I did not see a blacklist for hulks and brutes already available in the core game or in the launcher. Having been frustrated by them suddenly starting to pop up on day one on vanilla settings instead of being something that evolves in the mid to late game I decided to write my own mod to blacklist them. This blacklists Brutes, Grappler Brutes, Ninja Brutes, Shocker Brutes, and Hulks. I didn’t see anything else defined as a brute or a hulk in the vanilla files. I’ve also included a version of the mod that only blacklists hulks leaving Brutes in the game.
Edit: Currently “No hulks or brutes” version is working fine. The “No hulks” version that leaves Brutes intact is for some reason not showing up to activate. Not a clue why.
How about something to reduce spawn rates instead? As much as I hate running into four Brutes on Day 1, two Shocker Brutes on Day 2, and a Hulk on Day 3, removing them from the game entirely seems a bit much.
I don’t know anything about modding, so I don’t know if it’s even possible to affect spawn rates of just a few monsters, so if I’m insulting your hard work, then I apologize.
As a side note, Zombie Brutes are just as vulnerable as normal zeds to a three-by-three square of nailboard traps, just make the Brutes keep chasing you around the square while stepping on the boards (them stepping on the boards, not you) the trap slows them down so as long as you run they shouldn’t be able to Bash you away.
I resorted to the blacklist only because I have no idea how to reduce the spawn rate of hulks and brutes without reducing the spawn rate of all monsters which isn’t what I wanted to do. Still no clue why the version that blacklists Hulks only isn’t showing up on the mod menu when I make a new world. Anyone with more modding experience able to explain what I did wrong with that one?
If it’s not showing up on the list it might have something to do with modinfo.json.
As I said before, I know nothing about them, the only thing I can do is change obsolete to false on the Arcana and Magic Items mod, but it seems to me that modinfo.json determines, or at least plays a part in determining if and where the mods show up on the list. Maybe it got moved to one of the other tabs (Content, or Balance) somehow? Sorry man, wish I could help more.
Cool mod! Hulks and brutes early on in the game, or even at Day 1 and Day 2, is what frustrates lots of new players. Especially when one tries to introduce this game to friends.
It is a newcomer friendly mod! Keep up the good work!
I seem to recall reading somewhere that the game generates content on a region-by region basis, so one could theoretically turn this mod on to get a region free of Hulks, and Brutes, then once they feel prepared, remove the mod from the mods file in the world data (where the executable for the game is stored you’ll find a myriad of folders, one of which will be titled “save” or “saves” [I forgot which], inside there you’ll find one or more folders named after your world(s), and inside that you’ll find files containing data relevant to the world the folder is named after).
After removing the mod from that file (I believe the file is just called “mods.json”, but it’s been a while since I peeked inside a world’s folder) all future content in that world should spawn without the mod applied, so you’ll have Hulks and Brutes again. If you have wander, or dynamic spawns on then you may start seeing them immediately depending on how those systems work, if not then you might see them in the next region generated. I’m not really sure how large a region is, but if you go far enough in a particular direction then you’ll end up in a new one.
This is all just conjecture, I’ve never tried it myself, so I can’t be certain it will work, but I see no reason (in my admittedly limited experience) why it wouldn’t.
Actually, so the No Energy Weapons, No Fictional Weapons, No Powered Armor, and Z Level Building Mods, all of which are working (among others) all DON’T have a dependencies line at all. I opened the various modinfo.json files with Notepad++ and checked.
I hate to be that guy, as I say this knowing that I am dumb as nails about all things coded related. (I actually make RPGs for a living as my day job, just not the digital kind.) Is it maybe like…the opposite of what you just said?
Some mods don’t require the dependency if they are just adding new stuff but once they use core items for new recipes and the such do require them. It might be the previous ones might be ones that don’t need them. If it is asking for a dda dependency, adding it should fix it but if it doesn’t then I am just wrong and the issue lies elsewhere.
Back after an extended absence from playing and from the forums. I’ll check later today to see if I’m having the issue End_Transmission is but I checked my mod and the dependency line is in place. Not being great at modding myself I made this by just taking one of the other zombie blacklists (Acid zombies I think) and replacing the zombies blacklisted by that mod with the various Brutes and Hulks.
Edit: It seems to be working just fine. No errors and I didn’t run into any hulks or brutes. However that might be because I was attacked by an entire pack of wolves between the shelter and the town and couldn’t escape them.