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March 28, 2024, 06:39 PM

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Topics - SpectreXS

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***** READ THIS FIRST *****

(My text writing is poor, I apologize for that. If you don't understand something just tell)

(I'm not dumping any file right now, it's just for you to have an overview of what the scheme looks like)

This is NOT some sor of "heyyy i made a shoppa scheme with different weapons setup, it's so tricky, awesome to play, so much stuff and original". I'm new two the forums, but I play this game since 2005, rope schemes since 2007 (with breaks here and there), I'm no professional, but I know about competitive games.

My competitive gaming experience is different than the usual starcraft/shooter/dota stuff. I play Poker, Pokemon and SSB:Melee. Each one of them (melee a little less) being games of incomplete information with a random factor, and so is WA. I've studied these games enough to know how to analyze players' mistakes, what breaks the game, what is luck and what is skill, and how to think logically about every one of those factors.

WA has the potential of being an awesome game of skill + luck, and shopper (or shoppa for the oldschool) is the greatest rope scheme I've ever seen: in 1v1 it is skill>luck, one team can easily have an edge over the other, and in multi-player, it is a fun game and the skilled players have a slight edge over the ones that make mistakes often. In both, you can use a lot of weapons, and it can be played in a lot of different maps, that's the beauty of it! Those 2 things allow the players to use a little bit of strategy, instead of the usual no-brainer roping.

But something that annoys me is that people play using a lot of different schemes. From hostingbuddy's clown bullsh*t (with nanas and no bazooka, among other stuff I complain about) to those crazy people that put 20 mines on the stage, with random or zero timing (not to mention dud mines), and messy crate probability, in which the odds to get mad cows is the same to get grenades or mortar.

So I approached the scheme with a very "analytical" point of view, with the exact odds to get a weapon by its strength or gimmick options (so I had to use SchemeEddy for this), while setting a standard for the initial weapons and general options (number of objects, timing, etc). And taking off every thing that breaks the game or doesn't need to be there.

I don't know which "version" the scheme is (I don't really understand those alpha, beta, 1.x, 1.x.y things). I still didn't use it on wormnet (because I wanna post its finished version with a new map), but I ran several 1x1 4-worms game (don't judge me for playing against myself :( ), covering a lot of strategies used by players. I tested it on wmdb 19645, and it's been running really well. The scheme isn't supposed to work on CERTAIN maps, but on every single one of them.



***** GENERAL OPTIONS *****



Stockpiling: 1:1:1
Wins Required: 1
Turns of Damage x2: 0
Water Rise by px: 0
Fall Damage: 100%
Weapon Crates: 100
Health Crates: 0
Utility Crates: 0
Health Crate Value: (any)
Indy Terrain: yes
Worm Select: no
Sudden Death: yes, water rise
Blood FX: I use it, but it's optional
Worm Placement: In casual games, multi-players, multiple 1v1 matches: no ; in tournaments etc: of course yes
Worms per team: 4 in 1v1, and 3 in multi-player (but, of course, that's very optional)

Starting Energy: 200
Turn Length: 30 seconds
Land Retreat: 5 seconds
Rope Retreat: 10 seconds
- - Standard shoppa scheme, not changing that, I think the numbers are pretty good.

Land Objects: Both, 8
- - Random factor to do combos (without them, you might as well play roper). The amount does well in both standard and big maps: not too much that in the first 4 turns 80% of the mines are blown up and the game becomes lottery.

Round Length: 100 minutes
Timer Display: Turn and Round
- - So that people can "keep track" of how long the match has been (not the exact length of course, because of hotseat and retreat time etc).

Hotseat Delay: 12 seconds
- - To players take a quick look around the map and think of some strategy.

Mine Fuse: 1 second
Dud Mines: no
- - I've been playing with 2 seconds and I think it's too much. 1 sec players can still activate and get away with good planning, but it becomes harder to dodge them when they touch it by accident. Random and dud mines: no way, that's too much game breaking luck, don't need to explain it.

Aqua Upgrade: no
- - I don't see why people use it, like a controlled flying sheep is not good enough by itself...

All these modes are "no":
Super Weapons, Team Weapons, Donor Cards, Anchor Mode, Action Replays, God Worms, Sheep in Crates, Grenade Upgrade, Shotgun Upgrade, Cluster Upgrade, Longbow Upgrade



***** WEAPONS - DAMAGE FACTOR *****

DMG: SchemeEddy Value
MAX: Damage dealt when the worm explodes itself in the smallest place possible, with indy terrain (so it does not include fall damage).
All weapons delay are set to zero.



***** WEAPONS - INITIAL AMMO *****




Ninja Rope: inf, 5*
Parachute: inf

Low Gravity: 1
- - Before HB came most of the games had it set to one (if I'm wrong please tell me). It's not like you NEED to use it multiple times in a single game, and it avoids HHG+LG abuse in wide open maps.

Bazooka: inf, 4*, DMG 55, MAX 48
- - Standard, 4* to make it the weakest weapon of the game (besides punch/bat/sometimes axe), but dealing the maximum damage possible.

Extra Notes:

1) Freeze: 0; I don't know why people started using it after HB came. Stalls one turn to get a crate, protects you from piles, all unecessary multi-player-only strategy, since in ktl it all tends to tie everyone @late game anyway.
2) Drill: 0; Another unecessary gimmick. Wanna deal damage without a crate damage? Or shoot anywhere to gain retreat time? Use the bazooka. Again, if I'm wrong just tell me.



***** WEAPONS - CRATES *****

I divided the crate weapons in 5 categories, strength related. The odds to get a weapon are considered ignoring the Select Worm odds (which stays at 0,5%). The percentage equals the number of "crates" that you edit (0-5 on the WA editor, and 0-12 - working properly - on scheme eddy)

** S Weapons ** 14%

5% Sheep Launcher 5*, DMG 90, MAX 85
2% Minigun  2*, DMG 80
7% Holy Hand Grenade 3* DMG 100, MAX 79
- - SL is the most powerful weapon of the scheme. Because it's one of the sheeps, with the most "annoying" trajectory if you're an amateur, I just think it fits perfectly. Minigun = standard, 80 damage is a good number: doesn't 2HKO, but it's easy damage when the opponent is near a wall, two hits leave the worm in the bazooka's killing range, etc. HHG is the strongest grenade, does a lot of damage with the massive knockback, no point on nerfing it too much, really.

** Clusters ** 8%

3% Mortar 5*, DMG 18, MAX 106
5% Cluster Bomb 4*, DMG 27, MAX 93
- - Low odds to get them: at the same time they're very powerful weapons, C.B. is very annoyng to have when no opponent is hiding in a tight space, and mortar doesn't do max damage every time with the bazooka trick. 11.5:1, or 2 in every 25 crates is good enough.

** A Weapons ** 25%

9% Dynamite 4*, DMG 82, MAX 69
6% Sheep 4*, DMG 82, MAX 71
9% Old Woman 4*, DMG 82, MAX 69
3% Shotgun 14*, DMG 74 (37/shot)
- - Section of good explosives, all dealing the same average damage, shotgun being a "nerfed minigun", but with its own characteristics and stuff (I put one ground weapon on each section, besides clusters and misc.). 5-sec standing explosive, jumping animal, and the old walking woman, pretty standard strong weapons.

** B Weapons ** 20%

7% Super Sheep 2*, DMG 67, AVG 63
8% Homing Pidgeon 2*, DMG 67, AVG 63
5% Homing Missile 19*, DMG 65, AVG 58
- - 15% of being dealt a good homing device, and 5% to get a slightly nerfed one. The reason for nerfing those weapons is that there are already big explosives in the game (the A Weapons), so if their power is the same it makes no sense, because the pidgeon becomes a better sheep, super sheep becomes an old woman, but easier to shoot. So I made those homing devices to do a little less damage, because they are easier to shoot, still can combo well with mines, piles, oil tanks and stuff, and, again, there are already good explosives in this scheme, no reason to make them as good as those.

** C Weapons ** 25%

10% Mine 19*, DMG 65, MAX 55
7% Grenade 5*, DMG 60, MAX 56
5% Petrol Bomb 5*, MAX ~130
3% Flamethrower 4*, MAX ~130
- - Mine and grenade are the weapons that you should use only because they deal more damage than the bazooka. Petrol bomb is a nice gimmick, I see no reason why it shouldn't be there. Flamethrower can deal some easy 60~70 in good conditions, and it's the ground weapon of the group (weaker than the other two, since it's harder to deal massive damage). I made the mine more powerful than the grenade because you get only one in crates, and grenades you get 3, so it's like a "bonus" - 7% to get 3 grenades, dealing some 55's or 10% to get one mine, dealing 55's and with better knockback properties than the grenade (which needs about 3 seconds to set up if you wanna make the opponent fly).

** Miscelaneous ** 8%

4% Battle Axe 3*, DMG 50%
2% Baseball Bat 5*, DMG 36
- - Battle Axe is an amazing weapon @early game or even late game, to deal up to 100 damage, while the retreat is poor. Bat  can combo with plop holes or mines. 2% for this "extremely situational gimmick" it's a fair amount in my opinion, since you can save it for the perfect ocasion WHEN you catch them. FIRE PUNCH WAS TAKEN OUT

Extra Notes:

1) Banana: Yeah, I'm not discussing about this.
2) Mad Cows: NO, I've played enough of this game to know that: people underestimate the power of these things, mainly because a lot of them play the cows poorly (like shooting the 3 @the same pile in an open space, etc), but they're VERY game breaking, and it doesn't require much skills to hit two isolated worms and save an explosive for later (I know I may be contradicting myself, but both characteristics are common among the amateurs). They're very easy to shoot too, since it walks continuously until it hits something, being a boosted sheep/old woman/dynamite. In my opinion it boosts the luck factor as much as the banana did back in the days. People might say "oh, but it can do combos, you need to be smart to use them, totally skill", and my answer is NO. Again, it does NOT require much skill to do the simple good combos, it's very easy to shoot it, even when it's just one cow, it's game breaking.
3) Skunk: just to make a point, I took it off of the scheme, because the conditions to use it have to be too perfect, only works better than conventional explosives in multi-players, don't see why to use it.
4) Other weapons: they're out because they're too powerful, or there are other weapons that do the exact same thing, and much better, or they're air strikes.
5) Some odds that might be important (if I'm being repetitive it's because I'm making a very important point):
- Odds of being dealt a ground weapon: 14%, or 6.14 to 1. More than half it's a gun.
- Odds of being dealt an extremely gimmick weapon (axe/bat): 6%, or 15.6 to 1. No point on whining about getting 2 baseball bats and 3 battle axes on the late game.
- Odds of being dealt a PETROL BOMB WTF IM GONNA DO WITH THIS SH*T: 5%, or 19 to 1.
- Odds of being dealt an annoying and "oh like I needed this, thank you game" cluster: 8%, or 11.5 to 1
- Odds of being dealt an EXPLOSIVE: 73% (53% common and 20% homing) or about 0.4 to 1. So every 10 turns you receive 7 BOOM STUFF from the crates, is that good enough? 3 turns using a bazooka, or one if you get grenades, is too much?



***** THE END *****

I don't know if anyone else has done this before or someone tries to every 2 months but I couldn't not post this. I would really like to play a good shoppa scheme every time I log in wormnet, not because I made it, but because I'm tired of playing unbalanced schemes and the stuff I made a point of @start of the thread.

I'll think about every comment posted here. I guess it's going to be hard for me change the power of the weapons, but the odds and general options are things that can be an issue to talk about.

Thank you for reading, really.

SpectreXS

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