Snooker

	W:A replay: The beginning of Primitive Snooker; testings with DumbBongChow and FoxHound
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	W:A replay: An old version of Snooker match; with DumbBongChow and FoxHound
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Game setup
Scheme
	v3.8 Snooker: Download View scheme settings
Map
	A blank map
Worms
	12-17 in total. 12 in total is recommended.

(Up to Scheme ideas)

The gravity is zero and the worms float

If the worms reach the Stratosphere, they die

Snooker (the name tributes a real-life cue sport, but it is definitely not an adaptation of it, read the History section for details) is a bizarre RubberWorm scheme without gravity. The worms float on the blank map and there's a break system for the inertia (that would crash the game, because the worms and the objects would be in movement forever): the air viscosity that activates friction in the air. The physics of the game is so different that requires the players a new way of moving: float to the left or to the right, jump to go up, bungee to go down, rope (only works attached on a girder) to better placement, jet pack to go faster and parachute to stop moving instantly. Except for bungee, fire is the only thing which is not affected by the absence of gravity (acting as if in standard gravity) and it is indeed the only thing that is affected by the wind. The unlimited Aqua Sheeps don't explode, but are useful to collect crates.

There are three ways to kill a worm in this scheme:

Damage
Plop (twice in a row)
Reach the stratosphere

Tips when using the weapons

The handgun is very powerful in Snooker

Kamikaze is interesting in the scheme because it can damage opponents without loosing the worm that used it. How? Antisink prevents the explosion of the kamikaze! On areas off the main area (where the girders are), kamikaze will act like the Suicide Bomber but without poison.
Unbelievably, the Handgun can be very dangerous in this scheme, because it can push lots of intersected mines to worms, killing them.
Sometimes the aim of the weapons is not appearing. Press up/down to make it appear.
Some weapons like the Napalm, the Jet Pack and the Select Worm may not work when you are floating. To use them, jump and use parachute first, then use the weapon.
Napalm and Petrol Bomb may plop worms if used twice in the correct timing.
Minigun is rare but can easily plop a worm near the water. Also it can be useful to push worms up.
Sheep Launcher can be aimed to the left or to the right to kill a worm that is near the stratosphere. The sheep will jump in the air and will reach far places in the sky.
Droppable weapons like Mines and animals will go diagonally, 45 degrees (upwards in the direction the worm is facing).

WA v3.8 Snooker scheme update

Freeze was added in the WA v3.8 scheme update. It can be destroyed if the frozen worm activate Anti Sink. Some weapons don't push frozen worms.
Some delays and ammo were changed
Game engine speed x2. Round time, turn time and hot-seat time are balanced.
Allied worms will pass through enemy worms. This feature was included to avoid backflip knocking abuse. This could cause problems to the scheme, since worms could be easily knocked to mines or lifted up to the stratosphere.
Worms can be selected any time with TAB key.
Automatic end-of-turn retreat now allows exploding Sheep Launchers and Moles with space bar when the turn ends.

History

The scheme was created by FoxHound, starting on January 2011 and releasing on 22nd May 2011 on this page, being several months of scheme edits with a lot of help of the following players: Fighter and DumbBongChow, that contributed with several ideas, suggestions, tests and even creating a map for the scheme.

Right after the release of Snooker, the community Warehouse of Scheme Creations was created. Click here to read a TUS post about the scheme there.

The name

The name of the scheme tributed without intention (or maybe with intention, to differenciate from Cueshark's 9-Ball Pool idea that already existed) the real-life sport Snooker, but that's because the author thought at the time that this was the correct translation for "Sinuca", but it is probably more similar or equal to Pool (the other cue sport). Many bars in Brazil have signs written "Snooker bar" probably because:

It sounds international with things written - wrongly or not - in English.
We call the game in Brazil "Sinuca" which is similar to the word "Snooker".
If they had written "Pool bar" people would think the bars would have a swimming pool to be used inside them, but the sport played in them is probably a variant of pool or pool itself called "Sinuca" (almost nobody play the real snooker game in Brazil, it's very rare).

This explains why the icon of the scheme is an 8-ball.

So, thinking in "Sinuca", the name Snooker was chosen due to the linear movements and because the objects are pushed by explosions, this way it is possible to fire one grenade with 5 seconds first and then fire another grenade with one second to push the first grenade. Also, the worms can receive multiple attacks before they stop moving. As it is perceptible, the scheme gameplay is a battle without gravity, being completely different from the real-life sport, despite the inspirations described before.

Primitive Snooker

When Snooker was being developed, the scheme used to be played on closed WxW maps with two or three layers. This primitive version had a system to fix the inertia too: a small value of rubber (bounciness) to paste the worms on the wall, requiring closed maps. But the WxW maps had a problem: the graves take too many time to stop. So, specific maps were required to play using that scheme, and Fighter created this map to solve the graves problem without disturbing the use of Bungee (that needs a height to be activated). Creating those maps would be very complicated, the scheme was requiring very complex maps, so the idea of the Air Viscosity came and worked, so the scheme became playable even on blank maps that are perfect for it. Some adjusts were done and finally: Snooker was complete!

PX version (abandoned)

Another version of Snooker was in development, using not only RubberWorm, but also Project X features to fix (lots of) problems and increase the possibilities and movement of the scheme. Some of the new PX weapons would be included, but the project was abandoned.

The most important feature of this version was the one that makes the objects and the worms loop if they go off the map limits (or at least a certain distance out of the map). For example, if you fire a bazooka to the top left direction, it will reach the limit of the map and will continue to move on the other side of the map (the same for a worm in a jet pack). This was good to avoid worms going into the dark areas at the extreme right or extreme left of the screen. Also, this way is easier to aproach to worms and is tricky to fire bazzokas and other projectiles thinking on the loop. Note that nizikawa's wkJellyWorm module also has this map loop feature of PX.

Similar ideas

Before this scheme

Bloopy's Worm Golf Snooker map

This map that Bloopy made for the scheme Worm Golf has Snooker on its name and theme.

Cueshark's 9-Ball Pool

The idea of a Pool scheme named 9-Ball Pool was proposed by Cueshark on 7th October 2010 on TUS website (before Snooker scheme). The idea uses RubberWorm features like multishot and also wkIndiMask, but uses normal gravity (not zero gravity). The objective of the game is to pot all the worms/balls in one turn. The video he made is available here.

After this scheme

Pool

When SiD first devised the Pool concept; he thought someone must have had the same idea about combining zero gravity & limited viscosity, and actually FoxHound had this idea one year before with his Snooker scheme. However Pool scheme and Snooker scheme are completely different games, even though they share similar names (based on Cue sports). Pool is an adaptation of the sport, Snooker is a battle game with no gravity. SiD and FoxHound talked each other about this situation in 2013 on Pool's release map WMDB comments. Probably, both had similar ideas independently in a gap of one year.

Space Race and Snorkel

The scheme Space Race (2017), created by STRGRN, and its variant Snorkel (2022), created by sbs, are also schemes that use the zero gravity feature, but they are races, not battles.

Zero-G Minigolf

The scheme Zero-G Minigolf was created in 2019 and released in 2022 by orbik. It is an adaptation of the Minigolf real-life sport and can be considered a race with zero gravity as well.

Gravity Battle

A scheme called Gravity Battle was submited on 11th June 2023 by "crmm1792" (a.k.a. CAK-RULES) on TUS. It is very similar to Snooker (a battle without gravity), the maps used are empty as well, sometimes with objects in the middle, but closed, with borders (cave-like map empty or almost empty). The worms, this time, are anchored. The crate rate is different, there aren't powerless super sheeps, and there is only 1 shot per turn.

Space Plop Shopper

On 7th January 2024, CAK-RULES released another zero gravity scheme, this time being a Shopper, with infinite health worms. It's called Space Plop Shopper.