Course editor
I will be ordering EA Sports PGA Tour, coming from the 2K games and TGC as an experienced player, more than 1200+ hours on those. The reason for these crazy number of hours is thanks to the course editor. It is of huge importance to any golf sim.
It is 99% of the single player experience of the game for me. Multiplayer side, of course this is the main thing - but course creation I can do anytime, any day and get the huge satisfaction of presenting the course to the world, to friends in a private match and to YouTube subscribers Something I have spent weeks making, I get a huge sense of pride when it is done and playable. Over time you can learn the tools and make very realistic courses, even import LiDAR data into the 2K games.
I know why EA are not going to offer course designer at launch. I am sure aside from wanting to sell their own additional DLC courses later, EA have licensed copyrighted assets, painstakingly created the real courses in incredible detail and I understand the need to protect that key selling point of the game. I am massively looking forward to playing them. But fact is, golf is a multi-player sport both in virtual and real world, and not really the same thrill as a single player experience. So the course editor is essential to keep me coming back outside of multiplayer matches and societies, and far preferable to me vs a career mode. It also generates a ton of content for social media, and keeps the game fresh.
So if you're listening EA here's how I think you should consider a course creator going forward:
- As a separate package, priced at least $30-50 available for PC and console, with user interface designed for mouse & keyboard, not just for joypad users
- With a course store for paid DLC. EA gets 30%, creator gets 70%. Courses can be downloaded for $5-10 from the store and imported into the game. This way, everybody wins. EA get a nice extra revenue stream. Creators get rewarded for their work. Players get new content, that's cheaper and more regular than the official DLC content from EA which I am sure is coming like extra real courses and merch. The user generated courses would be a great way to get people to notice EA's own DLC on this store too. The store could be patched into the existing main game.
- I understand and appreciate how licensing Augusta national assets, then putting them in an editor for people to make other courses with is probably a big "no". So I am fine with generic assets like the 2K games. As long as they're realistic and you can create beautiful realistic course designs with these, nobody is going to try and "rip off" or copy an official course when the EA ones are so perfect anyway.
- Have very good landscaping tools. Landscaping is key to a great course. Very fine brushes, fine gradations, lots of different cuts of grass and rough, splines, and more than just one way point for long par 5 holes and dog legs would be great. Plus an auto-generate feature, for new players who would find creating a course completely from a blank piece of land too daunting.
- Dynamic weather would be icing on the cake. Starting a round in the sun, ominous clouds roll in on back 9, ends with wind at 20mph and some rain, greens getting slower, all adds to the challenge and mixes up the gameplay variety over one round
- Encourage online course community and creators, it will generate so much attention for the game on YouTube, Twitch, etc.
All in all I think EA has a huge opportunity with this game to dominate, but until it gets a course editor I will never entirely ditch 2K.
I would be happy to throw my own money at this software if it were provided, as long as it was comprehensive. I don't expect such a big feature for free in a patch later.
Make it happen EA!! Let's find the next Alistair McKenzie, Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus, the great course architects of tomorrow deserve the tools to show the world what they're capable of.
