Hopes and Asperations for 2019

[Seasider47]

Hi All

Another year and we are still able to play PG Golf on our Pcs. For me this is the greatest golf game of them all and PGLS is by far the best platform to play it on. I'd like to start by thanking Mark for all the work he puts in to ensure our complete enjoyment of the game, the many tours he opperates and leagues he has just set up take up a lot of his spare time when hes not working, I'd also like to thank the team of admin that support him (of which I am one)

I have made some great internet friends on PGLS and enjoy playing some fun rounds with them and wish to thank them and wish them good health through 2019, and the hope that we can continue these games throuhout this year too.

My hopes. Above all else I hope for some assurances from PP of if or when PG2 will arrive and assurances that it will appear on the PC. I hope that if or when PG2 does arrive then establish within the game an anti cheat system that can recognise and diminish systems that we know are being used. Cheats dont fool anyone but they do affect the scoring sytem puts every player in the right level of skill.

The above hopes and aspirations are not in our hands to achieve so enough said about them and move on to areas we can affect and need to deal with

To me the Leaderboards look very disjointed at the moment. the colour scheme for TPs, Pros, Ams and hookers looks a mess with yellows, blues greys all over the shop. We are seeing a small group of Amateurs heading the table above TPs. sometimes you may even see the odd Hacker right at the top. I can normally be found just below the main group of Ammateurs somewhere in the middle of the board in 40th place even though I have successfully completed 4 rounds on a good week at -4 for the tour Whilst way above are a few Ammi's making scores of -30 or much more. What this does is raise the averages of that lvl of play before a player is moved up. The same applys at tour level too, The scoring system has been changed to hopefully allow movements upwards but the more players scoring above the asperations of the average Amateur play the harder it becomes to be caught in the net.

The second change I would like to see is the Handicapping system. PG Classics has been a great success but TPs are now finding it very difficult if the are players with +10 or more h/cap strokes in the same game as they have -6 or higher. In my oppinion there needs to be some form of cap to the shots you can recieve or a percentage of your playing h/cap that you can use (example a player with 9 shots receives a third of his H/cap which would give him a shot difference of 3 shots instead of 9. Mark is looking into this at the moment so we hope it will be resolved soon.

Enjoy your game in the mean time and hope to see you on the fairways soon. If you have any coments regarding what has been discussed please share

[cubbies645]

Ill tell u what Paul that was very well said amazing conception and contrast of this game and the site, you as well as the other admin makes this i high level of success and we players appreciate everything that you do, sounds like some exciting things are coming in the future. Cant wait for another year of golfing, thank you very much m8.....

[LinksPro]

I hear ya Seasider47. I sent Affo a message today regarding the way this system is configured. Its just not right. I usually play a round or two, look at my score and see that I am 20 or 30 stroke off the lead and then I just quit. The way the system is configured, "take the average", "remove the top and bottom 10%" then this and that with 7.5% or however its calculated just doesn't work. Guys with stroke averages at 65 playing Amateur while guys with 85 playing Pro. Head to head, who wins that battle? It's really not that difficult to implement a system that works EQUALLY for everyone. no matter what your stroke average. As far as cheating goes, there will always be those that need to cheat and we all know who they are. When I look at scores, I just take them out of the picture. I'm sure they get their kicks seeing their names at the top of the leader-boards weekly. Booyah!

[Affo]

Remember, the guys shooting 85 at Pro or whatever level have the opportunity to request a move to a lower level, they are not "made" to play at that level, they obviously like a challenge to become better.

I am constantly thinking about whether systems need to change etc but the trouble is, you always get people who have to play at a level because they don't enjoy playing at the next level up or whatever and may manipulate their scores to stay where they want to...who knows.

Your suggestion to me in your message may have worked for those games you mentioned LinksPro but with course setups leading to either very low scores some weeks and then could be 20 shots different another week means you can't just use an average score to determine levels to be played at. You play one event and finish 10th at -30, then next week another player finishes 10th with -5, use that as a basis and you'll be in different Divisions/Tiers yet both finished 10th! Plain averages just don't work.

The current system compares you to players of your own level and takes out whether the course was easy or hard. If you are shooting roughly over 5 shots better than the average player of your Tier, you move up and vice versa, pretty fair I think.

If there are better alternatives, please post them here to be discussed.

Hopefully Mark and I will get the time to look into whether we can introduce some event which pits you against similar skilled players with promotion and relegation, we'll see.

[NIBNOB]

Well said Paul.....i agree with everything you said....BIG shout out to Mark(hero) without PGLS i would not be playing PG, simple as that....4 years on a £12 game amazing.....

[Affo]

Well said Paul.....i agree with everything you said....BIG shout out to Mark(hero) without PGLS i would not be playing PG, simple as that....4 years on a £12 game amazing.....

Very true. Can't think of another game that I have got this value out of, even Football Manager when I used to play it a lot.

The attention to detail Mark brings is second to none. We spent time this afternoon and last evening trying to look into some anomalies, he wants things to be correct, no matter how few people may actually look at the items in question.

[Greensboronclion]

It's always tough to please all no matter what you did and I dealt with that myself at LSPN but the job done here to keep this game going has been well done. I have gotten my money out of this game a hundred times already and will play till there is either a PG2 or the lights go out.

[LinksPro]

OK, I exaggerated the Pro score in my post. It was to make a point. The real score is 73. Anyway, I think the current system may work with modification. Ignoring the top and bottom 10% is a good idea but the adjustment needs to be made on the 7.5% for promotion up or down. What do you think about that?

One more thing. Tournaments should be set accordingly for each skill level. Pro should play only against Pro, Amateur against Amateur etc. Tournament setup can be adjusted that way also. Hacker tournaments can get easy pin placement with calmer winds where as Tour Pros get the opposite. Not every round has to be this but you can see where I am coming from here.

[SimChars1968]

One more thing. Tournaments should be set accordingly for each skill level. Pro should play only against Pro, Amateur against Amateur etc. Tournament setup can be adjusted that way also. Hacker tournaments can get easy pin placement with calmer winds where as Tour Pros get the opposite. Not every round has to be this but you can see where I am coming from here.

I don't think the people that give their valuable time to set-up these events would appreciate having to set each round for 4 skill levels with different conditions!

[Affo]

Ignoring the top and bottom 10% is a good idea but the adjustment needs to be made on the 7.5% for promotion up or down. What do you think about that?

Ok, I happen to agree and would like to bring it down to 5% but this will lead to more promotions and I guarantee more moaning about having to play at a higher level, people being upset they cannot shoot low 60s any more because of promotion.

Now, I don't want to discourage people from playing tournaments, but they are Tournaments which lead to OOM/Ranking points so if people play and score well compared to their fellow Tier players, they have to accept that they will move up a level. If you really don't want to put yourself in that position, why are you playing them? You have the Classics, the 4 Country Clubs, Hazard and Skillz to play which do not effect your Tier level.

Tournament numbers are actually on a Par with this time last year, no reduction in numbers which is fantastic considering the lack of updates and like I said, don't want to discourage players, but that is the truth of the matter.