I don't think it needs to be said that the Azure bomb scene has been decaying lately. It's grown rife with elitism and you can hardly post a bomb without someone telling you that Azures are better or post a bunker without someone bragging about how their super-cool Azure can totally wreck it in 0.053 seconds.

Thus, I believe that a more fun and competitive spirit can be achieved by creating a new ruleset that ends the overly centralizing reign of the Azure bomb and shifting the Bomb vs. Wall mindset to one of specific goals and challenges rather than trying to jack up some arbitrary number to prove that your bomb is the best there is.

This post exists to guage interest in this idea and garner feedback before we officially name and launch this new ruleset. We will happily fix flaws in this ruleset if you help us find them.

TL;DR

You can find a brief summary of the rules here with more details below.

The save below contains standardized timing electronics and provides helpful guides for the dimensions we require of walls and bombs.

GOALS

The goals of this new ruleset are to eliminate many of the overpowered and uninteresting strategies that can often be found in modern bomb and wall saves to encourage creative use of new strategies, create more engaging competition, and in general make the building of bombs and walls more fun.

We aim for walls to be presented as “challenges” for bomb creators to overcome. Walls should not be designed in the hope that they be able to resist any bomb, as bomb-makers will eventually discover a wall’s weakness and exploit it. This is a good thing! Don’t consider your wall a failure if certain bombs are able to destroy it. Similarly, expect walls to evolve over time. You shouldn’t aim to have a single bomb that can break any wall; target a specific wall or type of wall and get as good as breaking it as you can.

This ruleset is flexible and is expected to evolve over time. If a certain strategy becomes too dominant or centralizing, we may consider banning or restricting it to maintain a healthy competitive spirit.

RULES

This ruleset comes with a standardized definition of what it means for a bomb to have "defeated" a wall. The bomb must activate a line of detector wall covered in a layer of WAX beneath the wall within 1 minute (3600 frames) of being placed to count as a success.

2950324View Save 2950324 contains standardized EMP-proof timing equipment that starts a timer as soon as you place a bomb, and stops the timer as soon as you activate the detector.

The following clauses apply universally:

• “Common sense clause”: You know better than using the eraser tool, using mods, drawing in extra explosives after you initially place your bomb, etc. Don’t do this kind of stuff and don’t try to weasel your way around the rules.
• “Creation clause”: Any structure that is used to indirectly create a banned/restricted element is also subject to the ban/restriction i.e. CLNE may be allowed in a bomb but not if it creates VIRS. Only applies if the structure is used to create the banned/restricted element i.e. VIBR can be cloned as long as it is not used for its ability to create WARP
• “Tampering clause”: No structure is allowed to interfere with the operation of the standardized targets or timers used to determine if a bomb has destroyed a wall within the time limit.

WALLS

Walls must be built using 2950324View Save 2950324 with the following settings:

• Heat Simulation ON
• Newtonian Gravity ON
• Ambient Heat OFF
• Water Equalization OFF
• Air Simulation Mode ON
• Gravity Simulation Mode VERTICAL
• Edge Mode VOID

The following clauses apply to walls built under this ruleset:

• “Particle clause”: No wall may go above 100,000 particles in total before any bomb is detonated. This does not count radiation particles.
• “Size clause”: The wall cannot be more than 50 pixels thick before the wall is detonated.
• “Indestructibles clause”: No more than 5% (1 out of 20) of the walls total particle count can consist of indestructible materials. Additionally, indestructible materials may not be cloned in any way.
• “Spacing clause”: An indestructible particle (or a stack containing indestructible particles) cannot be placed within a 3x3 area of another indestructible particle. This is primarily to prevent walls from being built that use all of their indestructible materials to create a single impenetrable layer.
• “WALL clause”: The wall can not use any WALLs
• “Possibility clause”: Walls must be created in a way that allows them to be destroyed by rule-abiding bombs in practice, even if not within the time limit. (No DMND, etc.)
• “Waiting clause”: If a wall contains elements with artificially raised LIFE values that will eventually decrease to zero, it may be judged on how it performs after these particles have expired. Use of LSNS to keep life values is allowed, but LSNS counts towards the indestructibles clause.

The following elements are banned from use in walls and cannot be used:

• DMND: Too indestructible.
• CLNE: Too indestructible (immune to WARP/DEST).
• PCLN: Allows for overpowered interactions with CONV
• MERC: Has no legitimate use besides stalling/particle spam
• DRAY: Unlike CRAY, does not seem to have legitimate uses
• CRAY (w/PSCN): No legitimate use not covered by other forms of CRAY and may be used to erase bombs before they could detonate

The following elements are not outright banned but have restrictions placed upon them (outside of the Indestructibles Clause):

• CRAY: The material created by CRAY cannot extend beyond the wall boundaries before any bomb is detonated.
• CONV: must have a non-zero TMP
• QRTZ: cannot have a TMP higher than 10

BOMBS

The following clauses apply to bombs built under this ruleset:

• “Particle clause”: No bomb may go above 100,000 particles in total before detonating. Unlike walls, this includes radiation particles.
• “Size clause”: Bombs cannot be larger than 150x150 pixels before detonating.
• “Gap clause”: When placed, the lowest pixel of the bomb must be at least 50 pixels away from the highest layer of the bomb.
• “WALL clause”: Bombs may use only the following walls, and for any purpose:
  • EHOLE
  • STASIS WALL
• “Ghost clause”: Any material that can destroy, affect, or create elements through fully solid WALLs is banned for usage in bombs.

The following elements are banned for usage in bombs:

• DRAY: banned per Ghost Clause
• CRAY (PSCN/INWR): banned per Ghost Clause
• LIGH: banned per Ghost Clause
• PSTN: per simulation setting requirements, significant portions of walls could be pushed into the void easily
• VIRS: banned as it can destroy nearly all elements if not accounted for, and it requires specific counters (SOAP, CRAY, DRAY or CONV) that aren’t even fully effective
• AMTR: too powerful
• Non-explosive SING: too powerful
• ARAY: banned per Ghost Clause, as it may be able to interfere with the clock mechanism due to being able to signal through WALLs (see tampering clause)
• BOMB: too powerful

The following elements are not outright banned but have restrictions placed upon them:

• CONV: must have a non-zero tmp, ctype cannot be WARP
• WARP: cannot be cloned in any way (creation via VIBR/BVBR is allowed under the same restrictions per creation clause) and cannot be placed with a life value higher than 200, nor can it be raised above 200 by any means
  • WARP runs the risk of being an overly centralizing force, so we are prepared to add additional restrictions to it or ban it if necessary.
• DEST: very powerful, so a maximum of 1000 particles can be used per bomb (cannot exceed cap via cloning either)

Yeah, I hadn't considered CLNE. Considering it's pretty much as indestructible as DMND in this ruleset, and DMND is banned, I think a ban would be reasonable.