A great day for HvZ, and despite low attendance we were able to host some decent games.
All rules can be found here.
Note that while I do my best to cover all significant blasters, it is entirely possible that I missed or forgot to include some. Also note that I primarily cover/detail mods that affect functionality and performance.
Regular/Recurring:
Elite Stryfe – semi-auto, mag-fed flywheeler. All-rounder leaning towards ROF. Simple and effective in most situations. Highly customisable and popular.
Elite Rapidstrike – full-auto, mag-fed flywheeler. High ROF blaster excelling in close quarters, and against groups of zombies. Requires good trigger control and discipline to limit ammo usage.
N-Strike Raider/Elite Rampage – pump-action, mag-fed springer. All-rounder springer, leaning towards ROF. Notable for being pump-action out-of-box. Horizontal magwell can be difficult to use.
N-Strike/Elite Alpha Trooper – pump-action, mag-fed springer. All-rounder springer, leaning towards ROF. A little weaker than most of its contemporaries, but again notable for being pump-action out-of-box.
Elite Retaliator/Modulus Recon MkII – slide/pump-action, mag-fed springer. All-rounder springer, leaning towards range and accuracy. Natively slide-action out of box, requiring modification to be pump action, but notably capable of more power than its contempraries. Highly popular and customisable.
New/Infrequent:
One particular issue with Z-darts was their varying compressibility depending on rotation. Compressing the walls of the Z of the tips is very easy, however the edges of the Z do not compress well, and this can cause problems with flywheels if the edges are aligned with the flywheel surfaces. Besides two specific blasters having trouble however, I was not aware of any dart-related problems. I personally am not a big fan of Z-darts because this alignment quirk causes a little inconsistency with flywheeler muzzle velocity, and I’m not a fan of the slicker tip compound compared to the more standard rubber of Waffles. Nonetheless, I have no major issue with them.
In the second round, the humans stayed in several smaller groups. These groups were generally kept from linking up by precise zombie attacks, which though not necessarily effective, caused groups to constantly move apart. These smaller groups made for much easier pickings than a few large groups, due to relatively less firepower. I typically jumped between small groups as I felt appropriate, though was significantly more tired due to my last stand in the previous round. Eventually, the group I was with at the time was overwhelmed by zombies and I was unable to stay alive much longer, finishing as one of the last three survivors.
The last two rounds were tanbark restricted Survival rounds, with a further decreased player count. The first round had PvP again active, and the humans quickly turned on one another. This of course made for very easy pickings for the zombies, and the few surviving humans were easily overrun. The second round did not have PvP, but had an even lower player count, with only 2 starting zombies, excluding myself, and about 8 humans. Without the use of the large Tank shields, it was difficult for the few starter zombies to get any tags, as they would be rapidly hosed down by the humans. As such, the first two or so tags relied entirely on the Husk catching out unaware humans. With a few more zombies in the mix, they were able to whittle down the human group at a reasonable rate.
The first is the widespread introduction of small shields for zombies. These shields are large enough to cover a zombie’s torso, but leave their limbs and head relatively exposed. In addition, they are not especially wide and even the slightest flank maneuver will expose the zombie’s side. In a one-on-one between a zombie and human, these shields greatly improve the zombie’s odds. They are no longer forced to resort to defenceless head-on charges, and can approach humans with relative safety. With their limbs and head still exposed however, a fast-reacting human can adjust their aim and still have a very good chance at stunning the zombie before they get too close. This weakness is further exacerbated against humans with high ROF blasters. Likewise, small shields offer zombies little protection against multiple well armed humans, and they are still liable to being hosed down when within effective range.
Nonetheless, the small shields allow individual zombies to exert far more pressure on humans, especially smaller groups, than they would otherwise be able to. Barring full-size Tanks, there are no zombies that are remotely capable of challenging a reasonably armed and aware human. The small shields help to close this gap while still maintaining a human advantage. Throughout the event, there were numerous times where the moderate protection from a small shield was more than enough for a zombie to make a threatening attack, where without it they would have been easily hosed down at the start. I quite like the addition of small shields to supplement the few big shields and I think they will continue to be quite useful.
The extra pressure that a Medic zombie can exert on a small human group is immense. With even just a couple of zombies, the Medic zombie can put zombies back in play after 10 seconds as opposed to the usual 25. This can quite easily catch players off guard and unaware, often resulting in an easy tag or two. Against larger groups, or with larger groups of zombies, the Medic’s effect is a lot less noticeable. Larger human groups have the firepower to just hose down the newly revived zombie and Medic, while larger zombie groups gain much less from having a Medic reviving single zombies. Nonetheless, earlier on in smaller games, the Medic zombie can give the fledgling zombie group the boost they ned to get those crucial early tags.
Something that we quickly eliminated was the ability for the Medic to revive Tanks and Husks – putting these zombies back in play so quickly was far too powerful against a smaller human side. It was overwhelmingly powerful particularly with Tanks, giving the humans almost no time to recover and reload after stunning a Tank. Even without reviving these upgraded zombies however, with the low player count we had, the Medic zombie provided a little extra momentum for the zombies.
Despite the lower player count, we were able to have several good games, and try out a number of new things.
You can find the same post on my own blog: Outback Nerf