[mebby]

Played a few shots in the designer as Christmas is coming and work is overloaded so not much time.  I didn't notice any difficulty changes but, they did say minor.  The chipping was smoother and the flop.,  I didn't see much difference.

This is the telling sign for me.  The game is never going to have a challenging setting.  So if you want that, I guess you'Ll never be truly satisfied.  If you like it a lot the way it is, then I guess you have the golf game of your dreams.  As it offers a lot of extras.

I think for me, I can turn the page and realize it's not going to be all that for me.  It will be something I may dabble in going forward.

I hear ya man and I know where you're coming from.  But I honestly wasn't expecting major changes in the patch or in TGC 2019.

I'm just hoping they consider adding true difficulty levels in the next iteration.  Maybe then they can actually give a little something to everyone - something they'll never be able to do with the current structure.

[jamescostanza]

I for one am happy with what HB has done so far.  There will always be room for improvement as there is in life.  Be happy with a great golf game.  There are not very many around any more.

James

practice, practice, practice

[mebby]

I for one am happy with what HB has done so far.  There will always be room for improvement as there is in life.  Be happy with a great golf game.  There are not very many around any more.

James

practice, practice, practice

Very true and well said.  If you can just accept and appreciate the game for what it is (instead of focusing on what it isn't) then you'll realize that we have a really good golf game to play.

[Armand]

<snip>

How do we opt out of this perpetual beta testing?

If you play PG, you won't have to worry about perpetual beta testing, as there aren't any changes made to that game .... 

[RockManDan]

Maybe next time <sigh>

[FRSTDWN]

Thank you HB for fixing the shot suggestion glitch. I can turn it off now.

Also looks like match play with ghosts is fixed.

[regulator95]

HB, as a web developer, please please change the color of the loft box lines. Those two colors are not good together at all. Either change it back to white or change the colors to be more contrasting colors. People with vision problems, in particular color blindness, may have serious issues. What was wrong with the original white and red?

[Leadbelly]

I am liking the flop shot, it was a your guess is as good as mine shot before. Now its more like the chip shot, your looking to hole the thing rather then just getting it close.

[lazza]

Lots of good changes but not sure how I feel about the tempo and swing plane adjustments. Not only is tempo much, much easier now, but when you get a bad downswing tempo you don't get punished nearly as much. But now pushes and pulls within the cone actually push and pull the ball, which sort of balances things out a bit (not much though because tempo mistakes were always far more penal even in TGC2), however this now shifts the importance to straight shooting...

One thing I'm really not a fan of is reducing distances on fast backswings. Why? Literally nobody asked for that. This for me was the best part of the new game because you could fine-tune distances at the top end of the bag, adding creative shots to your arsenal, and most importantly it took a LOT of skill to get it right because you could get more distance the further away from the edge of perfect while still having to maintain 100% and not be so far away as to hit the 95% power mark. Precision was based on fractions of a second in timing and the risk/reward balance of the fast backswing was absolutely perfect. Why on earth would you take one of the best parts of the new game out?

Happy to hear that XB1 users are having a better time with master club tempo, and all the matchplay changes / bug fixes sound awesome even though I never really cared about those. But I feel like downswing tempo is much too easy now particularly in terms of the weak punishment, and in the other direction the fast backswing distance nerf has removed what I think is the best part of the new game, adding so much potential for realistic creativity and a very high skill technique because of the precise timing required. The latter makes no sense to me whatsoever.

[Inflames47]

More detailed gameplay tuning... details...
- Added deviation when hitting within the swing plane - Tee shots will push/pull more even when hitting within the blue. (this is minor)
- Reduced the Hook/Slice (notably) on Pitch Shot tempos.
- Minor re-balancing of down-swing tempo penalties - re-balanced the rate of spin for slow/fast | very slow/very fast downswing tempos.
- Bunker penalty updated: Roll-in's now allow for more spin/less penalty.
- Added some roll-out to default lofted flop shots. (lofting up with will see them check while de-lofting will see them roll-out even more)
- Max Distance from Tempo manipulation has been decreased (Total added distance from a fast/fast and now fast/slow tempo's has been slightly reduced)
- Power Fades can now be achieved with a slow down-swing tempo. - Like the power-draw, on the fast side of perfect, the distance boost is minimal, and the distance fall off is steep the further from perfect you get.
- Increased the impact side hill lies (ball above/below feet) have on the shot trajectory.
- Reduced the extreme hook/slice that could be applied in the shot shaper.
- Improved the visualization of the shot shaper lines.

Edit: - All previous server side tuning's were also included in this patch.

I have found great  improvement to my swing and so very pleased with this update. 

[Martbloke]

I am liking the flop shot, it was a your guess is as good as mine shot before. Now its more like the chip shot, your looking to hole the thing rather then just getting it close.

I would probably have to say that this does not sound like a flop shot to me if you are now looking to hole it. A flop shot is hard to pull off let alone trying to hole the thing. The flop in my book should be tricky to execute and all about getting it right to the pin, not have a high chance of holing it.

Anyways, the adjustments I've read to it sound great. I've loved it when I've hit a flop from the bunker or elsewhere pre-patch and just see it land and roll a bit - seemed so much better than the mass check up or even delayed spin back that you get lost times. So looking forward to play the patch from this point of view.

Haven't played yet so hard for me to judge but having mixed thoughts. People saying it's better but then others who found it easy before saying not much has changed in that department or even making it easier. Slightly excited yet unnerved until I play for myself.

Matchmaking now sounds playable though now it's from the same tees 😀👍

[Leadbelly]

Realistic or not, the flop shot now hits the ground and rolls forward most of the time much like the chip shot. Its much easier to hole a shot like that, then trying to hole a shot with backspin.

[jeffield]

Lots of good changes but not sure how I feel about the tempo and swing plane adjustments. Not only is tempo much, much easier now, but when you get a bad downswing tempo you don't get punished nearly as much. But now pushes and pulls within the cone actually push and pull the ball, which sort of balances things out a bit (not much though because tempo mistakes were always far more penal even in TGC2), however this now shifts the importance to straight shooting...

One thing I'm really not a fan of is reducing distances on fast backswings. Why? Literally nobody asked for that. This for me was the best part of the new game because you could fine-tune distances at the top end of the bag, adding creative shots to your arsenal, and most importantly it took a LOT of skill to get it right because you could get more distance the further away from the edge of perfect while still having to maintain 100% and not be so far away as to hit the 95% power mark. Precision was based on fractions of a second in timing and the risk/reward balance of the fast backswing was absolutely perfect. Why on earth would you take one of the best parts of the new game out?

Happy to hear that XB1 users are having a better time with master club tempo, and all the matchplay changes / bug fixes sound awesome even though I never really cared about those. But I feel like downswing tempo is much too easy now particularly in terms of the weak punishment, and in the other direction the fast backswing distance nerf has removed what I think is the best part of the new game, adding so much potential for realistic creativity and a very high skill technique because of the precise timing required. The latter makes no sense to me whatsoever.

I think "easier" is just the theme for thegolfclub game in general.  So if you ask why did they make this easier? Why did they make that easier?     I've just come to learn that," easier " is the general ideology of the game.  Make it easier so everyone's shooting birdies.   It is what it is. A game with a LOT of extras and simplistic gameplay.
   

[jeffield]

Played a few shots in the designer as Christmas is coming and work is overloaded so not much time.  I didn't notice any difficulty changes but, they did say minor.  The chipping was smoother and the flop.,  I didn't see much difference.

This is the telling sign for me.  The game is never going to have a challenging setting.  So if you want that, I guess you'Ll never be truly satisfied.  If you like it a lot the way it is, then I guess you have the golf game of your dreams.  As it offers a lot of extras.

I think for me, I can turn the page and realize it's not going to be all that for me.  It will be something I may dabble in going forward.

I hear ya man and I know where you're coming from.  But I honestly wasn't expecting major changes in the patch or in TGC 2019.

I'm just hoping they consider adding true difficulty levels in the next iteration.  Maybe then they can actually give a little something to everyone - something they'll never be able to do with the current structure.

Thanks but, I'm done waiting for the "next iteration " of this game. It's going in the wrong direction .
  What's frustrating and annoying is that I'm on hole 12 of a really time consuming rcr. That's really shaping up but, I know with the gameplay knocked down again. The course becomes little more than eye candy. 
  Line up the shot. , perfect tempo, perfect line.  Zzzzzz.zzzzzzz

[neilwilkes]

The biggest problem, in my opinion, is the ability to hit exact distances on every shot.  This didnt change at all with this patch.  I had hoped this would be looked at.  Swing plane misses that are still within the blue area, but not perfectly down the center, do affect left/right dispersion.  Why tempo would not behave the same way is a strange decision.

Come on HB...you are one slight tweak away from having very beautiful swing mechanics!

If you are saying what I think you are saying I must disagree most strongly, otherwise it is "dial a distance" which might be fun for some but it ain't golf. There is no way on earth that any distance should ever be guaranteed as you will never, ever hit a shot that way & that consistently in real life.
For example, off the tee with driver should not always be the same distance in the same conditions - or is this what you are saying & I am not understanding correctly and having a senior moment.....