Ah yes, the honorary AC8 we all know and love, Project Wingman. One of my favorite things about it is the astounding weaponry that improves and expands upon what AC7 has on offer. And the first thing I noticed was how incredibly effective just the basic missiles, STDM, are in that game.

Those who played PW know what I'm talking about. Wider lock-on angle, greater range, predictive tracking...
But for those who haven't? Well, that's what this mod is for.

Once installed, this mod will change the stats and traits of the basic MSL that all aircraft carry to replicate what the STDM is capable of in PW.
Below is a list of what's been changed...

Lock-on Range: 2000 --> 2800 meters
Lock-on Angle: 32.5 --> 35 degrees
Homing Type: instant track --> minor target leading
Missile Lifetime: 9 --> 10 seconds
Reload Time: 5.5 --> 6 seconds

As a note about the target leading, it may not seem that apparent without homing-increasing parts, but it becomes plenty more noticeable once added. This reflects how in Project Wingman, the target leading isn't particularly consistent, seeming to fluctuate from missile to missile. In general though, there's always SOME level of target leading, which is reflected here.

Regarding the increased range, be mindful if you use parts to extend the lock-on range even further. With all range-boosting parts, the missile may die out before hitting your target, especially if it's flying away from you. Make sure to include parts that increase missile lifetime and/or speed in your loadout if you want to try making discount LAAMs.

CHANGES IN VERSION 1.1

Max Speed: 10800 --> 12000
Acceleration: 1350 --> 1800
Total Hardpoints: 2 --> 4

In Project Wingman, planes can fire STDMs from up to four hardpoints, depending on your loadout choices. As such, if you have other mods to increase MSL hardpoint amounts, or additional planes that support more MSL hardpoints, my mod is now compatible with them.
Note that my mod alone will NOT increase the total number of MSL hardpoints on a plane. A different mod will have to do that.

The increases to missile velocity are to mitigate the issue of requiring additional lifetime or speed parts if you use range-boosting parts. However, because this does deviate a little from the PW STDMs, I'll still keep the old file up for those that want to keep the more normal PW experience.

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Installation Instructions

1. Go into your Ace Combat 7 pak folder: ACE COMBAT 7 -> Game -> Content -> Paks
2. Create a folder named "~mods" if you don't already have one.
3. Copy and paste the mod's .pak file into this folder.
4. Start the game.

NOTE: If the mod does not load for you, add more tildes ( ~ ) at the beginning of the .pak name to increase its load priority.

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Special Thanks

M4rkoz and xBlazededge - writing guides on how to make mods like this possible
spiritovod and xBlazededge - posting the modding tools used
Gen0 - helping me find the guides and tools in the first place, on the AC7 Discord