been a long time, but i have seen that before, i think it was post-PF release
i still have a screenies of a zero somewhere, with 2 extra "after images" on it, it looks like an x-wing, but with 2 extra wings....i noticed the player sitting there in a server, and took SS of it
i doubt that its SM related, in any event
I had the very same thing happen this weekend. This is what I believe to be the cause. This seem to be caused when there is a listing of Ai planes as flyable by some pilot and not by others. That is, if I fly in a mission where a flyable Ai plane is used and I have the Mod and others do not, the plane selection list will show this making it not match in length and different for both pilot. This longer selection list , if we all are flying on one side ,can cause a conflict to occur.
----------Plane list-----------
modded Not modded
A1........................... 1
A2............................2
A3............................3
1............................. 4
2..............................5
3..............................6
4.............
5.............
6.............
A conflict can occur when the modded pilot picks plane 1,2 or 3 and non modded pilot pick 4,5 or 6 they are in conflict and either one or both of the pilots may not allowed into the aircraft they pick and can find themselves locked into external view only. This can also causes the two planes to be spawn directly over top the other allowing the lower one to emerge like a butterfly from a cacoon while keeping the top one unoccupied and unflyable.
However it seems to depend on how the aircraft will be displayed in the list some times if the AI are friendly it maked no difference as they are listed by name type but if they are enemy it causes the problem.
The solution we came up with was to go into the mission file before hand and change it by typing in "Ai flyable only" into the group of modded flyable planes or for everyone to fly with the Modd.
Thanks Koi, that makes sense.
I suppose this means that AI flyable mods should be added to the mission last.
I started the avenger mission in 4.08m and sure enough none of the Mod planes show on the list.
This would also mean that anyone without the mod would have to fly allied.
Shouldn't be a problem with DF mode as long as a flyable is selected first and externals enabled, otherwise non modded players will have to use standard AC.