Difference between revisions of "Rope Race"

Revision as of 04:04, 5 April 2022

	W:A replay: An example of a Time-Trial Rope Race game with Mablak, Flori and Yanme; taken from Worm Olympics
	Download · Info

Rope Race, also referred to as RR in worms terminology, is a Ninja Rope-based racing-style scheme where players must navigate a specially-designed map, using only the Ninja Rope, to reach a finish line from a designated starting point. The player to reach the finish line first, or in the shortest time, wins the game.

Description

Game setup
Scheme
Rope Race: Download View scheme settings
Map
Specially-designed map Examples at the WMDB
Worms
One worm per team

Players begin by each placing their single worm on the designated starting location.

They then take turns to progress as far as possible along the race course, using only the Ninja Rope (with the Parachute as contingency for an accidental fall). No weapons are provided. The map is indestructible and the worms have infinite health. The power setting of the ninja rope is set to 5, so that players can use repeat swings as many times as they like.

The first player to reach the designated finishing point wins the game.

The scheme is supported by HostingBuddy.

Rules

• Place at the start - Players must place their worms on the spot labelled Start, S, or similar.
• No rope knocking - Players must not rope knock.
• No shortcuts - Players must take the path intended to be taken by the author of the map. This usually means that they must: follow any arrows pointing which direction to go; stay outside the map boundaries as short a distance as possible; and if there are no arrows directing a turn at a crossing path, go straight without changing direction. If there are no suitable map markers, players must use their common sense to determine the correct path.

It's generally recommended that players, when joining a Rope Race game lobby on WormNET, use the term "STF" (standing for Start To Finish) to indicate to the host that they understand the concept of the scheme and will follow the rules.

Variations

Time-trial Rope Race

Time-trial rope race or TTRR is the name given to the current standard rope race variation (introduced by Dextah090), due to its difference from the original variation, which was turn-based. In time-trial rope race, players note the turn time taken for each player to reach the ending point of the race from the starting point. The winner is the player with the lowest noted value.

This variation is supported by HostingBuddy.

Turn-based

Worms Armageddon originally did not permit unlimited turn time, until this feature was introduced in the v3.6.19.17 Beta Update, so rope races had to be turn-based. This meant that players would take turns to make progress along the race course, usually 20 or 30 seconds per turn. Those who died (i.e. to drowning after a fall, if the map was designed to include such a hazard) while racing had to start their turns from the beginning, giving their opponent(s) a great advantage. This advantage does not occur in the standard time-trial variation.

In the turn-based variation, a tie between two similarly-skilled players is likely because the number of turns taken to complete the map may be the same. In the case of a tie, the players may decide among each other to restart the map from the beginning with another worm or race back to the start with the worms who reached the finish, effectively doubling the length of the race.

When played on big maps this variation is commonly called Big Rope Race or BRR.

This variation is supported by HostingBuddy.

In Worms 2 and Worms World Party, there is no option to allow an unlimited turn timer, so rope racing must be turn-based.

Tower Rope Race

As defined above, this variant is basically a mixture of Tower Race and Rope Race, with a not-so-slight bias towards the latter. The gameplay itself is the same as Rope Races' on big maps: sometimes weapons added for gaining a little bit of time before the end of the turn, or BattyRope can be activated so that the worms stay attached to the rope, which comes in handy on certain maps.

Even though this modality is similar to Big Rope Race, it still has a significant difference, since usually Tower Rope Race maps have challenging different obstacles that sometimes are very creative, different from the standard maze-like Big Rope Race maps which very often follow a pattern (specially when made using a program): the same height and width through all the map. The Teleport is often mandatory in Tower Rope Race scheme, since sometimes players may fall a long way back and this is not good for a competition or for the fun. Usually players tend to apply a rule that you are allowed to teleport back to the previous area you were (before falling), similarly to using "Save State" when playing a game in an emulator.

Trick Race

Main Article: Trick Race

In this variation, the player has to do specific rope tricks, according to the name of them on the map.

Low Gravity Rope Race

In this variation, each player must enable the low gravity utility before beginning their roping.

Roping significantly changes when low gravity is activated. Climbing is significantly faster in low gravity for obvious reasons, while the main challenge is to have a high descent speed. The Shadow, a rope trick commonly used in rope races, slows descent speed significantly with low gravity enabled, forcing players to dramatically change their roping styles.

Powered-down ropes

In this variation, the rope power is set lower than the normal power setting of 5, so that the player has a limited number of rope attachments. This makes roping through the map significantly more strategic, as the player must account for the possibility of their rope attachments running out before they reach a sufficient spot to fire a new rope. Winning games with these settings relies heavily on using the Parachute to cut down time between rope uses.

Cannon Rope Race

In this variation invented by JoE (source) the map features a number of "cannons", and when the player reaches a cannon, they must place their worm in it and throw a banana bomb inside. The explosion should send the worm to the next segment of the rope race. The rest of the race is played identically to the turn-based variation.

Check Point Rope Race

WO icon

	W:A replay: An example of a Check Point Rope Race game with ArtiC and Karlos; taken from Worm Olympics
	Download · Info

In this variation, the player has unlimited Teleports and there is a sequence of check points along the race course marked on the map. If the player doesn't reach a check point at the end of the turn, they must teleport back to the last check point that they reached.

This variation has featured in competitions, appearing in the Worm Olympics of the years 2010, 2011 (+ its winter) and 2012. It may have appeared in 2008 or 2009 WOs too (needs checking in the archive) and there was a cup attempt on TUS that was rejected.

Mine Runner

In this variation, the player has to avoid mines while roping. The map is filled with as many mines as it will take, as the scheme specifies the maximum number of 255. Low Gravity, Bananas and Teleport are provided in infinite supply. The bananas are provided to allow retreat time while at the same time causing big explosions to blast the mines around. Two additional rules come into play with this scheme:

• No kills - Players must not kill other worms.
• Use only rope to progress - Players must not use the teleport to progress along the race course. Players must only teleport to the last place they touched following an accidental death or fall.

This variation was invented by ShAdOwFoRc3, probably in 2008 (the oldest upload date of his two uploads to the Blame The Pixel site).

Surf Race

In this variation the maps are much wider than they are tall, since they are focused on making players rope to skim the worm on the water. Some maps still have the tradicional mazes of a RR map on some short parts, but on most of the map, there is a lot of empty space with water to surf and some isolated circles, to the worm attach the rope, position itself, adjust very wisely the aim and be able to swing strongly. Without RubberWorm or v3.8's extended scheme options the scheme requires TestStuff and many worms. After v3.8, anti-sink feature will prevent any drownings in a way that a single worm per player is enough and TestStuff features can be included in the scheme too. Some maps require Low Gravity to reach the finish and some were designed to be played without it.

The origin of this variation is unknown but it has existed since 2008 at the latest, with the earliest known map for it authored by KiN and uploaded to the Worms Map Database in May (almost June) of that year. A similar concept (but a bit different) named Water Race was released 2 days before by player Enlil.

Baseball Bat RR

Baseball Bat RR (known at the time as Baseball Bat Race) is a variant created by Fredalot. It's played on maps designed as circuits, though longer circuits than a Wascar and more closely resembling regular Rope Race maps. The turn time is 15 seconds and the goal is to lap your opponents. If a player gets a whole lap ahead then they're allowed to hit or kill the worm they passed with an overpowered baseball bat, hence the name of the scheme.

Crate Race

Main Article: Crate Race

There is a variation of Baseball Bat RR called Crate Race. It has more than 15 seconds of turn time and there are some crates that may help with some extra (retreat) time.

PX

Using a Project X scheme and special maps, Rope Race can be played in a different way. Worms start with a limited health and must reach check points (just like Chack Point Rope Race) in order to go further on the race. However, the maps have zones that spawn objects or weapons, such as Mines or Bazookas that will easily kill the worm if the player doesn't dodge the explosions and the projectiles. If the worm dies, it will reborn on the previous checkpoint it reached. A gameplay video shows how this scheme works.

History

Rope Race has remained a popular scheme since Worms 2, released in November 1997. Although the precise origin of the scheme is unknown, it is likely to have been created in 1998. Over the years, several Worms 2 players have been named as the supposed inventor of Rope Race, including Simpsons (source) and Mojo (source).

The scheme has featured consistently in competitions, appearing in every year of the Worm Olympics from 2006 to 2016, and in cups and tournaments on The Ultimate Site between 2011 and 2020.

See also

• RRkit (website)
• RopeRacing for Dummies (website)

External links

• Rope Race on Nanacide

	This article has a to-do list:
	add replays for several variations add wmdb links for tower rope race and mine runner add image move TTRR scheme to main game setup box add another link to checkpoint race maps add links for PX RR maps and schemes