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  • Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.

    Post 16 Update

    Post 17 Warning

Liveries: "How many is too many?"

falcon409

falcon409

SOH-CM-2025
A recent release comes with 50 liveries. Payware releases, especially Military offerings can sometimes have that many along with more load-outs than any one person could ever use. Often times the release of some payware and freeware is held up due to the developer waiting on all the liveries to be completed so they can be added to the initial release. Downloads of those gargantuan projects sometimes look more like massive scenery downloads than an airplane with some liveries included. My view on this hasn't changed since I downloaded my first Military payware and spent the better part of a few hours weeding out everything I didn't want and would never fly. I ended up with a package that was easily one third of the original download and I still had some that I never flew.

My View goes like this:
Foreign liveries - Gone, as I only fly US markings (Military or GA)
Loadouts - I keep one clean and one with a simple loadout (Missiles usually). The rest are eye candy that only I will ever see and since I can't use any of them, why keep them, simple.
US Liveries - If it's an airplane I worked on and there's a livery for a Sq/Wing I was connected to, that's the keeper, otherwise. . .no more than two and the rest are gone.
If no US liveries are available, I'll do one for myself to fly. If it was never available in the US, lol, I'll still do just one that I can fly.

Ok, so that's my look at these huge offerings. I understand that few will agree and that's fine. We have pilots from all over the world here with varying interests and few if any will see this the way I do. So how do you see these releases? Should the developer concentrate on the primary model and a few liveries/additional model variations for the initial release and follow up with the others in several updates to allow the user to "pick & choose"?. . .or is it fine the way it is done now, everything all at once?
 
Sounds like you have a sensible approach to what can be a problem. Personably, I like a model that comes with a few liveries and loadouts that I can add to later if I desire. I tend to stay away from these very large projects just because they load up my HD with something I won't ever use. If I really want it I will download it and then weed out like you suggest, but it is a real PITA. It is just like my TV dish company; I get charged for many channels I never view. Most (not all) of the planes I fly on a daily basis are of my own brew which usually come with one model and one livery. Having said that, my next upload will have 3 liveries! Gasp!

Best, Paul
 
I ALWAYS prune down the list until there are 7 liveries. Or less.
I pick 7 as the magic number because that is the longest list FS9 supports before needing a scroll-bar on the livery listing...
 
In the case of multiple mdl's, I may keep one livery of each or I may
delete all the mdl's that I do not intend to fly.

As far as the number of liveries for as given mdl, I usually delete all
except the one or two I will fly.Those with !0, 20 or 50 are absolutely
a waste of space and a waste of my time sifting through them to delete
all but the couple I wish to retain.

The exceptions come when it pertains to aircraft I fly in multi-player
with the 91st Bombardment Group. I keep/add the the 'personal' paints
of the other active members.

I have 53 'personal' paints for the A2A B-17G in a separate directory
from the base B-17G install so that I can disable that directory when
I'm not flying in MP with the group. That is also how I handle the paints
for the A2A Spitfire, the A2A P-51D, A2A P-40 and the MaamSim C-47
that we fly. All reside in a "91st BG Aircraft" folder that is on a different
drive from the FSX install.

There have been some really absurd releases over the years with multiple
mdl's and upteen paints for each. so many that no one could possibly fly
them all in a normal lifetime.

Paul
 
How many liveries for an aircraft depend on the aircraft. I like vintage aircraft, and like to recreate historic flights. I prefer to have historic liveries on them. But I do not need to have every different paint that was produced or is available. Just a few that have some historical significance are fine.
 
I'm with you Falcon. While I admire the skill and dedication put into making all these different liveries does the world need every single Viking, Mirage or Mustang? I tend to keep a clean and a lightly loaded example in the livery of the country of origin. Thats the beauty of Flight Sim, if you want wall to wall Mustangs or Mirages there are skilled and dedicated people out there to make it possible for you, the choice is yours.
 
Good stuff guys, thanks and keep the conversation going. I don't think it will change the mindset of the developers when doing the requested liveries prior to a release, but it's good to hear what everyone else has to say about it.:salute:
 
i like a wide range .. so say you had a plane that flew for several countrys, 1 of each country would be fine for me. I also like it when the more distinct paints are added as well, so say you had a bright orange one when all the others are grey, it'd be a crime to not have the orange one in the release etc etc etc :)
 
The more the merrier...I generally will add lots of 3rd party repaints too! Yes, it does slow down the aircraft selection a bit,but I'm in no hurry.:icon_lol:
My virtual hangar's gotten so big it'd make the folks at AMARG blush.:icon29:
 
I'm with you Falcon, I prune down to the models I like and pick no more than three favorite paints, the rest get moved to a special folder on my PC so that if I change my mind or need one of the others it's not lost
 
Agree with Falcon: you never come to fly extensively with all and every mdl and texture of each !!!!
Italo
 
Yeah, I pare down the liveries and models to just the ones that interest me. I don't delete the unworthy from the install, I just change the aircraft CFG entries to what my choices are, and save the original CFG to a dummy folder within that aircraft's main folder. I have been known to make adjustments to my flying tastes, and so leave things in a state to make a change.

As far as being annoyed at the large amount of liveries and models that come with some releases, I'm not annoyed by that at all. In fact, I like that, because everyone will have a better chance to get something they like. I would rather have more choices to weed through, than just a few I may not like.
 
I like to see a lot of repaints, especially from "unusual" countries. They don't necessarily have to be in the "base product", but downloadable would be nice (e.g. PMDG, QualityWings etc). But we also need to remember that for the mass market eye candy (in the form of loads of liveries) is a major selling point (especially boxed products).
 
To me, dozens of liveries are just a pita! I usually only have one or two liveries per aircraft. It takes far too long looking at the liveries, deleting those I'm not interested in and modifying the Aircraft.cfg. I would much rather be able to download the basic plane sans liveries and have them available to download individually at a later date.
 
Im in agreement with the rest of you, a few liveries are fine with me, and having 20+ in any release for me is a bit much. I have a few aircraft that have many liveries, but almost all of those are ones that I've added myself. Even though it came with lots of liveries, (all american, and all Navy lol) I really like the approach that VRS took with the F/A-18E, having an outside application to configure the loadout that gets applied to all of their models is something that I really like, and I wish more developers would include something similar.
 
In my case, the more the merrier....if the liveries are fairly distinctive.
I'm not a fan of a release having every serial number/registration from an identical fleet/wing of aircraft, with only the numbers of a paint job differing.

I'll put up with as many as a developer can push out in a package if all of the liveries are unique! Additionally, I enjoy flying in a variety of countries, and I like having a livery or two that can be associated with that country or at least region of the world.
 
I have favorite squadrons, so in the case of the F-14 (my fav), I do have one each for every squardron that flew the Tomcat (if they've been created) as well as the "special" schemes that were used to mark special occasions. That being said, that's the exception rather than the rule. Most of the other a/c that I fly, I'll take whatever comes with the release and then add any that strike my fancy.
 
SeanTK said:
In my case, the more the merrier....if the liveries are fairly distinctive.
I'm not a fan of a release having every serial number/registration from an identical fleet/wing of aircraft, with only the numbers of a paint job differing.

I'll put up with as many as a developer can push out in a package if all of the liveries are unique! Additionally, I enjoy flying in a variety of countries, and I like having a livery or two that can be associated with that country or at least region of the world.
Click to expand...

I concur......

Tommy
 
Good post Falcon. Now what is the best, least time consuming way to prune the liveries you don't want? Is there just one way, or several?
 
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