# ✅ The Hangar loadout system — loadout → per-slot allow-list → arsenal item

Finishes the Hangar. [The item chain](arsenal-item-weapon-chain.md) resolved an
Arsenal item down to a `Weapon` record; this is the layer above it — **who flies
with what**, and **what the Hangar is allowed to offer for each slot**.

Artefact `../data/hangar-loadouts.txt`, regenerator
`tools/re-capture/hangar_loadouts.py`.

`GP_HANGAR_ARSENAL.pak` carries **15 loadout records** — `Bird1-Sandra`,
`Bird2-Billy`, `Bird3-Antonius`, `Bird4-Carl`, `Rhino1-Katana`,
`Rhino1-Raymond`, `Rhino2-Ellen`, `Rhino2-Gene`, `Rhino2-Katana`,
`Rhino3-Ellen`, `Rhino3-Gene`, `Rhino3-Katana`, `Rhino4-Brandon`,
`Rhino4-Ellen`, `Rhino4-Yoji` — one per **flight position × pilot**, each with
`Arm1`, `Arm2`, `Arm3`, `Nose` and `UnitID`.

🔑 **Same trap as `PlayerWeapon`, one level up: `Arm1`/`Arm2`/`Arm3`/`Nose` do
not name items.** They name a **per-slot ALLOW-LIST record** — one of the 24
whose only *named* field is `Type` (the slot kind: `Arm1`/`Arm2`/`Arm3`/`Nose`).
The candidate items live in that record's **positional, unnamed fields**, in
order. So the full path is four hops:

```
Rhino4-Yoji.Arm1  ──▶ STANDARD_ARM1          (an allow-list, Type=Arm1)
                  ──▶ [Falcon_9AM, Condor_105AM, …]   (arsenal item names, in order)
                  ──▶ item.PlayerWeapon = Turret_NNN  (a hardpoint slot)
                  ──▶ slot.WeaponID       = Weapon.ID
```

## 🧪 The controls

| | |
|---|---:|
| `loadout.Arm1/2/3/Nose` names an allow-list record | **60 / 60** |
| allow-list positional entries name an arsenal item | **70 / 88** |
| — every one of the 18 misses | the single sentinel `No_Equipment` |
| `loadout.UnitID` resolves | 5 a unit `Generic.ID`, 8 a character (as `Character`+value), **2 neither** |

`No_Equipment` is one of the four `WEAPONS`-roster values that have no item
record ([the item chain](arsenal-item-weapon-chain.md)), so the residual is the
empty-slot sentinel appearing once per list — not a decode failure.

## The six allow-list sets

| set | Arm1 | Arm2 | Arm3 | Nose | used by |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---|
| `STANDARD_*` | 11 | 9 | 9 | 8 | Rhino 2/3/4 wingmen |
| `ExSET_*` | 10 | 8 | 4 | 7 | — (not referenced by any loadout here) |
| `S01SET_*` | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Bird flight, `Rhino1-Raymond`, `Rhino3-Ellen` |
| `S02SET_*` | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | — |
| `PlayerSET_*` | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | the three `…-Katana` rows |
| `NULL_*` | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | — (`No_Equipment`, `No_Equipment`, `No_Equipment`, `Stiletto_BG1`) |

So a wingman's weapon choice is drawn from a small, ordered, *per-slot* list,
and the `SNNSET_` sets are stage-scoped variants of it — `S01SET_ARM1` offers
two Arm1 items, `STANDARD_ARM1` offers eleven.

## `UnitID` is two ID spaces at once

* **5 rows name a unit** — `UN_f001_TCAF_DeltaSaber_T`,
  `…_T_Player`, `…_f002_W_Player`. The three `-Katana` rows are the **player**:
  they carry an extra (empty) `PlayerUnit` field and point at a `_Player` craft.
* **8 rows name a character** — `SANDRA`, `BILLY`, `ANTONIUS`, `CARL`,
  `RAYMOND`, `GENE` ×2, `YOJI`. None is a `Generic.ID` on its own; all resolve
  as **`Character` + the value** into the 64-record character table
  ([the `Generic` partition](unit-datasheet-static.md)).

## 🟡 Two values that resolve to nothing

* **`Rhino2-Ellen.UnitID = UN_f001_TCAF_DeltaSaber_W`.** No such unit exists —
  checked as a `Generic.ID` across *every* pak, and as a record name: 0 hits.
  `UN_f002_TCAF_DeltaSaber_W` does exist, and `Rhino1-Katana` uses
  `UN_f002_TCAF_DeltaSaber_W_Player`. **Consistent with a shipped `f001`/`f002`
  typo** — but what the game does when the lookup fails is not shown here, so
  this is reported, not diagnosed.
* **`Rhino4-Brandon.UnitID = BRANDON`** — no `CharacterBRANDON` among the 64.
  `CharacterKATANA` does exist, and Katana is the player.

Both are single rows against 13 that resolve, so they are exceptions in the
data, not a wrong reading of the field.

## 🟡 Not settled

* Who *selects* a loadout record. The names encode flight position and pilot,
  and [the stage definition table](stage-definition-table.md) has
  `AI_TCAF_RhinoFlight` / `AI_TCAF_BirdFlight` — the join is not shown here.
* `ExSET_*`, `S02SET_*` and `NULL_*` are referenced by no loadout in this pak.
* The `PlayerUnit` field is present but empty on all three `-Katana` rows.
* `IGNORE` (13 item names) — a blocklist for something unread.