Wyoming Discussion Thread

[flight50]

@Bedavd so what your numbers indicates is that the times have reduced with each dlc at least. Perhaps they just shifted that particular focus to later on in the process. June 17th or June 24th is cool with me. That puts Wyoming out before the US holiday....the weekend of July 4th. Most people in the US will be on holidays. Although the rest of the world is not on holidays, its always good to avoid holidays when possible. I'd want to maximize day one sales and week 1 sales if I was Pavel. Get money for the return investment asap. The dlc's will always sale over the years but if one can get a lump some of that money based on the efforts to develop (x) dlc, then that would be my goal.

[Bedavd]

@Xaagon hahah. Never underestimate a law student who really doesn’t want to read for his Constitutional Law class! It actually only took me maybe 10 minutes. Since the blogs are tagged by state, I could just scroll through and find the first one with plates. But you’re right, next couple of months for release I’m sure. I bet we see at least one gameplay video before the end of May.

@flight50 Also, what might be part of it is that only after Washington did SCS start including the truck and trailer specific plate designs. Before that it was just the standard car plate on everything. Maybe now it just takes longer to make the complete designs since they have more types to pay attention to.

[Sora]

Regarding the mention of version numbers, how far will SCS go with the version names until they reach 2.00? It's not reasonable to assume that there will ever be an ATS2. Hence my query.

Version numbers are more like dates than decimals. You go from January 9 to January 10. If we pretend January had 310 days instead of 31, you'd go from January 99 to January 100. It'd be the same thing here - if we somehow reached 100 updates, it'd probably be 1.99, 1.100, and 1.101, just as it was for ETS2 when it went from 1.9 to 1.10 to 1.11. (ATS never actually did this because it skipped a lot of numbers after 1.6 to be equal to ETS2.)

So there's no effective limit on when 2.00 can happen. Could be next year after 1.45, could be at 1.100, or it could just never happen. Truth be told, the game is already so far beyond what it was at 1.0 that I doubt it'll ever "roll over" to 2.0 just because there's almost nothing they could realistically add that would be THAT much of an upgrade (relative to everything else they've added.) Only thing I could see that might do it is the addition of full multiplayer and complete WoT integration alongside it... and even that would probably be done over the course of like 5 updates rather than one large one, because that's how these games usually work.

[flight50]

Someone explained how the versions were done before iirc. To go to 2.xx.xx, that would basically be ATS2 and that type of update won't be happening. A 2 something means a severe update. If I am incorrect, I'm sure I'll be corrected.

[rbsanford]

Yeah, I think v2.0 would entail a completely new game engine, and would be a separate game, if I understand correctly.

[KnuteOle]

I thought the blog post said: Wyoming: Mimes.

Then I thought, oh crap... this is going to ruin my immersion and increase the in-game level of annoyance to a high degree.

Then I blamed Alex and moved on.

[Xaagon]

Speaking of Alex, we haven't had a livestream focused on ATS in a while. The last one I remember was the interview with Racertoft.

[flight50]

Well its been Iberia session which is understandable. They still have to cater to both. Considering Iberia had 600K+ wishlist it, you can't really blame them. If you imagine that even 75% of those wishlist bought the game...do the math with the conversion rates and all.........along with employee expenses......its still a pretty nice penny. Wyoming can't do that neither can Texas. But I do hope in the next 5 years, that ATS's map will be a lot more irresistible to keep away. You have ETS2 on the truck market and nothing else comes close besides SCS's other flagship........ATS. Eventually, they will run out of Europe to do. Will they expand to Asia/Africa or start a new continent? ATS will be right there in the back pocket. It still a 10+ year project once you consider all of North America.

The ATS devs have to focus on them though. What is making ATS so good is the attention to detail and the diverse landscaping of North America. Outside of mapping, there are many other issue in ATS to solve before it can be great. But over the past few years since NM released, I have watch ATS's approve go from like 91% to almost 95% approval now. That is great. Outside of this forum, the ATS fan base if just very slow growing. In due time, it will gain more and more ground. I'd love to see the day it can at least get to 50% of the ETS2 fan base. Once Canada and Mexico are added, maybe even more will come. Who knows where ATS will end up. As long as its still supported, I'll keep buying content.

Wyoming is another step in the right direction in regards to filling out the map and becoming a vital piece of the puzzle. No Wyoming, no Montana, no South Dakota or no North Dakota. Each new state, supports an older state. Northern Colorado becomes much more friendly. US-40 is already pretty good supporting Northern Colorado, but with Wyoming, we get at least 2-3 connections to Wyoming from Colorado. Not only that, but we get 2-3 connections from Utah to Wyoming and another 2 at least from Idaho. Talk about a piece of the puzzle. Wyoming will be a perfect addition to the game. But of course, Montana is the icing on the cake. I'm at least happy to see Wyoming coming before Texas though. Although I wished Montana still came before Texas, I'll take Texas and keep trucking.

Extension for I-80 and I-25 will be good additions from Colorado and Utah. Its always great to see Interstates extend for a solid length of distance. Hopefully the last piece of the puzzle to complete the West is on the menu for next Summer. I-15, I-90, US-93, US-191, US-287....those roads getting extended thru Wyoming and into Montana will be the ultimate. A complete West is soooo close. By the time ATS is 6.5 years old, we could have a dozen states in ATS with 2 more possible by the time ATS turns 7 with Oklahoma and maybe Louisiana or Kansas. Not only that, ATS will have all high quality maps pretty soon. California might be fully rebuilt by next Summer/Fall so that leaves Nevada and at least 40-50% of Arizona to bring up to par. Then its all to new dlc's and/or adding new roads that are missing from the current map in all states.

[oldmanclippy]

Speaking of interstates being extended, it's really satisfying to see interstates and US routes completed in-game. I-84 from I-5 to I-80 being completed with Idaho was a highlight for me (waiting for Pennsylvania to "resume" it ), as was I-5 being completed (for all intents and purposes). Wyoming will complete I-25, Montana will "complete" I-15. I-90 won't be completed for years, but at least Montana will fill the gap in it that Wyoming will create. Like you said @flight50 , every state is a new piece of the puzzle and complements earlier states. But once Montana arrives, I think the entire western third of the map will feel reasonably complete; it'll be the southeast's turn to feel incomplete once each state is released (northern Texas complemented by Oklahoma, northern Oklahoma by Kansas, northern Louisiana by Arkansas if they don't come bundled, etc). We're about to pass the awkward growing years of ATS where even if they go full blown race to Florida after Montana, the map will feel a lot better than the previous L-shaped maps that came before, because the West will be complete

[flight50]

Yeah, getting 1/3 of the map completed will be huge. I sure hope Montana is next Summer's map. Whether Texas got the call or Montana got the call following Wyoming, the map would still be in the same condition. Both are interchangeable and the possibility for either could have gone either way. As long as the one that doesn't follow Wyoming, follows the one that did follow Wyoming comes for 2022.

Closing the I-90 gap with Montana will be huge though. The missing portion of I-90 is in the same boat as the missing portion of I-84 between Oregon and Utah. But I-90 is much longer. The gap I-84 gap is 278 miles long. While the I-90 gap is 551 miles long. That is almost double the length. That 551 doesn't even include the 61 miles from CDA to the border of Montana either. Add that in and we have a 612 mile gap without Montana for I-90. But in due time, Idaho will link up to Wyoming and what a trip that will be. I-25 from Denver, thru Wyoming, thru Montana and into Washington will be another alternate route to get to the PNW.

I love looking at the possible 1/3 of the map completed. I see a huge circular map linking all the West together. I look at I-25 starting in Las Cruces, NM. Take that thru Denver, thru Billings, MT to Seattle, Wa and down thru a soon to be rebuilt California. Go from Seattle to San Diego, CA and then back to Las Cruces. Mix in all the other routes within all that and the map is delicious. Texas will be there too to play with for next year. If we got multi drop sooner than later, the amount of routes and options we have with 1/3 completed would definitely make the game a lot more fun. Add that to a possible circular map in Texas and we'd have a lot of roads to play with.

The next 2-3 years will seriously start defining ATS. Get Wyoming, Texas and Montana out the way and the devs can literally go in any direction. Not only should all this happen by the end of 2022, but I think another dlc joins before 2023 arrives. Be it Oklahoma or Louisiana.... doesn't matter. Oklahoma will make more sense but we'll see. Wyoming first, then Texas is all we know at this point.