Black Hole Shopper

Black Hole Shopper
Map
	A big circle at the center + a circunference or terrain outside that center circle with a space in the middle for roping in circles around (examples: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7] and [8])
Worms
	Any number. Recommended: 2 or 3 per team

(Up to Scheme ideas)

Black Hole Shopper also known as Gravity Shopper is a RubberWorm scheme. It is a Shopper variant, but with the Black Hole feature (that makes the force of gravity act at the center of the map), requiring maps with a big circle at the center to play (often the maps represent a planet) + a circunference or terrain outside that center circle with a space in the middle for roping in circles around. The command "/arrows" is recommended to help finding crates on the map.

Sometimes it is possible to cause an infinite loop (worms rotating forever on the map) with the right angle, map position, and velocity. To avoid that, some schemes include a small value (but significative) of air viscosity (applying to worms) as a break system to the worm and make it hit the floor again to stop. Some players enjoy trying to make this infinite loop, since depending on the map + scheme it can be challenging, although it can ruin the match being played, forcing players to quit.

Variations

Indestructible land

FoxHound's scheme

FoxHound released a map on 9th September 2009 with an attached file containing his own prefered RubberWorm settings, different from the original scheme. His scheme spawns only one single crate per turn with only AFR weapons, constant gravity (1.0), loss of control doesn't end turn, single shot, improved/unrestricted rope, rubber bounciness, no terrain mines (to avoid initial unbalanced health on the beginning), infinite Low Gravity (to help roping), and one update to the original scheme: a small, but significative value for air viscosity (0.00085) to avoid infinite loop. The map rules state that it is mandatory to Crate Before Attack (CBA) and Kill The Leader (KTL), but AFR rule is not necessary.

Noon's scheme (edited by DassFass)

Noon released a TUS map on 22nd June 2017 with a scheme attached uploaded by him, containing indestructible land, multishot, 5 crates per turn, no bounciness (rubber) on worms, no improved/unrestricted rope, infinite low gravity, terrain mines (10), loss of control will end the turn, and weaker constant black hole gravity (0.37500). DassFass released two maps in 2019, one on 11th July and the other on 18th August. Both uses the same scheme file and almost the same settings as Noon's scheme, being a notable difference the removal of the x100 ammo for Bazooka at the beginning from the original.

Destructible land

The following schemes are more like Black Hole BnG in this aspect (destructible land).

Tactics

The center of the map kills worms, so if the land at the center of the map be destroyed, it will be a very dangerous place to go. Avoiding falls and protecting the worms that are near the center is recommended.

sbs' scheme

The second of sbs' scheme + map Mutants Mission series called Worm-Hole Mission, released on WMDB on 20th September 2013, brought a scheme similar to the Black Hole Shopper ones, but with a destructible terrain. The rules are different because it is another scheme and concept (they are about destroying map objects). Scheme settings: Multishot, Loss of control doesn't end turn, improved/unrestricted rope, rubber bounciness, constant black hole gravity (1.0), 6 crates on the map every turn, no terrain mines (to avoid initial unbalanced health on the beginning), and infinite low gravity (to help roping).

DENnis' scheme

	W:A replay: An example of a BlackHole_FD game with ZorroX and danie; taken from TUS
	Download · Info

On 4th April 2020, few months before the release of v3.8 and the obsolescence of RubberWorm, DENnis released a map and also a different variation scheme on TUS one day later, without any rules. Maybe his scheme shouldn't be considered a Shopper scheme due to that, but it uses the same kind of maps and uses a lot the rope and also have many crates spawning. The terrain is destructible, there's water rising in Sudden Death and multishot. A promotion video was also released for the scheme. Scheme settings: zero starting ammo for low gravity (but there are utility crates), infinite [[Mole Bomb, infinite Air Strike, limited starting ammo for some weapons, terrain mines exist, improved/unrestricted rope, single shot, loss of control doesn't end turn, antisink on, small value for air viscosity (0.00587) to avoid infinite loop, wind influence applies to worms (0.21568), rubber bounciness, constant black hole gravity (1.0), and 4 crates per turn (max is 5).

IndiMask

This variation by LIYO uses IndiMask to play on a special map that has the inner yellow circle indestructible while the other pink parts are destructible. The map description says the scheme has the following settings (but there's no file attached to the map): jetpack(inf) rubber(58%) Cblackhole(g*1.0) rope+ craterate(7) cratelimit(15).

Anti-gravity

Since most of the Black Hole Shopper maps have an external circunference of land, reverse black hole gravity (anti-gravity) works very well on these maps. Some players enjoy experimenting playing this way.

History

The first map released for this scheme was released on WMDB on 5th August 2008 by RUSH, with the following RubberWorm features/commands in the scheme: /ir, /ts3, /pbh20, /antisink. The scheme is not attached to the map and is probably lost. Note that the original scheme is the only one from all its variations that uses proportional/linear black hole gravity, with a value of 240.00000 in v3.8's Extended Scheme Options or 212 on the crate probability of the Mail Strike when using a RubberWorm scheme file.

Recreation attempt of the original scheme

FoxHound decided to try to recreate the original scheme according to the little information available on the map description. He decided to take one examplar Shopper scheme, the chosen one is that hosted by HostingBuddy during v3.8.1, and typed the commands written on the map using a downgraded version of WA with RubberWorm installed (because v3.8.1 doesn't allow using RW commands), played a test game and extracted the scheme from the replay. The result is the scheme available here on the right for download. Feel free to add your own custom preferences for the scheme, like the ones from its variations.

TUS thread

There is a TUS thread about Black Hole Shopper, available here.

Variation cronology

RUSH (2008) -> Anti-gravity (2008-2009) -> FoxHound (2009) -> LIYO (2011) -> sbs (2013) -> Noon (2017) + DassFass (2019) -> DENnis (2020).

	This article has a to-do list:
	Find the original scheme Find or recreate LIYO's scheme Add a anti-gravity scheme file Add other variation replay files Add images

Black Hole Shopper

From Worms Knowledge Base

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