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There is no tool but the taxi routes are very much editable by modifying the RunwaysandRoutes.lua in the core mods/tech/USS Nimitz/scripts folder. It's a painful hit and miss process though but you can get some decent routes. Breaks IC though and can cause all kinds of issues with AI if they are not carefully sequenced for launch.

The problem is, you can't control the brightness of the ball and the landing area separately, since both use the same halo texture at the moment. You can either have good LA lights and an overly bright ball or a good ball and a barely visibile LA at night. I guess ED tried to tweak the textures to find a good middle ground but it doesn't really work out, hence all the legit complaints here. I hope they will choose the right way and rebuild the SC models to allow for separate and dynamic brightness control of the LA lights and IFLOLS.

AFAIK this is out of Heatblur's hands. ED's policy right now is that they want to have full control over the weapons in the game (which is understandable to some extent IMO). This means that for the F-14 or any other aircraft to be able to use D or G Sidewinders, ED would need to create them first. If and when this will happen is anyone's best guess.

Has the experience improved for anyone in MP? We did some tests with the new patch which supposedly fixed the MP issues (i.e. players stuck in parking position) but it didn't see any improvement. The first four aircraft got directed and could launch without issues but after that, some people (mostly thouse bound for cats 3 and 4) would not get cleared to taxi, no matter what.

The refueling pod is driving me nuts. I've tried every possible combination of refueling, pod, ref and what not but still no custom textures will show up. Is there any skin out there where the custom refueling pod texture actually works?

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This mod is great, especially the static version with folded rotorblades/tail. Too bad it causes CTDs and freezes in the current DCS version. I know there are other Seahawk mods out there but they are flyable mods and thus not really suitable to populate carrier decks. This mod is also the only one which has the rotor blade supports modelled. I hope the author can get back to it someday to fix the CTD issues so we can use it again.

Approach AoA is basically the highest AoA you can fly safely to ensure low landing speeds, L/D ratio is not important in that case. IIRC they initially had 17 units for approach but reduced to 15 due to visibility issues.

Max conserve should be 10 units, 15 is for approach which is way beyond optimum L/D.

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For those enjoying the thrill of landing on the boat in the darkness, I've tweaked the landing area lights so that they are usable again. It's not perfect, but you can actually see the landing area before calling the ball. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FWpqeVaFIakJAknkwPaZ3OdDqx3KIlpt/view?usp=drive_link The file is OMM ready, if you are using it. For those who don't, unzip the contents of the "CV_Landing_Area_bright_v1.0" folder in archive into your core DCS directory (NOT the saved games directory!). Make sure to backup the original texture archive in "\DCS World OpenBeta\CoreMods\tech\USS_Nimitz\Textures\USS_Nimitz.zip"

During case3 recovery, aircraft are supposed to dirty up (lower gear and flaps) slow down to 150 at 10nm (or 8, depending on airwing SOP) at at 6nm, slow to approach speed (130-140kts depending on aircraft weight). The AI used to obey these restriction but with the current version, AI aircraft will keep 250kts until 6nm and then slow down to approach speed.The attached track demonstrates the behavior. This is not a problem if you have only AI flights but with players in the mix flying the correct procedure, AI aircraft coming in behind players will slam into player aircraft in the landing area. This a result of the AI effectively overspeeding between 10nm and 6nm, therefore reducing seperation to the point were players don't have enough time to vacate the landing area. Please ensure that AI's slow to 150kts at 10nm and to approach speed at 6nm, otherwise proper case3 recoveries will be impossible with AI aircraft in the landing queue. AI_case3_recovery_speed_bug.trk

The routes are fixed, meaning that the catapult an aircraft is sent to is bound to the spawn point. The system doesn't take statics blocking catapults into account, so if you don't want to use a particular cat, you need to make sure that the spawn points associated with that cat are not used by placing statics on them. Here's a list of which spawn point are sent to which catapult: Position Dest. Cat Elevator 2_1 1 Elevator 2_2 2 Elevator 4_1 3 Elevator 4_2 4 Elevator 3_1 1 Elevator 3_2 2 Elevator 1_1 1 Elevator 1_2 2 Corral 2 Patio 1 1 Patio 2 3 Patio 3 4 Sixpack 1 1 Sixpack 2 2 Sixpack 3 3 Sixpack 4 4 _1 denotes the spawn point closer to the bow. So if you wanted to 'block' catapult one, you'd have to place statics on elev2_1, elev3_1, elev1_1, patio_1 and sixpack 1 AI are sent down to the hangar if the parking spot is on an elevator but that parking spot is still marked as occupied by the system afterwards, so you do not gain additional parking spots. There is also no way to prevent AI being sent to the hangar. Player AC will always remain on deck. The change betweem launch and recovery state is a bit obscure. What I know is that the carrier will change to recovery state when an aircraft is listed for recovery in the the lower display on the LSO platform. Apart from that, I do not see a way to force launch/recovery states. I always recommend to strictly seperate launch and recovery (as IRL) to prevent the directors from deadlocking.

Hours of testing actually. I'm trying to improve the routes for our group and the first step was understanding the default logic.

The four spawns in the sixpack (that's the area in front of the forward elevator) is only used for AI or player aircraft which are created at mission start (i.e. no 'late activation' or client slot) or if no other spawns are available for player aircraft. The spawn order is: Elevator 2, 4, 3, 1, the spot between elevators 1 and 2, patio and finally the sixpack. If a spot in this sequence is occupied by aircraft (static or 'live'), the system will choose the next free spot. In your case, since elevators 2 and 4 are occupied, you are spawned at elevator 3. If AIs dissappear after landing it means there are no parking slots free or that the route to free parking spots is blocked. In your layout, the AIs should be able to park on elevator 3 but perhaps the static object in front of the island block the path.