User talk:Odd Starter/On the imbalance of Survivors and Zombies

It's interesting to look at this with hindsight, especially since zombies did once outnumber survivors about 60-40. I think zombies do have some things going for them:

1. Zombies are where the action is: The Big Bash, Mall Tours etc are zombie events that there's no real equivalent of for survivors, and they attract large crowds.
2. Zombies have surreal humour more readily available: zombie astronauts are funnier than normal astronauts, for example, and zombies can play with this for laughs.
3. Zombies can force other people to be zombies in a way survivors can't.
4. Sometimes they're just lucky: they were lucky Shacknews sided with them: Shacknews ate a lot of brains, and re-invented zombies' image as a dynamic and powerful force.

Zombies have done better than break-even in the past, but it is unusual. --  T   21:43, 25 July 2007 (BST)

All of those can be attributed to actually working at it and massive metagame coordination. Survivors can do similar and better things they just don't know how to work together.--Karek^maps?! 21:57, 25 July 2007 (BST)

Some of them can, certainly. I wonder if a human Mall Tour is a workable idea.... --Toejam ^{A Stats Graph} 09:33, 5 September 2007 (BST)

"What this tells me is that it's a rare player that chooses to continue playing their character as a Zombie if they die as a Survivor. And any evidence will tell you that survivors are dying all around us - Ask any Zombie on the map, since they're typically killing about 1 survivor a day, and they'll tell you that Survivors are dying in droves. They just have no desire to stay dead."

I think this is mostly attributable to the fact that starting players don't have enough xp to spend on survivor skills as it is, so diversifying their skill set early on just leads to slower advancement.  Popsicle Pete  +  07:52, 16 October 2007 (BST)

"so diversifying their skill set early on just leads to slower advancement." While possibly part of the reason people don't want to play as Zombies, I personally haven't found it to be the case-- My Soldier character (Yes, I did start as a Survivor) got killed when he was overrun by a horde, and since that time he's been following the horde around, as a zombie-- and he's leveling just as fast as my other characters, if not faster (a firefighter and a Medic). Corwin Amberly 23 November 2007

LOL@u

this is so wrong you nubs. Well aspects of it are right/interesting but the thing about numbers proved WRONG. as usual you zombies are a pack of whingers.--xoxo 09:02, 7 April 2008 (BST)

Actually J3d, time proved him very much right on this. This was prestrike. And until the Big Bash(post strike) there was never a time where survivors were outnumbered by zombies, it took every zombie group in the game balling together in one massive horde to make any difference and even then it also took two ransack changes and the large building mechanics change and as soon as that massive group disbanded things went exactly back to the way they were before. Since then the only times zombies have ever even gotten near or more than survivors were during incursions of absurdly large and coordinated groups, Shacknews, LUE, the Dead. That's hardly a natural game mechanic and the only reason they even choose to be zombies is because of how obvious and blatant the lack of zombies and zombie ability is when they join the game.--Karek^maps?! 00:48, 8 April 2008 (BST)

Oh, and I'm pretty sure Odd Starter was pretty consistently a survivor player, not to mention he did most of the early search odds work among other things.--Karek^maps?! 00:52, 8 April 2008 (BST)

Currently about 2:3 again

Just wanted to say that this is actually what makes me love Urban Dead - the fact that it is so fairly "out of character" for the zombie genre. We've got a working human community despite the zombie outbreak, which I find fascinating. It's a bit like the works of fiction that focus on characters' every day lives after an apocalyptic event... it's intriguing, because it feels out of place. But Malton is a cool place to live, as a human; zombies are mildly scary rather than the nastiest horrifying threat ever; it makes for a nice change.

Human: "So, mate, tell me a bit about your time in the Mall Tour '06."

Zombie: "Harman hambargaz, arrrr! (bites human and begins to chew on their arm)"

Human: "Sigh, yeah. I know what you mean. (pauses, watches arm chewing with a bit of a grimace) So, um, would you like some more tea? ...and would you mind not chewing on me, that's infectuous... :( "

Zombie: "Mrh?"

-pinkgothic 23:15, 10 July 2008 (BST)

No mega-horde this time...

Standing Survivors : 9507 (44%)

Standing Zombies : 11818 (56%)

Although the fact that there have been 9 zombie improvements vs 3 human ones over the last year may have some impact? --Rachel Akebre 04:50, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

Also, the Suburbs look sort of bloody and contested. _■^■ 05:18, 16 November 2008 (UTC)