ATS concept map (fanmade)

[supersobes]

In my opinion, just looking at the map isn't a good way to judge how the states should be added. It leaves a lot of room for error as it's easy to underestimate a lot of places like the Midwest and the Appalachian Mountains and over estimate a lot of the more well known places such as Chicago and New York. I think looking at things from a truck's perspective is the best way to overcome this. Here is good resource to see just what an area could be like once it's implemented into ATS. It covers more or less the majority of trucking routes and metropolitan areas of the 48 contiguous states. The only states that aren't really well documented on there are Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. This is also another great one, and it is especially relevant right now as it has a focus on how trucking is in the area around Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, etc. These are good resources to get an idea of what trucking in a particular region feels like without actually being there. They can also give some ideas for routes and places that we can wish for SCS to add to ATS.

[flight50]

I didn't even pay attention to the order, lol. The best way to perhaps make the map imho is to complete the West first. Box it up and start with squared off boarders kind of. Then comes Texas. After Texas, Pavel wants to get to Florida asap. That's his ambition, he has mentioned this a few times. So imo, the best route is to use Texas as the focal point. Once Texas is done, ATS will have 3 map teams (at the least). One team goes North. One team goes Northeast and the last team goes East. That is a spread in all directions. Now if SCS has enough to do more than 3 maps teams, they can create 2 larger map teams and make larger areas per dlc. One team goes Northeast/North and the other team goes East/Northeast.

Take Texas and draw a jagged line from Texarkana to lets say Detroit. If ATS gets 2 super map teams, Team one takes the red zone and Team 2 takes the blue zone. That sorta splits the country in half in regards to load. Not exactly but a ball park sort of speak. Team red may look larger but there are less larger cities and more open space than the blue zone. The Great Plains is most open space. The blue zone has more larger cities and denser. Not to mention the major portion of the Eastern road network. So they will have a heck of a time so they need less states to cover. That is why I think something like this is equal. But the red and blue is only if SCS keeps to the Summer and Winter map releases regardless of map team size. Increasing the map size per dlc allows larger map teams instead of SCS trying to release 3-4 ATS map a year. Remember they still have (1) huge ETS2 map to release every year. 5 maps is too much considering that everyone expect the map team all works on both games.

[ external image ]

[Vinnie P.B.]

Amazing work, big thanks for "our future dreams"...

[averyc2506]

i definitely hope that they slightly scale the east coast to a larger proportion so that it doesn't feel as crowded as it would at 1:20.

[Shiva]

That would be have to be gradual, distorting the map, compared to the west coast.
The trick used for UK, in ETS2, will not work for the east coast.

[flight50]

Yeah I am not sure how they would work the East coast either. They can't just push the entire coast out to the Ocean by 5-10 miles. Everything before the coast would have to be gradually stretched East as well. Perhaps they could take Texas and every state stacked above it, leave it alone at current scale. The West and Central states are not as dense so no point in touching it. Everything East of those stacked states, stretch things over gradual with each dlc by 4-5 miles. By the time you get to the East coast, there could be more room for sure. Now I doubt all this happens but we will see.

I am sure by the time SCS gets to the MidWest/East, it would be to late to realize they need more space. So what they'd have to do is just eliminate a lot more unfortunately. By then, the team could be large enough to do another rescale. Perhaps 1:15/1:16 or 1:17. That is wayyyy to much work but not completely impossible. At that point, the ETS2 audience would go mad crazy if they don't get a rescale as well. ETS2 will more than likely finish before ATS so maybe they could already be working a rescale? Just a guess. But rumor is the islands in ETS2 are already 1:15 scale so all would match at that point.

In ATS, the original rescale went from June/July to November if I recall correctly. To do another rescale at the ATS size by then could take 12+ months. But with soo many mappers at that point, it could be much easier as there would be tons of sectors that people can fill in without conflicting with another mapper. Filling in 4-5 miles across the US would take serious time though. Any remaining states at that point wouldn't be so bad with so much of the map in place. Perhaps SCS would only have about a dozen states left to go if a rescale happened again. Dev time increases for an increased map but like I mentioned, we'd have a very large map by then so a pause in map production won't be that bad imo. With the entire ATS map team, those dozen states could be knocked out in 1-2 years. Then on to Canada or Mexico. I'd rather Mexico if ProMods is in Canada. Reforma is doing a great job there but its only two of them. Mexico is also a totally different culture than the US and Canada that would be cool to see in ATS. Plus SCS could go all the way down to Panama to include all of North America. I don't think Reforma is planing to go to Panama.

[Shiva]

Rescale? Not happening. Unless an AI can do it.
@flight50 I can't remember, but do you have a profile with current ProMods?
There you can see the size everything takes, including the British Isles. British isles have the scale of 1:15.
Here is a post showing what happens if one has a background map where the SCS map background trick of UK 1:15 shown as 1:20 gives for trouble, if roads go from 1:15 to 1:20 areas.
https://promods.net/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=35920 2nd picture.

ProMods 2.50 map, where everything is shown as they are built, without SCS any tricks. As far as I know:
[ external image ]

[flight50]

No I don't have that ProMods profile. I don't run ProMods ETS2.

[Shiva]

Well, the pics I linked, does tell a lot tho
And the forum post shows how going from 1:20 background map to 1:15 looks, with the odd roads.

[flight50]

Its not 100% confirmed, but the Colorado guess was about 70% right.