Montana Discussion Thread

[flight50]

From Washington and Colorado, I-25 would be the fastest route, but its not the only option. You can make any open road an option. The more boxed the map, sure we have more options. Even just the panhandle of Oklahoma is only needed just to connect a very very short route to connect Colorado to Texas. Once Oklahoma comes, it really doesn't make North Texas any more accessible to Colorado. But Southern Oklahoma, Central Oklahoma and Eastern Oklahoma are all made accessible because of Texas. As mentioned, Texas doesn't need anything to make it assessible outside of New Mexico to get West......if you want to drive. If you teleport to Texas, you can go anywhere in the state and feel like you are driving in 2 states because its so large.

Washington:
I-15 to I-40
I-15 to US-84
I-15 to US-285

Colorado:
US-385 to US-287 to I-45
US-385 to US-87 to I-10

[IamTheOne]

There are larger cities than Montreal. Istanbul is one. Also, Montreal is not really an island as we are use to seeing. Promods is far from doing Montreal though. Its also landlocked so it can't get an enlarged scale. But that is way on the East coast and nowhere in sight so lots of time to think about tackling it.

I'm not sure what you mean by this, but no, Montreal is an island, and Montreal is the principal municipality on the island of Montreal. I doubt that they would be adding other municipalities, so they have the option of stretching industries and the road network across all of the island. The worry is that due to the island's potentially small size in-game, then it means they won't be able to fit highways 20, 40, 10, 13, 15 and 25 together with a road network leading to industries and the like. That's unless they make an exception and expand the island's space on the map, because otherwise everything will be squished and it'll just be a mess.

Back to Texas, again, the point is connections with other DLC states. If Kansas, Montana and Oklahoma are available and you're delivering from Colorado or Eastern Washington, you don't have to take Interstate 25 through New Mexico, and the wide detour. Of course you can drive through New Mexico to Texas- doesn't make it practical though with the current states that we have.

Montana - Texas deliveries.
Most of them actually does not need Kansas nor Oklahoma.
What they do need, is US-87 for New Mexico.
Raton - Clayton section.
Example.
Eastern Washington - Texas example.

I wasn't referring to deliveries starting from Montana though, and we'll be getting Texas before we get Montana. Again, I never said that the routes between Washington and Texas are impossible, I'm saying that it's inconvenient because we won't have Montana released beforehand.

[Shiva]

IamTheOne. Ah, you were not?
You did see the routes I put on the Texas thread
Montreal highways? They'll have to do as in other places, select what they have and what they have not.
Atleast it is bigger than Portland in real life.

[flight50]

@IamTheOne What you see in 1:1 Montreal, obviously they can not do that in ATS. They will have to trim out a lot. What I am referring to as island that we are use to: Look at the body of water around most islands Hawaii, Cuba, New Zealand, Madagascar, Japan, Ireland, Iceland. As I was mentioning, Montreal is landlocked. You can't make it larger if there is now where to spread out to. I don't see them being able to successfully increase the scale unless there is a ferry which means and unconnected road to the island. A ferry loads up a different scale to the map. You can't cross a bridge at 1:20 and then go to a 1:15 map scale like SCS did with the UK. That wouldn't feel right. They'd have to keep it the same scale. Of course, I don't know for sure but this is just my opinion.

[IamTheOne]

IamTheOne. Ah, you were not?
You did see the routes I put on the Texas thread

Yes, I did see them! I was referring to routes to and from Texas and the eastern part of Washington state (Spokane). Yes, there is the Highway 95 down Idaho, but it would have just been a lot easier taking Interstate 90 through Montana and Wyoming.

[flight50]

I was just eyeballing Montana for a second. It reminds me of the 4 corners. Butte to Salt Lake City to Cheyenne to Billings. Seems like another scenic region to me. The biggest thing that excites me about Montana is that the bulk of it goes East to West. That is a ton of land to travel. A lot of Great Plains to roam in the wide open. I can't wait to see the scenery coming out of CDA to Eastern Montana. How can you say no to these view 1, view 2 or even this view 3.

With Wyoming coming first, the anticipation of Montana will bring a well received dlc as Idaho will have a lot more value then. I-15 is a good parallel to I-25 just as I-70, I-80 and I-90 all compliment one another. It gets even better the further we go East. I-35 ties in well. I-35 is pretty much the middle of the entire US as it can be looked at as the half way point. Everything West of I-35 is more open and sparse. Everything East of I-35 is dense and more compact. Rockies to the West, Appalachians to the East. Goodness on both sides of I-35 if you ask me.

[interstate trav]

With Montana don’t forget we get the 94 and it will be a lot like the 70 in Utah until the next state comes out but either way it will be nice to have pretty much all the main east and west interstates started, Texas will start the 20 and the 30 but the 30 isn’t that long.

Also with Montana we get the 15 completed. So we have two main north south interstates plus the 25 as well, and as we get further more to come.

[flight50]

^Totally agree and no I didn't forget I-94. Mainly because of what you said that it won't be a huge factor until we get North Dakota. If we get Glendive, all is good. Billings to Glendive gets us pretty far but we have to get MT-59 at least as the Eastern most North to South road. Even better is MT-7 to MT-323. Kinda funny how each stacking state above Texas gets a major East to West Interstate. That's why I was looking at I-35 tying it all in.
ND I-94
SD I-90
NB 1-80
KS I-70
OK I-40
TX I-10, I-20, I-30

[Frontiersman]

Montana is the state I hope for most after Wyoming, if anything just to finish up the Rockies.

[flight50]

The crowd is split between Montana and Texas. No exact wrong or right. Just personal preferences. No matter which comes first, Texas will stick out until more gets filled in regardless. Its just too huge not to stick out.

I want Montana before Texas for a few main reasons:
1) Northern Idaho is completely limited without it
2) Boxes up the map nicely
3) Completes the West
4) Massive real estate to cover for the Great Plains. Vast area of rolling hill open plains that isn't as flat as Texas's open plains
5) Bridges the I-90 gap that Wyoming will create. Much much longer that the I-84 gap between Oregon and Utah

Texas is cool and all. It will bring a ton to the game no doubt. Texas is about making money vs boxing up the map as most fans want. If Montana came Winter 2021, Texas would only be like 6-8 months later still. After Wyoming releases, 70% of the Wyoming team could go help on Texas and the other 30% could help push out Montana for Oct/Nov. After Montana, then everyone could go to Texas. I'd go for the easier states first before I had to do Texas. I'd chip away at Texas slowly. But I'm just a voice like all the rest of you guys.