GROUND ZERO (beta)

GROUND ZERO is in beta. It is playable today and marked BETA in the app because it is still being developed — scoring, layouts and graphics may change between updates.

GROUND ZERO is a bank-shot game played with one ball. With its Radar theme the room plays dark: the table light switches off when the game starts, and the whole cloth becomes a radar screen projected by FusionCue. Pick Lights on instead and the table light stays on. Either way, you bank the ball off exactly the number of cushions the round calls for, then through the blast ring around a target. Every shot is plotted on the table, so you can see how the ball really came off each cushion.

How a game works

1. Set the ball on the launch pad. Each round a launch pad and a target appear somewhere new, and the cushions to take are called beside the pad (1 RAIL, 2 RAILS or 3 RAILS). With Radar the ball is the 8; with Lights on, the cue ball or any other ball. There is no button: once the ball sits still on the pad for a second the round arms and the headline says LAUNCH! (the line under it turns green while it waits).
2. Bank it. Strike the ball so it touches exactly the called number of cushions and then crosses the blast ring around ground zero, the target's centre. Any part of the ball touching the ring counts. The game screen counts the cushions as the ball takes them and shows ARMED once the count is reached.
3. Hit or miss. The called cushions and then the ring is a hit: the moment the ball crosses in, the target explodes (Radar) or turns green (Lights on). Otherwise the round ends as a DUD (the ball reached the ring before its last cushion), OVERSHOT (it took an extra cushion first), MISSED (the right cushions, but it never reached the ring — the screen says by how much), OUT OF FUEL (it stopped short of the count) or POCKETED.
4. Read the plot. The ball's path is drawn through every cushion it touched; with Radar, the angle between the line in and the line out is written at each bounce. The plot stays on the table through the result and into the next round, until you set the ball on the next pad.
5. Next round. A new target and pad come up. A game is the number of rounds you chose; the results show your points, hits, direct hits, hit rate and how close your hits and misses came.

Scoring

Result	Points
Hit — the called cushions, then through the blast ring	+5 to +10
Any other result	0

A hit scores 5, plus up to 5 more the closer the ball passes to ground zero: straight through the centre is worth 10, just clipping the ring 5. Pass within half a ball of the centre and it's a DIRECT HIT. The best possible game is 10 points a round.

Settings

Choose a theme on the GROUND ZERO start page, then set the rest in the pre-play settings. They are remembered for next time.

• Theme — Radar (the room goes dark and the cloth becomes a teal radar screen with a grid and a sweeping beam. The target pings sonar rings, the ball trails smoke like a missile, each cushion it takes shows as a blip, and a hit sets off an explosion at the target). Lights on keeps the table light on: the target is a drill-style striped zone that turns green on a hit and orange on a miss, the ball's path is drawn like a drill's cue-ball path with each cushion ringed and numbered (no angles), and the drills' sounds replace the radar's. The rules and scoring are exactly the same.
• Rails — Fixed calls the same count every round, 1 to 3; Range draws a new count from the range each round.
• Blast radius — the ring around ground zero, 1.5 to 5 balls.
• Rounds — 3 to 30, one shot each.
• Brightness — how bright the projected radar is (Radar, single player). The same slider is on the game screen: turn it up if the camera loses the 8, down if the cloth glares.

NEW TARGET on the game screen gives you a fresh target and launch pad for the round before you shoot (with Range, the cushion count is drawn again too). In a match it sits beside the headline and on the shooter's card.

SHOW SOLUTION projects a path to aim along: a natural roll with no side spin, from your ball — or the pad, before it's set — to the target's centre, off exactly the round's cushions. It allows for a rolling ball coming off a cushion flatter than a mirror angle. There can be up to three: NEXT steps through them, the most forgiving first, and HIDE takes the path off the table. It works the path out again once you set the ball, stays up through your shot so you can compare it with the plot, and tells you when there's no clean path from where the ball sits — move the ball on the pad. The phone remote has Show solution / Next solution, Hide solution and New target while GROUND ZERO is running, and with voice commands on you can say "Hey Cue, show solution", "Hey Cue, next solution" or "Hey Cue, hide solution".

Playing with others

Pick LOCAL MULTI or INTERNET beside PLAY on the GROUND ZERO start page.

• Local multiplayer — 2 to 6 players take turns at one table, one shot each per round. Repeat layouts gives everyone the round's same target; Unique per player gives each player their own target off the same number of cushions. Most points wins; a tie at the top plays sudden death.
• Internet — invite online players (2 to 6). You take turns, each on your own table, one shot a turn, and the shooter's table is shown to everyone else — with CAST TABLE on, it's projected onto your own table while you wait. Every table plays the host's settings; your theme and brightness stay your own.
• The player cards show everyone's score. Tap a card to fix a score — online, your own rounds, or anyone's if you're the host. Online, the game screen shows every other player's live table instead of the cards; tap a table or a standings row to fix a score.
• Beside the cards (online: on the right), the game screen shows the round's cushion count and SHOW SOLUTION. The last shot's plot and any solution are cleared when the table passes to the next player.
• Go Live and Record show every player and their score on the bottom bar, with the player who's up outlined.

Things to know

• Radar needs a dark room. The camera follows the black 8 against the radar's light. If you use a supported smart plug, the table light turns off when the game starts and comes back when it ends. Want the light on? Pick Lights on.
• One ball on the table. With Radar that's the 8; with Lights on, the cue ball or any other ball works.
• If the game's card or start page says Coming soon, Paused or Unavailable, it isn't open for your account right now.
• Go Live, Record and instant replay work the same as in the other games, and every shot is saved to your game stats.