6/30/05

[Chronic Logic - Josiah]

Chronic Logic and Detective Brand announce their latest game, Golf Question Mark, has entered open beta testing stage.  This first person, real time, multiplayer golf game's beta demo is available for Windows and will be release for Windows, OSX and Linux when it is finished.  Download the beta demo today!

http://www.golfquestionmark.com" target="_blank">http://www.golfquestionmark.com

[DaKiller]

Wow! Awesome game http://67.15.141.32/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':laugh:'>
I played through it 2 times and I loved it. The graphic style is really unique (never knew the bloom effect was possible with OpenGL too by the way)...
Can't wait till the game is done, I'll definately buy it!

[stevescat]

First Impressions: Very enjoyable game. Up and running with the control system with minimum of fuss and it feels right. What is the purpose of changing to the caddy though? Will we get some feedback/advice from the caddy? Love the golf cart but I think it needs a hand brake. I do hope we will be able to choose from a wardrobe of horrible checked trousers and ghastly shirts and a selection of daft shoes. Keep up the good work!

[DaKiller]

Yeah, the caddy is kinda useless... the only thing he seems to do is drinking and sleeping http://67.15.141.32/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'>

[Jonathan_NL]

I just tried it while I should have gone to bed hours ago...

I was up and running in no time. Took me forever to get the ball in the hole after having it land right next to it though...
The cart is really lots of fun! *hint* the rocket gives a force of >1g *hint*

Are there any test servers?

[stevescat]

Just got a 'hole in one' on hole 9  http://67.15.141.32/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'>  I expected trumpets, but only silence. http://67.15.141.32/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':('>

[Jonathan_NL]

Got a few problems:
- Mouse problems at 1280x960 (and I think any res that doesn't match Golf?'s internal coordinate system). Sometimes I'm limited to some area until I move back and forth, and it doesn't appear to scale to its coordinate system (move it out of the window).
- On some hill I couldn't hit the ball. Wedge, wood, iron, everything moved through the ground below.
- 15 or 20 fps with everything on max

[mrwolf]

Quote (Jonathan_NL @ July 07 2005,12:28)

- On some hill I couldn't hit the ball. Wedge, wood, iron, everything moved through the ground below

We had this problem a few times, until we figured it out. When you first click on the ball you see your feet and a rectangle, as well as the ball. Press up and down until the rectangle is around the ball. This will change how you aim, so you may have to hook it or slice it to correct for this. Hope this helps!

P.S. To the guys at CL and Detective Brand, This is a FANTASTIC game! But why is LAN play limited to 4 people? Just yesterday I had 10 people who wanted to play!!! =D

[Herr SelmXz XenSiS]

<font color='#000000'>Okey, first off all, the game is very fun.

and now the problems: We had much lag problems when we played in lan with 2 players.

tha cars are a bit to sensitive, its like riding on the moon with a car. make them a bit more stabel.

and the following thing was just an idea:

In teh multiplayer its fun to "irritate" the otehr player. Something that should be fun would be the possibilitie to give a little air-blast so that the golf bal should change course. This would cost 1 hit and could be used while the other player is striking his golf-bal. (other irritate stuff would be fun to, like teh terrain thats getting a bit bumpy and stuff)
But all thse setting would be set in scenario's, that players who only want to golf can choose teh correct scenario.

okey, thats it  <!--emo&--><img src="http://67.15.141.32/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''><!--endemo--> (ignore the grammar-faults)
</font>

[Herr SelmXz XenSiS]

Okey i forgoth to tell this. You ahve this game Scorched. they made many versions of it but none of it was good enouf to become popular. I think you could use the Golf! engine to create something like scorch, only with a bit more mobilitie.


Thx anyway.

[Chronic Logic - Josiah]

What did you set your bytes per second at when you played on the Lan?  You should set it at 30,000.

[staffmedia]

Is there any information on when the OS X version will be availlable?

If you need a beta tester for OS X, just contact me. http://67.15.141.32/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'>

[Chicken1]

Capital job, fellows.

The swing interface is real and tight feeling, and the ball physics are near spot-on (though sometimes the tree collision was a bit wonky).

The feel of the game is really unlike any other golf game I've played -- actually getting to walk, crawl, jump, drive, and wade to your ball is a great experience.

The robot theme also really engadges me -- as does the large drum-like thing on hole nine, which I still can't manage to hit my ball into.

I played through twice with my younger brother. (I'm currently on the opposite coast of the US from him, so it's nice to be able to do something once in a while.) If there were a way to just stay on one hole play around, this would be a fun way to chat once in a while.

Now the other comments:

Not much else to say other than that the animations realllly need tweening (or the walking animation needs to be more quantized). Then, I thrive on stylistic consistency.

It is somewhat disconcerting that the birds in the sky are view-aligned and not world-aligned.

The chat line limit is quite a bit too short. (also, messages should persist longer and a chat history - perhaps console-style retractable history - should be availible). Otherwise, it is quite playable via the internet twixt Michigan and California (mind you, I was serving and my brother is quite a bit more lag-tolerent than I).

Showing the complete ball history as a line is a great idea. It somehow makes the game feel more complete.

The texture banding / dithering / nearest-neibor-sampling in the sky is unfortunate. It might be stylistically justified, but I think that using flat-shaded quads might be more reasonable.

The sound is truely empty. Vacant. I want some background something (though I suppose I could just play music myself). The setting really lends itself to something gentle, orchestral, with an electronic twist (ambient noise music with more strings).

The cart physics, as has been noted, could use some tuning. I'm not going to sweat it, myself. It really is a hard thing to get right.

The occasional flicker of green (guessing collision hull) around the cart looks like some excess debug output that isn't getting turned off properly.

I think that this game brings the tight physics-based gameplay that I've come to expect from Chronic Logic to a game with stark and striking visual style (something new that I hope persists with future releases).

I look forward to the final.

[tyroney]

Since this is the only thread I've found, here's my feedback.  I only have a few details, most of which you've likely already noticed.  

First, especially as you get near the green, the hole, and ball, and stroke, and wind, and everything get really confusing on the map.  Some kind of zoom/toggle, an extra or alternate wind indicator, and maybe even further alpha action should clear that up.

Second, when you're in swing mode, it would be great to have a look button, that would hold the club stationary and pivot the view up a-la right-after-a-stroke.  Many times I've overshot a putt because jumping in and out of swing mode just was too abrupt.  Hey, an alternative solution would be gradual pivot down when entering swing mode,  (a reverse right-after-a-stroke) which would be a simpler and more elegant fix imo.

Third, this game desperately needs a warning regarding mouse tracking and surfaces, as I currently have the urge to smash both of mine with a rather unwieldly hammer.  (it's a good thing I stopped keeping one of those around the house)

Loving it.  Can't wait for my friend to get back from vacation and put on a lan party.  A quirky ambient industrial trip something soundtrack (or something) might do wonders.  Just a little more basic ambience and sfx would probably cover it though.  Dare I ask for some canned heckling or other such lines?  

Ok, I'll be back someday after I've had a chance to trounce all my mates on the "green".