Texas Discussion Thread

[flight50]

I can buy Coastline. But way too many companies that are similar to not be diverse. Coastline implies its Coastal. So its name dooms it. NAMIQ is the only company that has come to compensate a base map one.

Restaurants nor convenient stores we don't do deliveries to. Unless multi drop comes into play, I don't see US Foods or Sysco making ATS. For me, I don't consider SellGoods as that. Americold and US Storage are large enough to really get their on parody........each. The are food related. SellGood can't be the only one to cover the entire US for all logistics. Amazon should have its own parody for none food related cargo.

Eddy's/Wallbert both share the same small prefab from the base map for the most part. Eddy's seems to be Walgreen/CVS but Wallbert is mixed in the equation as if it was a neighborhood Walmart and its not. I think Tidbit was the alternate to add some diversity. Here is the rework I mentioned before for Eddy's/Walmart/Target/CVS. viewtopic.php?p=1483622#p1483622

The Kraft one you mention is probably Global Mills. I think Kraft should be the alternate for sure.

[Tristman]

Well, I think both ETS2 and ATS get new company prefabs on about the same pace, maybe ETS2 gets more because it has more specialized industries. The big difference is that in ETS2, prefabs get several company brands, dependent on where they are going to be placed and therefore often end up with new companies. In ATS, those new prefabs just get added to the roster of existing companies.

While I agree ATS needs more diversity when it comes to companies, it makes sense to me that ETS2 continuously has more diversity. After all, the US only has English as its national language, whereas Europe features many countries that speak different languages. Putting a French company in Spain, or a Latvian company in Bulgaria wouldn’t make a lot of sense (though I’m sure ETS2 has done such a thing before).

With the US and its big company chain culture, I think it’s easier for SCS to just use the same company over and over. I hope they see that this ruins the immersion for a lot of people though, and will add more companies within the same industry in the future.

Edit: SellGoods is one of the worst examples when it comes to company diversity imo, since it’s just a generic logistics company that could be replaced with several companies that are based on real life companies. At least Wallbert is clearly based on something real.

[oldmanclippy]

ATS can easily have regional companies. It's no different than ETS2. You all keep throwing in the culture card. Companies have nothing to do with culture. Its about industry. Industries are repetitive in each country just like industries are repetitive here in the US per region, but they still come as different brand compaines.

Exactly this. It's not about culture, it's about the different industries, the physical distance between cities, etc. 99.9% (that's not an exaggeration it's the actual number) of business in the US are small businesses. Most of those are only in one state, and most of those are in one city, and most of those are just in one location. ETS2 does it right: some businesses are international, others are national, others are regional, and others only appear in one city. That diversity is incredible and when I play the (non-base map) parts of ETS2, I don't even think about the ICCs. That's how you know it's done right, when you're just delivering to another company and it's just another job and you aren't reminded of how many times you've seen this company all over the map with each and every delivery.

To illustrate this point, I did an analysis of the depots per company in ETS2 vs ATS. You can see that while ATS does a good job with one-off companies (better than ETS2 even, bonus points if you can name them all), it utterly fails with regards to regional companies that have 2-10 depots per company. The majority of ETS2 companies have 7 or fewer depots, with 2, 3, and 4 being the most common. ATS's one-off companies are the most common, but almost the majority of depots are from those companies with 39+ depots each. Those companies comprise a whopping 398 of the 797 depots in ATS, or 49.9%. Heck, Wallbert alone accounts for about 1 in every 7 ATS depots. For comparison, in ETS2 only 447 out of 1236 depots (36%) are owned by companies with 16+ depots each. And the most prominent company EuroGoodies accounts for only 1 in 33 depots in ETS2. The difference in company diversity and stratification is night and day between the games.

[ external image ]

The one with 64 depots might surprise you, it's Plaster and Sons.

Texas absolutely has to bring home the bacon in terms of companies. All new industries, all new companies, reskins of existing companies, a regional branch of an existing company, use all the tricks in the book to pump up the company numbers.

[flight50]

After all, the US only has English as its national language, whereas Europe features many countries that speak different languages. Putting a French company in Spain, or a Latvian company in Bulgaria wouldn’t make a lot of sense (though I’m sure ETS2 has done such a thing before).

I agree with this. I'm not saying put the same companies anywhere in Europe if the language changes. It also depend on what company SCS is bringing in. Who are they mimicking. Are they country specific, regional or continental companies. For ATS what I'm saying is to continuous bring an adequate amount of companies per dlc. This 2-3 new companies for Texas is not acceptable. All the repetitive companies should be weened out and replaced for the current states. Go back and make edits. Plaster & Sons...perfect example. We should have at least 2 of them. Same for SunCrops, Butimen, SellGoods and other base map companies. At least 2 reduces how much we see the same companies.

Many of the base map companies should be place holders. Just like SCS did Coastline and Namiq, that can happen all over the map to ween out soo much repetitiveness. Its not easy but its not our fault the way the US is set up. SCS made the game. Its a platform now and they need to figure out how to break up the repetitive company nature. It can't continue on the path its going on and expect people not to notice the larger the map is getting. Even I will start to loose interest. No one wants to feel like nothing is evolving in such a large game world. We all want evolution in some phase or another for ATS.

I'm just seeing the trend and the future. If Texas doesn't change the culture of ATS, we are in trouble. Of all the current companies 70% could be totally new companies imho in Texas. That new 70% can hold for all of the South region if Texas introduces a new fleet of companies. The more you make with Texas, the easier it gets for all the South. When Kansas comes, another 70% for the MidWest region. The more made with Kansas, the easier for all the MidWest. Do the same for the Northwest region. Of the 4 US regions, there should be 4 distinct zones of companies and only only many need to repeat nationally. Montana should be the same as what we have will repeat companies, but Texas and beyond, needs to change gears.

[Trucker Nik]

@flight50 I didn't know you were with Texas, I will trust you that 35 cities is just for Texas and that Texas will contain so many cities

[flight50]

My words are just speculation as I have no proof myself. But on page one, I provided a list of possible options. What doesn't come as marked, can be scenic or not at all. SCS will have to balance the sense of distance and established cities/towns accordingly. I don't think Texas has to come jammed packed with 35+ cities to be good. It would be better if within reason and we can feel space when its suppose to be. Then we can feel compact and urban when we need to feel that as well.

The cruising Texas event is going to be huge for SCS/ATS. I can see ATS hitting the second highest daily total since the game launched with Texas. It would be awesome if a new truck drops with Texas but no guarantees there. A new truck+Texas+cargo pack would be huge. I'd love to see both tankers become ownable with Texas and something like a oil/gas cargo pack. I want to haul a derrick so bad, lol. Don't know why but I do. Along with a lot of other cool oil/as stuff. A nice 8-10 oil/gas cargo dlc would be icing on the cake for Texas and for the entire oil/gas industry. Thankfully Utah brought that to ATS already so its established elsewhere.

[Sora]

German Truck Sim and UK Truck Sim use companies from ETS1, and these are the same companies that were featured in the ETS2 base map and first expansion.
I don't think they were used after Scandinavia anymore.

They've used a few of them, albeit sparingly. TREE-ET has a few depots in Spain, while Kaarfor was in VLF and Black Sea.

While it's not related to this specifically, I feel like it's also worth mentioning that ETS2 has been using "cross-DLC depots" a bit more often lately. Relative to older DLCs that didn't do this very much, Black Sea and Iberia (and to a lesser extent Baltic Sea) have a number of depots that debuted in previous DLC.

[oldmanclippy]

They've used a few of them, albeit sparingly. TREE-ET has a few depots in Spain, while Kaarfor was in VLF and Black Sea.

While it's not related to this specifically, I feel like it's also worth mentioning that ETS2 has been using "cross-DLC depots" a bit more often lately. Relative to older DLCs that didn't do this very much, Black Sea and Iberia (and to a lesser extent Baltic Sea) have a number of depots that debuted in previous DLC.

Number of Companies that appear in later DLCs:
Base Game: 5 (all of which appear post-Scandinavia)
Going East: 0 (no new companies added)
Scandinavia: 9
Vive la France: 4
Italia: 7
Beyond the Baltic Sea: 4
Road to the Black Sea: 5

Number of Companies borrowed from prior DLCs/base:
Going East: all
Scandinavia: 1
Vive la France: 8
Italia: 3
Beyond the Baltic Sea: 9
Road to the Black Sea: 15
Iberia: 22

[flight50]

@Sora and @oldmanclippy and that is why I say its not about culture. See how few companies are borrowed. ATS should be just like that to reduce repetitiveness. It about industry, not culture. The game translates language accordingly. There is a lot more language conversions to do in ETS2. At the same time, you can take 10 ETS2 companies and they all be the exact same prefabs but in 10 different languages. So I don't think its culture nor language related. Its about if SCS does the programming to make something work with something older or not.

Its been explained that its harder than it sounds. That I can't argue with. I more than likely is. But something has to give. SCS has to figure out something for ATS because the game is taking off and more people are coming. Limiting ATS companies is not going to work out well in the future. Why penalize ATS because of the uniformity of the US. That doesn't compute well to me. I keep talking about ICCs now because its good to start changing the atmosphere of ATS now rather than later before its a much larger issue. Won't be able to say I told you so. As a loyal fan and a dedicated one, ATS matter to me. ATS has gotten me my many stressful situations since 2016. I'm sold on the game play but its being limited and the economy immersion is suffering.

If I had my way, I'd take a moment and create lets say 50-60 national/regional companies for the US. Research every possible US company that is possible for ATS based on industry and location as best as I could. One can't think of them all as thoughts change but a solid 50-60 is possible. Heck I can give you a solid 100-150 myself. Many are the same industry and that is the diversity I speak of that is missing. Not all 50-60 have to get into the game but all should be accounted for and programmed for as generic depots in case they can be used down the road. They can get name changes just like the truck dealerships did once they activated.

Implement 10 new companies per update or something. Not all have to come at once. Make the national ones new base map companies and start swapping out those companies we see in cities more than once. Thin out the companies to reduce repeats so much. It is just as easy to implement new companies as a new dlc if they are getting reskinned/revamped economies. The economy for reskinned California, Nevada and Arizona will have to get overhauled anyways.

[Sora]

I guess to me, personally, I just don't really see it as a penalty - just a difference, like how ATS is almost entirely in English while ETS2 has lots of different languages on the map.

Even if the total amount of companies is more impressive on paper, how much diversity is ETS2 really gaining if Italian Company X, French Company Y, and Spanish Company Z are less distinct (beyond the logo) than three random Wallbert prefabs? The impression I've always gotten is that ATS does a better job of representing a smaller number of companies, while ETS2 represents a greater variety of companies in a skin-deep way. This never really felt illogical to me, and it fits with the broader difference of ETS2 trying to passably cover like 25 countries while ATS is just doing one really detailed country instead.

I'm not opposed to new companies being added, and I can certainly think of plenty of places where there's room for them -- particularly when it comes to regional grocery chains, once we start getting to Texas and further east. But at the same time, I don't feel like this game needs to be the same as ETS2. Subtle differences like this play a part in making both games feel very different to me: ETS2 companies feel varied and exotic (relative to themselves, not me), while ATS companies feel consistent and familiar.