Online game: Urban Dead

Comando293 · Post by **Comando293** » 2005-11-19 01:35pm

The giddings mall in Ptneyback is being overrun, any other places can be returned to life in a nearby suberb?

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2005-11-19 03:08pm

All human survivors, fight your way to Caiger Mall and join us! There's usually an enterable building a few blocks south of the mall, so make sure you have Free Running. We've been holding out against 350+ zombies for days now.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2005-11-19 03:11pm

Screw that, I like living, I'm getting live reports from inside[thanks to you] and from the horde.

War correspondent ahoy.

Comando293 · Post by **Comando293** » 2005-11-19 03:22pm

Does anyone know of a place near pitneybank that I can get revived from?

SylasGaunt · Post by **SylasGaunt** » 2005-11-19 08:39pm

Can Someone PM me with the location of the SDN safehouse? I finally made my way to Grigg Heights with my military char.

Dangermouse · Post by **Dangermouse** » 2005-11-19 08:44pm

SylasGaunt wrote:Can Someone PM me with the location of the SDN safehouse? I finally made my way to Grigg Heights with my military char.

I sent you the location.

This Caiger Mall siege is lasting longer than I was hoping.

Post by **Dalton** » 2005-11-19 08:58pm

I've joined up as Daltonator.

Post by **fgalkin** » 2005-11-19 09:12pm

Dalton wrote:I've joined up as Daltonator.

Where you at? I might take you under my wing if you're anywhere near me.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Qwerty 42 · Post by **Qwerty 42** » 2005-11-19 10:48pm

out of curiousity, how does one defeat a zombie horde? Obviously, based on the recent successes the RRF has enjoyed, such things are uncommon, but they do happen, such as what happened with PARA and the Many. How does that work, though? If you kill a person you've zombified them, but if you kill a zombie then you've bought 5 hours at most, unless you syringe them, but surely a zombie defense doesn't revolve around syringing everything. Do they just fight until they fall or the horde gives up, or what?

Dangermouse · Post by **Dangermouse** » 2005-11-19 11:24pm

Qwerty 42 wrote:out of curiousity, how does one defeat a zombie horde? Obviously, based on the recent successes the RRF has enjoyed, such things are uncommon, but they do happen, such as what happened with PARA and the Many. How does that work, though? If you kill a person you've zombified them, but if you kill a zombie then you've bought 5 hours at most, unless you syringe them, but surely a zombie defense doesn't revolve around syringing everything. Do they just fight until they fall or the horde gives up, or what?

Caiger Mall right now is working on the definitive textbook for holding out against hordes. The basic plan is you barricade after a breach up to heavily. You then, and only then, kill and dump the zombies inside. If you get infected and hurt, you retreat to a sector via freerunning. It take a large number of survivors to pull off and you need to be near a location with good resources (a mall) and syringes. You can also rotate teams from an adjacent building into the attacked building.

Qwerty 42 · Post by **Qwerty 42** » 2005-11-19 11:25pm

but what would stop the zombies from continuing the assault, as in the case of the first Giddings Mall siege with PARA?

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2005-11-19 11:32pm

If they get bored. Caiger Mall is going to fall. Eventually. If a survivor gets killed, he has to find a NT tech with a syringe to revive him and avoid getting headshotted by his former buddies. And if there is a major breach and hundreds of zombies pour into any given sector, that sector is basically lost and we're only holding 3 quarters of the mall and we've lsot half our strength. If a zed gets killed, at worst, he spends 10AP to get up, and usually only 1, and they're back to hammering on the barricades.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2005-11-20 12:24am

Regarding hordes I'll quote Petty

This is something I've discussed from both sides of the issue.

The simple fact is, humans cannot win set-piece battles against a sizable horde. The fact that they always will win the initial skirmishes causes them to delude themselves into thinking they can win the war.

The much-maligned Ankle Grab skill is there to compensate for the human player/zombie player imbalance, running a bit over two to one in favor of the humans, last I saw. After all, the strength of the horde is the endless wave attack.

Now, how do you defeat the horde? Short answer, you don't. Another horde's player put it best on the unofficial board- they're like the weather. You don't shoot at a hurricane. You batten down the hatches and ride them out. The problem with facing them straight-up is that you can knock them down all day long and they'll just keep bouncing up and laughing in your face.

Quite literally, in the case of my horde. We have dedicated meatshields who take pride in absorbing the fire for their fellows. These are the ones who take the majority of fire on the first day or two while the survivors are busy deluding themselves into thinking they can win against a siege.

Then the achilles heel comes in, as ammo supplies have vanished in a blazing orgy of destruction, the survivors are contending with the infections from the various failed assaults, and the defenses crumble all at once. These sieges end with lightning speed, typically, as the breakthrough comes and the death toll starts rising. Giddings technically lasted five days, but the bulk of our forces didn't arrive until the latter three days, and the 'impregnable fortress' actually held out worse than Hildebrand mall. But then, Giddings was always overrated simply because they managed to beat half The Many anyway.

Now, how do you fight a long-term war with a horde? It's doable, but it involves frustrating them.

Humans have the following advantages- Firepower, on the short term. A maxed-out, fully loaded human can drop between three and five zombies on a single pass, with a bit of luck. This is balanced, however, by the need to scrounge for ammo.

Fortification- Not for the reason most of the kiddies think. Remember what uncle Patton said about fixed fortifications, it's doubly so in this game due to the endless wave a horde can throw at any position. No, the key with fortification is that every AP spent by a human on it, at least 3-4 APs on average by a zombie player. Remember what I said before on the private board, the most critical resource of the game is AP. You can't attrite a horde in a meaningful fashion. You can, however, attrite their AP enough to frustrate the holy hell out of them.

Mobility- The huge human advantage, especially because any large horde will have plenty of junior members who take longer to get into position due to the 2 AP per move cost. Free running means that humans can zip across the map with relative security, the main drawback being the rather silly fact that one can't look out the windows to know if there are a hundred zombies standing around outside one's chosen safehouse of the moment.

But in combination with Construction, here is your tactic to stymie the horde, and be able to do it with roughly a one to three ratio of humans to zombies- dedicated construction, and building-clearance. Stay outside of their target area, free-run in, barricade like crazy all along the chain. If they're heavily into buildings, don't bother even trying to clear them, and instead focus on barricading up. Members outside the barricades will waste time and effort tearing them down, only to stomp into an already-infested building.

Pre-Ankle Grab, I'm still fairly sure we could've taken the Scourge with the help of those Emerald Guard strike teams by following this strategy.

Stick to the classic guerilla warfare approach- if they're coming, get the hell out of the way. Don't give them a center of gravity to strike at, and make them waste time on an endless parade of decoys and small-change targets.

Nevermind the Caiger Mall operation involved some 4 hordes.

SylasGaunt · Post by **SylasGaunt** » 2005-11-20 01:40am

Recharge damn you.. I need another hit before some asshole comes along and headshots me! *stares at the 99 XP on his zombie char*

Post by **Dalton** » 2005-11-20 03:14am

fgalkin wrote:
Dalton wrote:I've joined up as Daltonator.
Where you at? I might take you under my wing if you're anywhere near me.

Too late, I'm dead. Kenward Towers.

Post by **fgalkin** » 2005-11-20 03:27am

Quick, call the Alliance. I have found River Tam. She is fighting zombies at Caiger mall.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Post by **Dalton** » 2005-11-20 05:06pm

I'm at Dinmead Lane in East Becktown trying for revivification. Where do I find y'all?

Lancer · Post by **Lancer** » 2005-11-20 05:51pm

east becktown? I think I have a char in the area, but he's outta syringes.

Post by **Dalton** » 2005-11-20 06:50pm

Matt Huang wrote:east becktown? I think I have a char in the area, but he's outta syringes.

Someone else tagged me, so I'm alive again. Where do I go next?

Lancer · Post by **Lancer** » 2005-11-20 07:13pm

Depends on what class you started off as.

For all classes except Fireman, it's probably a good idea to head four blocks south and one east, there's a firestation there where you can pick up a fireaxe. It's only as a contingency plan for if you run out of ammo.

There's a Police Department four blocks south and three blocks west of Dinmead Lane. It might be a good place to pick up some gear if your a Policeman or Private.

If your a Medic or Doctor, there's a hospital two blocks north of Dinmead where you can pick up some FAK's. Heal survivors and pick off the occasional zombie, but you'll be getting most of your XP from healing because of the lousy starting melee attack accuracy.

If your Necrotech, then you already know that your standing next to a Necrotech building, so do some searching for revives, then hit the hospital I mentioned earlier. Then head north and tag zombies w/ your DNA extractor.

Comando293 · Post by **Comando293** » 2005-11-20 07:27pm

Is there anyone near Pitneybank that can revive me?

Post by **Dalton** » 2005-11-20 07:50pm

Matt Huang wrote:Depends on what class you started off as.

I'm a Consumer, and I'm looking for the group.

Lancer · Post by **Lancer** » 2005-11-20 08:02pm

Dalton wrote:
Matt Huang wrote:Depends on what class you started off as.
I'm a Consumer, and I'm looking for the group.

...oh man, you have your work cut out for you. The closest mall to your position is Caiger to the northwest, but as you've probably heard, it's the site of an ongoing battle between survivors and zeds. All the malls are typically extremely heavily barricaded, meaning you can't get in without free running between building to building. Your best bet right now is to head to a firestation and pick up a fireaxe and take swings at the occasional zombie (commonly called zeds).

Post by **Dalton** » 2005-11-20 08:10pm

I like a good challenge.

Dangermouse · Post by **Dangermouse** » 2005-11-20 08:13pm

Dalton, try to get freerunning then head up to Caiger. Even though its dangerous, there is so much action that you will have plenty of opportunties to get experience points (which is probably healing since you are a consumer).

Assuming of course Caiger is still around....we have starting putting some nice dents in the Mall.