"TBH, I like the idea of swapping the IEWS with the UAV, but where's the fun in having that unique SPW constrained in slot 3 while losing your ability to jam enemy's guidance system?" - Boruto Uzumaki



Well, you said it. If you take a look again at this image, you know that the standard missiles (MSL), including its launch rail/pylon, are replaced with custom pylons that house 3 Malebolge UAVs each. The one that MegalithAce made was a fictional loadout and we can't argue with that. Realism doesn't matter in Ace Combat, said anyone. But...

If the UAV accessing is constrained to slot 3 in the SPW list (which replaces IEWS), then that's another story. If you are a veteran of Ace Combat 6, you may be familiar with a named ace named Pasternak that spams the Malebolges onto you and your allies (in Mission 13: The Liberation of Gracemeria) until he ran out of them. Based on my interviewing assessment with users who played Ace Combat 6 in Blaze's Discord server, this Pasternak guy in M13 is equipped with 3 weapons: ADMM, ESM, and UAV. He doesn't carry standard missiles along the way, just him and the Malebolges, which can total of about 112 of them on Ace difficulty. This gives me an idea, what if we simulate something similar to how Pasternak fought the Garuda Team and the entire Emmerian assault force? If you get my meaning, you will get something similar to the image above.

Now you may wonder, how can it be reflected?



Megalith and I are friends, so it's no coincidence that I mod his custom pylon to be mapped to like the image above. As you can see, the standard missile pylons (which houses an R-60M missile each) are replaced with the pylons intended for Malebolge UAVs, so the missile-launching capability is reverted to ADMM usage. This is how I want this overhaul patch to be, to be as similar as the one on the Kotobukiya model kit. You can, however, keep the MSL as primary weapon, but that'll leave you to be able to launch 6 Malebolge UAVs, maximum. Still, I like the image above better than just, having the IEWS replaced with UAVs unless someone's willing to do the droptank variant of it that almost no one knows about this existence since the Top Gun: Maverick Aircraft Series DLC or running illegitimate. (Not gonna discredit how Megalith envision his mod to be...)

What does this mod do?



Well, I explained long enough till my mouth's foamy and still don't get it? This mod is a patch for Megalith's latest UAV-45 Malebolge for CFA-44 mod that changes the MSL to UAV using Malebolge model and restores the IEWS functionality so that you can use these "little suckers" along with the ESM buff that come from the IEWS.

The selling point of these "little suckers" is that you can obtain "Guns Only Bonus" provided that you don't score a hit with a standard missile. Using MiG-21bis you can lose this bonus by accident (and if you forgot to load the last checkpoint where you do so), but, with Malebolges being the primary weapon for the CFA-44 and coupled with the IEWS, this bonus will always be granted in any mission for as long as you don't switch SPWs in missions that have a return line and accidentally hit any target OTW. Keep in mind that the Malebolges are armed with a tri-barrel Gatling cannon (which is based on the M197 electric cannon that can be found on AH-1 Cobra gunship helicopters), and the kill count with them are counted as the machine gun kills.

In Enhanced Gunplay mod, the M197 is essentially the lightened version of the M61 Vulcan auto-cannon that you can see on most American-made planes and has a quarter (high-speed configuration) or one eighth (low-speed configuration) of the M61's firing speed. My custom EGM patch for the Malebolges swaps the main cannon's bullet with a (fictional?) SAPHEI variant that can generate explosion upon impact on a target. Note that the explosions that are generated from the Malebolges are pure missile explosion effects and does not affect your kill count as it is purely based on a modified machine gun pawn, just with small increase of damage and changed gun hit FX (this includes changing visual FX to an explosion and added explosion SFX that original gun pawn doesn't have). It doesn't generate explosion radius as it's hardcoded, unless if it's made using another weapon pawn.

At this point, we have an alternative to MiG-21bis or ADF-11F (for mission 13), ladies and gentlemen.

Wait, 2 versions?
Yes, I made 2 versions of this mod: one that can be used as a compatibility patch for my SPW Swap and VisMod Collection mod (compatible as well with Trigger to Boruto mod), another is a standalone version. The standalone version one is rather unique; after the author shared the template for his magnificent creation, I came up with the idea of diversification. Campaign variants for this standalone version are textured (for example, Mage skin will have the Malebolges use the Mage skin), but when coupled together with a patch intended for the Enhanced Gunplay mod, you'll see differences in their stats/characteristics. The most prominent changes will be the Strigon skin. You'll see what I'm talking about when you try it.

The compatibility patch for the SPW Swap mod of mine only limits the usage of these "little suckers" (pardon my English because I love this little UAV) to only be used on Spare, Strider, and Strigon skins. All others still use the default loadouts and SPW listing as opposed to their original/default settings. Again, you'll see differences in their stats/characteristics when you couple the patch with the Enhanced Gunplay mod. Plus, Spare and Strider skins got the same treatment as the standalone version for the Malebolges.



Now, for installation, you just have to go through the ReadMe to see possible choices of how you want the overhaul patch to be. Throw the paks into the ~mods folder as soon as you get the idea of how you want it to be. Remember, choose a version that suits your playstyle. If you don't use my SPW Swap and VisMod Collection mod, pick the standalone version of this mod.

If you have any problems with this mod, shoot me a message or leave a comment here; I'll read them.
Don't forget to provide as much detail as possible to help you and me troubleshoot the problem better.

Finally, I hope you have fun with this mod as much as I love the Malebolge UAVs. It's highly addictive, trust me.