Guides:Guide to Forming Groups Part 2

Continued from Part One.

Warning: This section is very, very lengthy and in detail. You should only read the parts that interest you and apply to your situation.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Your Survivor Group: A Timeline

Alright. Now, you've read the General Advice section in Part 1 and opted to either skip or read the Hardcore section. Here's the step-by-step, blow-by-blow walkthrough of the lifetime of your survivor group. I'll take you through, from your first steps, to how to manage and maintain your established, historied, and successful survivor group.

Disclaimer: I have over a year of experience leading the Anti-Zombie Squad, as well as an alt with membership in Team Xtreme and what I say is based off of what I have seen in these groups and in others. It may be different from what your experience will be.

Your First Month

The first thing you want to do after making your group is to get members. Your odds of success go up if you have a decent number of people from the very start. They can be friends, family or just random safehouse buddies that you happen to know in Urban Dead.

The beginning will be slow. If you are a fresh, unknown group, you can expect your group-hood to be somewhat underwhelming. Recruit aggressively. Accept as many interested players as you can- you won't be attracting exactly the best and brightest at this point, so you can't afford to be too choosy.

In addition, you need to build your groups' framework from the ground up. This includes your forums, your policies, your advertisements, and your standard operating procedure. You can hash out some of the details of each later, but you need to plan the basic operations of your group down to prevent confusion and aimlessness later.

Suburbia 101: Not Dying

There are a number of basic procedures to keep you and your members alive in Urban Dead. These are the basic defensive survivor tactics. You already know how to survive as an individual, but here's a refresher course for what to tell your members to do. You can look at good survivor guides on this page instead of this section if you are interested.

First thing is simply being in the right place. Not all buildings were created equal. Just as some are better to search in, some are better to sleep in. Sleeping in TRPs, especially Malls and NTs, is a bad idea. If you want to die meatshielding, that's your business, but know that sleeping in a TRP will likely get you and yours killed, because they attract PKer and zombie attention . Churches, and large buildings (mansions, power plants, cathedrals and stadiums) are mediocre hiding places, because though less valuable than TRPs, they're still good zombie targets. Also, forts, despite their name, are deathtraps. They are loaded with trenchcoaters (irritating and trigger-happy) and PKers, as well as being magnets for zombies, who break in constantly and keep forts usually ruined. So, do your best to avoid ending your day in TRPs, Forts, and other large buildings.

Better places to sleep include pretty much all "boring" buildings, such as museums, libraries, junkyards etc., as these don't attract much attention. The best sleeping spots are dark buildings, especially those that don't have generators, since zombies and PKers that waltz in will have reduced accuracy unless the building is lit up. Do note, however, that you can't detect or dump dead bodies in dark buildings, so if someone dies in a dark building, get out ASAP. Any building, however, with more than a few, is inherently unsafe because zombies will eventually find out that there is a lot of food and will then attack and kill everyone. Don't put your eggs all in one basket- spread your group members out in buildings that aren't heavily occupied.

As for defending TRPs, the order of priority for survivors and zombies goes roughly: NTs/Malls > Hospitals/PDs > Fire Stations > everything else. I personally dislike PDs because they are less productive than mall gun stores, so, I usually put PDs down with Fire stations if there is an active Mall in the area.

Reserving your APs is always a good idea. If you have the time to play UD later, save 10 or so AP for an emergency when possible, since you might check back on your character, only to discover that now you need to run, barricade, heal yourself or attack. You won't regret saving up the AP to do so.

Scouting safehouses might seem like a good idea, but it's actually very situational. You lose the scouting bonus, and with it, your 30 AP spent, if you move far away, die or let the building get ruined. The prospect of having 5 extra AP a day and being able to get more out of your favorite TRP is tempting, but you should only do so if you can count on staying alive and near the safehouse for a long while. There is more detail on safehouses' disadvantages here.

Keeping zombies out of buildings. The best method is having members scout around, taking note of the general situation and any building that needs help. In addition, Barricade Strafing is a good tactic to prevent break-ins and waste zombies' AP. Simply "strafe" a bunch of buildings, and watch as zombies futilely flail against the 'cades. Such buildings can be easily used for Pinatas however, so be careful.

Now, dealing with zombies in buildings they should not be in. If the building has more a few survivors, killing and dumping the zed is a good idea if survivors outnumber them at least three to one. Otherwise, find another way to help out. Remember, you can still barricade with only one zombie inside, so a good option is secure the building with 'cades and let the other survivors deal with the lone zed. If the building has no or few survivors, then if you can deal with the zombie problem immediately, including through allies and teammates, then do so. If you can't solve it immediately, it's your call, but know that some problems are not worth solving.

What about death and zombification? There are a few ways to minimize the loss sustained by death. Each of your members should carry at least two FAKs at all times, in order to cure infections, especially after being revived. If you get revived but are out of AP, Dirt Nap to avoid becoming free food by AP'ing out in an inconvenient situation.

There are many ways to increase the efficiency of revives, if your group does that. Coordinating reviving by making a "revive request" section of your forum is a good idea, (whether it's public or private depends on how generous you feel), as is making a private group-only revive point, which allows your revivers to stick group members without having to look through random zombies. This revive point should be near an NT for convenience. Also, revivers should add all your group members to their contacts lists. This allows them to instantly pick out and needle dead teammates without the need to scan, saving precious AP.

So, what if the suburb you want to be in becomes red, ruined and really harmful to your health? You have two options: move out or hide. Moving out is wise if you have a nearby safe suburb. Just move out, restock, and help reclaim the first suburb with the second suburb as your temporary base. The second option, hiding, is not so easy, but may be necessary if you don't want to abandon your home or if there is nowhere safe nearby. In that case, I recommend hiding in plain sight. It's still risky, and not the most glorious thing, but it sure beats dying endlessly.

To take care of ruins themselves, kick out any zombies in there and remember to pay attention to the repair cost- the longer it's ruined, the more AP it costs. Also, make sure you end up with a barricaded repaired building, using a teammate or ally if necessary.

Finally, as said before in this guide, pissing people off is a bad idea. This is especially sensible in-game, since whoever you piss off will likely refuse to help your group, prioritize attacking your group over others or even go out of their way to get you. So, before you mouth off to a PKer or a zombie, or set an annoying/obnoxious profile, think about the consequences.

Your Policies

There are some Urban Dead group behaviors you should follow and some you shouldn't. Many are controversial.

• Reviving in general- If your groups revives at all, for the love of God/Allah/FSM/deity of choice, PLEASE scan before reviving! The last thing you want to do is to blindly and stupidly waste a syringe helping a zerger, griefer or career zombie kick your ass. Or trying to revive a Rotter, which will make your syringe useless in the first place. Don't let it happen, scan before reviving! Randomly reviving does not help you or the survivor cause.

A special note: reviving PKers (with the exception of dedicated griefers and assholes) and otherwise ignoring them can draw their interest away from you, resulting in your group being PKed much less. It's a decent solution if you're a non-bounty-hunter group getting PKed often, although whether or not it's worth having more PKers alive in Malton is your decision.

• Combat Revives- This is controversial. The advantages are that you can quickly remove non-brainrot zombies from combat, the disadvantages are that you can create PKers and help parachuting by combat reviving the wrong zombies, which can get ugly. It's your choice, but if you are not sure, err on the side of caution and don't.

• Meatshielding- Another controversial policy. I believe that while meatshielding delays zombies, but it delays both the meatshielder and his reviver even more. Meatshielding gives a short-term advantage that will thus be paid pack later, and it will only slow down large zombie hordes anyway. It's useful in empty or nearly TRPs, since unattended TRPs are highly vulnerable, but otherwise, meatshielding is usually a net loss of AP for the survivor cause. Avoid it.

• Killing Zombies Outdoors- The only good reasons to be killing zombies outdoors are a) newbs who need XP fast and b) taking down rotters clogging up revive points. Don't kill zombies outdoors otherwise. It wastes uses 20-50-ish of your AP (including searching for ammo), to damage 1-11 of their AP. Pointless and a great way to get a reputation as idiots.

• Spying on enemy groups' forum with an alt as a member- This is unethical and an indicator of a total lack of decency. Don't do it.

• How to handle PKers, zergers and GKers- See below section about "Bounty Hunting and You."

• Zking/Life Culting- Your opinion about ZKing will vary. While directly killing zombies is only good for XP and allowing survivors to dump bodies, Life Cultists have a number of more useful options available to them. You may believe that ZKing or Life Culting is simply a waste of time and AP, and will save your AP only for when you get revived and can use AP as a survivor. Either way is legitimate. Your choice.

Your Propaganda

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Your Recruits

Your recruits can be a handful. In the interests of simplicity, I will list some typical recruits you will be likely to encounter in your travels, in order of gradually good to bad, and how to handle them. Not all recruits will neatly fit in these categories, use your judgement. All will be referred to as male for simplicity. "Discipline/punishment" means warnings, demotions, and possibly kicking out of the group. Note: the worse ones can often overlap traits. Nothing like a Drama Trenchqueen to ruin your day.

• The Badass- This is the ideal recruit. He's loyal, mature, competent and friendly, all almost to a fault. He can be left to his own devices without causing any issues or messing up too badly. Keep him close by your side and treat him well.
• The Normal- This recruit is a fairly "ordinary" person. He has nothing wrong with him. He's reasonably loyal, moderately competent and a pretty nice guy overall. Treat him like you treat the Badass.
• The Talker- This recruit is a colorful, strong-willed sort. He talks a lot, has a lot of quirks, and wants attention, but is usually reasonable about it. He may cause trouble now and then, but he spices up the group and makes it fun. Gently reign him in if he gets out of control, but otherwise indulge him.
• The Obsessed- This recruit is very dedicated to Urban Dead and your group and spends more time than is healthy on the wiki, on the game and on your forums. This is usually good, as you can harness that energy to improve your group, but beware that this sort of player often burns out and quits. Delegate tasks to him appropriately and make sure he doesn't overdo it.
• The Ghost- This recruit is silent- he barely communicates and doesn't say much when he does. Instead, he spends most of his time silently working behind the scenes. His dedication to the group may be questionable, or his real life is just busy. He doesn't follow group announcements/orders often (due to lack of communication) and doesn't add much to group morale. Find a reliable way to get orders to him and or convince him to be more active (if possible).
• The Fool- This recruit is well-meaning but a little too eager. Although enthusiastic like the Obsessed, he often skips reading orders or group policy due to his over-eagerness to get things done. Has a tendency to piss off others. Keep a very close eye on him, and don't be afraid to discipline him if he insists on doing something you don't want.
• The Bum- This recruit does almost nothing and isn't competent. He just punches in and punches out and will very likely leave the group at some point. Too lazy to do much good. If you can, convince him to be more active. Otherwise, don't count on having him around.
• The Wannabe- This recruit is ambitious and talks big, but has nothing to back it up. Not very loyal, mature or competent. He may end up backstabbing you or leaving for another group. Keep him very close, and ensure he can't do much damage if he wants to ditch or attack your group.
• The Drama queen- This recruit wants positive attention and will behave badly when he receives negative attention. Prone to causing and escalating drama (obviously) and is very emotional. Be careful what you say, and find a good way to shut him up when he's causing or worsening any drama. Punish him if he's getting to be too much for you, and don't trust him too much.
• The Trenchie- This recruit is an aggressive idiot, plain and simple. He just wants to go out an kil tem zombiz!1111 Prone to typing and acting like an idiot, and unlike the Fool, actively *ignores* orders and policies you set out for him and does his own (likely idiotic) thing instead. Unless you're fine with this, discipline him regularly. Don't trust him under any conditions unless he wisens up.
• The Jerk- This recruit is your everyday asshole, who either derives most of his pleasure from suffering, including yours, or just does not give a damn about other people. Even if you can harness his energy well, he'll eventually turn on you one day once bored. Exclude him from important matters and immediately bring the hammer down hard when he steps out of line.
• The Closet Zerger- Self explanatory. Punish hard immediately upon detection and strongly consider kicking him out, considering this sort is likely an enemy spy.

Fun fact: A way to filter out Fools, Bums and Trenchies is to have all group applicants follow easy but specific and unusual instructions in order to get in your group. Chances are the Fool and Trenchie will skip it and make the standard "I can haz let in?"-type of application, and the Bum will be too lazy to go through with it.

Jerks and Wannabes can weeded out with some sort of morality/character quiz, but you will probably find that's going too far, considering these sorts are relatively rare in Urban Dead (though they can seem everywhere). Just keep an eye out for red flags in all of your recruits.

Glorious Battle!

Sooner or later, you'll gain enough strength from knowledge, alliances and recruitment to do more than simply survive and fend off the zombie menace. Unless you're a non-aggressive reviving- or roleplaying- based group, you will want to take the initiative against the undead and drive them out from where they threaten you and yours. And this is the section for triumphing over the undead menace.

Your Enemy

Alright, step one is to know your enemy. You may think you know your enemy. But do you know them well enough?

At equal levels, zombies are superior to survivors in almost every way. That's a fact.

Zombies can recover from death with minor penalties, attack more efficiently, infect survivors, death-cult if revived, interfere with survivors by sleeping in the right place, and attract more zombies via feeding groans. They are also generally better-organized, have more PKers on their side, and don't need supplies.

Survivors have the advantage of barricades, short bursts of high damage via firearms or combat revives, and, usually, a slight advantage in total numbers. That's it.

I know, it sounds bad.

The lesson NOT to take from this is "you're screwed because zombies will win in a fight." The real lesson is "you should avoid taking on zombies in a direct fight."

You will get nowhere when you try to beat the undead up or knock them down to win the battle. Don't meet force with force- you will be eventually worn down and eaten, while they will stand back up over and over again. Instead, you should keep them from getting to you in the first place.

I have earlier stated that survivors have only three advantages over zombies. It turns out that the first two are powerful when used together and can negate many zombie advantages. So, it's not as bad as it sounds. Rely on barricades to keep Z out, and use ammo to quickly take down the ones who do get in, before they can let more in. Barricades, in particular, are exceedingly powerful. On average, it takes zombies 4 to 5 AP to take down what survivors spend 1 AP bringing up. That's why survivor victories almost always happen behind barricades, and survivor defeats happen when barricades go down. With wooden boards constantly presented to them instead of brains, zombies will eventually will leave the suburb in search of better eating elsewhere.

Based on these facts, you have three options when presented with zombies, especially organized zombies- outlast them, frustrate them and dodge them. Know that everything in Suburbia 101 and the Force Multipliers I mentioned in Part One still applies, so you should review those sections.

Now, simply outlasting zombies is the most common and easiest method, but also the one that takes longest to successfully use.

• Spread your forces out. Don't want them all dying once if zombies break in.
• Have the right supplies. You want DNA scanners, syringes, FAKs (lots!), ammo, and toolboxes (for fixing ruins and generators). If lots of other survivors are around, you can rely on them for extra FAKs, gennies and fuel. If not, pack those as well.
• Know your priorities. You want to protect what benefits you most. Mall > Library, for example. Now, if the Mall or another TRP is screwed and inevitably going down, don't waste your AP on it. Grab what you can while you can, and focus elsewhere.
• Be careful with AP. Don't dump it all into keeping your ammo overflowing or something. You might find yourself short of AP when zombies break into a nearby building hours later and you can't do anything to help .
  

Eventually, you'll find the zombies will be discouraged by lack of food or bored by lack of action and so will leave.

The second approach is frustrating zombies into leaving the battle. It's really risky- there's a fine line between royally pissing them off and thus inspiring them to go "Barhah" on your harman azz, and merely annoying them *just* enough so that their morale plummets. Frustrating them consists of setting up empty QSB/VSB decoys, taunting them verbally or with graffiti (don't be an asshole, though), combat reviving (choose wisely!), and ZKing with your zombified members or allied life cultists. Again, this method is very risky, and you will have to learn through trial-and-error before it works, but it will pay off well if done right.

The third approach is dodging and outmaneuvering them. Seems fairly obvious- figure out where zombies are attacking and have all the survivors not be there. It's hard to pull off, because the majority of survivors won't listen to you, and some people are very attached to their TRPs. But, if you somehow manage to empty out a target, you'll defeat the zombies by denying them food and XP.

Important note before I get more specific: You are not big damn heroes. Your group are not the super-special dudes who will end up breaking the siege and being adored for your epic zombie-pwning skills. That what trenchies think, and they never amount to anything. Don't be a trenchie. You are simply a part, although an important part, of the great survivor war machine. Work with other survivors and don't jump into battle thinking you're the Chosen Ones. If you actually are that good, then angels will sing from upon high whenever you shoot a zombie. Unless that happens, check your egos and don't expect special consideration from other survivors.

If that does happen, consider seeking professional help.

Your Sieges

For TRPs, as I have said earlier, you should sleep near, but never inside, of TRPs. Always know how many zombies are outside and how many survivors are inside and how organized both are. Keep it at least VHB at all times, kill and dump zombies as they come in, the rest is fairly simple.

If you really need the TRP's supplies, pick a replacement TRP in case the current one goes down and be ready to leave and defend/retake it at any moment.

For Malls, this guide says it far better than I ever could. Read it, or else!

For forts... don't do forts. Seriously. Retake them if you and your allies have nothing better to do, but other than that, just stay away.

That just about covers it.

Your Strikes/Raids

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Counter-Attacking

The zombies win a fight and have ruined a building. If the building was important, there will likely be quite a few zombies in the building immediately following the ruining. Don't counter-attack immediately. The easiest thing to do is to wait for the crowd to disperse (this can be sped up if they are attracted to another juicy building) and then once the numbers inside are manageable, killing the zeds inside, dumping ,and repairing, preferably in a strike. If there are still too many zombies after a week or so, chances are there's a zombie group dedicated to holding the building, in which case you have to ask yourself if taking the building is worth it.

Victory/Defeat

If you win your battle, learn to make the most of it. Add a written record of it to your propaganda, secure the territory you have gained, throw a party for morale purposes, and remember what you did right and try to do that again. If any enemy groups were defeated, tell them they were a worthy opponent or don't talk to them at all. Don't cause drama by gloating or insulting.

On the other hand, you must also learn how to take defeat well. This means moving to the nearest safe suburb, reviving your dead, restocking on supplies, achieving some easy goals to recover morale, and most importantly, learning what you did wrong so that it doesn't happen again. Morale will take a hit, but it won't be too bad if you stay upbeat about it and improve from the experience. And possibly vow to take revenge and win in the same scenario in the future when you are stronger. That'll pump up your troops.

Bounty Hunting and You

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The Offensive

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Your Expansion

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Ghost Towns

Sometimes, you'll want to re-populate a ghost town for some reason or another. Guides:Ghost Town Reclamation- This guide pretty much covers everything about taking back a ghost town. Recommended reading if you plan on taking back ghost towns anytime soon.

Nomadism

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Good Times!

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Leaving your group

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Alliances and Meta-Groups

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• Metagroups (AKA Organizations)- Defined as large groups that combine the efforts of other groups for greater power. Results will vary . Often, an overambitious upstart pops out of thing air and declares something like, "Hey everyone, let's totally take over Malton!" and then always gets nowhere. Big surprise Examples include the completely obscure and failed RRA and Pro Survivor Alliance. However, meta-groups started by already-established groups and their allies are very powerful, sometimes even unstoppable. Take for example, Big Bashes, Alliance 45 and New Malton Colossus. All accomplished crazy awesome things and steamrolled opponents that their component groups could not. But remember, these guys started from somewhere first before forming their metagroups, and they had carefully-made and thought-out PLANS to go with their ambitions, not just "win over bad guys."

Miscellaneous Things

Here are a few guides I recommend for those who want to take their group further.

This is a (much) shorter but still satisfactory guide about the same topic as this one.

Guides:Meta-Careers - Good for learning more about your members' possible roles in-game.

User:Grim s/Grims guide to staying alive - A brilliant guide to individual survivor self-defense. Many, many great tips to not getting one's ass kicked.

Thanks to

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A Final Word

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