Black Wolf

I think the simplest answer here is simply that Treyarch hadn't planned the story out enough... Kino marks a pretty interesting shift in Richtofen's understanding of what's going on. This seems to be the map where he fully grasps that Sam is control. Consider prior quotes regarding power-ups "You are too generous, my lord!" and those in Kino "A gift from Sam... but why!?" Likewise with the mystery box "Why do you tease me, master?" versus "Samantha, I talked to you about this." The idea that Richtofen forgot is interesting considering a side effect of the 115 "super soldier" experiments on the others, and some quotes on Shangri-La suggest that Richtofen also has some memory loss. Still, this seems a really big thing to forget. I believe a possible solution is that Richtofen knew Sam had been inside the machine, but didn't know about the incidents of the final audio reel from moon. That is to say, he knows she physically entered the machine, but does not realize that she became "trapped" in the aether and is controlling the zombies. Having never heard back from Groph and Schuster, Richtofen may have assumed they took care of Sam and Dr. Maxis. However, after hearing her voice on Der Riese "No treat for you!" "Having fun!?" he may have started to put things together. According to the moon audio reels, Groph and Schuster contacted Richtofen and told him when Samantha entered the machine. He instructed them to find Dr. Maxis to talk to her since if Sam had survived, Maxis must have as well.

Part of the easter egg involves charging up a focusing crystal by resonating the sounds of the gongs. Presumably, filtering the Fractalizer's power through the focusing crystal gave it a significant boost. There's also a different between undead (pseudo-living), animate matter and a meteor. Nevertheless, as of the end of the moon easter egg, even if it broke it wouldn't matter. The power of the Vril generator seems to be used up during the switch, but it certainly doesn't seem to be sustaining it.

The audio reels on moon confirm that Samantha's mother is dead, or at least Dr. Maxis says she is. Samantha only makes one mention of her mother, that I've heard, and it's when she's running out of air. She mentions that it hurts and asks "where... where is mommy?" This is kind of weird, because if her mother has been dead for a while, as Maxis implies, it hardly makes sense for Sam to be asking for her. On a somewhat random note, I have 2 middle names, and it's not that uncommon. I always figured it was Samantha Emilia Abigail Maxis, but I could be wrong.

The songs are analyzed a lot, but it's always worth looking at it again. When analyzing songs, generally what you're doing is the same thing you do when you interpret and analyze poetry. A good first step is to determine who the active parties are, but in the case of "115," there is no for sure answer, so you're going to end up with a bunch of different interpretations (which is fine awesome). The speaker of the poem uses first-person singular, and the most commonly believed speakers are Samantha and, sometimes, Richtofen, but one could make a good argument for Maxis as well. The other important point in "115" is the addressee, the "you." Most likely, it is the same "you" throughout the whole text, since there isn't any hard perspective shift. Although the lyric "You stand for nothing and overlook something," may be a nod at the players, it doesn't fit with the rest of the usages of "you" very well. For example: - "I'll stop you from breathing and all your deceiving" - "I'll bring you death and pestilence" - "I'll bring you down on my own" - "I'll bring you doom that you can see and bring you down and see you bleed" From these lines, we can probably conclude that the addressee is antagonistic to the speaker, but his/her/their identity is a mystery without first deciding who the speaker is. Of course, you could interpret the song multiple times from different perspectives before deciding which one you think is best. In regards to "they're waiting for the second coming again," the Second Coming is often a term for the return of the Christ figure in the Christian belief system. However, it is a term which denotes the apocalypse, which I believe is likely an appropriate usage here. It is Christian imagery, but that does not lock it into actual Christian belief system. You find a plethora of classical "pagan" imagery in Christian texts, for example. An excellent (and very short) read here is "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats. It's in public domain now and widely available online. Of course, modern culture has also adopted the phrase to simply mean 'the return of an important figure.' It gets used in movies and television in this manner pretty frequently. What's interesting is that "they are waiting for the second coming again" (emphasis mine). Are they waiting again because it didn't happen the first time they waited, or are they waiting for it to happen again? Depends on how you interpret the rest of the song, I think. Personally, I love this song, and I've analyzed it multiple times. (I just keep my analyses tucked away and try not to bother people like a nerd orz). I often see people interpreting the "end of all creation" line as a reference to the end of the Moon easter egg, and this is a valid and wonderful interpretation. However, I do like to point out that we are analyzing this in hindsight, and the original map was in Paris, which may indicate that the original intent of this line was not the literal destruction of the Earth as it occurs. Again, this does not undercut that interpretation of the line, but it does help keep one from being limited to it. I'll ..stop now. Maybe I said something helpful in my nerd rambling.

Oh, God. Lag. There's really not much you can do about lag, but I think it's a good practice to tell your team it's an issue so somebody knows you might need a hand and can be prepared to get you if you happen to go down. But seriously, lag isn't anybody's fault. It just happens. :| As for reviving, it's one of those things that depends on the map. If, for instance, people are playing Moon, and one person is in the spawn and another goes down in the biodome.. that's probably just not happening under most circumstances. One solution is to have a dedicated reviver hanging out near the middle of the map; the other is to operate on the buddy system. I always try to revive. Always. I've had some randoms leave me to die so they could hit the box. That game didn't go very far. :?

This is a very touchy subject and I felt the need to address this issue. I recently met someone who I thought I know from the forum. I also had a few old friends in the lobby including forum mate. So during a so called road to round whatever (4 players)- speed run I started discussing what our strategies should be. This person mistakenly thought I was marching orders and he left the lobby as soon as the game ended prematurely because everyone died. It was my friends first game after long long time so I was dictating (in friendly way) everything to him that needs to be done so we don't end up doing separate things, But he is an average player. But things went bad since none of had juggernaut and every one died. My forum mate left the game, really!? He replied to me later saying you guys are such pros and you died at round 8. One think that bothers me the most is when someone is not a team player. Believe me, I have played countless (just messing around) games and I have not spoken a word and just let things go as they come. But when we do a specific challenge or trying to meet a target I make sure everyone is on the same page. I hate when things go south and people repeatedly do same mistakes over and over again. Ex: two people coming to revive the same person is just a disaster and could lead to more downs. All I ask is if you have a plan, lets discuss it and if you don't you better follow mine or get the fcuk out. There is a huge difference between discussing and barking orders. Proposing a strategy, listening to feedback, adjusting, and getting confirmation is teamwork. Telling people what to do at every turn is just rude. Like I said, it's an attitude issue. I've never played with you, so I can't speak to your experience, but you seem nice enough on the forums that it sounds like your friend maybe overreacted. Maybe he just didn't like your plan. For instance, on Shangri-la with randoms, it can be really frustrating to try to pack a punch. At some point, someone is going to have to ask the team to go stand on the switches and, oftentimes, leave a crawler. There's a huge difference between: - Hey guys, please leave a crawler end of this round. I need to upgrade my guns. - Don't kill the last effin' zombie. or - I'd like to pack a punch, can you guys get on the switches? - Hey, dumbass, stand on that thing. This is just one example, but yeah. You can plan and lead and all that good stuff and still be respectful to the other people. Again, I'm sure you are from what I can tell of you, and I'm not trying to imply that anybody here acts like that, but it does happen.

Thank you for that! [brains] EDIT: ...or not. Apparently you help me out too much, so I must wait for someone else to impress me before giving you rep again. Alas.

I understand the appeal of getting high rounds, really I do, but I also think there's something to be said for just having a good time. You can be the most skilled person in the group, but if you're just barking orders and yelling at every little mistake, you're just making everybody miserable. Pft on that. So generally, attitude is more important to me than any level of skill or anything. I'm also a total storyline/characterization person, so anyone willing to put up with my "wait, wait what did he say!?" is also totally awesome in my book. :D

You could argue that the excavators are malfunctioning and breaching areas they aren't supposed to. Considering that Maxis somehow accessed the station's computer system, it's not a far reach that the internal systems would have had data corrupted, leading to digging fiascos. I'm pretty sure the station was built to investigate the pyramid rather than necessarily harvest 115. I don't even recall seeing any 115 around.. unlike Shangri-la. Source?

However, in Shangri-la, Dempsey does specifically mention having been at the other locations, including Ascension. Specifically, he says "Ancient temples, Russian cosmodromes, being stuck in a dark closet with Richtofen," referring to Shangri-la, Ascension, and Call of the Dead. We know that they get to Shangri-la directly after Call of the Dead, so Ascension must occur before Call of the Dead.

Perhaps he was trying to find one that would fit in Ascension when the Zombies started coming after them, so he didn't bother getting out of it until they were in the room in CotD. He then later put it on when he needed to. That could work, but I wonder why he would need it on Moon. The suit available on moon (PES) seems to fit over any kind of clothing, unless everybody is just stripping in the receiving bay... Where am I taking this topic? =X

The problem with Samantha as a playable character in her own body is that she's a little girl. She makes references to not being able to lift heavy guns and such in her real body, so it's potentially problematic. That being said, I don't mind her sticking around for a while, but I already miss Richtofen. The plot and easter egg was really nice, but man... Richtofen was awesome to play as. :(

But he goes back and forth... He goes from the uniform, to the space suit in Ascension, then back to the uniform in Shangri-la, and back to the space suit in Moon. Where does he keep it? Anyway, one could always consider the possibility of dual timelines, by which I mean various, co-existing versions of the universe.

Richtofen specifically mentions a part of the MDT that controls time. "We must have gone too far in the future. Look, the teleporter's completely broken. The time circuits are damaged. We'll have to reboot the..." Even if you don't believe that he has complete control over the destination, this suggests that he has isolated some part of the teleporter (time circuits) which are controlling the time travel aspect of the device. While we're on the topic of crazy time jumps.. why/how does Richtofen keep changing clothes? xD

Originally, Richtofen is surprised when they time travel to Kino der Toten. However, if you listen in Call of the Dead he says they went "too far into the future," to which Dempsey replies "you brought us here on purpose!?" This suggests that, at some point, he has learned to control the time travel aspect of the MDT. However, this does not present an easy solution since Richtofen is the one who knows how to manipulate the MDT, and it's never suggested any of the others know how. Thus, he was the only one who could use the time travel, and I don't think he'll be too keen on helping them undo what he's worked so hard for.

The G11 grates my nerves like almost nothing else. I'm not too fond of the China Lake, but it has its uses, on maps with flopper in particular.

You always hear a deeper, more distorted version of Sam's laugh shortly after turning on the power. Other than that, Verrückt is really just full of weird noises. More information on how you think you triggered what you heard would help. Console, version, what the "certain spot" is, what round you were on, anything really.

That's interesting except that it disregards the first V in the original post, meaning there are two fives and getting us: 12 5 5 9 Tossing that into the search will yield the coordinates +12° 6' 38.65", +5° 8' 36.48" ...putting us somewhere in Nigeria.

I'm all kinds of out of my league answering you, but I'm closer to your situation, so I'm going to do it anyway. First things first, I'd never played a shooter before zombies; in fact, it's the only FPS I play. Kino der Toten was my first map, and I failed miserably all over the place. I think I died on like.. round 3... because I had no idea how many hits I could take or what I was doing or anything. Now, I can hold my own in a lot of matches, and do well enough on solo. I'm sure pretty much all of these guys would just pwn me into a little ball of shame, but that's not the point right now. I'm not a super-awesome player, but I'm decent enough that I can enjoy the game better. Reading strategy guides and watching videos can be immensely helpful, but you don't need to lock yourself into it. For instance, I've seen plenty of videos with certain people doing things that they say are really easy, and when I attempt it.... it's really not easy, but it may lead me to something I like more. Not that any strategy I would come up with is better than the pros', but you have to account for individualism to some extent. Another thing you will probably never learn from a strategy video is what goes wrong. A few people livestream or post raw so you see their downs, but most people post videos of their best. I know on a lot of Tom's looping guides, he specifically points out (in red!) where dangerous corners are and warns people against backing into them. Nevertheless, it's often not until I am backed into said corner with zombies eating my face that I realize-- oh, he meant this corner! And after that, I know not only where the corner is, but how far back I can go before I hit it. Maybe not everybody needs that experience and it's my own personal failure, but no matter. Every time you go down, take a second to think about why, and that's where you'll probably learn the most. One thing I highly recommend is taking the time on any given map and just buying up random guns to see how they work. Sure, you can read the statistics for any weapon, but until you actually use it, you really have no idea. Too often, I hear people in lobbies telling other people 'don't buy that gun, it's terrible,' or something. Most of the guns have their uses, but you'll never know what gun that works with your strategy until you actually use them. Of course, practice is the thing. You mention you're good at finances, so consider how many years of math you took in school. No, I'm not saying you need to play zombies everyday for years to get good, but it is probably a slower progression than you'd like-- I know mine is. You can't multiply before you know how to add. Again, I'm no expert (quite the opposite) and I fail just as much as the next person, so maybe I shouldn't be giving advice. Nevertheless, I figured it might be helpful to get the perspective of one of the zombie plebs. All that being said, I've played with some pretty good people who had ridiculously high rounds on the leaderboards who went down on round 4 or something because they got careless or something. It happens to everyone.

I've used the water trap several times when I was last man standing and needed to make a gap. The zombies do not seem to die from it, but they do get pushed back enough to give you a breather-- like when you're out of ammo and need to find a gun or something. Furthermore, it lines them up nicely. I tend to run up the tunnel to the bridge so that they line up on the bridge. I think doing this as an entire strategy would take a really, really long time, but when you're overwhelmed, it's immensely helpful.

You need CotD and Shangri-la easter egg if you want to do the Moon EE to the end. If you just want to do Cryogenic Slumber Party, you have no prerequisites.

As I've said all over the forums, this is what we call a retcon. I really think that is the only explanation to the changes in the storyline. It happens when stories are not planned through from the start or when things become more successful than the creators anticipated. Anyway... While I certainly think he was playing dumb, I think you could also go with the idea that he actually was surprised... surprised that Dr. Maxis' prototype worked. Richtofen and Groph had managed to get a teleporter to work, but judging by the Der Riese radios, the teleporter Maxis and Richtofen were using was not working so well. It might be worth noting that Maxis supposedly stole Richtofen's plans and/or designs for the teleporter. Richtofen may have been surprised to discover that the teleporter he was working with was actually his teleporter. I find Shangri-la to be very confusing. If I remember correctly, there are some quotes which were cut from the game that indicate there was a statue of Richtofen at Shangri-la at some point in development. While not strictly canon, it certainly lends favor to the idea that Richtofen was heralded as some sort of god, or demi-god even. Where Shangri-la starts to confuse me is when Richtofen says that he was unaware Maxis was successful in creating the 31-79 JGb215. This potentially suggests that Maxis was at Shangri-la without Richtofen, which brings up several issues, really. For instance, why would Richtofen go to Shangri-la for the Focusing Stone when the 31-79 JGb215 is necessary to obtain the Focusing Stone... if he had no idea it existed or was there? Blind hope? I probably just need to play Shangri-la more. I'd actually really like to read this, so PM it to me if you don't to post it. Personally, I see a lot of things about Richtofen in some of the songs and am often disappointed that most people attribute them all to Samantha without even considering alternate perspectives. We know from Shangri-la (possibly Ascension? I forget as I don't have that one) that Richtofen does have some issues from his childhood. He compares the Shrieker zombie to his mother and makes a couple other references to her as well. He generally seems to have had an unpleasant childhood from his quotes, which could have made him predisposed to falling prey to whatever was in the Pyramid. Furthermore, although this opinion is likely to get me flogged and cast out around here, I do believe that he and Maxis were close on some level at some point, although I wouldn't necessarily say it was daddy issues, but oh well. Ahem, feel free to PM me fanfiction too. Love that stuff. I regret nothing. :)

The issue with some song analysis is that they only take some lyrics into account. Of course, they are open to interpretation, and I don't necessarily think there is a right answer. However, it's important to consider the entire theme of the song when you're analyzing it. Consider these lyrics from The One: "I finally see you on the floor Your heart's not beating anymore My lust for you just cannot wait Your skin, it tastes like chocolate." These lyrics seem to be referring to a zombie's perspective, someone is eating a dead body after all. You also have to consider the other half of the "I've been waiting..." line, which is "I've been waiting for you to come here and kill me." Samantha is most likely not waiting for Richtofen to come kill her, but a zombie who is somewhat aware of what he's become might be. Of course, as was stated, things are open to interpretation. I don't think the songs need to necessarily mesh with a specific map. The maps are pieces of a story, and the songs should fit with the overarching themes-- which they do. That being said, it's worth mentioning that at the time The One was written, the story had not been conceptualized to the point that it is now.

I think Tom's QED thread covers the subject extremely well: http://callofdutyzombies.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=85&t=19323. There are some more quotes to be found; the characters will say very specific things if they happen to be looking right as the astronaut spawns. I have heard Richtofen say "Space Giant! We must kill it" and "It wears a suit but is still dead..." This also confirms that it is a zombie. I'll try to get some of the others, but it's kind of tricky to know where it's going to spawn and make sure you're looking there lol.

I've taken Classical Latin for years, and I can honestly say this baffles me. First of all, there is no J consonant in Latin, so the word we'd want here would actually be "iubilus." It's actually an extremely rare word referring to a joyful song, and it's a noun. However, I cannot find any way to translate "ignomo." The translator which came up with "disgrace" seems to have assumed a typo for the word "ignominia," which does, in fact, mean disgrace. However, there is no declension of that word that could possibly lead to such a form. Likewise, there is no declension of "nomen" (where this originally comes from) that would end in an O. This leads me to two possibilities: whoever translated this Latin did a poor job, or it is a rare Biblical and/or Medieval dialect. I would like to have enough faith to believe the latter, but as of yet I'm not sure. I'd be happy to have someone in the Latin department at my university have a look at this next week. If you guys are using translators, they are probably trying to translate it from Classical Latin. It often messes up things that LOOK like things when they are not, for instance "jubilus" looks like it should mean joy, but as far as Classical Latin, it doesn't. At any rate, I'd like to know which translators are being used so I can try to determine what Latin sources they draw from. I'll continue working on it in the meantime.