Texas Discussion Thread

[Jacob94]

it could be earlier than that at least that is october or early november

[flight50]

Texas has the opportunity to do a lot of things for ATS, and could/should be their crowning achievement for ATS (to date). Will it? I'm really hoping we find out BEFORE X-mas break.

This! It should turn the corner and be enough content/places to deliver to keep a player busy for a while.

I agree with you both. Its something I've said a few times awhile back but certain people want to argue.....Texas is just another dlc....I'm not impressed with Texas, Texas is just another dlc. It gets tiring trying to explain what Texas can do for ATS though. Even though most of us understand what Texas can potentially do, the blogs really aren't showing us much new. I'm sure Texas adds hundreds/thousands of new assets though. Some so minor that most won't notice like signs and props or what not. But what about prefabs/depots. That's the eye catcher stuff.

Its definitely a dlc that could offer the best bang for the buck with a flood of new but I'm honestly afraid Texas won't meet expectations with new honestly. Not everything is revealed obviously but not enough new depots are being shown in the blogs to indicate this flood of new. Not just new companies but new prefabs too. If we are getting all the existing companies, at least do new prefabs. Wallbert and Home Store not so much. Those are prototype designs. But SCS can easily do Target and Lowe's to add to the mix but I doubt they do. Texas can seriously add a flood of new competitor stores along with new companies in general and that is where Texas could miss the mark with me. There are too many shopping areas per major city in Texas to not bring a flood of new depots and this is where company variety comes into play. There is more than Walmart and Home Store......a lot more. Each City could almost have a totally different set of national chain depots. Adding 12 or so national retails gives a lot better selection to add to cities.

I can't stress how important it is for Texas to have been the best opportunity for SCS to capitalize on the space that Texas has to bring a lot more companies. In doing so, that would mean that SCS can go back to older map areas and start swapping out some of the most overused depots via updates just like they did when Colorado restaurants came. There's an easy 12-15 national retail stores alone that span across the entire US and Canada even. Make them now and you have variety per city in the future. Between California and Texas, the asset team should be producing a solid 25-30 companies to add to the economy but I don't see that happening with Texas nor the base map rebuild and that is going to be disappointing. When we continue to see many new companies added to every ETS2 dlc, it really gives you that wtf moment for ATS day in and day out. I'm here enough talking about the same things over and over and I know devs read this stuff. Somebody please talk to the right people and get more companies into ATS just like ETS2 is. The lack of diversity is overwhelming noticeable to a lot more people now. Stop the bleeding and analyze the missed opportunities before the map gets even larger. Adding a flood of new companies later makes it more time consuming to revisit older areas to swap stuff out.

At this point, SCS can't continue to think.........what will we be able to add to future states if they make to many companies for Texas and California. Here's the solution........one that I keep saying. Between California and Texas, add the much needed 20-25 companies that are national. This allows a lot better pool of companies to add in the future besides always putting Wallbert, Home Store, Plaster & Sons, Sunshine Crops, Bitumen, SellGoods, Deepgrove, Bushnell, etc into almost every deliverable city in ATS. They are national, they go everywhere. Doesn't matter if Texas or California gets them all. Increase the depot pool for national variety. There are always regional depots and state specific depots. So worrying about what depots to add later is not the factor to worry about currently. What about now. What depots can help ATS now. Take a look at the categories per Wiki and I can guarantee you in each category, most people (that live in NA or research here) can plug in 4-5 companies in each industry. ATS can easily have 100 companies by now. 65%-70% of that 100 can could have easily been national and regional depots. The rest are your one offs. How many people SCS turns off with Texas ICC roster will be on their hands though. No reason Texas can't match the production of what ETS2 maps do for ICCs.

[Vinnie Terranova]

I know this means literally nothing, but just to note, according to SteamDB, the "Store API Release Date" for Texas is November 30th 2022. I don't expect Texas to drop on that day specifically, but this may be a good indicator SCS is planning on dropping Texas in November sometime.

But 30th November is on a wednesday, while map DLCs are always(?) released on a thursday. So it would be more logical to have the Store API Release Date on December 1st. Anyway, if Texas is released in about two months is that enough time for SCS to listen to us and create some new companies, including some new prefabs, and cargoes?

[Madkine]

The store API release date is set to the last day in the month normally. And normally indicates an anticipated release date somewhere in that month.
If they 'd set it to December it would have said 31 December.

[Tristman]

It’s too late at this point to “listen to us” and make major changes. Companies were probably decided on in the planning phase two years ago or so.

Judging by how little we have seen of new prefabs in blogs, there are either very few, they don’t want to show them yet, or they are not finished. In the last case, they could still get the various teams to think of a new company to sign it to, if they were planning originally to sign it to an existing company.

I think we will just have to be patient and see when Texas releases whether they really took the company side of the game serious or not. I for one hope we don’t see that Wallbert prefab introduced with Washington in every single city (like we did in Montana).

[flight50]

I have to agree with @Tristman. It could be any of those 3 options for companies. Hopefully either they don't want to show them yet or not finished. I hate to think there are too few but its a reality we could facer. That's bad news for Texas if its too few. Butttt Annie did chime in a few weeks back and confirmed she was busy with new designs. So we at least know they are not finished. My thing is.........how many new designs is she working on. Is it 8...is it 12...is it 15...........20-25? Who knows. We won't know this until either the Texas summary blog comes telling us how many new companies, or until the dlc is dropped and we go find out. I've always said 15-20 for Texas. Less than that and its going to be disappointing for a dlc of this size.

As far as too late though..........ehhhh not exactly. At least not in my opinion. Not when SCS can do the minimum of rebranding existing prefabs or in some cases, use some worthy ETS2 prefabs that fit ATS style. With all the variations of some depots like Sunshine Crops, Plaster & Sons, Bushnell.........do like they did with Coastline Mining and NAMIQ. Certain depots can be rebranded by using the same prefab. But only do this once. Its the easiest way to get more companies in Texas in a short amount of time. So if there are 50 companies in ATS, there's a solid dozen that can get rebranded to add quick variety specific to boosting new companies in Texas. Of course its not ideal, but it much much better than doing nothing at all to add diversity for a dlc this size.

[Optional Features]

Well, if we get a lot more decorative industries, my missed opportunities thread will see a lot of posting lol.

[flight50]

With Texas, yes. I expect a lot of new decorative prefabs coming with Texas. That's expected honestly but what isn't so understandable is not providing enough new companies. I'd love to hear the explanation from SCS if Texas lacks a lot of new. I'd also like to hear how and if they even plan to correct the mentality if Texas isn't the state to bring a flood of new companies.

[Jacob94]

5 weeks till november so ya know i hope it releases sooner or later who knows

[Vinnie Terranova]

I'd rather see SCS postponing Texas till Q2 2023 if SCS needs more time to create some much needed new companies, cargoes and prefabs.