Talk:Guides:Ghost Town Reclamation

Ghost Town Reclamation

Ghost Towns?

A ghost town is an area with little survivor or zombie presence. Normally they occur when a large zombie horde has destroyed an area and no one has tried to reclaim it. As the horde move on they normally leave a cloud of ferals (a unorganised group of of players following feeding groans for easy kills) in their wake. But even feral zombies tend to shamble on after a couple of days when they realise there is no more meat. Both sides tend to avoid Ghost Towns, zombies find little meat there so head to greener pastures and the majority of survivors are apathetic mallrats who wait until their beloved TRPs are powered before they move back in.

Now believe it or not, they are among the easiest places for survivors to thrive. Here's a rough guide on how to do it.

So here's a pretend suburb, we'll call it Iscariot-Is-Awesome-ville:

	54	55	56	57	58	59
71	Hospital	Building	Walk	Park	Avenue	Auto Repair
72	Monument	Plaza	Club	Railway Station	Street	Church
73	Cinema	Hotel	Hospital	Fire Station	Bank	Road
74	Plaza	factory	Building	junkyard	Place	wasteland
75	Fire Station	warehouse	NT Building	Building	Police Department	Place

Phase 1. Scouting

The First Thing you have to do is scouting. A single survivor who knows how to hide in plain sight could scout an entire suburb in a couple of days. You don't even have to be alive. Remember, if you want to discover the rough AP cost of repairing a building whilst a zombie, you can look at its internal description. Personally I'd say send in two players, first a dead one to show you where the zombies are inside the buildings, and then a survivor to get instant costs on the empty ones, personal preference, I'd also be putting that bit about decay right at the bottom, let's get them doing it properly before we teach them the lazy way You can even formalise your scouting on a wiki map like this one of Eastonwood. Subject to change mate, create an archive in userspace to illustrate your point So lets say you've done that, as below.

	54	55	56	57	58	59
71	Hospital Ruined 18ap 2 zombies	Building Ruined 24ap	Walk	Park	Avenue	Auto Repair Ruined 37ap
72	Monument	Plaza	Club Ruined 1 zombie	Railway Station Ruined 36ap	Street	Church Ruined 34ap
73	Cinema Ruined	Hotel Ruined 40ap 1 zombie	Hospital Ruined 27ap 1 zombie	Fire Station Ruined 33ap	Bank Ruined	Road
74	Plaza	factory Ruined 32ap	Building Ruined 40ap	junkyard QSB	Place	wasteland
75	Fire Station Ruined 28ap	warehouse Ruined 32ap	NT Building Ruined 52ap 4 zombies	Building Ruined 28ap	Police Department Ruined 29ap 1 zombie	Place

Looking at the scouting map, Seriously, give this imaginary suburb a catchy name, it helps people understand the concepts you're putting forward if they see it as a place rather than squares on a wiki you notice several things.

• Only 10 zombies
• Clusters of zombies inside the TRPs
• Repair costs are pretty high
• Someone's barricaded the Junkyard

Now only one of these points is important.

• Only 10 zombies.

Now tell them why the others aren't important, newbies are conditioned that TRPs = Good, now tell them why that's bollocks for this tactic

There is no way that ten zombies should be holding an area of nineteen buildings. Although numbers may vary this is a fair example of an area ripe for reclamation. Its time for you to move in.

As a group, you should have a rally point. The location is up to you, but it should be somewhere quite nearby with a maintained revive point, because you're going to get eaten. Quite a lot. At least to begin with.

Phase 2. Dying

Phase 2 is the classic I'm a dumb newbie, I know you shoot zombies on the street to win, what's classic and what's suicide repairing? suicide repair run (I'm assuming five members). All five survivors enter the suburb and repair the first building they discover that is empty. If targeting a dark building, don't forget you will need a generator and fuel. This will probably put all your groups members in Negative APs.

	54	55	56	57	58	59
71	Hospital Ruined 19ap 2 zombies	Building Ruined 25ap	Walk	Park	Avenue	Auto Repair Ruined 38ap
72	Monument	Plaza	Club Ruined 1 zombie	Railway Station Ruined 36ap	Street	Church Ruined 35ap
73	Cinema Powered REPAIRED	Hotel Ruined 41ap 1 zombie	Hospital Ruined 28ap 1 zombie	Fire Station Ruined 34ap	Bank Ruined	Road
74	Plaza	factory REPAIRED	Building REPAIRED	junkyard QSB	Place	wasteland
75	Fire Station REPAIRED	warehouse REPAIRED	NT Building Ruined 53ap 4 zombies	Building Ruined 29ap	Police Department Ruined 30ap 1 zombie	Place

Now normally standing in a building with no barricades for a long period of time is suicide, but remember, ten zombies. Ten zombies who probably don't log in everyday, otherwise they would have followed the horde to fresh feeding grounds. Take it from me. I once repaired the Israel Building in Borehamwood, and that was a 360+ AP repair. Survived it, and I didn't even have barricades for the first four days. Pointless, you've told them to die, don't tell them they might survive, crush all hope, get then used to dying

One of survivors' biggest flaws is that they generally play as if they were their character, and because of this, hate dying. The sooner you come to terms with the fact that dying is part of playing Urban Dead, the better a survivor you will become. Concentrate, here should be the maths....

It should be noted that your low numbers also give you another advantage. Being the only survivor in a building means that even if zombies do find you, a feeding groan's range will be only one block, certainly not enough to attract large numbers of zombies.

We're going to take the worst case scenario. The zombies notice the repairs and horde over, killing you all and ruining the buildings again. You're dead before you even wake up.

	54	55	56	57	58	59
71	Hospital Ruined 21ap 2 zombies	Building Ruined 27ap	Walk	Park	Avenue	Auto Repair Ruined 40ap
72	Monument	Plaza	Club Ruined 1 zombie	Railway Station Ruined 38ap	Street	Church Ruined 37ap
73	Cinema Ruined 2ap 1 zombie	Hotel Ruined 43ap	Hospital Ruined 30ap	Fire Station Ruined 36ap	Bank Ruined	Road
74	Plaza	factory Ruined 2ap	Building Ruined 2ap 1 zombie	junkyard QSB	Place	wasteland
75	Fire Station Ruined 2ap	warehouse Ruined 2ap 1 zombie	NT Building Ruined 55ap 3 zombies	Building Ruined 31ap	Police Department Ruined 32ap 1 zombie	Place

Phase 3. Dying (again)

It takes you a day to stand up and wander back to that RP you set up or identified. Another day to get revived and to save up APs. Another day? Fuck that, if this is a small group of five and they're using this tactic they should be conversant with IRC/Messenger and forums, get them talking Then you return. Now remember those zombies that killed you? You've got two new advantages.

• You know their profile IDs I am a dumb newbie, how do I know this? How do I know who killed my friend? Anyone who already knows will skip the sentence, losing nothing, the newbie will no longer be clueless
• They moved to attack you

Only the most determined of zombies will fall back to maintain long term ruins. What's a determined zombie? Example time. A feral will normally follow the meat. If yesterday he saw you in a hotel, he'll probably be waiting for you to return. You on the other hand will strike somewhere else. Repeat Phase 2 again. Ignore the buildings you have already repaired. Why ignore? I just fixed that! Tell them the big picture now or they'll stop reading and go back to their armoury Focus on other empty buildings. Try to link up a large area of low repair buildings if possible.

	54	55	56	57	58	59
71	Hospital Ruined 21ap 2 zombies	Building REPAIRED	Walk	Park	Avenue	Auto Repair Ruined 40ap
72	Monument	Plaza	Club Ruined 1 zombie	Railway Station REPAIRED	Street	Church Ruined 37ap
73	Cinema Ruined 2ap 1 zombie	Hotel REPAIRED	Hospital REPAIRED	Fire Station Ruined 36ap	Bank Ruined	Road
74	Plaza	factory Ruined 2ap	Building Ruined 2ap 1 zombie	junkyard QSB	Place	wasteland
75	Fire Station Ruined 2ap	warehouse Ruined 2ap 1 zombie	NT Building Ruined 55ap 3 zombies	Building REPAIRED	Police Department Ruined 32ap 1 zombie	Place

You'll probably get eaten. Again. Doesn't matter at all, just go and get revived and repeat again until all buildings discovered to be empty have their repair costs reset. At this point you've probably got the profiles of most of the zombies about. If you enter a building and it's got a contact listed zombie inside without brain rot, you can always combat revive him to remove him whilst you repair the building. What could go wrong? What could go wrong? Tell them, they could run into a group of dedicated and organised zombies, tell them when to give up and switch to something else You're probably going to be dead anyway...

	54	55	56	57	58	59
71	Hospital Ruined 23ap 1 zombie	Building Ruined 2ap 1 zombie	Walk	Park	Avenue	Auto Repair REPAIRED
72	Monument	Plaza	Club Ruined 1 zombie	Railway Station Ruined 2ap	Street	Church REPAIRED
73	Cinema Ruined 4ap 1 zombie	Hotel Ruined 2ap	Hospital Ruined 2ap	Fire Station REPAIRED	Bank Powered REPAIRED	Road
74	Plaza	factory Ruined 4ap	Building Ruined 4ap 1 zombie	junkyard QSB	Place	wasteland
75	Fire Station Ruined 4ap	warehouse Ruined 4ap 1 zombie	NT Building Ruined 57ap 3 zombies	Building Ruined 2ap	Police Department Ruined 34ap 1 zombie	Place

Phase 4. Standing your ground

So now is the time for a big push. They can use the wiki, metagame/communicate and use this tactic and they're not calling in allies for more meat bodies? Get yourself revived and get barricade strafing. A single survivor can barricade a building to VSB for approximately 10 AP. It should take a zombie 40 AP to undo the same barricades. You can raise four buildings to VSB. Factor in the now-low repair costs and your five survivors can do something like this:

	54	55	56	57	58	59
71	Hospital Ruined 23ap 1 zombie	Building VSB	Walk	Park	Avenue	Auto Repair VSB
72	Monument	Plaza	Club Ruined 1 zombie	Railway Station VSB	Street	Church VSB
73	Cinema Ruined 4ap 1 zombie	Hotel Ruined 2ap	Hospital VSB	Fire Station VSB	Bank Powered VSB	Road
74	Plaza	factory VSB	Building Ruined 4ap 1 zombie	junkyard VSB	Place	wasteland
75	Fire Station VSB	warehouse Ruined 4ap 1 zombie	NT Building Ruined 57ap 3 zombies	Building VSB	Police Department Ruined 34ap 1 zombie	Place

So now you've done that, you can forget about your fallback area. Pick a building and all pile in. By removing your travel costs you can now save up your AP for focussing on the harder targets. Start resetting those other buildings with pesky zombies inside. Perhaps time for the coma repair by one while the rest cade around him, rinse repeat tactic to be mentioned?

	54	55	56	57	58	59
71	Hospital VSB	Building VSB	Walk	Park	Avenue	Auto Repair VSB
72	Monument	Plaza	Club VSB	Railway Station VSB	Street	Church VSB
73	Cinema VSB	Hotel VSB	Hospital VSB	Fire Station VSB	Bank Powered VSB	Road
74	Plaza	factory VSB	Building VSB	junkyard VSB	Place	wasteland
75	Fire Station VSB	warehouse VSB	NT Building Ruined 57ap 3 zombies	Building VSB	Police Department VSB	Place

Of course then, you have the difficult problem of the zombie held NT. Zombies love to salt the land when it comes to these places. Don't forget the wonders of NecroNet Access. Hook up and power a generator and you can combat revive all of them. Indeed a single survivor can revive four zombies and suicide repair the building on their own. Barricade them in nice and tightly and prepare for the zombie onslaught.

In addition, if zombies are in a neighbouring block, lighting an NT is the perfect way to draw them out so you can sneak in and repair the place.

Further Thoughts

Remember that if you're combat reviving, that any building barricaded above VSB can be turned into a pinata. In the short term it's not necessarily an issue, but remember it's easiest to repair the empty buildings first.

Your biggest issue is dark buildings. You will need gennies and fuel. Other than that a toolbox, some needles and a few FAKs is all you really need.

As you get better at these reclamations you can become more advanced. You could employ Vampire Tactics to avoid having to retreat to be revived, or start targeting those zombies you know are the least active. If you were really flash you could set up flares or feeding groans to draw zombies out of the area.

Finally, think long term. A reclaimed ghost town is the perfect place for a new survivor group, so do everything you can to encourage survivors to settle. Powering VSB TRPs will create the perfect conditions for the spawning of new characters. Even if people stay in the area for only a day, it's one day where zombies have to work harder to make headway.

Right, so me and my four level one friends go in and win the game? Brilliant! What do I need before using this tactic, equipment, skills, communication tools, plug-ins?

Members, allies and friends of Malton College of Medicine: this plan is for you! Update it whenever you change the status of any building in Eastonwood, or notice that it has changed.

• Information to be included: the barricade level, or 'ruined' as applicable (include the AP cost for a repair), the number of zombies inside the building (with parentheses), the number outside without parentheses. Where there is space, you could also add a datestamp, in the form 24.11 (for 24 November), so that people looking at the map know how fresh the information is.
• The boundary around each block - full, dotted or absent - indicates what the barricade level should be. The text indicates what it currently is.
• For ease of updating and reading, and so that the map doesn't become cluttered with inessential information that won't be updated very often in any case, I suggest that we update labels only for the hospitals, NTs, RPs, Pooll PD, the factories, Elers auto repair and the Hosken Building phone mast. However, ruined buildings should always be labelled, wherever they are.
• Things that are as they should be will be labelled in green. Anything that needs urgent attention will be marked in red.
• When events happen in-game that produce remarkable changes in our situation - a zerg attack, for example, or a visit from the MOB - they can be recorded under 'Notable Events' below the map.
• Information more than a couple of days old is liable to be deleted.
• Notes on how to add or change labels are at the bottom of the page.

Map: Current State of Eastonwood

	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39
20	Pauley Bank	Shippard Place	St. Chad's Church Indoor RP	a cemetery RP Clear 12.3	a warehouse	Coplestone Bank	the Butterell Arms	the Coutts Building VSB 18.3 Refuel!	Holman Library	a carpark	20
21	Roadnight Walk	the Pears Building	Troman Lane	St. Simon's Hospital VSB Lit 8Z 22.3	St. Anselm's Hospital EHB Lit 18.3	Brabner Row School VSB 18.3	Attrell Road Fire Station VSB 18.3	Norvell Avenue Railway Station	the Lewarn Arms	the Fortt Monument	21
22	the Stonnard Building EHB Lit 23.3	Yeatman Bank	Wyles Bank	Coley Towers	a carpark	wasteland	Rutt Square Fire Station VSB 21.3	the Cheeke Building EHB Lit 24.3	the Knyps Monument RP	Hayes Place Railway Station	22
23	the Oakes Arms	Goodhall Avenue	Club Burningham	the Tryme Building VSB Lit 23.3	a warehouse	Elers Auto Repair EHB Lit 22.3	the Furlonger Building	the Broadfoot Building VSB 18.3	Symmons Towers	Luellin Lane Fire Station VSB Lit 24.3	23
24	Club Vagg	a carpark	Darke Walk RP	Evans Row Fire Station Open (6Z) 22.3	the Nettleton Building EHB Lit 22.3	Postlethwaite Drive	Hugo Walk	Chidley Drive	Battersby Road	the Stoy Building	24
25	Hacker Way	St. Antheros's Church VSB 10.3	a carpark	the Ellicott Building	the Hosken Building MPM EHB Lit 22.3	Pooll Crescent PD EHB Lit 22.3 Decade!	Cottrell Alley	the Whaits Hotel	the Dukes Hotel	wasteland	25
26	Felix General Hospital EHB Lit 17.3 Decade!	a cemetery RP	a factory EHB Lit 22.3	the Sankey Monument	Masey Drive	the Harold Building EHB Lit 22.3	Matcham Walk	a factory EHB Lit 24.3	Club Poulter	Timewell Drive PD VSB Lit 24.3	26
27	the Corrie Building	a factory EHB Lit 22.3	Courtney Lane Fire Station VSB 17.3	Thickett Plaza Fire Station	Bissell Walk	Sleeman Towers EHB 19.3	the Dalzell Building	the Surrage Building	Budmead Way	wasteland	27
28	the Mart Motel	the Strang Monument	the Fysh Monument	the Drayton Building	Back Bank	Stitson Library VHB 17.3 Decade!	Pattin Place	wasteland	the Gunson Building	Vasey Lane	28
29	Rooke Bank	Garret Row	Popham Place	Sherwell Place	Booth Row	the Mahagan Building	Besley Lane	Patriarch General Hospital	Warry Road	Hardy Street RP	29
	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39

LEGEND
Extremely Heavily Barricaded Very Strongly Barricaded No Barricades
Auto Repair Shops Hospitals Other (non-TRP) Factories and Power Stations NecroTech Buildings Unbarricadable Forts and Malls Police Departments
MPM: Mobile Phone Masts RP: Revive Points

Notes

1) Caded buildings to be labelled 'lit' or 'unlit'. Only banks, cinemas and clubs to be labelled 'Dark' when not powered.

2) Ruined buildings are labelled with the AP required to repair them.

3) Figures inside brackets indicate the number of zombies (Z) and of wounded survivors (W) inside a building. The number of zombies outside a building is indicated without brackets.

4) RP = Revive Point. The number currently swaying is indicated (if we're doing our job properly, this number should always be out of date ...)

5) MPM = Phone Mast. To be powered up and EHB at all times.

6) GNF = Generator, no fuel.

Notable Events

Shadow Company strike team hits St Simon's. --Sherry _{talk MCM} 21:43, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

The RRF has decided to visit Eastonwood, and a fair number of ferals have gathered too. --Sherry _{talk MCM} 14:40, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

Cades at St Simon's Hospital temporarily raised to EHB while the numbers outside are so large (presently >50, including a large contingent of The Dead Walker, many of whom are suspected of zerging). --Sherry _{talk MCM} 19:37, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Spotted in Brabner Row School: Uncle Leroy (Bats**t Insane), KingMissile (Serial Killers Inc.) --User:Gus Dink 16:04, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Editing Notes

Click on the 'edit' tab, then find the line of code corresponding to the block you're interested in. You're going to add text, or alter the text that's already there, after 'textxx='. Edit the label as you would any text document (don't disturb the more mysterious bits of code). If a block is labelled (1W), for example, and you heal the survivor, just delete '(1W)', and you're done. Preview the page while you're editing, so that you can monitor the changes you're making. Save it when you're happy.

If you're adding more than one bit of information, and want to put them on separate lines within the block, use <br>: that's wiki code for a return.

For example, this is what the code for St Simon's Hospital looks like unedited:

name31=St. Simon's Hospital (Eastonwood) | alt31=St. Simon's Hospital | cade31=VSB | type31=Hospital | text31=

This is what it would look like edited, if on 21 November you found that it was a 3AP ruin with 1 zombie inside:

name31=St. Simon's Hospital (Eastonwood) | alt31=St. Simon's Hospital | cade31=VSB | type31=Hospital | text31=Ruin (3AP)<br>(1Z) 21.11

"Ruin (3AP)<br>(1Z) 21.11" was added directly after the equals sign.

Since writing these instructions, I've introduced a colour code. Things that are as they should be are labelled in green. Anything that needs attention is marked in red. That makes the code look rather more complicated, but as with everything here, it's simpler than it looks. To colour text green, for example, use the following code: <span style="color:green">text</span>.

Thanks to Fiffy of 404:Barhah Not Found for the idea of the 'ruin map' and, let's face it, for most of the wiki code too.

Gonna use this! Thanks!

Getting ready to try and reclaim a ghost suburb of my own, so this could be useful. Thanks a bunch :) --Virulas 13:31, 29 May 2014 (UTC)