The Masters

one thing i would say is the problem with power
you are either a long hitter or you arent
every time i start with a new golfer the power is very low, but in real life dustin johnson was long from his first tour event. he didnt average 240 of the tee and 2 or 3 tournaments later he could average 300.
you should be able to start your career as a really long hitter, medium hitter or short hitter.
Change the power attribute to driving accuracy.

I love the idea of the mental attributes and dividing each attribute into more detailed sections and making putting a little more difficult. One thing you might add is to not put the holes in such ridiculous positions to where it is impossible to putt the ball close and have it roll off the green or back to your feet.

Overall, I love the game, but one thing has bothered me for the last couple years. The thing I don't like is, no matter what your attributes are, the clubs don't fly their true distances that they say and they come out way too low. In real life, a pro knows how far they will carry the ball with each club. With any other club than a wedge, you are almost always forced to overclub by 1-2 clubs on the shot just to get it to carry and it will never sit in time because it is coming in way too low. I did a test with Tiger and hit a 3 wood, which says it goes 260 yards, and aimed over a bunker which was 200 yards away. Not only did the ball go in the bunker, it rolled in, not flew, but rolled. This is not very realistic and it needs to be fixed. I am very confident in saying most tour pros could fly a 5 iron around 200 yards and get it to stop reasonably quickly, especially Tiger.

I like a lot of what has been mentioned so far about the point system. Definitely agree that having a Pro golfer who drives an average of 240 then miraculously jumps up to 300 after a few events is a let down. Although I think hands suggestions I think it might be a little too much, the four attribute areas is still too few though. I like the idea that you create a player with strengths and weaknesses though, forcing you to be careful with point allocation and not creating some golfing demigod.

Secondly, and I hope this isn't too far off track but I'd like to mention it anyway. I skipped last years Tiger so I don't know how much it was changed but the jump from Balanced (was this the name?) to the next up, Tour Pro, was acceptable but I'd love there to be something in between. On Balanced, it was common to see -40's or better on a good event. And sure jumping up remedied that problem but for me it got to the point where I didn't have the time to practice to get very good. I'd really just like a nice middle ground of difficulty/realistic scoring/and maybe the choice of putt preview. Ignore anything that was addressed in Tiger 09.

I'm pretty much in agreement with SwAeromotion's comments on this subject. I would like to add that I think the attributes are overly affected by one round. I think the attributes should be more trend driven. One round can be an abberation. I pay little attention to what my attributes currently are and do absolutely nothing to try to regulate them. I just let the chips fall where they may, but that doesn't stop me from being amazed that my putting attribute can drop 2.5 points in one round!?

cem_ea_id.TibMikeD wrote:I like the idea of a mental attributes as was discussed above and also the idea of creating some more attributes around putting. Curious to hear more ideas from you guys on this.

A straight, solid putting stroke is one particular ability or attribute. In TW 10, the higher the putting attribute, the less play there is in the swing (or so it seems). That's great and it works well. Now, what about another, separate putting attribute that affects User ability to read greens? The higher the attribute, the tighter the green grid. TW 08 on the PC has this feature. And to increase the usefulness of that particular attribute, perhaps the elevation colors and break movement aids shouldn't be visible on the lower attribute levels.

cem_ea_id.BiOoOHazard wrote:maby you should be awarded for being a good putter?

maby the slider should pause down and go slower over the yellow hit-area as a reward?
the better the putt-average, the slower it will go over that area?

(if you try to go slow by yourself and even stop at the hit-area, as you can do now,
the speed of the ball should be drasticly affectet.
also, if a player try something like that dont just make the yellow mark fade slowly away, but take it away in a snap).

Interesting ideas, BiO. I had a flash yesterday of, when lining up the putt and reading the break, the visuals and sight line going into a "zoom mode" for a golfer with high Read Green attributes. But that's maybe a little too Matrix-like for a golf game.

cem_ea_id.baangus wrote:

cem_ea_id.BiOoOHazard wrote:maby you should be awarded for being a good putter?

maby the slider should pause down and go slower over the yellow hit-area as a reward?
the better the putt-average, the slower it will go over that area?

(if you try to go slow by yourself and even stop at the hit-area, as you can do now,
the speed of the ball should be drasticly affectet.
also, if a player try something like that dont just make the yellow mark fade slowly away, but take it away in a snap).

Interesting ideas, BiO. I had a flash yesterday of, when lining up the putt and reading the break, the visuals and sight line going into a "zoom mode" for a golfer with high Read Green attributes. But that's maybe a little too Matrix-like for a golf game.

=) then we must think the same again, im writing on a TW-txtfile when something pops up and the latest was:

"the sound of a heartbeat, more and more intense.
my vision gets blury, twitchy...
the greengrid starts to shake, im about to level up in my attributes.
if i only can make this one putt..."

hehe

and of course the batterypack go nuts and my controller starts to shake violently

cem_ea_id.The-Bull17 wrote:you should be able to start your career as a really long hitter, medium hitter or short hitter. Change the power attribute to driving accuracy.

That's a great idea. The most un-fun part of Tour Mode for me is plugging away and waiting until I can get some loft under my drives and iron shots. I'd much rather be able to hit the ball 240 yards right from the start, but with next-to-no accuracy (just like real-life in other words, heh).

Hi Mike, thank you for devoting a subsection to just this part of the game. I am in the process of writing a response to your Hey Everyone thread, which has elements of this topic included in my response. That response, unfortunately, is turning more into a doctoral thesis...and is really more time than I want to dedicate. So again, thank you for opening up this part in specific.

HANDSWARD somewhat touched on my idea as did Charlie A. Woods, and I think the both of them are headed in the right direction. Just to continue on in the vein they suggested I would like to add the following:

Like EA does with its NHL series why not allow a gamer to CAG (create a golfer) according to his/her preference? This should be fairly easy to implement into the game as there are, realistically, only two types of golfers: Mechanical and Feel. Just to head those off at the pass who would like to argue, yes, I agree there is a third type, but the existence of the third type is hotly debated as opponent's of this theory state passionately that this type of player is merely a prodigy in the category of one of the aforementioned two.

Once a gamer has selected a type of player, he or she is then prompted to select a sub-categorization under the original choice.

For Mechanical the sub-categorizations would be: Shot Maker, Course Manager, and Mister Consistency. (The names, of course, are just examples.)

For Feel the sub-categorizations would be: Grip It and Rip It, The Gambler, and Mister Miraculous

Have these categorizations and sub-categorizations incorporate into them elements of what we now know as Power and Accuracy only break down these two into something more like what HANDSWARD suggested, and assign a point value to each type +/- based on the combination chosen. I think the attribute system can be broken down to represent the physical side of the game as HANDSWARD has demonstrated quite nicely, but there is that other side still missing - as the old saying goes, "Golf is 10% physical and 90% mental."

Introducing attributes like Endurance, Mental Fortitude, and Luck (which is really, sometimes, just will power) would really increase the excitement level of the game as ignoring these factors to increase physical performance could detract from a CAG's ability to compete in the long run.

Just a few ideas.

Cheers.

cem_ea_id.baangus wrote:

cem_ea_id.TibMikeD wrote:I like the idea of a mental attributes as was discussed above and also the idea of creating some more attributes around putting. Curious to hear more ideas from you guys on this.

A straight, solid putting stroke is one particular ability or attribute. In TW 10, the higher the putting attribute, the less play there is in the swing (or so it seems). That's great and it works well. Now, what about another, separate putting attribute that affects User ability to read greens? The higher the attribute, the tighter the green grid. TW 08 on the PC has this feature. And to increase the usefulness of that particular attribute, perhaps the elevation colors and break movement aids shouldn't be visible on the lower attribute levels.

Great point. When someone gets better at putting it is because they get a better understanding of breaks and distance control. It would be great to create a system where forgiveness doesn't increase, but the tools you have available get better. The only problem is finding a way to incorporate this for players who don't use grids.

lets face it most players online buy a monkey suits and run 12s all the time,
they all drive for the same flat part of fairway, and all look for the same pitch shot for egale resulting in silly scores 30 under +, how about live tour pro being 1 try only with your attrubuts moving up or down pending on how you play. and for the amature live tours run a handicap system giving the lower ranked players chance to beat the pro gamers it mite work

I had to delete my post. I posted something in the wrong area.

cem_ea_id.I-Got-Da-Yips wrote:
Introducing attributes like Endurance, Mental Fortitude, and Luck (which is really, sometimes, just will power) would really increase the excitement level of the game as ignoring these factors to increase physical performance could detract from a CAG's ability to compete in the long run.

...as long as Luck is not overdone like it is in the Wii version of TW (AHO's). AHO's (Assisted Hole Outs), which occur randomly, seem to be an unnecessary "feature" for the better players.


-MERACE

i like the current system the way it is. i have never maxed out my points which gives me a more realistic and challenging experience. i think i am in the minority here though.

There are loads of good points already.
I definately agree with the idea that Fir is not a power stat, there are some strange grouping of stats in a few of the areas. Specifically using distances instead of percentages for accuracy and vice versa.

The dynamic stats are a great way of keeping the game interesting for the single player, but there are very few choices that need to be made in that respect, usually I choose accuracy over power, but that is a general trade off in the game. I would like to see a pentagram or some visualy feedback which categorises the style of the play.

I also agree with the guy who says that it is annoying when other people would like to use profiles but you cannot give them decent stats to compete at home, in a group session(more that one person in the same locale). Also whenever you play a round even as a pro character I would like to see a game break down at the end to see the strenghts and weakness of the days play?

Really there needs to be a difference between performance and attributes. Give a average initial stats and let performance shape attributes, ie. Accuracy versus power, spin versus length, I mean tiger has an amazing short game, but he trades off accuracy for power, which is understandable. I still think that spin should be a dynamic control at least in the higher difficulties.