Till ... you are in a long line of people asking for this. This is a subject we've struggled with over the years. And it would be a good idea to just have the whole thing "download", you put it in, and you're "done." But the complications are in the details for us.
Being a site run by "wannabee professionals" ... we are pretty good at this, but we do make mistakes. They will happen (now that we know Murphy is Jeff's room-mate!). So we are ALWAYS changing things, adding something, taking something out that doesn't work, and recently, literally changing everything we are doing location by location to remove undefined objects, get rid of "illegal ones" (strays that we should not have used) and adding new ones. (Steve and Rod right now are looking at a possible upgrade of the Object Libraries ... we found some great objects and have been given permission to use them). So things will always be "dynamic" here at RTMM.
Legacy is a good example. In that package are many bgl's from many locations. When we went through the POP cleanup procedure, I worked on each location and fixed them up. Then I had to go back and replace all of the bgl's in Legacy to make sure those also were up to date ... a complete duplication of effort. Legacy is there to get folks started, and that makes it worth the effort, but there is no way I want to expend that kind of effort on the whole site. Getting all this stuff working ONE time is hard enough, Duplicating that effort just isn't going to happen ... I'd rather put the time into a new package, or Here2There ideas, etc.
Right now, when there is an "update" we notify folks, they download the new one and take out the old one. We don't have to worry about replacing a huge "whole" package because of an update. Also, few people realize how BIG this site really is ... THOUSANDS of files when you see it on a hard drive. Downloading the package would take all day. But worse than that, the strain on our server (remember, it's a free site) would be huge. Taking the little daily "hits" of people downloading individual locations is something we can technically handle. Having 300 people downloading the whole package would crash us.
And then, there is the philosophy ... and this is what Jeff is discussing. We know there are scenery junkies out there. "Hey ORBX has a new airport ... must have it ... download it....look at it ... cool ... ok, now I've seen it, when can I get the next airport?" That's not what we are 'about.' Our focus is on the FLIGHT, not the LOCATION. When folks get serious (as we are) about the Here2There philosophy, the "location" or "scenery" package is only there to make the FLIGHT happen. Who would care about flying for an hour to find two tents and a campfire? The "scenery" itself is not worth the time ... but having it there draws the pilot deep into the beautiful scenery of Misty Fjords. These tents were placed strategically so that the pilot would have to fly through some of the most beautiful and dangerous "passes" in the area. It is not the two tents and a campfire that make it work, it is "getting to" the two tents and a campfire... and hopefully the satisfaction of accomplishing the trip without having to hit the reset button! (Fairfax Lake Campsite).
The RTMM experience "builds" as people grow with it. For those of us who have flown all of the locations (and I'm betting there are only a handful!) ... we have a "community" in our computer. For those starting out, they should be picking ones they WANT to fly ... on the Here2There page, if you click on the NAME of the location in the Starting Points table, you get a map that tells you where the scenery package is located. Maybe its a long flight over water, not interested. Maybe its only around the corner, too short, not interested. So you "choose" what you want to fly and add it to the collection of things you have from RTMM. But to solve the "long flights over water" ... we added RTMM AI Shipping (button off the Boating Page). So you can watch for shipping on those long over-water flights! This is a point of depth for RTMM.
RTMM isn't for the scenery junkies that want to "collect" scenery. We've decided that if you want a location, the users will have to do some "work" to get it. And if the user puts a little effort into the scenario as the developer did, there is more "ownership" involved. Those people tend to "stay" with RTMM, and they pick another one to download and try ... and their collection builds, and so does their involvement with RTMM.
As a user's collection builds, they learn the areas, they will start "recognizing" areas, just as the real (seat of the pants) bush pilots up there do. I flew with one that kept a cigar box under his seat. In it were a bunch of notebook pages. Each had the name of the "cabin" on the top and the pilot's quick notes for how to get there by VFR. They know to "turn left" just like we learn to "turn left" going to the grocery store. These guys are amazing ... it all looks the same to you and me when taking a ride with them, but if you ask them "what's that over there?" ... they will tell you ... and invariably they have a story for it. This is where our TripTix came from. Downloading a scenery with a V1 or V2 trip ticket will give you the details of what that pilot would be talking about as you make the trip.
I only hope FSDiscover! will eventually show up for P3D. In the database for that I have put in over 800 way points (by hand!) so that as you are flying over the area, everything is labeled, each point, each tributary, each fjord. So when you read the TripTix, they make sense.
So RTMM isn't a scenery package, it is a lot more involved ... it has a lot more depth. Right now we are looking at Herring Bay. Great scenery by Brad Allen ... a beautiful and well-made cannery. But wouldn't it be nice to not only see the cannery, but drop by for a fresh fish sandwich at a restaurant overlooking it all. And why not a place to fuel up, or land your helicopter? Hmmm ... so we make it better. And when we do, we only change Herring Bay Cannery (adding it all into one) or we add a "Herring Bay Community" as a stand-alone that goes with it. And when we make the change (if we do), we announce it, and folks can download and try it. But I don't have to repair or add to a "total' scenery download that everyone would want .. crashing us. And we get pretty glib about discussing replacing bgl files, etc. Power users have no problems with this. We have people hitting the site that haven't a CLUE what a bgl is and can barely follow the instructions we give them. Asking them to replace a bgl, is asking them to mess with a few million bytes of code ... and when they screw it up, and they will, they get angry with us. In this case, the worst they can do is screw up Herring Bay ... the rest stays intact. So this compartmentalization is another reason for the separation of the locations into different files.
Legacy was sort of a "trial' in that direction. It worked, but you wouldn't believe the questions we get on it because later something is download on top of a legacy site. We clearly state this in the FAQs and readme files, but still people don't understand the concept. We have 50,000 unique visitors from all over the world hitting the site and having these kinds of problems. Legacy is great, but it also taught us that with it comes hours of answering emails about problems people have created for themselves by not reading the directions. It is a catch 22 for sure.
It is a great idea, it would be nice if it was all in a box and was easy to install. It isn't. And we know that is not for "everybody". So some folks will be disappointed, they'll say it is too much work and simply move on. We wish they would stay, but it is not their nature.
I reply on this post not just to you but to all the other folks (by emails) that are asking your exact same questions. Good questions. I hope this helps folks understand what we are doing and why.
Doug