why are they adding things like minimaps and not making the game playable

Just some possibilities:
-wrong priority order
-they noticed that they had to rewrite it nearly from scratch to make it proper

Yep, it still smells like a pile of wonderful...aromatic...dung Why the hell do I need a minimap if I'm frustrated just by playing the game ?!

PS: Graphics still looks unbelievably horrible.

I hate the football! It explodes on next turn!

0.8.5 is already out.

9.0 is out. The graphics are not better. The physics suck, and everything is extremely vague. Hedgewars is a game. Wormux is... a hobby?

LOL I think that HW started as a hobby too. And after all - it's important to have fun. I'm sure the devs and their community and players enjoy developing/playing Wormux. Same as here on the HW site and servers.

As long as somebody enjoys it...

Well, to be fair there have been significant improvements though (better stability, netcode, rewritten and nice AI, tools don't end turn now, etc)

Also I think the graphics weren't a real issue anyway, except their lack of a style guide - especially when it comes to maps.
The wx devs are aware of that, but they don't want to enforce any style guide yet as that would signficantly reduce the amount of available maps.

Anyway they did remove some old maps and replaced them with new ones already.

Furthermore wx/0.9 has been ported to the Nokia N900 recently.

Hedgewars is my favorite of course and that won't change. But wormux can still bring me some fun and diversion.

I am trying not to take your statement too serious, but please be careful not to use too harsh words for pointing out flaws in other games.
The wx devs really put a lot of effort in making the game more playable and it makes me unhappy to imagine that they read comments here that could offend them and make them go because of that.
Also they could start thinking we are e.g. wormux-haterz, which I know many of us aren't (although many aren't fans either)

  sheepluva <- me  my code stats -> 
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I'm sorry if I offend any wormux developers, but there is a difference between a hobby and a polished game. I used to make games as a hobby myself. Finished games? no. I don't think wormux will be a competition with this game until they're past that awkward adolescent stage.

I didn't know everything absolutely had to be a competition, lol. Can't both of these games co-exist without someone trying to make it into a war waging scenario?

I think this is not a war. We're competiting and WX is chasing us and it's close. (with the release of 0.9.0 everything changed) One of our developers was helping out in testing newest version of WX.

Sheepluva, when we are going to play?

EDIT: Our real opponent is the Worms 2: Reloaded... KILL IT WITH FIREEE!!!

Man... Hate that game... it totally sucks...
Hedgewars Rules!!

With all respect...
The pyisics are horrible, the name is sooo bad, (a copy, and there are not even a single worm, but, yes, i get it, it's because of the game type), the characters are awful, and weapons... they are hard to understand, work badly, and personally, i don't like them (if you haven't noticed )

Just my opinion though, sorry!

Wormux has actually lost the Wormsy feel and humour. Hedgewars had not and that's why I like it more then Wormux