Proposed New Online Play Guidelines for the Optishot Online Tour - final draft

[JohnMeyer]

Tournament guidelines are something separate thi this I would say

These guidelines a purely for players to adhere to

I would say how tournaments are configured and all weather and courses settings are purely decisions made by the board, obviously taking the experiences and views of players into consideration

For what it's worth I always set light rough to easy, rough and bunkers to moderate when I play offline as feel need to be punished for missing a fairway/ hitting a bunker.

[Mike80]

Yeah, I agree. The wind is definitely an issue. Not only putting, but it really really changes distance, and I mean not accurately. 6 MPH wind behind you increases your distance too much.

I think we need to discuss tournament conditions and the settings we should or should not have.

Tournament Condition Rules:

(a). I don't think we need to drastically change the conditions each round. So what I mean is, shouldn't be changing Light Rough, Rough and Bunkers conditions each round. Those should remain the same throughout the tournament being more realistic. (Doesn't make sense to have Moderate bunkers and next round Easy bunkers....same with rough).

(b.). 2 Round Tournaments: Green speeds should never skip a Speed setting. So a 2 round tournament could be:
- Medium-Slow and Medium
- Medium and Medium Fast

(b.). 4 Round Tournaments: Green speeds should never skip a Speed setting. So a 4 round tournament could be all the same speeds or increase in speed each round.


I recommend the following:

Greens: I would like to only see Medium-Slow, Medium, Medium-Fast. Never use SLOW or FAST.
(Reason: Slow is not fun to play. Fast is faster than pro courses as we discussed before where they are 13 on stimpmeter)

Light Rough: Always set on Easy
(Reason: To me this wouldn't effect my real distances in real life. Light rough is easy to hit out of. It's that thick rough that really effects your shot)

Rough: Always set on Moderate, and maybe Demanding during majors or every now and then. But Moderate most of the time)
(Reason: This should never be set to easy. Rough should effect your distance)

Bunkers: Always set on Moderate, and maybe Demanding during majors or every now and then. But Moderate most of the time)
(Reason: This should never be set to easy. Bunkers should effect your distance)

Wind: Only be set to Gentle Breeze and below. Never Moderate or above due to how it effects putting.
(Reason: The higher winds negatively impact putting to an unrealistic roll)

Conditions: Never use Fog due to the glitch in Optishot with metric settings. Use all other conditions.

Putting: Always putt out.

Does everyone agree/disagree or have changes they would like to see?

I think if we get a little more consistent with these settings it will also help all of us score closer together instead of people having to practice and know what the difference of hitting rough on Easy vs. hitting rough on Moderate in between each round. Really that course should be playing about the same.

[JohnMeyer]

Yeah, I agree. The wind is definitely an issue. Not only putting, but it really really changes distance, and I mean not accurately. 6 MPH wind behind you increases your distance too much.

I think we need to discuss tournament conditions and the settings we should or should not have.

Tournament Condition Rules:

(a). I don't think we need to drastically change the conditions each round. So what I mean is, shouldn't be changing Light Rough, Rough and Bunkers conditions each round. Those should remain the same throughout the tournament being more realistic. (Doesn't make sense to have Moderate bunkers and next round Easy bunkers....same with rough).

(b.). 2 Round Tournaments: Green speeds should never skip a Speed setting. So a 2 round tournament could be:
- Medium-Slow and Medium
- Medium and Medium Fast

(b.). 4 Round Tournaments: Green speeds should never skip a Speed setting. So a 4 round tournament could be all the same speeds or increase in speed each round.


I recommend the following:

Greens: I would like to only see Medium-Slow, Medium, Medium-Fast. Never use SLOW or FAST.
(Reason: Slow is not fun to play. Fast is faster than pro courses as we discussed before where they are 13 on stimpmeter)

Light Rough: Always set on Easy
(Reason: To me this wouldn't effect my real distances in real life. Light rough is easy to hit out of. It's that thick rough that really effects your shot)

Rough: Always set on Moderate, and maybe Demanding during majors or every now and then. But Moderate most of the time)
(Reason: This should never be set to easy. Rough should effect your distance)

Bunkers: Always set on Moderate, and maybe Demanding during majors or every now and then. But Moderate most of the time)
(Reason: This should never be set to easy. Bunkers should effect your distance)

Wind: Only be set to Gentle Breeze and below. Never Moderate or above due to how it effects putting.
(Reason: The higher winds negatively impact putting to an unrealistic roll)

Conditions: Never use Fog due to the glitch in Optishot with metric settings. Use all other conditions.

Putting: Always putt out.

Does everyone agree/disagree or have changes they would like to see?

I think if we get a little more consistent with these settings it will also help all of us score closer together instead of people having to practice and know what the difference of hitting rough on Easy vs. hitting rough on Moderate in between each round. Really that course should be playing about the same.

I completely agree with everything in this post. Is how I set my rounds offline as I think its the most realistic i could get it.

[Buckeye]

Great post Mike80.

Perhaps instead of a completely different thread that could be post #2 in the guidelines? Personally I would like to keep all of the "rules" together for easy reference.

[Maxxx]

Yeah, I agree. The wind is definitely an issue. Not only putting, but it really really changes distance, and I mean not accurately. 6 MPH wind behind you increases your distance too much.

I think we need to discuss tournament conditions and the settings we should or should not have.

Tournament Condition Rules:

(a). I don't think we need to drastically change the conditions each round. So what I mean is, shouldn't be changing Light Rough, Rough and Bunkers conditions each round. Those should remain the same throughout the tournament being more realistic. (Doesn't make sense to have Moderate bunkers and next round Easy bunkers....same with rough).

(b.). 2 Round Tournaments: Green speeds should never skip a Speed setting. So a 2 round tournament could be:
- Medium-Slow and Medium
- Medium and Medium Fast

(b.). 4 Round Tournaments: Green speeds should never skip a Speed setting. So a 4 round tournament could be all the same speeds or increase in speed each round.


I recommend the following:

Greens: I would like to only see Medium-Slow, Medium, Medium-Fast. Never use SLOW or FAST.
(Reason: Slow is not fun to play. Fast is faster than pro courses as we discussed before where they are 13 on stimpmeter)

Light Rough: Always set on Easy
(Reason: To me this wouldn't effect my real distances in real life. Light rough is easy to hit out of. It's that thick rough that really effects your shot)

Rough: Always set on Moderate, and maybe Demanding during majors or every now and then. But Moderate most of the time)
(Reason: This should never be set to easy. Rough should effect your distance)

Bunkers: Always set on Moderate, and maybe Demanding during majors or every now and then. But Moderate most of the time)
(Reason: This should never be set to easy. Bunkers should effect your distance)

Wind: Only be set to Gentle Breeze and below. Never Moderate or above due to how it effects putting.
(Reason: The higher winds negatively impact putting to an unrealistic roll)

Conditions: Never use Fog due to the glitch in Optishot with metric settings. Use all other conditions.

Putting: Always putt out.

Does everyone agree/disagree or have changes they would like to see?

I think if we get a little more consistent with these settings it will also help all of us score closer together instead of people having to practice and know what the difference of hitting rough on Easy vs. hitting rough on Moderate in between each round. Really that course should be playing about the same.

Until DD fixes their wind problem I agree with evrything you wrote Mike. For a tournament the conditions should be somewhat close regarding rough, light rough and bunkers. Mixing up the tee boxes is also a way to change the course.
Good stuff 👍

[Buckeye]

Has the handicap discussion fizzled out? I know there was some talk of using negative handicaps but not entirely sure what the outcome was.

[Vincent_Vega]

Has the handicap discussion fizzled out? I know there was some talk of using negative handicaps but not entirely sure what the outcome was.

Cat said we would likely implement that for the start of the 2nd half of the season. I'm fine with negative handicaps. We should have enough data to go off of at this point.

[Buckeye]

I thought that is what was said, but I did not see anything definitive.

Do we want to clean up the handicap section in this proposal before we release it? Or leave it as it is and change it in 2 weeks when season 2 begins?

[JohnMeyer]

Just to reduce anyones fears about having to stream i have an upload speed of 0.5 mbps, and i just managed to stream fine. I setup twitch to auto archive videos so thats me sorted and if i can do it any should be able to.

Ill do a guide late with what settings i used, but basically just downscaled resolution and did some other changes, but quality isnt too bad and can see all the info youd need to see

if some could have a look itd be good just to see whether you think its ok http://www.twitch.tv/johnmeyeropti

Obviously not live at the moment but just check past broadcasts, Its the 3minute 57 one, the longer one was just me checking the link worked, so just a still screen

The 3.57 is the first hole at Gleneagles and then me showing settings

[Buckeye]

Looks good John!

[JohnMeyer]

RE Handicap settings hopefully this can be implemented as of Season 2 as really wanna see a tournament when someone wins it at level par

[JohnMeyer]

Looks good John!

Downloaded the video from twitch to check the file size, 3min 57sec video, 3.4mb Looks like will be around 1MB/minute as a file size so worst case scenario. for people who cant stream at the settings, the file size for a whole round will be small enough that it should be a relatively small upload to youtube, although I would be amazed if anyone couldnt stream live at these settings. I had an upload transfer speed of between 51 and 103 kbps and had dropped frames and didnt even realise the streaming was running.

Ill publish a thread later which ties up the settings from Zmax's settings thread for normal use and also my settings for low upload speeds. Should be no excuse to not have everyone stream every round from now on really

Ill amend these guidelines with the thread link etc once ive written it

[CatMan]

John let me know when the Proposed Final Draft is complete and I will have board review it..

Thanks CatMan

[Buckeye]

I think this is the proposed final draft, at least that is what the thread title is.

At this stage we are trying to figure out what to do with the handicap situation. Can you provide your thoughts here?

[JohnMeyer]

Yeah only thing need clarification on is Handicap System to be used. If Negative Handicaps to be allowed I just need to remove the section on the manual increases

I also just need to create a New thread on how to Setup Live Streaming, using a combination of Zmax's thread and my new guide on how to stream/ record with limited resources/upload speed, and then just reference that thread as the link in the guideline. (would also like it stickying eventually)

Once we have decision on Handicaps, which I think as your the man who does them think some major input can come from you, and the thread on video is done then we're there

I think the general consensus is just to move to negative handicaps, if nothing else just to get the tournament leaderboards not looking so crazy. Makes our Tour look like a computer game, which goes against all the work weve done to make it not one.

You dont need to set handicap limits on here if your not sure on that, as I should imagine that may well be a fluid thing depending on how it goes, so I will just link the handicap thread onto these guidelines so any limit discussions and changes can be made there if thats easier.

Be great to get this thread put to bed and hopefully approved by the Board ASAP