Base Map Rebuild (CA, NV, AZ) General Discussion Thread

[clifflandmark]

If some of you assume that some of the manpower directed to CA rebuild and thus, it can be done quicker, you probably did that assumption before Kansas news. OK and KS on the way. Nothing changed for the pace of CA rebuild.

Edit : I did not watch any recent stream yet.It's just an assumption like yours.

[flight50]

The assumption is based off the numbers for Texas in general. Nothing to do with Kansas going official. It half the Texas team needed to go to Kansas. There is another whole half that can go somewhere. Either the next dlc after Kansas or go to rebuild.

It was also revealed last year that SCS hired 13 new mappers before Texas even released iirc. Those 13 are probably split between ATS and ETS2 though. So yes there is a lot more manpower available spread put everywhere.

[Shiva]

SF area rebuild. SCS needs big city mappers there. A few of those.
And some road builders, depending on how far south they do.
Maybe we can see what they done, in the next patch?

[flight50]

We were already told that 2 seniors stayed behind when Texas and Montana depleted the rebuild team. If Jakub stated that phase 3 is mostly done, there are a few things I'm thinking...
1) the 2 seniors stayed behind to finish the bay area and had to end up redoing a lot since they started it
2) the 2 seniors stayed behind, polished the bay area and started working beyond the bay area
3) one of the senior's project was done and started Stockton maybe while the other finish up their city
4) the bay area was polished up and the 3 (both seniors and Jakub) pushed on to work I-80

No matter what, I'm sure the rebuild team got numbers back to it. So I'm going with phase 3's scope is increasing with the return of manpower.

Imo, at this point with more manpower, not working phase 1 Nevada is a huge mistake. If both Oklahoma and Kansas are the 2023 maps, Nebraska could get announced after Oklahoma drops and could be the first ATS dlc for 2024. There is also a slim chance that Nebraska releases Nov/Dec of this year. If Texas released last year, the rest of the Texas team could easily move on to Nebraska as the first half went to Kansas. The Kansas team probably left Texas several months before Texas released because Texas could spare them. Once Texas went into closed Texas, Kansas probably went full production. Christmas holiday comes and SCS leaves. SCS came back Jan 2023. Its not going to take a full 12 months to do Nebraska. Wyoming took 10. Utah/Idaho took 8-9 months. Montana took 11 months once more help came from the rebuild team. Nebraska is somewhat like Wyoming/Montana in terms of towns and open rural areas. Not a ton going on in the GP states. The easiest part about Nebraska though........its not a mountainous state.............

So where am I going with the above..........I-80 is a must have if Nebraska gets announced next. Kansas can easily come Sept/October if Oklahoma is June to August. Releases too close, nah. If you can't afford it, don't buy the dlc. If SCS can string updates back to back like that, why not. If SCS released 3 maps in 3 weeks, lots of people will buy it. So if 2023 is possible to release 3 dlc's, it doesn't matter when they release. Anyways, phase 1 Nevada must get reworked for Nebraska if they expect newcomers and seasoned players to really connect with the map. The below is what we are looking at once phase 3 completes I-80 in Nevada. That's not a good image to portray. Southern California won't get done this year anyways and probably not next year either at current pace. But phase 1 Nevada can easily be done by a solid group of 5 or so. The mapping is mountainous but its a lot of nothing along that stretch. Reno will take a senior to do but Winnemucca and Elko should be like small cities in Wyoming/Montana. If we get phase 3/phase 4 by this Summer, that would put I-80 in good quality from San Francisco all to Truckee. Sooo now that puts Truckee to Wells Nevada in a horrible situation for newcomers. How can you expect newcomers to go from Truckee, thru Nevada, then back to good quality with Utah, Wyoming and Nebraska.

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2023, ATS gets Oklahoma and Kansas. Nebraska could follow and this is what the good quality roads will look like. The I-80 quality gap only gets worse the further I-80 extends. Putting effort to I-80 should be priority if you want people connecting to the base map with new dlc's. You can't beat I-80 in doing that. I-70 is already all good quality. We need another parallel.

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[Calibuddy99]

2023, ATS gets Oklahoma and Kansas and this is what the good quality roads will look like. The I-80 quality gap only gets worse the further I-80 extends. Putting effort to I-80 should be priority if you want people connecting to the base map with new dlc's. You can't beat I-80 in doing that. I-70 is already all good quality. We need another parallel.

Yeah. We need the nevada phase 1 very soon because I-80 has a terrible quality there. Hasn't really been changed at all since the release of the game. Hopefully that happens this year.

[Shiva]

Nevada I-80 rescale cut, was done on the wrong place. It was made between Elko and Carlin Tunnel, instead of west of the tunnel.

flight50, if 2 seniors and those city/mega city builders, then that could have been enough for the SF area.
If US-50 is redone, or polished, that might have needed a 3rd.
If Fresno and Huron included, then more people needed?
That's my theory.

Hmm, 3 city builders, could maybe have been working on the SF area. Maybe?

[oldmanclippy]

In general I'm just super interested to learn what Phase 3 will include. I think that Phase 1 Nevada (but not necessarily the Phase 1 that we're most hoping for that being I-80) is more likely than some think due to the inclusion of these images in the December 2021 blog post https://blog.scssoft.com/2021/12/califo ... sight.html

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As far as I know these images are not in the game yet, and to me they scream "east side of the Sierra Nevada". I think at the very least, it is likely that we will see the following roads in Nevada in Phase 3:

US-50 from South Lake Tahoe to US-395
US-395 from US-50 to Topaz Lake

I think the furthest south that US-395 could go within California would be Lee Vining. Mayyybe Bishop but to me that would make more sense to do alongside Nevada Phase 2, if SCS switches to doing CA and NV in parallel full-time, which again we have no information that would lead us to believe that that will happen.

Obviously I also would strongly prefer that northern Nevada would get reworked ASAP, but for now I think there's a decent chance that we'll get that small segment of US-50 and US-395 with the next phase of the rework. Carson City would make sense to come too if US-50 is getting reworked since it might need to shift a bit, and if they're going to shift it they might as well gut it.

[flight50]

@oldmanclippy I totally agree.
Greedy Route - Phase 3 + US-50 + Stockton. Phase 1 Nevada, US-50 to Carson City and up to Reno. Reno, Winnemucca, Elko to Wells, NV. Wells is where the Utah dlc picks up. US-93Alt can get realigned later. Its okay for now. Fix it Nevada Phase 2/Phase 3.
Conservative - Phase 3 + Stockton. Phase 1 Nevada, Truckee to Wells with the include city updates along that path.

I sure hope you are correct with those pics being East of the Sierra's. That would be a great sign indeed. Nevada's terrain is just too easy at this point. SCS already has some great models that can get used. If not, they have the new rock formation tool that can make easy work of Nevada now. They have a lot of experience with that type of environment now. Nevada is a no brainer. I'm willing to bet that outside of the cities, the majority of the assets need for Phase 1 Nevada, are already made.

I know some people don't agree with phase 1 Nevada being a priority at this point and would rather SCS continue further South into California and complete it first. People are free to think that. If capacity is there.........yes both can happen. I don't think a full size team is needed for phase 1 Nevada like what would be required for California's next phase and beyond. But looking at the quality gap in the pics I posted yesterday, its just not ideal to continue extending deeper into California with no sight of phase 1 Nevada. At this point, the base map should be reworked.......West to East. Base map border to base map border, then go North to South. Separating it by state by completing one state at a time, just doesn't get people back into the base map area while connecting to newer dlcs. That quality gap makes a huge difference to a lot of people. Newcomers and seasoned. Its way to easy to avoid traveling into any of the base map states because of all the great quality East of it.

I'm not sure what SCS's approach is, but hopefully they consider base map connectivity to newer maps as priority. Eventually all of California will get done. Is wayyy to busy of state to rush it. It needs a ton of new assets. It needs new companies too. Texas brought some new tech that help with draw distance and LOD modeling. Nevada is just as bad looking as California is but its simpler. SCS really has to think about the Eastward expansion that Nebraska brings. Once Illinois comes, smh, its going to be a lot of negativity for people that want to link Chicago to San Francisco. SCS does not play ATS.....we do. They make the game and go home. Come back next day and repeat. The last thing they want to do is work and play with what they make 24/7. They might not see the picture like we do but mannnnn I surely hope someone is reading this at SCS and putting the bug in Pavel and Jakub's ear. Phase 1 Nevada really needs to become a reality much much sooner than going South of I-80 in California. Like I said, useless they have the capacity to do both, put a small team on I-80 and get things done inching towards Utah.

Those 13 new mappers that got hired at the end of last year (no telling what they hired this year).......if half goes to ATS and the other half went to ETS2, that is enough to develop phase 1 Nevada. The rebuild team got pulled to work Montana and Texas. That team has at least 1 year experience now. Mix in the experience. Swap out people. Shift people around. Put a little experience on the rebuild team for leadership and learning on the job training. SCS doesn't do new roads for training anymore. They have an academy for all that stuff is the way I interpret all that. The academy weeds out people. Make it thru the academy and you get added to a map team. The rebuild team is a good first team to go to first to see what you're made of. I'm not sure exactly how it all works there but his is my best guess as it's what makes sense in my lil brain, lol. Davido's Wyoming team was mostly newbies but they had enough experience there. Wyoming and Montana turned out great. The same can happen with phase 1 Nevada. Newbies does not equal bad quality. The entire team has developed into a pretty good mapping team for ATS.

[Sara]

Honestly, I hope Phase 1 for Nevada gets done sooner than later. Travelling along I-80 in Nevada is a nightmare alone, and is an area that I avoid on purpose at all times. And as SCS starts moving "north again", especially with Nebraska possibly coming after OK and KS, we'll need the I-80 for between the east and the west.

[flight50]

The more time passes without a phase 3 blog, the more I really think the scope expanded. It was noted that phase 2 was planned to be much larger but Montana and Texas needed the help. Sooooooo maybe its phase 3 that is going to catch up to the planned scope that phase 2 didn't do. The Bay Area is one thing but surely that isn't going to be all we get in the update that does bring more California.

Adding Stockton helps but is that really all the scope for ph 3? We didn't get news on ph 3 scope for the xmas stream and that could be for good reason. I hope Sacramento got adjustments to get East of it. If there is capacity to have a California team and a Nevada team, that's ideal. If SCS can rebuild down to lets say Fresno, that would be great. But what's on the menu besides Fresno? Modesto? Does it replace Oakdale? Does Salinas replace Santa Cruz as marked and Santa Cruz goes scenic? San Jose is that 3rd city outside of San Francisco and Oakland more than likely. I already mentioned Stockton. That's some big time stuff with just those. If we don't get or even hear anything about the California rework for 1.47, surely that means 1.48 will include quite a bit.

I could be wrong of course about getting a lot next ph 3, but its a possible outcome for sure.