The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Madness, Oct 3, 2007.

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  1. Grossenschwamm

    Grossenschwamm Well-Known Member

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    Or nodachi. If I'm gonna go melee with a creature that can reanimate me against my will, I want to be at least five feet away from it. Besides, melee weapons never run out of bullets.
     
  2. Wolfsbane

    Wolfsbane Well-Known Member

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    But humans get fatigued. And then, when you're all tired, you die. And that death won't be pretty. You don't have to shoot bullets. There are almost infinate trees. Make a bow, it's not that hard.
     
  3. Dark Elf

    Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

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    Sure you could use a gun... as long as it is a captive bolt pistol.

    Bows don't have the stopping power to kill a zombie. Archery targets typically die of exsanguination, and that's just one of them things zombies don't give a shit about.
     
  4. rosenshyne

    rosenshyne New Member

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    you need the firing line mentioned in world war z.
     
  5. Grakelin

    Grakelin New Member

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    Guns are nice, if you want to attract every zombie within 10 miles. And if you are super good at aiming at the head.

    Bows would never work. And really, just TRY going out and making a bow out of a tree, when there's a zombie invasion.
     
  6. Wolfsbane

    Wolfsbane Well-Known Member

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    Um.. making a at least decent bow's not hard. Who said anything about a tree? Try the nearest city dump. As for stopping power... Shoot them in the head and that stopping power won't matter. A destroyed nervous system is a destroyed nervous system.
     
  7. Grakelin

    Grakelin New Member

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    Also, I don't know if you know anything about bows and arrows at all (I know a very small amount, actually), but you DO get fatigued using them. Especially if it's one you made yourself, instead of a professionally made weapon. Besides that, it takes a lot of practice to get good aim with them, hence meaning you can't just snap every single one in the head. Also, where are you going to get all those arrows? And what if you break the bloody amateur thing?

    Go make a bow from some garbage, post pics, and show us how sweet your aim is. Then maybe I'll believe you.

    Meanwhile, I can find a hammer in the garbage, post pics, and show how sweet my aim is with THAT. ;)
     
  8. mathboy

    mathboy New Member

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    The important info from the Slings and Arrows chapter:
    Sling: useless, you can't hit.
    Slingshot: useless, not enough power.
    Blowgun: useless, poison doesn't affect them.
    Shuriken or Throwing Knife: you need to be really good with them.
    Bows: only good for starting fires from far away.
    Crossbows: great against single zombies, but too large to be useful really otherwise.

    There you have it, now you can stop arguing and trust Max Brooks (and buy the book, to be prepared).
     
  9. Madness

    Madness New Member

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    It says in the book that the WWI authentic trench spike is the best melee weapon against zombies, I could probably find that on e-Bay somewhere. Also nonfirearm ranged weapons are not needed if you have a gun with a silencer and/or a scope. Ta Da, problem solved.

    Also, the crossbows largeness (word?) and bulkiness isn't the only problem nor the most major. It is the reload time.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  10. Blinky969

    Blinky969 Active Member

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    Hand grenades. Don't forget hand grenades.
     
  11. Vorak

    Vorak Administrator Staff Member

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    I draw all my weapon ideas from seemingly random musical sources, hence why thanks to Johnny Cash I now have the all new 'Ring of Fire' defensive barrier.
     
  12. Dark Elf

    Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

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    The living dead are best dealt with a flamethrower. Ah, the smell of roasted zombie in the morning...

    Well, it's that and Alucard. You simply can't go wrong with an invincible regenerating vampire ally.
     
  13. Grakelin

    Grakelin New Member

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    Madness, it SEEMS easy to say you could get a trench spike off of eBay, but eBay probably won't deliver if there is a zombie invasion.
     
  14. Madness

    Madness New Member

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    It is said in the book that, as you all know the only way to kill a zombie is to destroy its brain or set it on fire for a period of time, hand grenades aren't as useful as you'd think it'd be, as the explosion sends shrapnel scattering which would very rarely achieve a hit to the head.

    Also for flamethrower, the book also puts up a good argument. Remember, fire has no loyalty and can and will enflame anything flammable nearby. The flamethrower was used during WWI & WWII, and was long cancelled in the production line in many countries, so if you want to try and find one, good luck. But what will you do without napalm canisters? The ammunition for the flamethrower is even harder to find than the actual thrower, so good luck with that too. And all that hard work for a few hours of fighting. A few hours? Yes, the flamethrower is easily the heaviest of the weapons explained in the survival guide and only a maniac would think to bring that around everywhere. Unless of course you take a vehicle, which has some cons too, but I won't explain that right now. The bottom line is, unless your military, and even then, you probably won't find a flamethrower anywhere. And if there would be an outbreak large enough for someone to use a flamethrower, I'm sure there would be a government group already dispatching (or trying to dispatch) the zombies. There wouldn't be any need for a one man army, a civilian with their large, heavy, and not to mention illeagal, flamethrower.

    Also, you wouldn't get your weapons together during an all out zombie invasion, but during the first signs of an outbreak, another lesson explained in the book.

    And I'm right!
     
  15. Vorak

    Vorak Administrator Staff Member

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    I've got a flame thrower that uses pressurised diesel, but the hoses on it are all worn out and whilst I could get new pipes easilly enough the valves would be damned near impossible to find.
     
  16. Blinky969

    Blinky969 Active Member

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    When the zombie holocaust occurs, illegality won't matter.
     
  17. Madness

    Madness New Member

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    Well, humanity isn't losing yet, there are still police. But in the case, that humanity is losing, drop the flamethrower and get the F out of the country and into a deserted island someplace.
     
  18. Grossenschwamm

    Grossenschwamm Well-Known Member

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    The problem with the island is that there would eventually be some zombies coming up on your shores. All they do is wander around in search of food, so who's to say that their decaying escapades wouldn't lead them to the water? They don't need to breathe, and all it takes is time for them to get somewhere. Also, since they're infected, nothing would stay close enough to them to get eaten or try to eat them.

    As unlikely as it is that they'd actually find your island, I just felt it necessary to gift you a piece of paranoia. Though, I guess it'd be fairly obvious when they got to your new home. Spending that much time at the bottom of the ocean is bound to add a few interesting smells...

    As for your trench spike, you're better off searching for a new battle ready replica. None of the guys I know with an authentic WW1 knuckleduster-trench spike would ever sell the thing on the internet, if at all. Also, they're in perfect shape. I'dve asked for a demonstration, but 1.we're all too lazy to grab a watermelon
    2.I'll be plowed up the ass by a pineapple before I let anyone skewer my face on one of those things (let alone wreck my face with it)
    3.and dogs are too precious;
    They can smell the dead ones.

    As for cops, I never count on them for anything. Their jobs are hard enough without zombies trying to eat people. Put walking death-piles into their whole routine and then law and order goes straight out of the window. I'd just want them to make sure people acted civil, and I'd do my part to keep the dead from preying on my neighbors and loved ones, by shooting them from the roof of my house.
    But, I guess that could be a problem. I'm not into just saving my own skin. If I can help other people, should the need arise, I will do my part to help them survive.
     
  19. Blinky969

    Blinky969 Active Member

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    Construction equipment is the shit. Peg a zombie in the head with a brick, you know it's going down. Especially when you whip up a potato gun real quick.
     
  20. Dark Elf

    Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

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    Wouldn't a zombie decompose pretty badly if submerged? Once all their muscle tissue has become mush they're not that threatening anymore, unless of course the dissolved carcasses contaminate the drinking water EVERYWHERE, in which case we're all pretty much doomed.

    As for construction equipment, if I'm allowed to use the term broadly, I'd like to have a steamroller.
     
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