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Woolly World: Stage Research

ParanoidDrone

Smash Master
Joined
Jan 26, 2008
Messages
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Baton Rouge, LA
Someone suggested I cover Woolly World next. It doesn't have a lot going on, really, but there are a few oddities that may catch people by surprise.

Also, it's "Woolly" with two Ls.

Previously Covered
Skyloft
Garden of Hope
Mushroom Kingdom U
Wuhu Island
Mario Circuit

Layout
Woolly World has the dubious honor of having one of the most haphazard platform layouts of any stage in Smash, although Reset Bomb Forest's second form probably has it beat. The ground level is a walkoff, but the platforms are a motley combination of sizes, colors, and shapes. In addition, they are all hooked together as a hanging mobile, resulting in a stage-wide weight feedback system. Standing on any platform will tilt it relative to its center of gravity (marked by the yellow string holding it up) and lower its entire half of the setup while raising the opposite half.

The platforms themselves have varying properties. The blue clouds can be jumped through from below, but players cannot fall through them from above. The rocket is completely solid. The pink clouds and wooden beam are standard platforms.

Players 1 and 2 start on the ground near the edges of the platform setup. Players 3 and 4 start closer to the middle. The Omega form has walled sides.

Woolly World has no hazards, although the ground comes and goes. The platforms themselves can also appear in a mirrored configuration, although they do not change during a match in progress.

Ground and Sky
The stage undergoes a mild transformation. Every 30 seconds, the ground alternates between falling away and returning again. This is accompanied by a 5 second warning as a sign hovers behind the players, sound effects play, and the background shifts in preparation. The ground, when present, alternates between two different environments, although this is purely cosmetic.

An interesting quirk of the transformations is that the platforms can switch between having grabbable and not grabbable ledges. When the ground is present, none of the platforms can be grabbed. However, when the ground is missing, the blue clouds and the rocket have grabbable ledges. The switch happens fairly late in the transformation, when the ground is almost completely gone (or almost completely back).

The pink clouds and wooden beam never have grabbable ledges.

Name|Picture|Notes
Ground Platforms 1|
|Walkoff to both sides, platforms are sensitive to weight and will tilt around as players move. Platform centers of gravity are marked by the yellow strings.
Ground Platforms 1 (Mirrored)|
|The mirrored setup. Note that the rocket still faces the same direction.
Ground Platforms 2|
|The second ground environment. Purely cosmetic difference.
Sky Platforms|
|The platforms in the sky, after the ground has fallen away. The blue clouds and rocket now have grabbable ledges.
Warning Sign: Ascending|
|The sign that appears to warn players the ground is about to fall away. The background also undergoes changes in preparation.
Warning Sign: Descending|
|The sign that appears to warn players the ground is about to come back. The sign is identical no matter which environment is coming up.
Summary
  • Ground level walkoff.
  • Ground falls away and comes back every 30 seconds, stage gives a 5 second warning.
  • Platforms linked via weight feedback system, compare to seesaws or hanging mobiles.
  • Platforms have grabbable ledges only when floating in the sky, not when over the ground.
  • Platforms can be mirrored on match start.
 

Piford

Smash Lord
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Sep 17, 2014
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SuperZelda
Another great analysis! Can I recommend Orbital Gate Assault next?
 

Amazing Ampharos

Balanced Brawl Designer
Writing Team
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Jan 31, 2008
Messages
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Location
Kansas City, MO
Sure. I was under the impression @ Amazing Ampharos Amazing Ampharos wanted to look into that stage so I was deliberately avoiding it, but he's been busy with the custom move project lately so OGA probably fell by the wayside.
Yea, I'm sorry; the custom move project consumed all of my free time and researching Rainbow Cruise in space kinda fell by the wayside. Go ahead and beat me to the punch on that one; I probably have to accept that the stage research torch has been passed from the old days (your threads are a lot nicer than mine used to be).
 

Conda

aka COBBS - Content Creator (Toronto region)
Joined
Mar 1, 2008
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This inspires me to make a video series about stages in the way you've done these text+image based stage analyses. Great work, super informative.
 

Sinister Slush

❄ I miss my kind ❄
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SinisterSlush
I honestly think this stage can be a counterpick. When most stage lists are allowing permanent walk off stages like wii fit studio Boxing Ring and Coliseum, makes me want to try this stage out even more in tournament play.
People say the walk off and possible circle camping is bad for it, but two of the three stages I mentioned suffer from that too while all three have the walk off the entire match, especially since Boxing rings top platform is really high up and can cause damage while coliseum just feels incredibly huge + very high top platforms sometimes.

No bias just cause I'm a Yoshi main lol
 

Conda

aka COBBS - Content Creator (Toronto region)
Joined
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I honestly think this stage can be a counterpick. When most stage lists are allowing permanent walk off stages like wii fit studio Boxing Ring and Coliseum, makes me want to try this stage out even more in tournament play.
People say the walk off and possible circle camping is bad for it, but two of the three stages I mentioned suffer from that too while all three have the walk off the entire match, especially since Boxing rings top platform is really high up and can cause damage while coliseum just feels incredibly huge + very high top platforms sometimes.

No bias just cause I'm a Yoshi main lol
Good post. It's an intense counterpick though. Discussion will lead to the proper result, but we need that discussion first. Love the stage though :)
 

wildvine47

Smash Ace
Joined
Mar 19, 2009
Messages
964
Thanks for this! Hopefully it makes discussion on the stage's legality a bit easier now that we've got something to refer to. Still in favor that we set it as a counterpick for now and then figure out if the concerns about camping are legitimate via testing.

Also, any reason why this is here and not in the Academy?
 

WritersBlah

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Miami, Florida
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I'm really on the fence about Woolly World. (Funny, because I'm known as the stage liberal in my area.) For me, the fact that the stage is a walkoff half the time isn't really what bugs me. It's the platform organization. It's kinda messy and the lack of any central platform make fighting here confusing, not to mention the weight mechanics render a lot of projectiles useless on this stage. The only characters I can imagine benifitting from this stage are floaties like Peach or Jigglypuff, which...may not really be a bad thing, considering they haven't had much going in their favor outside of this stage. I dunno, I wish I could see some actual tournament matches on this stage and then base my judgment on that.
 

madworlder

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Nov 28, 2014
Messages
85
Has anyone taken the time to play on this stage for competition? A lot of my locals don't like it on account of walk offs or decentralized platforms, but nobody's been able to circle camp it successfully. It reminds me of Norfair in the sense of size and layout in some ways, but it's without the lava gimmicks. It's probably my favorite stage, I'd hate to see it thrown out.
 

Venks

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Walk offs are being allowed? I'm not against that in the least, but never thought the day would come.
Are there any tournament videos with games on walk off stages?
 

ParanoidDrone

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Walk offs are being allowed? I'm not against that in the least, but never thought the day would come.
Are there any tournament videos with games on walk off stages?
Woolly World's walkoff is only there half the time. That said I believe most people are worried about the platform arrangement rather than the walkoff anyway. I don't believe the layout lends itself to circle camping like some people fear, but I can see it making life very difficult for the likes of Little Mac and Ganondorf. (But isn't that what counterpicks and stage strikes are for?)
 

Venks

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VenksUSA
Woolly World's walkoff is only there half the time. That said I believe most people are worried about the platform arrangement rather than the walkoff anyway. I don't believe the layout lends itself to circle camping like some people fear, but I can see it making life very difficult for the likes of Little Mac and Ganondorf. (But isn't that what counterpicks and stage strikes are for?)
As a Little Mac main I don't really think he should even be considered when talking about stage viability. He's an extreme case compared to the 40+ other characters. I think limiting the stage list for his sake would be really limiting for everyone else.
Also I think a lot of time should be spent testing with characters before just assuming it's bad.

If anyone wants to hop on wifi to play the stage I'm totally down.
 

ParanoidDrone

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As a Little Mac main I don't really think he should even be considered when talking about stage viability. He's an extreme case compared to the 40+ other characters. I think limiting the stage list for his sake would be really limiting for everyone else.
Also I think a lot of time should be spent testing with characters before just assuming it's bad.

If anyone wants to hop on wifi to play the stage I'm totally down.
I agree, I think calling for stage bans because some characters don't do well is stupid and contrary to the whole point of counterpicks. Not to mention that the stage is chosen before the characters so...yeah. And Little Mac is indeed the most extreme instance of that sort of thing in the series so he's a super special case.
 
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