What were considered special zombies in the past now show up very regularly, and on the blood moon night, in significant quantities. They're definitely not special any more.
Are there any plans to add zombies to fill the role of special zombies?
Yes but they appear early and frequently so they are not special any more, I think is the point being made (I'd say with the exception of demolition zombies, they still are lategame) We know they exist.
Ferals and Rads arent special - you will find them in tier 2 and up, depends on difficulty you are playing on.
Those spiders are just an upgraded crawler.
Yea I agree specials are Demolition and Mutated that you meet later in game or wasteland. Cops also occur soon, though they do have ranged attack and explode.
Oldest and first special zombie in game that you only met in wasteland hub city in old alphas.
They are called special infected and their rarity and scarcity has nothing to do with their status as special infected. It is purely whether they have an ability or status effect that varies from the basic zombies.
Believing that scarcity is what defines “special” is purely your own personal take. TFP defines special infected by abilities and stats and the frequency of the appearance of ANY entity is purely a function of gamestage. Cops and spiders are super rare on day 1 during the day outside of downtown areas. But nighttime will increase the chance of sighting a spider and downtown areas increase your gamestage so again more frequency of seeing special infected.
This will be true of the bandits and any tiers or specials within that mob group that they develop.