Total Pro Golf 2 Feature Information

[Gary Gorski]

Since there were a number of FOFCers who were interested in the initial version of the game last year and some who would have been interested had the game contained a few more features I thought I would make a quick post to announce the feature list for TPG2 which will be fairly soon.

• NEW optional Tri-click method of play (one-click method is still an option)
• NEW shot shaping options adding draw and fade shots to your arsenal
• DOUBLE the number of playable tours in the game to SIX! Work your way up on either an American or European Tour - or even crossover during your career!
• NEW chase for the "Wolverine Cup" - in game points system and playoffs on the pro tour
• NEW world player rankings added
• NEW yearly player awards given and tracked historically
• NEW methods of scheduling tournaments. Use our "auto scheduler" to randomly assign any courses you have on your hard drive to your tour schedule making changing courses a breeze and now "challenge events" are automatically rotated from year to year for you as well
• NEW player creation is a snap now with our random player generator. Choose your tour and your skill ability to start and you will get pre-generated ratings which you can edit if you like or go right into your tour career
• NEW expanded stats and almanac. Track your career winnings by tour or look at the all-time top tens in wins and major wins individually on all six tours!
• NEW courses. Four all new stunningly beautiful courses to play on!
• More NEW features : overall player ratings, weekly schedules suggested by your golf coach, expanded green view in 2D mode and many more enhancements to season and game play!

Also if anyone is interested in course design (there are well over 50 community created courses from TPG1 that all will be compatible with TPG2) the guy who made the great looking courses in photoshop for TPG1 (and is doing so again for TPG2) put together a step by step tutorial on how to do it complete with the photoshop files needed to do it. Check out this thread http://www.wolverinestudios.com/foru...ead.php?t=2744 for info on that if you're interested.

[SirFozzie]

Cool. I should get back to creating/reviewing courses.

[Logan]

Didn't buy the original version but had some fun with the demo, before getting frustrated at the seemingly random directions your shots would go. As long as there's a demo, I'll give it another shot.

[Gary Gorski]

We made some improvements to that "randomness" last year (post demo) by building in a tendency for your golfer to miss shots to the right or left. That still exists plus with the tri-click method you sort of factor in whether the ball misses left or right based on where you click on the swing meter. And for those who liked the way it was done tri-click is only an option. You can still play the same way you did in TPG1 if you prefer to have the results be strictly based on your ratings rather than a combo of your ratings and ability to click a mouse

[moriarty]

Yeah, I'll definitely give the demo a shot.

The first one was a good start, but I gave it up pretty quick. I honestly don't recall why it didn't stick (I know that doesn't help) but I'll check it out again this time.

[Fouts]

Originally Posted by moriarty

Yeah, I'll definitely give the demo a shot.

The first one was a good start, but I gave it up pretty quick. I honestly don't recall why it didn't stick (I know that doesn't help) but I'll check it out again this time.

I gave up because of the number of courses available. Game seemed fun, but became redundant for me. Sounds like the community created a lot more courses over time, but I won't be buying this one right away this time. Four courses included? Oh boy.

[Young Drachma]

I'll be checking out the demo for sure. I'd love a good golf sim.

[Fouts]

Before anyone wigs out, TPG is a great game. The lack of courses made it boring, thats all. I'm sure once courses are developed, the game is a blast.

[SirFozzie]

Fouts: I'd say the TPG courses available for TPG2 should help on that situation. Especially the photoshopped ones!

[Fouts]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Fouts: I'd say the TPG courses available for TPG2 should help on that situation. Especially the photoshopped ones!

Ah, being able to use TPG courses for TPG2 would make a big difference (not sure how I missed that). I should fire up the game and figure out how to use the player created courses.

[Marc Vaughan]

I gave up because of the number of courses available. Game seemed fun, but became redundant for me. Sounds like the community created a lot more courses over time, but I won't be buying this one right away this time. Four courses included? Oh boy

Bear in mind thats '4 new' - in addition to the ones in the original game I presume ....

(I'd also expect the same format to be retained from the prior version so the 'fans' courses would also be available to use as well)

[Brian Swartz]

Previous courses(of which there are as of right now 60 fan-made ones) will be compatible with the new game, so I don't think lack of courses to use will be much of a concern.

[Atocep]

I bought the last version and I tired of it rather quickly because of the lack of stats in the game. With world rankings, more tours, awards, ect that shouldn't be a problem.

Hopefully we see more courses made this time around. Its great to be able to play Pebble Beach and Augusta, but the custom made courses were the ones that really stood out to me.

[SunDevil]

Good luck to you Gary.

I will try the demo. I must say that I have much respect in the way you interact with the customers and based on the games, the courage to do what you love.

[lcjjdnh]

The random scheduler sounds like a great addition. I was kind of disappointed no one ever came out with a PGA Tour schedule for the game (and I was too lazy to set one up myself).

[Atocep]

Question for Gary.

In the previous version it was better to play practice rounds rather than train skills individually, is there going to be more of a balance that encourages both focused training and practice rounds this time around?

[sabotai]

Cool. I was just thinking about this game the other day (I didn't buy the original, but thought it showed potential from playing the demo). Those features for TPG2 will probably get me to buy the next one.

[Gary Gorski]

Originally Posted by Fouts

I gave up because of the number of courses available. Game seemed fun, but became redundant for me. Sounds like the community created a lot more courses over time, but I won't be buying this one right away this time. Four courses included? Oh boy.

Just so it comes straight from me those are four NEW courses - all of them "photoshop courses" from the guy who did the two photoshop ones for the original TPG. We're only going to include photoshop courses with the game this time so it will ship with at least six photoshop made courses (two from TPG1 and the four new ones) I say at least because we might possibly have a couple more than that but its not for sure yet.

And as Bryan and others pointed out there are healthy number of user created courses for TPG1 which will work perfectly fine in TPG2 - most if not all are adaptations of real life courses and can be downloaded for free from www.tpgcommunity.net. The courses are super easy to use - just download and extract them to the courses folder. If anyone needs any help doing this just pm or email myself or Bryan.

[Gary Gorski]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Question for Gary.

In the previous version it was better to play practice rounds rather than train skills individually, is there going to be more of a balance that encourages both focused training and practice rounds this time around?

This must have been something I missed or perhaps it was not mentioned very often so I did not address this area BUT we're still in testing so I can explore changes in this area. Do you think that the practice rounds offer too much improvement or that the skill training does not offer enough?

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Gary Gorski

This must have been something I missed or perhaps it was not mentioned very often so I did not address this area BUT we're still in testing so I can explore changes in this area. Do you think that the practice rounds offer too much improvement or that the skill training does not offer enough?

I haven't played the game in quite awhile, but one of the things that stuck out for me was I found that practice rounds gave you much better results. It got to the point where I actually quit scheduling focused training altogether because it saved money (didn't have to pay a coach) and it improved all of my golfer's abilities.

I found only one short thread discussing it, so it was definitely something that wasn't discussed much. Don't know if others were bothered by it, but it seems like a balance issue to me.

http://www.wolverinestudios.com/foru...light=training

[Mota]

I tried the demo with V1 but never purchased it. But the additions in V2 make this one a must buy for me. Thanks for all your hard work Gary!

[Gary Gorski]

Glad to hear the positive vibes - I think that we addressed most if not all of the major issues for why people couldn't get into the first one plus the selection of courses this time is obviously FAR greater. Not only will the game ship with only the really great looking photoshop courses instead of a mix of those and the less artistic "stock course designer" courses but there are a ton of great courses available for quick and easy download already and we now have a photoshop step by step tutorial on how to make courses so I think there will be more than enough courses to keep players interested in addition to the new game options.

[moriarty]

Originally Posted by Atocep

I bought the last version and I tired of it rather quickly because of the lack of stats in the game. With world rankings, more tours, awards, ect that shouldn't be a problem..

This is one of the additions i'm definitely looking forward to.

I loved the photoshop option for the courses BTW. It just makes them look so much more presentable when done correctly.

[NoSkillz]

I love the concept behind this game and did purchase the first edition of TPG. I always thought that a golf sim was an untapped market.

I had two major problems with the first game that limited my enjoyment and the amount of time it spent on my system.

First was the fact that it was entirely too difficult to make an actual PGA Tour database. With actual and potential ratings for all of those categories, it is next to impossible to manually enter accurate figures for each player. It became even more difficult when trying to incorporate the Nationwide Tour or Senior Tour into the equation.

I don't know if there is any utility that can be made where you can enter in the tour (they can be ranked by talent ie: PGA = 5; European Tour = 4; Nationwide/Japan = 3; Senior = 2; Canadian/Mini Tours = 1) then enter the player's stats for the key categories (Driving Accuracy; Driving Distance; Greens in Regulation; Putting Average; Scrambling) so it spits out a corresponding rating for the game in each category.

I imagine that Gary having a random generator will help in this regard even if there isn't a better or more effective way of building your own database from scratch.

The second thing I had a problem with was the limited amount of courses. Golf is unlike any other sport (with baseball being a very slight exception) in that the venue and it's quirks absolutely make the tournaments what they are. It's what makes golf unique and interesting.

Setting up a PGA Tour/Nationwide Tour schedule but playing multiple tournaments at the same venue unfortunately damage the playing experience in the game, at least for me.

I'm a relatively creative person, I'm proficient enough in Photoshop and would certainly like to help build some courses for the new game. Is there a good tutorial on how to take the photos of each hole and recreate them in the game? I'm mostly concerned with how you make slopes in the game, designate areas as out of bounds or hazards, etc. How long does it take to build a course?

I'd also love to be able to start as an amateur, play in USGA or RCGA (Canadian Amateur) events - can this be done with the additional tours that you allow Gary? Meaning, can these be set up so that there is no purse?

The relegation-type system that golf employs (ie: must finish in top-125 to retain your PGA Tour card; Top 20 from Nationwide Tour get into the PGA the next year) would hopefully be incorporated into the game at some point, if it isn't now.

Other things to consider for future editions:
- Monday qualifying for select events (three or four spots are left open to players on different tours
- Personalities/Relationships on Tour (good friends usually like to play with each other and that helps their game; guys who don't like each other might end up having it effect their performance but if he's strong willed, it might get him fired up)

There's great potential in this. Best of luck to Gary and I look forward to the new game.

[Gary Gorski]

Originally Posted by NoSkillz

First was the fact that it was entirely too difficult to make an actual PGA Tour database. With actual and potential ratings for all of those categories, it is next to impossible to manually enter accurate figures for each player. It became even more difficult when trying to incorporate the Nationwide Tour or Senior Tour into the equation.

I don't know if there is any utility that can be made where you can enter in the tour (they can be ranked by talent ie: PGA = 5; European Tour = 4; Nationwide/Japan = 3; Senior = 2; Canadian/Mini Tours = 1) then enter the player's stats for the key categories (Driving Accuracy; Driving Distance; Greens in Regulation; Putting Average; Scrambling) so it spits out a corresponding rating for the game in each category.

I imagine that Gary having a random generator will help in this regard even if there isn't a better or more effective way of building your own database from scratch.

Just so there's no confusion the random generator is meant for your golfer to speed up league creation and also put you in a good range of ratings for the tour you are on. Maybe we could do some kind of quick additional program to take input of golfer name and stats and spit out a database of ratings or something.

The second thing I had a problem with was the limited amount of courses. Golf is unlike any other sport (with baseball being a very slight exception) in that the venue and it's quirks absolutely make the tournaments what they are. It's what makes golf unique and interesting.

Setting up a PGA Tour/Nationwide Tour schedule but playing multiple tournaments at the same venue unfortunately damage the playing experience in the game, at least for me.

I'm a relatively creative person, I'm proficient enough in Photoshop and would certainly like to help build some courses for the new game. Is there a good tutorial on how to take the photos of each hole and recreate them in the game? I'm mostly concerned with how you make slopes in the game, designate areas as out of bounds or hazards, etc. How long does it take to build a course?

The guy who made the great looking courses in photoshop for TPG1 (and is doing so again for TPG2) put together a step by step tutorial on how to do it complete with the photoshop files needed to do it. Check out this thread http://www.wolverinestudios.com/foru...ead.php?t=2744 for info on that if you're interested. If you download the course designer program itself there is a pdf manual in the files to help you with all the functions of using it. Making photoshop courses consists of two areas. First designing the picture (or resizing one you pulled off the internet to the appropriate dimensions) and then second using the course design program (its free) to "map" what areas of the image are fairway, water, green, OB etc.

I'd also love to be able to start as an amateur, play in USGA or RCGA (Canadian Amateur) events - can this be done with the additional tours that you allow Gary? Meaning, can these be set up so that there is no purse?

The relegation-type system that golf employs (ie: must finish in top-125 to retain your PGA Tour card; Top 20 from Nationwide Tour get into the PGA the next year) would hopefully be incorporated into the game at some point, if it isn't now.

You could setup events where the purse is zero but everyone in the game world is a "pro golfer". The other stuff about retaining tour card etc is already modeled in the game and with the addition of three European tours you can now also cross over between the tours in some cases so if you want to start as a European pro and then work your way over to the American pro tour you can do that. It is also correctly modeled to "share" events on the pro tours so you can play on the European Tour and still play in the four majors as long as you qualify (like Monty does)