[Release] [T5] [Zombies] ZPause T5 - a synced co-op pause mod by Xep

[Xeptix]

ZPause T5

Synced co-op pause for Black Ops Zombies (Plutonium T5)

by Xep

A port of ZPause, the Black Ops II pause mod, to Black
Ops 1. Same design, same settings, same version numbering.

Any player can pause. Any player can unpause. The state lives on level, so it's
identical for everyone — there's no per-client state that can desync.

• Zombies stop where they are, and stop spawning
• Players are locked and can't be hurt
• Powerup timers, effect countdowns and bleedout all hold
• Resumes on a 3‑2‑1 countdown with a short grace period
• Optional vote-to-pause, so a pause has to carry the room

Requirements

Plutonium T5 (Black Ops), zombies. No other mods or dependencies.

Only the host needs this file. Everything runs on the host and reaches everyone else
as ordinary server-to-client traffic — the freeze, the invulnerability, the HUD, the vote
tally, the sounds. Players joining your game install nothing.

Download & Source

Latest Version Download:

https://github.com/Xeptix/ZPauseT5/releases/latest

GitHub Source Code:

https://github.com/Xeptix/ZPauseT5

All ports in one download:

ZPause [Treyarch Bundle], on the ZPause release page:
https://github.com/Xeptix/ZPause/releases/latest

Install

Copy the Plutonium folder from the download into:

%localappdata%

It mirrors your existing %localappdata%\Plutonium exactly, so Windows will ask whether to
merge — say yes. The only thing it replaces is an older zpause.gsc.

That puts the file here:

%localappdata%\Plutonium\storage\t5\raw\scripts\sp\zpause.gsc

sp, not zm — Black Ops 1 zombies runs on the singleplayer script tree. That's the
same folder Plutonium's own zombies scripts live in.

There's no mod-folder version of this one. Plutonium's mods folder and its in-game Mods
menu are Black Ops II features; T5 has neither, so the script drop-in is the whole
delivery.

install.bat in the download does the same copy for you if you'd rather — it lists what
it's about to install, asks once, then copies. Nothing is deleted or downloaded.

You don't need to restart the game to reload a script — just end the current match and
start a new one.

Usage

Action	Input
Pause / unpause	hold crouch + melee together for ~0.3s
Vote yes, while a vote is open	the same combo
Vote no, while a vote is open	hold jump + melee

Crouching or prone counts, by any binding — Black Ops 1 splits crouch across four
separate binds and CHANGE STANCE goes prone when held, so the script reads your stance
rather than a key.

The combo keeps working while you're frozen: freezecontrols() blocks movement and weapon
use, but button state still reaches the server. That's what lets a frozen player resume.

There are no chat commands. Black Ops 1 has no say callback for a script to bind to,
so unlike the Black Ops II version there's no !pause or !yes. Everything is on the
combos, which is why the down-state combos below matter.

While you're down

You can't crouch from the floor, and once you've bled out the engine stops delivering
those buttons at all. Downed and spectating players switch to use + aim, and
use + fire for a no vote. The HUD shows a while down: line whenever anybody is in
that state, so nobody has to remember it.

Voting

Off by default. zp_vote 1 and a pause has to carry the room instead of any one player
stopping the game.

Calling a vote is the same action as pausing. The vote runs 30 seconds and everyone gets a
tally: the count, the clock, and every player with how they voted.

The bar is whichever is higher, zp_vote_min or zp_vote_percent of the players in the
game, then clamped to how many are actually present — so a lobby can't set a threshold
nobody there can clear, and solo play skips the vote entirely.

Configuration

Every setting is at the top of the file, and each one is also a dvar of the same name:

zp_countdown 5

The config is re-read whenever a pause is requested, so a change takes effect on the
next pause — no map restart needed.

Dvar	Default	What it does
zp_button_combo	1	Enable the button combos.
zp_combo	crouch_melee	Pause combo: crouch_melee, jump_use, jump_melee, use_melee, ads_melee, ads_use, throw_use.
zp_button_hold_time	0.3	How long a combo must be held.
zp_combo_dead	use_ads	Combo used while downed or spectating. "" = no button in that state.
zp_vote_no_combo_dead	use_attack	The same, for a no vote.
zp_vote	0	Put pauses to a vote.
zp_vote_min	2	Minimum yes votes, whatever the player count.
zp_vote_percent	51	Percent of players who must vote yes.
zp_vote_time	30	Seconds a vote stays open.
zp_vote_unpause	0	Resuming needs a vote too.
zp_vote_hold	0	Freeze the game while the vote runs, and resume if it fails.
zp_vote_initiator_yes	1	Whoever called the vote counts as a yes.
zp_vote_lockout	10	Seconds before another vote can be called after one fails.
zp_vote_alive_only	1	Leave bled-out spectators out of the threshold and the count.
zp_vote_hud	1	Show the vote tally on screen.
zp_vote_show_voters	1	List each player and how they voted.
zp_vote_result_time	2	Seconds the result stands on the tally afterwards.
zp_vote_no_combo	jump_melee	Combo for a no vote.
zp_countdown	3	Seconds of 3‑2‑1 before play resumes.
zp_grace	2	Seconds of invulnerability after resuming.
zp_cooldown	2	Minimum seconds between toggles.
zp_max_pause_time	0	Auto-resume after N seconds. 0 = unlimited.
zp_drift_guard	1	Snap back any AI that still manages to move.
zp_stop_anims	1	Cut scripted animations, so zombies can't finish tearing a barrier through the pause.
zp_godmode	1	Make players invulnerable while paused.
zp_control_guard	1	Re-apply the player freeze every tick.
zp_freeze_bleedout	1	Stop downed players bleeding out.
zp_freeze_powerups	1	Stop ground powerups timing out.
zp_freeze_effects	1	Hold the insta-kill, double points, fire sale, bonfire, tesla and minigun timers.
zp_silence_zombies	1	Stop zombies growling while paused.
zp_show_hint	1	Tell players how to pause when they spawn.
zp_hud_timer	1	Show who paused and how long it's been.
zp_hud_position	center	Where the pause banner sits: top, center, middle, bottom, left, right.
zp_vote_hud_position	top	Where the vote tally sits.
zp_hud_glow	1	Black glow behind the HUD text.
zp_hud_binds	1	Draw combos as each player's bound buttons instead of words.
zp_hud_panel	0	Black slab behind the whole block.
zp_hud_panel_alpha	0.45	How opaque that slab is.
zp_hud_panel_width	340	How wide it is, in HUD units.
zp_blackout	0	Black out everyone's screen while paused (anti-scouting).
zp_blur	1	Blur everyone's screen while paused.
zp_blur_amount	1.5	Blur strength. 4 is the blur the game runs when you buy a perk.
zp_pause_sound	zmb_box_poof	Played when the game is paused. "" = silent.
zp_countdown_sound	zmb_bolt	Played on each countdown tick.
zp_resume_sound	zmb_perks_power_on	Played when play resumes.

How it works

Black Ops II ships a working full-game pause — it's what runs during a host migration
— and the original ZPause is built on that recipe. Black Ops 1 has no host migration in
zombies and no disablezombies() builtin to go with it, so the engine-level AI freeze
simply isn't available here.

Everything else carries over, and the AI freeze is done in script instead:

• flag_clear("spawn_zombies") is the flag the spawn loop actually blocks on, so
  spawning stops at the source.
• The AI enforcer holds ignoreall, pins every goal to where the zombie is standing,
  and snaps back anything that drifts. On Black Ops II this is a safety net around the
  engine freeze; here it is the freeze.
• zp_stop_anims cancels scripted animations, because a zombie tearing a barrier is
  driven by its animation rather than by pathing — goals and positions don't govern it.
  Everything cancelled is released again on resume.
• The stuck-zombie watchdog. round_spawn_failsafe() kills any zombie that hasn't
  moved 24 units in 30 seconds, assuming it's stuck outside the playspace — and a paused
  zombie trips it every time. ZPause keeps the barrier-chunk timestamp fresh, which the
  watchdog honours, so it loops harmlessly instead of firing.
• Ground powerups. powerup_timeout() is a plain wait() chain and can't be paused,
  so the thread is cut and restarted on resume.
• Powerup effects. Every timed powerup keeps an _on flag and a _time countdown;
  pinning the countdowns holds all six on-screen timers at once.
• Bleedout is pinned so a downed player doesn't bleed out.
• Late joiners and respawns are frozen on spawn, and everything is torn down on
  end_game so nobody is left frozen at the scoreboard.

The pause clock is in minutes

zp_hud_timer reports in minutes — under a minute, 3 minutes, over an hour — rather
than the live mm:ss the Black Ops II version shows.

That's a hard constraint, not a shortcut. Black Ops 1 has no HUD timer element, so a clock
has to be drawn as text, and every distinct string costs a configstring. A ticking second
counter burns one a second until the pool runs dry and drops the server. Minutes bound the
whole set to about sixty strings, all reused.

Notes

• Zombies stand still rather than freeze solid. Their animation is cancelled rather
  than frozen; a true animation freeze isn't reachable from server-side GSC.
• Scripted rides keep running. Pause mid-ride and it finishes underneath the pause —
  zp_control_guard only stops it handing your controls back early.
• Not held: the magic box close timer, teleporter cooldowns, trap durations and Easter
  egg step timers.

Ports

Same mod, same version numbering, on three engines:

• Black Ops II — https://github.com/Xeptix/ZPause
• Black Ops — https://github.com/Xeptix/ZPauseT5
• World at War — https://github.com/Xeptix/ZPauseT4

Credits

• Xep — author
• Treyarch — _zombiemode.gsc
• plutoniummod/t5-scripts — stock T5 script reference

[Xeptix]

ZPause T5 v1.4

Eleven new settings, a settings editor so you never need the console, and two more games —
ZPause now runs on all five Treyarch zombies titles.

Download: https://github.com/Xeptix/ZPauseT5/releases/latest

One thing changes on its own

zp_blackout is on by default now, at the new zp_blackout_alpha of 0.2. It was off
in v1.3, so this is the one thing you'll notice straight away: the screen dims slightly
while paused. It's there to carry the pause text over a bright skybox.

zp_blackout 0 puts it back, zp_blackout_alpha 1 gives the full blackout it used to be.
zp_blur_amount went from 1.5 to 2 for the same reason. The installer mentions both
when you update if you'd been leaving them alone.

New — who decides

All off by default, and they don't fight each other:

• zp_host_only — only the host can pause or resume.
• zp_host_approve — anyone can ask, the host answers yes or no. It runs on the same
  yes/no combo a vote uses, which is what lets it work on an engine with no chat.
• zp_ready_check — resuming waits for everyone to say they're back. Not a vote:
  nobody says no and it can't fail.
• zp_max_pauses — a cap per match.

New — pausing without being asked

• zp_pause_on_disconnect — pause when somebody drops, so whoever is left isn't
  overrun while they rejoin.
• zp_round_pause — hold the pause until the round is over instead of freezing the
  game mid-horde.

New — a settings editor

The installer sets every dvar for you now. It reads the list out of the script you've
actually got installed, so it's always right for your version, and offers a list rather
than a blank prompt for anything that takes fixed values.

It writes the values into the installed script — which is what makes them stick, since
Plutonium regenerates its own player cfg — and also exports a portable zpause.cfg for a
dedicated server. Keep several profiles and switch between them. Settings are re-applied
after every update.

The installer has also grown into a manager: what's installed and at which version,
removal, GitHub fetch, and a doctor for the things that actually go wrong. It asks before
every network call. And it's one installer for all five games now — keep a copy on your PC
and it can install any of them later.

New — settings apply without a map restart

The config is re-read every five seconds while you're playing, and again whenever a pause
is requested.

This one matters more here than anywhere else: it's what finally lets zp_combo be
changed by hand. Before, changing it needed a pause to take effect — and with no chat
commands on this engine, the combo is the thing that asks for one.

set zp_config_print 1 prints every setting with its current value.

Also new

• zp_hud — turn the pause block off entirely, for a recording or a server with its
  own overlay.
• zp_ease and zp_ease_time — config parity with the other ports. No effect on
  this engine; the README says why.

Fixed

• A zombie paused on its way to a window now finishes the walk instead of tearing at
  the boards from wherever it was standing. The pause holds zombies by pinning their goal
  to the spot, and the game took that as "at the window"; on resume, any zombie still short
  of its spot is sent the rest of the way first.

New — Black Ops III and Black Ops 4

Both debut at v1.4, same version number and the same feature set allowing for what each
engine can do:

• Black Ops III — https://github.com/Xeptix/ZPauseT7
• Black Ops 4 — https://github.com/Xeptix/ZPauseT8

That's all five Treyarch zombies games now. Each has a download of its own, and
ZPause [Treyarch Bundle] on the ZPause release page carries all five — one download,
one installer that knows every game.

Install

Unchanged. Run installer\windows\install.bat from the extracted folder, or copy the
Plutonium folder into %localappdata% yourself. Your old zpause.gsc is replaced in
place, so there's nothing to clean up first.

No game restart needed — end the current match and start a new one. Only the host needs the
file.

Full dvar list and the how-it-works writeup are in the README:
https://github.com/Xeptix/ZPauseT5

[Xeptix]

ZPause T5 v1.5

Chat commands, a settings menu while paused, settings that stay set — and two fixes that
matter: anybody can unpause again, and Black Ops no longer stops at boot with ZPause
installed.

Download: https://github.com/Xeptix/ZPauseT5/releases/latest

Fixed — read these first

• Black Ops no longer stops at boot. v1.4 called two of the game's zombies functions in
  a way Black Ops has to resolve while it boots, before any zombies script is loaded, and a
  build carrying them stopped the game there. They're looked up once a match is running now.
• Anybody can unpause, not only whoever paused. The crouch half of a combo reads the
  stance you're in, and freezing a player freezes their stance — so whoever paused stayed
  crouched and everybody else, frozen standing, could never make it. While paused, resume
  with use + aim (or !unpause). The pause banner says so.
• use_ads and use_attack do what they say. Both are the default down combos, and
  neither name was ever tested for, so both fell through to crouch + melee — the one combo a
  downed player can't make.

New — chat commands

!pause, !p, !unpause, !resume, and yes / no while a vote is open — the same words
as Black Ops II. This port shipped without them because nothing in the game's own scripts
listens for chat; the game raises it anyway. zp_allow_short_words widens them to the bare
words, off by default.

New — a settings menu while paused

The host holds fire + melee: aim and fire move through the list, grenade changes a
setting, melee closes it, and what the setting does is written under the list. zp_menu 0
turns it off.

New — settings stick

The menu saves to scriptdata\zpause.cfg as it closes, and the script reads it back as the
next match loads. The installer's settings editor writes the same file and opens on it, so
the menu and the installer always agree.

Also

• zp_freeze_players 0 lets players walk around a paused game with their weapons down.
  Not recommended — doors, the box and perks still work.
• none empties a setting from the console, so set zp_pause_sound none is silence.
• Changing zp_godmode during a pause no longer leaves players invulnerable after it.
• The installer's -To works when it already remembers a folder.

Install

Unchanged. Run installer\windows\install.bat from the extracted folder, or copy the
Plutonium folder into %localappdata% yourself. Your settings are carried over. No game
restart needed — end the current match and start a new one. Only the host needs the file.

Full dvar list and the how-it-works writeup are in the README:
https://github.com/Xeptix/ZPauseT5