Responses to your questions from Blade

[BladeInteractive]

Thank you for all your feedback on WSC Real 09, both positive and negative. Blade has always, and will continue to work hard to accommodate fan feedback into the production of the WSC series. Since returning to the studio on Monday morning we have been looking into some issues and processing feedback from players, which we would now like to respond to.

• Website

Due to large volumes of traffic, the site is temporarily offline. The website will be back online very shortly. In the meantime you can email support enquiries to esupport@bladeinteractive.com.


• PS3 Online Disconnections

We have identified an issue in the game which causes a loss of connection when bandwidth is limited, which unfortunately was not picked up during testing on high-bandwidth networks. We will be releasing a patch to rectify this issue very shortly, and would like to apologise to players for the temporary disruption in online play on PS3.

In the mean time users should make sure they have all the correct ports forwarded. The list of used ports can be found by visiting the Sony Ps3 website (http://uk.playstation.com/help-support/ps3/).


• Trophies

Unfortunately there will be no trophy support on the PS3 version of the game this year.


• Removal of shot aids in online play

It is possible to remove the aiming aids for your own player when playing online and as soon as the other player takes a shot you are able to see exactly what aids they are using. Players should agree beforehand what aids are to be used in the game.

• Number of seasons able to play

You are able to play an infinite number of seasons.

• Lack of online play on PC

We conducted an extensive period of market research which concluded that the number of users who would play online on PC was small. As a result we decided to focus our resources on more fundamental elements of the PC conversion.

• Commentary

We improve the commentary with each version of the game. Since we recorded a lot of new commentary with the previous version, we devoted more resources to improving the technical side of the commentary this year. For example the commentary in WSC Real 09 has been tied into the stats system so commentators will refer to the strengths and weaknesses of players, and these will change over time as your stats upgrade. In addition commentary is more responsive to pressure situations and more reflective of changes in the balance of a match. We also implemented a feature to allow players to change the commentary frequency in the options to make commentators more or less “chatty”, as some players felt they talked to much while others felt they didn’t talk enough.

• Ball / cushion collision sounds

All ball impact sounds are recorded samples from WSA tournament balls on WSA tournament tables. The physics engine automatically assigns the correct impact sound based on the velocity, angle and contact type.

Thanks again for all your feedback, which we will continue to monitor and respond to as promptly as possible.

Blade

[hanterp]

Thank you for replying on our questions. Very much appriciated.

For me an important issue is the ball-physics.
The balls loose pace too quick, especially after colliding with cushions.
Please watch this video at the break-off shot ( at about 55 seconds ) and watch the speed of the white ball. After hitting the top cushion and the right hand cushion it has lost far too much speed. If you compare that with a break-off shot in real snooker you see a big difference.
If you fix this, it will be a big improvement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXrjf5Yd9cg

[fredkite]

Thanks for replying. A couple of points -
1, The lack of internet play for PC users is IMO a massiver oversight. The fact that it has been implemented on all other versions makes it even worse.
2, I've played on many tables over the years and have never heard cushions make the sound the cushions on WSC make. Also, should a player really have to hit the cueball at about 80% power on the break to bring the cueball back past the baulk line? If I played a break at 80% of my cue power the cueball would go up and down the table twice. I could put up with the sound of the cushions if they reacted as they should, i'm afraid that the cushions are not fast enough.

[Hayz]

Good work Blade, we especially look forward to downloading the patch to fix the online play for ps3

[The_Welsh_Potting_Machine]

Blade so your saying that there is no online play in this game? This is not good enough surveys don't mean anything can you work on a patch for this problem?

I haven't forked out money and others to not play online properly properly I've always wanted to play this game online, so have others.

Rob

[BladeInteractive]

Physics

Over the years we have spent a great deal of time developing the physics system, ensuring it is the best possible videogame simulation of the real thing. However there are natural hardware limitations which we have to work around and compensate for, so some minor differences with the real life experience are inevitable.

However, we continue to review and work on our physics simulations, and you can expect future versions of the game to move ever closer to our goal of 100% perfection.

[Hayz]

Blade so your saying that there is no online play in this game? This is not good enough surveys don't mean anything can you work on a patch for this problem?

I haven't forked out money and others to not play online properly properly I've always wanted to play this game online, so have others.

Rob

They already answered this above

[The_Welsh_Potting_Machine]

They already answered this above

Thats More Like it hope its for the PC Version to!

[Mexicola1984]

First off,thanks for the reply, its nice to know you have not just done a runner.

As everybody has all ready mention physics and im not. What about the basic errors:

Anitmation of players walking to and fro the different arena's the cue leaves his hand and he looks like a magician.

Everytime i play a quick match 9ball, i get a table with a red cloth, red wood and red carpet, im struggling to see the balls.

When your matched up against your opposition before a match starts i cant see the world ranking due to it being red again.

The AI is hit and miss, they can miss 6 straight easy shots in a row but then pot an impossible one then clear the rest of the table.

Everytime i win the 8ball championship it still tells me iv unlocked the golden cue tournament....i must of unlocked it around 7 times now.

When you play someone against live, it doesnt show there player just a floating cue in the air until they take there shot, its just a bit odd.

Thanks again for replying

[Wattie1234]

take the game play of WSC 04 and drop it into 09, problem solved (and include online for the PC), if you do this your onto a winner.....like most games as you move on in years the game gets worse.....

[hanterp]

Over the years we have spent a great deal of time developing the physics system, ensuring it is the best possible videogame simulation of the real thing. However there are natural hardware limitations which we have to work around and compensate for, so some minor differences with the real life experience are inevitable.

However, we continue to review and work on our physics simulations, and you can expect future versions of the game to move ever closer to our goal of 100% perfection.

With all respect sir, but there are no hardware-limitations to get this right.
I know this is a feedback-topic and not a technical discussion ( I am programmer myself ) but please compare the break-off shot in this video ( from your game, at 55 seconds )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXrjf5Yd9cg
with this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5zZa...f52_lH57sS3e7w

...from Virtual pool 3 ( Start of the movie ) and notice the way the white behaves.
In short: It is NO hardware limitation ( every PC can run Virtual pool 3 as it is a gam e made in 2004 ) but a software limitation.

[BladeInteractive]

With all respect sir, but there are no hardware-limitations to get this right.
I know this is a feedback-topic and not a technical discussion ( I am programmer myself ) but please compare the break-off shot in this video ( from your game, at 55 seconds )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXrjf5Yd9cg
with this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5zZa...f52_lH57sS3e7w

...from Virtual pool 3 ( Start of the movie ) and notice the way the white behaves.
In short: It is NO hardware limitation ( every PC can run Virtual pool 3 as it is a gam e made in 2004 ) but a software limitation.

Hardware limitations apply to physics simulations in a general sense, i.e. there are a finite number of samples which can be taken over time. Your specific example shows how one physics system handles a particular situation differently from our own. However we are confident that in a general sense we have the best ball physics in the business.

Of course we will continue to improve our simulation, and our R&D department are working very hard on fundamental improvements at the moment for future versions of the game.

[dantuck_7]

You mean they are all down the snooker club... .

[Caligula]

Hi Blade, firstly congratulations on another brilliant snooker game (I own 2001/2003/2004/2005/2007 and now wsc real 09)

A couple of disappointments: I was hoping that 100% setting would equate to real life, however in the world championships the last 16 is only 13 frames when in real life it is 25. This would be simple to patch - any chance of this?

Secondly, it is a shame that once you qualify for a tournament, you cannot see how the AI progress (no I'm not sad enough to want to watch them as you could in your earlier games, but it would have been nice to see a completed draw sheet at the end).

Lastly, (and this would probably be more difficult to patch), as others have said it is a shame that aiming aids can now only be on and off. In your earlier games you had the option to shorten these.

The new control method (real) is a great improvement. However, once you go into aim mode you cannot tilt the table up and down which makes it harder to see if your aim is correct. It would have been better to be able to tilt the view up and down at this point. I know you can use top down, but that is too easy so end up switching back to classic mode just so I can tilt the table which is a bit of a pain.

As a lifelong fan, I do hope you answer/comment on the above points.

Kind regards

[BladeInteractive]

First off,thanks for the reply, its nice to know you have not just done a runner.

As everybody has all ready mention physics and im not. What about the basic errors:

Anitmation of players walking to and fro the different arena's the cue leaves his hand and he looks like a magician.

Everytime i play a quick match 9ball, i get a table with a red cloth, red wood and red carpet, im struggling to see the balls.

When your matched up against your opposition before a match starts i cant see the world ranking due to it being red again.

The AI is hit and miss, they can miss 6 straight easy shots in a row but then pot an impossible one then clear the rest of the table.

Everytime i win the 8ball championship it still tells me iv unlocked the golden cue tournament....i must of unlocked it around 7 times now.

When you play someone against live, it doesnt show there player just a floating cue in the air until they take there shot, its just a bit odd.

Thanks again for replying

We're sorry you don't like the red table in the practice room, however you can play Pool in versus mode in any unlocked location instead. The AI is not supposed to be entirely predictable, although it is fundamentally based on player stats there is a chance element involved to make play more interesting.

As for the floating cue in online, Blade pioneered having players actually animated at the table to take their shots, however while an online opponent is making small and large adjustments to their aim, it is virtually impossible to animate a player around a constantly moving cue. Therefore the animation has to wait for the moment the shot is taken before it kicks in - this has always been the case in online play.