Sensational World Cup - Beta

[siread]

I've decided to let you guys see the current version of Sensational World Cup. There is still a lot to do but I'm interested to get your feedback. I've been working so hard lately that I'm starting to feel ill! Fortunately I'm away with Lucy from tomorrow until Sunday to celebrate our 1st year wedding anniverary - so I'm forced to take a much needed break! :D

Download here:
http://download.newstargames.com/temp/SWCv09.zip

No Mac version until next week I'm afraid.

For a gameplay guide pause the match and click the Help button.

Remember that I am aware of the following...

- AI needs lots of work (shooting, dribbling, crossing, setpieces, keepers etc). This will be priority number 1 next week.
- No team selection. Squads haven't been implemented yet but will hopefully be in place before the World Cup starts!
- No player skills. All players and teams are equal at the moment.
- Difficulty levels are the same. This will be sorted when player skills are in place.

So basically I am interested in bugs, compatibility issues and opinions on the general gameplay. :D

[Brad]

You dont seem able to shoot when your holding the right key at all. If your pressing any of the other arrows, you will power up fine, but if your heading up-right, right or down-right then you cant shoot.

Apart from that, its looking very good. Had to see what the own goal celebrations were like :P

EDIT:
~Playing with a Joypad is much better than using keys.
~Goalkeepers sometimes dont save easy shots, and also if you 'slide tackle' the ball, the goalies dont respond to it.
~Its froze twice when its gone out for their corner.
~Clicking the options menu, and then coming back out makes the LOAD GAME button enabled, and clicking it produces an error.

[haGi]

looks promising :)

what i liked about nss2010 and miss here:
in nss2010 you were able to fill the powerbar and then point to the right direction. once you press the action button in SWC the direction is stuck

i'd also like to have more action buttons (1 to swap players manually and pass, 1 to tackle, 1 to shoot, 1 to lob)

[siread]

You dont seem able to shoot when your holding the right key at all. If your pressing any of the other arrows, you will power up fine, but if your heading up-right, right or down-right then you cant shoot.


This is a keyboard issue. Some keyboards won't you press some combinations of 2 or 3 keys at the same time. Try changing the controls so you're not using the cursor keys.

[haGi]

in my opinion the ball looks unrealistic because it doesn't spin like it should (like in NSS3 for example)

i also think that the players and the ball should be slightly smaller

edit:
penalty shoot-out is great fun, the sounds of the game make a nice atmosphere :D
sometimes there's a bug on corner kicks, the cursor points outside and it's stuck there

[Brad]

Just found another bug, occasionally the game freezes if two players slide tackle each other, as the game gives a foul, but then nothing happens, as neither teams goes to take it.

Finally, the arrows when your taking a corner can get stuck outside the pitch and nothing happens unless you kick it out for a GK or Throw In.

[haGi]

german translation ;)
1798

[Muzzer71]

Hi Si, the game looks nice and plays quite well. Here are my observations after a couple of games:

Positives:
- great gameplay view
- nice zoom function
- nice player/flag/text graphics
- good fun
- great sound (although see comment on music below)
- like the cross function although I guess it's random where the balls lands as you don't have input into direction or strength of cross

Needs work:
- player sprites don't run in diagonals - they either run horizontally or vertically;
- once you hold the kick button you can only kick in the direction you're facing;
- you can bend the ball far too much;
- when you loft the ball it comes down much too fast;
- seems too easy to get carded for fouls - sometimes even when you don't quite slide into the other player
- it's good that a player takes time to accelerate, but he seems to be able to hold his running speed until he's tackled - there should be some decrease in speed after a while

Minor bugbears:
- players seem to glide across the pitch rather than run;
- when goal scored against a team they either all fall on their stomach (except the one or two closest defenders) or all scratch their head

EDIT:
Just been tabbing between applications and got a 'Windows exception' when trying to return to Sensational World Cup (EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION)...

... accepting this message didn't work, I had to close the program through the task manager. I'm running Windows Vista Ultimate SP2 if that helps.

[west_ham_ 4_life]

Love all the graphics, well done! :dance:

I really don't like the idea of having only one kick button and not having a sprint button. I know you're trying to keep the game close to sensational soccer, but still...

I think the game speed is too fast on normal. I'd like to be able to change the game speed in game, like in SS

a game length slider bar thingy please? :P

Taking free kicks and corners is a pain. The player wants to run into the ball when i'm trying to line up the set piece, instead of running around the ball (like in NSS2010) to line up the shot, or the player just standing still while the arrow moves.

(400 posts :dance:)

[felipe1337]

I can't stop playing it, so much fun!

I think shooting needs work, instead of shooting where your arrow points, shots should be aimed in the center of the goal and the direction you press will modify that(Left, aims toward left post, right, aims towards right post)
Things i miss are:
1.One touch plays(direct shot, pass)
2.Skill move, press a button to try it, if you succeed(dribble/flair/whatever high enough) you avoid getting tackled(should be useful for 1 on 1 with a defender in front of you
3.Force change player button, on corners you have 2 problems, you can't hit ball deep enough, AND you can't change to a player so you can head it at goal, same applies to Free kicks, when you cross, it takes long to switch player automatically

[Cookie Monster]

1 hour and 13.5mb later... this game is fun but needs some work. Like others have said, changing players and first-touch moves are required and I think there should be an option for those who prefer more complex multiple button systems (like me, I'd like to see the 3-button system again). But it's fun nonetheless. And once you know how to play it, you can't let go of it!

[felipe1337]

OMG, i tricked the opponent defenders into slide tackling me! Run to a side, when a defender closes on you, quickly turn to face the other way(the one you have your back pointed) the defender slides and goes past you, or fouls you
btw, on rules, when a player is the last one between the ball and the goal if he fouls a player he should be sent off, not booked(goalkeeper for example)

[Alex Reeves]

I think I'm with the 3 button control system crowd on this. The engine feels quite nice, but it is frustrating using a single button for everything especially when the context of what a button does changes so quickly.

I really like the acceleration effect, but agree that there needs to be fatigue built into it, otherwise it's too easy to run around everyone once you've got a head of steam up. Again, variable player stats will assist this I'm sure.

But it looks good overall - I'm a much bigger fan of the 2D engine than the 3D one, so in this sense I'm very happy to see this. AI obviously needs work, as do the set pices and GK, but I'm getting excited about this.

[Alex Reeves]

Bug in penalty shootouts - if the keeper makes a save, the GUI represents it as a goal. Seems the game engine still recognises it as a miss though...

[Cookie Monster]

Another bug in shootouts: if I strike it and the goalkeeper saves it and I score the rebound, it's not counted as a goal but the match carries on from 120 minutes with both gks in one goal.

[Marcos Trindade]

well, the new engine is not bad, but got to have much improvment... i guess ;)

but it´s just a beta, so it will advance with updates many and many times :D

[Conway1992]

Not really a fan of thew new match engine, kind of hectic and really fast, as long as NSS5 is not like that i'm happy :)

[haGi]

Not really a fan of thew new match engine, kind of hectic and really fast, as long as NSS5 is not like that i'm happy :)

it's playable if you set the gamespeed to slow, but normal and fast are way too fast!

[west_ham_ 4_life]

i was finding normal pretty fast, so god know's if i'll be able to play it on fast :P

[felipe1337]

i like that fast paced style, playing on normal though, fast is, well, too fast.

[haGi]

can anyone send me a pm with BLFbuilder? i wanted to look if i translated everything right.

[haGi]

i resized the ball to 80% in photoshop (radius 1.6 in engine.ini) and the playerheight to 16 in engine.ini

it looks better in my opinion. but the ball looks still unrealistic, because optical it doesn't spin enough

if you lower the length of the animations from 90 to 50-60 the players don't look like they are floating ;)

[MasterSoul]

Love it, the sprites are amazing.

Bug in corners. If you tap it like 4 or 5 times to speed up the players to get to the flag and take the corner, sometimes they send it out.

The tactics are great, the sound is terrific. Keep it up :D

[haGi]

i think the problem with the ball looking static are the ball sprites.

i made an 80%-sized NSS3-stlye ball-sprite (like the one with the blue stripes).
put the files into [SWC directory]\Media\Match\Ball

1805

also change the ball radius to 1.6 in the engine.ini

[haGi]

i made another one, i call it the "bambulani" in the style of the jambulani ;)
it feels great to play with this one, because it spins like a hamster in his wheel :)

edit: updated the colors

1806

1807

tweaked colors:
1809
old colors:
1808

[west_ham_ 4_life]

nice balls :lol:

but seriously, they look good. nice work

[siread]

I've had an email from FIFA. I'm not allowed to use the mark "World Cup" in my game. Any suggestions for a new name?

I'm thinking "Sensational World Soccer".

[haGi]

are you allowed to use "Sensational World Championship"?

[Cookie Monster]

FIFA, FIA... what next? :|

Sensational World Soccer sounds good to me, but I think Sensational World Championship isn't bad either.

[Fry Crayola]

Sensational World Championship does a better job of highlighting that this is a game for the World Cup, I reckon, though it doesn't leave it clear that it's a soccer game.

Sensational World Championship Soccer, or perhaps Sensational Soccer World Championship (to keep the "Sensational Soccer" name intact) would cover that base.

There's also Sensational Soccer: World Champions. I dunno, really.

[felipe1337]

Sensational World Championship does a better job of highlighting that this is a game for the World Cup, I reckon, though it doesn't leave it clear that it's a soccer game.

Sensational World Championship Soccer, or perhaps Sensational Soccer World Championship (to keep the "Sensational Soccer" name intact) would cover that base.

There's also Sensational Soccer: World Champions. I dunno, really.
Sensational Soccer: World Championship!

[EreWeGo]

I've had an email from FIFA. I'm not allowed to use the mark "World Cup" in my game. Any suggestions for a new name?

I'm thinking "Sensational World Soccer".

Seriously? Damn it's sad what these large organisations can "Trade mark" and license - you can't even have "World Cup" in the title without their permission... :rolleyes:

Anyway, maybe "Sensational Soccer World Championship" like Fry mentioned, or "Sensational Soccer: The Cup", or "Sensational Soccer: W.C. Edition"?
:)

[haGi]

sensational world championship soccer reminds me of international superstar soccer :)

any suggestions of another ball i could make?

[siread]

I can't use 11 syllables! :P

[siread]

New version:

http://www.newstargames.com/newstarforum/showthread.php?p=106975#post106975

[Cookie Monster]

Thread locked, everybody go to Si's link :)