User:DevOhm/Feral Movement

The Feral Movement is an attempt to create an alternative mode of non-meta organization for zombies throughout Malton. Using organic, in-game methods of communication, the Feral Movement seeks to improve the overall level of zombie cooperation in the city, rather than forming a tightly-coordinated group. It takes inspiration from X:00 and other innovative schemes of this nature. The Feral Movement is not a group, but a series of tactics which aim to increase the power of ferals everywhere through simple communication.

Basic Tenants

• Zombies are more powerful than survivors, but less organized.

In a one-on-one, idealized context, zombies use AP far more effectively than their survivor counterparts. However, barricades create the illusion of survivor superiority by matching the most efficient survivor activity (barricade construction) with the least rewarding zombie activity (barricade destruction). Thus barricades are a hurdle that require horde cooperation to overcome. Unfortunately, formal cooperation among zombies is relatively rare.

• Zombies don't naturally meta-game.

While zombie organizations are currently the largest in Malton, they are far less prolific. Every two-bit trenchcoater group represents an attempt at organization among survivors. Survivors can specialize as revivers, shooters, etc., which is most useful in a group. Humans need to be a lot more careful about not dying than zombies do, which encourages them to use maps and other meta resources, which in turn often leads to their joining a meta-level group. Zombies are much more carefree and much less capable of specialization, and so have a lower tendency to metagame and join groups.

• Zombies are perfectly capable of organizing totally in-game.

There are 3 undead communication skills available to zombies in Malton, along with a profile description, and used together they can drastically improve the efficiency of feral zombies in a given location. Zombies don't need to be tightly-coordinated and super organized to defeat humans – in most cases, just hanging around enough of their undead brethren will do the trick.

The Feral Movement

There are three steps to joining the Feral Movement.

1. Change your group affiliation to "Feral Movement."
2. Replace your profile description with a rendering of the Feral Movement Statement.
3. Dedicate 1-5 AP a day to communication.

Let's examine these in reverse order.

Communication

There are three zombie communication skills: Death Rattle, Flailing Gesture, and Feeding groan. Each has strengths and weaknesses, and alone none are capable of truly organizing the ferals of Malton. Used together, however, they can be remarkably effective. An important aspect of this is that, frankly, zombies don't communicate very often. Therefore when a zombie logs on to see one of his hordemates gabbing and flailing away, he's bound to pay attention.

Death Rattle

Death Rattle is the most fun, but also the most challenging, of the communication skills. Turning the letters a-b-g-h-m-n-r-z and some punctuation into a meaningful remark is very hit-or-miss. Feral Movement zombies are encouraged to use a naturalistic, phonetic rendering of English into Zamgrh, rather than using the more analogical, abstract vocabulary presented in the zombie lexicon or dictionaries. For example, the lexicons suggest the term Bang-Man Haz for Police Department (Bang-Man = gun-user = police officer). This, however, is fairly conceptual, and might confuse people who haven't visited the wiki or read the lexicon (which is most players). A less elegant, but more straightforward rendering might be Bar!z Babargman or Baraz Abarzman.

Still, Death Rattle is very unclear. How many players will know that "Gamman zambahz, R gannah gah zmazz zah Zagarah narz ah harh an barg zam bra!nz" means "Come on zombies, we're going to go attack the Factory north of here and eat some brains"? Luckily, there are other skills for clarity.

Flailing Gesture

Flailing Gesture allows for a straightforward, if ambiguous, form of communication. While the purpose behind pointing may be uncertain, the object being indicated is always clear. Feral Movement zombies should mostly be pointing at three things:

• The next/current target of the horde, or the direction of the target.
• Themselves.
• Other Feral Movement zombies.

Pointing at the target will help make your Death Rattle ramblings much more clear, and will naturally guide other zombies towards the location indicated. Most won't be able to resist exploring.

Pointing at oneself or other Feral Movement zombies is important in that it allows the rest of the horde to see your profile, which should contain a version of the Feral Movement Statement, which serves the dual purpose of recruiting and clarifying what you're about.

Feeding Groan

Feeding groans are clear and unambiguous, but with a very limited scope. All a feeding groan can ever mean is "I am a zombie, and I am standing in front of a living human right now." This is very powerful, as the promise of fresh brainz will encourage even skeptical zombies to go investigate whatever it is you were flailing at earlier.

Working Together

Imagine logging in to see the following message:

• A zombie said "Hah! Gannah gah zmazz zah Hazb!barh. Gamman zambahz, zmazz zah Hazb!barh rag mah!"
• A zombie gestured at Julie General Hospital. (1 north)
• A zombie gestured at itself.
• A zombie said "Garah Margan! Zambahz gannah B agazarh rag zah Garah Margran. B ah Garah Margran zambah, B an mah grab, zah Garah Magran!"
• You heard a low and steady feeding groan one block north.

This is pretty clear. That zombie thinks you should attack the hospital north of here, and someone already has. Also he keeps talking about some "Garah Magran," and luckily you can now see his profile to get some info maybe. The beauty of zombie coordination.

Feral Movement Statement

The Feral Movement Statement is a brief blurb that is placed in one's profile description which ties everything together – the FMS will let any zombie that peeks at your profile know exactly what you're about. Concision and precision are key, of course. An example of an effective FMS:

Follow my gestures, groans, and rattles—we'll get brains together.

٭٭Current Target: target

Join the Feral Movement. Don't metagame—communicate with your profile like this. Gesture, groan, and rattle to point out targets. Think as a horde.

The "current target" field allows for even greater depth of tactical communication by indicating the building currently under attack. A more straightforward, less RP-oriented FSM might look like this:

I'm a Feral Movement zombie. I point out targets with Death Rattle, Gestures, and Groans. Target:

►current target◄

Set Feral Movement as your group; c/p this blurb into your profile; use 1-5 AP a day communicating. We feast without wikis or forums.

The point is to communicate as much about the Feral Movement as possible. Use of a Feral Movement Statement is crucial, as it's the only means of recruitment possible in-game.

Group Affiliation

Setting one's group to "Feral Movement" allows for Feral Movement zombies to recognize each other's feeding groans, improving cohesion and promoting camaraderie among all zombiekind. Also, presence on the Group Rankings section of the stats page will raise awareness of the Movement and help encourage others to join the cause.

Minor Tactics

Scent Death

The Scent Death skill allows you to gain a quick sketch of the surrounding environment, displaying a map that shows concentrations of both zombies and dead bodies. Scent Death also charts the presence of hordemates within a 5-block radius. Scent death is useful in several respects. High concentrations of fellow zombies are perfect places to spread the word about the Feral Movement, and are also likely to produce access to bra!nz. A big pile of dead bodies means that there has been a good deal of survivor-zombie interaction, which usually means that break-ins are occurring frequently. And of course, being able to locate fellow Feral Movement zombies is invaluable, as one would otherwise be forced to wander in search of their comrades.

Combat Revives

Combat Revives are a boon to a Feral Movement zombie, as they allow clear, unhindered speech. A Feral Movement zombie that is combat revived ought to spend their AP as a human preaching the word about the Feral Movement, essentially expanding upon the points touched on in the Feral Movement Statement. And of course, letting your zetheren feast on your warm human flesh provides useful exp to your hordemates once you're done.

Contact Lists

Building a contact list is a useful way of instantly knowing the Feral Movement population of a horde. Since Feral Movement zombies will be communicating regularly, accessing their profiles will be easy. Another bonus of building a contact list is that by gesturing at fellow Feral Movement zombies, you can impress upon the rest of the horde the value in joining together.

Babah Zambahz

Not everyone has been around long enough to collect the (admittedly non-essential) zombie communication skills. This does not mean, however, that young fresh zombies are excluded from the Feral Movement. With the Feral Movement Statement in place, even a simple "Graagh" or "Brnhr" will alert your hordemates to the presence of the Feral Movement in their midst, and can serve as a tool for recruitment and even coordination, if the current target is indicated in the FMS.

More soon