Montana Discussion Thread

[flight50]

For me, I think Texas has the team they have for now. They won't pull anyone if they don't have to. Perhaps Jan 2022 is the push for Texas for late Q1 or early Q2. Add help then. They already have the bulk of the team in Texas anyways. Pavel wanted 20-25, iirc. I think 15-18 is very doable stretched out over time and into 2022. They have been working Texas since early 2019. Lets say Texas went into full production early 2020. Add in 2021 and that is 2 full years of production and 1 year of preliminary for a total of 3+ years when you count research. When you add more people from outside the dlc, you complicate things. You don't want people stepping over each other and people unfamiliar with the dlc stepping in too much. The Texas Triangle is by far the worst area to do. Only a select few need to do that. Senior designers to be exact. Everything outside the Triangle is nothing more than the teams have already dealt with road and city wise.

So I'd expect another state to get announced on the xmas stream or just like last year, a little ahead of the xmas stream this year. That is your indicator that the Wyoming team moved to another dlc instead of Texas. That state should be Montana but Oklahoma could also be in the mix. I'd say 75% Montana, 25% Oklahoma. Montana is in more need than Oklahoma imo. By this time next year, Texas could be going into polish up stage and getting ready for closed testing. That is when a few people can leave the Texas project and go elsewhere like Oklahoma or the rebuild team. Worst case, join Montana for 1-2 months to help kick it out. 2/3 of Montanas is much simpler than the 1/3 of Montana.

Things also depends on how many more SCS will hire between now and end of 2022. New people have to get trained, that slows seniors down a tad. But once up to speed, the team is a few people deeper. Texas and Iberia will be huge sellers for SCS so maybe a few more newbies get added. Technically ATS has 4 map teams. I'd like to think that 4th team turns into a full sized team in another year. So growing from 30 mappers to 38-40 mappers would be one heck of an upgrade from 2016.

[Shiva]

Wyoming, Texas, Montana, Oklahoma. That I do think is the order.
I could be wrong tho.
And I agree with flight50, regarding the %.

[Voltaire1971]

Montana will be nice, but I don`t expect anything before late 2022, maybe for Christmas. Sure, it is mostly empty, but nevertheless pretty huge (slightly larger than Germany).

Anyway, it will be good to see the I-90 gap created by Wyoming getting closed.

[smt42]

I still think I-90/US-93 through Montana (incl. US-12 and Missoula) should have been included in the Idaho DLC. By the time Montana comes out it'll have been a full two years with such an awkward gap making that whole area of the map annoying to drive through.

[flight50]

^Many agree with you. I'm definitely one of them. I pretty much avoid Northern Idaho unless I am in Eastern Washington. Earliest we could see Montana though is next Summer 2022.

[Shiva]

I'm 1 of those that disagree. Regarding I-90/US-93 and US-12 through Montana, in the Idaho DLC.

[clifflandmark]

I still think I-90/US-93 through Montana (incl. US-12 and Missoula) should have been included in the Idaho DLC. By the time Montana comes out it'll have been a full two years with such an awkward gap making that whole area of the map annoying to drive through.

Yep, I agree and there is possibly another example to this situation ; I hope they don't do what is done with Missoula in Texarkana.

*of course Texarkana does not make an important gap as in Missoula made to Idaho.

[Shiva]

Missoula and Texarkana, in my opinion, they are totally different.

[supersobes]

Looking at a map, the majority of the main downtown part of Texarkana is on the Texas side of the state line, so I think it should be part of the Texas DLC for ATS.

[ external image ]

[flight50]

Per the map editor, US-67 and US-59 are in. If both those went to Texarkana, all is good. Also US-96 is in the game editor. It connects to US-59 in Tenaha, Tx. Definite a scenic town. Texarkana at that point would not be a dead end. If we also get US-82 that would run along the Texas/Oklahoma border.

So Texarkana gets a lot more help than Idaho needing Montana for Missoula for US-93 to US-12 and I-90. Further East, I-90 and I-94 play a big role. We'd get the new Interstate in 94 that hopefully goes to Glendive at the least. That would get us a good portion of I-94 from the I-90 interchange. Then I-90 going into Wyoming will be the ultimate boxed up West.