HB Studios Next-Gen golf game: The Golf Club

[10spro]

I donated 2000 to the PC Society last night but I think it's going to be a long time until we raise the level.

I'm tempted to get the XB1 version to have a larger group to play with but I'm sure once I get it the fever will die down, I'm the KOD for these things.

We are averaging about 10 participants per tourney, I know I will continue to play the game even though I am tired of seeing Vader win every event.

[DivotMaker]

Got my replacement Elite controller back from MS yesterday. I was stunned to open the box and find a brand new retail Elite controller in the retail packaging. I'm blown away with the support I received on this.

I plan to play Friday afternoon and see if the wireless adapter shutdown issue still exists. If it does, I will contact MS Support and complain about that as well and see if they send me a new wireless adapter even though I am sure that is not the problem.

[10spro]

I can't wait to see how many people threaten to rage quit after playing the first round pin placement on #4

Still, it's a mostly playable course and I mostly enjoyed the round there, but if it didn't call itself Quail Hollow, I wouldn't have suspected I was playing Quail Hollow until I reached the 17th hole. I'm curious to see some of the later round pin placements.

Looking forward to it, I know I won't rage quit no matter how many times I may look for the lifevest, will try to do at least a round today before the weekend before we go for camping.

[Naples39]

I donated 2000 to the PC Society last night but I think it's going to be a long time until we raise the level.

I'm tempted to get the XB1 version to have a larger group to play with but I'm sure once I get it the fever will die down, I'm the KOD for these things.

I donated 2500 as well the other day. How much more do we need?

Also, for 4 round weekend tourneys someone from each XB1 and PC could upload the leaderboard so we can view them side by side and at least pretend there's a combined board..

[Leadfoot5]

Decided to knock out this weekends XB1 tournament in one sitting and I am temporarily in 1st place at -20. I know it won't hold up, but being at the top of the leaderboard for any reason is a new experience. Hoping it's good enough for a Top 5.

[vader29]

Decided to knock out this weekends XB1 tournament in one sitting and I am temporarily in 1st place at -20. I know it won't hold up, but being at the top of the leaderboard for any reason is a new experience. Hoping it's good enough for a Top 5.

I ended up tied with you, could have taken the lead but missed two easy birds on 17 and 18 on the final round.

[dbdynsty25]

Decided to knock out this weekends XB1 tournament in one sitting and I am temporarily in 1st place at -20. I know it won't hold up, but being at the top of the leaderboard for any reason is a new experience. Hoping it's good enough for a Top 5.

I ended up tied with you, could have taken the lead but missed two easy birds on 17 and 18 on the final round.

I pissed away any chance I had w my horrible first round. Got competitive in the last three and finished -12.

[J_Cauthen]

Decided to knock out this weekends XB1 tournament in one sitting and I am temporarily in 1st place at -20. I know it won't hold up, but being at the top of the leaderboard for any reason is a new experience. Hoping it's good enough for a Top 5.

I ended up tied with you, could have taken the lead but missed two easy birds on 17 and 18 on the final round.

I pissed away any chance I had w my horrible first round. Got competitive in the last three and finished -12.

I finally started figuring out this rendition of Quail Hollow. I came to the 18th hole, -10 for the round, put my approach shot 21 feet past the hole,and barely missed my birdie putt. The ball rolled 31 feet past the hole and into the fringe. I left my 31 foot, 2 foot uphill putt short. Left my 24 foot bogey putt 11 feet short, and then rolled the 11 footer for a double bogey. That pin placement was brutal, even with slow greens!

[J_Cauthen]

HB Studios is readying a patch for release, possible today or tomorrow, for TGC 2. They will release it immediately for the PC and submit it for certification for the PS4 and XB1, simultaneously. It's not an overly impressive list of fixes, but here's what's coming:

"We will be looking into pushing out a PC update later this week and sending builds off to Sony and Microsoft for review. Below I have listed some of the items that have been looked at and will be resolved when the update goes live.
• Added checks to better determine whether users are cheating while playing their rounds. Users caught cheating will have their scorecards removed and other repercussions will be determined in the future.
• Course Creator - "Move Hole" could become unresponsive over time.
• Correct publishing messages are now being shown when a courses publish fails for a specific limitation.
• Users with no HCP are displaying 36.4 in the Members list of a society this will now show no HCP when required.
• Course regeneration times have been improved on console when using the Course Designer.
• Wind ratings have been fixed for all events in society events to have all users playing with the same settings regardless of time of day.
• Addressed a limitation preventing the full use of the withdraw function in Career Mode.
• Resolved a limitation stopping some users from accessing their society events.
• Ability to view all golfers profiles whether you're friends or not has been addressed.
• Addressed the loss of d-pad function on PS4 after using the touchpad.
• UI: The User's stroke count was increasing by 1 in the replay scorecard HUD after the user watches a replay and lets it cycle through a 2nd time.
• The ball label of player 1 is no longer missing its distance to pin read-out.
• Ball label colors of player 1 and player 2 have been corrected
• Ball labels appear on active ball
• Labels no longer remain on balls that are holed out.
• Ball marker no longer follows the users ball in single player games off the drive
• Placing objects in the course creator regeneration time has been improved.
• Optimized memory used when creating a heavily object populated 18 hole course.
• Ghosts are now being sorted properly when using the score filter.
• Added a High Visibility HUD option to make white text easier to read for vision impaired users.
• UI: Course Designer: Main Menu is displaying KB/M controls when the user is using Gamepad controls after leaving the Course Designer.
• Improved the impact of DOF settings being applied in-game.
• Added National Flags which can now be used as crests for emblems.
• Potential improvement made for those experiencing hitching in their back swing on PC and Consoles."

Not seeing "Spoiler Leaderboards" in the list, I posed the following question and received the answer that follows. At least it's on their radar...

Me - Shaun, I've got a question about what has been commonly reported by users as an area for improvement in TGC 2. I've lost count of the number of different users across all three platforms who've expressed a desire for having "Spoiler Free" leaderboards in tournaments, like we had in TGC 1.

Having never read an acknowledgement or comment by anyone at HB Studios concerning it, I'm wondering if it is viewed as an anomaly, or whether it is working the way it is by design?


Shaun West - It is currently working as designed. However, we will be looking into adding the option in a future patch.

[10spro]

Added checks to better determine whether users are cheating while playing their rounds. Users caught cheating will have their scorecards removed and other repercussions will be determined in the future.

Do you know what people are doing exactly John?

[J_Cauthen]

Do you know what people are doing exactly John?

They are using various hardware adapter dongles, such as Cronus Max and Titan One, to dial as much sensitivity out of the X axis as they desire, effectively taking as much swing path error as they want out of the swing interface. It's tough to draw the line between what is the sloppy performance of a cheap controller versus the that of a Cronus Max altered controller, as the Cronus Max user can tailor the settings to where there's just enough swing path deviation for plausible deniability, while getting more consistent results.

I've tried some cheap, knockoff controllers and did see less swing path deviation with some of them, however, I also found that the same sloppiness they had with the X axis also applied to sloppy performance on the Y axis. My pitching, chipping, and putting game suffered more than enough to offset the gains in control, because I couldn't control the shot power with as much finesse.

Those who are using the controller adapters can change only the sensitivity of the X axis, while leaving the Y axis with it's normal response. I used a Titan One to allow me to use my XBox 360 controller with the PS4 version of The Golf Club 1, but I didn't touch any of the fine settings of it. Now that there's a controller that is built and feels like an XBox 360 controller for the PS4 (The Nacron Revolution Pro), I no longer have a need for it.

[J_Cauthen]

I donated 2500 as well the other day. How much more do we need?

We need to get to 22,000 for level 7. I'm not sure how many more events we've got in our bank as a level 6 Society. Society level 6 has an allotment of 30 events, and 7 would be 35. We've probably got a few more weeks (we're going 4 events a week currently) before we have to start worrying about it. I'm playing some official events to help raise virtual coins to donate myself. They pay off more than the private Society events.

Also, for 4 round weekend tourneys someone from each XB1 and PC could upload the leaderboard so we can view them side by side and at least pretend there's a combined board..

I'll take that on for the PS4 version if you'd be willing to do it for the PC. That's a good idea, although this week the PS4 and PC Societies are at TPC Sawgrass. I've got too much local knowledge of Quail Hollow since I've been there so many times, and after playing the quickly put together Quail Hollow 2017 course that got released earlier this week, it just didn't reproduce Quail Hollow faithfully enough to persuade me to book it.

BTW PS4 Society members... this weeks tournament at TPC Sawgrass is a "Major", for whatever that's worth. We didn't have enough events to designate the British Open a Major when that event rolled around last month. I've got 36 holes under my belt in this tournament and I'm the only player entered at this point. FriendBOMBER has done an exquisite job with this recreation of TPC Sawgrass and I'd love to see more of you out there!

[ddtrane]

Added a High Visibility HUD option to make white text easier to read for vision impaired users

This is a must have for this game, being able to read the HUD without changing camera angles is welcomed.

By the way, stay away from a course named Quail Hollow by TGC Member, it is tricked up with bunkers in the fairway, holes on hills and by fairways on both sides of the river.

[DivotMaker]

I donated 3000 to the PC Society today....

Having to re-learn the swing again with this new Elite controller.....

[J_Cauthen]

I donated 3000 to the PC Society today....

Having to re-learn the swing again with this new Elite controller.....

Thanks Tim... I'm hoping we can get the PC Society membership up to where we're at least averaging 6 players per event. Gibbius Maximums has applied for membership here, but hasn't been authorized yet.
He's a Steam friend of mine, who's been playing regularly in the PC Society, and quite well here of late.

"Re-learn the swing"? Does the your new Elite controller feel different than you older one? Are you now using it with your Blue Tooth adapter again?

Finally, do you go with the stock size sticks? I thought the longest ones might be best in a golf game, but when I try using them I find that it just gives me a larger range of motion for a swing path error. I do get a better feel for distance control when putting with them though.

[DivotMaker]

I donated 3000 to the PC Society today....

Having to re-learn the swing again with this new Elite controller.....

Thanks Tim... I'm hoping we can get the PC Society membership up to where we're at least averaging 6 players per event. Gibbius Maximums has applied for membership here, but hasn't been authorized yet.
He's a Steam friend of mine, who's been playing regularly in the PC Society, and quite well here of late.

"Re-learn the swing"? Does the your new Elite controller feel different than you older one? Are you now using it with your Blue Tooth adapter again?

Finally, do you go with the stock size sticks? I thought the longest ones might be best in a golf game, but when I try using them I find that it just gives me a larger range of motion for a swing path error. I do get a better feel for distance control when putting with them though.

Played a couple rounds without being logged into my Xbox Live profile so I was basically playing default. Got that situated and it still seems much more sensitive than before and that is a good thing.

I stick with the default sticks. If I find myself mastering this swing (not likely anytime soon), I may consider the longer ones.

First rounds I have played in a week is also part of the issue.

[Danimal]

Well lesson learned don't shoot rounds 3 and 4 after drinking.

[DivotMaker]

Well lesson learned don't shoot rounds 3 and 4 after drinking.

Noted, thanks Dan!

[dbdynsty25]

Well lesson learned don't shoot rounds 3 and 4 after drinking.

By the looks of my scores, you'd think I was drinking BEFORE the 1st round, and sobered up. No idea why, I'm just terrible in round one, then I settle down. Guess I'm gonna have to start playing a practice round at each course first.

[RobVarak]

You guys on XB1 are clearly playing a different game than I am. Couldn't even break par this week. My last round I was -2 headed to 18. Put one in the water. The only drop area left me one of those crazy animations where the ball was above my head, so I shanked the shot into the water again. Good times...

[10spro]

I was playing OK after two rounds with a -5 and the then it all went downhill on R3 in some pins placements. I think it was on #15 where I overshot the flag and the ball kept rolling down 20 ft to the bunker. I was thinking wasn't the greens supposed to be on a slow side? I lost 4 shots there just trying to get it near the pin as the ball kept rolling down on me as if I was playing Firestone.

If we have to really hit it hard on an uphill putt under the current conditions, how does the ball just sail on you downhill?

Ditto on #18 same thing, the ball kept rolling down on me as if I was on an ice rink. Frustrated.

R4 tomorrow.

[snaz16]

My characteristics of bullsh*t made-up courses:

-- No variation in hole layout
-- Endless elevated tees to create inflated distance
-- Hourglass-shaped landing areas in fairways, surrounded by traps
-- Traps smack dab in the middle of a fairway landing zone
-- Greens with topo-map undulations
-- Pins on the peaks of slopes
-- Shoestring-narrow fairways
-- Any driveable par-4's
-- Par-3's less than 100 yards, with a few 500-plus par-4's to compensate
-- Courses with super-easy fairway layouts and diabolical, undulating greens. It's golf, not a putting contest.

Any other red flags you cats can add to this list?

I haven't pulled the trigger on the game yet , but you all are correct in some of the hole locations on user made courses. I recalled a conversation I had with a golf course super several years ago and thought I remembered him telling me there should be at least 3 feet of flat surface around a hole , so a little Bing search revealed this. http://www.usga.org/rulesfaq/rules_answ ... 43&Rule=16 ,, particularly items 2 and 3.

[dbdynsty25]

...so a little Bing search revealed this. http://www.usga.org/rulesfaq/rules_answ ... 43&Rule=16 ,, particularly items 2 and 3.

First person in history of forums to say that phrase. Bing, really? Lol.

But yeah...it would seem that the developer should at least abide by USGA rules unless it's strictly a fantasy course and should be labeled as such so we know to avoid them.

[snaz16]

...so a little Bing search revealed this. http://www.usga.org/rulesfaq/rules_answ ... 43&Rule=16 ,, particularly items 2 and 3.

First person in history of forums to say that phrase. Bing, really? Lol.

But yeah...it would seem that the developer should at least abide by USGA rules unless it's strictly a fantasy course and should be labeled as such so we know to avoid them.

LOL yeah it comes before Google on my favorites list

[J_Cauthen]

I had a humiliating final round, shooting an 89 in the DSP PC Weekly at TPC Sawgrass. I was two strokes off the lead after the 7th hole, and then 4-putted, from 14 feet on the 8th for a double bogey. The wheels came off and I then rednecked out and "Daylied" my way through the rest of the round. I love it when a computer or video game is so convincing to me that it can turn me into a pouty, tantrum pitching little brat.