Run the session without fighting the tools

You run the session. You do not edit files mid-mission: you read the footer, spawn with intent, recover players, and clean up. Everything you do here is validated on the server.

Before the first player spawns

• All seven mods loaded on server, clients and HCs; ZEN loaded if you want the custom modules and dialogs.
• Your curator slot assigned. Curator-only actions are rejected otherwise.
• Know which systems the mission started. A missing atmosphere or scare system is a mission choice, not a bug.
• Automatic flying arrivals and atmosphere auto-mood are off until you enable them.

Reading the footer

Vanilla Zeus and ZEN both show the shared footer. The summary refreshes every two seconds; FPS samples once per second by default.

FF: Zeus > Status reporting changes the FPS interval for everyone, including late joiners.

Soul recovery

Players in orb control appear as cyan labelled dots. The Soul tools panel selects a player in wake, rise or orb phase.

Hordes and arrivals

FF: Horror > Spawn horde creates a server controller.

• Pool: one class, weighted list (Zombie_O_RA_Civ=10,Zombie_O_Crawler_Civ=1), copied classes, or the mission mix. Weights are probabilities, not quotas.
• Waves: 1 for a single horde, larger for repeats, 0 until stopped.
• Living limit: includes incoming units and applies per controller; waves wait for capacity.
• Terrain: water, steep slopes, occupied ground and player exclusion are rejected and counted as skipped.
• Arrival: flying units exist only when the flight ends; instant arrivals are revealed immediately.

Manage hordes shows wave, counts and skipped placements. Pause stops new launches; stop cancels incoming units and keeps existing enemies. Edits apply to future launches. Controllers are terminal once stopped — create a new one.

Flying spawn settings controls automatic arrivals for newly placed AI: scope (this Zeus / all Zeus), the class filter (default: class or ancestor contains zombie), flight options and the enable switch. Automatic arrivals preserve identity, loadout, group, variables and simulation state. Flying spawn source registers a launch point; delete it to fall back to the sky.

Skulls

Register by synchronizing a Land_HumanSkull_F, enabling auto-registration, or calling FF_horror_fnc_registerSkull. The original prop is the patrol anchor.

• Patrol — random points inside the radius.
• Traversal — direct movement, then patrol.
• Fly — fast arc at least 50 m above the higher endpoint, then patrol.
• Moving the prop relocates the anchor; a distant skull returns automatically.
• Freeze skull for photos is the multiplayer-safe alternative to accTime = 0.

Atmosphere

Spooks 2 > Atmosphere Control

• Enable automatic mood starts the calm/tension/combat director. Off by default.
• Play chosen track once takes priority until the song ends naturally.
• Force mood with optional duration; the latest request wins after priority ends.
• Horde cue plays the whisper, then arms combat music. It does not spawn enemies.
• Stop priority, clear track and mood, or stop all atmosphere music; the last one also disables automatic mood.

Scare entity

Place the module, select viewers and confirm. The retained controller module is the lifetime: delete it to remove apparitions, pictures, audio and stress. Only checked entries on the open tab count. Only selected players see, hear or receive the effect, and new unselected joiners stay excluded.

Music director

FF: Zeus > Music director (needs FF_Cinematic and ZEN; lists only native director registrations).

• The first screen shows each director, its selected key and where that selection comes from — priority track, forced mood, automatic source or disabled source.
• Play track once takes priority over everything until the song ends; a new event restarts it.
• Force mood with an optional duration and volume override. Duration zero keeps it until cleared; a timed force issued during priority waits and then gets its full duration.
• Base mood and enable/disable automatic selection set what plays when nothing overrides it. A mission source callback can supersede the base choice — force is the way to override that callback.
• Stop priority, clear force, clear both or stop all unwind in that order.

Horror's Atmosphere Control above is still the themed policy interface; it does not register a second native director. An old dialog cannot control a director that was stopped and re-registered under the same ID.

Drones and live feeds

Two ZEN modules: Drone automation and Live feed. Drop one on a UAV to register it, or drop it on a unit or vehicle to choose a follow target and pick the airframe in the dialog.

• Modes: follow operator, follow group, follow vehicle, patrol, hold; plus watch for contacts and engine power.
• Patrol needs an explicit route or a configured marker prefix — the dialog never invents a route.
• Feeds are audience-scoped: players (curators excluded), curators only, or an explicit UID list. Opening Zeus suspends your local feed and leaving it resumes.
• Release restores the airframe's original AI settings and waypoints; it leaves the vehicle where it is.

Ready room

FF: Zeus > Ready room / Assembly starts the configured room. Inside the room curators can release, release with skip, restart and clear, or cancel without handoff — no need to leave the dialog to manage assembly. Every curator action is re-authenticated on the server.

Weapon faults

Drop the module on a player to apply or clear their faults, or on empty ground to hit everyone. The server authenticates you as the requesting curator. Repairs stay specialist-only; curators can always clear a fault.

Admin tools and screen previews

Admin tools is an opt-in local diagnostics bar for the assigned curator: F-key operations that apply to your own player after server authorization. Screen previews render a read-only local page inside Zeus ? a full view or a bottom preview ? and are used for terminal and power-site overviews.

• Nothing is shown to players: previews and diagnostics are local to you and close when curator access ends.
• Previews only read state; they never accept input back into the simulation.
• The terminal HQ view uses the same preview mechanism.

CBRN in session

• Rules are mission-authored. You observe; you do not invent exposure values from the Zeus camera.
• Hand out filters, cartridges or SCBA before a hazard. New masks and filtration packs start empty; SCBA starts full.
• Vehicles shelter occupants: exposure and drain pause until they exit.
• Toggle CBRN warnings silences the unprotected chirp and supply warnings for that player.

Faulty optics

FF: Horror > Faulty night vision equipment: replace now, continuously, stop, or stop and restore. Drop it on a soldier to target Selected unit. One continuous policy per mission; a new action cancels the previous one.

Persistence and volunteers

Reconnect persistence toggles loadout/position recovery through Utils. It never handles death. Volunteer / RP (CBA setting, off by default) lets you assign AI to a willing player: F1 accepts, F2 declines, END switches bodies, DELETE finishes. Disabling the setting releases sessions immediately.

Scenario recipes

Do and don’t