Texas Discussion Thread

Shiva
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Re: Texas Discussion Thread

#1671 Post by Shiva » 25 Sep 2021 08:55

I agree with flight50, about the %, the blogs.
I look forward to the next Texas blog.
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flight50
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Re: Texas Discussion Thread

#1672 Post by flight50 » 25 Sep 2021 13:42

Same here. I'm curious to know what the devs been up to. Surely good progress is made. Texas is about 2.5 years in development now map wise. However long preliminary was to now and then add in the xmas stream stuff we say, we know progress should be made fo sure. As more people are settling in with Wyoming, Texas will kick in here shortly in regards to keeping the community engaged with for the next dlc to release. Texas blog has to really get going before they can officially announce the next dlc to follow Texas. I'm sure that when Texas does release, that will be a huge lift for ATS. Mainly because of the resources need for Texas. People will spread around and that is when we'll notice ATS having more manpower. Hopefully everyone sticks around with ATS. Its job security for a solid decade or more when looking at North America as a whole.

It would be interesting if we could get the 4 regions of Texas to have focused blogs. That is 4 separate blogs to concentrate on in Texas. I think instead of random pics all over, with more focus blogs per region, it will give people a much better feel on what to expect with Texas. Each region specializes in something. Each region has different vegetation and terrain. The far West would be along the lines of what we've seen in the game so far. The High Plains could resemble Eastern Colorado or Wyoming without the elevations. But the Central Plains would be pretty new. Sure some places are similar but the Central plains is what we'd be seeing with all the states direction North of Texas. Then last we have the Coastal Plains. We have wooded areas in ATS already but like the High Plains, it lacks the elevation of we're use to seeing in ATS in regards to wooded areas.

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I think one of the coolest things about Texas are our service roads. Some people call them frontage/feeder or side roads. Either way, its all the same. SCS can't avoid these if they are to capture Texas. I was just reminded 2 days ago how beneficial service roads are. When there is a bad wreck or heavy construction going on and the road is shut down, we have the service roads to take. For the most part, they parallel the interstate quite a ways continuously. If they don't, you can bet eventually TXDOT will do it one day. It might be slower travel and you might have to go thru red lights a lot, but you won't get stuck on the highway for hrs and hrs. Some flow is better than no flow. Businesses are setup off these service roads left and right. Whatever SCS is planning, they have to have urban in mind for the largest cities. I'm expecting a really good vibe to come from the largest Texas cities along with pretty good representation from the mid sized cities as well. I don't see the devs over sizing cities like in Wyoming. Texas is huge but with everything that needs to fit in with scale, has to be reasonable. Texas can't feel too crowded either. So people that think Texas should have the same number of cities as Iberia, you will be sore about it. Texas is not Iberia and just because its larger, does not validate it having that many cities. I can see some people making negative comments about cities. Not realizing that California has like what, 22-25 cities. Texas can't double that just because.
Shiva
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Re: Texas Discussion Thread

#1673 Post by Shiva » 25 Sep 2021 18:39

flight50, those frontage roads, I only checked a few, well 1 in somewhat detail.
San Antonio to Austin, has a frontage road all way.
Actually. about 208miles of frontage roads, one way.
Georgetown has a small gap, of about 2miles, but it is still connected thru other roads.

Texas regions, the link you had on the previos, there was a page to one with even more detailed version. It was interesting.
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Trakaplex
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Re: Texas Discussion Thread

#1674 Post by Trakaplex » 25 Sep 2021 20:05

@flight50 you should be noted that California has more bleak spots than Texas, and most of its residents live in metro regions. In Texas, we have a balance, so there might be 50-60 visitable towns in game. Suburbs can round to 100 (no joke) if all you are suggesting will appear. We have seen already Hillister, Uvalde, and Lampasas. Hillister could overwrite Woodville.

Since ATS only has necessary routes, many of these frontage roads will be blocked off except at the exits .

Also I-635 appeared in the dds file, but not as a map icon. I-610 is the same. So there probably will be no TX-130, and US-183 via Lockhart will be its own highway. However, I still think I-635 and I-610 will make it depending on the scaling not impeding other towns. We probably won't be able to tell until a blog or the release since SCS usually doesn't include interurban auxiliary interstates.
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flight50
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Re: Texas Discussion Thread

#1675 Post by flight50 » 26 Sep 2021 06:03

@Shiva lmao. I never noticed that frontage road. Holy cow. Thanks for sharing. That is a long one indeed. I never would have imagined that. One could technically travel 6 hrs from Hillsboro to San Antonio irl. I doubt SCS does that but mannn what a road. For that regions link, looks like the only two regions that are consistent is the Basin & Range and the Coastal Plains. The other two seems to be opinionated. Most of the Texas region maps have a larger Central Plains vs the smaller one. I forgot about that link on that other page. I was thinking I did one but I was looking on my imgur and only found the one I just recently posted. Its easier for me to keep track of hosted pics vs linked pics, lol.

I see California and Texas being closer to the same. Most of the Texas population is in the Texas Triangle. Outside of that, is the population is much lower and spread all out. El Paso has the largest population outside of the Triangle. But its also in the top 25 largest US cities. Texas, the dlc could be more balance with marked cities though. I think the spread could be good but it has the upper hand on California only because of its shape.

Are you referring to the dds file from years ago Texas or are you referring to a more recent one? The map below is one I extracted at the being of 1.41 eob. I haven't extract one since. But there is nothing in Texas for it. I wouldn't assume anything with DFW and Houston though. Those are some of the largest cities in the US and space could be a factor. If Texas's big (6) are anything like Wyoming's cities in size, I don't see space playing nicely in Texas.


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Shiva
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Re: Texas Discussion Thread

#1676 Post by Shiva » 26 Sep 2021 06:10

This one https://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/s ... olor.shtml flight50.

Trakaplex, do you mean 50-60, including scenery towns?
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eonellivlem
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Re: Texas Discussion Thread

#1677 Post by eonellivlem » 26 Sep 2021 12:50

flight50 wrote: 25 Sep 2021 13:42 Its job security for a solid decade or more when looking at North America as a whole.
You'd think it would be a no brainer but can you imagine how repetitive the mapping must be. They see 1 years work ahead of them, they finish, just to start the process all over again and again and again and......... I tip my hat to the devs who have this as there work schedule, they must be passionate about ATS or ETS2 or they just wont last.
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Re: Texas Discussion Thread

#1678 Post by flight50 » 26 Sep 2021 15:19

Shiva wrote: 26 Sep 2021 06:10 This one https://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/s ... olor.shtml flight50.

Trakaplex, do you mean 50-60, including scenery towns?
That must have been one of the pics available in the link I did then. I haven't seen that one before but it is quite detailed, lol. I see what you mean now. No telling what SCS used to map Texas. We'll find out one day though.

50-60 towns visitable towns as in marked....no chance. I didn't comprehend his words at first. I would have commented on that had I paid attention more, lol. Bu that amount is not necessary to make Texas good. The window is 25-35 cities. No more. No less. I'd lower expectation if people are expecting 35+ cities with Texas just because its big. What is making ATS so good is space. There will be dense areas yes but the entire dlc, nah. That can't happen. Texas can't be cluttered just because its huge. That defeats the purpose of the open roads people are expecting. Texas's Triangle will be pretty busy. Its suppose to be. But traveling outside of that and we should feel distance. It won't be Montana open but close enough. Texas will have 2-3 times the amount of cities than Montana too. A redone California will be great. Between the largest 3 states in the lower 48, we will have either lots of urban cities and/or lots of open roads to the next city.


@eonellivlem Most definitely it gets repetitive but not really. Its the same process but different look. That life, realism so if people want to blame SCS for being repetitive, that is just ignorance. Look on Google street view before one passes judgement. SCS just needs to give the correct vibe and they do this well. Not perfect but we can always tell where we are in space. There is something new to learn with every state........if SCS opened up ATS more, the can offer more. With more I mean ICCs. Every dlc should be able to offer something new. The larger the ICC library, the larger and more diverse ATS can be. Currently if feels limited because its not opening up. I reallllllly hope Texas is that change of pace dlc. Montana can continue with the same companies as is considering it too is part of the West. Once outside of the West and into another region, ATS has to change pace. Texas is the time to make that change. Texas is that chance to pretty much reface ATS. All the companies we know....needs a huge mix up. Its okay to reuse a good portion of the same companies but I'd dilute it to 40%-50%. ETS2 doesn't look like that and either should ATS. People want to keep arguing with me and they continue to fail to realize that the US is just a diverse with regional companies, national companies, state specific companies and continental companies. There is a difference in all (4). New companies that do the same thing as what we currently have along with more new industries to introduce something totally, is what will make Texas a great dlc imho. Even using some of the same companies but rebranding just like Coastline Mining added NAMIQ is better than continuing to reuse old prefab. Some depots are still base map depots. Although SCS makes newer prefabs, they are still the old companies

SellGoods should not be the only logistics, Wallbert should not be the only grocery store. Butimen and Plaster & Sons should not be the only construction companies. Double them both at least. Chemso, Deepgrove, Gallon Gas, ....all these companies are base map depots with little offer in terms of competitor company. Bushnell and SunCrops needs new names. Texas is large enough to have more than these two. Texas could easily get (2) new of each for a total of (4+) new farms. If ATS can only have (1) farm per city...make (2) different farms to add more farms per marked city. The Great Plains will be about farming and getting more farms per marked city will be crucial. Set up Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and the Dakota for Agricultural success. Farming is also state specific and regional specific. Why have Bushnell and Suncrops when you could have something like Horizon Plain Farms, Green Pasture Farms, Cattlehead Farms, etc heck...some new... be innovative with new. Name doesn't matter. There are a million out there. What does matter though is providing more companies and Texas is the state to launch new companies in this new region. The West is about to be a done deal. Its time to think about the South region and the MidWest. Both will more than likely hit ATS in the next 2-3 years.

So repetitive in a sense yes, but one has to really enjoy their job. They signed up for this so the job description is pretty clear on what's at stake. If people are just joining just to get a paycheck they'd probably leave sooner than later. I like the team they are assembling in ATS. They are showing some compassionate work imo. This trend is nice to carry us onward for many years.
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Re: Texas Discussion Thread

#1679 Post by Trucker Nik » 26 Sep 2021 17:03

@flight50 Iberia is smaller than Texas and has (so far) 49 cities, two more cities have been confirmed in the latest blog about Iberia, so we will have 51 cities in Iberia, Texas is bigger than Iberia, so 50-60 cities if I contained I would not be surprised at all , rather it is possible to get 30-40 cities in Texas, my estimate is 35 cities, but maybe the scs will surprise us and we will get more places than we expect
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flight50
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Re: Texas Discussion Thread

#1680 Post by flight50 » 26 Sep 2021 20:17

Overall size does not matter. I'm aware that Texas is larger though. Iberia is denser too and that is where the the difference comes into play. Spain has a population of 46.9 million. Portugal has 10.2 million according to Google. If my math is right, that is 57.1 million. Texas population is only 29 million total. That is almost less than doubled at 28.1 million than Iberia.

More than 35 does not make sense for Texas, its not Iberia. You guys that don't live here have to understand that the US is not Europe. There is a huge difference in density with the population. That density is reflected in the maps per game. The largest US cities are far fewer than in Europe.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/conti ... ies/europe
https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities
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