Please can we separate the fictional skins in the user downloads

[Boosterdog]

Pretty sure this isnt the first post of its kind.

I dont want a French Police Hind, a Brazillian SU27 or Swiss Garbage truck inspired A10C. I certainly dont want a lurid green F18 with skulls and amine on its wings. Im sure they are very nice (not the F18- in no universe is such "nice") but they are not for me. 

More than anything, I dont want to have to scroll through 25 pages of such to find something relevent. 

Please can ED just add one more search section tick box  "include fictitious skins" or something so I can filter these things out. 

Of course it would be on the uploader to tick a box or something to indicate they are fiction but I have a solution for that too - one strike and your out. 

Thanks. 

[SharpeXB]

Even better, just include more official skins in the sim so nobody has to use the User Downloads section for them

User-made skins are very nice but:

1. They won’t appear in the game anywhere except your own created missions. Not in campaigns, etc  In MP both players would need to have them loaded and this isn’t very likely due to #2

2. It takes way to long to search the user files section and download these individually. 
3. They get broken by updates 

ED could have a process of evaluating these as user-generated content for the game and then officially including them. I think that’s been done already in certain cases. 

Aside from the aircraft themselves, the skins are the most significant artwork in the game and some of the user-made skins are very nice. But without an official system of incorporating them, they’re just a waste of time to deal with. Which is unfortunate. 

[Tippis]

4 minutes ago, SharpeXB said:

Even better, just include more official skins in the sim so nobody has to use the User Downloads section for them

Having to download more junk skins you don't use or ever need is not strictly speaking better than having to download fewer of them.

[Furiz]

1 hour ago, SharpeXB said:

Even better, just include more official skins in the sim so nobody has to use the User Downloads section for them

Problem with that is that they use tons of space,

it would be better if ED would include only base skins with the game download (one skin per plane) so we have less stuff to download, and have the rest of official skins on their download page, separated from user created skins ofc.

That way we would have lots of space freed, and if we want some skin we can get it from the site.

And to agree with OP, yes it would be great to have fictional skins separated somehow, but the skin creators would have to tag those as fictional.

Edited December 4, 2021 by Furiz

[Boosterdog]

4 minutes ago, Furiz said:

And to agree with OP, yes it would be great to have fictional skins separated somehow, but the skin creators would have to tag those as fictional.

 

Most already state the fictional part in their titles so i imagine most would honor a selective tick box. Those that offen repeatedly or refuse to adjust get their posting rights revoked and their work binned.  

Take this as my volunteering to be the axe swinger!

[SharpeXB]

2 hours ago, Furiz said:

Problem with that is that they use tons of space,

Of course. I have actually started to run out of SSD space for DCS so the first thing I deleted were all the custom skins. They’re really of no use in the game anyways. Which is too bad because some are very nice. 
The skin downloads would have to be a separate install or package. 

[Beirut]

3 hours ago, Boosterdog said:

. . . or Swiss Garbage truck inspired A10C.

 

 

 

My god, man, how could you not want that? 

[MiG21bisFishbedL]

1 minute ago, Beirut said:

 

My god, man, how could you not want that? 

Madness. Pure, unadulterated madness.

[Nevyn]

3 hours ago, SharpeXB said:

3. They get broken by updates 
 

Main reason I don't use user skins anymore, it just gets too untidy over time.

[Art-J]

About OP's request, where does one draw the line though with skins that are "almost" non-fictional? For example Me-109 K4 skins based on historical G10, G14 liveries, bubbletop P-47 skins based on Razorback liveries, Spitfire Mk IX skins based on Mk V, Mk VIII, Seafire liveries, MiG-21 Bis skins based on -M, and -MF liveries etc.

Some players will consider these acceptable (just like restored planes today sometimes have paintschemes and markings of some famous airframes of different version), while for the others, such skins are already one step too far.

[Beirut]

Since I have JDAM-ed a Tiger, slaughtered an SA-6 with a P-51, and hunted amidst the Nevada mountains in a Ka-50, all while in the spendour of my pajamas, I would think fiction is a fundamental part of the game. 

 

And we can drink while doing it. 

[Kang]

Well, if you could get a certain percentage of the creators of the skins you enjoy to use a certain tag ('Realistic', 'Semi-Realistic', 'Fictional') this wouldn't be a lot of trouble.

[horstweihrauch]

5 hours ago, SharpeXB said:

Even better, just include more official skins in the sim so nobody has to use the User Downloads section for them

User-made skins are very nice but:

1. They won’t appear in the game anywhere except your own created missions. Not in campaigns, etc  In MP both players would need to have them loaded and this isn’t very likely due to #2

2. It takes way to long to search the user files section and download these individually. 
3. They get broken by updates 

ED could have a process of evaluating these as user-generated content for the game and then officially including them. I think that’s been done already in certain cases. 

Aside from the aircraft themselves, the skins are the most significant artwork in the game and some of the user-made skins are very nice. But without an official system of incorporating them, they’re just a waste of time to deal with. Which is unfortunate. 

Oh, so no one actually sees my yellow DHL A10C on a multiplayer server?..:(

[okopanja]

I think more important is to be able to exclude content which does not work anymore with current stable version.

[Boosterdog]

41 minutes ago, okopanja said:

I think more important is to be able to exclude content which does not work anymore with current stable version.

yeh but then youd loose 3 maps and 17 modules as well....

[Boosterdog]

3 hours ago, Art-J said:

About OP's request, where does one draw the line though with skins that are "almost" non-fictional? For example Me-109 K4 skins based on historical G10, G14 liveries, bubbletop P-47 skins based on Razorback liveries, Spitfire Mk IX skins based on Mk V, Mk VIII, Seafire liveries, MiG-21 Bis skins based on -M, and -MF liveries etc.

Some players will consider these acceptable (just like restored planes today sometimes have paintschemes and markings of some famous airframes of different version), while for the others, such skins are already one step too far.

Those player can have fun searching for them in the fictional section. There would be no difference to them. Same as ever.

You could even filter it so that you can simply search ONLY for skins tagged as being type and service accurate I guess. Thus making such the exception and not the rule. That way us OCD types can limit ourselves to our happy little world without ruining it for anyone else. 

 

Edited December 5, 2021 by Boosterdog

[okopanja]

23 minutes ago, Boosterdog said:

yeh but then youd loose 3 maps and 17 modules as well....

Did we understand each other? I meant user content list (those that must be added by end users themselves). There are lots of obsolete stuff there.

[Boosterdog]

7 minutes ago, okopanja said:

Did we understand each other? I meant user content list (those that must be added by end users themselves). There are lots of obsolete stuff there.

I got what you meant. I was facetiously pointing out that more than just user files get broken over time. Sorry. 

And I agree - lots of obsolete stuff if you keep everything up to date but potentially stuff that may still work if people have older builds, which some do. 

[Minsky]

I seriously doubt that a poor ED fella, that mashes "approve" button twice a day, would have time to check every skin for historical (in)accuracy.

Moreover, I think that the recent removal of the rating feature clearly shows that ED doesn't want to discriminate the content creators.

Personally, I don't mind an occasional fictional skin in my feed. Some of them are truly beautiful. But I would like an ability to blacklist certain creators that post irritating stuff on purpose.

[upyr1]

On 12/4/2021 at 10:14 AM, Boosterdog said:

Pretty sure this isnt the first post of its kind.

I dont want a French Police Hind, a Brazillian SU27 or Swiss Garbage truck inspired A10C. I certainly dont want a lurid green F18 with skulls and amine on its wings. Im sure they are very nice (not the F18- in no universe is such "nice") but they are not for me. 

More than anything, I dont want to have to scroll through 25 pages of such to find something relevent. 

Please can ED just add one more search section tick box  "include fictitious skins" or something so I can filter these things out. 

Of course it would be on the uploader to tick a box or something to indicate they are fiction but I have a solution for that too - one strike and your out. 

Thanks. 

 

21 hours ago, Beirut said:

 

My god, man, how could you not want that? 

I know, it would go with the Austrian garbage Truck 

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3303474/

[upyr1]

20 hours ago, Art-J said:

About OP's request, where does one draw the line though with skins that are "almost" non-fictional? For example Me-109 K4 skins based on historical G10, G14 liveries, bubbletop P-47 skins based on Razorback liveries, Spitfire Mk IX skins based on Mk V, Mk VIII, Seafire liveries, MiG-21 Bis skins based on -M, and -MF liveries etc.

Some players will consider these acceptable (just like restored planes today sometimes have paintschemes and markings of some famous airframes of different version), while for the others, such skins are already one step too far.

That would be a problem, the best solution I see would be to have drop downs and check boxes. Where you can list what is inauthentic. 

• pure fiction
• type mix match 
• what if country or service. For example an RAF F-14

[Boosterdog]

15 minutes ago, upyr1 said:

That would be a problem, the best solution I see would be to have drop downs and check boxes. Where you can list what is inauthentic. 

• pure fiction
• type mix match 
• what if country or service. For example an RAF F-14

I think a lot would be down to the creators picking categories. TBH, Id trust most if not all to do this correctly.  I think your options are a good solution that hopefully wouldnt impact on the poor ED employee responsible for putting them up - self regulation.  

[SharpeXB]

1 hour ago, upyr1 said:

That would be a problem, the best solution I see would be to have drop downs and check boxes. Where you can list what is inauthentic. 

• pure fiction
• type mix match 
• what if country or service. For example an RAF F-14

Impossible to do really, since the skin creators in most all cases don’t follow or update these. 

[Beirut]

2 hours ago, upyr1 said:

 

I know, it would go with the Austrian garbage Truck 

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3303474/

 

Downloading as we speak.

 

Thank you. 

[Tippis]

4 minutes ago, SharpeXB said:

Impossible to do really, since the skin creators in most all cases don’t follow or update these. 

They do if you require them to and subject them to even the slightest bit of curating.