Wolverine Studios announces Total Pro Golf 3 open beta

[Tim Tellean]

We are proud to announce the return of the Total Pro Golf franchise with TPG3! FirstAccess is now open and it allows you the opportunity to pre-order the game today. The game retails for $19.95 but you can use coupon code TPG3BETA in our webstore and save 10% while the beta is going on.

New Features of Total Pro Golf 3 Include :
Season Disk Add-ons (2012 season disk will be available shortly and will be sold for $7)
New in game daily news module to keep you up to date of the latest happenings across all six in game tours
New RPG style elements to the game give you extra items to purchase for your golfer
Rebuilt UI to make the game more user friendly and easier to navigate
Improved golfer AI making your opponents even more challenging
In game achievements allow you to track your score over time to see if you can become the ultimate Total Pro Golfer
All courses from TPG2 will be compatible with TPG3!

​Total Pro Golf 3 Challenge!

One of the new features of Total Pro Golf 3 is the in-game achievement list which allows you to rack up points through your career. When the final game is released we're going to hold a Total Pro Golf 3 Challenge to see who the best TPGers are so use the beta period here to practice up your game and get ready for the TPG3 Challenge!

[Comey]

Is there online play for TPG now?

[Gary Gorski]

Just the same online option there was before basically commish sim which isn't much of an option I know.

I would like to be able to do something online wise for TPG but the biggest roadblock has always been how to prevent cheating. In a normal sim league the commish sims and the only one who can really cheat is the commish but here you would have the possibility of every player trying to replay rounds or whatever.

Basically my goal with TPG3 was just to freshen it up a bit, give it a new look, some new things to do while you play to increase the already good replay value and get it back on the market. Its a really, really good single player game for anyone who hasn't given it a chance in the past and there are a ton of community mapped courses available plus we're doing season disks so that you will finally be able to play against real golfers. It was a project I had been working on the side when my brain needed a break from the basketball titles so I thought I would clean it up and put it back out there and hope that some new people would give it a shot this time around.

[korme]

Link?

[Mota]

I loved TPG2, this one looks to be even better.
Looking forward to putting this game into my rotation and seeing how my created character will do over the season.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by korme

Link?

https://store2.esellerate.net/store/...ageCatalog.htm

[Comey]

Originally Posted by Gary Gorski

Just the same online option there was before basically commish sim which isn't much of an option I know.

I would like to be able to do something online wise for TPG but the biggest roadblock has always been how to prevent cheating. In a normal sim league the commish sims and the only one who can really cheat is the commish but here you would have the possibility of every player trying to replay rounds or whatever.

Basically my goal with TPG3 was just to freshen it up a bit, give it a new look, some new things to do while you play to increase the already good replay value and get it back on the market. Its a really, really good single player game for anyone who hasn't given it a chance in the past and there are a ton of community mapped courses available plus we're doing season disks so that you will finally be able to play against real golfers. It was a project I had been working on the side when my brain needed a break from the basketball titles so I thought I would clean it up and put it back out there and hope that some new people would give it a shot this time around.

Personally, and you know we've discussed this before...I'd open it up for the online component, and then let the community work on it. If that means self-policing, fine. If it means a third party utility, great. If that means building in a check for times played the course or whatever (or an automatic save function), fine. But I think this game definitely needs an online component.

So...in my view, put it out there and see what happens. The worst thing to happen to it is it gets used, and you get ideas on how to improve upon it. Seems like a win-win for me.

[EagleFan]

Announcing Total Pro Golf 3! - Wolverine Studios

[korme]

Originally Posted by Comey

Personally, and you know we've discussed this before...I'd open it up for the online component, and then let the community work on it. If that means self-policing, fine. If it means a third party utility, great. If that means building in a check for times played the course or whatever (or an automatic save function), fine. But I think this game definitely needs an online component.

So...in my view, put it out there and see what happens. The worst thing to happen to it is it gets used, and you get ideas on how to improve upon it. Seems like a win-win for me.

Agreed. You could probably implement a function that blocks you from replaying a course

[Gary Gorski]

Maybe some out loud brainstorming here can help find a way to make it viable. My issue is that I can think of a workaround for most things in about two seconds. My first thought was some sort of auto save but then you could always just redownload the league files and overwrite your save.

Really there almost has to be a separate module built into the game to handle online play (you would have to remove the round pairings and make everything an individual round because what would happen if you were paired with another human golfer) and I don't know how well the RPG stuff would "play" in an online setup. I suspect most people who would want an online thing would just be interested in playing weekly tournaments and seeing how they stack up against their buddies and not so concerned with the items your in game money can buy, clothing sponsorships, hiring a coach and caddy etc.

I'm not opposed to doing something with it or even building in an entire thing just for it - I just need to figure out the best way to do it.

[mmartin68]

I already purchased. I would like to see all tournaments covered with all the courses in, so you can have a true year sim of all the golf involved.

[Blackadar]

I never gave TPG2 much of a go when it was released, but I decided to give it a shot now. Is there any way to slow down the meter speed? Even setting ball speed at 0, it's so blindingly fast that it's entirely unplayable.

[Mota]

Ha, that's really funny, I had the total opposite experience in TPG2. Player had bad stats but I was able to pull off great rounds when doing the tri-click method because it was so easy. I switched to the single click to use the player stats more and haven't gone back.

[Gary Gorski]

Originally Posted by Blackadar

I never gave TPG2 much of a go when it was released, but I decided to give it a shot now. Is there any way to slow down the meter speed? Even setting ball speed at 0, it's so blindingly fast that it's entirely unplayable.

The ball speed isn't for the meter - its for the speed of the ball flight animation. You must have a pretty powerful computer if the meter moves that fast - I will see what I can do for a situation like that.

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by Gary Gorski

The ball speed isn't for the meter - its for the speed of the ball flight animation. You must have a pretty powerful computer if the meter moves that fast - I will see what I can do for a situation like that.

Thanks, but don't take away from your TPG3 coding time!

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Blackadar

Thanks, but don't take away from your TPG3 coding time!

I'm actually kind of interested in this part as a former programmer. I would assume that the meter should be time-based (i.e. should take .75 seconds to go up and .75 seconds to go down) rather than any other method to avoid variance in processors. Interested to see Gary's response if he does adjust it just to see what he had to do.

[Mota]

I'm having a hard time as a rookie. Using the full point allotment that you're given, I'm still only golfing a +4 to +8 on each round, so I've only made the cut twice in about 6 tournaments. Not even doing anything crazy, I'm running out of money in April and will probably go broke before being able to pull in good results. My stats have only improved about 1 point each due to only being able to train about once a week as well as participate in tournaments.

In that way I feel the RPG system is a bit counter-intuitive. As an 18 year old going on the nationwide tour I'm always exhausted and not able to learn quickly, but as a 30 year old with a lot of money I'll have a lot more money and will be learning at a faster rate? I know it has to be game-ified, but it does seem a bit strange.

I'm really enjoying the golf though, I've played through about 18 rounds of golf and played on a lot of the user-made courses and it's a lot of fun. I'm really looking forward to breaking through and having a bit more energy to focus on training and being able to make the cut or be competitive in the nationwide tour eventually.

[lcjjdnh]

Not on Mac, I assume?

[Gary Gorski]

Originally Posted by Mota

I'm having a hard time as a rookie. Using the full point allotment that you're given, I'm still only golfing a +4 to +8 on each round, so I've only made the cut twice in about 6 tournaments. Not even doing anything crazy, I'm running out of money in April and will probably go broke before being able to pull in good results. My stats have only improved about 1 point each due to only being able to train about once a week as well as participate in tournaments.

In that way I feel the RPG system is a bit counter-intuitive. As an 18 year old going on the nationwide tour I'm always exhausted and not able to learn quickly, but as a 30 year old with a lot of money I'll have a lot more money and will be learning at a faster rate? I know it has to be game-ified, but it does seem a bit strange.

I'm really enjoying the golf though, I've played through about 18 rounds of golf and played on a lot of the user-made courses and it's a lot of fun. I'm really looking forward to breaking through and having a bit more energy to focus on training and being able to make the cut or be competitive in the nationwide tour eventually.

That's a good point - perhaps I should look at making it age based. You're right that the RPG elements are behind the drop in energy (btw you did buy at least the base car, house and pick a diet right? without those your energy will crash and burn) I will definitely look at adjusting it based on age - a McDonalds and ramen noodle diet does affect a 30 year old differently than an 18 year old

[Mota]

Originally Posted by Gary Gorski

That's a good point - perhaps I should look at making it age based. You're right that the RPG elements are behind the drop in energy (btw you did buy at least the base car, house and pick a diet right? without those your energy will crash and burn) I will definitely look at adjusting it based on age - a McDonalds and ramen noodle diet does affect a 30 year old differently than an 18 year old

LOL yes I did follow your instructions from the beta forum I believe and bought at least the minimum of anything and went for a healthy diet.

I definitely understand how the system was built and what you meant for it to do, I think it sounds a bit strange when you try to explain it though.

I guess in real life terms, you probably skill gain faster at a younger age because you're coming from a much lower point. A lesson with the course pro could make a huge difference. Once you're already at the pro level, that lesson may not give you as big of an advantage. You're doing video analysis to find out the small hitch in your swing that could make 5 yards difference.

So maybe you could look at it from a cost perspective and skill rather than age or strictly energy. When you're a 60 recovery, it doesn't cost that much to go into a sand trap and hit balls. Just going to your local course can eventually get you to 65 or 70. Maybe at 80 recovery, you're flying around the world to get specialist training and it costs far more.

That would also help compensate for what I read about the late game, where once you have a mansion and a nice car you can train and your energy can still go up. It would help keep that level of challenge into the late game and force you to keep making decisions even once you hit it big.

[mauchow]

Can you go to a bar and pick up chicks and fight dudes to increase stats?

/ITP style!