Texture assignments reversed

[SteveHorn]

I guess since I play mainly tournaments with courses (2 to 4 rounds) I seem to fined that 2" weird texture more then most people.

[sandwedge]

Just a little off topic but still thoughts I wish to get out there. I have always thought that it was good to have a mixture of texture assignments in the rough of each hole. This best simulates the course conditions at the local municipal. You are not always in the worst shape in the rough - just depends on which section of it you land in. If that spot has more weeds growing there or not. I am aware of the computer randomly assigning based on chosen settings, but this suggestion is slightly different; let me explain further.

I like the idea of the same named texture having settings you set by location as well as random assignment by the computer. I think this is truly a challenge because when the cyber golfer plays the course, only local knowledge will help him to identify where those consistent rougher patches lie - they would all look the same on the surface. This can be done by designers with a little work in the Library Creator. It just requires duplicate look textures with different properties and then diabolical (???) placement by the designer.

Replay value increases because the cyber golfer is got to play a few rounds to find the location of those difficult rough patches that must be avoided - a miss right might be a lot better than a miss left because there is a patch of rough that has more favorable settings to the golfer there. This cannot be seen initially because the look of the texture is the same - yet the properties are different. Add to that the random assignment of conditions that day and you have got a truer test of golf. The way you play a course and plan your shots is more important because of this added feature.

I think it is time we advance the realism of the game in course design. We have the most talented designers in this game still active - it can be done and done well. Thoughts? Again, I don't want to hijack this thread - maybe my comments need to be moved -

[SteveHorn]

Sandwedge! Very interesting thoughts. It can be done but whoever creates the libraries would have to be very specific in titleing each texture to avoid confusion and to be able to have other designers use those textures more or less as intended. It could be done even if no new textures were created but it would take ALOT of time to find the proper textures that match almost perfectly in looks but play differently from hundreds of different libraries.

[BrianZ111]

Don't know if anyone ever noticed this but I sort of did something like that with The Ridges but it wasn't the lies you get I changed. What I did was create an identical rough texture that had a lot more bounce then the regular one. I did this for the rough in front of the 2nd green because the ground there is really hard in real life and the ball will usually bounce on there if you land short. I don't remember if I used it anywhere else on the course though.

[sandwedge]

What I did was create an identical rough texture that had a lot more bounce then the regular one.

I like the idea of adjusting the ball physics, but using the same looking texture as well. To some it might be diabolical - but I feel it is most realistic. Rather than playing with the average of the conditions; it is better to pinpoint them by location and then allow for the randomness of the computer on the day of play.

I think a note in the file with the course should be sufficient to provide a heads-up to players. No notice might make folks wonder what is going on. I have suspected that certain green conditions on some of the Florida courses have been tweaked to make the roll slower in some spots than others many times. There is no notice in the file with the courses though so I cannot be certain. This makes adjustment hard because you are not sure of just what exactly the course is set up to do. That might be a little unfair for beginner golfers and a little frustrating.

However, I don't think describing where each different playing texture is placed is necessary - I say this as a below average cyber golfer that does not want any pity, just an honest chance at double bogey