[IDEA] 1:5 Map Rescale Mod

[Trakaplex]

Are you complaining of 1:19 to 1:20 scaled maps? Little road to explore? Severely butchered natural and urban biomes? Like @seriousmods? Well today I thought of an idea, building a larger scaled modded map. Several of us agreed that SCS won't build maps in these scales forever, but it doesn't feel like it's soon, even in 10 years. And yet for those not satisfied with current scale, they keep building larger scale map mods... time to solve.

Obviously we can't do 1:1 because we would need an accurate full-scaled model of every building there is. Even a 1:1 map of Rhode Island would still be 1.5 times larger than ATS Texas (yes that's how shrunk the current map is). The Build The Earth Minecraft project fits the 1:1 theme and it's still a hassle after nearly three years of work and 200,000+ Discord members. And I'm not going far like that other thread to autogenerate, since apparently SCS doesn't currently have capability to improve the engine. But 1:5 right? That would be more feasible. It has perfect qualifications, and you don't have to remodel everything there is. Its size would only be 16x larger than a 1:20 map. And just like Build The Earth, any player who plays both ATS and ETS2 could collab and model just like how SCS does their maps. And the large playerbase could get done pretty quickly. It would be more reliable too since people could easily do their local areas instead of being afraid of what SCS puts in or not.

Moreover, it's large enough for people to not complain about omissions. I chose 1:5 because it's that length, even people won't get enough of 1:10. Another pro is that the time is more realistic. 12 real seconds would be an in-game minute instead of 3.

Goal?

I guess my idea here is to rebuild every area currently in both games, but in a larger scaled map. It would be easy to move assets from vanilla to the new map like ATS was done in the 1:35 to 1:20 transition. I won't participate since I have other priorities, but if someone opens this themselves it would be awe-inspiring. Now the data won't be that bad, even if the cities expand by 4x in size. Montana in 1:20 was 230MB, so we're expecting 3.68 GB for 1:5, and probably 36GB for the whole ATS side of the map (1:20 is 2.25GB).

I know this is ambitious, but face it.

[Optional Features]

I love that I have become the ideal representation of a frustrated fan.

As for the idea, I think it's a great one. I would suggest starting with an area that the scale absolutely slaughtered like the Great Salt Puddle in Utah, the Siskyou Flat between Oregon and California, or the future Wyoming after people decide other states are too overpopulated and now it is time to "fix" what remains.

Call me strange (I am), but I enjoy a long drive with a good engine and nice jake brake.

I'd love to see a 1:5 Wyoming: heck, just I-80. Or I-70 going into Denver. The SCS version is quite nice, but a stretch with bigger mountains and bigger grades would be better yet.

It doesn't need to be the whole map rescaled, just a big enough piece like Reforma is doing with Esterlon (but that sadly is fictional).

Would be awesome to see.

[wato]

[...] even if the cities expand by 4x in size. Montana in 1:20 was 230MB, so we're expecting 3.68 GB for 1:5, [...]

Just a small input: the scale applies to both axes, x and y, so you get an area scale of 1:20^2 = 1:400 and 1:5^2 = 1:25, i.e., 16 times the size. 4 times the size is actually 1:10.

[Trakaplex]

[...] even if the cities expand by 4x in size. Montana in 1:20 was 230MB, so we're expecting 3.68 GB for 1:5, [...]

Just a small input: the scale applies to both axes, x and y, so you get an area scale of 1:20^2 = 1:400 and 1:5^2 = 1:25, i.e., 16 times the size. 4 times the size is actually 1:10.

Nah I mentioned that IF the cities would grow 4x in size, but above I said that the map in general would grow 16x. @flight50 must hear this lol.

[JoeAlex23]

Sorry to say it like this, but you're out of your mind if you think anyone would want to do a project like this for free, it's just outright impossible, and don't come back at me with that Minecraft thing, Minecraft has a MASSIVE community that puts to shame basically everyone in the gaming industry and that's why projects like that are possible.

Just look at ProMods, they probably have the biggest team of dedicated mappers outside of SCS and they still take a lot of time to map areas that SCS has not done yet and that is at the original scale, trying to "recreate" the SCS map but in a 1:5 scale is an outright ridiculous idea that would take YEARS to do at least only one state even if everyone outside of SCS who knows how to use the map editor could come together to work on something like this, this is as far as crazy ideas go, but be my guess, and i just wish you the best of luck on your dream.

[Trakaplex]

Sorry to say it like this, but you're out of your mind if you think anyone would want to do a project like this for free, it's just outright impossible, and don't come back at me with that Minecraft thing, Minecraft has a MASSIVE community that puts to shame basically everyone in the gaming industry and that's why projects like that are possible.

Just look at ProMods, they probably have the biggest team of dedicated mappers outside of SCS and they still take a lot of time to map areas that SCS has not done yet and that is at the original scale, trying to "recreate" the SCS map but in a 1:5 scale is an outright ridiculous idea that would take YEARS to do at least only one state even if everyone outside of SCS who knows how to use the map editor could come together to work on something like this, this is as far as crazy ideas go, but be my guess, and i just wish you the best of luck on your dream.

I might create a backstab using the Minecraft example, but that project has only gotten 15M eyeballs compared to the 500M Minecraft players? The guy who started it was yet some small YouTuber. First of all the SCS devving team for ATS has 50 people currently, not sure about ETS2 but it probably is the same. To get a 1:5 scaled map we do this: 50*16*7 (to get the project supposedly done in one year), which equals 560 people. I am pretty sure the people who are tired of these maps are in the thousands, as well as people who can map edit.

ETS2 meanwhile has 13 million downloads, and I'm 100% affirmative people can easily learn how to map edit and it's very easy to open the editor as well. And ProMods itself is a limited team, I am mentioning anyone who plays the game. Moreover, what makes this not impossible is like what I reiterated, rescaling requires moving current assets on a larger map (in which grass and trees could be randomized like SCS's). Several terrain might need to be stretched as well. Many of the medium-sized cities like Jackson, WY are completely okay at current scale and can just be copied and pasted. Big cities like the Bay Area and DFW that are significantly shrunken down would only need a bit of work by extending the routes and adding custom buildings. Cities don't make up 95% of the world's land. The perception is that this would be a mega-mod anyone can map edit to for both games.

Three: 1:5 is not much larger than 1:20. It's only 16 times as large than current scale.

And doing good achievements always wins over chasing financial gain.

[Optional Features]

Yeah, we don't really need larger cities: we need larger rural areas and more industry in existing city layouts.

[flight50]

1:5 not that large? 1:5 is almost saying 1:1. There's a huge difference if 1:5 vs 1:20. I don't think its calculated as only being 16x larger though. Its much much worse than that. Max explained it once before though. The difference is huge. The dev time is huge. Even worse, if people think 17.99 for Texas is high, imagine a map dlc price tag at 1:5 scale. Not many people would be buying for the amount of North America that is left. People already complain that in the end, ATS will be very very expensive.

[Trakaplex]

1:5 not that large? 1:5 is almost saying 1:1. There's a huge difference if 1:5 vs 1:20. I don't think its calculated as only being 16x larger though. Its much much worse than that. Max explained it once before though. The difference is huge. The dev time is huge. Even worse, if people think 17.99 for Texas is high, imagine a map dlc price tag at 1:5 scale. Not many people would be buying for the amount of North America that is left. People already complain that in the end, ATS will be very very expensive.

Nah, we're talking about a free mod anyone can edit to, not an SCS map rescale. 16x is 1:5 compared to 1:20. On a 1D line, that would be 4x the distance of 1:20, square 4 to get area. It's for people who don't enjoy current scale, and to get a perception close to 1:1.

[flight50]

I know there are a few 1:1 maps and people like them I suppose. It works for specific cities or even specific states. Texas would be a good 1:1 state but that is years of dev time. I'd probably buy a 1:1 Texas though but I wouldn't expect anything else beside Texas. I'd be dead and gone by time more states release, lol.