Following on from Kikumbob's idea of circular mole maps (see the new patch maps thread), I've created two circular maps which contain "no placement pixels", it almost works perfectly, but not quite.

The idea was to stop the game from trying to place worms there, and since the game tends not to place worms on single pixels I came up with the idea of putting those pixels along the top line, where we don't want worms to be placed.

However, it's not perfect and I'm not sure what I need to do to make it so. The zip file I've linked to contains 6 maps, (3 versions of 2 designs). 'A' maps are just the images, 'B' maps have been saved via the editor and have as many holes as I could fit in using the editor, 'C' maps have had 48 holes cut in to the image itself.

With the 'A' maps, starting a game with one single worm tends to force the game into manual worm placement, indicating that no suitable location can be found. But with 'B' and 'C' maps worms (and\or mines and barrels) are sometimes positioned at the top.

The idea of circles, or indeed other shapes, for mole map designs seems to have some life in it, but I can't figure it all out on my own. Any thoughts?

Here's the zip. (http://rounddonut.co.uk/worms/circularmolemaps.zip)

Manual worm placement would solve it, but it might be tedious with lots of worms.

I've always found the problem with mole shoppers (that is what you're talking about, right?) to be that the initial (random) worm placement usually ends up giving someone a huge advantage, since if they have worms near the top then they can dominate the top of the map with relative ease, and it's the top of the map which gets the most crates (not to mention move easily over the map)

Manual worm placement would somewhat solve that as long as there was some rule forbidding placement in an occupied hole.

Anyway, instead of single pixels try an array of pixe-wide vertical lines, like an upside down comb

I've always found the problem with mole shoppers (that is what you're talking about, right?) to be that the initial (random) worm placement usually ends up giving someone a huge advantage, since if they have worms near the top then they can dominate the top of the map with relative ease, and it's the top of the map which gets the most crates (not to mention move easily over the map)
Of course, you can always add borders to the map.

Hurrell I tried one of the B maps, and found that most of the crates did materialise on top of the circle, which is just plain annoying. Although it is a great improvement from worms being automatically played on the top as well.

Maybe a future update could include the ability to designate a "placement area" for worms, mines, barrels and crates. Outside this area, nothing can be placed.

If a crate or mine can be placed there, I think that means worms can as well, I still need to do some more work at looking in to what will stop the placements and what will not. There must be a way...

I've seen crates land on single pixels, so it'll be impossible to prevent that, unless you manage to line the entire top surface with mines somehow :P

The other major problem with these awkward shapes is getting the holes. The game will end up placing holes out in the open air or only partially inside the main shape, continuously hitting reseed takes a very long time to find a seed that keeps everything inside and even then there aren't many in there.

It's a cool idea, but I don't see it picking up much speed.