What are the chances of any developer releasing the paint kit for the upcoming sim so we can get painting liveries before the actual release of the full product? What would the dangers of doing that be? What are the pros and cons?

If I recall correctly the paint kit for NGX was out a day or so prior to release. Unless it was only given to select individuals. About the soonest you could ever expect that out is maybe a week. The cons in releasing it early are if you have to make any changes to the model you have to redo the textures/UV's/etc which will invalidate the old paint kit. Paint kits are also fairly hard to make if done properly with all of the various layers. So it is not an easy task that they can do, and put out there. Another down side is if the paint kit comes to early then people will think release is imminent. To be honest there aren't many upsides other than people being able to create a bunch of repaints before release. Although without an external model to check it with it would be limited to experienced painters.

If I recall correctly the NGX paint kit came out a while after it's release, not before.

Although without an external model to check it with it would be limited to experienced painters.

 

Ahh good point, never thought of that.