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Re: Tier Clubs and Reduce Sandbagging

• Johnlock247 42 Posts

  Tue, Nov 20 2012 6:14 PM

  Hi Guys,
  
  I just turned Legend and I have to say I now find it awful depressing to see lvl 90 etc players who are not legends that are able to buy clubs that hit the ball 290+yards. I'll gladly spend a few euro to upgrade my clubs but i see no point in making players, legends in particular, wait till such high levels to get them. I'm now lvl 71 and am finding it tough to stay competitive , even with the best clubs and balls can buy at this level.
  
  Just like in real golf, I think you should be rewarded for how well you play. I turned legend early with honest scores and I dont think I should have to trudge through another 2 months of non-competitive golf to get better clubs.(aout 60000 xp) I agree that practice makes perfect and it's a learning curve to deal with the added distance, but I enjoy the ready go's and club credit comps more than anything else. There's just an extra buzz.
  
  I've put money and time into this game which I thoroughly enjoy, and have made great friends from it. Reward people for their loyalty.
  
  Tier the clubs and give people a reason to play well.

• alanti 10,564 Posts

  Tue, Nov 20 2012 7:56 PM

  Personally I like the idea of tiered clubs, but is very unlikely to happen. One thing I will point out, do not name players in the forums - a big no no and will only get yourself into trouble.

  But the point is valid (and there are a ton of threads about this issue), there are many players with better or equal clubs to me, who are at pro tier! I liked the idea (I think it was Sremlin) of perhaps allowing the club but have the power/capabilities reduced until they do tier up (presumably for a fee).

  All that said you can have the best clubs in the bag and still play like a hack but I do agree that these players do have an advantage unless we all play from the same tee boxes. Also I commend WGT for taking a stance on sandbagging (and agree with todays announcement from MisterWGT with the changes to this).

  We will never eliminate the sandbaggers  but agree with the anti-sandbagging implementations AND some change in the equipment availabilty it would make this a lot more difficult to do.

   

• Johnlock247 42 Posts

  Tue, Nov 20 2012 8:27 PM

  Woops. Thanks for the advice Alanti. I don't post much so I haven't really got around to the complexities. I actually found that link through another thread.
  
  Just out of interest, did there used to be a tier based equipment system? I see alot of people with "master" clubs or "legend clubs" and just assumed they were from before I played the game.
  
  Also I think they've done a great job too. I think I may have got the end of one of their new plans also as I was moved up to legend with a 62 average but i had earned quite a bit playing in ready-go's so I imagine they're taking this into account.

• srellim234 2,077 Posts

  Tue, Nov 20 2012 9:10 PM

  I've been here over five years and yes, clubs did used to be based on tiers. It was changed for a couple of reasons.

  One, it was argued heavily that in real life a person can buy any club at any time. For this to be a more realistic golf game simulation the same would have to be done here. I think they did the right thing by doing so. Simply put, there are more people quietly playing this game who will never be able to advance to legend status than there are the sandbaggers that are taking advantage of the system to ruin things for them. Those legitimate players should be able to put any equipment in the bag they can afford.

  In real life, though, an R11s driver in the hands of an amateur or pro will not perform at the level it does in the hands of a PGA professional. Thus my suggestion that club performance be set at 100% for Legends and above while it be reduced a set % for each tier below them. 

  The second reason is obviously money. Opening up club sales to all players opens up the revenue stream for WGT considerably. It was not realistic to expect a business to continue to refuse to sell products to the majority of its customer base. It's also not realistic to expect them to return to that formula.

• alanti 10,564 Posts

  Tue, Nov 20 2012 9:35 PM

  In total agreement with everything sremlin has written!

  The only concern I can see (from a WGT perspective) is each time we move a tier, it invariably requires a club upgrade to remain competitive. By allowing a player to buy say the R11s early (although it would not be at its full potential) will negate them from requiring further upgrades. This is the sticking point, hence why I said perhaps to unlock the potential of the club will require further payment to upgrade. This should partially/possibly fully offet the loss but I am not sure if WGT would do this unles the numbers added up.

  I tried this club at my golf club last week and was seriously a great driver - best I have driven in a long while (I have churned through a few drivers over the years). Did it make me drive like a PGA Tour Pro....NO. But it was a great improvement and backs a real life experience with your idea.

  After the chat with MisterWGT I finally believe that WGT do listen, and again thanks to WGTPizza (for also pursuing these ideas).. I know they are a thousand things to do and too little time, but ideas like this I think do need more exploring, so thanks also to sremlin

  Final point John - edit your post and delete the name before Pizza has you for dinner lol.

• srellim234 2,077 Posts

  Tue, Nov 20 2012 10:21 PM

  alanti- It's not a matter of being able to buy a club early. Clubs should be left at the levels they are now. A person would still have to reach level 90 to buy a level 90 club. It just wouldn't perform at 100% if the buyer is less than legend.

• Johnlock247 42 Posts

  Tue, Nov 20 2012 10:33 PM

  Done and done Alanti. (thanks)
  
  Srellim I'd love to see something like that implemented. It would be great to see that as people would have a great incentive to play well and tier up.
  
  The only thing I would worry about from WGT's perspective is that some people may never make it to legend status and it rules out another potential club purchase for them.
  
  The simple solution really and one that I cannot see any downfall from is allowing legends to purchase any club. The game can't possibly get any harder for legends so there would be no advantage over other players, and the money rolls in for WGT.
  
  I personally would play the game more if I was more competitive in my tier(ready-go's etc) and this would lead to more competition revenue for WGT plus I will buy more balls as I use them. At the moment I'm just keeping the xp ticking over till lvl 83 when I can get a new set.
  

• alanti 10,564 Posts

  Tue, Nov 20 2012 11:06 PM

  Firstly, sorry Sremlin, I misinterpreted what you said. When you said that in RL any player can buy the club, I assumed this would then be available to all regardless of level - My Bad! In this case this MUST be a sensible implementation (assumption the programming changes would not be too difficult) that would greatly reduce the abilty of sandbaggers.

  I agree with John, that we do need incentives rather than just playing the game and I know many players who are reluctant to play RG, Challenges because of this sandbagging/multi account issues. The incentive to reach legend gives a whopping 200cr - not enough for most players at this level to get a sleeve of balls.The idea of tiers is to effectively have a handicap system, but as with any system people find a way to bypass this. This has been very evident in another thread and makes my blood boil to see someone blantantly admitting this. But so many of us can see examples of this but very little appears to be done.

  I have mentioned in other threads I also think WGT hould introduce some sort of loyalty program to reward its players. XP is only a minor incentive for me personally and would like to see more. A happy customer is usually willing and happy to spend.

  Alan