If you could modify everything in SS then people would end up ruinning it and then they would complain about it, and its just a big pain to have to help everybody rectify their mistakes. Its better this way, it not a no frills sim, your just here annoying everyone. i'm sure people have asked for this before, but its much better this way. This is not the place for you, if all you want to do is modify everything in the game, it was made the way it was for a reason, if you want something that you can modify to your hearts content, try Virtual Sailor.
The company's that have allowed their vessels to be used in the game, obviously do not want people going and making them look like rubbish by repainting them.
And just to let you know, SH3 is a game, not a Sim, i've already tried it. Its a waste of my time, to be quite honest. It just makes no sense to have a Sim where you can modify everything to your liking, because, im sure people would mess things up, ask for help, and then it wouldn't be given.
And its called Modelling, and Modellers, not Modding and Modders, gosh
You obviously tried the stock version without adding any of the mods. And because we call everything mods (meaning modification), we call the people that modify or create the new files modders. I've been playing SH3 for 4 years, and it's way better now than the stock version was ever meant to be. Like I said, if you don't like any of the community created ships etc, no one is pointing a gun to your head to download it, and you can continue to play it plain vanilla. SH3 is not ruined, it been drastically improved, otherwise I would not own a download website out of my own pocket for it. Yes, there are some real cheezy mods, but it has not ruined my installation because I did not install any cheezy mods.
Virtual Sailor looks like an arcade game, and I bet the ship dynamics are absolutely horrible to where a 5 yr old could play it.
I am not trying to annoy anybody, because I wouldn't allow it on my own website. It would just be nice to have a decent simulator such as SS with it's accurate boat control and challenging missions (which looks like Virtual Sailor seems to be lacking), with the option to download repaints, scenery items, or be able to fix bugs that the dev team wont fix.
If someone offered you a choice between 2 cars, which one would you choose ...
1) Dodge Neon with no radio, no air, no heat, bald tires, and still in dull primer gray.
or
2) Ford Mustang with AM/FM/100 CD Changer, air conditioning, heat, fresh new tires, and a high gloss paint job any color you wanted.
#1 represents Ship Sim 2008, and #2 would be Ship Sim 2010 Extremes with your choice to do what you want to do with it.
But since you guys like cheap boring stuff, I'll leave you alone with your vanilla simulator and attitudes, and I'll show myself to the door. It's like talking to a fence post in here.