Cue Club 2: Pool & Snooker News

Hi Everyone,

We hope you are all keeping safe and well. Today we have a Cue Club 2 update with a collection of new features and refinements to cameras, controls, graphics, AI, physics, referee animations, membership cards and multiplayer, plus some fixes too. Thanks again for the continued feedback and we hope you enjoy these latest additions to the game.

• Added 40 new trophies for Tournament and Bar Challenge modes in each of the 5 difficulty settings from Novice up to Pro level, distinguished by colour. Previous wins before the update are recorded at novice level. Also includes 40 new Steam Achievements to bring the total to 75.
  
  
• Introduced a new menu screen to show at a glance what trophies you have unlocked. Go to 'Achievements > Trophies > Summary'.
  
  
• Improved range of elevation for first person camera, to allow you to get down lower on the cue in 3D mode. Use the mouse wheel or gamepad right stick to adjust.
  
  
• Mouse wheel sensitivity adjusted to give finer control of vertical camera adjustment (see above).
  
  
• First person camera now looks towards centre table when when zoomed out using middle mouse button, immediately after a shot is played.
  
  
• Novice and Amateur AI difficulty settings have been made slightly more challenging, and Expert setting has been made a fraction less difficult, to give more evenly spaced progression.
  
  
• Cloth wear now affects play. Increasing levels of wear will make the table play slightly faster for a more realistic effect. Applies to all game modes except online multiplayer human vs human, where cloths for both players perform as new.
  
  
• Added an option to turn off referee hand animations for re-spotting balls and moving balls between pockets in snooker. Go to 'Options > Match Settings > Referee' and toggle 'Hand Animations'. Default setting is 'On'.
  
  
• Membership cards now show more information, including Bar Challenge victories at each level of difficulty. Clicking on them shows the reverse side. See 'Achievements > Membership Cards'.
  
  
• Improved pocket shading in 2D and 3D modes.
  
  
• Visual enhancements to snooker trophies and 7-ball pool trophies.
  
  
• Improvements to tournament fixtures screen.
  
  
• Fixed an issue that occasionally made music tracks skip during playback.
  
  
• Solved a problem that could sometimes cause a crash when tabbing in and out of the game to the desktop.
  
  
• Fixed an issue where colours would not be re-spotted in snooker after a foul was committed on the last red, and balls were replaced.
  
  
• Improved multiplayer connectivity.
  
  
• Added difficulty-level adjustment buttons to Bar Challenge menu. Note: after the update you may need to select Novice mode to see previous progress.
  
  
• Added circular lighting indicators to Bar Challenge menu, to show how many opponents have been defeated in each bar.
  
  
• New menu option to adjust the default topspin / backspin setting. See 'Options > Controls > Advanced Settings > Default Topspin'. 7 settings available.
  
  
• Other minor fixes and enhancements.
  

Hi Everyone,

In today's update there are more enhancements to cameras, controls and graphics. We have also made further improvements to game stability. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts and ideas, and helping us to further refine Cue Club 2.

• Added more settings for adjusting the position of the camera along the cue when playing in 3D mode. See 'Options > Cameras > Distance to Ball (3D)'. There are 9 levels available, with the option to move the camera further back than before.
  
  
• Added an option to adjust sensitivity of the mouse wheel. Go to 'Options > Controls > Advanced Settings > Mouse Wheel (Speed)'. There are three settings provided.
  
  
• Improved visual changes between levels of table wear. 'Used' setting shows fewer chalk marks, with 'worn' and 'very worn' displaying an increasing number of chalk marks.
  
  
• Cue rendering has been improved in both 2D and 3D modes.
  
  
• Fixed an issue where the game could freeze when a screen-saver was activated and then cancelled, or if the display monitor was switched off and then turned on again.
  
  
• General improvements to game stability, with additional performance enhancements.
  

Hi Everyone,

We hope you are all keeping safe and well. Today, we released another new update for Cue Club 2 with a nice collection of improvements to graphics, user interface, ball physics, multiplayer, controls, AI and cameras. Please continue to share your feedback with us and we hope you enjoy these latest additions to the game.

• Introduced a new table wear option. There are four settings and you can select from new, used, worn and very worn cloths. We think these offer an interesting look and feel to playing, and welcome your thoughts! See 'Options > Tables & Equipment > Tables' and locate the 'Condition' option beneath the cloth colours. You can choose individual settings for pool and snooker.
  
  
• The cue ball is now more effective at splitting the pack on the opening shot when using full force and a direct hit. Balls spread better around the table and due to random variation no two break shots will ever be the same.
  
  
• Playing a shot along the rail is more realistic. If struck at the correct angle the object ball closely follows the wall of the cushion and is less likely to stray outwards.
  
  
• Ball trajectories after a collision are more accurately simulated on high power shots.
  
  
• Topspin and backspin have been given a stronger effect, allowing for better control of the cue ball and more effective trick-shots.
  
  
• The notifications capsule on the bottom left of the screen now shows the current break in snooker first, making it easier to keep track of the break score for you and your opponent.
  
  
• When switching between turns in multiplayer, the notifications capsule now rotates between all game information instead of just showing the updating message.
  
  
• Solved a problem that could sometimes halt activity during multiplayer games when using the TV camera to watch your opponent.
  
  
• Fixed an error that allowed the cue ball to be moved using the 'B' key when the player stands back from the table and the camera is zoomed out.
  
  
• Dragging the cue ball close to the cushion when you have ball-in-hand now raises the top-spin crosshairs slightly to allow the cue to assume a better position.
  
  
• Increased number of settings for 'Navigation Speed' and 'Mouse Acceleration' when using a mouse or touchpad device. Go to 'Options > Controls > Advanced Settings' to raise or lower aiming sensitivity.
  
  
• Increased default aiming sensitivity for touchscreen input devices when playing in 3D mode.
  
  
• Various fixes to gamepad navigation in the menus.
  
  
• Computer players on Pro level have slightly improved potting ability making them a little more challenging to defeat.
  
  
• The vertical camera angle has been raised a fraction when using first-person camera mode to watch your opponent play, giving a better overall view of the table.
  
  
• The default 3D camera setting for your opponent is now first-person, but this can be changed to one of two TV-style cameras. See 'Options > Cameras > Default Camera (Opponent)'.
  
  
• Fixed an issue where zooming in with the right mouse button on 3D view would not always zoom back out after a shot was played.
  
  
• Added support for ultra high refresh monitors that run at 300Hz and 360Hz. All other refresh rates ranging from 60Hz upwards are also supported, and can be selected from the menu at 'Options > Display > Graphics Settings > Refresh Rate'.
  
  
• Other minor fixes and enhancements.
  

Hi Everyone,

In today's update we have a collection of new features and improvements to Cue Club 2, focusing on cameras, game rules, keyboard input, graphics and multiplayer, plus some fixes and general gameplay enhancements. As always we hope you enjoy these tweaks and please keep sharing your thoughts and suggestions with us here and on the forums.

• Added a TV-style camera for watching opponent gameplay and replays. This new 3D view is located behind the end of the table and is available in standard and elevated height. See 'Options > Camera > Default Camera (Opponent)'. It can also be selected for instant replays and saved shots, plus snooker breaks and speed pool replays. The first-person camera mode is still available as an option if you prefer this view for your opponent.
  
  
• Improved 3D first-person camera tracking after a shot is played. On all shots following the initial break, the camera now automatically tracks the cue ball and then follows the first ball contacted, to capture more of the action. As before, clicking the middle mouse button or gamepad left shoulder button can be used to quickly zoom out after a shot is played.
  
  
• Improved keyboard input with left / right cursor keys and delete key now supported for easier and faster editing of chat text, filenames and so on.
  
  
• Virtual keyboards in the menus have been improved and expanded to accomodate the above keys. There is a also clearer input window and text is shown left-aligned.
  
  
• Multiplayer matchmaking and chat messages from other real players are now enabled when you're playing against AI opponents from the lobby. To turn on these notifications go to 'Options > Match Settings > Multiplayer' and set 'Receive Alerts' to ON, or enable them in the lobby using the toggle switch at the bottom-right of the page.
  
  
• In snooker, making 3 consecutive fouls now results in a loss of game, in accordance with the official rules. The player must not be snookered when committing the fouls for this rule to apply, and a warning is given after the second offence.
  
  
• On the cue selection menu, the various cue sizes are now described in inches or cm, with an option underneath to toggle between the units of measurement.
  
  
• Cue elevation adjuster has been modified to show a ghost line representing where the true cue angle is, complimenting the solid line which shows the target angle. This has been added to give the player a better idea of cue elevation when obstructing balls occasionally force the cue upwards.
  
  
• Primary aiming line now fades out close to the cue ball and appears less distracting from the 3D first-person view.
  
  
• Fixed an issue that sometimes prevented the referee from re-spotting balls on the table after they had been potted. This applies mainly to snooker colours and the cue ball.
  
  
• Fixed a problem that could freeze the mouse pointer after clicking on the 'Restore Balls' button during saved replays.
  
  
• Fixed an issue in Killer pool, whereby if the table was cleared and the cue ball was potted at the same time, the balls would not be re-racked.
  
  
• Solved an issue that prevented the circular aiming target from being displayed in 3D mode when aim lines had been turned off in the menus.
  
  
• Smoother target navigation around the edges of the table in 3D mode when using a game controller.
  
  
• Other minor fixes and enhancements.
  

Hi Everyone,

We're pleased to release another new update today for Cue Club 2 with more tweaks to controls, graphics, gameplay, AI opponents and performance tuning. We hope you enjoy these enhancements, and we would like to say thank you for your support and send best wishes to all our players from around the world during these unusual times. As always please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas with us.

• There is a new shortcut added to quickly move the cue ball when the player has ball-in-hand and 'Fast Aiming' control method is selected. Press and hold the 'B' key whilst moving the mouse, or if using a gamepad press the 'B' button whilst moving the left thumb-stick. To enable the fast aiming feature (or to turn it off), go to 'Options > Controls > Basic Settings > Fast Aiming'.
  
  
• Quick Match setup has been simplified, and all 15 computer opponents can now be played over a greater degree of difficulty from Novice to Professional, over 5 increasing levels. See 'Games > Quick Match > Game Type'. Please note: the difficulty level for Quick Match is now separate from the setting used for Tournament and Bar Challenge modes. To adjust the latter, see 'Options > Match Settings > Difficulty Level'.
  
  
• Pressing ALT + TAB no longer pauses action at the table. So you can safely tab-out to do another quick task while your opponent is playing shots. If you still wish to pause the game, press the escape key to bring up the in-game menu before tabbing out.
  
  
• Added support for different keyboards including QWERTY, QWERTZ and AZERTY layouts. See 'Options > Controls > Advanced Settings > Keyboard Layout'. This feature allows WASD keys to map to ZQSD for players using a French-style keyboard.
  
  
• In the ball set selection menu, the ball finish option has been moved from global settings to the main page, for easier navigation. There are 4 settings of shine: 'Matte, Satin, Gloss and High Gloss'.
  
  
• Visual improvements have been made to ball shading and shadows in 2D overhead mode for increased realism.
  
  
• Added an option to limit frame rate (capped at the selected refresh rate), which may be useful to control game speed, optimise performance and improve compatibility with G-Sync monitors. See 'Options > Display > Graphics Settings > Limit Frame Rate'.
  
  
• Fixed an issue that occasionally displayed the cue in Slam mode.
  
  
• Solved some isolated issues surrounding gamepad navigation.
  
  
• Other minor improvements and fixes.