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

[Trakaplex]

Indeed, but they also can't keep releasing two or three states per year or else we'll go way beyond 2030 with an incomplete lower 48.

And regarding MO, I suppose it could work... We first get OK, KS and MO; then IL, IA and NE. BUT, I don't think it will happen since assets for Nebraska were already found in the game files.

It's likely they will go in a stack upward, then do northeast toward the Great Lakes. I think the lower 48 could be done by 2030 if the ATS team has 50 people. There are enough people contemporarily to do the Base Map Redo, Dakotas, Great Plains, and Oklahoma. Jakub, Simon, Patrik, and Davido. Simon could do more eastern states like the Natural Jazz and Blues DLC.

[Shiva]

2030, that I do agree on.

Regarding Virginia, West Wirgina, Maryland and Delaware.
I suspect those could come in a single map DLC.
Unless the map DLC's get even bigger for that area.

Wheeling, West Virginia. That can be a bit troublesome. Is it way too close to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania?

About 52 map sectors.

I think that City planning for that area, will include everything from Washington to New York.

[ads678]

Well, decided to come with another prediction map for the next DLC's and this is what I think could happen:

First one is the most pessimistic take on it. Which I hope doesn't come true.

https://i.imgur.com/w9K4Q3X.png

Second one is the optimistic take. Why? Because if SCS managed to get to Texas in 6 years time all the while having just a handful of mappers in the first years, I'm sure they can finish the lower 48 in less time considering the map teams are only getting bigger and bigger.

https://i.imgur.com/fUkM1ep.png

It's nice to think that by 2026 we finally may get C2C trips.

I think that even your pessimistic take is too optimistic. I can't see how SCS finishes USA before 2030. Here is my prediction, and I think this is an optimistic scenario.

[ external image ]

[Quark]

@Shiva Yeah, a multiple state dlc including the Virginias, Maryland, Washington DC and possibly also Delaware would certainly make a lot of sense. West Virginia would never work as a single state DLC anyways, not to mention the even smaller states at the coast like Delaware. Its also such a beautiful region in the US, i'm already sooo looking forward to these (especially central and southern-) Appalachian states. Kentucky+Tennessee would also fit well together as one DLC IMO, the Carolinas a potential single map as well, and both maps would be about Utah sized so no super team necessary at all for these bundles.

[angrybirdseller]

2024-Iowa, Missouri, Illinois 2025-South Dakota, North Dakota, Arkansas, Louisiana
2026-Minnesota, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee. 2027-Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio Indiana.
2028- Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina. 2029 Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delware..
2030 Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York 2031-New England lower 48 would be completed.

Get it done before 2032, but before unless you cut content and corners before 2032 unlikely

[Quark]

I don't think these lists that you can read here over and over again do make much sense at this point in time tbh. There are just too many possibilities, everyone comes up with something different anyways. Also, why on earth should only Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Delaware come in 2029? Regardless of whether it was meant to come as a single DLC or somehow seperated (which would not make much sense anyways), is it really likely that these states with a combined size of Washington state! is all what we will get to see within that year? Much too conservative IMO. When the team has grown to such sizes in the meantime. And you certainly don't need more than 15 mappers for that, if at all. Yeah i know, its denser and all, but really, its still just Washington sized, and you can't put too much into such a limited space anyway.

[flight50]

I'm with oldmanclippy. I think the investment in ATS now is good. If things are too slow, yes reduce the numbers and reassign them to where the money is. In order to make money, one must spend money. Any successful company has growing pains. If they survive, its because they did something right. But before reassigning people to ETS2, I'd rather see SCS move some to Mexico and Canada to spark interest if sales for US states slack off. I still think they should do that anyways before all the US is done but that is my opinion. 75% of the US completed should be the perfect time to expand across the borders. New meat will be needed by then. I do think tactics for ATS have to be done a bit differently for ETS2. What gets ATS moving is more innovation and programming. Busier AI traffic, seasons, multi drop and umpteen cargo packs.

I like ads678's speculation a lot. Only change I'd like to see is Michigan and Wisconsin developed simultaneously with all the other states around them in. I don't have an issue with going East to the Midwest after Nebraska at all and filling in later. That allows for some interesting economy and less conflicts with sectors it seems. Teams can spread out North, East and South of 2025. If ATS is making more money than we think.........great. Steady growth is good though. Chip away at it. If ATS can see a daily player base avg 12k-15k someday, that will get ATS halfway to ETS2 status. 50% is better than 25% there. Get 50% and then shoot for 75%. Just keep the course and chip away but ATS needs innovation and things more unique to North America if its going to gain lots of attention. The engines are the same but North America has its own identity that SCS has to tap into to make it stand out.

More map helps just like more trucks but there's lacking innovation that will push it all alone. I want to see all of North America make the game before my time here on Earth is up. Hopefully this game engine update comes soon and we can start seeing some promising things for the future finally to keep people playing and not leaving. Soooo many things they can do with their maps. Its the best thing they can take advantage of. Just build on top of that success.

[55sixxx]

When the team has grown to such sizes in the meantime. And you certainly don't need more than 15 mappers for that, if at all. Yeah i know, its denser and all, but really, its still just Washington sized, and you can't put too much into such a limited space anyway.

Exactly my point.

And not really Washington sized tho, because a decent number of states are actually smaller... Yes the roads get more cramped and compact as we move towards there but 80% will be cut off, the distance between each city is way smaller, therefore less road mileage to map in-between and the number of cities are also small.

Plus, some states in the Northeast corner are narrower than the Northern tip of Idaho and we all know how quickly we go through the Idaho portion of I-90.

I'd actually be surprised if they actually make into 2028 with an incomplete lower 48.

[flight50]

2028? That’s only 5 years from now. That a lot of optimism there. I hope you don’t come back and flame SCS if they can’t make that happen. We don’t even have 50% of the US in yet. That’s a huge task to complete on the same detail level that for the current mapping standards.

Even 2030 is pushing it. It could just as easily go to 2031 or 2032. Europe is slightly larger than the US and the ETS2 map team has always been much larger than the ATS team until now. Not all of ETS2 is done either and its 10 years old. It will take another 4-5 years for that perhaps to be complete for Europe the continent. So 5 years for all of the US is asking for a lot.

[Quark]

2028 sounds too optimistic indeed. But 2030 isn't pushing it at all. Yep the game is almost 7 years old and covers about 45% of the contiguous US. OK. But until 2019 we only got to see 1 small (in comparison to ETS2 maps) map expansion per year. That team is now much much larger than in the first several years though. The expansion of the map has accelarated considerably since then. Also, regarding a couple of your other points: ETS2 and ATS teams are of similar size not only since recently, but since almost 2 years now. And, if HoR had come and if there would have been a map expansion in 2014 (another year without any), covered area in ETS2 would be much larger in the meantime. All in all, 2030 for finishing the lower 48 is a realistic estimate (as it stands at the moment). If it should take a little longer then so be it.