[REWORK] Colorado rework tips (originally pre-research)

[EllieODaire]

You drive up to Cheyenne mountain, the gate is locked, and the only pedestrian in sight is that one guy from the stock footage walking around with his rifle nestled snugly in his buttcheeks.

[rbsanford]

Or you find a flipped over jeep, and running from it towards the tunnel are Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy.

[Some newbie driver]

We are living on a simulation game running on WOPR

[Xaagon]

I’d have to agree. I drive the entirety of I25 between Pueblo and Denver multiple times a week and Springs ... it truly is all about the military. Now, if SCS really wanted to toss in a “military” landmark along the way, they could always do like they did with Roswell and do a semi-fictional Easter egg for SG-1

But with the scale of the game, it’d be almost impossible to tell the difference between Springs and Denver. With the exception of Monument Hill, the entirety of 25 between Denver and the Springs is all one solid population sprawl. And even Monument Hill would be that way right now if it weren’t for most of that land being BLM.

Colorado Springs is not 100% military, it's a city with an area population of about 700,000. I would guess that maybe 25% of the city's households are employed by the various military installations. The area between Monument and Castle Rock is still very rural, but in scale miles it would only be 1 or 2 minutes of driving in game.

While I live in Colorado Springs and would love to have my ATS trucks based in a garage there, if SCS has to avoid all things military, they might do a better job using the space to make Denver bigger and better. I would not be offended if Colorado Springs was omitted (unless they omitted Colorado Springs but included Boulder which is even closer to Denver). That said, they already have some military items in Arizona, and the distance between Pueblo & Colorado Springs and Denver & Colorado Springs is about the same as the distance between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, so I think it's likely that it will be included at the very least as a group of buildings along I-25 with a blocked exit.

Maybe the solution would be to cheat the map a little bit... move Pueblo and Colorado Springs slightly south of where they really are to open up space between them and allow more sprawl room for Denver.

[Fae]

While they may not be able to represent the Springs as a town, they can certainly represent it with some prefabs. They’ve done that elsewhere in the game with the distances you drive to get to a farm or refinery that’s remotely located, but considered by the game to be part of a nearby “city” for the sake of assignment.

Moving the towns a bit further for the sake of driving distance sounds acceptable, also.

[rbsanford]

Yeah, I don't see why Colorado Springs couldn't be represented, at the very least, as an outlier of Denver, like Renton is for Seattle. But I agree with Xaagon when he says that, while Colorado Springs and Denver are nearby, they aren't that close together. They're farther apart than a lot of other pairs of cities already in ATS. CO Springs and Denver are about 70 miles apart, while Albuquerque and Santa Fe are 64 miles apart. Olympia and Seattle? 60 miles, with Tacoma between them. Portland and Salem? 45 miles. Etc, etc. If San Francisco/Oakland and Portland/Vancouver can make the cut, I don't see why Colorado Springs/Denver can't.

[Xaagon]

Another thing you can find in Colorado is chain up areas - this is an exit where you can drive behind a guardrail to mount wheel chains. Here's one along I-25:

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.066782, ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.0678268 ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.070978, ... 312!8i6656

[Ernie D]

Since Utah has introduced oil and gas exploration to ATS, I believe Colorado should follow in its steps, please consider incorperating the gas fields in Parachute, Co, I70 exit 75, hwy 215 north, one of the entrances is in the garden gulch area just north of Parachute, this could be a flatbed and lowboy paradise, Ive hauled many loads of drill pipe, casing, well heads, pump jacks, racks, etc,...., basically anything and everything related the oil and gas exploration to this area, there could be tanker loads here also bringing drilling mud and brine water to the sites also.
One feature of this area is getting to the location itself, the gate entrance is roughly at 5000' but to get to the delivery points, its a very big elevation change in a fairly short area, to 6500'-8000' ft in some areas, the road to get to the delivery points is wide enough for multi-jeep lowboys to bring drilling rig equipment, but has shear dropoffs also with little or no shoulder. The furthermost delivery site Ive been to in this location was around 10 miles, but there are many others in this area farther out, using this same road. Here are a few google map and google earth photos to try to show this area. I have quite a few photos of this area also,but I moved 2 months ago and its been a slow process unpacking everything. I hope what I have at least gives you a idea of this area and the elevations Im talking about.

[ external image ]
[ external image ]
[ external image ]
[ external image ]
[ external image ]
[ external image ]
[ external image ]
[ external image ]
[ external image ]
[ external image ]
[ external image ]
[ external image ]
[ external image ]
[ external image ]

[flight50]

@Ernie D. OMG. Elevated oil fields. Now how sweet would that be to get into Colorado. With all that space on the mountains and no roads, I am sure SCS can take advantage. Just like Simon made the logging road in Bellingham, Wa, I am sure something can be done. Thanks for the pics. I love the one titled 3:31 AT&T. That one shows a serious challenge that a lot of people have been asking for. SCS obviously won't make it as drastic as what that pic indicates but 50-70% of that type of challenge would be nice.

If SCS was to do this just by above view on their own, there is no way they could catch the elevation changes or even know it was like that. Nice to have you with us @Ernie D. Nothing like retired, ex or current truckers to inform the community one what you had to endure or currently experience. Off road trucking is one of the more difficult to bring to the game because no one is here to inform us. Oil/Gas, Logging and mining can play major rolls in ATS if the cards are played right. I know the fire still burns in a lot of you guys so ATS is that sweetness in which you can have your cake and eat it too. Be a trucker still without being a trucker, lol.

[Ernie D]

@flight50 , That area that I posted, it was a real challenge to get to the location, and the very last time I went, the turbocharger was giving me issues, the variable vane setup on it was staying shut so it didnt build boost as it should, so with that I was climbing all that with a least a 1/3 less power than the engine put out. Believe me, I was ready to get light and get outta there as soon as I could lol. If I was still on the road though, Id probably would still be going there, Ive always enjoyed the challenge of that place