The Lifestyle of Pool and Snooker

Storyline (From Rags to Riches)

 

You are a poor person that is barely able to afford rent to your parents.

You just got home from your job in the corner shop which only gives you £70 a month and £50 goes to your parents and the rest on your food, to get luxury and be able to by presents for people and something nice for yourself you need to work overtime which makes you more tired and isn’t good for your health. You need to find a way of changing this to better suit your lifestyle before you are too tired to do anything else.

After a little rest, you hear a knock at the door, so you go to investigate as your parents are working and won’t be home until later in the evening. (action: walk to the door and press the interact button to open after unlocking it with the key and taking the chain off.)

Once you have finally opened the door a kind man says, “I noticed you working at the corner shop and saw that you have been struggling, normally you have to pay for this newspaper but as I can see you are struggling and may find this helpful, I will let you have it for free.” (action: the man hands you the newspaper, use the interact button to take it.) player: “thankyou”. Stranger: “Ur most welcome I thought you might like to have a look at the jobs, did you know that there are some really well-paid jobs available and they don’t require you having good grades or anything.” Player: “Really!!! Well thank you again for your kindness and I shall have a look now.” (Action: Use the interact button to open the newspaper, then use the arrow keys or analog sticks to change pages).

The kind stranger hands you a second item. It’s a leaflet!! The kind man says “This will help you too, there are lots of activities available in this leaflet, that may even earn you extra money. Did you know that there are some really good Pool and Snooker competitions in this leaflet? If you do well in them you can go into higher ranks and divisions and if you lose you still stay in the division that you are in unless you lose in a higher division then you will get demoted, but you will still earn some money from it even in the practices and qualifying rounds so it is definitely worth your time but it will cost some money to enter but your first tournament and signing up as a new player is always free.”

Kind Stranger: “After you have picked what you want to do, there are several places you should go and visit” “You should go and visit the local gyms, shops and even the Pool and Snooker clubs, they are really kind and will help you sign up and get started in the gym and Pool and Snooker clubs. Anyway, I had best be going now if you need anything just bring up your phone and message me here is my contact number” (action: enter the number into your phone that the man has given you use the arrow keys or analog stick to move your finger to a different key and press the action button to select it, don’t worry if you make a mistake you can press the arrow with the x in it to delete previous numbers!!).

 

Look at the GPS on your phone and choose where you would like to go!! (action: use the arrow keys or analog stick to look around the GPS and find the location you are looking for. You can set a waypoint marker for a certain location by pressing the action key.) reminder: “If you ever forget a key you can look it up in the menu” (action: to go to the menu press the start, pause or Esc key on your controller or keyboard.)

Once you reach the club, a kind man says I see you are new here, let me buy you a drink and show you around the place. Kind man: What is your name (introduce yourself””).

Hi “” my name is Tommy nice to meet you. Would you like me to show you the basics or would you like to look around? (looking around will allow you to interact with others in the club and even going outside and exploring before you start your Pool or Snooker career.) (Once you have accepted offer to be shown basics and have met the club team) Tommy: Very well let’s get started, go and choose yourself a table and a pool cue, these aren’t the best quality, but they are good for beginners like yourself”.

(First game of Pool (English Pool)) To start you need to put the cue ball (the white ball) behind the line anywhere you want. Once you have chosen the position you would like the cue ball to be placed, then have a look at the bottom left the dot on the cue ball is where you will hit it will the pool cue as these are the basics I won’t go through the different reactions that the cue ball has when you hit it in a different area I will just leave it for now saying that hitting the top of the ball will add top spin and hitting the bottom will add bottom spin, which will be required in different shots and for the more advanced there is side spin to create bigger and smaller angles after hitting the cushion, but I will go through these different types of shots later on. First, there is the angle line, this is the line the cue ball will travel in if you hit the cue ball in the centre and it will react normally. The bar on the left is the power ball, this will allow you to increase or decrease power on a shot and will change the impact on the balls you hit.

The Break: Drag the power bar down to decide what power you want and hit the circular icon with the red dot when you are ready to shoot. (drag the bar using either mouse if you are on pc or the analog stick if you are on controller.)

After the break: On the table you have three colours; the reds, yellows and the black. If you potted a ball on the break you can nominate whether you want to be reds or yellows. After the nomination if you miss your next shot that is still your colour, whereas if you nominate and did not pot a ball off the break then the table is still open for the other player to nominate and try to pot the colour, he/ she wants.

The black ball: After you have potted, or your opponent has potted all their colour then you must pot the black ball. After this you win the frame.

Frames: In Pool and Snooker the game consists of frames, which is just matches and there will be a certain required number of racks that you have to win to beat your opponent. This will sometimes include frames, which means after you have won the required frames the winner being the first to meet this requirement will earn one point and the racks you have go back to 0 in this case, there will be a set number of frames that you have to win also.

Snooker: (Break and mechanics are the same as before) You have reds and other colors on the table. Your objective is to beat your opponent by earning more points than them. You have to pot the balls in an order of one red then one color, until all the reds are gone, then you have to pot the colors in a specific order of yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, black.

The preson with the most points at the end of the rack wins.

Snookering your opponent: The term Snooker is used in both Pool and Snooker, which refers to blocking your opponent in a way that he can’t see a straight forward angle to hit any of his balls. This will require in your opponent making a cushion shot and if they miss you get 3 points which is a way of gaining points on your opponent if there isn’t enough points on the table for you to win.

Snooker compared to Pool is a lot more tactical because the players will take it in turns to make what is called safe shots and they will try to make it so that their opponent leaves them a shot by hitting an object ball and not being able to get the cue ball back into a safe position. Safe means that even if the opponent can hit the ball that it is not easy to pot and if they go for the pot and miss it then they can leave you an easier position to pot your next ball following the same pattern of red and then another colour until all the reds are gone and then potting the sequence I mention earlier.

After the basics: After you have learnt the basics and played as many practice games as you want or need to understand and be able to successfully use the rules to win.

In the second game you will learn to control the cue ball a lot more and will be able to take the basics further by learning to control where the cue ball will go after each shot as well as taking the shot and potting an object ball or snookering your opponent and keeping the cue ball in a safe position so your opponent can’t pot or you are in a good position to pot your next ball.

 

In the third game, you will learn to think multiple steps ahead so that you have a plan of your next three balls and this will be implemented once you know how to control the cue ball properly and will be able to control the other coloured balls on the table at the same time and give yourself a good angle onto the next ball you want to pot or to snooker your opponent so that they cant pot, or making a safe shot where they can hit the coloured ball they are aiming for but you are in no danger because they can’t pot that ball.

The second and third steps are the same for both Snooker and Pool in blocking your opponent but the only difference like I said in pool you have to be the first to clear up your colour nominated on the table and be the first to pot the black after all balls in your colour, this means that there is no point system but the racks and frames are the same concept and the rules are very similar.

 

After you have finished the tutorials in either Pool or Snooker or even both if you would like to play both, then you can start playing proper games against opponents that will vary in difficulty and as you progress, they will be harder to beat. You can also choose to play more tutorial games and learn other shots and positional tips and play easier practice games either with a very easy opponent or on your own to practice certain skills and get better, this will include the different scenarios you will need to master to become better at the game.

 

After this, Tommy says “There are lots of other things to explore around this town. You can go to the shops, different activities such as bowling or pubs, or even just go around the place and look at the scenery.”

Your first tournament: Once you have earnt enough money to pay the entry fee for the Pool or Snooker tournament that you would like to start with, then you can pay the entry fee and be able to join in with the tournament. This tournament will consist of  4 rounds. These 4 rounds are; The round of 16, Quarter-finals also known as round of 8, semi-finals which is when 4 people are left and then the Final which is the last two players and the winner of that game wins the cash prize and a trophy also, as well as the finalists the top 2 being promoted to the next tournament.

You will proceed to go up the division ladder until you reach the top where if you win you will be titled as the best Pool or Snooker player in the world.

Other things to know that aren’t in the storyline.

 

The corner shops: The corner shops are where you can go to buy small supplies, such as bread, water or maybe some sweets or magazines. This is a good place to go for stocking up on a few supplies but is no good if you need a lot of things.

 

The supermarket: The supermarket is a place to go if you need a lot of things or maybe other things and not just food. The supermarket will allow you to explore a different range of items, such as certain supermarkets having clothes or video game or maybe even a key, shop repairs shop.

 

Levelling up: As you level up from gaining XP for things such as exercising, having a substantial meal to satisfy your dietary needs, playing Pool or Snooker, or buying items from a shop or supermarket. Everything that you do that leads to some sort of progression will earn you XP, which can be used in levelling up to make your character better suit your lifestyle and unlocking new items.

 

Unlocking new items: Once you have levelled up you will be given a certain number of points for unlocking new items. This will depend on what your level is as the higher the level the more unlock points you will receive.

 

Activities: There will be certain activities you can do throughout the game that isn’t apart of the main game for example, you can go and do exercise, go bowling or do other things such as watch tv to pass the time until your next shift at work or your next tournament/ game.