A Cure Mod - Turn those pesky Zed's into helpful NPC's (Maybe?)

Hey Everyone,
I had an idea for a mod that would cure captured Zed’s into NPC’s that you can have join your group or preform menial tasks. I had a quick look around on the webs and couldn’t see anything pertaining to a mod like this, so, I figured I’d ask in the most knowledgeable place on the game, if anyone has heard of anything similar or has reasons why this idea couldn’t work please let me know.
So here’s how it works, you capture a Zed using ‘Snare Control Pole’ and ‘Dog Training Gloves’ and put them into a ‘Cell’ (Built into your base) or ‘Cage’ (Built into your vehicle for transport) for storage until your ready to inject the cure. You can find 2 tiers of the cure in vials, v.1 and v.2(WIP names lol) located at labs. These can be combined to various results. Cure v.1 + v.1 = v.2, Cure v.2 + v.2 = Cure v.3 ( Cure v.3 cannot be found in the game world and the recipe must be learned. Either be finding a file or hacking a terminal in the lab) The 3 versions of the cure have different cure success rates, 40%, 50% and 60% cure rate. If you succeed in curing the Zed it will turn into a NPC with stats that are calculated using the Zed’s difficulty level and condition. The stronger and “healthier” the Zed the higher quality the NPC. If you fail there’s a chance the Zed will mutate into a Cage smashing “Hulk” or turn to mush.

All these ideas are obviously WIP and nothing is set in stone

Thanks for your Time and Input!

You’d need to edite the c++ code and re compile the game. You can look at how saving prototype cyborg works in game.cpp and iexamine.cpp I think.

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Awesome, Thanks for the tips. As this will be my first “real” mod, where its not just tweaking a few variables here and there, I’m gonna need all the help I can get. I do have a bit of prior knowledge of C++ but I plan on trying to learn everything I need to get it done.

But we can already turn them zeds into somewhat helpful NPCs via “create zombie slave” option (we monsters).

…Well. Hmmmmmm. I’ll have to read up on that. Thanks
Did Some Reading, Here’s the results…
If I’m understanding this right and reading about a current version but it seems all you can really do is use the zlave (Zombie Slave) as a glorified shopping cart… that gets shot by your auto-turrets. So I think that changing a Zed back to somewhat human ( I would make some disadvantages through mutations/traits for balance) to carry your stuff, help you fight and what ever else NPC’s can do for you. Plus it adds some extra things to aim for and do end game-ish (since you would have to clear a lab) and there would be more to it than just using your blade on a downed Zed then waiting for them to get up. This to me sounds kind of immersion breaking as having a Zed with you it would constantly be trying to kill you, with stumps and his gums if that’s all it got!
Modding work continues onward!!

You could actually do something similar to this with no code changes, with the new spawn NPC iuse.

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If you get a shocker, you can use it as a nightlight, too!

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I’m heavily opposed to this idea (for multiple reasons). A few of them are:

  1. [From a personal view] If you could turn them back (“heal them”), this means that every Zombie you kill (and pulp) is a HUMAN you kill. For now, they are just shells of former humans walking around, and killing them will not hurt anyone. If there were a “cure”, you would knowingly kill “perfectly fine” humans - which probably should affect a character in the same way enslaving a Zombie does (huge mood debuff).
  2. [From the lore perspectiv] The goo in- & affecting every Zombie, combined with the acidic rain, probably dissolved away their brains at this point. A “normal” Zombie might be still fine, but I doubt a Skeleton, a Headless Zombie, Boomer/Bloated Zombie (beeing just a “sack” of goo/gas), Hollow Zombie, Shocker Zombie (would electrocute itself), (and so forth) would be able to survive a transition Zombie->NPC.

That said, a mod that added a cure would be cool/fine. So, don’t let my opinion stop you from doing it.

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I hope you are rescuing all those prototype cyborgs :cold_sweat:

If that was adressed to me, yes, I do :smiley: ! I lure and lock them into an unused room until I get a control laptop to heal them. I do the same with broken ones, even if it doesn’t get me anything (well, other than an unintentional war machine, as they seem to slaughter through Zombies without any problems).

Personally in regards to this I tend to assume my character is ignorant until they actually find out in some manner, so far only one of my survivors has.

It’s a mod there’s nothing to oppose to that, they can do whatever they want, just don’t play with it.
(It will not happen in vanilla, because Zs are dead “saving” them would turn them in human corpses)

I was so happy when I saved my first PC.
…then it turned out they all have exact same set of CBMs, both good and bad ones. I mean, they are prototypes, i.e. meant to test all the range of new (and old, just to check compatibility issues with new) bionics?

Well, I play my characters mostly like I think I would behave in a Zombie apocalypse (within reason). Since I can’t lock Zombies into a cell (well, not that easy anyway), I just enslave them (and just go with that mood debuff most of the time) and stuff them into a car or room.
Well, I just realized I might be a psychopath in real life :grimacing:

It seems you missed some information in my post, please (re)read it. I clearly stated:

Filling the bottom two floors of an apartment tower with concrete and the roof with soil would get pretty boring after a while so I’ll have to pass on playing as myself. :stuck_out_tongue:

I think you unduly credit human life more value than it is worth. Even if they could be saved at a later date it doesn’t change the fact that they are currently a danger to you and self-preservation takes precedence above everything else.

If you have to kill to preserve yourself, even a child, then so be it. I don’t know why people get so bundled up over moral quandaries.

Misplaced altruism, I would argue that’s quite common in the west but that’s neither here nor there.

Makes more sense to spawn in a few more (perhaps on a seperate spawner) NPCs but with infection/rescue missions. They would turn into zeds if not rescued/given a cure. But if you cure them, you get a good moral boost + they get a good chance at recruitment (and if not throw some stash/gear your way).

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That’s a really good idea, Thanks! I’ve also been doing alot of thinking about how to try to integrate it better with the base game. I’m kinda leaning towards the idea of not “curing” Zeds back to humans, but instead neutralizing the “goo” (Halting Zombification) and removing the hostility. To qualify for “Curing” the Zed would have to be scanned to check if enough quality organs are still present to support “life” including the brain which would be the most important. The Zeds you cure would only be able to attack for you and hold your stuff, they don’t have any dialogue other than grunts and groans and can only use melee weapons. So that’s where I’m at so far.

Honestly, I put a lot of thought into this… too much for what it’s actually worth (since it’s extremly unlikely that a Zombie outbreak - in the style most Zombie movies/games picture - will ever happen). So, my behavior in a Zombie apocalypse may change a lot.
Let’s say it happens the way it probably would happen (a virus/bacteria/prion/mushroom/parasite effecting the brain), which causes a human to lose all ability to think/decide and it gets passed on through bites: Just keep the door locked and board up the windows and wear some form of armor (could be as simple as tying some pieces of wood together or wearing multiple layers of clothing or using sheets to wrap yourself in) if you have to go outside.
If it’s getting passed on through the air, it depends if you are immune (like in the game) or have to wear some form of filter.
Are Zombies evolving (like in game) or are they irreversible infected? Do they need food (not like in game)? Well, in that case I probably wouldn’t try to save them, unless… let’s stop here - I could go on for quite a while, but that would derail this thread even further.

Just keep in mind, in a Zombie apocalypse your family might be/get infected as well and I personally would go a long way to try rescue them, instead of just shooting them into the face (hm, may also depend on the bond with your family :yum: ).

Well, that sounds like something I can get behind! More like a… mix between a zlave and similar to how pheromon balls used to work in earlier versions (it turned zombies hostile towards each other)?