Difference between revisions of "Tower Race"

Revision as of 05:18, 31 August 2021

	W:A replay: An example of a Tower Race game with Balee, KRD, ShootMe and Wyv.
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Tower Race is a rope-based scheme. It has several variations, both settings- and map-wise.

Objective

Depending on the variant played, the winning conditions may vary. Mostly, they are among the following ones.

• Reach the spot labeled Finish, End or any similar variation of these, or the map's highest point.
• Be the one to survive.

Details

WO icon

As stated above, this scheme has several variations, some of the changes being more subtle, some of them drastically changing the gameplay. Most of the games that can be seen on WormNet and are labeled as "Tower Race" are, in fact, a Rope Race variant, where the map mainly extends upwards (for example this map), but the game itself is not too different from Rope Race. The original scheme, however, is. The players start from the bottom of the map, and proceed towards the top. The maps are completely vertical, tower-like - hence the name (an example of the original maps can be seen here). Each of the players have two worms, and since there is no worm selection at the beginning of the turn, they are forced to use both of them. As soon as the short round time reaches zero, the water starts to rise in a very high rate - usually set using an external scheme editor. The water's rising speed forces the players not to make mistakes, but it is low enough to allow the players to keep both of their worms alive unless one of them falls. Usually the game ends when all but one player's worm(s) are alive, or if a player reaches the top.

However, there are a lot of variables in the game settings even when playing the original Tower Race. These variables include:

• Turn time - It is usually set to somewhere around 30 seconds, although more experienced players prefer lower turn times, sometimes going as low as 15 seconds.
• Round time - While the ideal time is between 100 and 120 seconds - to be more precise, a value which allows each player to take one turn with their two worms -, it is common to set it a bit higher when there are more than 3 players, or to set lower when there are 2, especially if the turn time is lowered as well, since that delays Sudden Death.
• Weapons - Certain weapons - usually a limited amount of mines and grenades - are included in order to get a couple of extra seconds so that the player can get his worm to safety. Some variants, however, allow - or even encourage - players to attack each other to gain advantage. For this, a couple of other weapons - eg. homing missile, banana, cluster bomb - can be added in limited amounts, although the power levels are usually set to a low value.
• BattyRope/TestStuff - Normally, BattyRope or TestStuff are not activated, since they take away the risk of falling at the end of one's turn, but on certain maps - eg. when the player has to climb high, single sided walls - it comes in handy. Generally speaking, they are not used unless absolutely necessary.

Variations

Despite what it looks like, this scheme, so far, has only one variation that is significantly different from the original. However, there is no set name for it, people usually call it "Tower Race" as well, which can cause misunderstandings.

"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 similar to turn-based Rope Races on big maps. In the past, weapons were sometimes added for gaining a little bit of time before the end of the turn, but this has fallen out of favor with the option added in WA 3.8 to enable automatic retreat time at the end of the turn and set retreat time to 0, achieving the same turn-ending effects as retreat time. Batty rope 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.

Tactics

• It is advised to concentrate on both worms instead of only one. While deliberately drowning one of your worms looks like an easy tactic towards victory, it is mostly frowned upon by fellow players as being unfair, and also, even a little mistake can lead to a quick defeat - not to mention if attacking each other is allowed.
• Generally, it is recommended that you spend your last 2-3 seconds to secure your worm's position. In case you can use a weapon, only do it if you really have to - they might come in handy when an extra couple of seconds would be vital.

History

The scheme has featured occasionally in competitions, appearing in the Worm Olympics in 2010 and 2012.