[OldFatGuy]

And to add more food for thought, if it did model CEI's "more realistically" wouldn't that also require some other adjustments?

I mean, I'd always heard the "instant" CEI was a way to easily mimic RL without having to add in all the other financial options of insurance, etc. In other words, the game leaves out insurance and those choices/options as well as that additional revenue/expense stream, and by having CEI's being instant and a "free" release, this is a simple way of simulating all of that.

I guess I'm trying to say a lot of folks unhappy with the realism (or lack thereof) of the instant CEI's are then, I'm thinking, going to become also quite unhappy when their financials are totally out of control because they're having to pay millions over several years while the player "considers" retiring, meanwhile with no new revenues or offsets (like insurance), thus making it a double whammy. You've lost that stud AND you've lost millions in money to try and replace that stud.

It seems like the system does a decent enough job of simulating all of that in a very simple, straightforward way. But, like the game says, "It's your game; play it your way!"