How about a game mode where both players have 6 jumps. Dont really know what the magic number is, could be 3.
There is LOS on the map.
All players start out at the same time and decide when to fire.
The jumps are like mini turns.
Also there are powerups. See the player in LOS at beginning of turn anywhere on the map. Regret a jump. Bigger blast on cannon.
Crashing into eachother throws you off course, so you begin somewhere you weren't when you ended a turn.
Flying from a crash does not remove LOS.
Its a game of calculating the lag. Your best chance is if you see a player at the start of a turn, your opponent will then be one hop away.
Who shot from where, where am i, where is the best place to get to, what do the other players know?
At the end of each turn, it is replayed, and you see all movement that has happened in the LOS you have removed.
You can blast yourself to rocket jump somewhere, this has more range than jumping.
Kinda like battleships, only you get to also move your battleships.
You can also deflect damage, which costs one life unless you are hit. Each player has 3 lives.
When a player dies it gets to see the replay of the whole round up untill that point. You are still in the game, and can trashtalk and cheat at will.
This adds an element to the game where you could be lying.
If its 2v2 or 3v3 it could be fun if the chat was realtime.
What is "LOS"?
I think I got the basic idea of your suggestions nevertheless. I think, I will try to stay as close as possible at the Worms gameplay, but with gravitation in space. However if I notice, that this idea doesn't work good, e.g. the game gets too hard or too easy, I will rethink your suggestion. But for now I hope, I don't need such a complex game play.
In fact your idea sounds interesting, but it doesn't need such a gravitation based level design.
LOS is the dark fog in games such as command and conquer. It stands for Line Of Sight. Maybe im using it wrong. Thats the only new mechanic i introduced. You kinda had it already, because each player doesn't see the whole map. It replaces the rather tedious 45 second of playtime/wait. During which you can be really bad at jumping, and if you see your opponent to shoot him in the face, well thats skill gone too. One could adjust the timer down to where you would need to be aware of your position, make up your mind quickly, and know the controls, but thats a stopgap measure. What made worms fun, briefly, was it was a new computer game, and it had crazy weapons. Strategy always wins in terms of gameplay value over time. Liero and teeworlds as live-worms is fun too, but too imbalanced and lacking in the strategy involved for it to be competitive for the beginner.
The gravitation based gameplay you have is really good for a thinking-mans version of it. Lets say you can shoot someone in both directions if the level is perfectly round. But you are giving your position away if you do it.
As an example:
Turn1
So i start my turn, i have 4 jumps. I decide to explore and not shoot firstround to not give away my position. So three forwards, then then one jump backwards.
I see someone jump into rougly where i was at my outmost on the replay.
Turn2
I know they havent seen me, so i anticipate my opponent jumping towards me to explore more, so i shoot one hop in front of their position. If i hit it still means 2 lives left on my opponent, so i have to be careful, but i also know they will see my start-position i had when turn 2 began on their second jump if i miss. I make many jumps in the opposite direction, because i know i can take cover on each hop doing so.
Turn3
I see i blasted my foe on the replay, but as i jumped in the opposite direction on my last hop, there is a flat plain, and someone else is also there. If there are multiple people in the game i can tell them where this is and call in the barrage of fire from my teammates. I miss this person, but i get shot in return, both from person on a plain, and the one i shot at turn 2. I have one life left, and im bleeding in the colour of my character.
It becomes a game of rock,paper, scissor, which is casual enough. I think maybe the tradeoff between lag and tactic is each player has 4 events to do something. You can do 4 jumps, or 3 jumps and one shot.
Rocketjump, crashing, deflect, regret jumping. All those arent needed. Invisibility could be one.
