Golf Sim Clubhouse Forum

Six months ago I created a new ME specifically to monitor my progress through various courses I liked, but was previously unable to complete. At that time I created 3 Ani- buddies, Bob, Larry and Glen (my real life buddies) and over several games tweaked them so that they were competative with me ( playing Standard).
Strangely the best of my ani-buddies is Glen (who was supposed to be the worst).Now I adjust the rosters so I get to play with him, because he can't hit the ball in the air. No, really, it's absolutely mesmerizing. He hits it so low that it bounces numerous times and in most (but not all) cases skips the ball across water. His drives are a line drive for about 150 yds and then they bounce for another 110 yds, but from the 5 iron on up it doesn't appear that his shots ever get in the air (much like what I first experienced with chips around the green - at the Standard level. In response to this anomolie I customized my stance to very open and selected "Flop" to get what I would call a normal LW chip).
I wouldn't even bring this up, as I know there are a number of idiosincrasies within the game (I still sometimes forget, on custom courses , when I hit it in the rough, to check which way I'm facing - usually sideways or backwards, but not always).
Any way, I guess I'm asking, did any of the regulars experience anything like this (line driving skipping anis) back when you stated creating ani-buddies?
Thanks Dave

Hey Dave,

What stats did you give your ani-characters when you made them? The game appears to not handle individual strengths for an AI player very well. For our ATG and decades lists we playtested each golfer for several hundred rounds first and found a few things for the AI golfers:

1. When using them in best-ball Ryder cup or match play - if they play too well or too poorly it can be sometimes corrected by hitting escape before they complete their shot. If they were beating you, they begin to miss putts and hit in the rough - if they were hitting poorly they begin to look normal again. Some type of reset - we were not sure but it only affects AI players that have more than 500 rounds under their belt.

2. Every golfer, AI or human tends to get a playing style established after 10 rounds of golf played. Hence all of our AI supplied lists have the players playing at least 10 rounds before posting them for general use.

3. The AI putting is horribly inaccurate. It is at least .15 putts per hole off and more if the player's driving ability is under 270 yards. So if you want the ani-player to average 1.8 putts per round then you should give him a 1.65 putting average at least.

4. Birdie average and scoring average are used by the AI to determine performance for a round. Scrambling percentage, sand save percentage, driving distance, driving accuracy and GIR are used by the AI to determine performance for a hole. Putts per hole are used by the AI to determine performance on the green after the other factors have been determined.

5. The ani-characters have a very low percentage of chip ins and hole in ones - holed shots. It would appear from this that the AI judges overall round score as more important than hole performance when playing medal style formats.

6. You are much more likely to get a realistic AI if the stat abilities you give your ani-character are close to the average for PGA golfers for the year 2000. The more you depart from this, the more skewed your results will be - unless the departure is a uniform one. So normalized and uniform statistics for an ani-character will work better than giving him incredible ability in one area and average or below in others. The AI does not model individual strengths for a player very well - it does much better when the player is an all-around player. We believe this is due to the computer learning feature of the AI.

7. The ani-characters play worse when parternered with you in a round then when being quick played for a simulated round of golf. If you are playing a tournament and want a realistic final round challenge from the number 2 guy, then play your final round solo and have the ani-characters paired in groups of three if possible. This usually makes for a more exciting run than playing the number 2 guy head to head in the final round.

8. When giving stat ability to an ani-character that is equivalent to a hacker - all bets are off as to hole performane or individual performance. We have been frustrated with the statistical inaccuracy of golfers with scoring averages over 85 - they always seem to score close to their average but their way of doing it seems incredibly unrealistic. The only way to get some type of consistency is to use the side bet feature of the game. Since the AI is designed to beat you, the side bets tend to influence the ani-golfer's shots more. The safe range for an ani-character is from about 75 as a high to 67.5 as a low.

9. The AI is fantastic in match play or in ryder cup play. You will get your best head to head competition in this format. This is where you will see the ani-characters perform in the most realistic fashion. We are still trying to figure out why this is but we believe that in match play formats, the AI judges hole performance as more important than round score. Have not tapped into the code to verify that however.

10. There are no realistic clothing fashions for the ani-characters. We need a mod for that

Hope these observations help. We are really into the season replay format and have been experimenting with a good and competitive list of golfers since 1998. These observations are the results of our efforts. They are not from the company but I believe they hold true. We have never tested a golfer beyond 3,000 rounds of golf. The highest number of rounds for an ani-character that we have observed has been in the 2,700 range for a Nick Faldo golfer. Yeah, I know - Nick Faldo, really?

WOW! Sandwedge that is some very interesting observations. That helps explain In all my years of playing I have still NEVER seen a chip in by an AI player and only 1 hole in one.

Thanks for the info sanwedge, Very interesting stuff. I haven't gone back and looked at the skillset for the Glen Ani. I will do that. What I probably will do is create a Glen2 with balanced attributes and see if he plays more realistically. I want to keep the existing ani available, because he's so much fun to play with.
Cheers, Dave