Welcome once again Golfers, to another update announcement! I'm pleased to say version 1.17 is now live, so let's dive in to what's new New Views First up I've been refining the in-game camera system when playing on the course. Previously it was possible to switch your view to the drone camera when lining up a shot (although this may not have been entirely obvious, see below...) and I've enhanced this feature with the option to also switch to a freecam view.
Now pressing Up on the D-Pad (previously right stick button) or 1 on the keyboard will switch to and from the drone view, and pressing Down on the D-Pad or 2 on the keyboard toggles freecam. Freecam works like an enhanced drone view - where, while in drone view, you can rotate the camera, in freecam you have complete first-person style control over the camera. The freecam view can be completely controlled by either the keyboard and mouse or the active game controller.
Not only is it useful for assessing the terrain when lining up your shot, the freecam can be used as a rudimentary photo mode too. A simple Depth of Field effect is available, which can be combined with the existing Post Process effects (available in the Options menu), and pressing the A/X button on the gamepad (or F5 on the keyboard) will take a screenshot of the view. Steam will also even tag the screenshot with the current course and hole number, so if you decide to share your pictures on Steam everyone can see where you were when the screenshot was taken The above screenshots were both taken using the photo mode on a Steam Deck. Refined Layout I mentioned above that the drone camera switch was previously the right controller stick, though it may have not been all that obvious due to lack of documentation. To that end the control layout has, along with a few other bindings, been refined slightly, to try and make it a little more intuitive. Options such as zooming the minimap are now bound to the right stick button, and the camera rotate keys on the keyboard have been moved to 3&4. I apologise to anyone who finds this a little jarring at first, particularly if you were used to the old layout, however it's all part of a bigger change, which includes fully documenting all the keyboard and controller inputs in the Options menu, as well as a much better key-rebinding layout that's easier to read.
You may also notice that the controller images (based on the currently active controller) are more succinct and hopefully less cluttered. It shouldn't take too long to use the new Options layout to familiarise yourself with the updated controls. The update also adds a much asked-for feature in being able to switch manually to the putter once you reach the fringe of the green. If your ball is with 11m (approx 36yds) of the pin you'll be able to switch to the putter by cycling through your clubset. In testing we've found that this can add an interesting (albeit risky) alternative to trying to make the chip-in.
On the Steam Deck I've fixed the controller type detection so that it correctly displays PS controller icons should you be using a PS3, PS4 or PS5 controller, in line with the desktop version of the game. I've also updated the PS5 controller support on the desktop version to support the haptic triggers - a variety of effects are now enabled in game, so if you have a DualSense controller, give it a try! [hr][/hr] New Game Modes The update also brings not one but three new game modes to freeplay. These game modes are all intended as new ways to have fun with your friends, either in local play or online, however they're fully compatible with CPU players too. First up we have Elimination mode. Each player is assigned between 2 and 4 lives (depending on how many players are in the round - more players mean fewer lives) and scoring par or worse on a hole is penalised by losing a life. On the other hand scoring an eagle will award you one new life. Scoring is as regular Stroke Play, however a round is usually much shorter as players are eliminated and the game ends when only one player remains. This means Elimination is a great casual mode to play with a few friends, and you can expect the game to not last much more than 6 or 7 holes. The second mode, Clubset Shuffle, mixes things up, particularly with CPU players, by randomly rearranging your clubset each hole. Every player has a putter, and then one wedge, iron and wood is selected at random and added to your bag. This can be a real leveler of the field for novice and experienced players alike, as you need to adapt your shot to whichever clubs are available rather than picking whichever you think is best. Hopefully this mode won't be the cause of too many arguments between friends! Scoring is also done as Stroke Play. Finally we have Nearest The Pin. In this mode scores are based on whoever gets their ball closest to the pin as possible without actually holing out. Every player gets only two strokes to get their ball on the green, so don't lose your second stroke by going out of bounds! If you do happen to get your ball in the cup the hole is forfeit, and you get a 10 metre penalty added to your score. Otherwise the final distance between your ball and the pin is added to your score each hole, and the player with the lowest total distance wins. [hr][/hr] Career Updates Since 1.16 was released many of you have offered welcome feedback on the new Career mode via the discussions and Steam Chat and I've been working to act on it. Most notably the in-game scoreboard, when playing a Career round, now shows all of the other league players, along with their current score. Not only does this offer much more interactive feedback as you play the round, it actually revealed a few, uh, wrinkles in the CPU score generation, which have since been ironed out. It's now also possible to rename the players in the league, including your own profile name, by clicking on the player's name in the league browser. Thanks to everyone who suggested this
Along with the ironing of wrinkles I took the opportunity to rebalance the Career slightly. CPU players now alter their behaviour based on your selected clubset, so that entry level players have less resistance when starting out, and more advanced players can increase the challenge as they level up their clubs. The barrier for unlocking the next league has also been lowered to placing in the top 5 of the previous league. You'll still need to place top 3 to gain access to those cosmetics though! Oh, and resetting your Career no longer removes any unlocked items from your inventory - these are now persistent between resets! [hr][/hr] Updated Online Interaction For those of you who play Super Video Golf online I've taken the opportunity to update the text chat interface. Previously the text chat floated in a window on desktop versions, and used the overlay input on Steam Deck. Now the chat window is docked to the bottom of the screen and can be toggled with F4 or the L4 paddle on the Steam Deck. On the Deck text input is still done with the overlay, however the chat window now acts a conversation history which wasn't previously available.
Quality Improvements As always there are a variety of improvements which can be made here and there, just to sand off the rough edges. I've updated the Workshop tools for users on Linux/SteamOS - particularly for users with no or custom DEs, where the native dialogue boxes wouldn't work correctly. There's probably still room for improvement here, so if Linux is your thing and you have any feedback do let me know!
On the Steam Deck I've managed to find a colour emoji font with both a compatible format for rendering as well a publishable license - the upshot being Deck users now have colour emojis! And, on the desktop, if you bought the soundtrack on Steam (thank you!) the game will automatically play that version of the music, as it's higher quality and has extended mixes, during game instead of the default music. Here's the full change list since 1.16:

• Fix disconnecting an audio device (eg bluetooth headphones) now reconnects to any available audio output
• Fix ball thumbnails being invisible when vertex snap is enabled
• Fix possible crash when resetting your career progress
• Fix colour emojis on SteamOS/Steam Deck
• Fix depth sorting of text items in Course Editor
• Fix selecting correct wave/depth map when resuming a career game mid-course
• Fix flat stone surfaces are no longer out of bounds
• Fix low ball velocity cancelling any top or back spin
• Fix using thumbsticks on secondary controllers in single player
• Fix playing hot-seat on Steam Deck when using an external controller
• Fix Match Play scoring now only allows 2 players
• Fix Skins Play now requires minimum 2 players
• Fix chat box scaling on high DPI displays
• Added automatic frame limiting when disabling v-sync
• Added scrolling active monthly challenge to news page
• Added option to use left click as Action button
• Added option to change the name of the Career profile player
• Added option to edit career player names from the league browser
• Added on screen notification when taking screenshots
• Added ability to switch to putter when on the fringe of the green
• Added ability to speed up hole transition by holding the Action button
• Added freecam mode by pressing Down on the directional pad
• Moved Drone cam to Up on the directional pad
• Moved minimap zoom to R3/Right stick on controller
• Updated Chat window to scale with game resolution
• Updated Options menu with refined keybinds
• Updated Career reset preserves any existing item unlocks
• Updated Career mode now displays CPU league players on the scoreboard mid-round
• Updated Career mode with difficulty balances for entry-level players
• Updated workshop tools with UI improvements, particularly on SteamOS/Linux
• Game now plays the Steam soundtrack if it is installed, instead of the default one
• New Game Mode: Elimination
• New Game Mode: Clubset Shuffle
• New Game Mode: Nearest the Pin
• New Achievement: Top Of The Pile
• New Achievement: Survivor
• New Achievement: Like, Totally Random
• New Achievement: Pin King
• New Achievement: Short Distance Clara
• New Achievement: Snug As A Bug
• New Achievement: Happy Snapper
• New Achievement: Starting Out
• New Achievement: Getting The Hang Of It
• New Achievement: Pro Show