[REL|AC7] New Map-based Mods (Mobius 1 Expansion Pack and Patch, Allied Bombers in Mission 13, and E-767 as Addon)

 I simplify all map-based mods I have into this one big post. The mods I cover are based on map editing that I discovered while I was developing the 3.0 update of my SPW Swap and VisMod Collection. I gotta hand it to kokeo1 who discovered the idea of actor injection from one mission map to another; although theoretically we can edit missions to make a new one, the mission itself is "cooked" in a way that we can only edit what's available at hand. Creating a new mission requires us to have a reverse-engineered source code and dev assets to work with, which is not easily obtainable due to Ace Combat 7 is not even an indie game.

That didn't stop some modders to modify the existing ones. I'm pretty sure you have heard the Ally F-22A Mobius One mod by now. This accomplishment alone made me interested in learning how kokeo1 (the author) modify such mission in a way that Mobius 1 (for all we know and love in the Ace Combat franchise) canonically appears in missions that ordinary players play (for example, the last 2 IUN missions - Missions 03 and 04) while also stealing your kills.

TBH, I have no problem with Mobius 1 entering the battlefield to assist Trigger, but get this: I dare say that he's too overpowered (OP) for a regular ally to steal your kills, much composed to that of SP Mission 2 (Anchorhead Raid) that your allies can, and will, steal your kills with or without you knowing it. The data I looked at confirms it. Even the LAAMs for Mobius 1 are cranked up at beyond level of tolerance, almost near the Surefire kill weapons. Not to mention, the weapons don't seem to have some degree of collision checks set up, to which it glitched out Mission 4's Harling death scene at near the end of the mission where there should be one or two MQ-101s flying close to Mother Goose One, yet Mobius 1 ruined it for all players who used his mod.

TL;DR, I arrived at a conclusion to improve and fix his mod whilst also making some new "dreamed" mods out of this new modding idea/technique. Below are the mods I made.

Mobius 1 Expansion Pack and Patch

If you read the third paragraph of this page, you know what I'm talking about. My patch will fix those issues, along with new features and additions that you may found interesting and/or challenging. These are added by taking account the game's lore, especially the VR missions.

The following are the improvements, additions, and fixes this mod provides:

  • weapons balancing; all weapons are now tailored to be in comparison with the other AI/NPCs (this includes reducing LAAM damage, have it use custom in-game model, and rebuilt from the base LAAM player weapon pawn)
  • lore compensation; if Mobius 1 appears in SP Mission 1 and SP Mission 2, he'll appear in SP Mission 3, and Mission 14 as well (also added Mobius 1 in Mission 19 and Mission 20)
  • skin compatibility; Mobius 1 will appear with a skin unique from the default skin roster, which is using the unused VR skin slot (v00), no longer using skin slot 7 (Mobius Skin)
  • Sol Squadron members appearing without Mihaly (Mission 15)? No more! (specifically, this disables early activation of the Sols at the start of the mission)
  • cutscene improvement 1; you can control whether you want to have Mobius 1 intro or not in Mission 3 and the mission works just fine ;)
  • cutscene improvement 2; Mobius 1's plane in the intro cutscene no longer has bugged model lacking refuel and landing gear mesh, also use the unused VR skin slot (v00) too (applies also to the F-22 in Mission 19 cutscene as originally, there are no F-22s in the Phase 1 scene)
  • Mobius Gang! Viper 2 (F-16C w/ ESM+ECM or F-35C) and Omega 11 (EA-18G) are making their debut in SP Mission 3 and Mission 20
  • Mobius Doppleganger fix; fixed Mobius 1 appearing twice on the same phase for certain missions (ATM doesn't fix Mobius 1 showing up twice on Phase 2 of SP Mission 2 - only if you restart from the last checkpoint) 
  • better AI engagement and pathing; Mobius 1 is now tied to certain AIs w/ player-tied pathing, such as Count's AI, in certain missions, to which it can control his aggression, pathing, and distancing so that he doesn't leave the map area until no targets are within range
  • AC-130U isn't just a one-time seen aircraft; in SP Mission 2, Tucker 0-4 joins the fight in his AC-130U not just doing spotting, but also attacking with its gunship guns (the issue is that it can only attack on the front and not to the side where the turrets are pointed) 
  • Alicorn buff; with SP Mission 3 having Mobius 1 added in, Alicorn is now made 2× stronger than before
  • turn it into a Special Raid? Included customized and balanced version of Blazededge RZ's Alicorn Special Raid IV that you can choose between full and lite versions, and the Alicorn's SLUAVs being default or swapped to a ZFA-44EL (UAV Nosferatu w/ ADMM & EML hybrid)
  • «How many times do we have to shoot these guys down?» Free Erusea AF's ace squadron, the Ghost Squadron, appears in Mission 9 Phase 3, Mission 15 Phase 2, Mission 17 Phase 3, and Mission 19 Phase 1 (M9, from phase 3 to 4; M19, only phase 1)
  • small fixes that kokeo1 didn't notice during testing 

Download Link

GD | Nexus

Screenshots








 

Allied Bombers in Mission 13

This one is rather simple, really. I'll just quote this from the Readme I wrote.

Have you ever wonder why in Mission 13's briefing, there'll be bombers flying in the airspace, following you where ever you go or just loiter around, finding missile silos, while in reality, they're just nowhere to be seen as if they have crazy stealth mechanics (level 99, bro, WTF?) or just... flying out of bounds (as if they're high above you, outside your view)? 

No friendly bombers in the area is driving you crazy? Where did the MOPs come from? What is this, some magic fairy bullshit? 😨

Well, worry no more! 🥳 This mod will fix that, with an addition to few quirks and treats you'll never see before.

Download Link

GD | Nexus

Screenshots





 

E-767 as Addon - NPC injection in missions

Some of you have already known that the E-767 in all Ace Combat games are very niche to be shown up. Some are being cameos, some can be shot down, or some can be actually be used as a mobile ESM platform (evidenced in Ace Combat 6). PS4 assets of AC7 has an exclusive E-767 aircraft model already prepared, but even then, it was meant to be used on VR missions. AWACSs in all regular missions except VR Mission 2 are rendered off-screen. Like, most of the times, apart from some missions in Ace Combat 6 (Ghost Eye in Mission 15 appears late and providing ESM off the bat).

To put it into simpler and easier perspective, some AWACS platform do provide ESM like how Snake Pit does in Ace Combat 6, so in this mod, every AWACS aircraft spawned in the map is simulated in such way that they can, and at anytime, give you ESM and ECM that can give you some advantage like how Enchanter members do in SP Mission 1. This deployment system relies on simple target lock-on method and the effects will expire after a set period of time (it's not infinite/endless like the Enchanters, but the activations are unlimited). Allied AWACS in the vicinity are made invulnerable (friendly fire checks are active and you may shoot them down by accident if I leave the invincibility boolean set to False).

To balance the odds a bit, I also added enemy/Erusean AWACS in certain missions (like Mission 11 and Mission 15). Mission 15 will have them appear as many as 3 times that can give you 2000 points each if you shoot them down. They have heavy armor though (may be considered as a bullet sponge 🤣 in Fallout modding terms).

The concept of this mod is as same as cipherunknown's NPC IL-76 and C-17 to E-767 mod, except that in this mod, it ADDS the E-767s and NOT replacing the existing big planes (like IL-76 and C-17) with E-767.

Download Link

The "Patches" folder in Google Drive is a specific patch/support I offer. Two are meant for my Mobius 1 Ally Expansion Pack and Patch (linked above) and Calamitous' Skies Restored mod. The last one is my attempt to swap the E-767 to E-3A Sentry, which is experimental; has a bug with collision and it only offers one skin. You can contact me on G[B]S Discord server if you're looking to improve the model or skins to be used in AC7 properly.

GD | Nexus

Screenshots








 Comic Sans UI and Subtitle fonts

A little pet project by Rocketman_02 (one of the admins of G[B]S server that is also a friend of mine from the same country as Blaze's) that is buried in the sea of posts, to which I'm the one lucky enough to grab it just by simple searching. Was meant for M4rkoz for whatever reasons he got, and now I'm sharing this exclusively in this blog. My shots recently are applied to subtitles (dissecting/unpacking the pak and then repack it), so that the rest (common UI and HUD texts) are untouched.

TBH, no one expected this turned out to be funny. Kinda like the one meme about "graphic design is my passion" written in Comic Sans font featuring a cat image on a rainbow background.


 Download Link

 GD (Full Replacer | Subtitles Only)

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