Think you are exaggerating on most points. The ganging up seems more like whining (I mean, if they don't gang up, and you are ten times better, then where's the challenge?). Also, didn't see you in any of the cups hosted, if you wanna play players 1vs1 play ranked or these cups, and see how well you fare against better players.
I only play the game once or twice each week (the cups), I guess I kinda lost interest in worming altogether, but I think the game is worth it. The only thing that kinda lets me down is the 'sluggishness' of the game, wouldn't mind if it geared up a little. Newho... when I see Senator working on his crafting tactics I can only be impressed by the strategic depth of the game. It kinda lets me down to know that the game will never reach maturity cause dying community already, cos ya, when you take it to perfection the thought processes behind default games will make WA-elite look like kindergarden-chess.
No exaggeration. As far as the ganging up goes, yeah, that can be construed as whining, but it's worth pointing out. I get targeted by people all of the time, and there's not much that can be done about it. The cup games are always being played when I have to work, or at inopportune hours for me. I used to play funners with those individuals who do play in the cups though, and I can't say that too many of them actually impress me, to be honest. There's some good players here and there (like AmazeeLuck, et al...) but the majority are mediocre at best, and couldn't make a skill / distance shot if their life depended on it.
I don't feel that crafting really adds much strategy to the game. It's all common sense up to a point. First you will definitely wanna deconstruct any weapons that you know you are not likely to use. After that, it's best to construct a couple of items that you know you're very likely to use, and then hang on to the rest of your materials until it is time to craft something very situational. Aside from that, just deconstruct infinite ammo weapons on every turn. It's pretty simple. There's 2 main types of crafters in WMD - those who craft the most noobish weapons possible, like bunker busters and air strikes, and those who craft late game defensive stuff like girders, industrial electromagnets, and sentry guns. I personally don't feel that crafting was a good idea. The balance of the weapons is STILL off after a couple of patches. The crafting system is total crap because out of the 'over 80' weapons promised in the game, a huge amount of them are locked down behind a crafting wall. (Not that it matters too much, as most of the craftables are redundant.)
I like that they plan on giving us the option to include up to 5 different craftables as default inventory very soon, but to me that isn't enough. They need to completely overhaul the weapon / crafting menu and add way more customization so we can make the schemes we want. Up to 5 craftables... what a joke. What a bad idea in general...
Vehicles were also a terrible idea. It doesn't even feel like Worms when a bunch of vehicles are in play. They invariably lead to cheesy, predictable behavior too. (Controlling the helicopters is a prime example.)
What I do like about WMD:
1. Graphics. The game looks gorgeous.
2. We are back to a max of 6 players with 8 worms per team. The last game to feature that was WWP.
3. Buildings. This was a great addition to the series, and done very well.
4. Weapon emplacements. The only thing that sucks about these is that they can only be aimed in one direction, so oftentimes the weapon emplacements are worthless due to which way they are facing.
5. Native voice chat.
6. Solid single player content. (AI is smarter too...)
That's about it. What I wrote previously is just a condensed version of everything that I don't like about WMD. What is frustrating is the fact that I think that WMD *could be* an amazing Worms title with the right effort and patches. I've been posting to the Steam forums since there was a forum for WMD, so it's not as though they aren't aware of ideas that would make the game exponentially better. I gotta say that Jonno and Danny have done a solid job overall, but whoever calls the shots amongst the devs (Kevin Carthew?) needs to have their head removed from their ass. How did they not realize that a global chat lobby would be important? Who came up with their ranking system that is arbitrary nonsense?
What also sucks is that the player base was divided from the start. We have people playing on Steam for Windows, as well as Mac and Linux, we also have players on GOG, and let us not forget PS4 and XB1. There's plans in the works to make Windows, Mac, and Linux cross-play compatible, but the game is STILL divided regardless.... furthermore, why in the hell was the game not cross-play compatible from the start? It's hard enough to find a game on the Windows version sometimes... if you are a sucker who owns a Mac, you basically can't play online multiplayer unless you add people to your friends list on Steam. There's lots of good players on the console versions, and unfortunately, odds of PC players ever getting to play with console players are slim to none. I wish they would have just made the game PC exclusive and used an updated WormNET type lobby system.
Anyway... I actually uninstalled the game if that says anything.