kokeo1's Ally F-22A Mobius One mod really caught my eye for a while. I've been thinking of improving his mod for quite a while now, to which it inspired me in creating an expansion pack and patch (all fixes and additions into one) for such mod that I consider "canon". Lore-wise, Mobius 1 only appears in VR missions (such as Pre-Campaign mod), and the fate of the Free Erusea's ace squadron, the Ghost Squadron, remains a mystery. I have to admit, solving Mobius 1's mystery in this game is like a wildcard on its own. Whoever he/she is, this man/woman appears in almost every Ace Combat games known to man, including the ACZ's Gauntlet mission where he/she appeared whacking the Wizard Squadron with XMAAs 🤣.

What are fixed, and what are changed?

I was just getting into that part. First few comments that I saw on kokeo's modpage explain about how Mobius 1 prevented you from triggering the accidental Harling death scene in Mission 4, and how Skies Unbalanced mod screwed you over on Mobius 1 eating just about every enemy he/she sees, leaving Mihaly being the only enemy you can't kill with his "plot armor" on in Mission 15. Turns out, kokeo intentionally made Mobius 1's weapons having INSANE damage output, of particular are his/her LAAMs that can hit at extreme ranges. Not to mention, his/her appearance isn't very well compensated (no lore compensation), like, if Mobius 1 appears in SP Missions 1 (Unexpected Visitor) and 2 (Anchorhead Raid), he/she SHOULD appear consequently up until Mission 15 (to which he'll appear again in Missions 19 and 20).


TS;WR, my fixes and changes featured for kokeo's Mobius 1 mod are as follows:

• 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!
• 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)
• 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 (Mission 9, from phase 3 to 4; Mission 19, only phase 1)
• small fixes that kokeo1 didn't notice during testing
  

This mod ATM doesn't have unique voicelines from AWACS Sky Eye calling out Mobius 1's actions (firing missiles, in gun range, crashed, etc.) or the unique Ghost Squadron members' voicelines (such as from Helge, Luis, or Frol); however, this will be provided alongside "speaking Trigger" in another mod that requires Skies Restored, to which Mobius 1 will have his/her own unique-but-recycled voice. I may plan to add Sky Eye's voicelines for Mobius 1 and Ghost Squadron members' voicelines without requiring any mods as a dependency in the future.

Sounds cool, but how do I install it?

This mod requires you to have Ally F-22A Mobius One mod installed first. Without it, this mod will not work properly.

The Readme inside after you downloaded my mod will guide you through the installation process.

Compatibility with other mods

Most of the mods that doesn't modify mission maps (UMAPs) work fine, but if they are, they might not compatible with each other. A few that I can name of that modifies UMAPs are Skies Restored's Know Your Enemy (KYE) module and Enhanced Gunplay (EGP), to which in particular is the Gauntlet/Ace of Aces module.

For Skies Restored, a patch for this mod is available in my Skies Restored Fixes and Changes mod.

Final Remarks and Credits

My biggest thanks to make this mod possible goes to kokeo1 and his guide covering how to add actors from one mission to another. His guide is certainly a headache on its own, but I'll live through it. 😅
In addition, this mod is also not possible if it wasn't for kokeo1 that brought Mobius 1 to my attention. He's the brains of actor injection idea and it wasn't so bad at all if followed right.

There are some of the new skins that I made revolved around this mod, such as Tucker 0-4's AC-130U, Omega 11's EA-18G, and Viper 2's F-16C and F-35C. I may plan to release them here in the future as a part of Additional Skin Slot (ASS) patch (to which it'll occupy certain skin slots within ASS mod with unique weapons in mind).


I hope you enjoy the fixes and changes I made to kokeo's mod. It's got a pretty huge potential, but sadly was ruined due to lack of balancing and lore compensation (I can't blame him, TBH, he has RL things to worry about).