I'm not considering population. I'm only referring to the path/route itself. Population means nothing. Its about available industry that drives whether a town is marked or not. Anything can technically be scenic just as it can be marked. Tonopah and Picohe has what, 1-2 depots but they are still marked. We don't need a marked town to have 5+ depots just to be marked. I can easily come up with 3+ depots for almost every town that I might mention. You also have to think about remote depots as well. Salmon has Challis...Durango has Ouray, etc. Torrey can be the marked town but have 1 depot from surrounding arounds beyond Torrey as remote depots to beef up validation for taking that route.
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Red Sands - gives us a motel to rest at
-Between Loa, Lyman, Torrey, Bicknell and Hanksville, there are a solid 5-6 livestock places that can happen. Same for farming opportunities
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Conoco - tank deliveries for gas
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Voltison Motors - depot for car parts
- several locations to do a Olthon Homes prefab. Make a new type
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Plaster & Sons - new construction opportunity. Or this
new church for new construction or even 50% or 75% completion. The background and surrounding mountains would be a joy to have.
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HMS - use this a machine repair place
The Southern Utah route is really all about scenery just like YS, just like Yosemite, just like Rocky Mountain Park. Its not much different than all the hidden race tracks, Garden of the Gods....stuff that don't do anything for trucking, yet people don't complain about those. But people complain about getting more scenic. roads in the game? Adding a town and depots is a bonus as it justifies the Southern Utah fill just like YS to Cody does. Cody by itself is enough validation to make marked. It has legit industry without thinking too hard. As stated, if there is room to add something, whether a scenic route or not, most people just want options. The road doesn't have to make trucking sense, its just need to be available for those that want scenery in the game. Doesn't matter if you or I only take it once or not. If ATS has one million owners for Utah or Wyoming or whatever, that is one million people that took that road...not just one. So it was traveled one million times for one million to see.