The Masters

Hey everyone! We're here again to launch a new topic for discussion based on some of the ideas you all have been pitching for the game. This new topic revolves around "Random Landing Areas For The Golf Ball". This has been a topic I have seen appear often in the forums, so I'm anxious to hear the great ideas you all have on this one. Let's build on the momentum from last week and keep the ideas coming.



As a reminder, please keep the topics focused on the main point we are discussing. This discussion is OPEN TO PLAYERS OF ALL SKILL LEVELS, so please feel free to use this area as a place to propose ways in which we can use the idea we're discussing to make the game better for you.

Thanks!
Mike D.

I dont think a random landing area is really what we need, what we really need is a RANDOM, fluctuating, wind speed and direction. Totally random sequences.

Allthough a random landing area plus fluctuating winds would definatly make this game tough.

The holing out in Ametuer mode is rediculous, I played an 18'r the other night with a random player from the East room, nothing special a level 10 , maybe 100 wins and 60 losses and I shot a 50 with NO hole outs in Ametuer mode, no mess ups for me either, basically "STOCK" and I lost by 7 , yup 7 hole outs in 18 holes. Thats the exact reason why I play 95% of my games in Tour pro mode. There still is too many hole outs in tour pro mode but its much more tolerable than Ametuer mode, IMO


That is just crazy, I understand that most of the online players enjoy this style of playing a video game but it makes me wonder, what if this was much more of a sim? What if PAR was a good score? Everyone screams, I wouldn't play anymore, I wouldnt buy 2011... what does that really mean? The lobbies would be empty?
Really?

There really is only a couple hundred people playing the game and of those couple hundred, half are some sort of reincarnation of another name created ( that seems to be the thing to do on the PS3, create tens of names, Im starting to think that there is really only 50 players playing the game with multiple profiles,LOL, THAT needs to change too)

So what if these few hundred quite playing? Are there thousands of new players ready to pick up the game if it wasnt so arcadey and much more sim like?

I dont know the answer, some sim guys seem to think that hundreds maybe thousands would play if it was more sim like.

I guess what Im saying is that EA needs to find a happy middle ground to please everyone but one thing is for sure, you better keep them seperated with seperate dailies, seperate lobbies, seperate leaderboards or else the bickering wil never stop.


Good Luck EA, great job this year and you still have much room for improvement.

P.S. Give us some sort of partial credit for next year's DLC to those that are buying all of this years DLC.

not everybody shoots in the 40's. i have played the game since the ps2 days and i still only shoot in the low 60's in amatuer mode and high 60's or low 70's in tour pro mode. if a random landing area is implemented then i think it should be on hard or tour setting only, not amatuer setting or below.

don't forget, some of us still suck at this game.

cutler006 - If this got implemented we would tune it per difficulty level.

Andy pretty much said how I feel about the random landing area.

Andy has a point about randomly fluctuating wind speeds and direction - it certainly would reduce the ability of players to laser-golf hole out every par 4 on a course and ace every par 3.
The only problem with introducing randomness to the elements, Andy, is that not every day is windy; even if it is windy not very often does the wind swirl and change direction. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, it just doesn't happen often.

Hi Mike, I think random ball effect landing areas is the only way to rid the game of the hole out fests that the TW series has become.

I think players have far too much control over the golf ball than is reasonably possible and can manipulate outcomes a priori with the club tuner and a posteriori with mapping efforts and mathematical calculations. This needs to be remedied, in my opinion, because soon enough this 'arms race' to see who can hole out the most will escalate to the point where EA will be petitioned to remove the putter as a mandatory club in the bag due to its lack of use.

As for ideas on what types of effect should be included in a random ball effect landing area the following might be included in a list of possible effects:

- Upon landing a ball that has the maximum amount of spin applied to it simply hits the green and stops where it landed.

- Upon landing a ball that has spin applied to it acts contrary to what it should. It lands and hops forward and rolls out according to its velocity.

- For balls hit with Draw/Fade the golf ball reacts either extremely in response to the spin applied (hits and rolls out extreme in the direction of the spin) or hits, hops once, and spins in reverse of the spin applied rolling only a couple of feet.

- The ball lands and bounces extremely either forward or in a forward diagonal direction.

- The ball lands where desired, the spin is as desired, but the ball just hops a fraction of an inch throwing it slightly offline in the backspin generated.

- Conversely, the ball lands where desired, with no spin as desired, but hops a fraction of an inch offline on its forward approach to the hole.

- Despite the number of taps applied to the boost/spin button to produce maximum spin the ball just doesn't spin back as far. Caca happens.

- Despite the number of taps applied to the boost/spin button to produce maximum roll the ball just doesn't roll out as far. See above.

-Despite the number of taps applied to the boost/spin button to produce maximum spin left or right the ball just doesn't roll as far.

- Although no spin boost was applied the ball might still spin back as if it had been boosted.

- And lastly, the ball lands where desired, the spin is as desired, and holes out. No change.

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.

xbox.cartman041388 wrote: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 have seen this too and to me, the ball trajectories are just too low as to get 260 yards, there is too much roll to get that distance, therefore clearing hazards between your ball and target makes it a crapshoot and often times I play safe and lay up...

xbox.cartman041388 wrote: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.

We had a discussion on this in General. Here is link to that.

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/294113.page

I'm still playing at beginner level and have got my game up enough where I can hold my own with the tournament pro challenges. I thought that I would try an online tournament but to my surprise there were people at the top of the leader board with scores of -28 for 18 holes and -101 for 72 holes (four day tournament), these are very unrealistic scores, it figures out to 2.44 strokes per hole, man, I don't even see Tiger playing like this. With online play being like this I see no sense in going back to play online tournaments, I see no fun in getting an ace or eagle on every hole, I want the game to be more realistic.

Random landing area for the ball seems a bit general but, when a ball is hit there are many factors that affect where it lands but also it is going to go in the general direction it was hit. Watching live golf tournaments you see the balls taking unexpected turns due to unexpected textures in the fairways or greens. I was watching golf lessons on the golf channel, I don't remember what course they were on but when the balls hit the fairway they bounced like they were hitting asphalt and sometimes as the ball was rolling it would take an unexpected turn due to textures in the fairway.

Controlling the spin on the ball is for the club at the moment of contact and not by the golfer after the ball is in the air. I have saved a lot of green pin under and over shots using the in air spin control also, I have saved many missed FIR's and GIR's using the in air spin control. The in air spin control might be nice for someone just learning but once a player reaches a certain skill level the in air spin control should be disabled.

Im ALL for this!

This is what this game suffers, too MANY HOLEOUTS in Amateur Mode.

Heck the other day, Badboy and I had SEVEN HOLEOUTS in 1 9 Holes and got beat by 8!!

I mean cmon, seriously thats just insane!

We need to try and get to the point in this game particularly in Tour Mode where Birdies are something which you work hard for, these should should never be the norm!!

I can see this must be a forum for the console guys !! The PC game has always acted as it should , that meaning that as the wind , lie , and swing would make @!

Careful what you wish for.

In 07 the random landing spot 'worked'. You know how people played the game?

-Purposely pausing a fraction at the top of the swing would negate the random landing
-Punch shots would all go straight.
-People would hit massive hooks and draws because you could dial up to exactness where the ball would land.

I wouldn't mind this feature, but keep in mind how some people are going to adjust and play the game if this were implemented. If there is any way around the random landing, it will get exploited to death. Is it going to be fun to keep playing this game 2,4,6 months after release with many people hitting with a workaround of the radnom landing?


I agree with Andy on the winds. That would help quite a bit. How the winds worked in the PC version is a very, very good way to implement wind IMO.

xbox.cartman041388 wrote: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.

The distance shown is where the ball will land after roll on a 100% swing rolling through the fairway to a flat lie with no elevation change and no loft change to your club. IT is NOT how far the ball flies in the air.

heya Mike, i appreciate you guys finally talking to us about development, just hope it works as intended.

I agree with someone up there, a work around will be found, and quickly, but what in my opinion would help increase difficulty, have wind grades, no mph stuff, calm, 0-5 breezy 6-10 don't say the mph, just say, it windy with arrow pointing west, or up or down, if i dont know the exact wind, i cant dial in the shot, gimme exact wind, hell i don't care 35 at 8 oclock i can tell you exactly what club to hit to go pin high, but if it says windy down... could be a 20 could be a 26, big difference.... that would increase randomness.


Baali