East Coast Speculation Thread

[Trakaplex]

So ATS has been out for nearly five years now - that's tomorrow. In that process, they have released nine states in those years, and two are currently in construction (Wyoming and Texas). Between New Mexico and Arizona was a huge 16 month gap, something we may never see again due to the increasing developer efficiency of SCS.

I am probably expecting Montana to be summer 2022, and Oklahoma by winter. What states would be next?

The first states to reach the East Coast will be Georgia and Florida. Now what personally scares me is the Northeast. If Pavel is scared of Texas, imagine the Northeast megalopolis and how chaotic that will be. All those small states condensed into 1:20 with all those cities. Rhode Island could be a reference to about the size of Luxembourg in ETS2. What would Delaware be like? Too small? DC and Baltimore would pretty much be combined...

My order is that New England will be the last DLC after New York, in which NY will be the last contiguous standalone state. But we might not see that until 2032, hopefully they're faster then and won't argue over which towns are important to add.

[leo.arevalo12ss]

When SCS does hit the east coast there will be some standalone state DLC like pennsylvania, New York, illinois, and Florida but it's likely the map DLCS in the future will take less time to make than now but it could be a struggle for SCS

[joschac2]

I personally think SCS will have to come up with some map trickily for the northeast. Its so compact

[Graf_Boinenn]

I don't see ATS having the 48 continental states by 2032. I think after TX, the map development and release will become faster and I think in 2022 SCS will go for 3 ATS DLC maps per year.

About the size of northeast area... yeah, I was concerned too about it. But i think the Map DEV team will do a good job here.

[flight50]

I agree with @joschac2. Either trickier or a lot will get omitted because it all can't fit. Using the Atlantic really only helps the coast line roads and cities. The road projection map and the in game map does not have to snyc up. If I was SCS, It'd work on stretching the projection map out some. Perhaps starting with the Great Plains, stretch the state borders about. Sure it would look skewed but its just a projection map. The in game roads we drive are not affected by the projection map being skewed.

I am sure SCS will map the roads first in the East. Find out what works. I-95 from NY down to Virginia will be the hardest to figure out. Play around with that and work things in that way. If the map could be stretched out enough so that I-95 is the current coast line, that could get you about an extra 100 miles of road or so. Things really start getting tricky from I-55 and everything East of it. That is when the Interstate density really starts to kick in. I-35 in Texas somewhat starts the density but from I-35 to I-55 seems a lot more feasible than from I-55 and East to the coast.

Jakub once said that they don't have the technology for the East yet. So it will take time to develop. They have many year ahead before that issue will need a resolution.

2032 isn't too bad of a guess. I'd put it there myself, and that's with the extra map teams coming. 2030-2033 is around the time I'd expect the US to be completed. Then its one to Canada or Mexico. The East might have smaller states but it not drasticaly different than the West. It will be just as time consuming for the most part. Take Washington for example. Its one of the most compact and small states in the West. Now take that same Washington dlc and shrink it down by 50%. The same dense roads, the same dense cities and towns will still have to be in the game. The difference is the roads won't be so spread out. So a little time might be saved with less stretched out roads but not a ton. The detailing will still have to be there and the task of getting it all to fit will be time consuming. They might be able to shave off a month or two but not more than that.

This is why bundling 2 states at least would be idea for the East once you get to the Mississippi River. One thing I thought about for the longest with scale is using the Mississippi as a divide. I am sure I will get in trouble for this hype but hey, its an idea....a thought. But ideas is what I do, lol. Considering the Mississippi is a clear divide in landscape in the US, its pretty much the border of some state from Louisiana all the way up to Minnesota. Now Louisiana does kinda mess things up a tad but I think it can get worked out. What if SCS scaled up the map again East of the Mississippi? How do you do this..........easy. At least imo. To cross the Mississippi, we need bridges right? Stretch the map and make it to if you cross the bridge, that triggers a new game loading mechanism...kinda like a ferry. Or perhaps make a brand new map. Everything in the game now can be Western US. Make it a separate part of ATS. The New map could be Eastern US but linked to the West if you buy the dlcs. Its kinda like the thought of people combining ATS and ETS2. If the game world is infinite, map half of the US as if it was an island. Scale the game from 1:20 to 1:15 at the least or closer to 1:12 for the East only. It would work just like UK to mainland Europe over in ETS2. The load screen can change the scale. I:10 scale would be ideal but that increases perhaps too much dev time. Now at 1:12-1:13, not only do you have more space, but you can seriously make ETS2 size bundles. By the time SCS gets East of the Mississippi. 3-4 map team could be in place. Manpower is not the issue anymore but space will be. With 4 map teams, ATS could still get 2 maps out a year if we have 2 super teams as I like to call it. Super team is nothing more than more than one map team working a dlc. ETS2 already uses a super team. So in theory, it should work in ATS as well.

How do you solve Canada and Mexico then........easy. Separate them and treat them as islands as well. The border crossings can be game triggers to go back to 1:20. So theoretically, North America could be in 4 parts and loaded up separately. You only see the projection map for whatever part of the game you are driving. Western US, Eastern US, Canada and Mexico. This could be easier sales to. This goes to @Shiva's idea to have multi base maps. There could be 4 total base maps. If you don't want (x) part of North America, buy the part you do want. This keep space down on your pc if you don't want everything. How the heck would SCS pull off 4 base maps and link them, heck I don't know, its only a though so need for ridicule. Worse case, just keep California and Nevada as the base and still separate things like ETS2's UK and everything else.

[Trakaplex]

I was kind of expecting the same thing... being able to truck from Prudhoe Bay to Panama City lol. Each country could have one base map.

So Dallas to San Antonio is a four hour drive. DC to NY is a four hour drive. The main towns along I-95 could potentially be Baltimore, Wilmington, Philly, Trenton, Newark and NY. I was going to do possible northeast map, but it just seemed impossible to do so.

[rbsanford]

I like the idea of a scale change at the Mississippi (and the St. Croix for I-94, and the St. Louis for US 2 and 53), but I think a loading screen at the change would be too jarring, as well as unnecessary. You already change scale when moving between a city and the country without skipping a beat, and the reason for the loading screen when traveling between Britain and the mainland in ETS2 is because you're taking a ferry or train, not because of the scale change.

As for the scale of the east, what about something like 1:18? It would be a more subtle change so it isn't too noticable during jobs that cross the divide, but that little bit could go a long way.

[flight50]

I have no idea how the scale changes, lol. I don't really care, I just play. But 1:18 might not be enough. I think ATS should have already been like 1:17. Split 1:15 and 1:20 to get the 1:17. I don't know how much more we can gain from 1:20 to 1:17. But it has to be better than an East Coast at 1:20. I just figured something in place that is seamless works. A loading screen in ETS2 is pretty much what we get in ETS2 when going from UK to whatever. Ferry or not its a loading screen. I don't know how you can go from 1:20 to 1:17 without noticing anything. The everything would pop to a smaller size in an eyeblink, that doesn't make much sense.

I want dense roads in the East. However they do that, is what the devs must find out. If they want to sell the Eastern states, make them a realistic as possible. One of the main reasons I like the Baltic in ETS2 so much is because it seemed very dense. The scale in ETS2 is said to be 1:19 where as ATS is 1:20. I don't know why ATS wasn't 1:19 to match though but I suppose that small increase would have helped.

[dk00?]

With New England states, I hope we have seasons by then and that they put an emphasis on the logging industry in Northern New England.

[flight50]

Seasons in ATS would be the ultimate immersion boost.