User:Iscariot/WIP27

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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?