Field Guide. A few helpful tips...

Updated.

To all new members, please do read this guide. It's not because I have organized it, but because I see many of you doing some silly stuff...

As a side note:

I went on a simple training mission with Love Ace, and this happened...
I was in the middle of a room with counters on my W and E. Ace was with me.

In his screen I was not on the midle of the room, but beside the counter to the W, meaning - right near the door.
Everytime zeds came, I got hit and hit and hit.
(according to him)

In my screen everytime zeds came in, Ace would go a bit S and start "trembling" (tilting) like mad.

What was actually happening?

Neither me nor Ace were moving, not even shooting. Zeds came in and kept coming... they always hit the counter and went back (direction door), they did this again and again, unable to find a way to us. Aggro started and there they remained.
I ordered Ace to be very still and learn from the way zeds behave (in game. in RL they dress up and go to parties too).

So... crazy? Yes, very crazy, very beta and very screwed up.

hope you learned something from this. I know I have... still figuring out how to include this in the field guide.

Your crazy Special Ops girl,

Lorna.

PS: Also during the mission, I was showing Ace how to provoke and dodge zeds in order to stop them. A few times he said I got hit while doing this manouver...
Well, during the whole mission I was hit 0 times (I would be dead at least 400 times, according to the number of times I was "supposedly" hit). There's another piece of information for you.
Have fun.
EDIT: When Ace started firing at those zeds that were relentlessly hiting me inside the building, I became "unstuck" (his words), and returned to the safety of the middle of the room.

Also, something that I recently thought of, that is very relevant, but I only realize how important it is now that I see how erratic prices are.

Buy what you need, BEFORE you need it.

What I mean by this, don't buy medical supplies when you're injured. Buy them when prices are low, ahead of time. The reason is, when you're injured, we may be in the middle of a price spike, where some person with way too much money decides they need more, so they buy up the market and try to re-sell at higher prices.

Prices eventually balance out, but buying into the price hike craze only fuels it and makes it last longer. Also, just because you looted eight morphines doesn't mean you should sell them all. Save them for a rainy day. Worst case scenario, you level past the usability of the item, or it cloggs up a sale/storage/inventory space. Best case scenario, you're badly wounded, but you can get right back into the action, because you thought ahead of time.

I myself, I have three morphines and a cooked cherry pie waiting for me in my storage, just in case. I didn't buy any of them, either.

Since this guide is a lot to read all at once, I challenge every sergeant and corporal who knows this to teach it to their squad members in practical application in the field. A smart and well-informed clan is a strong clan, that lasts for a very, very long time.

Also, Lorna, would it be okay if I posted this on the Wiki sometime? Probably not right away, because I'm lazy, but something to do in the future.

Few dogde hints by Carter:
- There's plenty of time since zombie swung till you get hit. It's a good thing to set timing and be able to hit zombie when he swungs (push him back, and automaticly stops his attack), not be relodin' that time.
- While havin crowd goin into your direction one zombie after another DON'T RUN INTO A CORNER. When havin' guns (or chainsaw) you can run in a circle and shot them, or stop on a distance and do crowd control; when havin' a chainsaw/smg/assault rifle/fast melee (like good damage knife with high crit rate) you're absolutly able to just stand on the ground and don't move, hit the first zed in a row, so neither this one nor rest of them are able to attack you - after a few seconds you'll see 7 zeds goin' dumbfully back, and this one layin' on ground knocked by your hits.
- Use objects around you: cars, desks, buses, boxes, even chairs to hide after thou and make zombie turn around and walk away. Remember - it's deadly to place yourself between two objects, while there's a possibility zombies will spawn again runnin on you from both directions like a mad The Doors groupies.
- Always have in mind to keep at least one good and certain exit, especially while indoor. Regardles the plausibility - standin' near doors while indoor is not a good idea, cause it's very propable that zombie will spawn exactly in the doors makin' you unable to escape.
- Be fast in mind not necceserly in legs. No matter if you have 70 aggility or 25 - everybody can dogde every single zombie, even sprinting longarm. When he stops (he need to stop to swung) just either a) hit him and go away like nothing happened (this one don't work on ex wifes) or b) use your shift key (this one is best for ex wifes, they really hate to be shifted)
- Get known with the area. First two minutes of highest aggro tier are most deciding, cause you can run into a bad spot for manuvering not even noticing it since it's to late. When you manage to learn the terrain where you stand, it's wise to use the adventages and avoid disadventages of this piece of ground. i.e. Knowing that east change block border is in 85% blocked by bus keeps you from choosin' that way (cause this little 15% can be blocked by the crowd).
- 8 zeds crowd. Is it a bad thing or a good thing? It's a good thing cause:
a) it can't be any worse
b) no more zombies will spaw unless you kill one (it's good to kill one at the time, cause it's easier to perform a good maneuvers with one new zed out of our bunch than with three such a new shiny zeds)
c) you can choose betwen either fight them off or run them
- Last one, Final one, ultimate advice. In tight situations your goal is not to don't get hit, your goal is to survive. If you know how much you can endure somtimes it's better to get hitted and suffer the serous/broken (health/armor status) than to get killed.

So much from me. I didn't noticed these in Lorns guide (most of it I didn't, I duped one or two of your advices Lorns, but in a new context, I'm sure you don't mind, do you? ), so it can be usefull.

PS. All things considered - the best way to learn is practice. Try for once not just rise aggro and mindlessly kill everything till you run out of ammo, or till this everything that you're tryin' to kill gets to tough to just play dead and wait for you to go away. It's a good thing to play in purple or even grey zone, try out some tricks, figure out the timing, see for yourself if your able to avoid hits every single time you want. Stuff... you know.
cheers

thank you for makeing that.i got a few helpfl hints.

Thanks SC
Will add those hints + a few of mine as soon as I have the time+patience.

HK, can you please sticky this thread so I don't have to punch in the nose any new Delta that hasn't read it?
Thanks

L.

A little tactic that I call "Hook, Line, and Sinker."


It's basically a tactic that manipulates the zombies while using you, the player, as bait!! Isn't that great? This tactic will allow you to play defensively and reap massive looting and safety benefits.


The way it works is as follows:

1. There is a finite number of zombies in the entire map meaning that there is a limit of the total amount of zombies. Each zone, each block, and each building has only so many zombies.

2. Aggro is the measurement of their aggressiveness. It does not increases the amount of total zombies. It simply increases their spawn rate giving the impression of an endless wave of zombies.

3. Zombies will venture from different adjacent areas depending on how high or low the aggro is. This tactic abuses this fact and turns the game in your favor.

4. In deep regions of the map, such as the fat red and longarm zombie zones, the aggro is often ridiculous. You often feel intimidated and choose either to make a quick exit or refresh your game. Rather than do that, stand your ground.

5. This scenario will depict how the strategy works:

[] You're looting an apartment in the longarm zone and you're afraid of encountering a room full of sprinting zombie or being trapped from behind.

[] To prevent this, you can wait in a clear area that you know has zombies in adjacent rooms. Those zombies can be lured out one by one allowing you to pick them off with ease.

[] If you can make quick work of say a longarm in a few shots or melee attacks, then you're golden.

[] You can repeat this process if you ever encounter a large horde of zombies. You can back out into a clear room and let them come in one at a time.

[] Be patient if you want to do this properly. This will allow you to backtrack a building with ease because you know that there is no threat of an ambush.


I sincerely hope that this helps.

good tactic magicman used it myself. But one thing - when aggro is high, they're not comin' one at a time through doors, they're rushing as a coaches of interstate express train.
So here's the addon to this, two ways to solve:
1. Chainsaw - just stand literaly on the doors and don't get your finger out of fire button. Works as a block, so even if there is a gathering of 4-5 freshly spawned zombies on doors, none can hit you. (requiers more than 100 crit points)
2. Any kind of gun - find a piece of furniture near the doors, one that'll make zombies dumbfully walk in a circle. Stand behind this object. Face the doors. Shot. Shot. Shot. Reload. Shot. Shot. Shot. Reload. Repeat.