Idaho Discussion Thread

[FrancescoMasci]

June is 31 days so it would be possible to have an announcement the 1st and then a release on the 31st.

[ThatWeirdTrucker]

June is 30 days...

[flight50]

If Idaho gets the call, I see it coming on the 18th or the 28th at the earliest. As usually, I will stick to wanting Thursday releases. Wednesday works too but Fridays should be off limits. I really don't see it coming before the 3rd week of June though. It can just as easy be inline for a July 4th weekend and release for July 2nd or July 1st. I give it that 3 week window from the 3rd week of June to the first week of July. Considering most people will still keep distance for covid, no point in me going out much until later this year. If a first week of July release, that gives me a weekend that I won't have to work and can play ATS for my 3 day weekend.

[FrancescoMasci]

@ThatWeirdTrucker LOL you are right. I don't know what I was thinking.
Anyway the reasonment can still apply. If they announce the release at the beginning of the month and they release it at the end, it's still a summer release.

[Reignman]

Can you imagine the twist, turns and the mazes that can happen in an entire state of Delaware.....as unpaved roads? I seriously doubt we'd get remotely close to that though, so its more setting myself up for disappointment than anything.

Delaware? If they keep going from west to east and release a new state every 5 months, you won't see Delaware until 2057 lol. Give or take a month or 2.

Quoting myself to provide context to the following 2 responses.

@Reignman you think that New Jersey, Delaware, Rhode Island, etc will be separate DLC's?

No probably not, but my point still stands. At the rate of a new state, or state sized area every 5 months or so, we're not going to see the eastern states for quite a while. Things could change and the pace quickens however. I'd rather them continue to take their time and make them all look nice and unique though. I like the unique flavor of all the current states. And we could always use some of those map mods if we really wanted to drive coast to coast haha.

@Reignman. I meant New Jersey in the sentence you quoted. But if you understood my point, I said nothing about when SCS gets to Delaware or New Jersey. If you re-read my post, perhaps you will understand. But you are way in left field my friend.

Whoa, how'd you know I play left field in my softball league? Are you spying on me? But no, I got your point about the curvy roads, but I was more or less thinking unless you're playing this game for another 30 years, you're never going to see Delware, NJ, or whatever, so your point about the curvy roads is moot lol.

And I'm not trying to knock SCS with any of these comments. They could probably whip out a bunch of empty generic looking states if they wanted to, but that wouldn't be much fun. Half the enjoyment is looking at all the details they put into each state, finding little easter eggs, and taking in the scenery.

This has been their state release timeline so far ...

California
Nevada - (February 2016)
Arizona - (June 2016)
New Mexico - (November 2017)
Oregon - (October 2018)
Washington - (June 2019)
Utah - (November 2019)

So lets pretend they continue a 5 month pace for the remaining states. (they could also probably do some of the "fly over" states at the same time)

This is what that timeline could look like.

Idaho - (June 2020)
Colorado - (Nov 2020)
Wyoming - (Apr 2021)
Montana - (Sep 2021
Texas - (Feb 2022) - maybe longer?
Oklahoma - (July 2022)
Kansas - (Dec 2022)
Nebraska - (May 2023)
South Dakota - (Oct 2023) - both Dakotas at same time?
North Dakota
Minnesota - (Mar 2024)
Iowa - (Aug 2024) - maybe Iowa with Minnesota?
Missouri - (Jan 2025)
Arkansas - (June 2025)
Lousiana - (Nov 2025)
Wisconsin - (Apr 2026) - 10 year anniversary of ATS
Illinois - (Sep 2026)
Michigan - (Feb 2027)
Indiana - (July 2027)
Kentucky - (Dec 2027)
Tennessee - (May 2028)
Mississippi - (Oct 2028)
Alabama - (Mar 2029)
Georgia - (Aug 2029)
Florida - (Jan 2030)
South Carolina - (June 2030)
North Carolina - (Nov 2030)
Virginia - (Apr 2031)
Ohio - (Sep 2031)
West Virginia (Feb 2032)

Then they can probably do these 3 states together.

Maryland/Delaware/New Jersey - (July 2032)

Couple more bigger states:

Pennsylvania - (Dec 2032)
New York - (May 2033)

Then finally we get the New England area, which could maybe be 1 DLC.

Connecticut - (Oct 2033)
Rhode Island
Massachusetts
Vermont
New Hampshire
Maine

So another 13-14 years to finish all 48 continental states at the current pace. Assuming they don't do any of Canada or Mexico on this timeline somewhere. Technology will change quite a bit in this time too, so things could get faster, the other states might need an update or 2 along the way, and ATS 2 could come along at some point too haha.

[flight50]

Your time line has 2 flaws I think
1) you are not considering growth. Just like many people never saw multiple map teams coming, SCS has done that now. Currently we have 2 map teams. As of last Jan/Feb 2019, Pavel revealed they had started a 3rd map team. To date, I am sure they are trained up and are either doing rebuilds or they are doing prelim on next year's maps. But ultimately, what's to say they don't add 4 or even 5 map teams.
2) you are not factoring in how small the Eastern states are. They are smaller and denser. Denser in the fact that not all those roads and cities will make the game. Which translates to bundling the East.

I have referred to ATS possibly getting super teams. These are teams that can be the size of ETS2 in another 2-3 years if SCS is really pushing for Canada and Mexico. Get the US done at a faster rate but without sacrificing quality. You do this by adding more people, not cutting corners. What they can do with super teams is still produce June/July and then Oct/Nov maps. But instead of doing 2 total states, a super team can do lets says 3 states bundled together once they get East of Texas. These states are small and 3 state can be about the size of (1) Western states. So two super teams, that's about 5-6 states in one year. Do that 5-6 years and a lot of states are knocked out because of the continued growth of the company.

Back in 2017 we all had theories on map completion dates. Every year that number goes done because of growth. We might not see it directly but things are happening faster. It will continue to shift so to even continue thinking about it, solves little because we have no idea how SCS will continue to grow. I don't see it going beyond 12 years myself for the US. 10-12 is a better guessimation vs 15 but even I don't know. Its all a guess.

[Freeze338]

@Reignman 2 states per year with 2 map teams. Since Pavel mentioned about third map team SCS can release 3 map DLC as big as western states per year. Which means that calendar will end sooner than you think.

And not only that, sooner or later ETS2 will be finished as the map expansion. I assume they can do that in max 5-6 years. They can rotate half of the ETS2 map team to ATS and keep the rest for rework for current map.

Like @flight50 have said , you are missing one and huge thing. Growth. If you write that post in 2018 you predict the finishing time about 2050 because in that time SCS releases 1 DLC per year.

[angrybirdseller]

Have to agree Reigmann about how long it would take. I agree with Freeze that ETS2 map team will be reassigned to ATS. Think 2028-2035 time frame realistic enough to complete. This is largest sandbox map ever built in any game ever. Will have four teams working on ATS by 2024 that will accelerate building game world.

[flight50]

I have a feeling now with the achievements finally out, I am willing to bet that in the next two weeks, we get the Idaho summary blog. It will tell us what we can expect in Idaho. Not only that, we just might get our release month provided. I believe this is the 3rd week Idaho has gone into closed testing. By the 3rd-4th week of June it could be getting wrapped up for final polishing. So if a compatibility update kicks in, we could get one by the 2nd or 3rd week of June and assume it runs for 2-4 weeks. That would push Idaho into the first half of July. If there is a compatibility update, I don't expect a large one. It will only be partials of the graphics overhaul. Lighting is the main thing but skyboxes could fall in. There will probably be some prefabs replaced and tweaked as well. New roads? Maybe, maybe not. We all have shared what additional roads to add in other threads a lot. Both Idaho and Colorado go recent updates on Steam so activity is definitely full steam ahead.

The Forestry pack also got updated. It would would be nice if its Idaho related for new cargo with goodies in Idaho. I am still hoping to see JumberJack Jill this year. Either with Idaho or Colorado.

[JohnMc19]

More map teams will come as ATS continues to grow and I think Colorado and Texas will be the big sellers. I mostly play ATS since Washington and Utah were released I've moved across from ETS2. I would love to see US completed like we all would, still many years away as we get further east the States get smaller. Once all the map teams come in together they could just box up North Eastern States together like New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Not from US so had to look up some those states I know thats way into the future they could bundle those in together. I can't see them making generic states. They will probably have a few people doing rebuilds or adding new roads as they move eastwards.