Texas Discussion Thread

[MT269]

By the time Texas is released, the in game dollars I will have will probably be in the billions at the very least.

I wonder if SCS will rework the game to include more realistic finances. It would be nice if there was a way to make more use of the money instead of it just stockpiling with no use whatsover.

(Edit) Re the above - Routes for train simulation games are at 1 in 1 scale. But these are only a stand alone corridor with scenery added.

[flight50]

@gandalf7472000 Ikr, lol. I was going to try to hold off until at least Idaho released or maybe even once SCS does the Xmas stream, whether they announce Wyoming or not. But someone would have beaten me to the punch, lol. I am sure a few would wonder why I haven't kicked it off. Well mainly because I am fine with SCS holding off on it but considering it is actually in development and we know about it, might as well start up the discussion now the more I thought about it before creating this thread. The polls I run has had Texas in the top 3 since 2017 that I have been running the polls. Texas is definitely one of the most popular states that people want. Half of it is basically like the West and sparse and the other half is dense like the East. You get the best of both worlds.

Oh and yes I should have been sleep, lol. When I read MT269's comment in the Wyoming thread, I had all kinds of thoughts running thru my head, lol. I knew if I didn't get this post started, it was going to bug me. Sometimes I get up in the morning thinking ATS, lol. But I know the main points I wanted to stress was DFW and Houston. The little map I marked up that stretches those area out, I think that is the key to all large cities that will come to ATS. If the devs can figure those out, I think that make things in the East a tad easier because they are numerous in large areas in a more compact space. Most US cities have ring roads and straight thru interstates right thru the heart of the city. That takes up space. Ads678's concept map that I have linked in my signature is a great reminder of what ATS could look like out East. Whether we can drive thru those big cities on surface streets or not is to be determined. But one thing is for sure, Portland and Seattle has brought a whole different out look on cities. Salt Lake City, Boise and now Vegas are benefiting from the Portland and Seattle dev work. This trend will keep pushing forward. If a LA rebuild does not come before Texas, DFW and Houston will be the first major test for ginormous metro areas. If you don't have a good pc, you just might need it soon, lol.

There are 4 distinct regions in Texas and it shouldn't be to much of a boring state for most people. Especially if the devs give us Big Ben country. That area and El Paso are the mountainous regions of the state. If you want to pack on some miles in all directions, Texas will be the state you are looking for. Expect to get held up for an entire day in Texas though, lol. In most cases, it will literally eat up your entire clock so make sure you guys rest before taking jobs if you are not doing contract jobs. Good thing we can't experience heat in ATS because one thing Texas has plenty of is heat. If temperature ever becomes a factor with vehicle performance or physics in any kinda of way, Texas, Arizona and Death Valley are the the areas that will always come to mind with heat.

Although I look forward to Texas, its actually Colorado that I anticipate the most. Thankfully this should be the year it comes. Then focus for me shifts to Montana and Texas. I love the wide open road aspects in these two large states. Once we get to I-35 here in Texas, expect a lot of busy driving. Texas will mark the half way point from the West coast, to the East coast. I think this is when we should definitely see a flood of new companies come into play as well as many more industries. Texas is not just about Oil & Gas though. I was thrilled to see SCS debuted Oil & Gas well before Texas came. That allows that industry to become much more established. Can you say, Oil & Gas cargo pack by then. The industry can get much much deeper than it is currently. We all can only hope the devs exploit that.

All though Texas is my home state. Its way to huge for me to know everything here. To be honest, I pretty much just roam around the DFW area. I have made many trips back and forth to my parents home state, Little Rock Arkansas as I have lived there for a number of years as well, so I know that stretch of road fairly well. But Texas is home and I love it here. Not much scenery here in DFW though. I have flown into Houston a couple of times for business and driven I-45 to Houston once....well there an back. I also made a drive to San Antonio thru Austin only once on a trip to Sea World. The last place I have ventured to here in Texas is flying into Harlingen, Tx and then driving down to Brownsville, Tx and South Padre for a beach vacation. So there is tons I really don't know still about my own state. Its nearly impossible for how large it is. So I am sure this discussion thread will educate me a lot honestly. Like I mentioned above, there are many others from here or that have visited here that will add to the info pool. We also have our real life truckers that are part of this forum, that can add a lot of experiences that they have gone thru here in the "Lone Star" state. Active and retired drivers like rocknrollDave, Larry71490, Ernie D, EllieODaire, Trucker_71, GT182, Fae.....and several others I am sure. I am sure they can add many things that I can't.

[gandalf7472000]

@flight50 Yea your state is 5 times the size of my country and has 3 times the population , so I think SCS will have there hand full.

The things I know about Texas: Austin is the Capital, has some of the biggest cities in the US, huge Oil Industry and off course the battle of Alamo.

So I will probably contribute little to this topic. But I will be reading and Learning, and speculate sometimes.

[Mooner_37]

I'm waiting for Texas news since the release of New Mexico. . Happy that there's finally a thread for discussion here about the Lone Star State.

As seen on the map of google: there are a lot of US highways and Interstates in Texas whoa . I wonder how much SH routes, loops and maybe FM roads will be in the scs version of Texas.

I-10 the longest interstate in Texas which is 877.455 miles (1,412.127 km) has the largest number of exits, 880 wow . I'm also anxious to see how they will do 5 level stack interchanges in Houston. Big I in Albuquerque is just a small piece in comparison of this big masterpieces!

[gandalf7472000]

4 Distinct regions, and let the speculation begin, Tx is a big project, What is the possibility of splitting it in half east and west as they did with Balkans?

O!!! and I know about heat, here in summers can go up to 42, 45 Celsius 105, 115 Fahrenheit

There are 4 distinct regions in Texas and it shouldn't be to much of a boring state for most people. Especially if the devs give us Big Ben country. That area and El Paso are the mountainous regions of the state. If you want to pack on some miles in all directions, Texas will be the state you are looking for. Expect to get held up for an entire day in Texas though, lol. In most cases, it will literally eat up your entire clock so make sure you guys rest before taking jobs if you are not doing contract jobs. Good thing we can't experience heat in ATS because one thing Texas has plenty of is heat. If temperature ever becomes a factor with vehicle performance or physics in any kinda of way, Texas, Arizona and Death Valley are the the areas that will always come to mind with heat.

[flight50]

@Mooner_37. Yes the 5 tier interchanges will be a beast. Dallas also has one. Its call the High 5 and SCS can't miss it. Its a major junction in DFW. But yes, the interstates will be SCS's biggest challenge in Texas. Most of the major Interstates will make the game and the issue is that lots of them intersect one another. Like the below, US-75 is just as major as any interstate in DFW. The High Five is similar to the one in Albuquerque but larger. I am sure there will be many SH and US roads in Texas. FM road might not make it though. But if I was thinking like a dev. Interstates is priority 1, Loops/Spurs then US highways. I still think Texas has a shot at having a minimum of 10,000 miles of road. I speculate 12,000-15,000 miles though. Its like 3.5 Washington's or 3 Oregon's. I am there will be tons of those exists that don't make the game. But for every town and city they have, account for 1-2 exits. In the large cities though, we could get up to 3-4. Depends on how large they make those cities.

Here is a video of the High Five I mentioned

Watch on YouTube

@gandalf7472000 Pavel already said he won't split Texas. He mentioned this on the xmas stream last year.

Here is an animation video that shows the major construction work that is now completed that took quite a while. This ends at the High Five. But TexDot has just gotten under way to continue this design from the High Five to I-30. Lucky for me, now my part of Dallas will benefit from more lanes of traffic. More lanes does mean more traffic though, lol. But the very bottom level is an express lane so that help tremendously.

Watch on YouTube

If you notice, from the video, I expect that I-635 and I-30 will make ATS 100%. The Dallas North tollway imo, can be omitted and SCS should do US-75. That is a major route in Dallas and that road get us into Oklahoma and beyond. Expect a ton of urban development in Texas's largest 6 cities. You shouldn't see to many hug fields of green. Of course there are some here and there and SCS may choose to use them just to separate areas that are close when the largest cities absorb them.

[gandalf7472000]

You are right he said that, I forgot about it. He also mention that a small team is already working on it, setting the foundations if I remember correctly? in this case and with three teams working on maps development, we might get it as one of the two yearly dlc's, before they move to 3 dlc's per year.

[flight50]

Yes I am sure foundation is still being laid in Texas. I am also positive the asset team is full production on it. In order for mappers to design, the asset team pretty much as the stay ahead of the mappers to not slow them down. I wouldn't be surprised if Texas assets started in 2018 honestly. I am sure they definitely started 2019. There will be a butt load of assets to make. I am thinking they will reuse what they can but with the 4 regions of Texas, is bound to need new assets just like any other state. If Texas makes it in for a (2) map release year's that is the 2022 I spoke of. If the dev's are given time, I think Texas comes Summer of 2022 and hopefully Oklahoma can be the 2022 Winter map. Of course this all depends on when Wyoming and Montana gets called up.

Imho, Texas definitely needs to be released before SCS can go on to 3 maps a year. Over in the "ATS choose the next state" thread, I pitched the idea of super teams. Basically, SCS can keep ATS at 2 map releases a year. Overlapping to many maps during the year could be a headache for the devs and testers. So keeping it Summer and Winter might be best. But one of the teams can be a super team. Basically instead of 3 map teams, one team can be a combine 2 teams and then one regular team. I'd put the super team on combined states East of Texas. Example, do Ark/La as one dlc, Al/Ms as another and then Ga/Fl. 2 small East states are about the size of one West state. So if one map team can do one Western state within a calendar year, imagine what a super team could do. Actually a super team could perhaps do 3 total Eastern states perhaps and we can get to the East coast even faster. Then the super team can go up the coast and back track a little if need be. The regular team can stair step the map behind the super team filling in the North and moving Northeast. If you look at ads678 animation, he shows exactly what I mean by stair stepping the map. https://imgur.com/a/LwaR1Fk

[Tails]

I hope we get some cotton farms and livestock cargo for Texas.

[flight50]

100% agreed on cotton. There are several out West. I think cotton opens up the doors to the clothing industry. Almost everything we wear and lots that we use for our household involves cotton. There is even cotton seed oil for the food industry and food for livestock. No doubt livestock will be in Texas though. I actually think livestock comes before Texas. Colorado definitely, if not, that would be a huge miss. Idaho has a shot at livestock but I am not sure.