TBH
As to including DLS content in DLC packs, despite how much a couple of people complain about this, this is NOT going to change. By uploading to the DLS, the creator agrees to allow us to provide the asset as part of paid products (noting that technically the DLS is a paid product, since you need to own and register Trainz to access it, and has the paid FCT option for faster speeds).
The DLS assets are included to make it as easy as possible for end players to install the DLC packs, without needing to spend time searching for dependencies (just look at how often people have to ask where to find assets on downloads from 3rd party sites, even for payware).
Regards
The concern, as far as I am concerned, isn't that DLC packs use DLS content. Neither am I particularly worried if they are marked as "packaged". The problem has always been that certain DLS products are up-issued (by whom is not clear) and put in a DLC package, without them being added to the DLS.
As a result if someone who has bought or used such an up-issued asset as part of standard DLS asset. Anyone who either has not bought the DLC pack, or not up-dated a DLC pack will be confronted by a missing or unknown asset report.
This to my mind is a totally unacceptable way of working.
Why are up-issued DLS assets not automatically placed on the DLS?
If the later version was not done with the explicit authority of the original author, who did modify it and why? Saying that the asset is incompatible with a version of Trainz is a dubious excuse at best. If I complained in the forum that a V1.3 asset didn't work properly with my latest TRS19 route, I would soon be told in one way or another where to get off.
If, for some reason, it is essential to modify an existing DLS item, why can it not given a completely new kuid, so that the original DLS asset can continue to be used without interference and to make it clear that the modified version is a "DLC packaged payware" item only.
Furthermore there is presumably a database containing items that are in the DLC packs. Why can this information not be made available to Content Manager, so that missing DLC assets can be identified. It should also be possible, where a DLC pack is already owned, for updated assets to be downloaded.
In many cases I have already downloaded DLC packages (routes), which come as part of the TRS19 bundle for the sole reason of getting two or three assets which have been included in a DLS item. In most cases I have never even opened these routes. The need to re-download the entire pack again because one asset has been updated is ridiculous. It is not sensible to argue that broadband download speeds make it trivial to download gigabytes of data for the sake of an asset that maybe only a megabyte or so.
Regards
Mike