906 replies to this topic

[Buck]

I think the whole promise and excitement for what TGC2 might be in relation to TGC1 really died when Maximum Games got involved and/or Anthony left.

Whatever happened around that partnership and his leaving all seemed to conspire to change the goals.

 

From then on it $eemed like it wa$ about locking down the feature$ they had fle$hed out at that time and getting it to market A$AP

[Crow357]

Well, they did publish My First Trainz Set  so, there's that.

[Buck]

Well, they did publish My First Trainz Set  so, there's that.

 

Typo - Should be:  My Fir$t Trainz $et

[JCat04]

John,

How’s the career mode of TGC2? Lot of folks want career mode for PG2, so just wondering how folks are liking it for TGC2.
 

 

Well, I didn't even get out of the gate with Career mode before I discovered a show-stopper... you can't play your tournament rounds with any of the other players in the tournament    You can play against ghost rounds of human players who've played the course at any time, or active players who may happen to be playing the given course at the time, but they will not appear on the leaderboard, naturally, and amount to nothing more than markers.  I don't like playing against spreadsheet curves, so this will have no appeal to me.

 

I can understand why they did this because it would mean a dedication of resources to AI player development, and if multiplayer development wasn't in the budget, then this wouldn't have been either.

[JCat04]

I bought TGC 2 because i was hoping for an improved game with a decent career mode, they talked it up quite a bit, in reality it was no better than TGC career mode, and i could not stomach having play Gnoll down more than once, or any of the stock courses come to that, they are awful.

 

You do have the option of creating your own Career mode, using the courses and tournament lengths you desire.  I went in and created a three course season using my latest favorite courses.  I think I chose a level 7 Society, which I thought would give me a field of competitive players.  Their handicaps range from 13 to +3, from what I can tell.  I renamed a half dozen of those with plus handicaps to the names of Pros from their respective nations (by their flag).  Three of them are floating near the top of the leaderboard halfway through the first round at -3 to -1.

 

I'm playing the 10th hole by myself (since the game won't let you play with a tour society AI player as a ghost) at -3, but it feels nothing like a tournament... it's an exhibition round against a spreadsheet.

[Buck]

Lol
I can just see the bullet point on the back of the game box:

"Set up and play exciting rounds vs a spreadsheet!"

[zmax - sim]

You do have the option of creating your own Career mode, using the courses and tournament lengths you desire.  I went in and created a three course season using my latest favorite courses.  I think I chose a level 7 Society, which I thought would give me a field of competitive players.  Their handicaps range from 13 to +3, from what I can tell.  I renamed a half dozen of those with plus handicaps to the names of Pros from their respective nations (by their flag).  Three of them are floating near the top of the leaderboard halfway through the first round at -3 to -1.

 

I'm playing the 10th hole by myself (since the game won't let you play with a tour society AI player as a ghost) at -3, but it feels nothing like a tournament... it's an exhibition round against a spreadsheet.

 

I suspected as much.  Another touted feature that turns out to be just a farce.  Thanks for confirming that.

[frank70]

I suspected as much.  Another touted feature that turns out to be just a farce.  Thanks for confirming that.

That's right. It's there .... but it is no fun at all and has absolutely no depth.

 

But on the other hand ..... so far PG has absolutely none ....

 

Coding a good career mode is very time consuming. I am not sure if PP can handle that. If i see how long development as a whole takes.

[Jesus Jones]

Imagine what a great game could be made with a combination of both these studios.
Problem for one is love of money and the other is for love of sport.

[DoGgs]

yeah i'd love to see a partnership between HB and PP....HB can make the tea 

 

Jcat, you can indeed create custom career comps using other courses, but if those courses are not handicapped the A.I. do not compete at all, ends up a cake walk.

[Buck]

I'd love to see a paid partnership between HB & AK again (that removes MG).

[mebby]

I'd love to see a paid partnership between HB & AK again (that removes MG).

I'm not so sure about that one.  AK was pretty steadfastly against any movement on multiplayer.  He's also the guy that is responsible for the idea of "one difficulty level" which works about as well as you'd think (meaning it doesn't).  He's also the guy that thinks his job is to tell the community what they want regardless of what they THINK they want.

 

In my opinion - he's the genesis of most things that are wrong with TGC today.  He left and I finally got a game that gives me enough of a challenge if I use my own house rules.  Coincidence?  Not sure...

[Buck]

I defer to you Mebby as you guys that are in the mix over there definitely know the situation better than I do.

 

It just seems like with AK there was a TGC1 that many loved and wanted some small evolutions of.  Without AK and with MG (not sure the ratio of influence though), it seems like TGC2 just turned into a strangely incomplete effort that even TGC1 fans don't like anymore.

 

It just seems like the leadership as currently constructed found a way to make a game that basically nobody "loves".

 

Too harsh?  

Fair?

 

Do they just need time/money to do a TGC3 you think?

[zmax - sim]

That's right. It's there .... but it is no fun at all and has absolutely no depth.

 

But on the other hand ..... so far PG has absolutely none ....

 

Coding a good career mode is very time consuming. I am not sure if PP can handle that. If i see how long development as a whole takes.

 

Not bad for a $20 3 year old game.  People are still playing PG and sim guys are loving it.   It's a golf game.  Not looking to explore new territories or save a princess.....     A tour can be a career.  

[mebby]

I defer to you Mebby as you guys that are in the mix over there definitely know the situation better than I do.

 

It just seems like with AK there was a TGC1 that many loved and wanted some small evolutions of.  Without AK and with MG (not sure the ratio of influence though), it seems like TGC2 just turned into a strangely incomplete effort that even TGC1 fans don't like anymore.

 

It just seems like the leadership as currently constructed found a way to make a game that basically nobody "loves".

 

Too harsh?  

Fair?

 

Do they just need time/money to do a TGC3 you think?

I'm not sure if AK leaving and MG coming on had anything to do with one another.  Maybe AK left because he didn't support the idea of MG being involved because he knew what all that entailed.  But we'll never know.

 

AK was certainly more vocal and involved in the forums and I respect that about him.  I just rarely agreed with his vision and approach on things so for me personally, him coming back to HBS and being involved in any further TGC development would not be a bright spot in the future of TGC from my standpoint.

[DoGgs]

AK left the current game pretty much the way it is now, it's his game/fault  he said that after he left, the team had hoped to add dynamic weather, but they never had the time to get it done and included,  or did they hold it back for TGC 3 that way they can justify releasing the same game with minor addons.

[Buck]

Ok ok - I get it guys..

Bad idea to get AK back.

I get ya' - I wasn't some lover of AK either, trust me.

 

That feels like a rudderless ship that's not going anywhere as the team is currently constructed though.

 

Nobody on their team should be defending some of the gameplay/feature decisions and omissions like they are.

Telling people the sky isn't blue over and over in the forums isn't going to change reality.

[zmax - sim]

 

Do they just need time/money to do a TGC3 you think?

 

Money and people that actually golf in real life

[Buck]

...people that actually golf in real life

 

This especially it seems like.

It was staggering to read some of the discussion on the forum around the matchplay mess.

 

It was reading like they really did have developers working on the game that simply had no idea about how it worked...and I guess couldn't be bothered to research it?  Really bizarre.

[Crow357]

Maximum Games is a game publishing company.  They put out as many games as fast as they can hoping people will buy them.  I don't really think they care about putting out a quality product.  Which is fine, that's what they do and that's their business model.  It seems to be working for them.