User:Scubamatt

After a long hiatus from the game (due to a real life accident), I have returned to play again. I see that the overall number of players has dropped quite a bit, but I was pleased to see The Fortress is still around and going strong.

My active character is Felix Hardcastle, a dedicated member of The Fortress. He is decidedly pro-survivor, and a veteran of the ongoing struggle against the undead of Malton. Felix has risen through the ranks to a point where he is allowed a large degree of autonomy in operations, and is expected to set a good example for new members of the group. In the past, he has been strongly focused on developing his skills and acquiring better gear. This time around, I am going to explore some of the metagaming aspects of Urban Dead, starting with the ABAs. These are kind of like merit badges you get (from The Fortress group) for completing specific, creative challenges.

As an example, one ABA involves repairing a long-ruined building - one with a repair cost so high that you will be left helpless (at negative AP) for greater than 24 hours. To complete the ABA you have to first find such a building, then repair it, and then survive the attempt. Of course you must document the entire thing with screenshots, and the greater the repair cost, the more it is worth on the leader board for that specific ABA. Most ABAs must be completed alone, but there are several that allow or encourage others to help. One requires a partner, in fact.

Beyond completing some ABAs, I'm also planning on doing some things for the Wiki (updating barricade plans for a few suburbs), writing some articles for TFN (the Fortress newsletter) and maybe writing some fiction again. I plan to keep a Journal for one of the complex ABAs, too.

Link to an old pet project is HERE. (I don't know if I am going to continue/complete it, but I am loathe to delete it until I am sure.)

Link to my Journal, which hasn't actually been formatted yet.

21 Jan - This morning I discovered a whole list of links on another User page, and after following each one in turn, I learned a few things about the game mechanics I hadn't known before today. This definitely changed my opinion on a few things I didn't understand fully, but it cemented my beliefs in other respects. To me, the struggle between survivors and zombies is clearly analogous to Low Intensity Conflict, and Insurgency/Counterinsurgency operations. Much of my personal strategy thus far has been based on my real world military experience, and the lessons we (the US Army)learned in Vietnam. There are many, many similarities between the way the zombies and insurgents work, and the way survivors and regular forces react. Things that tend to work in CI also tend to work within this game (allowing for anomalies introduced by the RNG and the geometric world map). I see the same mistakes, too.-MK