If I were making turn-based tennis, I think I'd do it like this, concentrating on the relationship between court coverage and momentum:

Your side of the court is a grid. As the ball goes over the net into your side, time freezes (or slows down, this could be a real-time turn-based strategy) and you see possible routes the ball might take (maybe along with probabilities). These are somewhat inaccurate when your Perception is low. You choose a kind of return and choose where on the grid you intend to execute it. Your character runs there. They only have so many squares they can run, but they can expend Stamina to lunge a bit further. If you chose well, your return connects and does exactly what you specified. If you're off by a square or two, you still can return but you don't get exactly what you intended. If you're well off, you miss.

But you don't get complete freedom to lunge in every direction every turn. One, you're using up stamina, and there are also consequences to lunging in opposite directions. (Like if you lunge left, you're not set up to lunge right on the next turn; you may not even be able to run as far right on the next turn.)

I think this gets more interesting in a doubles match than singles, as you have two character's coverage/momentum/skills to take into account.

Wow oh wow!!! I am in love with this idea as well !!! :D

I was definitely trying to conceive of how I would even make tennis a turn-based style game but this would definitely do it justice- the grid cells... man , that idea has SO much mileage ! I might have to PM you for details further about how to flesh that out ! While I think a real-time tennis game would be more familiar I think your idea would be an intriguing and fresh new spin on the idea.

Beating doped up tennis players to expose a conspiracy?

Those are all great ideas actually... except fighting doped players lmao

:lol:

I meant by "beating them" I meant "defeating them in a tennis match". Not physical violence. :lol:

hahahaha I kinda figured as much ;)

I think a useful group of stats would be the following:

• Strength (How hard you can hit the ball, and therefore, how fast the ball returns and how much force it takes to return it to you)
• Speed (How fast you can go on the court, this could translate to action points for a turn-based version, and depending on how fast you're moving could determine how many action points it requires to switch direction, perhaps Strength or Stamina could even play into this; for example if you put traits into the game you could have one called "Hard Stop" that takes extra Stamina, or reduces your Strength for a turn in exchange for being able to change direction quickly)
• Stamina (How long you can keep going, perhaps your max action points, and then speed could be the regeneration rate of your action points)
• Grace (Your aim, the less grace you have, the wider the cone of angles of deflection, or something like that)
• Perception (Like valrus said, it could determine your prediction of the ball)
• Balance (How well you can take hard maneuvers like that "Hard Stop" from earlier without falling directly on your face)
• Some sort of extra "Super Tennis" mode that accumulates as you play the match

Then there's that thing about emotions like Wavinator said, here's a few examples of how that could work:

• Calm (Base condition, no stat change)
• Anger (Decreases Grace and Perception, but boosts Strength and Speed)
• Overconfidence (Decreases Perception and Speed, but boosts Stamina)

Or they could be sliders that could change through the match as you play in a more "Morale" for Overconfidence and an "Anger Bar" instead of solid status effect style.

As to experience, how would you gain it? I don't think the traditional "Kill monsters, get XP" would work for this variety of game.

I like the momentum and turn based idea above. It's almost like VATS for tennis :)

In fact you could probably pinch a fair few ideas from looking at how VATS works in fallout 3/4...

VATS for tennis could be great. Action players could just run around and play an action tennis game, but at any point during your turn the player could pause and see the "gears" of the simulation underneath with momentum, ball path probabilities, etc.

Another game to look at for that kind of stuff is called: Transistor by Super Giant Games, it has a similar mechanic that allows you to stop time briefly.

If you would like to learn more, you should give it a look.