Difference between revisions of "Quickdraw"

Revision as of 13:22, 12 January 2024

10 seconds to rope and attack!

	W:A replay: An example of a Quickdraw game with lalo and Jago taken from Worm Olympics
	Download · Info

Quickdraw main weapons

Quickdraw is a battle scheme of 10 seconds of turn time that requires quick thinking and other skills. The basic principle of the scheme is to deal as much damage to your opponent whilst maintaining your worms as safe as possible, since the worms only have 55 hit points each and the main weapon of the scheme is the infinite Shotgun, along with the infinite 5-powered Ninja Rope that is useful to knock worms on the slippery tunnels of the maps or for a fast locomotion.

A normal turn is to think very well during the 10 seconds of hot-seat time, rope (and this means players have to plan exactly the specific point they will attach the rope, because it's important), land (separating some seconds for this) and use 2 shotgun shots ideally to kill at least 1 worm, and then, hide. The scheme has no crates.

For a "serious" game, it works best 1v1 (8 worms per player), or 2v2 (6 worms per player), but if played with more than 2 players an optional KTL (Kill The Leader) or ABL (All But Last) rule might be applied.

Detailed gameplay, tips and tactics

Saving weapons for Sudden Death is important: jetchute missile kill!

Quickdraw offers dynamic and creative gameplay: the hot-seat time provides precious time to plan precisely in a play and then the player has to execute the moves carefully and fast, since there are instant mines and a simple fall may cause 5 or more of damage which means that the worm now is murderable in a single turn with 2 shotgun shots. Sometimes only one shot of the shotgun is succesful, in other situations, the shots (especially the Longbow ones) can be used to slide worms on the tunnels or push a mine for greater damage. F3-key weapons are unlimited while the others have usually only a single ammo.

First turn you cannot attack (damage weapons have either 1 turn delay or 5), only hide your worms using transport tools like Teleport (x3 ammo), change worms with Select Worm (x3 ammo), use girder, or knock enemy worms with rope.

In desperate close combat situations, the physical impact weapons (the Fire Punch or the Dragon Ball for example), along with the Battle Axe and the Baseball Bat (these last two being good for piles) are crucial, while the long range weapons of the game (incredibly the single Mole Bomb is one of them, along with the 5-turn-delayed Homing Missile) should be used wisely, usually saved for the Sudden Death that does not take too long to happen. The Mine and the Grenade (this last one can be shot from far away, but usually it is safer to drop it from rope or from ground if it's an easy shot) are also very strong weapons of the game, with 5 turns of delay too. Keep in mind that in Quickdraw the retreat time is 6 seconds (either from ground or rope), and that attacking from rope in this scheme is something rare and the retreat time while on rope is very precious for a good hide, to escape from a future attack, or even aproach offensively to the opponent, because the worm can go very far under this condition during this time. The same goes to the single Jet Pack that usually is more versatile, faster and more valuable than the rope to attack and hide (remind that if the fuel ends, Parachute can be activated: this is especially useful on the very top of the map).

In sum: the most important, precious tools to be saved and used wisely are: Jet Pack, Homing Missile, Grenade, Mine, Select Worm (x3 ammo, useful for saving worms from plop, or getting early easy kills while not wasting time controling an isolated worm) and Mole. Wasting them may cost a match.

Low Gravity and Fast Walk are infinite. The first being useful to push enemy worms further, and also hiding the worm being controled at a higher spot during the retreat time, after using a ground weapon (such as shotgun). The second being useful to save time especially on tight tunnels (map editor's brush size number 2). The Girder (no delay) and its starter pack (5 turns of delay) have grater radious than usual (girder power is 5 stars), being useful to protect your worms from plops, block enemy worms, create bridges, and protect from attacks, especially against long range ones, like Homing Missile, Mole, or Grenade. Parachute is useful to land safely after rope knocks and for movement, usually combined with jumps.

The Freeze can be good to advance on the map for a future attack with safety or protect worms if you failed to execute your plan on a turn and just have few seconds left, however it can be countered with a mine (specially if the next about-to-be-unfreezed worm to be controled is not the one with the mine, as it can escape on the very first seconds with the aid of the rope) or with the single Pneumatic Drill (if used like a kamikaze downwards, absent from the scheme). Pneumatic Drill is also very useful to hide from missile and shotgun attacks on the very top part of the map, while the single Blow Torch is very useful to aim horizontally (0°) with the shotgun at the very top area of the map, protect from attacks, open a tunnel for an attack and also kill worms crossing the terrain. Teleport can be useful to save worms from disastrous turns (as a workaround or plan B during the last seconds), water (especially in Sudden Death situations), terrain mines or Oil Drums; get advantage of the enemy turn order; or telecide. Baseball Bat is ocasionally powerful because it can launch worms to the water (either plop holes or out of the map), into the instant mines, knock worms and be used behind a wall.

How to make maps

Quickdraw map

1. Take a random dual-layered cavern map with a substantial land mass in the Worms Armageddon map editor.
2. Use the number 4 brush and right click to carve completely random passages all over the map (swash the cursor a couple of times), making a good few plops on the floor.
3. Select the number 2 brush and do the same. This will create many smaller passages, just big enough for worms to walk through, making great hiding spots and sentry points.
4. Any texture may be used, however the ones that work best are Hospital, Manhatten and Beach, since they stay true to the original map image, and will not distort thin terrain. Select (around) 10 objects and press the reseed button until you find a good gameplay layout.

This process should take no longer than a minute, meaning that a "random" map can be played every time.

Note: some players prefer to play on maps that do not have big opened areas. And most maps designed by NAiL were made this way, usually with dots or other drawings to fill the empty space. The original map instructions don't specify this detail, but they say that the map must be with "substantial land mass", so probably big holes were not desired for an ideal map. Open areas will have a strong impact in the early game, considering worms, oil drums and land mines spawns, not to say that roping is a lot easier and faster on these areas. Another thing to consider on Quickdraw maps is the number of tunnels and hides, some players prefer maps with more tunnels and hides.

Criticisms, problems and weaknesses

The ammo of the long range weapons in Quickdraw is scarce. If a player waste all the ammo, or worse, if both players waste this ammo, in the late game, they will have troubles to reach or attack each other. So, performing an attack in this situation can be really risky and cost the game if the player fail, because it will end the turn closer to the opponent. This might make players darkside for a long period of time, and sudden death may cause a draw if no one risk an attack.

History

WO icon

Quickdraw was created by NAiL probably in 2009 or 2010, since the scheme was the winner of the first edition of the Worms Scheme Contest, scoring 80 points. The "Scheme of the Year" only received the prize of the contest around 10 years later (and not by the contest's crew): an article on this wiki (appearing on the Schemes page).

Maps

• On 14th July 2011 NAiL uploaded a mappack to TUS containing 100 Quickdraw maps.
• On 3rd June 2023 Kaleu uploaded a mappack to TUS containing 25 maps.
• On 5th June 2023 FoxHound uploaded a mappack to TUS containing 88 .BIT regular terrains + these same maps (88) with reseeded custom terrain objects = 176 maps.
• On 5th June 2023 Quickdraw received a proper map category on TUS map database.

Competitive events

The scheme has featured in competitive events:

Tournaments

In the Worm Olympics for the years 2010, 2012 and 2013.

Cups

In cups on The Ultimate Site for the years 2011 and 2023.