NaBrZHunter

Here's the thing about setup, though. Consider its size: you can have the PAP fully open and be packing a Bowie knife and HVK by round 10. Compare that to Der Riese, which, I believe, can be setup by round 6-7. It's a pretty fair balance. And the lights are just about right, IMO. Too many more would be out of place in the naturally dark atmosphere. Maps are too colorful these days. Think Der Riese, Moon, CotD and Ascension. Great, gritty maps with minimal color.

ZNS, in my opinion, is the best map since Moon, and perhaps even better than any other map to date. My only hesitancy is in that the BO1 EEs were so perfect, but even so, it would seem, if @Doppelgängerand my blacked-out investigation of the map reveals a logical EE progression, and one that is not a chore to complete, like SoE, DE, Origins and Buried, then the map could easily align itself with Moon in my eyes. So that said, here are my pros: Lots of in-depth story in cipher, radio, quote and EE form Logical quests, such as the PAP (it's beautiful), the KT-4, and the plants and different ways of growing them Great buildables (gas mask, especially regarding certain abilities it gives, the shield, as always, and the KT-4) Lots of explorable, multi-level surface area Straightforward and story-implicative special weapon quest Awesome balance of claustrophobic and open, breathable areas, giving lots of options for survival strategies Water/swimming areas DONE RIGHT. I was not excited at the thought of swimming in zombies at all. But it was incredibly well done, and I love it. It seems to be more for the purpose of basic quests, exploration, and interesting gameplay, which is perfect. This map is expansive in amazing ways. It just seems to go on and on. I don't even know if I've seen the whole thing, but I know I'm in love with the underwater cavern. The atmosphere is what makes this game what it was. It's spooky; eerie. The ambiance isn't overdone or underdone, with unique discoveries to be made in various areas.

Story enthusiast and vet! The best kind. Welcome aboard, good sir! You will find that we're a bit more exclusive, tight-knit and...well, as a community, respectful here on CoDZ, with in-depth familiarity with the complexities of the story. The fast-paced and generic atmosphere of Reddit has its place, but when it comes to detail, nothin beats CoDZ Forums. ;) Honored to have you join us, and I look forward to seeing you in the threads!

Sam makes a lot of twisted comments in Moon, so this wouldn't surprise me. The MPD itself is powered by life force, energy drawn from dying bodies (not souls, just to be clear), so, considering that is what keeps the MPD operational, it seems no wonder that the occupants become so bloodthirsty. Almost vampiric, but instead of literal bloodlust, energylust (see Richtofen's announcer quotes in BO2). "ITS ENERGY! I NEED IT'S ENERGY!!!"

1) What became of Groph? Although Jason has given us a cryptic answer to that question, I think it's fair to say he perished on the moon. And I must point out that we don't actually know where Richtofen first teleported from. The walnut prototype could be at any of the 935 locations. The fact that it was kept secret from Maxis, however, seems to imply that perhaps it was actually at Eagle's Nest. Maxis seemed to make Der Riese his headquarters, only occasionally visiting the castle. And since the Area 51 teleporter shouldn't exist at this time, the only link should be between Eagle's Nest and Griffin Station. 2) Is Samantha in control of the zombies here? I think it's safe to say at this point that we don't fully understand eye color, as the debate has been raging since the time of the Cryogenic Slumber Party. The WAW Verruckt and Nacht zombies pre-date Samantha's occupancy of the MPD, and (though it can be "explained" by the story's evolution), have still set a precedent of yellow-eyed zombies being unrelated to Samantha. Someone once made a rather sensible explanation of Richtofen's blue-eyed zombies, suggesting that it stemmed from his even further twisted Nazi Aryan belief in the "pure race," one of the traits of which was blue eyes. Lorence Horner, M.A. in History says of this mindset: The Nordic part is quite interesting to me @Tac. 4) What corrupted the Keeper when it came back from Griffin Station? So, we know a few things: Richtofen states that the keeper was corrupted on its way back to earth, not so much at Griffin Station. Richtofen also points out that Groph did indeed deliberately sabotage the MPD. Based on the fact that there is black smoke rising from the base of the missing canister, it would come as no surprise that it could cause some corruption. Honestly, the keeper looks rather unwell when he rises from inside, his head hanging and he seems to move as if trying to escape. Keepers are not invulnerable to physical weapons So your suggestion that he was trapped was perhaps accurate to a certain extent, in that, when Groph saw he could not stop the Keeper from entering the MPD, he smashed the canister (as heard in the transmission, and also attempted to shoot the Keeper (which does indeed inflict damage, as we know from Shadows of Evil and Origins), and perhaps, in a way, this deprived the Keeper of necessary life support, and like a human too long without oxygen, caused a certain level of brain death. BTW, why TF isn't the pyramid black? -_- Some of these inconsistencies, I swear. I'm going to write Treyarch a list of continuity errors. 5) Is the Keeper boss battle set within the realm which the darkness lives inside the MPD? I wouldn't say so. I'm thinking the view inside the MPD is probably a bit more televisible and less "ancient." The terrain of the boss fight room, especially the presence of the dragons seems to be associated with the castle itself. 6) Why does Maxis not keep contact with the crew? As someone else mentioned, Maxis had warned Richtofen that his signal would be impeded at the castle for some reason or another.

Yeah, the ones who are so fast they are doubled over. They appeared in CotD when George does his rally rage. Like I said, a few can be fun, but a whole train of them is just exhausting. You can hardly outrun them.

Truer words were never spoken. Call of the Dead, especially, may have been a rough gameplay map considering Berserkers and George, but that EE was downright legendary. Honestly, unless the MPD is involved, can we not do any more "charge this object by killing zombies" step again? Its original role in Moon was dark and morbid, yet quite ingenious at the time, but now it's beginning to feel like the Jack of all Trades of zombies. "Because charged by dead zombies." Can we do more building stuff, punching buttons, pulling levers, linking items/repairing connections, all-player synchronized actions and timing/accuracy based steps? What about literally finding and gathering pieces of maps/blueprints?

Just finished the Easter Egg again with @InfestLithium and while everything seems to work SUPER smooth for the most part, I do have a few major beef: 1. Object density and barrier width: The zombie objects themselves, as well as the barriers of static objects and the character being played feel very wide and, in the case of the zombies, a single one has far more pushing power than you as the player do. Narrow escapes feel like a thing of the past, as I repeatedly found myself pushed into a corner by the zombie object, and having no push-back like we did in Black Ops 1 and 2 (where enough wiggling back and forth might open a gap just in time), not only do all the zombies behind me whirlwind, but I literally have been forced to stand in the corner, just waiting to hear the sound of my shield breaking. 2. Route-prediction spawning. Call of the Dead was exhausting due to respawn rates. Black Ops 3 is sadly so much worse. You can literally round a corner, look back, and an entire train will have despawned. I'm not even exaggerating. A particular area I'm thinking of is running through the waterfront area main gate on SoE, turning to look back in the junction, and the whole train will have disappeared as soon as I am out of sight. Der Eisendrache is even worse. With all the narrow passageways, spawns half as close to the far end as the full length, nearly every time 2-3 zombies will already be at the end of the passage, waiting for me when I arrive. last night, I was to the point I could predict the time of their arrival, but due to the narrowness of the passage and the remnants of a train still following me, there was no way out using an MG, PAPed or otherwise. Not to mention that I was twice downed while standing in the middle of 3 charged Void Bow shots, meaning even a bow might not save me. Especially without Juggernog. 3. The unresponsive PAP. The PAP took several tries before it would accept my weapon, and on several occasions, I was trapped there, having been forced to stop, stand still and press and hold x up to 4 times before the PAP would respond; not to mention running a train and trying to take the weapon back out before it disappears forever (also 2-3 attempts have been necessary, and I'm using a brand new Xbox Elite controller.) This is not the fault of the X button, as proved by the prompt response of literally EVERY other object I interacted with. 4. Please, hear me, our friends at Treyarch: please reduce the number of CotD-style berserker zombies. They have nearly, if not the same, running animation as the shreiker from Shang, which was a BOSS. Now an entire train can be made of them. A few can be a lot of fun and a great challenge, but a whole train (especially considering the respawn rate, above), becomes exhausting. 5. The Keeper infinite dog round needs a nerf. They spawn WAY too many of them WAY too fast. It is literally exhausting. By all means, infinite dogs, but the status quo is like a whole entire map of No Mans Land. 6. Running with a splash damage weapon used to require a different strategy, namely, PHD or a wide training area. Back in the day, there were different playing styles - run and gun SMG/AR/Shotgun players, Splash Damage weapon users, snipers and LMG campers, however, things seem to be designed to force everyone to use a splash damage weapon. I, for one, do not like using splash damage weapons. I am an AR/SMG guy all the way, all the time. On DE, I feel forced to use a bow if I even hope to revive a teammate or PAP a weapon. Not to mention, I like the fact that original splash damage weapons were actually a threat to the player as well. It forced the player to use the weapon wisely or use a perk slot on PHD Flopper (RIP, we love you.) Now, the respawn rate, narrow passages and wide objects essentially force players to have at least 1 weapon capable of dealing splash...which, as aforementioned, cheesily enough, does not harm the player. Just some thoughts. I LOVE a challenge, and don't like maps to be too easy; but neither do I like getting stuck on a whirlwinding zombie object with NO give, being virtually forced to use a wonder weapon, or losing my MG to the PAP because it didn't respond when I attempted to pick it up.

Congrats @DragonGJY!!!! Well deserved! Many thanks for your hard work. I have had the privilege of working closely with @Tac and @Doppelgänger the last couple months and these fellas are a right gold star to this site's name. @tEfugleskremmel I have not spent as much time with but a couple encounters with him and reading his work has been a reminder that CoDZ is still the greatest zombie community out here. Thanks so much for getting more involved lately! I will continue to be on the lookout for your work.

@tEfugleskremmel however, we know from the CotD radios that Richtofen didn't teleport Maxis away until after October 1st, 1945, which messes with events in both the original and new unverses. This means that both The Giant and Der Riese occur no earlier than that date, and as you said, The Giant is even before Der Riese, meaning the latter could even have been in November.

Ladies and Gentlemen of CoDZ: @Covert Gunman, @Hells Warrrior, @Tac, @jaysta5792, @Doppelgänger and myself have been brainstorming ideas to get the Official CoDZ YouTube channel back on track, and while we have some great game resources in the works, we’re CoDZ. We do story, right? And as avid students and experts in the storyline, we wanted to start answering some questions that are not often addressed in the community due to their complexity or the vague and limited resources available to make conclusions, and aim to do so in the light of absolute facts. However, although we, ourselves, have innumerable questions ourselves that we’re quite keen on debating and resolving, we figgered it might be a better idea to get some input from our fellows here at Headquarters. Without a doubt, CoDZ and its members are the most well-informed in the community, so we hope y’all will help by suggesting some questions that y’all feel are under-appreciated or minimally discussed in other areas of the community, especially relating to the multiverse, its workings and the way the cosmos is constructed, story continuity and clashes between the current story development and the original, and whatever vague and mysterious story elements come to mind. Looking forward to hearing from y’all!

'Fraid not, my friend. That is a debunked theory.

Um...I don't think a crash course in Satanism was called for here, and tying all of that into zombies is REALLY stretching it. With that much info and something as generic as a cube, INNUMERABLE coincedences are possible. @Stop Mocking Me0 said all that needs to be said. @tEfugleskremmel I'll breeze over the impending debate about the canon of scripture ;) and say that in the end, I agree. We are dealing with an undeniably secular storyline in which, other than one of the characters making a passing reference to their spiritual outlook (i.e., Groph, "God have mercy on us," or the references Takeo makes to his Eastern religion) it really has no place and has no impact on the story.

Hehe. The Protestants like to stretch that one a lot. ;) But good points. Just wanna clarify, Satan was an angel. He was created to shine a radiant light around God's throne, but he became egotistical and decided to try to take over heaven, and of course, was effortlessly defeated and cast down to earth where he would wait until his ultimate punishment. Here, he has been known to possess several forms, including the first being a serpent in the Garden of Eden. For its cooperation with Satan, the serpent was cursed and lost its legs so that it would be forced to slither in shame. Satan himself, however, known very often for appearing as an incredibly beautiful and brilliant being, because that is what he was created as, despite the stereotypes of a horrendous-looking monster (which, of course, he has been known to shift to.)

I'm afraid that's a stretch. The dragons are clearly animals with the traditional abilities of a dragon, which really aren't outside of the realm of scientific plausibility. The pseudoscientific tendencies of this new map are HUGE, heavily reinforcing the stance (that I, personally, ascribe to) that pretty much everything we have encountered so far can be scientifically explained. And trust me, I'm Catholic, I am very familiar with the names, history and nature of the devil. Yet despite that, the theory that he is involved in the story is still a stretch. Cthulhu, however? Despite my dislike for it, I can't deny that he has been heavily implied. @Stop Mocking Me0 Good stuff. If there's one thing I might disagree on, it would be the relationship between the plane wrecks and the dragons. @BlindBusDrivr and I were discussing it, and he pointed out that the island appears heavily fortified with anti-aircraft weaponry, and the war in the air was quite intense in the Pacific. However, as someone else may have mentioned, what about a connection between the "beasts for your Eastern Front" described in the blackboard ciphers from DE, Gersh's cipher describing a city which he calls "home" and says is on fire, and the fact that dragons are fire-breathers. Hmmmmm....

I would be one. :) Thx for this!

Same! Will look at this over lunch.

Brains, DG, my freind! Way to smash it!!!

Yes sir! I agree, though. And while I don't have an issue with some folks getting some exclusive access (Milo, Spider, namely) this YouTuber favoritism is going too far. And I get what you're saying about Noah - sad but true. Like, c'mon, man, you've made the big time. Don't pull a Dalek and compromise your reputation.

I would like for Keepers and crawlers to be related, but you make an excellent, quotable point. This is chronic in the community, similar to what @tEfugleskremmel called "The Skywalker Effect." Great pics, good arguments, as is your style, NV.

I gotcha now! Brilliant way of putting it! I never thought of it that way. @Tac yeah, that was me. I meant that we know that the Aether is not a physical plane in the traditional sense, but seemingly more of a 4th-dimensional plane. And the idea of people teleporting via the Aether or universe jumping via the Ather and Rifts, (temporary suspension) or becoming the controller of the MPD (semi-permanent conditional suspension) in all of these cases, time seems to speed up for us relative to them. In Kino, 18 years for us was a matter of seconds for the O4. In Origins -> The Giant, 25 years for us was a matter of seconds for the Origins 4, while Samantha, in the MPD for over 60 years, didn't seem to have aged a day.

Okay, then yes, I'm disappointed by this. It's really unfair. I mean, I understand the PS4 exclusivity, even if, as an XBox guy, I lose out. But that is SO unfair to the PS4 folks.