Poll: Choose (3) States you would like to see next

[bobgrey1997]

Honestly, Louisiana is probably absolutely required to be directly after Oklahoma (if not before).
Releasing too many of the Plains states would probably be catastrophic to this game. A good portion of the community is already getting upset and tired of this boring game (a complete lack of engaging gameplay), so boring maps would definitely throw more over the edge. Interesting maps is the only thing keeping this company afloat, which is a bad bet in the long term. Eventually, they will run out of interesting places to add.

[angrybirdseller]

That your opinion not necessarily people do not visit the forum. Texas needs all the surrounding states completed.

[flight50]

So How Many Teams Are Working In Texas Right Now Estimated How Many People

We don't know but one one of the Xmas streams, Pavel said he wanted to put 20-25 on Texas. Now if this happened or not, no telling. But it doesn't make sense to just have one team on it when Texas is the size of 2-3 states. Its the size of an ETS2 map and at one point, they used about 30 mappers. If I had to guess, 15-20 for sure. Could be more. They will tell us on the Texas release stream or in a blog detailing Texas's development. Eventually the dlc will drop though. The most important thing though is to not rush it.

Sounds good. But definitly OK and KS after TX, so Louisiana makes more sense. After that maybe back and fourth between moving north and eastwards...

Yes, back and forth. But back and forth as in releases. They should be working East and north simultaneously. Stacked is okay once you are deeper into the Midwest or East as those are busier states than the Great Plains. But in the Great Plains, more people will see it too repetitive with Montana, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas releasing back to back to back to back. People will want more woodlands, swamps...different biomes by the time Kansas drops. I can feel more community frowns if SCS continues North of Kansas before going to Louisiana. We get limited again. Go in both directions and keep diverse landscaping going. So yeah I totally agree with @oldmanclippy Nebraska should not come before Louisiana. Bring Nebraska after Arkansas. If you SCS is thinking L shaped, bundle them. One full sized map team in each state. Each team should finish each state withing 12 months. Do that and release together. You can either bundle or buy individually. Get both and that is no L shape to deal with with Oklahoma in place.

If we get both those states, then bring Nebraska followed by Missouri. I like oldmanclippy's maps. Either way won't bother me. But I think New Orleans would be a hotter ticket item to sell. I agree with @angrybirdseller too. The sooner Texas is surrounded, the better. That opens up I-20, I-30 and I-35 for some good route options coming to bigger cities and more compact density urban areas.

[smt42]

When will we start bundling states. It's got to happen at some point as we move east, right?
The most obvious near-future bundle will be the Dakotas. They're both extremely similar to each other, relatively small, and practically empty. I'm wondering what others there could be? Louisiana & Arkansas seems logical

[flight50]

^West of the Mississippi, yes those are the 2 bundles that several of us have mentioned.

[rbsanford]

Maybe Mississippi and Alabama could go together. I can also see Minnesota pairing with Wisconsin and Illinois going with Indiana. Further east, it would make sense for Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware to be bundled together as DelMarVA, since the three states interlock so well and would give us a complete Washington (which I imagine would be designed like Rennes in ETS2, with the accessible parts of the city along the ring road).

A Dakota bundle would make sense, but don't underestimate the size; combined, the Dakotas are about the same area as Montana. The two states also have some decent scenery that might be unexpected, and quite a bit of industry, including mining in the Black Hills and oil fracking in ND's Bakken Formation. At least the settlements would be small: the largest city between the Dakotas is Sioux Falls, at 192,517 as of the last census; the closest city in the game, population-wise, is Vancouver.

[oldmanclippy]

I do think Mississippi and Alabama could be a potential first bundle. I do think that @flight50 has brought up a good point in the past about the differentiation between two types of bundling:

a) SCS develops multiple states under the same team for release under one package, i.e. a DLC called "The Dakotas"

b) SCS develops multiple states each under their own team for simultaneous release available either separately or purchased together for a discount, i.e. two DLCs "North Dakota" and "South Dakota" with a Steam bundle called "The Dakotas" for maybe $18.99

Honestly I think the former is more likely than the latter. It makes marketing easier, and as ATS marches ever eastward there will be fewer and fewer players who will only buy certain states. As it goes on more people will be focused on the big picture of having the entire United States one day. So it makes little sense for example to buy South Dakota but not North Dakota, except for the people who live in South Dakota and only own a few other states out west, for example. I think option b muddies the waters unnecessarily.

With that in mind, I don't think we'll be able to speculate about bundles accurately until SCS comes out and says that they'll do bundles. As far as I know we have no indication that bundling will be a thing until we get out east where bundles will be 100% necessary. That being said, the reason we speculate about it is because as the states get smaller bundling starts to make more sense. Especially because as more and more people are hired on, it makes more and more sense to just make bigger map teams than more small teams, because more releases in a year puts extra strain on test and marketing, while fewer releases per year allows each release its time to shine and make money. I would be very surprised if ATS ever moves past 3 map releases per year. The question is, when will 3 per year happen. 2023 seems like a possibility, if not then 2024 is highly likely to start a 3 release per year pattern. It will need to happen soon if the lower 48 is to get finished in a reasonable timeframe.

The more bundling, the less frequent the releases would be. Pavel has mentioned that he wants to increase the cadence of releases, but we will see if that ends up being the plan post-Texas. I think Oklahoma and Kansas will come standalone, but I wouldn't be that surprised if Louisiana and Arkansas come together. If they do, that could signify the start of bundling, if not then I think bundling could be a more distant prospect. I think we will start to have a better idea of what is going to happen next year.

I think Oklahoma could get announced after Montana releases. Then after Texas's release the state to follow Oklahoma could be announced. Then after Oklahoma we get the next announcement, and so on. We'd always have 2 states that are able to be wishlisted on Steam. I think that's a good strategy. So anyways, that could mean that we know the entire 2023 plan shortly after Oklahoma releases. Ideally Oklahoma gets out in Spring so maybe in 13-14 months we'll have a better idea.

[flight50]

Yeah 2023 is the year I look forward to. I agree that more than 3 states....or should I say 3 dlc's is about the max for ATS a year. Doing more than that is stressful indeed. We have to keep in mind that ETS2 has to get releases as well and that would be 4 map dlc's. That is one per season on avg. No telling when or how SCS will bundle. Its just fun to speculate the options. Perhaps they already have it figured out.

For 2023, I'd be shocked if Oklahoma isn't on the Steam Wishlist honestly. I don't see any other state coming after Texas/Montana. Louisiana is an option but it doesn't make sense right now. Maybe after Kansas or Nebraska perhaps. That way it won't be much of an L-shape that people will bring up. Beyond Texas, the states are half the size of the West. So if its all filling in nicely, the L-shape is more like a stub.

[Shiva]

I do see Louisiana as an option. After Oklahoma. Either as standalone, or bundled with Arkansas.
Louisiana would pave a nice way for 3 USA map teams.

[flight50]

^That would be an order I'd like to see. Surround Texas to extend roadways from it. I think is brings different biomes sooner too. Montana, Texas and Oklahoma provides a decent amount of the Great Plains. Kansas and Arkansas (Ar-Kansas as some people like to call it) are interchangeable though. But Louisiana is good for that change of pace.

If we got Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas for 2023, that sets up 2024 for Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri. I doubt it happens like that but it would be sweeter imho. I'd box it up a bit before going East. 2025 could go 2 ways. Either finish up West of the Mississippi with the Dakotas, Iowa and Minnesota or push East with Mississippi, South Dakota and Iowa for 2025. The next 2 years will give us an indication on what's to come perhaps.

Its looks like a very attractive map with Montana, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Missouri in. We get Great Plains, heavy woodlands, swamps, road density and the start of bigger and closer city proximities. Get to that point and SCS can't really go wrong in the direction they go. This is when the 3 map teams could perhaps spread out even more. It wouldn't even be too bad if Illinois came before Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee nor Kentucky. With Iowa and Missouri there, Illinois gets us to Chicago nicely. Now we won't get I-55 fulling without Memphis but we can make some detours and get back on track by going thru Arkansas.

After Texas, the big cities to anticipate the most to me is Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Kansas City, St. Louis and Chicago. Those are the connections to go for in regards to the biggest wow factors. It gets us into the heart of the MidWest and our first taste of the Great Lakes region, it feeds us some more of the Gulf Coast and we can get to I-70 for more East to West connections until we can get I-80 and I-90.