Texas pre-research tips

[TheRedRaider]

I would at least hope they put US 83 through the Texas hill country in the game because that is some of the prettiest stretches of highway that I have traveled on. Also part of US 87 is part of the Ports to Plains Trade corridor so that could help get some of it in the game. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ports_t ... _Corridor

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[djttcancer87]

There's alot of stuff I can write about West Texas.
Everyone else here has detailed all of East Texas and the 35 corridor, so that's good. But West Texas would be very fun and challenging to have in ATS. Here's some things:

First, "West Texas" is considered the area of Midland-Odessa, from Lubbock to the Big Bend. El Paso is in "Far West Texas", or the Borderlands. There's I-10 and I-20. Another important thing is that for good detail to be included in Texas, a rescale would probably be needed, but that'd take time.
West Texas is full of oilfield and pumpjacks, everywhere you look outside Midland-Odessa, and for a radius of about 60-80 miles. Right now, the worst of the congestion is at (and north of) Pecos. Highway 285 is extremely congested, and is the worst road to drive in Texas right now, with oil tankers and 18-wheelers. Work is being done to (I think) widen the road with passing lanes. The original roads out there were to connect towns and ranchers, but the oil boom happened. So that can be an added fun challenge.
Not only is there oil, but now a sand-mining industry. Sand dunes near Kermit & Monahans were bought out and now there are Sand trucks everywhere too.
Some of main cities (in that area) that I think should be added are:
Midland-Odessa (they're growing into the same city)
Lubbock
Pecos
Big Spring
Ft Stockton
Monahans

I know scale is an issue, but I'd like to see many of the small towns out there that I'm all familiar with.
Along with I-20 and I-10, there are multiple major roads for trucking. I saw the mentioning about the Farm-to-Market road system, and it's very different in this area. There are FM roads that are major connectors with the oil boom here, such as FM 1788, FM 866, and FM 652 out west.
There's the state highway system, along with Loops, and Spurs, and even Park Roads (in state parks).
Here's some major US & State connectors in the area:
State Highway 349 (connects Midland & Lubbock through Lamesa)
US Highway 385 (provides north-south connection)
State Highway 18 (north-south, goes north into Hobbs New Mexico)
US Highway 87 (the highway running through the state that other people on the forum have mentioned)
State Highway 176 (east-west connector from New Mexico to Big Spring, crosses 385 at Andrews, has a bridge at 349, and a 4-way stop at TX-137.

The asphalt/pavement out on all the West Texas roads are all dark. Except on the interstate 20 beginning at Monahans and going east, it's light and smooth pavement. In Texas, its common for when you cross a county line, the pavement changes.
Gas Stations: In Texas, Gas stations do not exist in rest areas. Don't add it in with a rest area. Buccee's does not exist in West Texas. Truckstops are very common to handle the extreme amount of oil tankers and sand trucks.
On Interstate 20, a railroad runs along the north side of the highway most of the way. There are the frontage roads as mentioned, and those are a good detail. One thing is that at an exit ramp, the ramp goes right onto a two-way road (the frontage rd). There's signs saying "Do not enter ramp" and such. The oncoming lane has to yield to traffic coming straight off the interstate.

There is a difference between roads & signs in New Mexico and Texas. In Texas, mostly all roadsigns usually have one support pole. NM has two support poles on every sign. At the state line, the NM side has light pavement, and Texas has dark, rougher pavement. An important detail to add for a Texas-feel is the blue "Adopt A Highway" signs with the white triangle sign below (a picture would be needed).

All of what I've explained so far is just what's north of Interstate 10. On the map, south of Interstate 10 is the Big Bend region, with Marfa and Alpine the two main towns. This area is actually very quiet, serene desert, and the air isn't polluted. There aren't much trucks at all here, and it'd be cool to have one of the roads down here, such as TX-17 or US-90 and 67. Presidio-Ojinaga is an important port into Mexico, connected by US-67.

Points of Interest:
Monahans Sandhills State Park
URENCO (not tourist, but it's the Uranium Enrichment facility at the state line on 176)
The Rattlesnake Bomber Base at Pyote, TX (the old WWII base where you can see the entrance cut off by the highway)
The River Road (FM 170) (at Big Bend National Park)
The Marfa Lights Viewing Point (on US 90-67)

[flight50]

Sweet. Welcome, welcome. We been waiting for you for some time, lol. Please fill us in on the West. Most of us live or have experience with the 35 corridor and Eastward.

[Sora]

No kidding. It's easier for me to write about New Orleans than it is about western Texas. Any input in that respect is extremely helpful.

[TwinShadow]

I've only been out west a few times and that was mostly to vacation over in El Paso where we have some family friends there. Once you start getting past Midland and Odessa, it gets pretty barren out that way with a lot of semi-desert looking areas.

[Tolans2003]

Ok I live in texas and one area you dont wanna miss is 45 north running out of houston...You have major hubs The woodlands Conroe and Huntsville.....Ive always thought how cool it would be to have Huntsville in the game because it is prison city USA. I think there are 8 units alone just in that area and that means alot of truck traffic supplying and picking up grain from those units.

When i worked at the Eastham prison farm we had trucks by the ton coming in picking up our grain and delivering it off somewhere else. Anywho just food for thought but all 3 places i mentioned The Woodlands Conroe and Huntsville ARE MAJOR hubs. Each is full of warehouses and whatnot From Walmart to CVS to Coke to pepsi just all kinds of warehouses lol...There is a glass plant in huntsville as well.

[flight50]

The biggest issue I see with prisons is, as an industry, will enough make the game. In my mind no. Not to mention it seems that SCS stays away from govement type facilities. Military should be in before prisons, but they won't make the game either. Now I do believe the prisons in Huntsville should show up off the highway, but I doubt the will ne prefabs we can deliver to.

[Sora]

I have tried to restrain myself as best as I can, but it's hard to understate the fact that I-45 north of Houston is much more metropolitan for much longer than pretty much every other direction out of the city. Most other directions might be impressive for a while -- like I-10 west goes through Memorial City and Katy, and those are crazy -- but other than I-45 south (which obviously terminates in Galveston before it reaches the countryside, but actually gets relatively abandoned before the Causeway regardless), pretty much every other direction fades to rural highway long before I-45 north does.

I-45 North just doesn't quit. Spring is pretty much a northern extension of Houston, and then you have The Woodlands practically trying to be Memorial City 2 while not being part of Houston, and then almost immediately afterward you have Conroe which is only stopped from coalescing with the rest of the metropolitan area due to the San Jacinto River's strange trajectory forcing a bit of distance between buildings. (You might look at the map and see a relatively empty area north of the river; no worries, it will be filled with houses before the DLC releases.) When all's said and done there are like 30 miles between League Line Road (what I'd generally consider the northern limits of the Conroe area) and, say, Greenspoint (one of the northernmost sections of Houston.)

There's a little bit of a break north of Conroe (and it's actually a fairly pretty one IMO, the median is filled with trees), but it doesn't last long and then it's all road construction until Huntsville, which has a lot of extremely prominent scenery even if it's got 50/50 odds as a marked city. The Sam Houston statue is probably the most memorable part of I-45.

All three of these cities -- that is, The Woodlands, Conroe, and Huntsville -- are very locally important, even if I've sort of lumped them together as "north Houston", but I'm not sure what you can do to represent them at 1:20 scale since they're so close to Houston which obviously needs to be there, and this DLC pack has like 30 cities more important than them for one reason or another. I'd like to see their key landmarks if nothing else (i.e. the Woodlands Mall / Towers / Waterway / Bridge area, Conroe's Library / Park / Fountain area, and Huntsville's statue and prison-related buildings), but if there's any way to get their industries, all the better. (I imagine they'd probably shy away from outright delivering to prisons, though.)

There are other areas in Texas that are sort of similar, but this one feels slightly different because it's basically an exception (most of I-45 otherwise, and most other surrounding Houston roads beyond BW8/TX99, are not particularly urban) instead of something you can treat as a general rule of thumb (I-35 is basically a constant stream of cities between San Antonio and DFW, DFW has a ton of semi-major cities within its general vicinity, and so forth.)

[alclark]

Red light cameras are now banned in Texas. If possible, the game code should be adjusted so that in Texas the only way to be fined is if running the light is observed by the police.
https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/polit ... 6d32115f50

I doubt this needs clarification, but in case it does, I'm not advocating running red lights, just adjusting the fine system to match the real world as close as possible.

[flight50]

Yes I am happy they chose to get rid of them. I got a ticket once from them. But why post your comment if Texas is not even part of the game yet. Even if Texas was in, I doubt they would implement red light cameras fines anyways.