Base Map Rebuild (CA, NV, AZ) General Discussion Thread

[hangman005]

Almost the population of Texas

[flight50]

Nah, ATS has had most of the attention this year. Its ETS2 that has felt like they are left out. No HoR hurt. Recently ATS got US-14 with Cody, Montana and 57x. Blog wise, its been all Montana and Texas. WB was announced and Switzerland was justd as of this week. ATS has had plenty.

When there is more info to provide of ATS's rebuild, they will do so. Pavel provided input on the Montana stream if it was watched. Paid maps will always get the priority over reworks. Texas is the push as the vast majority of mappers are there. Iirc, Pavel mentioned 30 mappers on Texas right now per the Montana stream. But that was on the Montana stream. Texas more than likely just went into closed testing with the experimental and experimental2 on Steam dB. Once Texas is out, then people can be reassigned if they haven't started already. Between hiring more people and sending a few back to rebuild, we'll see more results for 2023 and beyond. Remember the xmas stream is coming up too. That could be the reveal of what's coming for the rebuild if nothing releases before the end of the year.

Earlier this year, Jakub had a stream talking about there build. That is when he stated that Montana and Texas took his team down from 13 to 3. Himself and 2 seniors. It was at that time he mentioned that ph3 was mostly done and that before his team got pulled (which he already knew could happen for paid dlc's), the juniors working the rebuild had planned on a larger scope for ph3. New plan now. We still don't know exactly what all phase 3 is besides the Bay Area including the new city which should be San Jose. Whether Sacramento got polished to bring Stockton as well is anyone's guess. But from now this Texas releases, I'm thinking a rebuild blog for California comes.

When it does come, there should easily be 18-20 pics or more to show it off. But until that time comes, we are left speculating and wanting. No worries from me though. As long as we know the rebuild is in the works and knowing that Texas is sucking up all the bandwidth, nothing else can really be done until Texas is out.

[Sara]

@flight50 If San Jose does become a new city in ATS, I am wondering whether we may see I-280 also into San-Fransisco and continue on to I-80 as well? Assuming there is room to also run with US-101 and CA-1

[oldmanclippy]

I don't see there being more than 2 roads in parallel on the SF side of the bay. CA-1 and US-101 will be the main roads I would think. We'd get US-101 @ I-80 @ I-280, and possibly I-280 to connect CA-1 with I-80, but I'd be surprised if we got I-280 from CA-1 to San Jose.

[Trakaplex]

I don't think we will see I-280, US-101 would be necessary only. We will get CA-1. I am looking at Santa Cruz more south and Half Moon Bay as a scenic town. I hope they add South SF, the airport, San Mateo, and Google HQ. The San Mateo-Hayward Bridge can still remain out.

[Sara]

Well, could never know. But looking at the in-game locations of CA-1 and US-101, then looking at it on Google Maps, you'd think there'd be room, as well as extra's in between to add more.

[flight50]

^Honestly, I said the same thing. I-280 seems to be in a valley of vegetation. CA-1 is on the perimeter that if SCS was willing to use the water, they could push CA-1 into it along the coast. The vast majority of CA-1 is right on the coast anyways. Me personally, I'm not ruling it out. Biggest reason why is because of how urban US-101 is and how much vegetation is along I-280. There's a ton to hide with a rich vegetation terrain, lots of buildings along US-101 and with cut plains. Now SCS would have to cheat I-280 more West though but me, I think its possible. I typically like think what would I do to get more in if I was a dev and not think par the whole. These new mappers are doing more with less. 2014-2018 mapping is far in the past. When Washington came, the devs starting doing more on the same scale since the rescale.

Now the big question is.........is I-280 necessary. There's not much industry off it. Where CA-1 meets I-280, that area would work great but I don't see SCS bringing us a flood of new retail depots like Target, Kohl's, Sprouts, Petsmart, Carmax nor Costco anytime soon. All those I just mentioned are pretty much national company's. Make them now, and they can go in almost every major city across the US. I don't think SCS is doing all they can do with this California rebuild. We'll know how the rest of California will go based on ph3. I'm not overly impressed with the lack of new companies added for ph2. Seems like they are just focused on visuals and more accurate roads. Just like the map lead was with Idaho. Idaho looks great but so much missing for ICC's. Zero added for Idaho and so far only one new company with this new California reworks. The California rebuild is a great chance for the map lead to redeem himself but with California being the no. one economic state in the US, I expected the rebuild to add a lot more valve to ATS. So far, its not.

Perhaps I'm prematurely speaking and Ph3 and Ph4 adds the value I think it should but I won't get myself worked up to much over it. If they prove me wrong. Great. I really hope I can someday be optimistic about an improvement in ICCs for California. If California is the base map, use that and start adding a lot more national companies with the base map. Sacramento was a great chance to add Ikea, USPS (new industry), Amazon, Lowes or Target. I'm not saying add them all but I am saying start chipping away at some of these national companies. Instead, we get more of what we already have just a different city. Maybe a new prefab or 2 but still the same company brand. I seriously don't get the hesitation to add new companies brands when ATS lack very little variety despite more people mentioning they'd like more variety. So its not just me talking about ICC's all the time now.

[oldmanclippy]

It'd be nice to get at least one new company each phase of the CA rework. Just something to make CA feel a bit more unique. Its economy is larger than every country in ETS2 except Germany, I'd like to see it treated that way.

[flight50]

I'm greedier than that, lol. I'd say minimum of 2 new per phase. Assuming California could get 5-6 phases, 5-6 new companies isn't good enough to me. With all the retail places I mentioned along with thinking in regions we can get another company for Sunshine Crops, another for Bushnell, another for Bitumen(45), Plaster & Sons(75), Deepgrove(43), Eddy's(23), Voltison Motors(50), Sell Goods(45) and Rail Export(26). In parenthesis is how many times these prefabs are used. Cut those numbers in half but giving another option and replacing some. I'd like to see at least 2 company's per industry per region. They can blend into other regions or whatever but there should be certain companies that are more populated based on region. California and the West needs more variety that is more dominant in the West.

I look forward in Texas adding more new company's with some blended from the West and eventually phase out those from the West the further East we go. Do the same for the Midwest region. Blend in some from the West and phase out the further East. All regions can get more of a regional feel to it in the game though. If SCS is reworking the base map, I'd like to actually see effort put there instead of just trying to make it look pretty. My the economy worth it.

[Kaleidescoop]

We could get the IKEA in Emeryville as part of Oakland. An IKEA parody already exists in ETS2 as IKA Bohag, SCS could add it to ATS for some much needed variety.