The big difference between SCS and BIA in my eyes is the fact that BIA is solely concerned with Software Development while SCS is more than that - to prove my point take a look at this page :
http://www.simhq.com/_naval/naval_021c.html . Since I'm nice I'll quote the important part (tho you should take a look at the picture on the page).
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Myself
For those who have yet to dive deeper into the background, history and organization of Sonalysts, here is some info. Sonalysts is an employee-owned, multi-disciplinary, engineering and technical services firm. It was founded in 1973 and has currently 400+ employees. Those employees work in 20+ project groups Some work in more than just one group, and the game department is just one of those 20+ groups. Jamie for example, works on 3 or 4 groups with S.C.S. Dangerous Waters being one of them, and as much as he would love to dedicate all his time to S.C.S. Dangerous Waters, he has to do some work in the other groups as well. As you can see in the image below, the gaming group is housed in a converted garage! A massive 30% of Sonalysts partners (that's the employees) are former or retired military, mostly representing the Navy. They even have an Admiral on Staff. Aside from producing high-quality games, Sonalysts works in such diverse fields as music recording (Aerosmith and Lenny Kravitz), video production (most notably, A Century of Silent Service) and training simulations (for the military). By-the-way, Sonalysts is short for "Sonar Analysts" which was the original task of the company.
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As you see - SCS is only a part of Sonalysts and not even the biggest. Add the various statements from Jamie and you should get the picture why SCS has made DW the way it is now and puts certain restrictions on modding.
Anyway, from my point of view I don't get the fuss about having lots of new playables ... sure it would be nice to control platforms from my own country (well actually there is one that Germany just recently has aquired) but would it really make a difference? I don't think so ... in the end you are again doing ASW. Yes, I already see the guy in the back waving his hands frantically - I know with new platforms we might get a Tico or even a Carrier, but lets get real this game is solely an ASW Simulator first and foremost, everything else is simulated only rudimentarily (no offense Jamie) and while putting in a Tico might look nice it would add more problems. Besides I have yet to encounter someone who has truly mastered all platforms and ASW in general. So why ask for more controllables when you have a problem with the existing ones? They won't get easier - quite the contrary.
Bottom line, you want to get more out of DW - help modding ... the stuff we are both allowed and encouraged to mod! Which means start building models, texture them, rework or substitute all the other textures in the game, play with the sounds, get to know the Database and expand it to include more Navies and vessels ... there is so much that can be done and will enhance the existing gameplay as well as make the game look better ... and the best - its perfectly legal and support by SCS.