Super Video Golf News

Hello folks!

As is traditional with the larger updates I like to follow up with any feedback from the community and just buff off any rough edges that make have eeked their through - and with 1.16 scarcely out of the rear view mirror, this update aims to do just that.

There were, fortunately, only a couple of small crash bugs, related to randomising player profiles. These have now been fixed, as well as a few new quality of life improvements having been thrown into the mix.

Updated Controls
Firstly I've revived and revamped the analogue swing controls (the "Swingput") so for those who prefer it over the traditional 3-click method you can now enable it from the Options menu. Briefly; once Swingput is enabled, during the game press and hold either one of the controller triggers, so that the swing meter appears in the bottom right hand corner of the UI. With it held (letting go will cancel the shot) pull back on one of the thumbsticks and hold it as the power bar charges at the bottom of the screen. When you have enough power push forward on the stick to take your shot! Timing of the the stroke is all important, as is direction, both of which will affect the accuracy of the outcome. If this sounds like your thing then make sure to head on over to the Driving Range to practice! 😁



UI Improvements
While we're on the course, I've added the option to be able to zoom into to the mini map which is displayed in the top right corner of the screen. Press F6 or press and hold L3 (left thumbstick button) to toggle the zoom. Hopefully this helps when playing on smaller screens or laptops.



Some users were reporting that the main menus were confusing, and that not all the buttons were obvious, or for which reason they were there. I've attempted to rectify this a bit by colouring all the buttons a consistent blue colour so that it's more obvious that they do something. In the Profile Editor buttons now also offer an explanation as to what they do at the bottom right of the menu.




Here's the full list of changes:

• Updated Free Play lobby to make it more obvious that it’s possible to change courses
  
• Updated Swingput method
  
• Added option to allow toggling Swingput from control options
  
• Added reading input from secondary controllers when one local player exists
  
• Added switching profiles in Free Play mode with keybinds for previous and next club
  
• Added switching courses in Free Play lobby with keybinds for previous and next club
  
• Added hints for buttons in Profile Editor
  
• Added zooming minimap by press-hold left stick/F6
  
• Fixed possible crash when randomising player avatars
  
• Fixed possible crash when creating new profiles
  

As always, if you have any comments, suggestions or have found a bug, don't hesitate to drop a note on the discussions page, or join the group chat and let me know. Thanks!


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Finally...
Thanks to everyone who has joined the community and offered feedback on the release - you help make the game what it is! There has been a particular influx of new players recently, thanks to news posts over at PC Gamer and GamingOnLinux spreading the word on Super Video Golf. Thank you to all involved with that, and a big Welcome to all our new players. If you are new do make sure to check out the community chat, or even Super Video Sunday, a weekly gathering for online matches - everyone is welcome 😁

That's it for this update, I'll see you in the next one...
Happy Golfing! ⛳🏌️‍♀️

It recently occurred to me: I've got a Steam Deck, I've got a comfy couch… why the heck aren't I playing golf? I couldn't find a whole lot of Deck-friendly golf games that didn't require an emulator or weren't some sort of golf variation like What the Golf?, but I eventually stumbled upon Super Video Golf. It's chill but still challenging, and perfect for the Steam Deck with undemanding low-fi '90s looks and support for 8 players in local or online PvP...
Read more.

Hello golf fans!

I'm happy to say that the new Super Video Golf update is available - bringing with it the anticipated Career Mode! That's not all it brings however and, while I've outlined some of the other new features in a previous post, I'll be covering those in detail further down. But first:

Career Mode



So how does it work? Career mode builds on the existing league system, introduced in 1.14. Currently the 'Club League', as it is known, takes your scores from a free play round, converts them using the Stableford scoring system and uses the results to calculate your league standing.

Other players in the league are purely 'hypothetical' - that is they are created from a set of pseudo random stats, generated at the beginning of the season, which are then used to generate a fantasy football style league. A league lasts one season, the length of which depends on which league you are currently playing. The Club League, for example, lasts 24 rounds. The goal is to finish as high as possible in the league after completing the final round.

Career mode, then, builds on this league system, creating a progression across 6 leagues, each of which have a season lasting for 6 rounds. These rounds are split across all 12 courses available in Super Video Golf - with two rounds on the front 9, two rounds on the back 9 and two rounds of 18 holes, played over two different courses per league. If that's a bit wordy, here's a full breakdown of all 6 leagues:

• The Country Club Tour
  - Front 9 Sunny Cove
  - Front 9 Westington Links
  - Back 9 Sunny Cove
  - Back 9 Westington Links
  - All 18 Sunny Cove
  - All 18 Westington Links
  
  
• The Badlands Cup
  - Front 9 Fairland Rock
  - Front 9 Terdiman Cliffs
  - Back 9 Fairland Rock
  - Back 9 Terdiman Cliffs
  - All 18 Fairland Rock
  - All 18 Terdiman Cliffs
  
  
• Links Challenge
  - Front 9 Moulin Plage
  - Front 9 Roving Sands
  - Back 9 Moulin Plage
  - Back 9 Roving Sands
  - All 18 Moulin Plage
  - All 18 Roving Sands
  
  
• Hill and Hole Valley Run
  - Front 9 Nguyen Valley
  - Front 9 Grove Bank
  - Back 9 Nguyen Valley
  - Back 9 Grove Bank
  - All 18 Nguyen Valley
  - All 18 Grove Bank
  
  
• Chippers Pitch 'n' Putt
  - Front 9 Old Stemmer's Lane
  - Front 9 Purcitop Pitch 'n' Putt
  - Back 9 Old Stemmer's Lane
  - Back 9 Purcitop Pitch 'n' Putt
  - All 18 Old Stemmer's Lane
  - All 18 Purcitop Pitch 'n' Putt
  
  
• The Woodland League
  - Front 9 Dackel's Run
  - Front 9 Hertog Regis
  - Back 9 Dackel's Run
  - Back 9 Hertog Regis
  - All 18 Dackel's Run
  - All 18 Hertog Regis
  

To start with only the first league is unlocked. You must play the entire season and finish in the top 3 to progress to the next league. Finishing a league also rewards you with unlocked cosmetics - a new ball for 3rd place or better, a new piece of headwear for 2nd place or better, and finishing first will unlock a new player avatar. All of these items, once unlocked, will also be available in free play, including online matches - so you can wear your new cosmetics as a badge of honour! 😅

And if you don't finish with gold first time? Don't worry! You can go back and play any league that's been unlocked again at any time. You can even have multiple leagues in progress because...

Save Games
A much asked for feature, save games are now available in Career Mode. They *haven't* yet made it into free play mode, however while working your way through the career you can drop out of a round at any time. Resuming the league will continue from the last hole you were playing on the currently active course. And it'll also even remember the weather!

This makes it much easier to play, particularly when golfing on-the-go with the Steam Deck, an experience which has also been enhanced with offline progression stats. Previously, not having an internet connection would prevent your profile XP increasing (which, admittedly, was an oversight on my part 😳) - but now you can continue your career wherever you go, all progression is saved! Only leaderboards are unavailable offline, and that's because it's a technical limitation of Steam.

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So what else is new?
While working on the new menus for the Career mode, I've taken the opportunity to improve the profile editor, specifically when browsing for cosmetics. Previously all installed balls (either the default, unlocked, or installed from the Workshop) were clumped in to one very large fly-out menu - which often didn't even fit on screen.

I've completely overhauled this so that balls are now collected into a series of pages, and organised by where they originate - eg are they custom balls, or ones included in the game. I've also extended this to the headwear items, which can now be browsed in the same way.



Items also now have labels which can be associated with them, so I've updated the workshop tools to reflect this. When authoring a new item (or updating an existing one) just make sure to fill out the 'label' field in the editor. (A special thanks to creators Beetroot Bertie and VEKTA who've already updated their items!)



Also in the menus it now possible to open the stats for all the golf clubs directly from the status window, both in Career and Free Play modes. I've removed the slightly precarious Profile Reset button from the main menu, and placed it in the Options menu, next to a new option to reset the current career progress.



On top of this there are the previously mentioned new features: adjustable crowd sizes, new avatar materials, changeable ball colours and the Global League. You can read all about those here.




Here is the full change list since 1.15:

• Updated non-system preferences are now stored per Steam user and cloud sync’d
  
• Updated avatar materials now have reflection and self illumination properties
  
• Updated workshop tools can now author new avatar materials
  
• Updated workshop tools now allow adding item labels
  
• Updated workshop tools now allow setting preview rotation for balls
  
• Updated leaderboards are now sub-sorted by date so newer scores rank higher
  
• Updated league browser now includes new league tables
  
• Updated camera drone position is now dictated by host in multiplayer games
  
• Updated player profile editor with new browsers for ball and hair models
  
• Moved Profile Reset button to Stats page of Options menu
  
• Added Career Reset button to Stats page of Options menu
  
• Added option to adjust crowd density
  
• Added a global league based on monthly course scores
  
• Added option to set custom ball colours in profile editor
  
• Added ability to choose active club set from roster menu
  
• Added ability to open stats menu from roster menu
  
• Added Career Mode
  
• Added new set of unlockable balls
  
• Added new set of unlockable headwear
  
• Added new set of unlockable avatars
  
• XP Rewards have been buffed
  
• Fixed hair colour when playing in night mode
  
• Fixed rotation of ball models in preview window
  
• Fixed deleted profiles are properly removed from cloud sync
  
• Fixed Greens in Regulation being triggered if the player forfeits all holes in a round
  
• Fixed progression related stats in offline mode (steam deck now progresses when there’s no internet connection)
  
• Fixed avg monthly rank not including new courses from 1.15
  
• New Achievement: Semi-retired
  
• New Achievement: All Time Champion
  
• New Achievement: Vandal
  

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That's it for this update! Thanks as always to the wonderful community, especially to those who have helped test the public beta, and everyone who plays on Super Video Sundays. Don't forget that if you want to get involved by leaving feedback or join in on a Sunday game, you can always join the group chat here, and join the Super Video Clubhouse where community members come together to play online. And, of course, you can always post on the discussions board.

For now, however, happy golfing! 🏌️‍♀️⛳🏌️‍♂️

Every calendar month a new challenge runs, starting and ending at midnight UTC.

This month's challenge is to play a full 18 (or 12 in Short Round) holes in each game mode in Free Play. You can play solo, online or against CPU - are you up for it?

Rounds can be played at any time throughout the month, and completing the challenge awards 1000XP! Track your progress from the menu in the Clubhouse on the 19th hole, and look out for the notification in the top right corner of the screen.


And, don't forget, new monthly leaderboards are now live too! 😁

Happy golfing! ⛳

Every calendar month a new challenge runs, starting and ending at midnight UTC.

You may have noticed random bull's-eye targets, normally reserved for Multi-Target mode, popping up on your course recently, and not known why! These targets are this months challenge 😁 During Stroke play, either solo, online or against CPU opponents, up to 2 targets will appear on the course in a single round. Hit the target with your ball and scratch one off for this month's challenge! You'll need to hit 25 targets to complete it.



Rounds can be played at any time throughout the month, and completing the challenge awards 500XP! Track your progress from the menu in the Clubhouse on the 19th hole, and look out for the notification in the top right corner of the screen.

And, don't forget, new monthly leaderboards are now live too! 😁

Happy golfing! ⛳