TaCZ Armed Mobs

Village guards with swords are fine. Village guards with whatever guns your modpack has are better.

TaCZ Armed Mobs gives guards from Guard Villagers, zombies, pillagers and any other mob you configure a random gun from every TaCZ gunpack that is currently loaded, plus matching ammo, and its own tactical AI to actually use it.

Features

Weapons

• Works with any gunpack. Guns are picked at runtime from TaCZ's own gun index. Install a new gunpack and mobs will use it automatically. No ID lists, no datapacks.
• Matching ammo in the off hand, sensible fire mode (full auto > burst > semi).
• Filters: allowed weapon types, whitelist and blacklist by gun ID, whole gunpack or sub folder.

Tactical AI

• Mobs aim, shoot, reload with real magazines and cycle bolt-action rifles. Bows and other inventory-fed weapons work too.
• Combat profiles per weapon type: snipers hang back, shotguns and pistols push in, heavy weapons move slowly. Single guns can be moved to another profile.
• Distance keeping: too far, they close in. Too close, they back off while shooting, also while reloading.
• Melee weapons and explosive weapons are detected automatically and handled sensibly.
• Configurable spread and headshot chance. No aimbot guards.
• Friendly-fire protection before every shot: guards won't shoot through villagers or players, monsters won't shoot through other monsters.
• Suppressive fire: machine gun hits briefly slow the target.

Diplomacy

• Warnings: guards warn you before opening fire. Put your weapon away and they stand down.
• Strikes: an accidental hit gets a warning. Hit them again and you're an aggressor, no more warnings.
• White flag: hold white wool or a white banner and guards hold their fire. Betray it and they won't trust it for a while.
• Disguise: hold or wear an ominous banner and illagers take you for one of their own. Armed guards, however, will shoot you on sight.
• Guards talk to you in chat.

Guard pouch

• Armed guards carry a hidden pouch with reserve ammo and food.
• Sneak + right-click a guard to open it (same permissions as the guard inventory).
• Guards eat from the pouch when hurt and out of combat. The pouch drops on death.

Resupply

• Armed mobs slowly receive new ammo inside villages, pillager outposts, woodland mansions or near village bells.
• Guards fetch their own ammo: low on ammo outside the village, they walk to the nearest bell, restock and return to their post. Out of ammo mid-fight, they fall back to restock and rejoin.

Dependencies

Guard Villagers TACZ Support is not needed. This mod has its own AI. If you prefer that mod's AI, set [ai] enabled = false. Never run both AIs at the same time.

Tested gunpacks

Works out of the box with every gunpack tested so far, no configuration needed:

• TaCZ Default Gunpack
• Create Armorer
• Cyber Armorer
• Applied Armorer
• Immersive Armorer
• Ars Armorer (needs more testing)
• Helldivers 2 Gunpack
• TTI Gunpack
• MS-Mobius Gunpack
• TRIS-dyna Gunpack
• EOS - Dawn Goddess Lab
• Destiny Gun Pack

Important: Most gunpacks were made for Minecraft 1.20.1. To use them on 1.21.1 you need TaCZ Pack Upgrader (also built into Gunsmith Lib). This is a TaCZ requirement, not one of this mod.

Using a gunpack that isn't listed? It will most likely work anyway. If something behaves oddly, let me know in the comments!

Configuration

config/taczarmedmobs-common.toml. Most changes apply on the next spawn. Works with Configured for in-game editing.

[guards]

[extra_mobs]

[weapons]

[ammo]

[ai]

[profiles]

Each profile has types, max_range, preferred_distance, retreat_distance and move_speed. Move types between profiles freely, or add custom types from other gunpacks.

[suppression]

[diplomacy]

[pouch]

[resupply]

How weapon filtering works

Every time a mob spawns, each loaded gun goes through three filters in this order:

1. Whitelist: If empty, every gun passes. If not empty, only matching guns pass.
2. Blacklist: Matching guns are removed, even if whitelisted.
3. Allowed types: Only guns with a listed type remain, whitelisted guns included.

Entries can be a single gun ("tacz:ak47"), a whole gunpack ("create_armorer:*") or a sub folder ("destiny:sword/*").

whitelist = ["create_armorer:*"]

whitelist = ["destiny:*"]
blacklist = ["destiny:sword/*"]

Enabling heavy weapons

Launchers, cannons and similar weapons use the type rpg ("Heavy Weapon" in the creative menu). They are disabled by default. To enable them, add rpg to the allowed types:

[weapons]
    allowed_types = ["pistol", "smg", "rifle", "shotgun", "sniper", "mg", "rpg"]

Heavy weapons use the heavy profile: longer range, slower movement, and an automatic safety distance so mobs never fire explosives at targets close enough to hurt themselves. Melee weapons that gunpacks file under the same tab (e.g. swords) are detected automatically and charge in instead.

Before you enable them:

• Explosions may damage your village. Whether explosions destroy blocks is decided by the weapon and TaCZ's own config, not by this mod.
• Zombies and pillagers can get them too, since allowed_types applies to all mobs.
• Only want launchers, no melee weapons? Blacklist them, e.g.:

  blacklist = ["destiny:sword/*", "create_armorer:special_melee_wrench"]

Common pitfalls

• Whitelisted gun never shows up? Check its type. Launchers, cannons and some melee weapons use rpg ("Heavy Weapon" in the creative menu), which is excluded by default.
• All guards suddenly have swords? Usually a typo in the whitelist.
• Guns that fire from the inventory (e.g. bows) or use fuel are not handed out on spawn while this mod's AI is active. Inventory-fed guns still work when you give them to a guard yourself, fuel-based ones don't.

Debugging

Something not working as expected? Stand next to a guard and run /taczarmedmobs debug (ops only). It lists every condition for the AI, ammo, profile, target and resupply with a green YES or red NO. The first red line is usually the reason. Please include its output in bug reports!

Notes

• Only newly spawned mobs are affected. Existing mobs keep their equipment.
• Guard Villagers never attacks players with Hero of the Village or the guard's owner, even if they're disguised.
• Pillagers hold guns in their normal pose. Purely visual, they shoot fine.
• If another mod already arms pillagers or zombies, remove them from entities or add them to ai_excluded.

FAQ

Guns show as a pink/black texture. That's a gunpack loading issue, not this mod. Older 1.20.1 gunpacks have to be converted by TaCZ Pack Upgrader (also built into Gunsmith Lib), and that conversion can fail if Windows locks a file. Close the game, delete the .gunsmithlib folder in your instance (if you use Gunsmith Lib) and restart.

Can I use this in my modpack? Yes.

Roadmap & ideas

This mod is actively developed. Here's what's on the table. Nothing is promised, but it gives you an idea where things are heading:

Ideas

• Attribute bonuses: give armed mobs (or any mob) extra armor, health or speed, so a zombie with a machine gun doesn't drop after two hits
• Guard reinforcements: villages replace fallen guards on their own, either by recruiting jobless villagers or by reinforcements arriving at the station
• Guard Villagers optional: arm zombies, skeletons and other mobs without needing Guard Villagers installed
• Barracks: a new village building that trains guards
• Quartermaster: a villager profession that manages the station's ammo supply
• Smarter targeting: guards prioritize dangerous enemies like ravagers over stragglers

What would you like to see? Got an idea for a feature, a gunpack that doesn't work right, or a mob you'd like to arm? Leave a comment! Suggestions really do end up on this list.

Credits

Friendly-fire and repositioning logic inspired by Guard Villagers TACZ Support by denialpan (MIT). Built on Guard Villagers by tallestegg.