9.0 Putting

So I am curious...

Is the idea with this patch that the putting changes are only relevant when green grid beads are on? Because I did not notice any change when playing career mode or casual rounds when using my own personal custom settings, where I have the grid on, but no beads.

I have 7 points in my Putting attributes, and the grid seems the same size as it always has for me.

I definitely agree with you on this one, since every club (driver, hybrid, iron, wedge) has multiple available specs why not the putter? I don't like the new putting system at all since its only going to be used for "tour" game modes and I'll have to respec my golfer anytime I need to play tour for a tournament. If they want to keep the large putting grids they should add 10 more levels since it is so expensive compared to any other upgrade. In my mind, it doesn't make sense to spend upwards of 20 skill points to putting to get something back that we had before the update. I feel like these updates keep getting progressively worse until the game is dead, this game was very enjoyable when it came out and lots of people played. Now that there's been multiple controversial updates (including this one), they're only driving away the people who keep the game alive. It seems as if the EA team ignores the community's complaints about many of the game's bugs and add something like this that nobody enjoys. This update kills all motivation to play in the tournaments and it's getting to the point where I'm highly considering switching to 2K. If future updates are similar to this one, I don't think the game will last much longer. 

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@realLionTrees wrote:

Ok, I like the idea of the grids becoming smaller with upgrades, although I don't think this update was the best approach in doing so. I don't think at the current max level of 60 there are enough skill points to take advantage of this feature, meaning I will have to redo my player's skill points to gear more toward one of the more expensive upgrades in the game.

My main driver here is this: The grids only matter in Tour difficulty, so why would I change my skill points to accommodate one game mode? Arcade and Pro have the putt lines already so the grid is useless, and sim's grid doesn't have beads so upgrading putting would be worthless. I know I would be changing my skill points solely for Tour tournaments and changing them right back for the others if this change isn't balanced or reverted.

Just an idea from an everyday player: Why not introduce putter club specs? This would be a great way to implement changing the grid size without causing me to redo my skill points every tournament depending on what mode I'm playing. There are some great putters on tour like Max Homa or Patrick Cantly who could have legendary specs that decrease the grid size, thicken the white line error margin to make it easier to roll perfect-perfect, etc. 

I'm fairly certain everyone playing this game got Texas wedge and stopped upgrading the putting, if even that, before this update for the reason that it's just not worth it. I understand this is most likely the reason for this change, but at least make the upgrade more worth it. The value is terrible for how many skill points it takes to upgrade. Either increase the max player level again, decrease the cost of putting upgrades, or add more benefits to upgrading like increasing the error margin for perfect-perfect.

I understand the other changes to the game, Finesse was extremely overpowered so I get why there was a nerf, making the shot arcs reveal less as the difficulty moves up also I get it. But why change putting this much when other things need to be fixed first? EA should focus more on bugs first before entirely fixing something that wasn't broken to begin with. I still have putts that roll directly over the cup or putts that lip out and sit on "Other" when 99% of the ball is over top of the hole.

This is going to be a long season, I saw someone mention the game was more enjoyable before the update and I'm going to have to agree. Overall downgrade.

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I personally like the change to putting and think overall it’s a good change.  That said you make potentially solid points about this mostly impacting tour.  Personally I think the putt preview should be removed on Pro (but leave the distance assist.). I’d also put beads back on sim (but that’s just cause I can’t putt without them …)

Totally agree with OP on this 1, it costs WAY too many skill points to upgrade Putting

The only thing i disagree with is it solely impacting tour mode

Sometimes on Pro difficulty I completely ignore the putt line as some of the putt reads sometimes make zero sense. sometimes the putt read even misses the hole entirely 

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@agentputt wrote:

Sometimes on Pro difficulty I completely ignore the putt line as some of the putt reads sometimes make zero sense. sometimes the putt read even misses the hole entirely 

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One of the first thing I disabled a long time ago, it's just confusing.  And I can easily believe why some think greens are broken on some courses if they're using this putting line non-sense.

Valid point, putt lines are often wrong and lead you to a miss high or low, especially on some of the worse greens in this game like Evian. I would say that's just another thing in this game that is broken but ignored. EA should be focused on fixing things like this before making oddball changes like what they did with the putting grid.

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@Katybee_1313 wrote:

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@agentputt wrote:

Sometimes on Pro difficulty I completely ignore the putt line as some of the putt reads sometimes make zero sense. sometimes the putt read even misses the hole entirely 

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One of the first thing I disabled a long time ago, it's just confusing.  And I can easily believe why some think greens are broken on some courses if they're using this putting line non-sense.

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I don't know this for a fact but I have always felt that the putt line was your caddie reading the line for you.

That as a player you used it as a guide rather than the defacto perfect line. And that as you added skill points, you got better reads.

As for me I never used it.

As for broken greens, I have never had issues with any of the courses. But then I don't use green grids. But has anyone considered the reason people think there is a problem is because the grids are not small enough to show double breaks within the grid?

The original grids I believe are 2 foot squares... it would not surprise me for the ball to break differently over that distance.

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@agentputt wrote:

Totally agree with OP on this 1, it costs WAY too many skill points to upgrade Putting

The only thing i disagree with is it solely impacting tour mode

Sometimes on Pro difficulty I completely ignore the putt line as some of the putt reads sometimes make zero sense. sometimes the putt read even misses the hole entirely 

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This is because this was the most popular game mode by far.   SO if they are trying to kill the game,  the quickest and easiest way to do it,  is to drive off all the tour players.  Then they would have the ecuse they need to stop development and take their cash grab money and fund their other project like they planned from the beginning.

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@Katybee_1313 wrote:

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@agentputt wrote:

Sometimes on Pro difficulty I completely ignore the putt line as some of the putt reads sometimes make zero sense. sometimes the putt read even misses the hole entirely 

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One of the first thing I disabled a long time ago, it's just confusing.  And I can easily believe why some think greens are broken on some courses if they're using this putting line non-sense.

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totally agree.