• Fixed a bug where the ball disappeared after a hit and the game stopped continuing
  
• Continued Balancing Career Mode(this only affects the game if you start a new career!):
  
  • Strength increase of the opponents is now more continuous. There should now be opponents of almost any strength. Before the update it often happened that the better opponents were much too strong and the weaker opponents were too weak. Now there should always be opponents that have about the same strength as your team! This should make the whole career more exciting.
    
  • There was an error in the AI vs AI match result estimation- causing the weaker team to win with a too high probability. This often made tournaments a little odd, because the strongest opponent was very often not the one you would meet in the final. Also the AI controlled teams often didn't have the ranking they should have had.
    
  • National tournaments of weak countries now have about the same difficulty as national tournaments of very strong countries. Before the update, playing on national level in USA or Brazil was much more difficult than playing in some smaller country!
    
  • "Very Hard" difficulty is now more difficult at the beginning!(Does anybody play on that difficulty?)
• Defending is now (a little bit) more difficult
  
• Lots of spelling errors fixed - thx BVBFan!
  
  
  Edit: Just made another small update today(Thursday). Just further tuned some defensive aspects.(to me it seemed like the players were utilizing the single handed defense a little too often...)

• Fixed a bug where the ball disappeared after a hit and the game stopped continuing
  
• Continued Balancing Career Mode(this only affects the game if you start a new career!):
  
  • Strength increase of the opponents is now more continuous. There should now be opponents of almost any strength. Before the update it often happened that the better opponents were much too strong and the weaker opponents were too weak. Now there should always be opponents that have about the same strength as your team! This should make the whole career more exciting.
    
  • There was an error in the AI vs AI match result estimation- causing the weaker team to win with a too high probability. This often made tournaments a little odd, because the strongest opponent was very often not the one you would meet in the final. Also the AI controlled teams often didn't have the ranking they should have had.
    
  • National tournaments of weak countries now have about the same difficulty as national tournaments of very strong countries. Before the update, playing on national level in USA or Brazil was much more difficult than playing in some smaller country!
    
  • "Very Hard" difficulty is now more difficult at the beginning!(Does anybody play on that difficulty?)
• Defending is now (a little bit) more difficult
  
• Lots of spelling errors fixed - thx BVBFan!
  
  
  Edit: Just made another small update today(Thursday). Just further tuned some defensive aspects.(to me it seemed like the players were utilizing the single handed defense a little too often...)

This weeks changes:

• more precise AI blocking commands: You can now tell your AI partner to block the following directions: left, left/center, center, right/center, right
  
• AI should now move to the back defense side you signaled more reliable
  
• Characters with good defense values will now receive good serves much better - this should make the gameplay on high level more realistic.
  
• I think I overdid improving stamina last week - so it's a little worse now
  
• You can tell your AI Partner to do a quick set by tapping [shot] + [pass] or [spike]+[pass] after you passed it to him/her.
  
• AI setting location for human partner improved.
  
• Changed Single Player Camera: You should now be able to see your back defender while you are blocking.

Notes: Don't expect your blocker to get any ball that goes to the side you told him. E.g. the attacker can spike close to the net or to the deep corner - the AI will try to guess the precise direction but it can not know it!

The same is true if you told your partner to do the back defense.

If you are telling your partner to defend the left/right side, you are actually telling him that you will try to block attacks to opposite side. Your defender will then try to guess the precise target of the attacker - but will often be wrong...

This weeks changes:

• more precise AI blocking commands: You can now tell your AI partner to block the following directions: left, left/center, center, right/center, right
  
• AI should now move to the back defense side you signaled more reliable
  
• Characters with good defense values will now receive good serves much better - this should make the gameplay on high level more realistic.
  
• I think I overdid improving stamina last week - so it's a little worse now
  
• You can tell your AI Partner to do a quick set by tapping [shot] + [pass] or [spike]+[pass] after you passed it to him/her.
  
• AI setting location for human partner improved.
  
• Changed Single Player Camera: You should now be able to see your back defender while you are blocking.

Notes: Don't expect your blocker to get any ball that goes to the side you told him. E.g. the attacker can spike close to the net or to the deep corner - the AI will try to guess the precise direction but it can not know it!

The same is true if you told your partner to do the back defense.

If you are telling your partner to defend the left/right side, you are actually telling him that you will try to block attacks to opposite side. Your defender will then try to guess the precise target of the attacker - but will often be wrong...

Due to the improved defense reactions rallies are now a lot longer on average. After testing a bit more I felt that stamina is now out of balance - I think players are getting out of breath way too fast now.

So here is a mini update that should fix that.

I also silently introduced double hit faults in the last update. I think they are not really working well - especially if you are a weaker player it often seems hard to understand why the referee stops the game and they were buggy too. Also the referee didn't even show the correct handsignal...
So I'm deactivating this for now!

Of course I cannot completely test through all possible character attribute combinations and difficulty settings - so if you think balancing is completely off in any of the many possible setups - just tell me!

Due to the improved defense reactions rallies are now a lot longer on average. After testing a bit more I felt that stamina is now out of balance - I think players are getting out of breath way too fast now.

So here is a mini update that should fix that.

I also silently introduced double hit faults in the last update. I think they are not really working well - especially if you are a weaker player it often seems hard to understand why the referee stops the game and they were buggy too. Also the referee didn't even show the correct handsignal...
So I'm deactivating this for now!

Of course I cannot completely test through all possible character attribute combinations and difficulty settings - so if you think balancing is completely off in any of the many possible setups - just tell me!

After the holiday break I decided to start with a bigger update. I hope I addressed the most pressing issues.
In the future I will try to make smaller updates more frequently.

Changelist

• Improved defense actions. Characters will now react much faster
  
• Added a new single handed "emergency" defense action. It's very difficult to get the timing right but at least you have a chance...
  
• There are now more difficulty levels in career mode but the top teams strength increase is not as big
  
• XBox and similar controllers are now more responsive. Problems when trying to move to the net to block are fixed
  
• Added a Controller/Button Mapping Editor
  
• You can change the defensive/blocking stance of your partner with the D-Pad or the right Thumbstick on your x-box controller.
  
• You can now fast forward , rewind, pause and change the camera during the replays with your movement and blocking controls.
  
• Mouse cursor will be automatically hidden if you press a button on any controller
  
• Replays will only stop when you press an action button
  
• Quick sets now work a little better but are more difficult to initiate. You can do a quick set by pressing pass+spike OR pass+shot
  
• Party characters have more training points
  
• Players now have collision bodies. The ball will not go through the players bodies anymore.
  
• Changed graphics setup of the game. The game is now more colorful and has more contrast
  
• Mouse cursor will be automatically hidden if you use a controller
  
• If you change your mind and cancel an receiving action the A.I. will try to get the ball.
  
• Recovering balls that touched the net should now be easier because you can now press the pass button BEFORE the ball touched the net
  
• Players can now dig the ball higher up and farther when diving
  
• Setting animation of A.I. controlled players has been improved (they will not run backwards over the whole court anymore...)
  
• Fixed shadows from buildings on the playfield
  
• Replay camera positions should not be behind the referee anymore
  
• Game statistics (sideouts, attacks) should now be correct.(I think I found the bug but I couldn't test it... so tell me if it's still wrong)
  

After the holiday break I decided to start with a bigger update. I hope I addressed the most pressing issues.
In the future I will try to make smaller updates more frequently.

Changelist

• Improved defense actions. Characters will now react much faster
  
• Added a new single handed "emergency" defense action. It's very difficult to get the timing right but at least you have a chance...
  
• There are now more difficulty levels in career mode but the top teams strength increase is not as big
  
• XBox and similar controllers are now more responsive. Problems when trying to move to the net to block are fixed
  
• Added a Controller/Button Mapping Editor
  
• You can change the defensive/blocking stance of your partner with the D-Pad or the right Thumbstick on your x-box controller.
  
• You can now fast forward , rewind, pause and change the camera during the replays with your movement and blocking controls.
  
• Mouse cursor will be automatically hidden if you press a button on any controller
  
• Replays will only stop when you press an action button
  
• Quick sets now work a little better but are more difficult to initiate. You can do a quick set by pressing pass+spike OR pass+shot
  
• Party characters have more training points
  
• Players now have collision bodies. The ball will not go through the players bodies anymore.
  
• Changed graphics setup of the game. The game is now more colorful and has more contrast
  
• Mouse cursor will be automatically hidden if you use a controller
  
• If you change your mind and cancel an receiving action the A.I. will try to get the ball.
  
• Recovering balls that touched the net should now be easier because you can now press the pass button BEFORE the ball touched the net
  
• Players can now dig the ball higher up and farther when diving
  
• Setting animation of A.I. controlled players has been improved (they will not run backwards over the whole court anymore...)
  
• Fixed shadows from buildings on the playfield
  
• Replay camera positions should not be behind the referee anymore
  
• Game statistics (sideouts, attacks) should now be correct.(I think I found the bug but I couldn't test it... so tell me if it's still wrong)
  

Ok - so what is taking so long?

For this game I wanted to create an AI that learns to anticipate your next actions so it can take counteractions.
I believe this is extremely important for a good volleyball game because a big part of the real game is to anticipate your opponents next action early and try to adopt if your opponents have certain tendencies.

Unfortunately this task was much more time consuming than I originally thought. You have to playtest the game a lot to see if everything is working as intended and bugs are often not very obvious....

I thought I could finish this in one week - instead it took me 3 and a half weeks.

Of course the AI will be improved and refined with your help during early access - but I think this is only possible if I provide a suitable starting point.

To be honest - I'm a little annoyed too. I really want the early access version to be released. On the other hand I think investing that much time into the AI was totally worth it. The game just feels a lot better if you can see(and feel) how the AI is reacting to the way you play.

This time there should not be another push back of the release date.
There is nothing incalculable left in my todo list. It's mainly UI stuff that still needs to be done.

Just don't expect a completely finished and polished game then.
Also don't expect something like a AAA sports game(with motion captured animations, cinematic cut scenes and so on), this is simply not possible with the limited resources I have available.

Ok - so what is taking so long?

For this game I wanted to create an AI that learns to anticipate your next actions so it can take counteractions.
I believe this is extremely important for a good volleyball game because a big part of the real game is to anticipate your opponents next action early and try to adopt if your opponents have certain tendencies.

Unfortunately this task was much more time consuming than I originally thought. You have to playtest the game a lot to see if everything is working as intended and bugs are often not very obvious....

I thought I could finish this in one week - instead it took me 3 and a half weeks.

Of course the AI will be improved and refined with your help during early access - but I think this is only possible if I provide a suitable starting point.

To be honest - I'm a little annoyed too. I really want the early access version to be released. On the other hand I think investing that much time into the AI was totally worth it. The game just feels a lot better if you can see(and feel) how the AI is reacting to the way you play.

This time there should not be another push back of the release date.
There is nothing incalculable left in my todo list. It's mainly UI stuff that still needs to be done.

Just don't expect a completely finished and polished game then.
Also don't expect something like a AAA sports game(with motion captured animations, cinematic cut scenes and so on), this is simply not possible with the limited resources I have available.