Greetings golfers! Welcome to another update.
As mentioned in the progress update at the beginning of the month this update is centred on player profiles and avatar customisation.
Avatar customisation has now been reorganised, so that it is possible to create up to 64 unique profiles, from which up to 8 can be added to the game's roster. Each profile allows for its own model, head wear, ball and set of colours (from an increased colour palette) and can even have a custom mugshot image added to it.
Mugshot images are client-side only (they are not replicated in network games) which allow you to choose a custom image to display above your ball when putting or on the round summary screen. Typically this would be an image representing your avatar, however you can add any image you like. There is a modding guide available here, which explains how to add your own custom images.
However this is not all the update brings, as many quality of life improvements have been added. Graphical enhancements include updated ball trail rendering, and a coarse terrain grid on the green on approach.
The stroke indicator on the mini-map has been refined, and now reflects changes in distance caused by the current spin settings and terrain. For example it will display a shortened distance when playing from a sand trap or the rough.
Putting Assist has been re-balanced so that playing without it is a greater challenge and awards more XP, however with it enabled there is now also a stroke indicator on the mini-green map.
The menus and UI have been given some attention too. Under the hood improvements have been made to increase performance of the menus, as well as new information such as course stats and leaderboards are visible, both in the lobby and on the driving range.
And, when playing golf, it is now possible to skip the current turn to the end, if you are a local player to the client.
The full change list:
- Vertex snapping is applied to 3D clouds
- Vertex snapping is applied to flag model
- Reverted minimap background to transparent
- Minimap stroke indicator now adjusts distance for current terrain and spin setting
- Minimap now rescales to fit the active club on approach
- Putting mini-view now has its own stroke indicator when putt assist is enabled
- Mini-flag when putting is now only shown when putt assist is enabled.
- Green topology is highlighted on approach
- XP message now includes reason for award
- Updated ball trail rendering
- Side spin now reduces distance
- Added option for local player to skip forward when ball is in flight
- Added workshop template files to assets directory
- Added audio to on-screen keyboard
- Added streak logging for playing multiple days in a row, with XP rewards
- Player roster is shuffled when round starts
- Player roster now allows up to 8 local players
- Overhauled player avatar customisation with improved menus and increased colour palette
- Player profiles can have custom avatar images
- Player avatar images are shown above name labels when putting
- Added two new player avatar models
- Fixed full house achievement not being awarded
- Fixed billiards games not launching
- Fixed edge case where skins/match play scores could display trophies in the incorrect order
- Fixed returning to lobby menu if quitting to main menu with rules tab open
- Selected course stats are displayed on lobby window if they are available
- Improved state caching for more responsive user interface
- Driving range top five players are now displayed on the menu.
- Console window can now be closed with back or B button on controller
- New Achievement - Dedicated
- New Achievement - Resident Golfer
- New Achievement - Month of Sundays
- New Achievement - Spin Class
- New Achievement - The Road To Success Is Always Under Construction
- New Achievement - Make No Mistake
- New Achievement - Never Gonna Give You Up
- New Achievement - Greens In Regulation
- New Achievement - Three’s A Crowd
- New Achievement - Consistency Is Key
- New Achievement for completing each course
- New Achievement for completing each course with par or better
Thank you as always to everyone who reached out with suggestions and feedback, particularly yourjaguarlover whose thorough testing of the beta and many suggestions helped make it what it is.
In other news we've also had some new Workshop submissions, which is great to see. You can check out and subscribe to those items here.
Looking to the next update the current plan is to expand on both the new profile system with more detailed stats and local leaderboards, as well as increase the number of gameplay modes and challenges. This is likely to be a significant amount of work so there is no estimation of how it will take... but you can always check back on the community pages at the beginning of every month for a progress update or join the Steam chat for Super Video Golf.
With the success of the public beta, it is likely that I will keep it available too.
For now though, I hope you enjoy this update - See you soon!