Black Hole Shopper

Game setup
Scheme
	Black Hole Shopper: Download View scheme settings
Map
	A big circle at the center + a circunference or terrain outside that center circle (to attach the rope) with a space in the middle for roping in circles around (examples: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], and [14]. Other maps that are playable: [15], [16], [17], [18], and [19]. Mappack.)
Worms
	Any number. Recommended: 2 or 3 per team

	W:A replay: An example of a Black Hole Shopper game with; YESS, ATMA and FoxHound; see the same game as a video
	Download · Info

(Up to Scheme ideas)

Black Hole Shopper also known as Gravity Shopper, or simply Black Hole is a RubberWorm scheme. It is a Shopper variant (although the original scheme and many variations don't have rules), but with the Black Hole feature (that makes the force of gravity act at the center of the map), requiring maps with a big circle at the center to play (often the maps represent a planet) + a circunference or terrain outside that center circle with a space in the middle for roping in circles around. The command "/arrows" is recommended to help finding crates on the map.

Sometimes it is possible to cause an infinite loop (worms rotating forever on the map) with the right angle, map position, and velocity. To avoid that, some schemes include a small value (but significative) of air viscosity (applying to worms) as a break system to the worm and make it hit the floor again to stop. Some players enjoy trying to make this infinite loop, since depending on the map + scheme it can be challenging, although it can ruin the match being played, forcing players to quit.

Variations

Indestructible land

The following schemes are played with indestructible land, just like the original scheme:

FoxHound's scheme

FoxHound released a map on 9th September 2009 with an attached file containing his own prefered RubberWorm settings, different from the original scheme. His scheme spawns only one single crate per turn with only AFR weapons, constant gravity (1.0), loss of control doesn't end turn, single shot, improved/unrestricted rope, rubber bounciness, no terrain mines (to avoid initial unbalanced health on the beginning), oil drums, infinite Low Gravity (to help roping), and one update to his original scheme: a small, but significative value for air viscosity (0.00085) to avoid infinite loop. The map rules state that it is mandatory to Crate Before Attack (CBA) and Kill The Leader (KTL), but AFR rule is not necessary.

Userc479's scheme

Userc479 released a scheme + map on 28th January 2011 on WMDB. The scheme's concept is basically "go crazy", with unlimited bazookas, cluster bombs and mines to drop indiscriminately with multishot. The scheme has some extra weapons (non-standard weapon powers), including infinite Jet Pack with 10 health or weapon crates spawning each turn (255 crates on the map at once is the limit), indestructible land, no terrain objects and is played without rules. It has also the following RubberWorm features: ts3 (unlimited speed for rope and projectiles, but normal jet pack), improved rope (unrestricted rope) and constant black hole gravity (1.0) with slight rubber bounciness. The author recommends orbiting and dropping mines and estimates around 10 minutes of game time.

Noon's scheme (edited by DassFass)

Noon released a TUS map on 22nd June 2017 with a scheme attached uploaded by him, containing indestructible land, multishot, 5 crates per turn, no bounciness (rubber) on worms, no improved/unrestricted rope, infinite low gravity, terrain mines (10), loss of control will end the turn, and weaker constant black hole gravity (0.37500). DassFass released two maps in 2019, one on 11th July and the other on 18th August. Both uses the same scheme file and almost the same settings as Noon's scheme, being a notable difference the removal of the x100 ammo for Bazooka at the beginning from the original.

Destructible land

The following schemes are more like Black Hole BnG in this aspect (destructible land), unlike the original scheme:

Tactics

The center of the map kills worms, so if the land at the center of the map be destroyed, it will be a very dangerous place to go. Avoiding falls and protecting the worms that are near the center is recommended.

sbs' scheme

The second of sbs' scheme + map Mutants Mission series called Worm-Hole Mission, released on WMDB on 20th September 2013, brought a scheme similar to the Black Hole Shopper ones, but with a destructible terrain. The rules are different because it is another scheme and concept (they are about destroying map objects). Scheme settings: Multishot, Loss of control doesn't end turn, improved/unrestricted rope, rubber bounciness, constant black hole gravity (1.0), 6 crates on the map every turn, no terrain mines (to avoid initial unbalanced health on the beginning), and infinite low gravity (to help roping).

DENnis' scheme

	W:A replay: An example of a BlackHole_FD game with ZorroX and danie; taken from TUS
	Download · Info

On 4th April 2020, few months before the release of v3.8 and the obsolescence of RubberWorm, DENnis released a map and also a different variation scheme on TUS one day later, without any rules. Maybe his scheme shouldn't be considered a Shopper scheme due to that, but it uses the same kind of maps and uses a lot the rope and also have many crates spawning. The terrain is destructible, there's water rising in Sudden Death and multishot. A promotion video was also released for the scheme. Scheme settings: zero starting ammo for low gravity (but there are utility crates), infinite Mole Bomb, infinite Air Strike, limited starting ammo for some weapons, terrain mines exist, improved/unrestricted rope, single shot, loss of control doesn't end turn, antisink on, small value for air viscosity (0.00587) to avoid infinite loop, wind influence applies to worms (0.21568), rubber bounciness, constant black hole gravity (1.0), and 4 crates per turn (max is 5).

Hilarious BlackHole_FD play.

IndiMask

The following schemes uses IndiMask to play on semi-destructible maps:

LIYO's scheme

This variation by LIYO released on 20th April 2011 uses a special map that has the inner yellow circle indestructible while the other pink parts are destructible. The map description says the scheme has the following settings (but there's no file attached to the map): jetpack(inf) rubber(58%) Cblackhole(g*1.0) rope+ craterate(7) cratelimit(15).

utquick's scheme

This variation by utquick was released on 20th January 2018, inspired in WWP's Ropes and Crates (RnC) scheme. The following RubberWorm settings are enabled: Cblackhole(g*0.3) sdet ldet crateshower viscosity(0%) version(297{3.7.2.1[TestStuff9]}) craterate(1) cratelimit(6) friction(99) knock(200).

Anti-gravity

Since most of the Black Hole Shopper maps have an external circunference of land, reverse black hole gravity (anti-gravity) works very well on these maps. Some players enjoy experimenting playing this way.

History

The first map released for this scheme was released on WMDB on 5th August 2008 by RUSH, with the following RubberWorm features/commands in the scheme: /ir, /ts3, /pbh20, /antisink. The scheme is not attached to the map, but thanks to ATMA that dug it from HDDs and thanks to YESS that contacted and uploaded it to WMDB along with the second oldest map known for this scheme (made on 8th August 2008 and released to the public only on 2nd August 2022), it is now recovered (since the scheme file has all features written on the description of the original Black Hole Shopper map and it is from same year: 2008 - so it is very likely to be the original Black Hole Shopper scheme). Acording to them they used to call it "Black Hole" but it was saved as "Black Hole battle.wsc". Note that the original scheme is played without rules on an indestructible map and is the only one from all its variations that uses proportional/linear black hole gravity, with a value of 240.00000 in v3.8's Extended Scheme Options or 212 on the crate probability of the Mail Strike when using a RubberWorm scheme file.

Similar ideas

Before this scheme

Surprisingly, Black Hole Fly WxW was realeased before Black Hole Shopper, by MORFsW on 28th April 2008.

TUS topic

There is a TUS topic about Black Hole Shopper, available here.

Variation chronology

RUSH (2008) -> Anti-gravity (2008-2009) -> FoxHound (2009) -> Userc479 (January 2011) -> LIYO (April 2011) -> sbs (2013) -> Noon (2017) -> utquick (2018) -> DassFass (2019) -> DENnis (2020).

	This article has a to-do list:
	Find or recreate LIYO's scheme Add a anti-gravity scheme file Add other variation replay files Add more images