Revision as of 14:50, 2 March 2007

This page contains a huge amount of content regarding the editors in Worms and how they could be improved, and what the implications would be. The amount of customisability these editors, if real, would provide is staggering, and it really is difficult to imagine all the possibilities that would result.

The editors in Worms Armageddon, specifically the weapons editor, already provide customisation to a huge extent. They are probably one of the most powerful set of editors in all the games that have ever existed. And the results of this customisation is clear: WormNET is swarmed by dozens of schemes of immense variation. Some schemes hinge on just a few options being available, and yet are wildly different in result.

It is not hard to imagine then that the more options you have, the more scheme variation that will result. And the more control players will have over those schemes. The editors proposed on this page would wield a mind-boggling amount of this power, containing almost every option you could ever desire.

There is, however, a drawback. Many people see extra customisation as a bad thing. Their arguments hinge on two important and perfectly respectable points: firstly, it would overwhelm people with options and put them off, and secondly, it would be much much harder to find an online game which didn't involve settings you don't like, as there would be far too many options to check before giving the green light to start the game.

However I don't believe there can be 'too much' customisability, and the above problems each have solutions.

In regards to the first point, let me start by saying that a new player can easily be overwhelmed by the options that already exist in Worms Armageddon. With 60 weapons to edit and a myriad of extra game options, it's just not sensible to expect people to learn the ins and outs of these editors within a couple of weeks at least.

Sure enough they will be more overwhelmed with the editors on this page, but for that there is a solution: simply have separate Simple and Advanced editors. The Simple editors would essentially be the same as those in Worms Armageddon - designed to give the player the ability to whip up a scheme in a few moments. The Advanced editor on the other hand would contain everything, and players would be expected to spend perhaps dozens of minutes fiddling and honing their scheme to perfection.

This Advanced editor would not be accessible from the host-join lobby on WormNET, but only the front end, otherwise Hosts may get lost in the sea of options and other players would be left waiting.

The second point has an equally simple solution. Three solutions, in fact, which are not mutually exclusive. These solutions are described in the Scheme Comparator page.

Weapons Editor

For changing all the parameters of the weapons.

Game Editor

For editing the game options.

Map Editor

For creating and managing maps.

Other Editors

Scheme Comparator ,Weapon Factory and Dependency Changer.