WHAT IS THIS MOD?

What is meant by "Meshless Droptank Weapon"?

If you've used my mods such as X-02S Super Special Weapons and other "Super Special Weapons" mods or KonanLouis' Player Weapon Rectenna Barrier and its requiring mods, you'll know that they present a "weapon" that can be triggered by holding weapon switch button. These are commonly known as "droptank weapon". The droppable fuel tank (droptank) on F/A-18E -TGM- is also coded internally as a droptank weapon.

Unlike the TGM Droptank, however, the weapons on my Super Special Weapons do not have models / "meshes" shown on the plane the same way TGM Droptank is visible (this is referring to an object / model visibly attached to the plane - droptank, EML pod, etc, NOT the models spawned by the weapon activation). Hence why I call them "meshless".

This mod internally creates a duplicate AcePlayerPawn file, a superclass of all playable plane pawns in the game, but altered to be easily given a meshless droptank weapon - named AcePlayerPawn_dptk, and by default is given IEWS for droptank weapon.

HOW TO USE THIS MOD?

This mod is actually intended as a required mod for mods that add meshless droptank weapon to their pawns (my mods are examples, but I already gave the plane pawns droptank weapon before this mod exists, so they don't require this mod). I uploaded it here so it doesn't need to be included in all mods that wishes to add dptk-weapon in a similar manner.

However, if you wish to add dptk-weapon yourself to a plane of your own choosing, you may utilize this mod, and refer to the guide in Articles page for how to use it.

WHAT WEAPONS WORK WITH IT?

Technically, _any_ weapon can be used as droptank weapon. Because this mod applies no mesh on its own, it will spawn the weapon projectile out of the plane body itself. There are, however, some notes to be kept in mind:

• Activation can only be done when the plane is not too far off from level flight, or generally a position when a bomb can be dropped.
  Inverted or rolled beyond 90 degrees, therefore, are not "valid" positioning to trigger droptank weapons.
• Load time is not considered when triggering droptank weapon. It can be triggered as often as you can hold weapon switch and the game registers.
• Held-button weapons or weapons that fire multiple projectiles per firing activation (RKT / GRKT) will only fire a single projectile before it has to be activated again. This means basic GUN and PLSL are not viable weapons as droptank weapon.
• Attached weapons - TLS, LaserInterceptor, CIWS, will not "stick" to the plane, and instead have its "source" remain in place of activation
• Lock-on cannot be performed. Therefore, guided weapons such as MSL, UAV, LACM, are not advisable
• Reticles and bomb pippers are not shown, so unguided weapons like EML and bomb weapons have to be visually guided.
• Custom weapons can be used, while keeping in mind the above limitations.
  

>> PLEASE REPORT ANY ISSUES OR CRASHES THAT OCCUR WITH THIS MOD <<

CURRENT KNOWN PROBLEMS / COMPATIBILITY ISSUES:

• Plane pawns that are made to inherit from AcePlayerPawn_dptk will not be compatible with Megalith's Dynamic PSM Camera, due to it making change to AcePlayerPawn that is not present in this mod
  

CREDITS
Special thanks to sincerity, Konan, FoxyAce1001, M4rkoz, and kosnag for idea and urge to create this modding resource.
Thanks to Konan and modders at GHBHSH server for the knowledge on how to apply droptank weapons.
Thanks to sincerity for creating a blank player pawn to use as "droptank applicator inheriting pawn", a discovery that lead into this mod's creation.
Thanks to M4rkoz for the idea of editing the main pawn itself.