Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10: Club distances

Comments

• JBHuskers said March 27, 2009

  Thanks for the breakdown Mike...very good stuff.

• Oblong said March 27, 2009

  Very interesting and I know many of us are quite happy to see that we'll be able to play the courses as they were intended in real life.

  It sounds like you have increased the sensitity/power ratio also.  In 2009 you could easily tune up to about 96% power (sweet spot about 20%) without too many problems dealing with the sensitivity.  Looking forward to seeing how these changes will pan out in 2010.

  Thanks for the in-depth info, Mike!

• TonyTurbo78 said March 27, 2009

  thats a great break down Mike, I like it alot.  Distances were silly in 09 but hopefully this year you have made the sweetspot even smaller if you want to go alot further.  I would like to see skill on the stick be rewarded with further distance.  

• JCauthen04 said March 27, 2009

  Very helpful information Mike, I appreciate the detailed breakddown.  My initial thoughts are that I'll be shooting for something around an 7 or 8 power attribute with a 75% club tuner power setting.  I'm looking for an average drive of 285 to 300

  I'm secretly hoping that a 25% sweetspot won't be quite as forgiving in 2010.  If that's so, I'll be revising my targets a bit.

• The__Violator said March 27, 2009

  I think it is a great risk/reward on that. My driver is tuned at 78% now and it is very easy to hook or slice it off the tee. At least they seem more reasonable distances. Nice breakdown. I appreciate it.

• AndyTL462 said March 27, 2009

  Good info Mike, the probelm is that most online gamers will use an aftermarket turbo controller that will let them decrease the sweet spot to zero and still be able to hit the ball straight with no issues. It would be nice if the only way you could play Tiger online or offline would be with the stock PS3 controller. Then and only then will distances be more realistic. With all these numbers above, people online or offline will still be able to hit clubs an UNREALISTIC distance. Im not to thrilled with EA's attempt to scale back the distances, LOL, a whole 20 yards, not impressed at all.

• DlhardUNCFAN said March 27, 2009

  Thanks for posting this Mike. I really want be able to give a opinion if the distance of the clubs are better until I get or beta test TW 10.  Make sure you guys at Tiger Woods team are not driving most par 4's when you get 122 percent on your drive.  

  Di

• Oblong said March 27, 2009

  There is no beta test for console versions of TW10.  Copies of the game are currently only playable on dev units and from there it goes to print just a couple weeks before release.  And time to move up to hardcore level and leave the 122 percent drives behind and play Tour Mode.  There are also powercap levels in place to fine tune your distance choices.

• JBHuskers said March 27, 2009

  Yeah....the testing comes from QA Testers at Tiburon.

• TibMikeD said March 27, 2009

  Andy,

  We've got some measures in place for one of our new online based features that will take care of the ability to exploit the sweetspot to gain more power.

  Mike D.

• cdjacobs@hotmail.com said March 27, 2009

  Great stuff, Mike.  I enjoy hearing you (& other game devs) on EA Sports Live.  I'm really looking forward to TW10.  June can't get here fast enough.

• EAcom Golf Tim said March 27, 2009

  Good stuff Mike! And your response above demonstrates that you guys have indeed been listening to the community regarding current issues with TW09. I truly believe you guys now have your finger on the pulse of the TW Community and when additional details are revealed about TW10, it will become all the more apparent.

  I really like the increased risk/reward in the club tuning. TW09 missed this kind of functionality and it will be fun trying to "dial in" our own personal sweet spot and risk/reward with TW10....

• Oblong said March 27, 2009

  Mike, enjoyed your EA Live interview Friday.  I want a Moon Wedge! ;)

  But seriously, there has been some confusion about the different wedges and wondered if you could answer.

  AW - You called it an "attack" wedge on the show, many of us call it an "approach" wedge.  Which is correct?

  PW - Pitching Wedge

  SW - Sand Wedge

  GW - Gap Wedge

  LW - Lob Wedge

  LBW - Memory says I've heard an acronym, but I've forgot.  Certainly not common.

  HLW - High Lob Wedge

  When it comes down to it, I think most pros carry 3 maybe 4 wedges.  Wonder why TW series has so many choices.  Maybe we could eliminate a couple and add things they are now using like fairway hybrids.  Some also use a 64-68 degree wedge called a Last Wedge or an Ultra Lob Wedge.  There are also hybrid putters called "chippers" for fringe situations.  Just food for thought in the future.

• DlhardUNCFAN said March 28, 2009

  Good point SSentaor.  I guess your the only normal one that went to TW 10 community event.  

    Ever since TW 04, you have been able to hit the ball with full turbo on a drive around 385 yards except for TW 08. I don't care what the distance for your clubs shows, as long as you can not drive most of the par 4's.  Most got to realize this is a video game, not real life.  In real life you can not spin the ball whatever way you want it just because you were off a little, or full turbo a shot.  

    What has happen is EA took the fun out of the game.  Example: Fantasy courses,creating your own logos,many different items in the pro shop, creating your own swing,etc. Many league member for TW game, have stopped playing the game because of this and so many online issues each year.  

    Its impossible to please everyone, but hopefully EA has pleased the gamers that buy the game each year and play it know matter what the problems are in the game.

  Di    

  PS  This post is for normal people, not know it all's,or wannabe hardcore gamers.

• SSenator said March 28, 2009

  Thanks for the great breakdown Mike.

  I'd tend to agree with a couple of the other posters and say they're still a bit too far.

  So far this season Bubba Watson leads the Tour in Driving distance at 313 yds.If the max distance for powercap 12 was say the distance indicated for powercap 10 then I think it would be better.That's still a bit past the real distance but not too bad.This would stop people from driving a lot of par 4's.There would still be some in range but not as many.Not many at all playing Tour mode.

  Plus because the distance for all clubs would lessen it wouldn't be as easy to drive and then have an easy pitch shot.Undesireable distances might come into play a lot more.

  I need to remember to watch the EA Live show.I saw it in the banner when I was in TW the other day but it was already past show time.

• JBHuskers said March 28, 2009

  The window is pretty tight to tweak these before finalizing everything, but maybe Mike can answer if there is a possibility to further tone down the distances.  If not, this is still a good improvement, to me realism adds to the excitement...and everything I've seen is making me excited for June.

• EAcom Golf Tim said March 28, 2009

  At least most of us can respond here without making unnecessary personal comments that have nothing to do with this blog.

  Like SSenator, the maximum distances at 0% sweetspot seem excessive. However, if the trade-off for those kinds of distances is a proportional increase in swing stick sensitivity and the mishit tuning is penal enough, this should make the game much more challenging. If the trade-off is not that much of a factor, then the distances will be too long again this year IMO.

• SuperD123 said March 29, 2009

  These tuned distances will overall significantly decrease the amount of par 4's youll be able to drive in 1. It'll mean instead of driving them youll be trying to hole them out with a flop or pitch.

  Meanwhile on other par 4s it will make it slightly tougher to actually hole them out as youll have to use a high iron to get it close like a 8 or 9 iron i think.

  They still may be slightly too long though but we'll have to wait and see.....

• BDUBYAS said March 29, 2009

    The distances seem fine to me.  It's not really all that relevant seeing as how players have shot in the thirtys on 18 from the black tees in every version of the game ever made. And in that time period, the club distances have changed dramatically from year to year. I'll still be able to hit the clubs pretty much any distance I want with a delay in my back swing / full shot / or a powered up shot.  And besides, none of those distances on Mikes post include "loft" so...They probably do go farther, if desired.  It would have been cool to have a option for "Tiger Tees" something  behind the blacks that made each course even longer.  

• hieland soldier said March 29, 2009

  sorry to see the distances are still way to big also in this years when you use the powecap do you get the unrealistic short ball flight with irons and woods ie 3wood goes say 220yards but only 160 through the air now thats bad it should go 200 through the air with 20 yards rool

• hieland soldier said March 30, 2009

  rool = roll lol

• AndyTL462 said March 30, 2009

  Mike D,

  Thanks for the prompt response, I hope you are correct because in the past, the aftermarket controllers were nowhere near senstitive enough to penalize for zero sweetspot.

  I have one more question. In 2004 and 2005 Tiger, in online multi player stroke games, a second place finsh in a foursome would yield 1 loss and 2 wins with points awarded reflecting your 1 loss and 2 wins. In 2006 and on, a 2nd place finsh would yeild 1 loss ONLY and you would loss a high amount of points, as if you lost to everyone. So essentially it was win the foursome outright or get zapped for lots of points. It would be nice and make sense to award a second place finish or a third place finsh out 4 players. Is there anyway to see if in 2010 multi player stroke games awards the wins and losses correctly like it used to back in 2004 and 2005? This would make a great deal of sense and it would also make EVERY online gamer much happier to play in these kinds of multi player games. Thanks for any thoughts Mike, this is much more than I have ever seen EA get involved with the forums in the past.

  -Andy

• SuperD123 said March 30, 2009

  Hi Mike, I've sent you a PM in regards to the online winds, please let me know if you understand what i mean.

• SuperD123 said March 30, 2009

  Sorry to add to my previous comment but im sure a lot of people will agree with me on here that 1Mph winds DO NOT play like they should do and SOMETIMES don't play at all. They play like a 0 wind.

• BDUBYAS said March 30, 2009

     The winds should be as unnpredictable as possible....I think it would be sweet if you only got an "idea" of the wind mph.  Instead of an exact consistent number , you get a range like 1 - 5mph or 5 - 10mph.  Everyone always makes the zero wind shots...Big deal !!! The elements should be consistenly inconsistent.  We'll probably get an online wind option greater than calm.  So I dont think you'll have to worry about this "one/zero wind crisis" unless you wanna play on calm wind with a bunch of scrubs holdin eachothers hands trying to hole out/ tellin one another how to play a "one" wind with there clubs tuned the same. Let's hope that this amazing one/zero wind discovery finds its way to the top.  This way they can fix it so that noone else gets confused on why they missed the cup by 6ft.

• jaybiv said April 01, 2009

  Nice run through of the club distances.  I'm wondering if you guys finally tied the swing animation into a consistent swing power percentage?  A quick flip of the swing stick can give me 70% on the shot when the animation shows a 25% backswing.  This feature alone would increase the difficulty of the game on Tour Mode.

• INoQI Gollybass said April 17, 2009

  still seems a little long for the clubs, for me, I almost prefer when I first create my golfer as my levels are so low it makes it a fun challenge

• Xusemagru said April 22, 2009

  My comment is and always will be if I wanted to play real golf i would go OUT and play real golf. in the end this is a video game and driving the big distances and hitting the ball a long way is fun for me. I dislike tour mode, I can play it but I dislike it, wholeheartedly. I know the 09 distances were insane but I think the distances shown here are fine. you have the powercap option if you want to take it down further...I just dont understand all the fuss.

• alloutatimepunk said November 04, 2009

  hey i was wondering why i have purchased all of the expert clubs in tiger 10 for ps3 but i cant tune any of the clubs....it automatically goes back to the ea clubs...any advise...anyone