Zeus For Dummies

Zeus Guide for Dummies. Is a guide on the new Zeus game mode that is available in the dev branch of Arma III. I am making this guide to teach others how to use and make missions using Zeus.

Introduction

This is a guide that is made for people who don't know anything about the Zeus game mode, hence the title "Zues for Dummies".

Disclaimer: I am not calling you that do read this an idiot or dumb. I am calling it "Zeus For Dummies" so it is similar to those guides you can get for all sorts of stuff.

Requirements

1. Arma III on Steam
2. Arma III updated to Dev Branch
a. you can get there by going to your steam library, then right click on Arma III. Go to properties. A window then will pop up, when it does click on the Beta tab. Where is says "Select the beta you would like to opt into:" choose the Development build, then wait for the update to complete. -see images below
3. Patience & a high tolerance for bug and crashes

Images are below:

Right clicking on Arma III in steam Library


Arma III Properties Window

Getting Started

Starting a Zeus Game (for practice):
Now that your in Devbranch, you'll want to start a game and start making missions for you and your friends. First thing you'll want to do is Press Play, then Multiplayer. This will bring you to the server Browser (you ought to know what this is by now). Start a new Multiplayer Mission, Select the Zeus mission you want (eg. ZGM 16+2 Master Stratis (CSAT)). then press play. You will then go to the mission lobby, on the left hand side you will see a Zeus Faction, click on that and assign yourself to the 'Game Master' position.


Before you jump in and start creating mission, you'll want to change the prefrences (or at least look at them)


In order this is what they do:

God Mode - Pretty self explanatory. You can set this option to either True or False, true meaning that zeus starts with absolute god status, he can build anything, anywhere, at anytime, with any quantity (almost) without restriction. The only reason you should have this off is if your doing some kind of Command position where the Zeus player is acting more as a commander than a creator. For the purposes of 99% of players, you'll always want this one set to 'Enabled'. The False setting allows the zeus to only build certain things, with more being slowly unlocked as the mission progresses.

Game Moderator Rights - This one also needs little explaining. For obvious reasons many servers running a zeus mission may need a level of power equal to that of the zeus to prevent some squeaker from getting on and spawning 500 enemy troops around your only spawn and laughing at you. The this mode has 3 options:

1) Cannot Create Objects - This option prevents the moderator from interfering with the mission for the most part, only allowing him to remote control AI, give orders to AI, make map markers, and delete/move (aka teleport) non player units on the map.

2) Can Create Modules - this option gives the moderator a bit more power, along will all of the previous powers, he can now place objectives for players to preform.

3) Can Place Objects - if you select this, the moderator position becomes a second zeus with a different name. He can do anything the game master can. NOTE: At the time of writing this (3/11/14) the Moderator slot has a fatal bug where it causes all non-zeus players FPS to crash to about 5. Don't use the mod slot until this gets fixed.

Next up is the mission type - Either Deathmatch or COOP. no elaboration needed here.

Edit Distance - This is easily the most important option on the list other than godmode. Human players will have a range around them in which the zeus cannot place, delete, move or otherwise alter Objects. While this makes sense for a lot of people, I personally find it annoying that if players want an airdrop of supplies, i have to put it 100m (the default distance) away from them. I recommend this to be set to unless you have a reason for it not to be.

and finally AAF Friendly Setting: Sets who AAF (the green team) is friendly towards. Note that even if they are friendly, they will shoot you if you kill their men for vehicles or whatever other reason you have.



Now that we are done with the parameters its time to make the magic happen, Start your game.

When you first get ingame, you will see something like this


Before you can do ANYTHING, you have to place a spawn point for people to spawn at. Plop one down and you're ready to play.

Modules

In order to fully utilize zeus you will need to familarize yourself with the various modules that are at your disposal.

There is 12 different catagories that contain modules that are related to the catagory that they are placed in. Below is a summary of the 12 catagories and what you will find within them.

Animals: If you want to add animals to your zeus misison for ambients or immersive purposes then this will be where you would want to go.

Audio: If you would like to add any sound to your zeus mission whether it be ambient sounds or full arma 3 music tracks then this is where you would want to go.

Chem Lights: If you need a quick light source for your mission if it begins at night time then this will be the place for you.

Effects: In this catagory you will find effects that you may use in your zeus mission.

Enviroment: This catagory will contian all the modules that have to deal with changing or modifying the enviroment.

Fire Support: This catagory will contain all the modules that have to deal with calling in firesupport from: Mortar Strikes to CAS support.

Flares: Like Chem Lights, this will allow you to utilize a various different colors of flares for your use in your zeus mission.

Objectives: This catagory contains all the modules for objectives that you can use in your zeus mission.

Respawn: This catagory contains all the modules that have to deal with respawning players, loadout and/or vechiles.

Scenario Flow: This catagory will contain all the modules that deal with the flow of the mission, from mission countdowns to ending the mission entirely.

Smoke Shells: This catagory will contain all the modules that deal with adding different smoke shells to your mission.

Zeus: This catagory will contain modules that are related to Zeus in general, these modules will be the lightning bolt and remote control.

Modules - Environment

To be able to make a good mission with zeus you will not only need to be able to make objectives but be able to modify and change the environment according to how your mission plays out. You will be able to chose different modules to your like like shown in the environment tab below:

Post-Process: This will allow you to add a color filter to your mission to change how it looks. The different color schemes range from a very colorful scheme like mediterranean to no color at all in black and white.


Skip Time: This will allow you to skip time to change the time of your mission to whatever time you would need it to be. This will allow you to advanced up to a total of 7 days as well.


Weather: This module will allow you to add fog to your mission and to change the weather on the fly. It will allow you to change your mission to be a nice sunny day or to be a horrible foggy, rainy, stormy night.

Modules - Fire Support

If you would like to add fire support in any of your custom missions in zeus then you will need to familier yourself with the fire support modules as shown below:


155 mm Howitzer: This fire support module is an howitzer it can be used for if your players and or hostiles are calling in artillery to attack an objective or whatever.

230 mm Rocket: This fire support module is a rocket strike and this can be used for if you have a misison where players can laser target a location for a missile strike. Be warned, this fire support is really deadly it does not just launch one missile it launches like a barrage/cluster of them.

82 mm Mortar: This fire support is just a stand motar strike that can be used if players are calling in a artillery strike or if you have it where the enemy is calling in artilery support.

CAS - Gun and Missiles: This fire support module is if you would like to call in Close Air Support for your friendly players or hostile enemies. This type of CAS will send in a plane that will use its guns and missiles at the designated area. When you chose this support module it will allow you to chose what plane you would like to use-this will then entail whether it will be friendly or hostile.


CAS - Gun Run: Similar to the above module where you are sending in Close Air Support and you can select the type of aircraft. This type of CAS will send in a plane that will just use its guns at the designated area.


CAS - Missile Strike: Similar to the above module where you are sending in Close Air Support and you can select the type of aircraft. This type of CAS will send in a plane that will just use its missiles to strike the designated area.


^If the CAS Fire Support direction of attack is now how you want it you may rotate it with left shift key and left mouse button pressed in then move the mouse around until the fire support is aiming from the direction you want it to be.


155 mm Howitzer Damage Radius

230 mm Rocket Damage Radius:

82 mm Mortar Damage Radius:

CAS - Gun and Missiles Damage Radius:

CAS - Gun Run Damage Radius:

CAS - Missile Strike Damage Radius:

Modules - Objectives

In order to make a good mission you will need to make objectives for your players to complete and to do so you will need to know about the modules in the Objectives tab as shown below.


Attack / Defend: This module is pretty self explanatory, but when you place this down it will allow you to assign a faction to be defending while another is attacking. The objective will complete once either the attacking team controls the area once all defenders are neutralized or when the defenders succesfully defend against the attack.

Control Sector: This is similar to the above objective; however, there is no automatic completion like the above. This is used for if you want like a objective for your players to try and take control of an area that is already controlled by another faction. Then later you may used that to have your players defend against an attack if that is your new base or whatever.

Custom Objective: With all of these different objective modules this one here will be your best friend. You will almost be guarrenteed to use this all the time when coming up with your various stories and their missions. This module will allow you to be creative and create any missions you would like to be from: Stealing a Fuel Truck, Captureing a Crashed Helo, and others. A thing that you will have to make sure that you remember is that when using this objective module you will have to manually set the mission to succesful.


Get In Vehicle: This is pretty self explanatory as well. In order for this to work you will need to have a vehicle, preferably empty. Then you will want to attach this objective to the vehicle which is done so by putting the module right on the vehicle icon like shown here:
This then will automatically complete the misison once a player enters the vehicle that you have deemed the vehicle for the objective.


Move: Just like Get In Vehicle this is pretty self explanatory as well. Basically if you wanted an objective for your players to just move somewhere on the map either if they had to flea somewhere or just go somewhere for the next objective you would use this objective module. This will then automatically complete the objective when a player reaches the destination.


Neutralize: If you want a objective for your players to kill a certain target like a HVT(high value target) or something then you would want to use this objective. You will then have to attach this to your ai target, and do so by putting hte module on the soldier's icon like shown here:
This will automatically complete when the target that was linked to the module is dead.


Protect: This is the direct opposite of the Neutralize objective module. If you would like a objective for your players to say defend a certain person from dying, then you would use this objective. You will then need to link this module to the target you want to be protected like shown here:
This objective will automatically complete if the attacking force is eliminated, but it will automatically fail if the guy you were tasked to protect is dead.

Modules - Scenario Flow

Briefing: To my knowledge (if this module is even working) this module will be used to create briefings for your players to read before the mission will start.

Countdown: If you would like your mission to end and complete after a certain amount of time then you would use this module. You would also want to use this module if you would like to say time your players to finished the mission before it automatcally is mission failure if they dont succeed.



End Scenario: If you would want to finally end the mission and send everyone back to the lobby to either quit hosting zeus or to start an entire new zeus mission then you will want to use this module. Be wanred that as soon as you click okay it will automatically end the scenario.


Respawn Tickets: If you would like to add a sort of ticket system so that the players will be limited on how many times they can respawn and if there is no tickets left they cant respawn (this is mainly used for like pvp type matches, but it can be used for coop to make it more challenging where you may only have say 10 lives).

Modules - Zeus

These next two modules are part of the Zeus category, these modules are used for if you need to punish players by hitting them with lightning or if you want to remote control any ai that are currently on the map.

Zeus Lightning Bolt: This will allow zeus to strike lightning down anywhere where he will place module. This will kill and destroy anything that is underneath wherever the module is placed.

You will know that it worked when the whole screen would new a bright white like below:



Remote Control: This module will allow zeus to remote control any ai controlled units that are in the field. It doesnt matter what faction they are, zeus is able to put this module on any ai unit that is currently placed down. You may want to utilize this more if you want some missions where a ai helicopter will pick players up for extract or to insert them somewhere. In order for you to remote control a ai unit you will need to attach the remote control module to the unit by placing it on the units icon like this:
After you placed it you should notice the screen go kind of blurry on the sides and zoom in on the unit like this below.

Then once it finished loading in you will then have total control of the ai unit like this:

Be Creative

Now that you know the basics to zeus. You can start to host your own Zeus games and create your own stories within zeus.

Remember to be creative and to experiment with different ideas that your mind can come up with. It mainly depends on what the game master decides to do but every story is unique and different and that is main thing that is good about Zeus.

Credits

Panicsferd - Introduction/Requirements/Modules and Screenshots

Daxx - Getting Started and Screenshots

Bohemia Interactive - Creator of Arma 3 and the creator of the gamemode for this guide is written for. If it wasn't for them we wouldn't have Arma 3 and or Zeus.

[war01a]

how do you ctrl paste someone with a custom arsenal?

[Jake4159]

I followed your guide and I can't seem to get the objectives to work except the sector control.

[W1ggen]

how can i make a viritual arsenal in Zeus? i cannot seem to be able to edit the init of any ammo box?

[Biznis]

Can someone tell me why 230mm doesn't do any damage in zeus? Outside of zeus when you have an actual vehicle and fire 230mm it does damage, but in zeus as part of fire support just one rocket appears to hit and it doesn't destroy or kill anything.

[Cup]

@Purple, if you just have became admin of a server, it wont work until you change the missions. do so by #missions and change the mission to what you want and then go to the top right and it will say parameters, click on it and change them to ur liking.
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@MrCancer, you make soldiers crouch by double clicking on them and changing their stance. if you want to do it with a squad, click on the thing above them and change the squad leaders stance, and then it will make all of them crouch.
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@[BR] It29, there is plenty of zeus missions on the workshop for all of your map needs.
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@[TNAT] Neilerator, That is an update applied. the 230mm rockets fate was decided by BI that it was too op. thus was changed. sorry.

[Purple]

How do I give moderator permissions as admin to make him be able to spawn things, or how do I change the parameters at all?

[L33P]

how do i make soldiers crouch

[34joshua]

How do i make it so that i can zues on other maps, such as ones that i downloaded?

[neilerator]

I have a Question. I have played Zeus for a long time already but now I started to play ArmA 3 again after some time and I wanted to use my favorite tool, the 230mm rocket. But instead of appearing a rocket that splits into more and making some craters, there is one rocket without sound or something else, it just flies to the location and there is an explosion, the sreen shakes but nothing happens, not even damage is dealt. How can I fix this ? I tried it in normal Zeus without mods and in RHS Zeus with some mods and nothing changes.

[Angry Twilight]

nice