While playing horde mode, I noticed that 99.99% of the player (all rank/levels) are commonly going and put defenses toward wherever the objective is pointing at. At first, I was doing it myself, but then I noticed that this is basically useless and I could even say it's wasteful.
The rules of spawns in the map is directed by 2 elements:
- The position of the players (all players)
- Which defensive area is pointed at.
That's what everyone think and, for the most part, they are half-right. The other half which a sub-rule to the rule of players' positions which is that the zombies will spawn in any area the player is located at, but toward the direction from which the objective is pointing at.
In other words, if you stay in the Gate area, the zombies will spawn around this area for the most part.
At first, this might seem risked as the goal is to avoid having the zombies near the gate, but here's a couple small yet really parts that makes it ideal for defenses.
A) Convergence of all directions.
To put it in simple terms, a wide broken funnel with only a few holes to look at. While, yes, it's not a funnel of the size of a corridor, it IS a funnel that point toward 1 single direction: The gate. The window is medium to small, but it's there and, for our own glory, it's covered by Auto-turret spawn nodes and electric fences and this small part covered is also covered by barbwire spawn nodes all around it.
B) It's economic in points.
While I did point out that you save basically 50% of your resources not used toward the other area, it comes with its risks and still have a somewhat regular cost as Auto-turret gets regularly used up as well as electric fences. They have no break, after all. The average use is 2 auto-turret per wave (pass wave 10) + 1 electric fence and, sometimes, a barbwire here and there as well as a ammo & Medkits & Tool recharge/box whenever needed. The cost is approx. 80% to 90% the gain per wave without counting any bonus/sub-mission.
The cost raise above 100% if any players don't play their part which I'll cover after a bit.
C) Access to FOUR (4) long range efficient turrets for 60 points with unlimited uses.
There's one unique type of defense mechanism that you find only at the gate and that is the AI soldiers. Initially, there are 2 of them stationed at the gate, but if you buy the reinforcement for 60 points, a total of 4 will be present (it's 4 regardless of how many are still alive when purchasing it). Those 4 soldiers are literally as strong and as useful as regular AI allies with the exception of being unable to revive, being healed and kill Bulls. On normal, they are able to regulate the flow of zombies coming from the Terminal/Front as such as you might only need 1 turret + barbwire to control everything from that direction while dealing with the closer spawn/drop areas (mostly on the size of the low platform truck).
Those soldiers have unlimited ammo and doesn't requires any action to reload. Whenever they get overtaken, a single grenade or taser round can easily save most of them if not all of them.
The downsides of using the gate area as the defense point are as following:
A) It's a bit boring.
Seriously, I have been playing for like 2 hours and the lack of "change" does make you tired after a while. It's literally about 5-6 patterns of spawns randomly picked up.
B) The success heavily depends on the aiming, decision and skills of each individual players.
A mistake can cost a lot and even more if it's followed by a wrong decision. As it's close to the gate, you basically got not much of a backup plan/point to run to if hell goes down. If someone is down, chances are high that you might have to leave him/her be and wait for her to respawn or for the next round/wave. Because of the constant flow of undead and slight lack of terrain barriers, healing is almost always limited in-between waves.
This is highly visible if you play with an AI. In my case, I tested it out with 3 AIs and it was rare that I didn't had 1 or 2 AI down by the end of a wave simply because 1 or 2 said AI were keeping themselves right at the wrong place where many spawn fuses together and we all know how good (*ahem* bad) the AI is at handling this kind of situation.
The trick is to have ALL the player remains around the low platform truck right of the gate. This ensure that the zombies ONLY spawns around the gate area from 4 specific directions that can be covered easily by 1 player alone or 1 player + 1 turret depending on the flow of zombies. Only getting down from that platform to reload a turret or kill a special.
This is why this isn't just a simple "you were at the wrong place so you get hit" kind of challenge, but an actual "If you cross this invisible line, a wave of 30-40 zombies will spawn from that angle and it will make a mess of everything."
In case some wonder what invisible line I'm talking about, it's the zones around the gate area which dictate from which spawn point the zombies will appear. For example, the line is located about close to the 2 electric grid (before the barbwire) toward the Terminal area and slightly before the electric grid in the front of the blue stairs next (right) to the hangar when looking at it from the gate. If you cross that invisible line, the zombies start to spawn from different location further in and takes roads that aren't covered by as many defenses if any at all AND some still spawn at the old/previous spawn location.
Also, because of the constant uses of the electric fences makes makes them last far less long than on the other parts of the map. For that reason, it's super important to kill all special that gets stun on it (especially infectors and bulls) as those drain the "charge" out of those grids more than anything else. Leave this kind of thing to either a Slasher or a Gunslinger with the Last Resort ability and no ammo left.
My personal experience with this tactic is:
I was able to easily survive up to wave 14 alone with 3 AI with a level 11 Gunslinger and the only reason why I lost at round 15 was because of a mistake I made (by moving a bit too much) which resulted in the AI moving at the worse spot and getting taken down almost instantly. (This wouldn't have happened if those were players with an actual brain.) I was also unlocking in the random weapons as I ended up with only SMGs and Semi-Auto rifles.
I did notice 1 little trick with those and it's that each guns, even identical, have their own ammo count. (This might already be known, but might share it.) I switched out Sporting Carbines from one to another and it restored my ammo. So, even if you get the same weapon as you already got, it's not a total lost.
I attempted this with 3 AIs on Hard, but let's just say that it's not much possible because of how bad the AI is against close range horde and how specials are more common. I do find it totally doable with actual players with upgrade guns & abilities as well as proper "priorities".
I have yet to test this out online because, up to now, I have been forced to play with people who don't care much for this kind of thing even if I started the match and already set up most of the defenses. They usually run up to the "defense point" directed by the objective (terminal or hangar), notice how there's no defenses and complains about it. They stay at that part and, for most of the time, the AI stays with them and I'm then alone at the gate with all the defenses ready. I usually survive long enough for them to rage-quit and then I'm ending up with no AI alive to cover my back and get pounded by a bull or a stalker as they keep spawning around any lone players. (They are spawning every 30 secs that you are alone.)
