A very cool mod.
I want to create a new vehicle with this orbital deployment function, but I don’t want it to affect other original vehicles by default.
What do you think about splitting it into a library mod that can be used by other mods?

So only your modded vehicle can be deployed? No others?

I think it's possible to have the deployment feature disabled by default. Mod authors can define specific vehicles as deployable by default, or allow deployment after researching specific technologies.

The deployment table iterates through all vehicles and if they are a part of the list and in the platform inventory, they populate the list

I suppose I could add a remote call to define when the technology is unlocked (by default deployment is unlocked with platforms)

Another remote call to define which vehicles (if empty use current process)

Maybe even a setting to add vehicles by their name, if people that play your mod want to re-add a vehicle besides the modded vehicle you want to restrict deployments to

How does that sound?

The majority of the code is the deployments /gui logic, the vehicle search is quite small

Your solution also sounds very good, enough to achieve the mechanism we want.
However, I would like my mod not to make additional modifications to players' games by default. I also don't want to affect the experience of players who have already installed this mod.
I think it would be better to separate the code for the track deployment function into a new library mod, and have the current mod depend on this library mod. This way, by default, mods that only add new vehicles without affecting vanilla ones, like mine, won’t alter the default vehicles, since most users expect a plug-and-play experience without needing to adjust settings. Players who have already installed this mod won’t be affected either, and it can serve as an example of how to use the library.
Of course, the final decision depends on your preferences and the workload involved. I really like your mod—it’s cool to use and has a style that fits the original game closely.

Hey, can you give me a bit more info about your mod and what you are trying to achieve?

I'm a bit hesitant about making a lib mod, mostly because of time constraints - I'm planning to finish SE compatibility and add more deployable things like the player, mines, etc. Another concern is dependencies: I'm not sure I want to make users download a mod with more dependencies than they need.

I'm thinking of exposing a remote interface for vehicle whitelisting: if there's a whitelist then it would restrict other vehicles from being deployable. With a setting that the player can change to override and ignore the whitelist and use all vehicles.

One concern though: if a player downloads both our mods and yours auto-registers your vehicle, I want to make sure they don't get confused about why suddenly only your vehicle works. I think you would have to say in your mod page that by default your mod restricts other vehicle deployment, I can add that info in the compatibility of my mod page too.

Maybe your mod only restricts normal vehicle deployment if its added at a new game, if not a new game then use the normal settings? (if that's possible)

Does that approach work for your use case? If you need something more specific, let me know what problem you're trying to solve and I can see if there's a simpler solution.
That would be a lot easier for me given the time I have at the moment.