Liveries: "How many is too many?"

[falcon409]

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?

[PutPut]

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

[EMatheson]

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...

[GypsyBaron]

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

[robert41]

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.

[harrybasset]

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.

[falcon409]

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:

[stiz]

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 :)

[kilo delta]

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:

[norab]

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

[italoc]

Agree with Falcon: you never come to fly extensively with all and every mdl and texture of each !!!!
Italo

[Bone]

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.

[Lawman]

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).

[aeronca1]

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.

[argo147]

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.

[SeanTK]

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.

[ryanbatc]

All I want it one livery. I don't care... that's the one I'll fly.

[Odie]

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.

[tommieboy]

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 concur......

Tommy

[Scratch]

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?

[pilottj]

Sorry I haven't been very active with the paint brush lately, I have been a little busy with some other projects. I still have a few ideas I would like to try eventually. If the plane has a good paintkit and the airplane is reasonably 'paint-o-genic' (not spending hours lining up stripes to parts), I will paint a lot of liveries for it. I try to do a variety between actual schemes and fictional artistic schemes. The artistic schemes take longer and usually require a bit of trial and error because I never know how somthing will turn out until I try it. When I paint, I try to think of each FSX plane like a blank canvas for me to apply whatever idea or theme I have in my mind.

It is interesting that some airplanes get a lot of repaints...go to avsim and count the NGX repaints :icon_lol: while some hardly get any. Usually for my own hangar, I try to find a few good paint schemes I like, or paint a personal scheme for myself. I usually try to fly an aircraft with a registration matched to the location I am flying in....ie a ZK reg if I am flying around NZ or a N reg if I am flying in the US.

Cheers
TJ

[modelr]

I guess I'm one of the "Bring 'em on!" types. While I don't try to fly them all,
I do experiment with using them as ai. Also, I try to get nealy all the paints available for my ai models.

[ShawnG]

I fly a lot of different areas in the sim, in fact I'm actually a bit less interested in aviation than I am in exploring the earth virtually. my problem is that I can't stand to fly an aircraft that would not rationally fly in the area that I am exploring in-sim, so I tend to like a lot of repaints covering different areas of the earth. that way I don't have to fly a US-Reg GA aircraft in New Zealand or Australia for example. I consider a lot of repaints availability to be a plus, even though I don't end up flying most of them.

[falcon409]

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?
I guess there are a lot of ways to accomplish the "pruning" scratch. I usually make a "misc" folder in the particular aircraft folder I'm going to whittle down, but only if it's a US GA or US Military as I may want to swap out various liveries while only maintaining one or two "active" paints. I simply cut and paste the texture files into the "misc" folder, then cut the cfg info, paste it into "notepad" and save that as well in the misc folder.

Now if it's an aircraft that carries both US and Foreign registries, the foreign registries are deleted right off the bat. The only contradiction to my lack of any foreign liveries is the LET l410-UVP-E. Czech made and comes with three liveries, none are US. . .but it's such a terrific airplane for both long hauls and short field operations that I made an exception, lol.:salute:

[Paul Domingue]

I spend most of my flying time in my own aircraft and some of my fellow modelers WIPs. I usually have one or two liveries at most on my aircraft and some have no liveries at all! I tend to stay in the VC when I fly especially when flying MP. I have a couple of payware military with a large amount of liveries but pick a favorite and stick to it when I do fly them (no need for a bunch). I think the large liveried aircraft packages should offer only a few with the base package and have additional liveries packages available for those who want them. On the other hand if your into screen shots with lots of eye candy scenery then a large stable would be in order much like costumes for actors. Anyways there’s my two bucks on the subject (inflation).

[fsafranek]

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?
Drive space isn't an issue (yet) so I don't physically remove any files. I go through the aircraft.cfg file and replace the numbers in the [Fltsim.00] sections with x's (so they become [Fltsim.xx]) for those I don't want to show up among the thumbnails under Select Aircraft. Then I renumber those that I kept. This is quick, reversable, and so far has worked well for me.
:ernae:

[Geomitrak]

I suppose most people end up flying just one or two liveries, but its nice to be provided with a wide choice to start with. PMDGs MD-11 is a case in point for me - I ended up only ever flying two liveries, but it was nice scrolling through the rest of them and enjoying the painter's art. With military paints, the differences are usually more obscure - often exactly the same camouflage scheme but with different squadron emblems or such like.

[fallenphoenix1986]

No more than 3 or 4 per aircraft, any more than that and most never see the virtual light of day outside of the selection menu. The only execptions are aircraft that have personal significance, i.e. something I've flown real world, worked on or the odd type I've been obsessed with since childhood.
A certain italian starfighter drove me nuts with the number of default loadout/skin options, briefly ended up with more F-104's than everything else combined.

Craig