National Golf Links of America (L) | 2k23 Port
Jul 14, 2021 13:54:30 GMT -5
jwfickett, joegolferg, and 24 more like this
Post by beamt0wn on Jul 14, 2021 13:54:30 GMT -5
now ported into 2k23 after hacking and slashing 31% of the objects on the original version. big thanks to the mvp of all manatees for input on the pin locations.
changelog:
- ~25% less grass!
- way less background detail--neighboring sebonack is now completely deserted!
- different textures for all grass surfaces
- new pins, some sourced from the recently-released golf digest flyover
- relocated fictional back teebox on #7
- slower, softer default greens (redan is still gonna piss a lot of people off tho)
for those curious to compare the irl course to this, here's the golf digest flyover:
original post below.
for the architecture nerds out there, this course needs no introduction. for the unfamiliar and those just getting into course architecture, the course guide written by the LinksGems guy offers a great overview and a hole-by-hole guide. the writeup in Golf Club Atlas is also quite good.
now, on to the details.
routing diagram:
the 'out-and-back' routing at NGLA is tremendous. looking at a wind history map of the area (click the play button in the top-right to see the month-by-month changes animate), you can see that the prevailing winds shift throughout the year. our pal Charlie Mac clearly planned the routing with this in mind. every wind direction offers a new set of challenges but still manages to maintain the same overall difficulty. the Redan hole (#4) is an excellent example: a tailwind (N/NE) makes holding the green nearly impossible, and the smart play is to land your shot short of the green to the right and roll the ball on there with the help of the shoulder as a funnel. on the other hand, if you're facing a headwind (S/SW), you have a good chance of holding the green if you land in the front-right quadrant. but club selection and a pure strike is paramount.
all of this is to say: this course is infinitely replayable. after countless playtests, i still find it incredibly fun. and these green complexes.... some of these greens have 6 or more viable and fun placement options. choosing only 4 to use was a challenge.
making a real course work in a video game
i've been lucky enough to have played this course in real life. and sadly, a lot of what makes NGLA so much fun gets lost in the virtual experience. the Alps (#3) and Punchbowl (#16) holes are perfect examples. both are long par 4s with blind, elevated approaches. the scout cam and shot follow cam completely eliminate the intimidation and excitement of approach shots to these greens. for the dedicated few who will play this as a true sim, i added target flags behind the greens (stacked fence posts + horizontal red & white marker stakes) that should be visible if you use the "full" camera angle (default view makes 'em too small to see). for the rest of you, just try to imagine the challenge these holes would pose if you played irl.
but the biggest problem with the video game version of this course is distance. or, more accurately, a lack of distance. very few golfers in the world can consistently carry a playable drive 295+ yards. but 99% of folks who play this course in the game are going to be doing that. and at 6,935 yards from the real-life tips, NGLA simply doesn't provide much of a challenge to those long dongers. so i had to make some modifications to extend the course to a more "tour appropriate" length of 7,335 yards. this meant adding new tee boxes where none exist in real life (or in the case of #1, extending the tee box) and adding a new tee color (black). i realize that some may find this decision an unforgivable sin. deal with it, nerds. in making these modifications, i made every effort to preserve the spirit of each hole and the overall character of the course. and all of them are well blended with the terrain in a way that, at least to my eye, looks natural.
the final issue i ran into was with the placement of the middle tees (green). it's clear that charlie knew most players would be using the middle tees, so many holes have more than one viable box for the middle tees. the clearest example can be seen on the 16th hole (details in this post i made in the 'under construction' thread). the solution i came to--with a bit of help--was to create a second set of middle tees (blue) and use some tee manipulation to jockey the positioning on a few key holes. i managed to get the total yardage of both middle tee sets to within a yard of each other: the green tees play to 6,489yd and the blues play to 6,490yd. in some cases, manipulating the tee order required placing a tee slightly to the left or the right of center in a tee box, so visually the tees aren't always in perfect alignment.
the scorecard
i do graphic/print design as part of my day job, so i had some fun with this and re-created the real NGLA scorecard (yup, that's my real, uncensored 89. bask in it's mediocre glory, nerds.) with the in-game distances. fictional teeboxes for the black tees are noted with a red asterisk ( * ) in the yardage column. on the 11th hole, the black tees share a teebox with the white tees on #9. so technically this is still an imaginary tee, but it's in an irl teeing ground. for the blue tees, yardage is only shown for holes where the teeing location is different from the green tees. holes where the green and blue tees share the same location are marked with a diagonal slash ( / ).
if you're really paying attention here and you play the course, you may notice a discrepancy between the yardage on this card and what the game shows. the out-and-back layout here was slightly too large for the plot and the edge of the plot was only about 5 yards beyond the 9th green. so i had to "hack" it a bit on the 9th and put the hole's ending waypoint about 20 yards past the actual green, so all yardages on that hole read longer than they should in the game (doesn't matter when you're playing though since you see the actual yardage to the pin).
and just for funsies, i made the outside of the card too:
the "no out of bounds" text was removed from the scorecards at some point after sebonack opened in '06. but to preserve the old school ethos of 'play it if you can find it' i intentionally didn't mark any OB.
recommended play settings
you are of course free to play the course however you'd like. but if you want the 'authentic' experience, here are my recommendations:
- wind speed: high or very high
- wind direction: any
- tees: red (irl tips) or green/blue
- driver: max carry of 270. ideally a little less if playing green/blue tees
- green speeds: default is 173. at this speed putting and approach shots will pose a challenge. setting the speed to very fast would be insanity for some pins. if it's playing too tough, dial the speed back to fast or medium
- pin position: all placements are verified real, either from personal experience or from reviewing on-course photos and satellite imagery. sets are thoughtfully placed and should offer a varied challenge overall. i would characterize each set as follows:
-
- #1: medium-hard, includes the more obvious/prominent placements
- #2: medium difficulty, and many with subtle/gradual break.
- #3: medium difficulty, perhaps slightly harder than #2 overall
- #4: hard(ish). this set includes a few placements that might be considered "cruel" at default green speeds. there are some easy ones here though.
- #1: medium-hard, includes the more obvious/prominent placements
the eye candy
you didn't come here to read. you came here to look at screenshots. here ya go:
final thoughts
this was my first serious attempt at building a course. chadgolf 's wonderful TGC Designer Tools project got me started and ensured an accurate elevation map, but given the enormous importance of this course i wanted to make sure it was as close to perfect as i could get it. i have no doubt that there are plenty of amateur-ish mistakes in the final version (i've already spotted a few) but but overall i don't think there's anything that's game-breaking.
i'd like to extend a huge thanks to everybody who helped out and provided feedback in my under construction thread. jwtexan 's tips on perimeter planting were game-changers, and i've gotta give an extra-special thanks to mvpmanatee for dealing with my incessant questions and complaints about the desinger's limitations via slack (we're both in a slack group for boston-area golf nerds). he handled it all with great patience and grace.
thoughts and feedback--whether good or bad--would be hugely appreciated! this was a big undertaking and i learned a hell of a lot. i'll be taking a break from the designer for at least a few weeks, but i'm hoping to get back at it with another RCR and who knows, maybe even an original design.
that's all, folks!
