What enemy units can be blacklisted without side effects?

[Hirmuolio]

The mundane zombies mod removes all the special zombies from the game. But many missions have a special zombie in them that you need to kill and if that zombie is blacklisted the target zombie simply won’t spawn and the mission can’t be completed.

Is there any easy way to find what units are used in a way that removeing that unit would break things?

Or would it be possible to mod the special zombies into acting like more mundane zombies? This way no misison would get stuck and the special zombie could still be a bit stronger than normal zombie.

Edit: It seems like I can jsut add the edited zombie in a mod and it will overwrite the same unit from base game. I’ll try making some kind of despecialized zombie mod.

[Beetlecat]

Ooh! Thank you for running with this idea!

I’ve been using an updated Mundane Zombies mod as a sort of easy/training mode, but I may be ready to return to a somewhat dialed-up difficulty–not to mention seeing any accidentally modded-out content due to blacklisting all the specials.

I wonder if the frequency of the specials can be dialed down enough to only encounter one every now and then?

[Hirmuolio]

Here is mention of create, override and modify modes for modding https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/blob/master/doc/MONSTERS.md

The modify mode doen’t seem to work at all. Even the examples there just give errors.

Well here is first version of despecialized zombies. Just put it in a mod folder with a modinfo.json

https://pastebin.com/xXrRDifR

Changes

• Grenadier no longer releases bomb drones. Will still grab flashbang from pocket when it dies.
• Elite grenadier no longer releases bomb drones. Will still grab grenade from pocket when it dies.
• Spitter no more has acid special attack. Still leaves acid pool on death and bleeds acid.
• Corrosive zombie no longer shoots acid. Still barfs acid at close range, bleeds acid and leaves acid on death.
• Smoker no longer emits smoke. Still creates smoke on death.
• Shocker no longer shoots electric lightning. Still deals shock damage on melee and shocks when hit.
• Shocker brute no more shoots electric lightning. Still deals shock damage on melee and shocks when hit.
• Shady zombie no longer becomes invisible during night. Greatly reduced night vision.
• zombie nightstalker no longer becomes invisible during night. Greatly reduced night vision.