IronDuke's Patch

Yes, I know it's possible with players. :V Obviously, since all the player ships have proper groups of same-weapon-types. NPCs don't get to have those, and it's reflected when you REM-link to them. Each weapon gets its own individual group.
When I say player vs NPC, I'm referring to the pilot installed. In the code, there's a pog class called Pilot or something of that sort, I don't remember exactly. But for a ship to move, it must be controlled by a Pilot. Being controlled by a Pilot tagged as Player means that the player's input controls the ship. Being controlled by a Pilot tagged as AI means, surprise surprise, an AI controls it. When you REM-link, the AI Pilot is removed and a Player Pilot installed, and vice-versa when you kill the link. As far as I can tell, any ship initially set up with an AI pilot has all the weapons in their own groups, while any set up initially with a Player Pilot has same-type weapons in the same group. I suppose it was easier to code that way or something, I dunno.

Anyway, yeah, I'll poke around my massive mod collection and see whether I can find one that changes the thruster animations.

--IronDuke