The real problem is that there is a lot of testing that the models have to go through, probably in each mission the new models appear, to make sure that balance has been preserved before they can be officially added.
I don't really think that it is something that would matter a lot, since the only things that could break balance with a new model are table values for the ship, its size and shape and perhaps weapon placement. If we assume that there are no bugs with it, and we just make a much prettier "skin" for a vessel, retaining the general geometry, then... Where's the balance issue?
[...] it doesn't depend on me, a foreigner and newb that don't even know how to make a simple mod [...]
[...] This has to be set up by moderators, I as a simple member can only come as far as to suggest it, I'm pretty ignorant of what's going on, so I'm probably 1 of the least qualified members for this [...]
What is obvious for us, longtime users of HLP and players of Freespace, isn't obvious for most newcomers, so it's actually very good that someone "from outside" decided to share his opinion on how everything is done around here. This allows us (community) for some fresh view and finding ways to improve.
I must admit, these 4 additional assets that you can add to MediaVPs should be a mandatory part of them, or at least linked to somewhere where the user could see that they exist right away. Yea, it's kinda messy at the moment.
There's nothing wrong with sharing your opinion even if you aren't a specialist, you see something not right - then it probably isn't right, and even if it is - thanks for vigilance, we'll do something to make it more obvious that it's correct. Constructive criticism.
You don't know how modding Freespace works, but it's pretty simple. A mod should overwrite the retail content, and it's like that: There's retail FS2 (.vp files in main directory), it can be overwritten by FS2/data, then that can be overwritten by FS2/mod/.vp files, and that one by FS2/mod/data. So we can call the retail FS2 a base of hierarchy, and the highest one in that hierarchy are unpacked files in FS2/mod/data.
Then you should place your new vessels in MediaVPs directory - .vp archives (something like a .zip file), if the modder decided to make his ship into a single file, together with the rest of .vp files, but if it is unpacked, then models (.pof) go into MediaVPs_2014/data/models and maps (.dds, you can open them and look at them) into MediaVPs_2014/data/maps.
Mod.ini is a file informing the launcher about which mods should it load and in which order (and some misc stuff like mod description, link to mod's website and logo). Primarymod and secondarymod are used for loading mods automatically. Secondarymod points out which mods are to be overwritten by that one mod you're loading now, and a primarymod will overwrite your mod. For example, Blue Planet requires MediaVPs, so it'll have that mod listed in secondarymods, because it requires MediaVPs to work, but it'll need to insert some stuff onto it. Primarymod works kinda the opposite way, mods listed in it will overwrite the mod you're loading, and it isn't used nearly at all. Oh, and the order of listing multiple mods in these lines also is important (the first one being "on top" IIRC).
You might want to check out some advanced settings in your launcher, as you can enable gorgeous graphical options there (or disable the ugly ones, which are in my opinion: motion debris and environment maps), add some features to your ingame HUD, get an FPS counter running or troubleshoot something. As for lighting presets, you can select one of these in the launcher right next to flags under Advanced settings, or just paste my own into custom command line:
-ambient_factor 55 -no_emissive_light -spec_exp 15 -spec_point .2 -spec_static .8 -spec_tube .2 -ogl_spec 100 -bloom_intensity 60
It's pretty dark - no unrealistic ambient lighting illuminating everything in space, the ambient is set up mostly from suns, which makes every single mission look unique, depending on the background. Plus, the lighting coming from weapons and beam fire is muted to an extent - i just find a single shot illuminating whole ships a bit annoying and tiring to look at.
Man, BtA is so climatic with that preset.