online or whatever, and they shank the 1st shot, then the ball comes again and again without giving you a chance to reflect on how you are performing. This is leading to people either holding the wiimote the wrong way, not having a level swing to start with, or getting a bit lazy and resorting to the wii sports "twitch and pray" style of video tennis.

To correct this I offer the following:
Go to the practice court, plug in the nunchuck to give yourself full control of the character. If you prefer to play without the nunchuck during actual matches, that is fine, but when on the practice court you want to place your character where you want and know that AI wont interfere. This way you know the only thing affecting your character's movement is the wiimote +. Set the ball machine to slow, serving up only flat shots to your forehand. Bring the raquet back and deliver controlled swings across your body. Instead of trying to hit a specific part of the court. Simply use consistent swings until the ball bounces in the same place, or at least close to the same spot every time you swing. Once you know where your hitting the ball to, try to hit specific parts of the court. remember consistancy and control, not power, are the most important aspects of the swing.

Thanks daithiblair for your input. I'll try this technic when I get home. I understand there is a learning curve with hitting the ball and it landing where I aim, but really.

What you are describing here is how to make contact with the ball and hit where you want the ball to go. I simply just tryied to get my on screen charator to mimic my rachet placement like in the demo video.

I was ignoring the balls coming at me (like in video), I wanted to see my charator switch from backhand/forehand from high position/low position (just like in the video). So, was my charator's AI having that much influence that it was overiding my wants? I don't know, I'll see.

I looked forward to this game since I placed my order 2 months ago.

great post daithiblair. I have added your tip to the post I made about controlling GST with WM+

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/242348.page

cem_ea_id.daithiblair wrote:To correct this I offer the following:
Go to the practice court, plug in the nunchuck to give yourself full control of the character. If you prefer to play without the nunchuck during actual matches, that is fine, but when on the practice court you want to place your character where you want and know that AI wont interfere. This way you know the only thing affecting your character's movement is the wiimote +. Set the ball machine to slow, serving up only flat shots to your forehand. Bring the raquet back and deliver controlled swings across your body. Instead of trying to hit a specific part of the court. Simply use consistent swings until the ball bounces in the same place, or at least close to the same spot every time you swing. Once you know where your hitting the ball to, try to hit specific parts of the court. remember consistancy and control, not power, are the most important aspects of the swing.

I honestly think some of you must be playing a different game. Like Rocky said, it's not about how to hit the ball. The character on the screen is taking over and won't even let you hit just forehands. I've tried this repeatedly and it's the same thing every time. The avatar on the screen forces himself to the backhand position even with the nunchuck. Positioning the player to hit a forehand fails as well, as the avatar will scoot around for backhands mostly still.

Playing actual matches seems to behave better than the practice court, but it's still frustrating to get aced because your player won't move to the correct side you should be swinging on. Even more embarrassing when it's a looping soft serve. =)

Beyond all that though, I'm still unsure of how to hit topspin or flat forehands consistently. Probably 90% of the time it ends up being a slice. I take full swings...i wouldn't play a motion tennis game any other way since i've pretty much been playing my whole life. I played Wii Sports Tennis with full swings and i had zero problems hitting topspin shots. I've taken the remote perfectly straight back and straight forward and it still slices. I've hit flat shots before, but it just seems to be random, dumb luck. When you're going straight back are you holding your arm perfectly straight outward with no bend in the elbow? And are you locking your wrist, so that it's perfectly still?

I could see past the racket not being where it should be, but if i can't hit the shots i'm trying to hit when i take real life swings, then it's rather pointless to play this game. =(

glad you guys appreciate my post... now if i can only post a winning record....

as far as getting your character to mimic your movements exactly in real time, that doesn't quite happen. If you pay careful attention during the video, you will notice that even though it is being described as "true 1:1 motion control", there is a bit of lag between moving the wiimote+ and the resulting onscreen feedback.

As far as getting your raquet placement, rolling the raquet etc. I can offer the following based solely on my experience, which may be entirely assumptive.

By attaching the nunchuk, you remove the ability for the console to dictate lateral movement on the tennis court. It is entirely possible that when the nunchuck is removed, the console automatically places you for the best shot on the ball, which may force your onscreen character to use his forehand when you squared up for a backhand shot, causing discrepencies <sp?> between how you are holding the nunchuck and the stance of your character. With the nunchuck removed, you can simply move into position for a forehand shot, assume a forehand stance and see the "1:1" feedback of bringing the raquet up high/ bringing the raquet down low.

Many times during a match, and also during practice, I have noticed that my character will be holding his raquet out wide whil I'm holding the wiimote + in front of me (ready to return a serve). Ideally your character onscreen should have his raquet infront of his body with the raquet face perpendicular to the ground. This means that the remote in your hand must be infront of your body, buttons facing up, parallel to the ground. Sometimes your player just wont cooperate, raquet flailing in the air like a muppet. My assumption is that after most points i break out of my tennis stance shaking my hands in victory or defeat, and by the time the next point is ready to be served, by remote is now either pointing up in the air or any direction other than my proper tennis crouch. My recommendation for this is to always have the remote buttons up, face parallel with the ground, before game resets the court for the next point. Again, this is entirely an assumption without any facts other than it seems to work for me.

(its likely that returning a ball with top spin or back spin with a level swing probably wont result in a flat shot)

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