Difference between revisions of "Boom for Weapons"

Revision as of 22:10, 23 September 2020

	W:A replay: A demonstration of how to play Boom for Weapons. With FoxHound.
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The concept of Boom for Weapons or BfW is a combination of Boom Race and Walk for Weapons. It is an anchor mode race about blasting your own worm (just like Boom Race) but this time the indestructible maps are filled with weapon sprites on the whole floor due to the mandatory rule of only using a weapon if the worm being controlled is adjacent to a sprite of that weapon (just like Walk for Weapons). The scheme takes Boom Race to another level, since it encourages the use of many different weapons; including Ninja Rope, Jet Pack, and even the Parachute; exploring a specific situation, allowing interesting combos sometimes (Walk for Weapons characteristic). Most (not to say all) Boom for Weapons schemes use RubberWorm settings (emphasis on multishot, antisink and glue features). Phased enemy worms + weapons + damage (/boom) is recommended (already included at the available scheme).

A map + scheme association: there is not a universal scheme for Boom for Weapons. Maybe one day people elect a generic one (the original scheme is updated to v3.8 with almost all weapons, removing only the ones that could cause trouble, and it could be a strong candidate to a possible generic BfW's scheme), but usually each map has its own scheme settings (since they explore different mechanics), usually the settings are very similar (at least until 2020), with differences on the chosen weapons and especially the Jet Pack's fuel or the Ninja Rope number of shots.

Boom for Weapons: amazing combos!

Game manual

Rules

Mandatory

• STF (Start to Finish) - Players must place their worm at the start and reach the finish.
• Use the pictured weapon/tool you are standing on - Players must use the weapon represented by the picture their active worm is standing on.

Optional

• Save State - As if the game were being played on an emulator, players can use the "save state" feature whenever they want, if they fall into a place that they have already passed, teleporting or moving back to the most advanced part they have been to.
• Situational Save State - Same as above, but only if players fall into a very distant place.

Objective

The first player to blast his/her own worm using the determined weapons on the map and reach the finish will be the winner.

Issues

• Sometimes a map is not well tested enough and some weapon sprites don't work well on the chosen spot, they can even cause an incosistence in the game, locking a player forever in a certain part. When this happens, the ideal is that the map author fix that part of the map, but while in game, players can agree to adjust the worm's position better with the jet pack (usually moving a few pixels only), or use another weapon instead.
• Shotgun's second shot may trouble a bit, usually it is just spent shooting the air, but this may vary if the map mentions something about this (the original BfW map allowed shooting the shotgun's second shot to progress even standing on a different weapon sprite).
• When the worm is between two weapon sprites, usually the player will be able to choose the best weapon to advance the race.
• Sometimes a player may fall or go back to a previous area due to a bad choice, a bad aim, a bad shot, a mistake or whatever reason. Usually the maps explore these situations forcing the player to pass that entire part in a row, but in some situations the player will go back too much, on a distant area, sometimes standing on a hard part again. So, it all depends on the players agreement, if they think falling back so far is annoying, they may agree to allow players teleport or move to where they were before the mistake or at the most advanced part they were on the map (see Situational Save State in Optional Rules). Otherwise, a simple mistake can cost the game to a player, doing the same (sometimes long and hard) part again while others advance normally. Players may even agree to teleport to the most advanced part they had reached every single mistake they do that causes falling to an area they already passed (see Save State in Optional Rules). This would avoid doing the same areas again and would reduce stress or irritability of the players, but could make players skip easily the map author's intentions of keeping the players stuck on a series of movements until they do all of them correctly in a row, being sometimes not an ideal gameplay experience, like an "easy mode", abusing of this "Save State" rule.
• Most (not to say all) BfW maps use multishot, antisink and glue (100% friction) features, since the original map uses a scheme with these RubberWorm settings. Specifically the glue might be annoying, less fun or at least confuse some people. This might change with time however, if players create maps for standard or different physics and people like playing this way. Note that, in theory, BfW can be played even without multishot.

History

	W:A replay: Anti Sink Boom Race with FoxHound, Naruto, F8R and MB77
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The author FoxHound, which is a Boom Race fan (specially with the multishot feature of RubberWorm, since he began playing Boom Race in WWP where there was a wormpot capable of doing that) and also an admirer of the interaction from the map with the scheme when playing WfW. He had a good experience playing Boom Race with RubberWorm settings for some time, specially with the release of his Anti Sink Boom Race map which has few important zones highlighted with different colors with weapon tips (not rules) with sprites to pass on some parts like a huge fly, a surf or a thin terrain. That map, influenced him to create a new scheme concept that forces the use of specific weapons. The Boom for Weapons idea came true with the release of the scheme along with the map in WMDB on 6th October 2009, after a bit of inspiration and time creating the map and testing the scheme. Three years after the release, BfW started to gain more popularity when sbs created more maps based on that first one, using similar schemes (usually same physics but with more arsenal). Due to his influence, more players started developing maps: in 2014 DanielXdx started to contribute, in 2017 xyz started to contribute and in 2019 nelson-01 contributed.

Note that Boom for Weapons is not the first WMDB upload using the elements of Walk for Weapons on a race map. The first map upload with this concept is WFW Race by Braska, released around 1 month earlier than the first Boom for Weapons map. Around half a year later BWFWHRR by vaguener2 was released. The 3 concepts were released at a similar time, and probably the ideas were developed independently. Boom for Weapons was the only one to exclusively focus the WfW elements on a Boom Race game only, though. Other maps mixtured WfW elements with other schemes at that time (e.g. WFW+BNG and bna wfw), but still being battle games (as WfW is).