COVID Courses

[Still Linksing]

I go into "Practice" mode at the course I'm going to use, with all pins displayed (checkbox), and select the best 4 pin positions (front-back-left-right and middle green) with a mix of difficulty on each green

Those couple of lines of text are the best 2 lines of text I think I've read here in 15 years!
OMFG! I never knew you could display all the pins at one time!

I've seen screenshots posted many times showing all the pins as you did in your post Pete but never paid much attention. I always thought they were APCD screenshots and not from the game so was not aware it could be done. After reading those 2 lines of text and the checkbox part, then actually looking at the screenshot carefully, I went racing and searching into Links. I found how you display them all. HUGE thanks Pete!

Can't believe there was still something to learn! Ok, I'll be using this method to select pins in the future. Can't believe how much screwing around I did to find good pins for 18 years or so.

Adelade, I didn't have time to carefully read all your methods for pin placements. If you were referring to this as well I missed it. I was going to come back and carefully read your posts to fully be clear on everything you said before I made any further comments in this thread.

[Stephen Sullivan]

Like Pete, I've done a lot of tournament setting over the years. My default setting for practice mode has always been to have all pins showing. It's one of the first things I do when I reinstall and update Links.

[Still Linksing]

Like Pete, I've done a lot of tournament setting over the years. My default setting for practice mode has always been to have all pins showing. It's one of the first things I do when I reinstall and update Links.

Yeah, you can add me to that club now!
I'm just trying to work out what is funnier, I had a ridiculous screw up at work just before the weekend and now this.

[Adelade]

Well now I feel silly for not having realized you were missing out on that feature earlier in our talks. I always just assumed you didnt care to hand-pick pins (which imo is 100% understandable, it does take a bunch of time to manually select pins even with having that option). Yes I use a method pretty much exactly like Pete's as well for the pins I personally use. I've been meaning to share my collection of custom pins in public at some point, but I still want to refine/improve/increase them before posting anything. Besides I rarely use the same course 4 tournaments in a row so they wouldnt be of that much use to others anyway.

I think we all will always keep learning new things about Links, at least I do. For example I remember not believing it when I realized last year that you can move the ball around on tees to get better angles around trees... and just yesterday I learned something small about being able to turn off objects in the top cam. Excited for you to experience a world of better pins! Handpicking pins may be a bunch of work, but it really is the way to go imo if one likes using fast green speeds. Btw, I highly recommend using a player that has the Break Line Indicator activated when selecting pins, the yellow indicator on the aiming marker makes it quite convenient to quickly judge how severe slopes are around pins.

I am sure everyone is aware that for the Easy, Normal and Hard pins to work correctly in Links, there need to be 6 of each level set as (in APCD) 1-6 Easy, 7-12 Normal and 13-18 Hard.

I knew about 6 per level (it may have been you who told me), but I didnt know that they had to be in that specific order. Do you happen to know more details about what doesnt work correctly? I wanted to figure this out since its relevant to a couple courses currently in design progress that Im involved in when it comes to pins. I tested briefly on 2 courses, one of which having 6 per difficulty level per hole, but not in that particular order (Bull Run HD) and another that Im working on which doesnt even have 18 pins on each holes. It seemed like in practice mode and normal round mode, selecting "Easy Pin Positions" and "Difficult Pin Positions" in conditions worked as it should. It selected correct types of pins for both courses. I remember 1.5 year ago when I played Career Mode (before I started hand-picking pins), I noticed pin positions seemed to remain the same in all 4 tournament days. Perhaps this is something that only happens with courses not having the standard setup of pins? But I tried 2 different New Rounds on the 2 courses I tested with, and pins changed to random other pins within the same difficulty category as they should. Perhaps it is a Career-Mode-only issue?

[Stephen Sullivan]

I think what doesn't work correctly is just using the difficulty level to set the pins level of difficulty. Someone else may step in and either confirm or give more details.