Yeah it might be more convenient for a power-user, but I guess most Steam users expect the game to contain content as well (I'd imagine S397 would lose money with users that refund when they see an empty product). I'm not aware of any Steam game that contains NO content as part of the main install, but correct me if I'm wrong. Also since workshop has become standard way of delivery with rF2, I think it's a dumb idea for S397 to start moving content elsewhere now.
Between black and white, there are an infinity of shades of greys . The alternatives are not limited to two, no content or full content, you can have intermediate solutions (as before with demo content) so that the new user could play instantly. A well publicised wizard (in the readme presented on the first run for instance) would guide the user to help him for registering new content in the workshop. I play with a flight sim Flightgear, you can fly nearly everywhere on earth, but you don't download the whole earth scenery on initial download, later you can download scenery for the places where you want to fly that are not downloaded by default. If there is will, a better solution than this nonsense can be found. Cheers.
But can you do this under Steam? That's the question, not what would be possible if it was a non-Steam game like Flightgear. I don't think S397 is as stupid that they would not have figured out to sell both "lite" and "full" versions if it was possible, that's such an obvious solution it would have been done if it was possible, after all that's exactly how ISI distributed the game before it moved to Steam.
Yes you can, proof is the new content that has not been added to the core game but requires separate suscription (Nissan GT500 & USF 2000 for instance). S397 has inherited an unfortunate situation from ISI, no doubt they'll improve on this point. Cheers.
Nah it was Marcel from S397 who did the Steam integration part for ISI. At the time it was discussed to lengths at this forum why there weren't better solutions, but we'll see...
I am guessing that the new UI they are working on could incorporate some explanations to new users on first running the sim on what they need to do. Tooltips and in-game guides etc...
We need a sort of lite install with only fictional content like rF1...and official content packed as free dlc ready to be downloaded... but I am too lazy to elaborate my idea so...nevermind...
I honestly found this move to lose the update a sucker of the company, I received no warning of this deadline, I have other friends who also did not receive unintentionally discovered in the steam itself. I was completely unmotivated by this attitude, I bought the RF1 for years, I bet on the idea of RF2 as soon as it came out and it was a failure in the beginning, and now the guys make one of those and shit for you if you want me to buy another license. For me, I stopped with RF, more for the bad character of the company. Unfortunate attitude.