META SUMMARY

The first of hopefully many public releases of mods for AC7 both under the SOAA banner and others, I present to you, on the canon (SOAA and Negima) birthday of Nodoka Miyazaki, a character who has been quite the influence on my life, a tribute CFA-44 paintscheme.

Featuring a two-tone, faded-stripe to solid paint scheme, this is my first attempt at a more complex paint design. While it may not be perfect, I've seen praise from members of the modding community for my work in both its' creation and presentation with its' promotional trailer as seen above.

I started this project, SOAA - as a labor of love and appreciation for the worlds and characters who, without them, as a long time loner in their younger years, would be a much different person, as well as a sign of appreciation of their creators who are much, much more skilled than I feel I ever will be, even with my aspirations for this project.

Regardless, I hope you enjoy this skin, and look forward to providing the Ace Combat community with skins not just from my personal fanproject, but from other works in general.

 -Nodoka "Nikki" Hanamura
Team Zvezda Founder

CANON SUMMARY
CHARACTER

ASSAULT RECORD : 
LUTETIA // LUTETIAN FEDERATION NAVY AND AIR FORCES // DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE // SPECIAL TACTICAL FIGHTER SQUADRON 'ALA ALBA'

NODOKA MIYAZAKI

Callsign: Parvati
Age: 18
Nationality: Lutetian (Japanese Defector)
Place of Birth: Akita, Akita Prefecture, Japan
Place of Residence: Mahora Academy, Mahora Academic Zone, Japan
Martial Status: Single

Education: 
 - Mahora Academy All-Girls High School (High School)
Occupation:
 - Special Forces (Lutetian Directorate Authority for Military Intelligence)
 - Fighter Pilot (Lutetian Federation Navy / Air Forces Air Arm)(2016-)

Deployments: 
 - Operation Mahora Sunrise (Lutetian Clandestine Operations in Japan) (2016)
 - Niho-Lutetian War (2016-)

Skills:
 - Martial Arts Specialization (Andrei Ivanov, 2015, MMA)
 - Special Forces Covert Training (Andrei Ivanov, 2015)
 - Military Aviation Combat Training (Andrei Ivanov, 2015)
 - English Literacy Level III (Negi Springfield, 2016)
Remarks : Details Legend (Trainer, Year of Specialization, Specialization Type (if applicable))

Medals:
 - Excellence in Aerial Gunnery (Lutetia) (x9)
 - Exemplary Flying Cross (Lutetia) (5x) 
 - Foreign Human Rights Defense Medal (Lutetia)
 - Aviation Battle E (Lutetia) (6x)
 - Special Forces Exemplary Service Commendation (Lutetia) (1x)

Units:
 - LFNAF STFS 'ALA ALBA'
 - DAMI MOC JAP SOG / [CLASSIFIED]

Aircraft Fielded:
 - Yak-141 (Razgriz Squadron (Temporary, Training)
 - Su-30M2KL (Ala Alba, July 7th 2016 - ???)
 - F-02L/A (Ala Alba, ???? 2016 - ???)

BIOGRAPHY:

Born to Satoshi and Kyoko Miyazaki in Akita, Japan, Nodoka Miyazaki was a child prodigy, considered by some to be the pride of Akita, having been among the best students in the city and at one point, the entirety of Akita Prefecture. However, this intellect would be overshadowed by her great meekness, which hampered any social aspirations she may have had, including her fear of boys. Having been awarded in her middle school years with a scholarship to Mahora Academy in neighboring Aomori Prefecture, being the nation's most prestigious school, spanning several miles in its' own semi-autonomous state, seperate from Aomori. Accepting this opportunity, Miyazaki would leave behind her family in Akita, moving to Mahora. Initially, she was housed with Yue Ayase, a student who had been sent to Mahora by her parents to improve her lackluster study skills. Later followed by Haruna Saotome, a prolific doujinshi artist from the circle -LiFeLiKe-, the three would become close friends. However, this friendship would be tested by a difficult situation in Japan following a bloody US-backed coup against the Lutetian-friendly government which led to a totalitarian imperial/military junta taking control of the nation, as well as later in her years at Mahora, eventually getting involved in the Lutetian top secret operation Snoring Pupil, her and her classmates having been personally recruited by Andrei Ivanov, posing covertly as a Russian Teaching Aide from Novorossiysk with her teacher, Negi Springfield, also a covert Lutetian Operative, giving the approval. Following the Mahora Academy Massacre that killed some her classmates, Miyazaki's meekness faded, replaced by anger and vexation at her country's government and military. This would drive her and her classmates who survived the attack to fully defect to the Lutetian Federation. After this point, Nodoka would slowly become a public figure as a result of her feats in battle, her combat prowess having been refined through training. Her point of mass popularity in the war came with a OBC article written by Freelance writer Albert Genette labelled "Her Sacrifice", where he had interviewed her regarding the decisions that brought what was once a meek librarian girl to "pick up a gun and fight back".  As the war would rage on, she would become a popular figure in the eyes of NATO and UPEO-aligned media, the former painting her as a threat to victory in the war among other things, and the latter revering her as a model denizen of Japanese society, standing up for her people. 


AIRCRAFT

CFA-44/L
NATO REPORTING NAME: FANDANCE-B / UPEO REPORTING NAME: NOSFERATU

First Flight: 2005
Origin: Federal Republic of Estovakia
Manufacturer: Albastru-Electrice
Details: Estovakian 5th Generation Fighter Jet with thrust vectoring and weapons systems that parallel the ADF-01. Featuring a sleek and unique RAM-coated, canarded delta-wing airframe with 3D Thrust Vectoring technology, the CFA-44 was sold to the Lutetian Federation in 2011 to supplant its' fleet of Su-33MKL Frontline Naval fighters in limited amounts. It saw experimental testing during the Niho-Lutetian war to test its' combat capabilities.
Unit Details: Not Available - Airframe is not Canon


INSTALLATION REMARKS AND INSTRUCTIONS

The skin download is packaged in one zip file containing three .pak files. These are marked 03, 04 and 05, respectively. To install the mod, please ONLY INSTALL ONE PAK AT A TIME (unless for some reason you want three of the same skin replacing your 'AC7 Canon' skins. Each pak's number equals the internal number for the skin texture used for the CFA-44. They are:

03 - Skin 04 [Mage]
04 - Skin 05 [Spare]
05 - Skin 06 [Strider]

Please make sure any other skins mods you're using are not in use in those slots.

Once you've done so, or if this your first time modding, installation is straight forward:

1. Download the mod from Nexus.
2. Extract the ZIP archive into a 'staging area' where you can easily get to it after extraction, such as into its' own folder in your downloads folder or on your desktop.
3. Open a explorer (or your respective file manager if using Linux (playing via Proton)).
4. Go to Ace Combat 7's Root directory - usually this is C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Ace Combat 7\ on Windows. If installed on Linux, you can find this at ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Ace Combat 7 (~ being shorthand for your user account's home directory). If it is not there, go to Ace Combat 7 in your steam library, go to properties, and under the options drop down menu, go to Manage -> Browse Local Files. This will open your file manager at Ace Combat 7's root directory.
5. Once in the root folder for Ace Combat 7, go to /Game/Content/Paks/~mods. If the ~mods folder does not exist, don't worry. simply create the folder and Unreal Engine will load all paks from this folder after the main game is initialized.
6. Take one of the skin paks from your staging area (I personally used the Mage Skin, 03) and move it to your ~mods folder.
7. Start Ace Combat 7 and go to Campaign or Aircraft Viewer to validate that the mod works successfully, and Enjoy.

SPECIAL THANKS AND CREDITS

Wheaton Adams - Feedback and Assets (LFNAF Emblem, Ala Alba wing Emblem)

CherrysDelight / MommyOneeChan / Callsign-YukiMizuki

WulfyWaffle

CorrodedZoul

Jadon King

Rui Kirisame

Sarrah "NiteGuardian" Docherty

Swift