[agracier]

I am very new to this sim (less than a week). I've added a bunch of new skins and noseart and started, little by little, to standardize the naming of the files because I am, well, a bit particular. .

It all depends ow much trouble yu want to go to in making or flying missions. If you want to get a mission up and ready very quickly then don't rename skins, no matter how oddly they are named or what system is used to give them names.

Also if you're going to turn into a skin collector, downloading prodigious amounts of skins, it's also a good idea not to rename the skins. When you download a double it will quickly show up as a double.

If however you plan on making missions on your own (and this is most enjoyable), then start off as soon as you can with renaming skins with a system that suits you best. Otherwise you are going to be confused and annoyed at the way skins are often named, with conflicting systems all together and no easy way to find that particular skin you are looking for quickly.This especially for aircraft that have tons of skins available - Spit / Bf-109/I-16/P-47 etc etc.

Some skinners use a '$' to prefix a skin, others a '-', others use squadron numbers, their own handle and a whole bunch of other methods.

All are good and well, as long as all your skins use the same system.

One tip I've found to be useful in renaming skins, is to use the nationality of the skin as prefix. For instance the Bf-109 has tons of skins available for many Axis countries or as captures or as post-war aircraft. Prefixing 109 skins with (for instance) BULGARIA, SLOVAKIA, GERMANY, ISRAEL, US, UK etc often saves time when making your own missions since otherwise you have to scroll through countless names before finding the nationality you are looking for.