Monroeville
Monroeville is the second of three cities available in Urban Dead; the others being Malton and Borehamwood. It was introduced on February 25th, 2008 as part of the promotional campaign for the UK release of George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead.
Monroeville is a real city in Pennsylvania. Much of the George A. Romero horror classic "Dawn of the Dead" was filmed on location in Monroeville Mall. The Monroeville Urban Dead map draws on its real-world counterpart; including the Monroeville Mall as well as extensive fields and woodlands. The map also includes locations reminiscent of those featured in Diary of the Dead; such as dormitories as well as a mansion with an indoor pool
Playing in Monroeville
Logging in with Monroeville characters is done from the main Urban Dead page. Character names from Malton could not be recreated in Monroeville. Similarly, Monroeville names could not be used Borehamwood and cannot be reused in Malton. The three Urban Dead cities share a database and basic game mechanics. Differences are primarily based on available equipment and building types (Notably the lack of NecroTech buildings and equipment in Monroeville and Borehamwood has made transitioning into a zombie permanent.)
In the beginning, Monroeville characters were created from the Monroeville character creation page. This registration periof lasted until March 30th, 2008; when the first quarantine began. The first quarantine suspended new character creation, disallowed idling-out after 5 days, and enabled survivors with the headshot skill to permanently kill zombie characters.
On June 13th, 2008, the first quarantine was lifted to promote the DVD release of Romero's Diary of the Dead on June 30th. All players received badges in their profiles with their state at the end of quarantine (survivor, undamaged corpse, or headshot corpse). The limitation of creating new characters was removed and headshot zombie players could stand up again. Also the character creation page declared another quarantine to happen "in mid July", though new sign-ups were still possible at that time.
Subsequently, on August 1st, 2008 Kevan indicated that the quarantine would indeed be reimposed in early August with extra possibility for Monroeville players to transfer their donation tags to Malton.
As announced later in official game news posted on August 6th, 2008, the second quarantine would begin on August 15th, 2008. New character creation is once again prohibited, but the headshot skill lacks the ability to permanently kill zombie characters.
Exactly six months after Monroeville was opened, on the August 25th, 2008, there remained roughly 100 survivors, dubbed The Monroeville 100.
Since that time, the numbers of both survivors and zombies has continued to dwindle. The current population of both groups is displayed below.
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Monroeville |
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General Details
Known Regions
main article: Monroeville Schematic Map
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Maps
- Monroeville is 98x98, approximately same size as Malton, however there are fewer, but larger regions.
- Here is the above map plus some others parsed to the wiki (updated by ~~~~ [talk] manually) (all 9604 blocks; + a version with coords)
Groups
Buildings and Locations
- lists of large buildings and structures in Monroeville
- list of malls in Monroeville
- list of new location types found in Monroeville
- location types stats in Monroeville
Video Diaries
main article: Diaries
Characters on the limited-edition Monroeville map have access to Video Cameras, which prior to the 4th of April could be used to record diaries of the locations and events they encountered. The Consumer class started with a video camera; others had to loot them from shopping malls.
By clicking on the video camera's button in your inventory, your character attempted to film anything interesting in their environment, such as a landmark or a zombie horde. Your character also filmed notable events automatically, even if they occurred while you were logged out.
All the clips that were taken are collected on your "Diary" page, which can be accessed by button under the map. You can share this URL with other people, if you want to show off your work. However, all video camera batteries in Monroeville are flat and without access to charger cables, they can no longer be used to film clips.
Skills
Due to the lack of Necrotech buildings, several skills are useless in Monroeville. These skills are: Necrotech employment, Lab Experience, and Necronet Access. These skills can still be purchased as normal, but the Lab Assistant class is unavailable. Before the game changes of October 14th, 2008, Brain Rot was useless in Monroeville. However, with the addition of Flesh Rot to the game, Brain Rot is now necessary as an antecedent to the advantages of Flesh Rot.
FAQ
- Is Death permanent ? Even for zombies ?
- Death is permanent for survivors as there are no Necrotech buildings and/or revivification syringes. Once killed, a player can choose to remain playing as a zombie. From 28 March 2008 to 13 June 2008 zombies who got themselves killed with a headshot died permanently.
- Survivors who are killed or kill themselves receive the following message:
- "Although zombies in the main Urban Dead game can be "revivified" by NecroTech syringes, no such technology exists in the Romero canon, and this character will remain a zombie"
- Zombies that have taken a headshot on or after the 29th of March get this message:
- You were killed by a zombie hunter, who knew to aim for the head - in Monroeville, a headshot will take a zombie down permanently. Your body may eventually be shipped to Malton for research, when Monroeville has been cleared.
- How big is Monroeville ?
- The city is slightly smaller than Malton: 98x98 (Malton is 100x100). Though there are only six named zones. Check the scheme above.
- For how long will Monroeville last ?
| Kevan said: |
| It's going to be around for at least three weeks, for the duration of Diary of the Dead being in cinemas. If it turns out to be popular with players as a hardcore no-revive map, or if NecroTech start setting up camp there, I'd consider keeping it around indefinitely, if I didn't think it'd split the player base too much. |
- Does the IP hit count for both cities ?
- Yes. Every IP can make 160 IP hits in Urban Dead, not mattering in which city they were made. You can eliminate this limitation by donating. Donated-for characters in Monroeville may get their donation flags shifted onto other characters in Malton, if Monroeville ever happens to shut down permanently.
- With the city opening back up, what if anything will the surviving characters get?
| Kevan said: |
| There'll probably be a badge for being a breathing survivor, a badge for being a standing zombie, and a badge for being a non-headshot corpse. I'll just give them out at an unannounced time, so that the lurking zombies don't all stand up at ten seconds to midnight. |
- Will the recent updates in Malton be the same in Monroeville?
| Kevan said: |
| The recent updates have already been echoed to Monroeville. |
Radio
A running radio post, non-archived, is available at Monroeville:Radio for those who need to get up to speed on recent reported events.
Newspaper Reports
- What lead to this in Monroeville?
Known newspaper reports are:
- It's a copy of a local newspaper from a few weeks ago. The front page story is about local farming subsidies.
- It's a copy of a local newspaper from a few weeks ago. There's a story about the redevelopment of Monroeville Mall.
- It's a copy of a local newspaper from a few weeks ago. There's an interview with the director of Parkdale Hospital, in Newtown.
IRC
List of Available Monroeville Channels.
- Network: irc.nexuswar.com
- #monroeville - Unofficial Urban Dead Monroeville channel.
- #mrf - Official Monroeville Resistance Front channel.
