Please Address Game Bloat from CoreMods & Excessive Liveries

[celestHawk]

Dear Eagle Dynamics,

First of all, thank you for the incredible work on DCS World and for continuing to expand its scope. Hiring modders like CurrentHill shows real commitment to quality and community content, and it’s something we all appreciate.

That said, there is an issue that is increasingly frustrating the player base: the ever-growing size of the CoreMods folder and mandatory livery packs.

The Problem

• Many modules include 10–15 GB of liveries (e.g., F-14 = 14GB, F-4E = 12GB, others = 8–9GB).

• These are downloaded by all players, even those who don’t own the module, because they’re placed in CoreMods.

• The result:

  • Install size is inflated by tens of gigabytes.

  • Frequent updates are huge and slow because they touch massive files.

  • Players are forced to buy new SSDs or split the game across drives just to keep playing.

This isn’t just an inconvenience. It actively prevents new players from trying DCS, and makes existing players frustrated when every update eats bandwidth and disk space unnecessarily.

Why This Matters

We understand the reason behind CoreMods: everyone needs to see the same aircraft and skins in multiplayer. But the current implementation is heavy-handed. Right now, we’re downloading and storing content that many of us will never use.

Constructive Suggestions

There are practical solutions that would keep multiplayer compatibility intact without punishing everyone with bloated installs:

1. Optional Livery Packs – Move liveries into modular downloads (via Module Manager). Players who want them can install, others can stick with a default skin.

2. Fallback System – If a client doesn’t have a specific livery, DCS should display the module’s default skin instead. This is common practice in other sims.

3. Lightweight Core Option – Allow players to choose a “Minimal Core” install that includes only essential assets. Great for single-player or those with limited storage.

4. Better Compression/Deduplication – Many liveries reuse textures or differ only slightly. Optimizing this would cut gigabytes without removing content.

Conclusion

DCS is already a large, complex game, but it doesn’t need to be unnecessarily bloated. With every new module (and now with more asset packs from CurrentHill), this issue will only get worse.

We ask that ED prioritize a solution to reduce storage and update overhead caused by CoreMods and excessive liveries. This would improve accessibility, performance, and overall user satisfaction.

Thank you for considering,

 

 

P.S. 

CoreMods>tech>Animals  contains only one animal a Cow and it is 51MB in size!

[niru27]

As someone who doesn't care what livery someone else is using, I agree 100%.

At the very lease those liveries should be made part of the module itself: if I buy the F14 for e.g. it implies I want to check out the different skins. If I don't, it implies I don't care for it.

Forcing everyone to download skins for modules they don't own is just a waste of space.

[TheBiggerBass]

Am 18.8.2025 um 19:38 schrieb celestHawk:

Dear Eagle Dynamics,

First of all, thank you for the incredible work on DCS World and for continuing to expand its scope. Hiring modders like CurrentHill shows real commitment to quality and community content, and it’s something we all appreciate.

That said, there is an issue that is increasingly frustrating the player base: the ever-growing size of the CoreMods folder and mandatory livery packs.

The Problem

• Many modules include 10–15 GB of liveries (e.g., F-14 = 14GB, F-4E = 12GB, others = 8–9GB).

• These are downloaded by all players, even those who don’t own the module, because they’re placed in CoreMods.

• The result:

  • Install size is inflated by tens of gigabytes.

  • Frequent updates are huge and slow because they touch massive files.

  • Players are forced to buy new SSDs or split the game across drives just to keep playing.

This isn’t just an inconvenience. It actively prevents new players from trying DCS, and makes existing players frustrated when every update eats bandwidth and disk space unnecessarily.

Why This Matters

We understand the reason behind CoreMods: everyone needs to see the same aircraft and skins in multiplayer. But the current implementation is heavy-handed. Right now, we’re downloading and storing content that many of us will never use.

Constructive Suggestions

There are practical solutions that would keep multiplayer compatibility intact without punishing everyone with bloated installs:

1. Optional Livery Packs – Move liveries into modular downloads (via Module Manager). Players who want them can install, others can stick with a default skin.

2. Fallback System – If a client doesn’t have a specific livery, DCS should display the module’s default skin instead. This is common practice in other sims.

3. Lightweight Core Option – Allow players to choose a “Minimal Core” install that includes only essential assets. Great for single-player or those with limited storage.

4. Better Compression/Deduplication – Many liveries reuse textures or differ only slightly. Optimizing this would cut gigabytes without removing content.

Conclusion

DCS is already a large, complex game, but it doesn’t need to be unnecessarily bloated. With every new module (and now with more asset packs from CurrentHill), this issue will only get worse.

We ask that ED prioritize a solution to reduce storage and update overhead caused by CoreMods and excessive liveries. This would improve accessibility, performance, and overall user satisfaction.

Thank you for considering,

 

 

P.S. 

CoreMods>tech>Animals  contains only one animal a Cow and it is 51MB in size!

I guess the same applies to all liveries stored in DCS World\Bazar\Liveries , right ? Can they just simply be moved to Saved Games\DCS\Liveries ?