successfully in .ff but never loads for other players / on a VPS (T6 Zombies)

Hi everyone,

I'm building a custom .ff mod for BO2 Zombies (a new drink perk) and I'm stuck on a persistent issue with one specific custom image.

Setup:

• New perk based on Juggernog as a template (renamed material/image/xmodel so it's a new asset, not an overwrite).
• Using OAT (Linker) to compile everything into the mod's .ff.
• Also loading custom GSC scripts (originally from the local raw scripts folder, now compiled into the mod itself).

The problem:
One custom image (a HUD element that appears ~10 seconds into a round, referenced as e.g. "zm_rank1") behaves very differently from my perk's icon and 3D model textures:

• My perk icon (renamed following the stock specialty_X_zombies naming pattern) and the 3D model textures work fine: when I tested over LAN with a friend, the image automatically appeared in their local Plutonium/storage/t6/images folder after connecting, and rendered correctly for both of us.
• The zm_rank1 image does NOT do this. It only ever displays for me (the host), never for a connecting player — even though the linker log confirms it compiled successfully, with an explicit "image,zm_rank" entry in mod.zone, exactly like my working assets.

What I've isolated so far:

• If the image is compiled into the mod but NOT present in my own local Plutonium images folder, it renders as fully invisible (not the checkerboard missing-material fallback). This suggests the engine recognizes the material/reference, but the actual streamed pixel data isn't available without a local file.
• If it's in neither the mod nor the local folder, I get the standard checkerboard missing-texture placeholder.
• Tested on an actual VPS (not LAN): the image still doesn't reach the client, and the model loads without proper textures.

My question:
Is there a known reason OAT/the Linker doesn't fully embed a new custom image's real pixel data into the .ff (only the material/asset reference), requiring the local images folder as a fallback? And if so, is there any reliable way (FastDL, a specific mod folder structure, a Linker flag, etc.) to get that raw file to actually reach a normal connecting player automatically — the way my other assets apparently did during my LAN test? Or is manually distributing a small texture file for players to drop into their own images folder genuinely the only way, even for a live server (not a "download to install" mod release)?

Any insight from people who've shipped custom textures on a real, populated server would be hugely appreciated!
OAT version used: latest version, i.e. version 0.33.0