Worms WMD really isn't THAT BAD. The problem with it is that it needed more development time as well as a closed beta with experienced Wormers.
I still play WMD frequently and have a lot of fun with it. I know that a lot of people here think that any Worms title post-WWP is complete trash but I disagree. I think there are good ideas in all of them. Team17's failure is recognizing what is good and not carrying it over to subsequent titles. They need to stop trying to reinvent the wheel and instead just make each game incrementally better, despite the inevitable bitching about how each new game isn't that much different from the last.
If they spent like 6-8 more months developing WMD with good feedback and effort it could smash W:A, honestly.
As far as the new game goes, I can only assume that it is going to be a 3D title, or 2.5D at best based upon the renders in that video. The noobs and casuals are dying for another 3D Worms title. I know this because I talk to a lot of them, and I guess Team17 is compelled to answer. This will be the first game that I don't pre-order. Against all reason I have had blind loyalty to the Worms franchise for a very long time and I just can't support them anymore if they are going to continue to make stupid decisions regarding my beloved franchise. They really need to start listening to longtime fans instead of catering to noobs and trends.
Don't you rant regularly on the WMD steam forum how bad WMD is? Crafting being the worst offender making every weapon on the fly.. I remember lengthy posts from you between guys on the forum on how bad the game is. Heck, lots of the regulars there see you as a "hater". lol
Yes, I post on those forums quite a bit and still do from time to time. In fact, it was my complaining that got a lot of things fixed and added to the game. Also, yes, you are right that a lot of people on there see me as a hater but as time has gone by more and more people have come to realize that what I was saying was correct all along. I wouldn't say that the game is bad at all... in fact, I even changed my initial negative review to a positive one. My main gripe with WMD is undoubtedly crafting, and has been from the start. It doesn't add any 'strategy' to the game whatsoever despite what noobs and casuals believe. Crafting just serves as a handicap feature which allows people to make items to overcome their deficiencies as players. Can't rope worth a shit? Just craft a jetpack. Can't make long range bng shots? Just craft a 'point and click' item. Heck, people can craft at any point during a turn and the item is immediately available on their next turn, which means that in a 1 vs 1 you can watch your opponent's turn and craft the perfect item to screw them over 1 second before their turn is up. That's so cheesy and lame in my personal opinion. There's still a litany of things that are bad or even broken in WMD that piss me off but on the whole it *is* a decent game and worth playing, especially when W:A activity is so low.
Worms WMD really isn't THAT BAD. The problem with it is that it needed more development time as well as a closed beta with experienced Wormers.
I still play WMD frequently and have a lot of fun with it. I know that a lot of people here think that any Worms title post-WWP is complete trash but I disagree. I think there are good ideas in all of them. Team17's failure is recognizing what is good and not carrying it over to subsequent titles. They need to stop trying to reinvent the wheel and instead just make each game incrementally better, despite the inevitable bitching about how each new game isn't that much different from the last.
If they spent like 6-8 more months developing WMD with good feedback and effort it could smash W:A, honestly.
As far as the new game goes, I can only assume that it is going to be a 3D title, or 2.5D at best based upon the renders in that video. The noobs and casuals are dying for another 3D Worms title. I know this because I talk to a lot of them, and I guess Team17 is compelled to answer. This will be the first game that I don't pre-order. Against all reason I have had blind loyalty to the Worms franchise for a very long time and I just can't support them anymore if they are going to continue to make stupid decisions regarding my beloved franchise. They really need to start listening to longtime fans instead of catering to noobs and trends.
Good rant skunk.
I'm not too sure about the last bit though. It seems that when you ask oldtimers what the new game should be like, the answer you'll get is always the same: make it just like WA.
But as you mention before, there are interesting concepts in all titles after WWP. In every game there's at least 2 or 3 components that DO work and feel fresh.
The main issue for me always was the shitty multiplayer mode. The game is perfectly suited for a quick pick-up-and-play online battle mode, but it never lived up to that. Rounds seem to last ever longer, the gameplay seems slow, even moving a worm across the map has become a hassle..
The online servers are crap, the online rankings are stupid (1 pt for every win, 0 for a loss...) and there's always the connectivity issues.
The biggest joke was Clan Wars by far. Intended to be played online the servers were a complete mess from the start. I think on day 3 the online multiplayer was already dead.
It's a shame, because anyone can see the huge potential for this game, especially on mobile devices.
It just needs a company that knows how to cather games to a large audience.. and well, perhaps a development crew that is larger than 3.
I'm not sure what you mean by rounds lasting longer. For me they feel shorter than ever because in WMD there's only one sudden death mode - water rise. The water rise speed isn't adjustable at all and it is pretty fast, so depending on the map, once SD kicks in the game is over very quickly. On top of that, many people prefer to play games with short round timers rather than 30 minutes (which is the max) or simply have SD turned off completely, which is what I prefer because with the water rise every game in WMD invariably becomes "king of the mountain" and people just try to take over and defend the tallest part of the map from the start of the game, and with crafting, crate drops, vehicles, and lots of OP weapons available, whoever wins often has less to do with skill and strategy than random luck - especially if you aren't playing 1 vs 1 ranked. It's especially annoying when hosts want, say, 60 second turn timers yet set the round timer to 15/20 minutes. If there's a full lobby of 6 players that means that each player oftentimes doesn't even have the chance to use all of their worms before SD kicks in... and that's assuming that the game is set to 4 worms per team and not more. It's ridiculous but sadly a lot of people love that end game king of the mountain shit.
I totally agree with you that the online servers are crap. What annoys me the most is that games in progress show up in the game list but there's no way to filter them out and open lobbies that have not started playing yet are randomly mixed in with games in progress, and when you try to scroll through the list it's buggy and always brings you right back to the top of the list, so joining a game is oftentimes a pain in the ass. I also agree that the ranking system sucks and I've been very outspoken on this issue on the Steam forums since the game started. I initially only played ranked enough to get my armageddon-level unlocks and that's it. However, somehow my ranking got reset and I had to start over from scratch, which I did. After that I stopped playing because there's no point to it. The rankings never get reset, and because of the stupid system whoever is ranked highest is simply whoever grinds the most. Win/loss record barely has anything to do with it. I've played against pretty much all of the top 100 ranked players, and of those players I'd say that only 1/4 of them are what I'd consider good. Also, since crafting is a part of ranked mode, there's a pretty clear meta involved with 90% of people crafting the same small handful of items... so it's not just the ranking system itself that is problematic, but the ranked scheme as well, or LACK OF different ranked schemes.
I played Clan Wars for quite a while and I don't know what you're talking about regarding dead servers... granted, I did play it's PS4 counterpart far more than the Steam version, but the game was fairly active for a long time and TBH in terms of overall strategy and gameplay I'd say that Clan Wars is the best Worms title since WWP! It's quite good once you get used to the janky 2.5D nature of it.
As far as Worms 2020 goes, the teaser trailer doesn't really give us any info at all other than that the worm itself is rendered in 3D. It will probably suck and be released too early with lots of bugs and features missing, as usual.