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

[Trenero]

So, you basically want the map to look like this after Texas just because of Route 66?

Kansas will be also needed, but for example launch Oklahoma and Kansas the same Year and Missouri and Illinois the next, after that you can launch one state north route 66 the next south route 66 alternating until you square the map.

[flight50]

@Trenero I sure hope they don't do what you are proposing. JoeAlex was not agreeing with what you're posing. He's questioning your idea just like I am. It doesn't make sense.

[Sora]

@Sora, is that suppose to be Route 66? Or you are making a new Route 66?

The route (on the map) itself is not meant to be Route 66 in any capacity, nor is it particularly important as a standalone drive. This route is mapped as a means of demonstrating the "funneling" nature of this selection of states. With Texas-Arkansas-Missouri-Illinois forming the eastern border of the map, every state contributes to the existing map reaching Chicago, and the layouts of these roads naturally lead into the northern and southern extremes of the map ultimately flowing towards I-55, I-80, or I-90 in virtually every case except Beaumont.

If it helps, visualize it as two roads - the one north of Chicago, and the one south of it - with the ultimate intent being creating a shape sort of like this.
[ external image ]

It isn't perfect, of course, since Beaumont gets screwed a bit, but it's the simplest way to approach Chicago without an absolutely ridiculous map because it leaves no massive holes in the network. And as mentioned, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin are a slightly lower priority than South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma because you can do a passable detour through I-90/I-29 that avoids them; nonetheless, they still help, and Minnesota's a good state to shoot for once Illinois is up anyway.

[Trenero]

@flight50 I know that both of you aren't agree with the idea but for me make all the sense.

Bring Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Illinois as son as posible will bring the complete Route 66 to the game, and that is a great milestone for game, could be a great marketing tool making it the game where you can do the Route 66 with your truck.
Route 66 is a big name in pop culture so probably that will atract also casual players not familiarize with trucks or even the Usa, making the posible target audience of ATS become bigger.
(The form the mape will have is only temporaly until next DLC launches, it doesn't matter for me if is a C or L or whatever.)

After have route 66 SCS could launch the states alternatively one on the north one on the south, completing the map leaving New York to the last States and making the "Cannonball run in truck" the last milestone of ATS (and a great "cherry on the top.")

But whatever it comes i will be happy all the states will end coming, and who knows maybe they are planing in bring the route 66 for the 10 year aniversary.

[oldmanclippy]

Oh god no that'd be such a disaster. Plus there's no chance that the entirety of Route 66 gets in. You're taking it way too literally. All he meant is that the general Route 66 corridor would be the direction that ATS goes in. Route 66 also has zero relevance for truckers besides where it is concurrent with actual trucking roads. A lot of the Route 66 segments that aren't concurrent with major roads are tiny little barely paved roads that go from nowhere to nowhere. At 1:20 scale they can't possibly get it all in, nor should they try to. Bits and pieces here and there for novelty, sure.

A decent order if the goal is rushing Chicago could be:

TX -> OK -> KS -> NE -> AR -> MO -> IA -> IL

maybe swapping NE and AR.

Throw SD/ND in there too if the goal is getting to Chicago in a timely manner without sacrificing map shape too much. Like others have said the Dakotas without Minnesota and Wisconsin doesn't do a whole lot for Chicago. IMO both Iowa and Missouri are prerequisites for Illinois. Chicago would be gimped without I-80.

I like what @Sora is saying about getting to the point where Chicago is the apex of a big parabolic curve from Dallas to Fargo, i.e I-30 corridor all the way up to I-94 corridor. That would be a nice map shape conducive to avoiding bottlenecks. So MN and WI would be needed soon after to complete that curve/funnel.

[flight50]

@Trenero as long as it makes sense to you, I suppose that's all that matters.

@oldmanclippy I like your current order. They stack per year before moving East and then stack again. I think SCS as a minimum needs to keep at least two states stacked if they are going to follow a corridor in the Central US like that. Exactly in the order you first stated is feasible. This is assuming the Dakota are held back. I seriously wonder if by the time Iowa and Missouri are in, if the base map states will be completely done. If that's the case, there should be capacity to get that team on the Dakota's while the other teams are working East and South. I still think there should be 3-4 people to continue maintenance for the older areas of the map. Bring new roads and update old assets.

Heck what if things work out post Texas to the point that maybe a fifth team can come to ATS. That fifth team would be staffing up to do Canada and Mexico. With 40-50 mappers, split them in half and there could be 20-25 people in Canada and Mexico simultaneously.

The Dakotas become valid once Missouri and Iowa are in. We need I-29 to get North the fastest. So maybe after Chicago is in, go back and fill in the Dakota's and Minnesota. That then completes West of the Mississippi River. Then maybe Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. That completes the Great Lakes for the most part. Time to fill in the South. Work North to South now though. This builds I-55 from Chicago to New Orleans a bit more realistically instead of New Orleans to Chicago.

I sure hope it doesn't take Memphis to realize that Posted can be a major depot. Posted should be our first Parcel industry company asap. The design is great. We have vehicles for it already. We just need large main hub prefab, 2-3 satellite buildings (small hubs) and then 2-3 variations of depots at airports. Then make a semi trailer skin and bring it to life please.

[JoeAlex23]

@Trenero Maybe you should look up how much of the original/historic Route 66 is actually left to drive on, spoiler alert, is not much and at 1:20 scale it will be even less, so no, "Route 66" will not be a "great marketing tool", i can bet SCS will make some small pieces of the Historic Route 66 here and there as a hidden road like some of it will be going into Amarillo, TX, straight lining to Chicago will make the map look quite bad.

Best case scenario is as Oldmanclippy said, OK -> KS -> NE -> AR -> MO -> IA -> IL to have a more complete boxed map and not limit us to basically only 2 main roads to get to and from MO and IL, Pavel also said "corn corn and more corn", you know what that means? The Great Plains, they could also straight line it to North Dakota first, we only know the general direction they are going but it won't be a straight line to anywhere, we are all here just speculating, but i really hope they plan to keep the map as boxed as possible.

[angrybirdseller]

US-66 is non truck route and it been removed from altas in the 1980s as I-40, I-44, I-55 were completed and replaced US-66

[Sovereign 89]

I was bored again, so I have decided to do a map with my prediction how SCS might plan out releasing DLCs, but partially it is also how I would prefer for entire map to be done. This time instead of doing US only map, I did one for entire North/Central America. I made those two separate for better clarity and in order to not mix up colors as well. I'll explain everything in detail under images.


1. US map plan
[ external image ]

With Montana out of the way, the only state left that we know will be released soon is Texas, so naturally I decided to set it for release by winter this year (probably early to mid December). If it goes everything according to plan, I don't see why Texas should be further delayed especially if we take in consideration it is in the works around 3 years already and 30 or so people are working on it. In the worst case scenario Texas will be released in very early 2023, but not later than that.
So Texas Q4 - 22.

Next year we might be looking at 3 DLC's being released (again if Texas doesn't get delayed), and those IMHO would be Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. Given what Pavel said in the stream, I believe I'm on right track with this, as those are big plains states (with lots of farms and such) and a starting point for expanding map towards Midwest US, or Great Lakes area. This is also the best approach if they don't want for map to look weird and have states sticking out of the place like sore thumb. However, I may be wrong and there could be better approach I haven't thought of. It is just a speculation on my part and partially wishful thinking as well. All in all for 2023 we could have OK in Q1 or Q2, KS in Q2 or Q3 and NE in Q3 or Q4.

In 2024 I'm pretty sure we'll get 3 DLCs and possibly a first bundled DLC (South and North Dakota in this case). Due to its rather small size I say we can get Arkansas as early as Q1 of 2024, while we could get Missouri right after in Q2 of 2024. Both states help in pushing towards Midwest, while still keeping the map somewhat boxed. After them Dakotas will help better connect Montana and Wyoming to the rest of the area while making northern most push towards Great Lakes at the same time. At the latest I'm predicting bundled Dakotas DLC for Q4 of 2024, if not Q3 already.

Now this is where things get interesting and instead of 3 releases we might get 4 if another team joins the party. The states I picked are logical progression to me, and they box up map pretty nicely while pushing along north, central and southern part of US. Those include Iowa as first release in 2025, closely followed by Minnesota in Q2, then Louisiana which would finally open up (South)East Texas in Q3 and lastly Illinois near the end of the year which finally brings us to Great Lakes area. Say what you will, but I believe this is the best course of action if SCS wants to push both towards Great Lakes as well towards East coast, while at the same time keeping map fairly boxed and bringing different biomes into game.

In Q1 of 2026 SCS could release Wisconsin so that they can close up northwest part of Great Lakes area. Then in Q2 they can continue onward with Indiana which further expands mentioned area and pushes again towards east coast, or in this case northeast of the map. For a short change of pace and scenery best option to go with after Indiana would be releasing state of Mississippi during Q3, which would bring us closer to Florida and make the whole map boxier as well. After that they could move on to Michigan and release it at the end of 2026, thus covering the most of the Great Lakes area.

Here the things get a bit tricky due to odd shape of some of the states, but it can still be done with minimal damage to a shape of entire map. So my idea for 2027 is to start with Ohio which brings us closer towards northeast coast, while still closing area around Great Lakes. Now here comes the fun part, but I believe the map would still look ok-ish if Kentucky and Tennessee got bundled together and released simultaneously in Q2/Q3 of 2027. The odd part about it would be driving from let's say eastern most Tennessee to south eastern most Louisiana, but that would be only temporary, until in Q4 we get state of Alabama. Another approach could be releasing KT and TN first, then follow them by OH and AL (or vice versa), but I believe my way is better.

From now on things are pretty straightforward and in my opinion push towards southeast part of coast should take priority. And this late in development SCS should have plenty of teams to work on maps, so I'm guessing we could see release of 3 bundled DLC. First DLC would consist of Florida and Georgia and could be released in late Q1, or early Q2 of 2028, while second and third DLCs would consist from bundled states of South and North Carolina, as well as Virginia and West Virginia. Since those last four states are not very big in size and share the name they should be bundled without much doubt.

In far 2029 with most of the map being already finished we should be looking at release of Washington DC, Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania for Q2, and then for Q4 we could get New Jersey and New York with NYC making into game.

Finally in 2030 probably around Q2 or Q3 period contiguous US map would be completed with release of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine as bundled DLC. Then SCS could move on Canada and Mexico/Central America which I will cover in the next part of this post, and they could start reworking any previous part of maps that will require it. They will probably have always 1 team dedicated to rework of older parts of map, but most of the focus will be on releasing new parts, so that's why I haven't mentioned that before. All in all this will be happening concurrently with new releases, while any leftovers can be done after whole of USA is completed.


2. North and Central America map plan
[ external image ]

Unlike with US map, here are things a bit easier I think. First and foremost we should take in consideration that Canada for example is more sparsely populated, especially when it comes to its northmost areas, thus having less dense road networks as well. On the other hand, Mexico and states to the south of it can be tricky at times in that regard, but given the fact that by the time SCS starts working there, US will be completed and there will be plenty of map teams that could simultaneously work in several areas.

Naturally for a start I think best approach is that first team tackle with British Columbia, second takes on New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Area (which is rather small as you may notice), while third and fourth teams can sweep through north regions of Mexico along southern US border and Baja California peninsula. This could be all done by the end of 2031.

Secondly Canada teams should move on to Alberta, Ontario and Quebec. Due to amount of people/teams that would be working on maps so far in the future, I'm certain Canada could have 3 dedicated teams and each could do its own region.
As for Mexico teams they can expand the map further south and cover great chunk of area, since as closer the south in Mexico they go, map shrinks more in size. Only problematic part here would be a city of Mexico itself which will probably be the most difficult city to make in ATS altogether. I'm sure it will be a nightmare to do, but with lots of people, new technologies and methods of mapping I'm certain it can be done in reasonable amount of time.

After the regions in Canada I mentioned in previous part are completed, Canadian teams can move onto making Saskatchewan and Manitoba which will also close the USA norther border, as well as connect west and east coasts of Canada. And by the way they can also do Newfoundland and Labrador if there's any kind of roads/and or settlements/prefabs there at all.
Teams at the south of US border can do the rest of regions in Mexico all the way to Guatemala and Belize. That can all be done by the end of 2033.

In Q2 of 2034 teams in Canada can sweep through the rest of its areas namely Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Last but not least they would also bring us long awaited state of Alaska and its ice road trucking (there's some in Canada too, but Alaska is first what comes to mind when people mention ice road trucking).
Teams in the south could by Q4 of 2034 do the rest of states in Central America all the way to Panamas canal.

The only area after that left to be done are Caribbean Islands, of which we will probably get only largest ones, and they could either come after everything in 2035., or somewhere in between other DLC releases, which could before SCS starts to expand across US borders. But that remains to be seen yet, as this is all just a speculation and wishful thinking on my part. How things will really go down only SCS knows, and not even they know everything that might happen in the future with their game(s), but hopefully we could help point them in right direction.


Thanks for reading, any constructive criticism about this is welcome and appreciated.


P.S. TL;DR: You may expect the whole map of US be completed around 2030, and the rest until 2035, but that may or may not be accurate.

[angrybirdseller]

Can exclude Caribbean Area and Central American do not see those areas being covered in ATS. Canada will take ~5 years go build out and Mexico will be same amount. The full map will likely be USA, Canada, Mexico as have land mass to make it worth while. The research will be sketchy for El Salvador and Guatemala. Further south the map will go is Mexico and Guatemala border.