I understand that WMD is not going to be W:A remastered, but as I illustrated in my Steam post, there's many things from W:A that should be featured in WMD because they WORK and MAKE SENSE for the community. There's no need to reinvent the wheel with each new Worms game. Keep the stuff that is good and useful, and build off of that.
I will go back over my main points again:
-WormNET (some sort of global lobby system with chat is an absolute must, otherwise the community simply won't endure. The newer Worms titles are basically dead already...)
-custom gravestones (why would this NOT be an option in 2016 when we could have them back in the nineties? Anything to make the game more personal = good)
-donor cards (a simple, optional element that has been missing since WWP... no reason to not include it)
-blood (once again, optional and no reason to not include it)
-"sheep in exploding crates" (once again, optional and no reason to not include it)
-6 players + 1 spectator per game (I agree with Goom that we should allow for spectating on a larger scale... although I am pleased that WMD will feature 6 worms with a max of 8 worms per team)
-uncluttered and simple UI (This is simple... don't make it look like a damned console game. Reloaded is the best example I can think of when it comes to shitty UI)
-easy and quick text chatting with simple team chat, as well as personal (/me) statements and anonymous (/anon) statements (This is simple, common sense stuff here. It is annoying and ridiculous to have to press ESC to access the chat menu, like in Reloaded, and in Rev/CW you press the "~" key, which also makes no sense since that key should have the same functionality as another f-key... why change it around when page up and page down works perfectly?)
-ability to lock the screen on your worm during your turn (this should be a simple feature to implement, and there's no reason to not include it)
-ability to press "T" mid-turn to indicate that you are thinking (if bots can do it, why can't we?! the problem with the newer games is that they are designed as multi-platform games.. so in essence they are console games regardless of whether you are playing on PC or not. That is rubbish. W:A is clearly the best Worms game, and one of the primary reasons why is because it was designed as a PC game first and foremost. Look at the console versions of W:A - they are awful.)
-fluid animation (it can't look like a cheap flash game of course)
-lots of terrain styles to choose from, with a much better random map generator than any Worms title since, although no vertical map styles a la Reloaded (which I quite liked TBH... the vert maps, that is...) (The lack of terrain themes in Revolution and Clan Wars is extremely disappointing... it gets really boring playing on the same terrain all of the time. 6 have been announced for WMD. That's pathetic IMHO... I know they're hand-drawn and look very nice, but come on... 6?! It should be double that, at least.)
-cool, weird, ambient music (I don't think that the music in the newer Worms games is bad at all, tbh)
-the best ninja rope ever (lots of people aren't going to want to play WMD if it doesn't have a good ninja rope. The rope in Reloaded is awful, and the rope in Rev/CW is a... rope. You can also fire it in basically any direction. Like I said, don't reinvent the f@#!ing wheel... you guys already have an amazing ninja rope from W:A, so USE IT.)
-being able to set min/max bounce for grenade-type weapons (we had this in 1999, why not 2016? it's not like these suggestions are absurd)
-near perfect gameplay mechanics (the 2.5D Worms games are glitchy as hell, and Reloaded has terrible mechanics compared to W:A... why go backwards? When you already have a great game, why mess it all up? As I said before, take what is great about previously-existing Worms games and then make it even better.)
-loads of customization potential, but it took third-party editors to really shine (everything should be editable in fine detail within the game. weapon power, crate drop probabilities per item, mines, barrels, other environmental placements like neutral sentry guns, magnets, GRAVITY, etc...)
-official ranks of all sorts (in the beginning, anyway) (I personally think that ranks built-in to the game is awesome as long as it is an ELO system and not just simple wins vs. losses... the ranks in the newer Worms games mean nothing at all because it's just simple wins vs. losses... as long as you or your clan play the most games, you are the "best," which is stupid)
-loads of great weapons and utilities, many of which STILL haven't been in any subsequent Worms title (I'll never understand why they don't just keep the old and add more new stuff since it is the community who ultimately makes the schemes and steers the gameplay in whatever direction is popular) (Team 17 has a great IP here, and why they would choose to NOT include content from past games is beyond me, tbh)
-being able to handicap HP per team + or - while still maintaining the same number of worms (this isn't used all that much nowadays, but it's still a nice feature to have) (another one of those "if we had it in the nineties, why can't we have it now?" features)
-stockpiling and anti-stockpiling modes (important for those who don't just play a single match) (super important, because efficient and conservative players are rewarded)
-team special weapon (totally optional of course, but once again, why is a great feature missing from the new games? console-itis. That's why)
-custom team flags per team (hasn't been in any game since WWP, which is an absurd shame) (I think that WMD will feature this, but I don't want it to be tied to one's Steam account... I want it to be fully custom, per team)
-flags in the WormNET lobby to show everyone where you're hailing from (super helpful and informative, no reason to not include it aside from laziness)
-being able to select your victory fanfare (once again, hasn't been in any game since WWP that I can recall) (lack of victory fanfare is just one of many reasons why the newer Worms games feel impersonal and kinda boring)
-low PC requirements to run flawlessly, especially today (the 2.5D titles were horribly unoptimized and require a decent computer to run properly... I hope Team17 never again makes the mistake of trying to make a 2.5D title.)
-replay files (HUGELY important for external leagues, not to mention for posterity as well as exporting map files and re-reading old chats with friends) (no reason to not include this aside from laziness)