Starcraft 2 Arcade Zombie World
Anastacia Iacono
Oh No It's Zombies Updated is an asymmetrical SC2 arcade mod. Asymmetrical multiplayer games are where two teams or groups of players experience the same game but with different game play mechanics. In this case, it is 1 Zombie controlling a massive horde in an attempt to take over the map while being in contest with 6 Marines.
The Zombie player must stop all marines from escaping by either capturing them all (at the same time) or destroying all 3 drop-ships/trains. Starting at the Hive mind, the zombie is in a "break out" or siege position against the rest of the map (Security and Marines).
The Marines must run the clock out until fueling finishes, and escape on one of the three drop-ships/trains in order to escape the infestation and win the game. This requires actively defending the facility from being overrun by use of tools in the Weapons Locker.
The starting place for all players is being a Marine. 6 players spawn around the map with the sole objective of surviving the Zombie onslaught. You are not ranked until you finish your 5th game as marine where at the same time you are then allowed to opt in for zombie. For detailed information on the role rank plays in game, please see Advantage System and Player Ranking.
The macro/micro balance in this game is different from most. You will place a mule (mining drone) first thing to begin mining your income for the game. Do not "-afk" mine (an older feature from the mod), do not play arc welder (Experimental that is basically a combat engineer), and do not play tank (Experimental that lets you play a siege tank) until you learn to play the game with a regular weapon. As a new player, let the droid do the mining for you. There are 4 mines in the map and they correspond to the directions on the mining routes on the command card. So the top right button will be the North East most mine, bottom left button will be for the South West most mine, and etc. The benefit of letting the droid do the work is that you can now concentrate on learning the finer aspects of the game.
The mission objective of your team as a marine is to hold out until the count down is finished. This means holding back the zombie at every point as long as possible. When players say they are going to "contain" or that you should, it means you should go towards the zombie and begin the process of holding back the infinite horde to buy time. The purpose of containment of the enemy is the most important, because the zombie receives all its greatest benefits from infesting more "rooms" and areas with its horde. So go contain that zombie by killing as many of them as fast and safely as you can.
There are a ton of doors on the map you can interact with from either side. These doors are great delays to utilize against the zombie. Closing a door can ensure another marine can get there in order to help you hold off the horde. Remember to close them in time so that you do not die and zombie does not overwhelm you.
I am going to do everyone a favor for you new comer. Please stay off the creep. It is the danger zone where zombie has full vision and where the horde spawns its minions. As you get better at the micro portion of the game, you will learn when to do it, but most of the time new players end up dead because they miss this.
The most halting thing about playing OhNoIZ is that there is a huge Weapons Locker, and there is no instruction on what to get first. Let me be clear! There are a lot of different opinions on what to buy first. Your best options are a grenade (incendiary or frag), a gun (more on this later), or stim pack.
Admittedly this is being written by a player, so there may be portions that disagree with other strategy guides. Choose the game play and style that works best for you to keep your marine alive and kill zombies. I hope something in this guide is of service to you.
One of the most important game play elements to OhNoIZ is understanding the principle of rotation. Rotation is also different in practice between the two maps (subterranean and arctic), and it is important to understand the principle so that you can apply it no matter what situation you find yourself. Rotation is being in the right place at the right time. It is a lot like zone defense in sports. You have an area when you spawn to cover, and when zombie moves from that area you need to move to meet the zombie push elsewhere without leaving a gap in the defenses.
Artic map is a good starting point to teach rotation. There are 4 entrances to the Hive Mind. One East, two West, and One North. Usually zombie will push East on this map, so a good starting point for rotation would be 3 marines to hold the East push, 1 marine north to close the door and watch for the zombie to change directions, and 1 west for the same purpose. The final player can either be the arc player setting up economy, or float to the place they are needed most depending on how the zombie pushed or opened. When zombie decides to change push direction, the zombies will move before you know it without vision or a good spread by marines. If zombie pushes north after an eastern push, then the 1 marine that is north will close a door and stall the push until the other marines can "rotate" there to help. One marine will stay East to slow down the next zombie rotation to that area.
One note about rotation is there are two major mistakes in rotating for a marine team. There is over rotation and under rotation. Over rotation occurs when zombie pushes Fuel Distribution Center (FDC), and 5 marines show up to defend the push. This means that somewhere on the map is a huge gap in the marine defense. Zombie will take advantage of this upon realizing it and take at least one room for free somewhere else. One marine will usually not be able to hold a full push, so zombie at this point has a lot of options. Under rotation occurs when not enough marines move at the right time. In the same scenario, say marines see the zombie horde heading toward FDC. A couple marines ping the location, and maybe even text or use voice chat to say that it is under attack. Nobody moves. Or leaves the defense to one to two marines. A good player will ask the question, "What is everyone else doing?" FDC is a major room, and could turn the tide of a competitive game. You must rotate to where zombie is to stop the push without leaving the rest of the map defenseless.
Playing games and paying attention to what the average zombie player does will teach you the "flow" or the direction of the map. Arctic and Subterranean have very different flows and metas, so the only way to truly what to expect is to play. This will help your rotation, because you will know that when zombie pushes east on Arctic there are only two options for him to rotate to after that. From my experience, zombie will often push West next, because it is the hardest to rotate to for marines. Remember the most important fact about experience is that just playing will not make you a good player. Playing and learning will.
It is important for every marine that wants to play well to learn to look at their mini map. Looking at the mini map will allow you to see early (depending on your vision status) where zombie will be moving next. Remember, unless they F2 move their entire horde, you will be killing zombies at push 1 while he is already sending zombies to push 2.
There are three important tools for map vision: Marines, exploration droids, and sensors towers. Utilizing these tools will allow you to better see what movements the zombie is making. The better you have vision over the zombie's movements the better you will be able to rotate properly to stop those movements.
Every marine team needs good communication. Let each other know what you are buying, where you are going, and what you are doing will allow everyone to have better knowledge to make decisions in rotation. Using proper pings on the map, being in VC, or simply typing your intentions is how you accomplish this. In our example, the zombie pushes east and then west on Arctic map. Say there are three marines east, and one marine west. The team needs to communicate who will rotate to the west to stop the push. One marine can not do it alone. The team needs to tell clearly who is going where and who is staying where to prevent under or over rotation.
At the highest level, teams do best having a commander or captain. A marine who is responsible for telling people where to go can be much more effective than waiting to see who will go where. A team with a game plan will also have players assigned a role. Knowing these roles will help the commander better dictate rotation.
Being able to hold a room is the most valuable trait a marine can have. The more rooms the zombie player takes, then the more supply and spawn the zombie player will have to push for more rooms (sans the Rage element of course). So the goal is to hold as many rooms as long as you can so that your team can escape comfortably.
The greatest question any marine asks as they learn to better their game play is, "How do I hold rooms?" This can be one of the most difficult tasks to accomplish depending on the marine team level and the zombie level. If the zombie is just bad and does not rotate or know how to push rooms, holding a room can be easy. If you have plenty of marines present, holding a room is a lot easier as well. How do you hold rooms solo though? How do you stop a greater nydus from taking a key room? The answer to these questions is a skill to be picked up and learned as you watch good marines play and as you play games yourself.
What tools the zombie is using is the first thing to consider. Is the zombie pushing into a choke with the horde? Is there an alpha present? Are there buildings in play? This will help in deciding the next factors. For example, if there is just a horde push and no alphas, then a single flamer or 2 marines could hold a full horde push with enough marine tools. If there is a horde push with an Abberation, then you'll need a plasma, shotgun, or rocket to zone out or kill the alpha while another marine or two holds the horde push. Last example, if there is a creep tower, an alpha, and a full horde push, then you need at least 3 marines to stop the push usually.
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