Asking a Quesiton

[ADC]

Hey, everyone

So, I'm starting a new course while I'm also continuing work on Eden Prairie, which is about half done. I don't know the name, but it's a concept I've been toying with forever; a course where the libraries and surfaces are designed to emulate conditions in the late 19th or early 20th century. It's a project that fascinates me, and my skills with the architect are finally at the point where I fell ready to dive in.

One of my first obstacles is to create libraries that allow for various turf conditions. I'm intrigued by the idea of a course where there's "poor" spots of fairway, and "bald" places of rough. I know how to create libraries these days, it's just going to be a matter of finding everything I need. These leads me to my next obstacle; creating realistic control and game play for you all. From my point of view, I will take one of two approaches to this.

The first approach s to create the textures very, very hard. Essentially, even if you were playing the course on advanced skill level and dry, a well placed drive would go anywhere from 180-210 yards. I like this idea, because it seems the most realistic. I'm just wondering if that would not fly to well with the rest of you all. In other words, make the game work for me, and it doesn't matter who you are, on this course, it's 1895. Mind the sheep.

The second choice would be to treat it more like a mini-game. I'd set up relatively normal textures, knowing the course would play exceedingly short at around 6000 yards. The mini-game would be asking you all to play on basic skill level for "accurate" results. I've done this every now and then for a while, played Oakmont on very dry, gusty, and with no club higher than a 4-wood, and think it's quite fun. But that may be just me. The only pain is that you have to have a character set up this way, as it's too hard to keep track of stats otherwise.

Just looking for a little input.

Thanks,
ADC

[Robert@]

Hummmm. As for tee shots only going 180 to 210 yards are you considering making the tee box texture difficult? If so I`m not sure it will matter since the ball is tee`d up. However it is possible to remove the tee box texture after shot paths have been placed in the arch. This i believe removes the ball from the tee and places it on the ground where the texture will have a effect.

[ADC]

Robert,

No tees would make sense, as technically, there were no really effective teeing pegs before 1905 or so. Before that, many teeing grounds where either oiled sand areas or just regular "fairway" set aside. And yes, essentially, the idea is either amping down the "club head speed" or amping up the textures. I just want to explore the architectural aspects of a past era.

[bryce]

Alex,
I know for a fact that Robert is right. If you place a tee shot on a tee texture, you can simply move the shot path-tee location, or delete the texture. I did this in Big Break Xtreme, and had the first shot on some holes from sand, deep rough, and one hole even started in the woods!

[ADC]

I just tried out the concept by trying to hit a driver out of the rough at Bethpage Black, which I think is the most punishing in the game. It worked. My driver went aprox. 210, which is a little long, but well within my ballpark. And since the effects of a texture aren't dependent on what it looks like, I think I'm going ahead with this. It's going to take a while, but it should be a lot of fun. Just one more thing. Bryce, Robert, do you guys mind if I pick your brains on library creation sometime?

[BrianZ111]

Sounds like a pretty cool idea to me, I'd certainly give the course a try. Sometimes I like to go off the shorter tees to play a course a little differently too. Usually I play all irons when I do this so my driving club is a 1 iron.

I was sort of going for an old school look and feel with Pagoda. A short, links style course with unirrigated grass but tricky undulating greens. It didn't seem to go over real well, with the better players saying it was too easy, but I also didn't try to reduce club distances with the texture properties. I say go for it though, you have to design what's fun for you first, some will like it, some won't.

For custom texture properties you'll have to do a lot of guess and check probably, at least I did when I made custom properties. You don't have to compile the course every time you make a change though, just the library. If it's any help, here's the texture properties I used on The Ridges: http://www.zagerdesign.com/golf_design/ ... erties.htm You might what to try as a starting point combining something like my Deep Rough Velocity and Spin with the Dry Rough properties for the rest of the settings. The regular rough for the rest of the settings are too sticky when the ball lands even for regular rough like at The Ridges, that's one thing I wish I would have done differently.

[ADC]

BrianZ, can I also count on you for some help in the times when I'll need help working the library creator?

[Robert@]

Always happy to help if I can,but library creating isnt my cup of tee. I have only done one...ever!

[ADC]

Robter@,

That came out more a question that I meant it to, lol. I wouldn't need help actually creating the libraries at all, just not nearly as experienced as you all in this game. Simple as that.

[BrianZ111]

Happy to help out if you have any questions with anything.