User:Jen/Boring Stuff

( Main Page | Talk Page | Christie | Milla | JL ) Righto...some longer thoughts on stuff. UD interests me in large part because of the emergent gameplay. This is mostly thoughts about that, plus some of the how and why of my own gameplay preferences. Will work on an update...sometime this year. Cards on the Table I initially spent most of my UD time in Monroeville. It took a while for Malton to grow on me -- and it only did so as I started to see the diversity of groups sprinkled across the city. If I have any definite opinions about the game, it's something along the lines of "Malton should be as diverse and vibrant a place as possible." Full of lots of different groups, each with their own subsets of preferred tactics and policies, often diametrically opposed to those of other groups. Differences of opinion and play style are part of what makes a fun game. I'll tend to always oppose things that lean towards standardization and uniformity, and tend to always support quirky groups, local color (yay for fiefdoms??), crazy schemes, and lost causes. The list of groups further down the page have gotten my admiration, for being efficient, bold, creative, or all of the above. I also like folks who talk ingame (assuming they say things worth saying). Notes on Game Mechanics The decay update forced survivors to start thinking more offensively. It used to not matter all that much if you hung out in your on one side of the map, and ignored the other half, and let zombies hold a suburb forever. Now there's consequences. Concerning the interplay of mobile and stationary groups... As a general principle, mobile groups tip the balance of suburbs; stationary groups that keep the balance tipped. Case studies: Pitneybank, Dakerstown, Dulston, Grigg Heights, and Kempsterbank. And I guess the greater Riddleybank area, too. Notes to Self Even the most faulty or problematic or overgrown institutions started for a good reason -- to fill some necessary gap, to correct some greater ill. See bounty hunting and the RG. Heck...see PKing. See combat revive, opposition to combat revive, see scorch the earth. Understand the how and the why of their origin, and you'll not hate them. You'll probably come to admire and value them. There is a fundamental conflict between players who favor the development of established institutions and conventions, and those who favor a kind of libertarian anarchy. Respect your opponents -- they've thought through their choice as well. Is there also a fundamental conflict between players who want to push the limits of the game, and more casual players? (answer as of 2011: YES OH GOD YES) Your preferences are not those of all players. The ones you least understand, or the ones you think are the most detrimental and damaging to the game...these are the ones you MUST work to understand. When the player base shifts, the game changes. When updates come, the game changes. When search rates shift, the game changes. Adapt or die. 'Tis part of the craziness and fluidity of the game. Ability to embrace change, not clinging to the old ways...I'll bank on this being the heart of the pubbie debate. Kevan was fine with the DEM's alt policy. Alts and PKers and Spais, oh my! In a city where death is a minor inconvenience, PKing is a 100% legitimate gameplay option. The greater the zombie threat, the less acceptable PKing becomes (and the BETTER it needs to be done). The greater the percentage of survivors, the more essential PKing becomes to a vibrant game. The only PKers I object to are those who don't have the decency to fire off some witty comment or passable rationale before offing folks. I post on the bounty/PKer threads mostly if I think something is highly amusing. If I could successfully play Hearts with myself as a kid, I should be able to ignore information distinct to one alt when I switch to another. Yeah, I guess I'm a bit of a hardliner on the "separate lives" thing. Don't stick your alts in groups supporting the same bloody style of play, policies, boards, and tactics. (Hmm...does this mean a person shouldn't have two dual nature alts?) Combat revives, pinatas, GKing, ZKing, PKing, death culting, scouts, cade strafing, revive queue blocking, revive point killing...all perfectly legitimate, and all effective when deployed wisely. If you don't like a group doing one of them to you, roll with the punches, and counter it. Gleaning info from another group's public forums and communications: of COURSE it's a legitimate tactic. And smart. If you don't want any Joe with an email address to be able to read something, stick it in a private forum. Infiltrating private forums: well, I played two rounds of Travian, with endgame-competitive teams, during the time I was gone from UD. It changed my views on some stuff. But the thing is, UD doesn't have an established spying subgame going on, so some things that are twistedly admirable in Travian are just useless and cheap in UD. I'll have more thoughts on this at some point; in the meantime, so long as you don't hack forums, and don't use one alt to gain information on behalf of another alt, I have to say that the tactic is permissible and technically legitimate. But unlike the case with most gameplay limits, I also believe that pushing the envelope on forum spying would ultimately do more harm than good to the game. Wiki Politics It's just a BROWSER GAME. In beta testing, no less. Can't we all just get along? :p Personally, I think Kevan probably just reads the suggestions as they're proposed, and ignores the votes. I would. Project Welcome is a good thing. Stuff I Rather Like Monroeville, sans perma-headshot. When I was first playing, I found Monroeville a heck of a lot more fun than Malton. It's less established, and easier for new people and factions to impact things and make a difference. The PK debates on 28.02. They were the main reason I logged into Monroeville for a while. Modern Suburbia: Surviving Level One and Grim's guide to staying alive. I laughed muchly. And they're right. Groups that talk in-game. Life gets boring when you're just whacking, searching, and running. I appreciate the "wasted" AP. Groups that are direct and efficient. PKer groups with a good rationale. Or a sense of humor. That goes for individual PKers, too. At the moment, zombie buffs. Partly because the 65:35 ratio is a bit ridiculous, but mostly because there's hardly any risk as a survivor (I never rarely die unless I get stuck outside). Is it bad that I like mall sieges? I know they're a waste of survivor AP and all...but they're fun. Project Welcome The Wiki Code Stealers The decay update. Best thing to happen game since The Dead. Helped out zombies, and made stuff a lot more fun and interesting for survivors at the same time. Crazy-insane ruin repair work. It's a BLAST. 85+ ruins, looting resource buildings for dear life before they're sacked again, suicide-repairs, grand camaraderie with the few folks up there bothering to do the hardest and most thankless work in Malton. Related to the above: the 3-D Extreme Repair Club The Ronin Gallery. I approve. This page and this page. Groups I Rather Like The Big Prick -- combat revives be damned, this was the most interesting and effective idea for a survivor group anyone had come up with in ages. Philosophe Knights -- Elegant, deadly, and pro-survivor to the point of violence. ;) Malton Medical Staff -- Talking ingame? Maintaining a VSB hospital? Humor as a staple? Heck yes. Creedy Guerilla Raiders -- The Philosophe Knights made me rethink PKing; the CGR made me rethink everything else. The Opportunists -- my default casual gameplay style. See also Dual Nature, for a slightly more aggressive version. Ridleybank Resistance Front -- *in awe* I have this gut-level thing against joining them...but they are DAMN GOOD at what they do, wrote the book on good zombie strategy, and demonstrated that the impossible was possible 404: Barhah not found -- crazy, smart, and effective. They're tackling the hardest suburbs in the game, and doing the stuff every other survivor group in Malton SHOULD be sending a team to do. Order of the Black Rose - ditto, only local instead of mobile The Dead -- the only time it's actually necessary for survivors to play smart. St. Ferreol's Hospital Noise Abatement Society -- a crazy-insane idea, one of the most hilariously plausible rationales I've seen for any group, and the best name ever. Clubbed to Death -- Yep, I have a thing for local indie zombie groups. Groups I Rather Liked That No Longer Exist, Alas LUE -- direct, efficient, funny, and a blast to fight against Hel's Daughters -- a Dulston-based women-only zambah/PKer group Axes High -- they use only melee weapons, and they hang out in large enough numbers to make a notable difference in the suburbs they're in. Flowers of Disease - "Some people lead by example; they lead by making examples." Mostly Harmless - funny, coordinated PKers. A blast to work alongside. I miss you, Zombie in Pajamas. :( Hard Knock Life -- If zombies are exploiting the limits of the game by use of pinatas, GKers, and death cultists, it's about time survivors started playing smart, and making better use of their resources as well. Especially when search rates are horrid. Claws don't need reloading, and they're more effective than axes. Fuck the "terrible RP" complaint. This is smart and effective. "Real" PKers Actually, the debate's not stupid, and this distinction they're trying to make isn't trivial, like I thought it was. Calling one type of PKer a "real" PKer, though, and they other variety "not-real"...that's the stupid thing. You're better off going with "ruthless" and "lulzy," or something like that.