Whatever happened to this popular OD 370th FG P-38 skin?

[Dichotomy]

I disagree Krusty.

Unlikely? Improbable? absolutely... there's no way on the green earth that you could get six or seven guys to agree to the rotation.  And yes you would probably have some drama.  You'd have to have a teflon don leading the team.  And, quite frankly, you would probably rotate some drama queens out of the game.  *feces occurs*   

But it COULD be done? Yep.  Will it? Nope.. thanks to the lack of willingness of anybody to leave their 'comfort zone' and try something different in an effort to improve the game. 

But I'm of a mind to either offer a solution or shut up instead of b%%ching about it.  But that's me and all..

[Fencer51]

First of all there is a minimum quality standard that HTC has in mind.  So, all skins that are in the game currently meet that. 
Arguing which skin is "better" than another is just going to cause problems and drama and quite frankly just isn't worth it.

The problem is that there are skins which people want to use are in a "drawer" and will never see the light of day with the current system. 

IMHO the best thing to do is work with the current system.  A basic skin package should be available as auto download and on their website.  Any other skin which has passed the grade should also be converted to a "res" file and
available for download on the site.  Then people can download whatever skins they like, and rename them as required to fill their desired 15 slots per type.  Anyone incapable of doing so, well tough.. learn to run your PC.

This way JG11 could have 10 Fw-190D9s all historically correct for use in their unit.  They could post in their forum that "such and such" skin is "190d9_1" etc so they all see the planes the same for "photo opportunities".

Also people who don't like a particular skin, rather than whining about it could just simply choose another.

The one problem this might have is the "auto download" settings and how it checks to see if someone has the current files.  People could just disable this and avoid any overwriting with the basic plane set.

HTC is not a huge company and their personnel are no doubt spread thin on various tasks which we are not privy too.

Yet we KNOW Skuzzy handles the skins, bless him for the crap he goes through with this and other tasks relative to this board.

I often wonder what would happen if he didn't have to spend 10s of hours each week patroling these forums moderating the lack of decorum and inability to self police that some people are constanly incapable of exercising.
So those of you who want skins rotated, think of that before you post everytime. 

[Krusty]

But if I'm flying a red-and-white striped Dora, or a coral pink Airacobra.....


I want the OTHER guy to see it too!

[Guppy35]

You stray into a totally subjective field, whereas one person on a jury can sway 11 other people one way or the other, a single person on a "skin approval team" can for any myriad of personal reasons reject an otherwise perfect skin.

I don't like the idea.

OK I volunteer to be the jury of one, deciding which skins are OK and which aren't.  I promise to be objective

[Dichotomy]

well put Fencer...

[oboe]

Hmmm.  So combining the ideas from Fencer's and Krusty's posts, we have a state where we can all download whichever skins we prefer, and everybody else views our aircraft in the skins we have chosen.   Is this desired state completely unfeasible technically?  (I'm wondering about the increase in broadband transmission speed and the amount of video and system memory available when custom skins first came along in AH compared to today, and also the difference in theoretically what you'd need to support this vs practically (you'll never be in an arena with a random distribution of all plane models and all skins).

Regarding Fencer's proposal, maybe the skins wouldn't have to be renamed by players to the 190d_1 - 190d_15.res format, but each approved skin would have it's own forever unique .res name (190d_0 - 190d_999?) and we create skin "playlists" from these to populate our skin selection dropdown list?



   

[Krusty]

I was actually offering a counter-point. I want OTHERS to see what skin I choose. I don't want to pick the coral pink P-39Q and then have somebody else's front-end display it at RAF camo, for example.

[oboe]

I was actually offering a counter-point. I want OTHERS to see what skin I choose. I don't want to pick the coral pink P-39Q and then have somebody else's front-end display it at RAF camo, for example.

Yep, but I don't think that would necessarily have to be counter to what Fencer proposed, since Fencer's plan still had HTC as a skin gatekeeper.   I would guess memory and bandwidth are the traditional limitations.   

[Krusty]

Fencer was saying the exact opposite, that any given person's front-end would be their own choosing and not really reflect what's on the other person's front end.

There's no easy answer to this issue. I don't think unlimited skin slots is the right path. I don't think a "committee" is the answer either... To be honest I don't HAVE an answer, I just don't think those suggestions work.

[Fencer51]

Krusty, I don't want to upset you.  But you realize that alot of people don't download the skins now, nor do all those that do download them set "see other people's skins" as one of the options.  You cannot force them to see what you are flying.

There is no way that the current skin setup is going to allow more than 15 skins in game per plane, we have asked this question before and been told that.  HTC has already stated that the total number of skins in the game are already pushing the limits of what people's machines can handle.

Therefore the only way to get more skins available for people to enjoy is to work within the current system.

[DEECONX]

I was actually offering a counter-point. I want OTHERS to see what skin I choose. I don't want to pick the coral pink P-39Q and then have somebody else's front-end display it at RAF camo, for example.

Yes, but right now I could delete the Coral Pink skin from my skins and you would be default green.

Just saying...

[lyric1]

Maybe it's just me but I think sorting through the skins,

Well here is my two cents worth. I say we get rid of skins that can be proved were not acceptable per HTC rules & those that are identified incorrectly & so on. As an example the black P38 that was evicted out of the game. I can think of three or four that I can prove that should not be in the roster.

[Krusty]

But those 3 or 4 are a drop in the bucket (assuming hypothetically you get 'em removed)... It's not much of a help for the P-51D for example, which probably has as many out of rotation as it does IN rotation.

[Dichotomy]

Well it's good to see people talking about what can be done to get more skins in rotation or available. 

As stated I appreciate your hard work and the awesome skins that are produced regularly.  Talent in something I could never learn to do well is something I respect.

Krusty.. good talking to ya, as always, even if we disagree on the surface level. 

I see, and get, everybody's pov's, and I never said a solution would be easy but I think you guys can figure something out that's workable even at the risk of compromising something you hold dear.  But, as my overall knowledge of this subject is extremely limited, this is where I step out 

[AWwrgwy]

I'm with Krusty on this.  I choose a skin for others to see, if they have skins enabled.  Maybe the cammo will help me out.  Maybe I'm cocky enough I'll fly a garish paint job.  After all, I cant see anything but the wings.

The main point everyone seems to be missing, re: a rotation committee, is:

It takes twice as long to rotate a skin into the game as it does to insert a new skin.

Next worse thing is updating an existing skin.  Almost as bad as a rotation, but without the need to be concerned if a skin is being used or not.

It apparently isn't so easy.  If anyone could do it, they sure, volunteers would be dandy.

And, although updating a skin also seems difficult, Skuzzy did stare his willingness to do so.

It's not a matter of quality, otherwise the skins wouldn't be there in the first place.  The lack of rotation seems more to be an issue of time, workload, and priorities.



wrongway