PGA Tour 2K21 – more realistic difficulty settings

[sivuosaoskari]

I’ve been getting too good results lately in Career, and I want to make the game a bit harder for me. Instead of just changing the default Gameplay Difficulty Presets to a harder one, I would like to change the setting to be realistic. Or, to be precise, more realistic, because 100 % realism would probably be too difficult for me.


I haven’t really played golf IRL (well, some rounds a long time ago), nor have I watched much golf from TV (though I did watch the Masters), so I don’t have much of a conception what it would be like to be a pro golfer. Using my imperfect knowledge, I reasoned the following settings to be (more) realistic. I’d like to hear your views on them. (I don’t play online, so there would only apply to Career or Play Now local.)

Swing Difficulty is comprised of 3 parts: Timing, Plane, Power
I’m not sure if I understand any of these concepts. I guess that Plane means how straight I pull and push my gamepads stick. And Timing might refer to the speed I do the pull and push (backswing & downswing?). But what is Power and how do I increase or decrease it? Does it mean how far back I pull my club at backswing? It would be useful to understand what these concepts mean.
Watching the Masters, it seems that this is where even best pros sometimes make mistakes. They don’t get their shots straight, or their distance right. So if I want realism, I might want to change from Pro to Master, or even Legend.


Swing Timing (downswing timing -> hook/slice)
So too slow swings give me slices and too fast swings give me hooks. Does this apply to real golf, also? My guess is not. So I might want to put this Off, even though it makes the game easier. But setting Swing Difficulty to Legend could compensate this.


Distance Control Meter (On, Putting only, Percentage only, Off)
I tried this with Off and Percentage only, and it was horrible. I can’t estimate the right power for the shot just by looking how far my players backswing goes. So I have to have it On. But my excuse is that pro golfers know their clubs, and they have the right ”percentage” for shots in their muscle memory. Distance Control Meter is the videogame equivalent for those.


Distance Control Assist
If On, this probably means that if my shot power needs to be less than 100 % (like 80 %), I can’t go too much over the required power. But if this is Off, I can go all the way to 100 % and shoot way over the hole. If this is true, realism would mean Off.


Putt preview
I haven’t used this so far. I guess that using it would make putting very easy. I woudn’t have to read the green anymore, and if I get the power right, it’s always in the hole. I wouldn’t say that putting preview is not realistic, because pros probably can visualize their shots well. But I still feel it would make putting too easy. Hence, Off.


Course Yardage (On, Book only, Off)
Even though Off would be most difficult, I think it is unrealistic, because it only shows the lenght of the hole. I assume that the pros have more detailed information about the courses they play. Book only means I have to check my distance to the flag from the map, while On means I can see it right in front of me. They both give the same information, which a pro probably has, so I go with On.


Pro Vision Trajectory (On, Aim only, Off)
Real golfer don’t see blue lines in front of them. But of course, with their experience, they can visualize their shots. I’m not really sure which option would be realism, but I’ll try Off.


Scout Camera (On, UI Off, Off)
Scout Camera has made my game too easy, especially with all Pro Vision helps on. And even though pro golfers know their courses and visualize where their shots will land, I’ll choose Off.


Pro Vision (Wind, Lie penalty, Lie angle, Elevation, True shot)
These should probably be all Off. Though again, pro golfers have a lot of experience, and can evaluate how these elements effect on their shots. Mastering these in a videogame would mean a lot of practise, and I don’t have that much time to practise. But I’ll try Off, anyway.


Lie Grid
This only works if I have True shot On, and since I don’t, I’ll choose Off.


Green Grid
This a very important setting, as can be seen by its value on XP multiplier. Real golfers don’t see grids on greens. BUT, they are standing on a green. They can kneel and see closer, how the surface breaks etc. I can’t do that when I’m watching the green from my screen. So I’ll replace the real golfer’s hands-on feel of the green with a videogame golfer’s grid On.


Pin Preference
This isn’t really a difficulty setting. I’ll leave the pin In.


Aim Marker (On, Marker only, Off)
This is an interesting one. At first I thought that this should be Off, and the marker itself doesn’t give much help anyway. But with On, I get the information about elevation. Real golfers in a real, 3D environment can see the elevation (and maybe even feel it, if they walk uphill/downhill). But elevation is much harder to estimate from a 2D screen. Aim marker On is the only place where I can see information about elevation, so I’ll leave it On.


Wind Display (Wind speed, Meter only)
Real golfer can feel the wind in their skin, they can throw grass in the air etc. I can’t do that as a videogame golfer. So I’ll take Wind Speed (i.e. numerical information).


Distance Display (Carry, Total)
I think pro golfers know their clubs so well, that they can estimate the roll. So I’ll take Total.

So that’s all the ”realistic” settings with my limited knowledge and reasoning. Now I’d like to hear your views.


I think the real ”game changer” is the Swing Timing (hook/slice). If it is realistic to take that Off, it becomes much, much easier to hit straight shots. To compensate that, I would have to make the reading of the situations much harder (as I did above). But if the Swing Timing (hook/slice) in the game is correct, then the game becomes very difficult for me.

[lowpaiddonkey10]

Unless you are totally off that day Pro is much too easy. Try Master. IF you find that too easy try Legend. See if that is realistic enough for you.

[sivuosaoskari]

I have played some holes with these settings (Swing Difficulty = Legend & Swing Timing = Off). In an easy course, I played about par. In a difficult course, I was way above par. My game looked realistic, i.e. I occasionally hit the rough or bunker. Just like real pros in Masters.



Why I didn't always hit the fairway? Because I couldn't read the situation (wind, elevation etc.) right. So my swing wasn't the problem. I wonder do the pros also make mistakes because of "misreading", or is it because of swing problems?


And another question to those who know more about golf: do slow swings really cause slices and fast swings hooks?

[OnlookerDelay]

Quote: Originally Posted by sivuosaoskari

And another question to those who know more about golf: do slow swings really cause slices and fast swings hooks?

In my experience as a golfer, unintentional, slow downswings cause pushes, and unintentional fast downswings cause pulls. The swing path causes hooks and slices, for example: an inside-out swing path causes hooks and an outside-in swing path causes slices. HB Studios actually has the cause & effects backwards in this game, but I think they did it this way to negate the "zero axis" controllers and controller hacks, as the hook/slice penalties are proportionally more severe than the push/pull.

[northmen24]

These work great on 2K23 as well. Gives your good explanation and everything.

[sivuosaoskari]

I started to play 2K21 again, and therefore revisited the settings I used three years ago (as described in the first post of this topic). I also googled to see if anyone else had come up with better settings than I had. I was rather surprised to find this article in Golf News, “The UK’s No. 1 Golf Newspaper”.

The content of the article is very similar to my message, starting from the title. The article had the same structure as my message: going through different settings, one by one, and assessing what would be the most realistic options. And what really opened my eyes were wordings very similar to what I had used in my post. E.g.

• I wrote: "...pro golfers know their clubs, and they have the right ”percentage” for shots in their muscle memory."
• The article reads: "...pro golfers have the right percentage in their muscle memory for shots because they know their golf club."
• I wrote: "Real golfer can feel the wind in their skin..."
• The article reads: "Unlike real golfers, you cannot feel the wind on your skin."

Those are only two clear and obvious similarities between my message and the article. If you read both texts, you’ll find plenty more.

My message was posted in November 2020 and their article was published in July 2021. For me, it's pretty obvious that Golf News writer had read my Operation Sports message, elaborated on it, and then published it, without any reference to where these ideas originate. Clearly the writer knows much more about golf than I do, and writes better English than I do, but the article still relies very heavily on my message. I know that in academic world this would be a case of plagiarism: presenting some else’s ideas as your own, without referring to the source of the ideas.

While I’m flattered that my ideas and wordings are deemed worthy for a prestigious newspaper, I’m also annoyed that someone has used my ideas, published an article based on them, and probably got paid doing it. I have tried to contact Golf News using two different email-addresses ([email protected], [email protected]) and a contact us -form found in their website. They have not answered to any of them. I would have expected at least an apology, but they chose to ignore.

While this isn’t the world’s biggest problem, I’m now wondering is there anything else I can do to make them react. Obviously, my “muscles” aren’t big enough to bother them, but could I use someone else’s muscles? I came up with three different options, and I would like to hear your thoughts on them:

1. Does Operation Sports have any interest to take this forward? The content of their forum was used without permission in a commercial newspaper.
2. Does UK have a self-regulatory body that addresses “media ethics” or something?
3. Is there a competing golf journal, that would be interested in this case (to discredit their competitor)?