Spain pre-research tips

[Esproquet]

If you dig deep into Spanish automotive history, there are a few other brands than can be used as homage:

HISPANO-SUIZA
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The oldest one, they were founded in Barcelona in 1904. They stopped after the civil war but the brand restarted recently as a luxury car brand.
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SEAT (name derived from FIAT, Barcelona 1950)
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The new Arona and Ateca are very common cars around, they should appear as traffic in the update along the DLC release.
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SANTANA, Jaén, 1956
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It was associated with Rover (until 1989), with Suzuki from 1985 to 1994, they struggled from then on, they also tried to get into IVECO orbit by 2006 but eventually they discontinued their production in 2011.
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OTHER MINOR BRANDS
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HURTAN (Granada, 1992)
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COMARTH (Murcia, 1999)
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DSD Design & Motorsport (Santa Pola, Alicante, 2017)
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TAURO SPORT AUTO (Valladolid, 2010)
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[Esproquet]

This is new stuff so as far as I know it doesn't appear on Google Street View. I took my car after work the other day and took some pictures.

Right next to A-30 they are building a new logistic park, between Murcia Inernational Airport and A-30. So far only Amazon has finished the first warehouse but they keep working steadily on new buildings. It's called Southeastern Logistic Park.

LOCATION https://www.google.com/maps/@37.8320359 ... 389,15.21z
https://www.parquelogisticodelsureste.com/

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This photo was taken from A-30 service way.
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They are still building many roads and warehouses.
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Everything is still a bit temporary
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Amazon building, it's squarish, the trailer docks are on the southern side of the building, There are 10 docks, so you can have an idea of the size.
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East side from A-30 (they are moving big chungs of terrain, hence the slope.
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Truck Gate signpost (It has a truck, an arrow, ENTRADA /ENTRANCE; and the Amazon logo)
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Truck's entrance (South-west corner)
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Opposite corner, van's parking
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ALGIBICOS SOLAR PLANT
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This solar farm will be operational by October. It's got 130.000 solar panels, 85 hectares and a yearly production of 95 gigawatt.
https://www.laopiniondemurcia.es/murcia ... 90361.html

This picture was taken from: https://www.google.com/maps/@37.8431376 ... 312!8i6656
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Right next to A-30.
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Miguelitos frenzy, what was my surprise when I refuelled my car last Thursday and I found another Miguelitos board... This one really close to Cartagena harbour.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Estac ... -0.9660539
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Speaking of Cartagena, no idea if you guys are going to include it or not (definitely A-30 is the shortest route but maybe there's not enough room in game to represent the uphill bends and twists through Sierra de Carrascoy mountain road and its 3 lanes per direction, even if they last only 5-7 km uphill and downhill is all straight to Cartagena... so here's an alternative route to include Cartagena without taking the (shorter) mountain road over A-30.

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If we wanna go from A-7 to Cartagena from Alicante without taking A-30 we must take AP-7 southdbound in Elche, we get really close to Cartagena, the way back is taking A-30 northboud and then RM-2 to Alhama de Murcia, there's a junction with A-7. Or vice versa from Andalucía.

Route on GMaps (way better than my explanation): https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Elche,+ ... 493011!3e0

There are a few landmarks that define this city, but from a road perspective I pick these 3 (expanded with the mountain fortifications):

1-Conception Castle, it's downtown but high enough that you can see it from the harbour and the industrial park.
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2-Moor's Castle, right over the harbour (the fishermen's wharf actually), visible as well from the city outskirts. Tourist tip: DON'T VISIT without locals. Location: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cerro ... 4045?hl=es
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3-Peñarroya Chimney, between Cartagena Bay and Escombreras valley (oil refinery) there is San Julián Mountain, this is a remnant of the industrial past of the city, visible from many kilometers away (I'd say 15-25 km). Location: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Chime ... -0.9718022
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There are many small mountains between 100 and 500 meters height close to the city and next to the shore (most of them), each one of them has got old fortifications from the pre-aviation era that are no longer are used by the army. Generally they are so high and far from roads that you barely distinguish their shape and details at plain sight, you just see a few walls and some scattered antennae.

a) San Julián Castle over San Julián mountain. Visible from Cartagena field and Escombreras Valley (industrial & refinery) Notice Peñarroya chimney https://www.google.com/maps?q=castillo+ ... AXoECAEQAQ
What you see from it:
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How you see it from below (this is really close, you don't get that close from any major road)
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b) Galeras Castle, an ancient military prison. It was operative until not long ago, not as a prison, but as dependencies from the Marines. It was really fun to see at night coming from any direction, the whole mountain was dark but you could see the castle from kilometeres away totally illuminated, it felt like an alien mothership hovering over the city.
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CH ... :1,lf_ui:1
From atop the bay:
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I haven't found any good picture from below, but it's over this mountain (edit: this is actually a different mountain, but next to it, I haven't got access to GEarth to screen capture it)
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Also notice this weird underground storehouse
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Those 2 previous pictures are from another mountain next to Galeras (south side).

c) Atalaya Castle, this is right over the city. Location: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Casti ... -1.0088539
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Other orographic features:
Small windfarm over Sierra de Atamaría:
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.641386, ... 312!8i6656

MONTE ROLDÁN (Roldán Mountain). It's a very peculiar trapezoidal-shape mountain just 5 km away from the city to the west. https://www.google.com/maps/search/el+r ... !4b1?hl=es
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LA MUELA (Mountain) Visible from many neighbouring roads (like A-30 and AP-7) Some 5 km west of Roldán mt. Location: https://www.google.com/maps/place/La+Mu ... -1.1?hl=es
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MORE INFO IN
https://turismo.cartagena.es/arquitectura_defensiva.asp

[Esproquet]

ALTERNATIVE ROUTES


AP7-CT32-A30-RM2

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Elche,+ ... d37.85!3e0


AP7-RM3

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Elche,+ ... d37.85!3e0

More info on Cartagena's access roads, from a truck perspective:

- A-30 takes you to the industrial park
- CT-33, take exit 192 in A-30 (after the industrial park) and you end up in the harbour
- CT-34 (exit 1-b from CT-32 or exit 189-190 from A-30) and it takes you to Escombreras Valley and the Oil Refinery. You can get there from the city harbour if you take a very beautiful coastal road over a cliff and the whole city bay (N-343), but I believe trucks can't use that road because it's too narrow and there are a couple of tunnels... but hey, it's a videogame after all! (remember Yosemite).

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[Esproquet]

Following the post on SCS blog about Ports of Iberia from April 14 2020, https://blog.scssoft.com/2020/04/ports-of-iberia.html, I assume that there will be boats and ships in the following DLC. In the hereby post we shall provide information relative to boat-ship registration and symbols to make them look more realistic.

We'll begin with this example of Spanish boat registration:

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Notice that there are 5 fields separated by hyphens (category, maritime province, sea district, inscription sheet and year of registration).

A- CATEGORY
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There are 9:

• Category 1: seagoing tugboats and extraction platforms.
• Category 2: national-construction ships devoted to freight and passenger transport.
• Category 3: national-construction ships devoted to fishing.
• Category 4: supply fishing boats and aquacultural activities.
• Category 5: tugboats and other port-related ship.
• Category 6: comercial pleasure crafts (for rent).
• Category 7: Private pleasure craft (por private/sport use).
• Category 8: Public administration vessels.
• Category 9: Provisional registry during construction or testing.

In a medium or large city port you'll probably find each category and different docks, each one with different usage: fishermen's guild, marina (PUERTO DEPORTIVO), shipyard, military arsenal, dry-dock for ship maintenance, commercial, industrial, ferry & cruise dock, touristic quay...

In a small coastal town you can find a small port for fishing ships (category 3) and another one for private ships (category 7). Notice that these 2 must be segregated, either in 2 ports or by a jetty.

If the city relies mostly on tourism, you may only find a small marina with categories 6 or 7.

In Spain there's only a fluvial port in the city of Seville. Other cities may have wide and deep enough rivers to allow small boats, but that's specific to each city, they may have a wharf or a quay. In many northern Spanish cities there's a great tradition on river sports, rapids especially.

B- MARITIME PROVINCES & SEA DISTRICTS
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The 2nd and 3rd elements of a ship register represent the geographical area where it's been registered, they consist of 2 letters for the province (in some case it's 3 or 4 letters) and 1 number for the district. The maritime provinces do not coincide with the administrative provinces, their names and lenght may change depending on the most important coastal city.
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List of maritime provinces and districts (for accuracy)
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincia ... %C3%B1olas

C-INSCRIPTION SHEET
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This is the number you must fake to avoid copying anyone real from the real world. Up to 3 digits, maybe 4 in Barcelona.

D-YEAR OF REGISTRATION
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2 digits, the last 2 of the year. You won't find anything between 20 and 90, the law regulating ship registration is from 1989.

Registration numbers appear on both sides of the hull, next to the forehead. I'm surprised there's no English word for that part of the ship (at least I can't find any good translation for amura, not even on wordreference, what a surprise, I thought Britons would have words for every ship component).

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FLAGS
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Any ship must belong to a country. In Spain it is mandatory having this flag on the stern of the ship. This is the civilian ship flag:
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You can also place other flags (autonomic, your club, your emblem...), but never bigger than or above the national one. Foreign ships use different rules.

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MILITARY SHIPS
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Military ships show national flag, it's actually a loan and evolution from the red-yellow-red striped flag of Armada Commanders. The former flags were adaptations of the cross of Burgundy that you can still see in some American States like Florida or Alabama,

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On holidays & Sundays they show the national jack on the ship's bow:
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List of Armada ships:
https://armada.defensa.gob.es/mardigita ... BA2018.pdf

SOURCES:
Spanish flags on ships: https://www.boe.es/buscar/pdf/1980/BOE- ... lidado.pdf
Boat registration: https://www.boe.es/eli/es/rd/1989/07/28/1027
Update from 2010 on 6th and 7th category: https://www.boe.es/eli/es/rd/2010/11/05/1435

[Esproquet]

There was a Tabernas Desert blog entry, but there was no hint to any of these artificial western towns, they are somewhat famous in the showbiz, one of the scenes of the last Tarantino movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, was supposed to take place in Almería, next to the set.

https://www.cabogataalmeria.com/Cabo-Ga ... lados.html
http://www.ayuntamientodetabernas.es/Ta ... oeste.html
Locations: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewe ... 00014&z=14

There are 3 theme towns, all visible from N-340 or A-92:
-Oasys (this is a theme park with zoo)
-Fort Bravo-Texas Hollywood (classic)
-Western-Leone

Other towns were built during the golden age of westerns, but some disappeared while others only kept a building or two, a fortress, an indian village...

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[Esproquet]

Elche appears on A-7 with big boards as an UNESCO site, there are over 200000 palm trees in the city, impressive. The woman is La Dama de Elche, an old iberian sculpture.

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http://www.visitelche.com/patrimonios-d ... -de-elche/

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FIRE WARNING
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I haven't found any of these panels on this forum, these are very common during summer, there are a few on A-7.

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This panel is not very well coloured, it represents a match setting fire under a tree (it's a bit yellowish and should be clearer).

For 5 seconds there's the message in Spanish, then changes to English for another 5 seconds: EXTREME RISK OF FIRE.

In winter or when there's no risk of fire, you can read a different message: SPEED CONTROLLED BY RADAR (VELOCIDAD CONTROLADA POR RADAR), USE YOUR SEATBELT (USE LOS CINTURONES DE SEGURIDAD), OBLIGATORIO USO DE MASCARILLA (MASK OBLIGATORY WHEN SHARING CAR).
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SAFE SPOTS ON AUTOVÍAS & AUTOPISTAS
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When your vehicle has a breakdown... there's somewhere you can stop safely, these are usually places every km or 2 km in heavy-traffic autovías.
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ALICANTE
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If there's a feature for this city, it's Santa Bárbara's Castle.

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[plinio.lisboa.br]

ISLANDS CANARIAS. Highway: Agaete –La Aldea.

Route: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Agaete, ... 27.9822029

One of the newest highways in the Canary Islands. We know that at some point in the future the Canary Islands may be in the game Euro Truck 2.

Watch on YouTube

Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLuEt4WDzVA

Phase one: Agaete –La Aldea.
[youtube]www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqN6nf-mKls[/youtube]

Highway: El Risco - La Aldea

Watch on YouTube

Reference: Canary Islands Driving Link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Au_d ... sEgVkI_eJQ
It can be a good reference for real-time travel videos for preparing game maps on the islands' road map.

[Esproquet]

Great Gyroscope in AP7 / A70 junction, near Elche.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Elche ... -0.7125608

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[Esproquet]

This post includes:

1-MERCADONA/CESTA WAREHOUSE LOCATIONS

2- MERCASA LOCATIONS

3- BOARDS (Alicante & others)

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1. Mercadona/Cesta warehouses
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If CESTA tries to be a company like Mercadona is IRL, it could have some major warehouses like these:

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Many of these warehouses are really close to autovías (Alicante warehouse is right next to A-7 and Guadix warehouse right next to A-92).

MAP of Mercadona warehouses: https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CH ... :1,lf_ui:4

More info about MERCADONA: https://info.mercadona.es/es/conocenos/ ... nsparencia

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2- MERCASA LOCATIONS
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Mercasa is a public company oriented to fresh food products distribution, agricultural-fish products in particular, it serves as a link between wholesalers and retailers on numerous industrial areas. Created in 1966, there's a network of 26 markets distributed all over the Spanish geography.

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Info: https://www.mercasa.es/

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You get the idea...

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3. Boards (Alicante & others)
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Coastal brands was something invented when the tourist industry was booming in Spain (more than half a century ago). Each province had a touristic name to attract visitors, some names are as old as the 1920s (Costa del Sol was named by a German journalist back in 1928) while others derive from slogans used by foreign airways and national governments to attrat tourists in the 50s. Here's a comprehensive map:

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Some of these names can be seen today, there's a big board welcoming to Costa Blanca (in Alicante) on A-7. There used to be more boards next to roads, but they eventually removed them with the course of time in order to promote road safety, however, you can still find some on urban roads.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.1009236 ... 312!8i6656

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In Murcia Region you will find this symbol under most coastal brown boards:
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The welcoming board of Comunitat Valenciana is barely visible behind some trees in A-7
https://www.google.com/maps/@38.1009236 ... 312!8i6656

As I said, sometimes they turn a blind eye on these old boards in secondary roads, like this one entering Andalucía from Extremadura:
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.9594047 ... 312!8i6656

Also in Alicante this ferry board (exit 17B on A-70)
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Location: https://www.google.com/maps/@38.3461321 ... 312!8i6656

These are the routes it takes (possible African DLC? )
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[Some newbie driver]

Mercabarna has already been included in the game. It appears in the Barcelona screenshots of the last Iberia blog article. So, it's possible that similar places are depicted in other places.

What we can't know from the screenshot is if it's depicted as its own company or they just depicted the area and put another company inside.