Flight Deck Ops – clear the deck!
The Clear the deck (CTD) addon expands flight deck operations of the base FDO mod. On-deck aircraft are usable and certain plane types on CV/CVN are restricted to using only 3 (US) or 2 (Soviet) cats. Other planes initially use 3/2 cats, but after the bow deck is cleared, they utilize all 4/3.
Using Nimitz class as an example, at the begining of the mission/scenario 1 bow cat and 2nd bow elevator are blocked by planes. In such a state you can do all operations (launch/recovery) but there are limitations. Certain plane types (S-3, A-3, E-2, RA-5) can utilize only 3 cats regardless the state of the bow deck and the 2nd front elevator. Other planes use 3 cats until the bow deck and the 2nd front elevator are cleared. To clear the 2nd front elevator, 3 planes must be launched using the 1st front elevator. To clear the bow deck the 4th plane must be launched through the 1st forward elevator.
There are also useable on-deck aircraft. Deck park is numbered by the type from the bow to the stern (DP1, DP2, DP3, DP4), so you can choose what plane to use.
The core logic of the FDO – CTD is the same as in the base FDO mod but heli operations are banned from the 2nd forward elevator.
The save file does not store the deck status. After loading a mission or scenario, you will have to clear the deck again. Try not to save the scenario during launching operations; otherwise, in the loaded game, planes will be parked on the catapult and elevator, causing taxiing and taking-off aircraft to clip through them.
This problem has been reported to the devs, as it affects vanilla vessels as well, though in a different way. Once they solve it, this issue should disappear.
The Clear the deck addon must be loaded above the FDO:
- FDO – CTD
- FDO
- Flight Deck Ops – cruisers, destroyers, frigates. Fully compatible. Load order doesn’t matter
