¶ Requirements
- UnrealPAK http://fluffyquack.com/tools/unrealpak.rar
- UModel https://drive.google.com/file/d/10y5tYx274kyRR9tW_oSpf5lj_EnQCXpF/view?usp=sharing
- UAssetGUI https://github.com/atenfyr/UAssetGUI/releases/tag/v1.0.0.0-alpha.7
Tip: You can create an AC7 mod folder which you can use to keep all your tools and materials organized.
¶ Step 1: Extraction
First of all, you will need UModel in order to extract the game files. Specifically, UModel’s PC executable file. Assuming you’ve read through the weapon swap guide, it should be easy. If you haven’t, go do that first, I’ll be referring to it often in this guide. The only difference is the directory which you need to extract the .uasset files from: Game/Blueprint/Weapons/Player/Base and Game/Blueprint/Weapons/Player/Variation.
It is also possible to use AI weapons for the player, and I will explain how later.
(Note: Don’t mind the differences between my files and yours, I just haven’t removed the mod folder from my game folder.)
Extract the entire Base/Variation folder or only the weapon you want to edit. In this example I will be editing the base HVAA.
That’s all. Moving on to the next part.
¶ Step 2: Visual manipulation: HUD
Open UAssetGUI and drag-and-drop the .uasset file into the window.
Here you can change the weapon’s HUD icon and the static mesh (3D model) that it uses.
You can change the HUD icon of the weapon to one of another weapons’ icon by changing the mentions of w_hvaa_a0 (except for the ones with the _SM prefix) to something else.
The list of strings you need to put instead of the existing one is the same as the list of playable weapons, the only difference being the prefix w_ instead of plwp_.
You need to change the following lines:
Let’s say you, for whatever reason, want an UGB icon on your HVAA. In this case, you need to change the w_hvaa_a0 to w_ugb_a0 and boom, the HUD icon is now edited.
You can save the file, but we’re not done here yet. You’ll still need UAssetGUI, don’t close it.
Visual manipulation: Static mesh
Staying in the same place, we now look at the strings with the _SM suffix.
You only need these lines here. As you can see, the HVAA uses SAAM’s static mesh. Similarly, some other weapons share their meshes too. Therefore, some don’t have their own unique mesh.
Now, let’s say, you want to give the HVAA the 3D model of a QAAM. In that case, you need to change the w_saam_a0_SM string to w_qaam_a0_SM and the Game/Vehicles/Weapons/w_saam_a0/w_saam_a0_SM string to Game/Vehicles/Weapons/w_qaam_a0/w_qaam_a0_SM.
Now you have a HVAA that has the HUD icon of an UGB and the 3D model of a QAAM. Hit Ctrl+S and, once again, don’t close UAssetGUI just yet.
¶ Step 3: Stat manipulation
On the left side of the UAssetGUI window, you will see a tab called “Export Data”. Open it and then open another tab called Default__plwp_(your weapon)_(variant)_C (it can be Export 2 or 3 or somewhere nearby), in this case, it’s Default__plwp_hvaa_a0_C. Don’t forget that there’s two underscores between Default and plwp, and one underscore everywhere else. Click on the “1” tab.
This will take you to the table of the weapon’s stats.
The stats are pretty much self-explanatory.
- MaxHomingAngle - how good the homing is.
- Acceleration/HomingDelayFromStart - how long passes since the missile launch before the acceleration/homing starts.
- SpeedMaximum - maximum speed.
- Acceleration - how quickly the missile reaches its maximum speed.
- Damage - damage. Wow.
- LifeTime - how long does the missile exist for if it hasn’t locked onto anything.
- MaxLoadedCount - how many missiles of this type can be loaded up at the same time (If you set it to an amount higher than what the SWP slot can offer, for example, over 2 missiles for F-14A TGM’s SWP2/3 slots, you will still only have 2 missiles).
- LockOnTargetType - an optional stat which doesn’t exist in certain weapons. Air-to-air weapons have ETargetType::AIR_ONLY, air-to-ground weapons have ETargetType::GROUND_ONLY, and multi-purpose weapons like MSL and MPBM simply don’t have this line, so if you want your weapon to be able to lock onto both types of targets, click on the LockOnTargetType line and hit delete.
- LockonAngle - determines the area in front of you which you should line up your enemy with. The smaller the number is, the tighter the lockon area is. For example, 27.5 means that the lockon area is merely a 27.5 degree cone; 180 means that you can lock onto everything in front of you.
Now you can simply change the numbers. Remember that the range is in 0.1 meters, so 50000 LockonRange means that the lockon range is 5000 meters.
Go ham, make your wildest fantasies come true, but, obviously, don’t use this to actually cheat.
You can save the file the normal way or, if you want it to be a separate missile, then choose “Save As” and change its name. Remember to not change the name afterwards, through File Explorer or anything. It’ll break the mod and it won’t work.
After that, proceed to pack the file using UnrealPAK as shown in the weapon swap guide (linked above).
¶ Playable AI weapons
Now this is something I find quite interesting, since I haven’t seen anyone talk about it and I only have seen one or two mods that feature this. This really gives mod makers a lot of potential, since it gives them access to many interesting weapons, such as Mimic squadron’s stealth missiles, Arsenal Bird’s barrier, Alicorn’s railguns and many, many other things.
To do this, you need to go back to UModel and extract the Blueprint/Weapons/AI directory.
Mission-exclusive weapons have the ms** prefix, and DLC mission-exclusive ones have ex** prefix.
After you’ve extracted this, go to UAsset, open the .uasset file of your choice and immediately “Save As” a file with a different name, preferably plwp_(name). It’d be good to add a variant suffix too, but it’s not necessary if you aren’t making any variants of it.
For this example, I’ll be using the wp_ex02_msl_Stealth3000.uasset from Weapons/AI/Variation - Mimic squadron’s stealth missiles.
After you’re done, you’re now free to explore the internals of the file. Worth noting that some weapons have strings that determine what they are based off.
For example, the Mimic missile is a glorified VLS missile. If you want, you can change it to a MSL, a QAAM even, whatever you want. For the sake of the demonstration, I will change it to MSL. If you’re changing the bases to player weapons, remember to change the directories in the strings too: Blueprint/Weapons/AI/Base/wp_vls to Blueprint/Weapons/Player/Base/plwp_msl_a0.
Then there’s the static mesh, which you can edit the same way as earlier.
This missile uses the Russian MSL mesh by default, but you can change it to anything else. Let’s make it a QAAM again.
Now we are done in the Import Data tab and we can move onto the stats in the Export Data tab.
Once again, you need to find the “Default__” tab and open the “1” tab inside it.
Here you can edit the stats the same way as explained above. Make sure to set MaxSpawnAngle to 1 so that your missiles don’t fly off to random directions.
Now you are done. Your new weapon is ready for use. Pack it with UnrealPAK under the directory of Blueprint/Weapons/Player/Variation or Blueprint/Weapons/Player/Base. You can add an aircraft Pawn file to the Blueprint/Player/Pawn directory, in which you can already place your newly-made missile using the name you created while doing the “Save As” procedure, in this example, plwp_msl_Mimic. The weapon swapping happens the same way as explained in the weapon swap guide. You can make the missile a separate mod that’ll be a requirement for weapon swaps including this missile, or integrate it in the mod.
¶ Conclusion
And now you are done!
You have finished your weapon mod.
You can see the results of your modding in the game. You will still see the name of the original SPW in the hangar, but the in-sortie HUD will show the correct name.
Thanks for sticking around till the end of the guide. I hope the explanation was good and clear and that the results satisfy you.
My Discord : M4rkoz#4190