SCS General Nonsense Thread

[San_Sany4]

We have the technology. Games have been able to share common files (textures, models, sounds, executable files, libraries, configs and other resources) since late '90s. Remember Half-Life and it's various mods-turned-games like Counter-Strike and Team Fortress? Or HL2 with TF2, Portal, CS:S and so on? They work exactly like this, they have common files that are downloaded with either of the games using them, and they also have specific files that are not downloaded if you don't own one of the games. Steam store is also not an issue, even if a separate game requires, say, separate map DLCs, there are tools like depots, packages and bundles that can grant the access to the "Bus Sim Game" DLCs that you already own for ETS2. So this is not an issue, it's already solved.

[Sora]

Is there really any incentive to separate it out, though? They split off ATS and that game is lucky to get like 20% of the audience most of the time. If they split off more games they'd all probably get even smaller cuts, and then people would post here about how the game is dying because they didn't add anime paint jobs or whatever the complaint of the week is.

Obviously it's too late to change the past and merge ATS into ETS2, but realistically I'm sure they know the DLC will have more eyes on it if it's in the game their fans are already playing (because of momentum, if nothing else), and it makes a lot of the other technical stuff more straightforward for everyone involved too.

[San_Sany4]

Well, the title is one of the biggest incentives. For a person new to the scene, looking for a bus simulator, it won't be obvious that they should look for a truck simulator with a bus DLC, rather than a dedicated bus game.

Another one is the fact that bus drivers and truck drivers are almost always separate groups of people. Yes, it's possible to move between them, but it is not common to be jumping back and forth at wish, as seems to be SCS's current plan. That one, though, can be solved with separate game modes or profiles.

[The_SimTrucker]

In my opinion a separate coach/bus simulator based on the ETS2 map does not have enough "meat on the bone" to be stand-alone. Only if SCS wants to dive deep into bus sims then it makes sense to make it a separate release. And I don't think they are willing to do that.

For a real bus sim experience the game would need to have lot more details worked out that we do not even have for trucks in ETS2 after all these years. Real bus sim fanatics will not drive a fantasy route, with a fantasy bus number, on a fantasy schedule.

[Aziz]

Some careful fiddling with tags and coaches dlc will land on the top of search results when asked for bus/coach simulator. The fact that it requires ETS2? Considering it's on 75% sale for half of the year makes it a no brainer.

It's all funny n stuff considering that few pages ago people were complaining about purchasing farm machinery twice. Now all of a sudden buying again 11+ map dlcs and gods know what else seems fine.
And don't get me started on ATS with even more maps at the time of typing this, with more and more to come.

[-MLP-]

Steam can link DLCs between games (I think some trains game is doing it already). You buy the DLC for game X and is available in game Y and Z too. So people who already has all maps DLCs would not buy them again, they only need to buy Coaches/Cars that can be a different agme on steam.

[plykkegaard]

Yes, sure you're probably right, it can be done

But how without any impact on existing customers?
And how difficult would it be? Is it worth the bother? And can it be done without spending too much time and effort (loss of money)

[-MLP-]

Well, probably, first they would need to remove the trucks from the base game and then share resources for both games, so you wouldn't need to download the same files for both games. Like Counter Strike and Half Life was doing it in the past, as San_Sany4 already said it.

The thing is that Cars/Coaches won't be a big game even with all the maps DLCs already released. I don't think it would have a big gameplay like we already have with the trucks. So I don't think it should be listed as a different game on the Steam, but I'm 99% sure that it can be done with shared resources for base game and maps DLCs.

[TheFallen1998]

Yes, sure you're probably right, it can be done

But how without any impact on existing customers?
And how difficult would it be? Is it worth the bother? And can it be done without spending too much time and effort (loss of money)

Method of replacing X with Y and vice versa. In your game you are offered a launch menu - buses or trucks on one platform.

[Mohegan13]

If you honestly think they'd go through all that hassle after intentionally setting up the games to allow different modules to run, like Driver Academy, then release cars (ATS) and coaches (ets2) as separate games then quite frankly I think you're off your rocker.