@oldmanclippy very good map. I could work with that. Its lines up with what we have been saying here in this thread
dating back to 2018 on page 73. Even back then, we all made guesses incorporating more map teams in the future. I've been voicing stair step for the longest. It gets
Pavel to Florida like he wants and it fills in the map much better without leaving to many gaps.
@leo.arevalo12ss what
@Bedavd just said is what I was explaining. That is why Texas is possible for 2021. Although I'd rather see Wyoming and Montana, its very possible Texas can swap with Montana for 2021. I'll run thru it the timeline again.
2019 - For the Washington release,
Pavel was on a stream. In that stream he flat out said that he had (1) person doing preliminary work on Texas for the past 6 months. That means Jan/Feb 2019. Also in 2019,
Pavel announced that they already started a 3rd map team even though it was just confirmed that a 2nd map team was official. Although small, they started a 3rd team already. Pavel know that in order to increase production, ATS needs more people. We can't think USA here. If they want to map North America, they can't keep it one map team. I've always said they need a minimum of 3 map team. But even that won't be enough if they want to finish North America in 10-15 years.
2020 - Jan/Feb. A full year of working on creating a 3rd map team. Great chance that a 3rd map team has more people and is quote..unquote assembled. No confirmation but I'd imagine a whole year they grew. It also makes 1 full year that Texas has work done. Whether 2020 started off with still just that one person or a small map team is anyone's guess. For Idaho's release, SCS did say they continued to hire even with the pandemic. To me (not confirmed) but I'd like to think from Jan/Feb 2019 to Summer 2020......that 3rd map team is in place and all trained up. It takes about 6 months to train mappers. Some can learn quicker, others take longer. But either way its not confirmed.
So now it is going into Fall 2020. I expect Wyoming to get announced on the Xmas stream and early next year (like Colorado for 2020), I think that 2nd map gets hinted come Spring. That is when it goes on the wishlist on Steam. Whether its Texas or Montana, we will have to wait until Spring 2021. But Texas has work for more than 1.5 years now. Come Jan/Feb 2021 it will be 2 full years. Numbers on Texas are unknown but in 2019 on that Summer stream,
Pavel said he wanted about 25 or so people on Texas. I don't remember the exact number without re-watching the stream but I want to say said 20-25 or he said 25-30. Somewhere in there. In order to put that many on Texas, we still need about 10-12 more people to do another state along with Texas. Texas demands at the least 2 full map teams. Assuming a map team is about 10-12 people. Wyoming is perfect for (1) full map team to knock out. Just like any other dlc we have gotten. Its large and has a good road layout but its not busy. Its as big as Colorado but different terrain and city density. So instead of just getting one state for 2021, Wyoming works well to knock out for Summer 2021. It boxes up the map and can be mapped for Summer 2021 easily imo. We'll see.
Now lets fast forward to Winter 2021. Oct/Nov if this is Texas release. From the time
Pavel said Texas started preliminary (Jan/Feb 2019) all the way to Oct/Nov, that is 33-35 months of Texas getting work. Once I really started thinking about it, that is plenty of time for Texas to come. It really all depends on when Texas goes/went full production and how many are on it. So yes, technically Texas can be on the menu for Winter 2021 whether we like it or not. Texas is a business move and would bring in more money than Wyoming or Montana. Maybe even combined. Texas offers too much so that is why its a business move and why I can see SCS going ahead to push Texas ahead of Montana. Sure a boxed map would be better but even if Montana came first, Texas still sticks out like a sore thumb. But Texas is large enough to create little to now issues getting back to adjacent maps. So imo, Texas can come at any point because its size, creates so much once you get insides its borders.
If Texas comes before Montana or if Montana comes before Texas, they'd both only be 6 months apart anyways. No way Texas goes to Winter 2022. That is 4 years. Worst case Texas Summer 2022 and that would be 3.5 years of development. So no matter what, we'd more than likely get Montana and Texas by Summer 2022. Montana might look huge, but 2/3rds of the state is small towns/cities and Great Plains..............lots of Great plains. Wide open prairies of nothing. Easy mapping for an experience map team. SCS will map that like a boss. I think Oklahoma has a real good shot at the Winter 2022 map. So between Wyoming, Texas, Montana and Oklahoma, with 3+ unofficial map teams in place, we could indeed have all that by the time 2023 starts. Of course this is all just my opinion and speculation, but everything is derived from what
Pavel wants to do and that is to get to Florida asap. That was the his answer to a question he was asked long ago in "what does he want for ATS". But he also does not want to give us another hockey stick map. He acknowledges that the majority of the community does not want a repeat so a stair step map is ideal.
