SimGolf: I eat my words ... it's FUN!

[yin26]

And another...

[yin26]

Still going...**ooops, wrong file format**

[yin26]

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[yin26]

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[yin26]

Now, taken together, all those screens offer the tweaker in you TONS of stuff to do and the means to quickly get a handle on what needs fixing. So if you enjoy trying to manipulate a certain outcome (while watching some bright and fun graphics), this is definitely a game worth trying.

[Smash]

I finally got my first 18 hole grand slam course.Its a beaut.7182 yards par 71 with a stroke average 0f 73.09.Currently ranked 94/100.Best part is playing time at 3 hours 27 minutes
First hole has a fun factor of 323%!

Scenic bridges...build them anywhere you can.Make some water if you have to.Remember,scenic bridges can only span 1 square.You must use the bridge menu,not just put a path over it.,and it can only be 1 square long to actually be considered a scenic.The sims just love these.They love to look at them and they love to ride them
if place them like this w/b/w/b/w/b etc,you make a kind of roller coaster that is full of "I love riding over this scenic bridge"

On that course I also have a particular snackbar that is servicing 6 different holes due to the way I have tees and 2 greens placed.This part of the course runs extremely well.All kinda by accident

So far though,that scenic bridge technique is the most effective thing I have discovered.It takes a little watching and tweeking to make sure they go where they are supposed to but it sure pays off.The lowest fun factor I have is 137%.No less than 10 holes are over 200%.

Good thing this ain't civ3.This game is made for fun.If it was civ3 they'd take everything fun(like the bridge trick) out of the game...ala despot pop rush.Since they are bound and determined to ruin the ancient age of civ3 (to get it in line with the other ages),I can safely free up some space for more Sim Golf stuff.Lets see if the civ3 uninstaller is bug free

[Grumbold]

*BZZT!* No mention of 1.17f disappointment please. I came here to erase it from my mind. Yin's lovely clips had just succeeded when you did that.

[yin26]

Smash: Excellent work! Now that I have one 18-hole course under my belt, I'll try for a Grand Slam. Big help on the scenic bridge thing. I have a lot of double and triple bridges and didn't realize they weren't helping me.

Grumbold: I see now one of my shots didn't post. I'll do that later. It's one of my favorites. Not much to look at, but *very* helpful.

[Steve Clark]

I don't understand how you get a phenomenal rating of 2.something for length on a par 3?? Maybe it's just a factor of time where all holes keep going up in ratings as time goes on. I did my 9-hole course in 11 years and the par 3s are still in the negative for length. Is that what is happening or is there a design trick for par 3s?

[yin26]

Steve: Great question. I certainly don't have an answer. I'm just designing stuff that looks good to the eye and adds some challenge. I'd like to understand the details better, however, for the ratings.

[John-SJ]

I got SimGolf about a week ago, and the main reason is, the comments on this forum. I originally d/l'ed the demo when it first came out, played for awhile and sort of forgot about it. It never rated very highly with me, certainly not a "must have" game. Then I started reading about Yin's experiences with the game in this thread and fired up the demo again. This time I decided to give the full game a go, and I'm glad I did. I have been putting quite a few hours in on this game since I got it and I'm still asking more questions than I'm answering so I think I have quite a ways to go before boredom even becomes a possibility.

I have to say, this is the most fun game I've played in a long time! I'm really glad to see that when Sid is the main force behind a project that it still has that "Meier Magic". So, here's to you Sid, THANKS! And thanks to Yin and others in this thread who convinced me to give SimGolf a second chance!

John-SJ

[Strollen]

civ3 vs SimGolf

Like Yin and the others I was thoroughly prepared to hate this game. Sim (yawn), playing Golf (yuck), watching Golf being play? (No No you can't torture me, the Consitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment)

Alas, I love this game despite the subject matter not because of it. SimGolf plays and feels like a really labor of love, far more than Civ 3 does.

Here is some really interesting things from the credits.

Civ 3 Designed Soren Johnson, Jeff Briggs
Programming 7 people, and 25+ other involved in art music, sound and production, plus several years.

SimGolf
Game Design Sid Meier with Bing Gordon
Programming Sid Meier, 2 others
Art, music, production 13

Now to switch sports analogies: Clearly Sid is the Michael Jordon of game design (or is Michael the Sid Meier of basketball :-))
I think Brian Reynolds was the equivalent of Scotty Pippen and when he left Firaxis while still a very talented group was left without a superstar #2 guy. Soren did a terrific job on Civ3 AI, but the game just isn't as fun as a game with Sid Meier's name on it should be.

[Smash]

In the folder "flics/homes" there are some car folders.Ferrari,BMW etc.
I can't figure out what to do or how to get these into the game.Grand slam status was my great hope but no,it did nothing.I tryed connecting my paths to the clubhouse to make "roads",but that didn't do it.I took the roads into celebrity 'hoods but that didn't do it either.

WTF are those cars for?

[Dan Magaha FIRAXIS]

I believe they were to be used with the celebrity homes, IIRC, but they were probably taken out because they were too much.

Actually, though, now that you mention it, it wouldn't be a bad idea to show them off as tournament prizes


Dan

[Smash]

Ya I considered that but kept on looking...hoping for another surprise.Yes I can see where they could cause some problems.A Beemer zooming across the first hole could get some golfers killed

thnks for the info.Lord knows how much time you just saved me