As Xabba already pointed out, this subject has been discussed extensively - and has found the way into the FAQ and even an interview (or two) with Jamie. Nevertheless here is Jamies most recent statement on the subject
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As Oneshot noted in his finely constructed FAQ:
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Why can't Modders make playables like they did for Sub Command with SCU?
Back in the days of Sub Command some enterprising modders created an utility to switch the skins/models for the playable platforms and thus allowing players to "drive" different types of submarines.
While SCS tolerated it at that time, they have stated (pretty clearly) that they explicitly reserve the right to create playable models for themselves and messing around with DLLs, EXE files and so on (which would be necessary to create a SCU like utility for DW) is a big NO NO!
However modders are free to and actually encouraged to create improved textures, modells and so on for the game to visually, and audible enhance it. So while you might see all of the platforms from the real world in Dangerous Waters at a future date, you will only drive those SCS makes.
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Another reason "from our standpoint" which prevented it from the start, is that creating the architecture in an extensible (or completely modular) way so that "every drivable platform under the sun" could be created by the community isn't cheap. There would have been a significant architecture change and a necessary toolset which would have had to have been created for the community to construct these new platforms (the latter being the most expensive of the two). Also, our support staff (i.e. me) is not built to handle the volume of support necessary to "incubate" that sort of homegrown initiative.
While we understand that this would have been an "investment in the future" that potentially could have had a return on our initial investment, the increased numbers in game sales (i.e. new players!) would not have been significant enough to justify that additional investment in architecture improvements and tool construction (or so I can only speculate, since no one knows for sure, right? :?).
All of that doesn't even get into the "legalities" with many of our government customers which would prevent it as well. That's probably the biggest deterrent since we serve two masters (commercial and DoD) and we have to try and be faithful to both.
We are constructing new controllable platforms for government customers along with other enhancements to the underlying "NavalSimEngine", so perhaps someday those platforms could see the light of day in the commercial community in one form or another (who knows?).
Thanks!
- Jamie
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