Texas Discussion Thread

[flight50]

I have to be honest and say that I am starting to agree with @Vinnie Terranova. The more and more screenshots that we are being shown of the Texas DLC the more I am getting more dissapointed.

Texas DLC has been in the works for almost 4 years. Perhaps it is my fault for building up my hopes and following all of the speculation threads on here but either way Texas has always been seen as a big milestone for ATS. Yes the map and scenery and cities for Texas are looking amazing but the Industries, Depots and Cargoes and AI vehicles are becoming more and more disappointing because most of it is being copy pasted from elsewhere in the map.

I'm really struggling to see what exactly is going to come only from the Texas DLC apart from the map itself. The screenshots and blog posts of Montana are showing that any new cargos and industries seem to be coming with Montana or 1.45 instead of Texas.

Well here's food for thought. Anyone consider that if Texas has been in development for almost 4 years (by time its released) that Texas had certain prefabs first? If Montana uses anything from Texas and Montana comes first, its looks as if Montana always had it. Its developed much quicker and anything is game to use if SCS made it.

In general, I agree with ya on the Texas blogs. Buttttt if you look at the micro site, you will see that there is plenty more interesting and new things that Montana doesn't have. At least I think. I listed those a page or 2 ago. SCS is leading up to the more interesting stuff as always. There are interesting blogs left and there are boring blogs left. Not many are really interested in weigh station, rest stations, courthouses, border patrol. But more people could be interested in glass plant, oil field services, space center, oil wells sites, car factory, highways and junctions, the 3 other large cities, refineries, etc. Montana isn't revealing any of this that we know of. We've just seen a new cargo on the last blog via twitter video. There are too many new industries coming to not get new cargoes. With everything new coming with both Montana and Texas, SCS has to cover cargo for brand new industries. If Montana is adding 8 new industries, there should be 2-3 times new cargo for those 8. If Texas is bringing glass, car factory, pecan farms, there should be 2-3 times the new cargo for those 3. So between those 11 new industries (not companies, new companies can recycle cargo), those 11 new industries must bring at least 22 new cargoes minimum up to 33 or more if we get 3x the cargo. It might be over optimistic but I find it hard to just bring one new cargo for one new industry. That makes zero since and SCS is better off not even bringing the new industry. We should be seeing a flood of new cargoes this year with the dlc's. I say flood but 22-33 more cargo options is more than we have currently.

With that said, nothing says that SCS can't make more than 2-3 new cargoes per industry. For landscaping, we could easily get 4-6. Waste management, we've seen cardboard bales but there has to be more than just that. Why bring the industry if only one new cargo. SCS justifies new industries if there is suitable depots and multiple cargos that comes with (x) new industry. The new trailer service that is also deliverable, the new electric facility, sugar plant. We should get more than just sugar and beets if SCS is bringing it. Grain elevators. Could be a few new cargoes there for hoppers and dumpers. Put those new LK trailers to work and the reworked vanilla trailers. The Agriculture thread in my link has grains that could come. There's like 7-8 of them. Add some of the beans from that list and we could have a solid dozen or so someday.

So honestly, I just don't think SCS is showing us everything but that doesn't mean much until the 2 dlc's are out. If I am wrong with any of this, SCS is dropping the ball for the new upcoming industries. But this is one I'll have some faith in them. It something they can control with dedicated people to do cargoes. Maybe Pavel considered the chatter on this forum via his employee's input to focus on cargo finally. The staff is growing and just maybe SCS has not revealed cargo plans just yet until we see evidence. Heck I don't know but I stopped underestimating SCS a long time ago for things I think are feasible now without engine updates.

[oldmanclippy]

I think it would be to SCS's benefit to make fewer blog posts and focus on topics that are new, interesting, or unique. Courthouses, Bridges, Highways & Junctions, Rest Areas, Weigh Stations, Airports, Water Surfaces, Cattle Farms, Quarries, Chemical Plants and Refineries, and Fields will all certainly be duds. Sure we'll get new info about locations, roads, cities, etc, but in terms of actually selling the DLC I think that the overabundance of blog posts focused on things that we've seen before in other DLCs is hurting them. The Texas Forestry blog was the worst blog post SCS has made in a long while. I fear that we're just gonna get repeats of that for all these non-unique blogs. Stick to the new stuff to show off. Because showing us weigh stations in Texas which are the same as weigh stations in any other state is almost insulting. We know what they look like and they are only half-functional anyways. Maybe SCS surprises us and these blogs actually take these existing topics to the next level in some way. But I am skeptical that that will happen.

All that showing repetitive companies, prefabs, assets, etc will do is make people nervous that that is the kind of quality they can expect across the whole map. If you stick to all the new things, then that gets people excited and interested in what else there is for them to find.

[SouthernMan]

@oldmanclippy Agreed! And yeah, a lot of people have been really nervous about this, as they're not seeing a very relevant thing in Texas DLC. It's obvious that there are new things in DLC texas, but it's like the same new things they added in the old dlc, nothing too relevant. I hope I'm wrong.

[flight50]

Welll I particall agree with ya @oldmanclippy. Depends on what a person is looking for. We all have different taste. Even weigh stations, truck stops and rest stops. I'm not interested as I mentioned but someone could love them, lol. But yeah you see one, you kinda see them all.

Highway junctions. I think Texas adds enough twist to the equation that people will like them. We don't have those getting lost junctions in ATS yet. If LA was reworked before Texas's release, we'd have it there. Houston and DFW should offer a bit more than complexity than Portland, Denver, Seattle and Albuquerque.
Airports. Although we have them, no two are alike. Its how they incorporate them around the rest of the city that could be interesting. They are not as isolated as Denver's.
Water Surfaces and Fields. Honestly we have no clue what these are about. These could be interesting I think. I was puzzled to see them but we'll get them eventually.
Cattle Farms ,Quarries, Chemical Plants and Refineries.. We have all 4 in the game now. We know their intent, we get an idea. No new industry/concept. But with these, I don't see why they recycle. I think Texas brings new for all 4 honestly. It would be disappointing not to. Quarries, Chemical Plants and Refineries have been in since the beginning. Time to think outside the box for them and retool. Something totally different in appearance. I don't know if Texas as mines to feature some else needs to take the spotlight. My thought, we get different vibes.

Quarries - sand and limestone are missing. When we get them.
Chemical - with Dow, BASF, LyondellBasell and DuPont in Houston and along the coast, time to start thinking resins, plastics and bio-chemicals. Asphalt, household chemicals, chemicals to make paint, fertilizers, hazmat, etc. There is a lottttt that can be done with chemical. Expecial with tankers coming. Tankers can play a much larger roll in ATS with the right prefabs in place.
Refineries - probably the same but we should have complex ones by now. ETS2 does a great job with huge industrial assets. Maybe ATS adopts some thinking from who assets are built for ETS2. Coastal with deep sea rigs are in the equation for Texas too.

Texas is leading the US in 3 categories. Oil/Gas, Cattle heads and Cotton. I think each of these will have to make impacts for ATS. Cotton is the only new kid on the block though. Cattle farms should be remote and hugggge at least. Put these is places that SCS can't do much else with. Oil/Gas, time to get complex prefabs with these. We need fields of mazes just like logging camps should be by now. We should have 2-3 ways into huge areas along with 4-5 different paths to get to 2-3 different sites within a 1x1km space or something. Cotton....this brings Textiles into play at some point into ATS. Everything around us uses cotton in some type of way in real life. Is this how we get Kohls, Ross, TJ Maxx, Target, Sam's, Costco, JcPenney, Ikea.....no telling but it can help.

I get that SCS doesn't want to bring every industry and new company all at once. It would be hard to find industry/companies for future dlc's. What I'd like to see with every new map dlc, is revisit some old industries here and there and bring in some of those middle men companies. Livestock, we really should have processing plants and cold storage. Milk, we really should have packaging/processing and distribution. Agriculture, we need distribution centers to haul to prior to grocery stores. Concrete, as stated before, where's the limestone. Where's the plant to create bagged aggregates. Where's the precast facility to bring in concrete to make precast tubes. We have precast cargo but no place that actually makes them. When a new map dlc can't feature new industry, add more to an existing industry to get it deeper.

[Madkine]

Removed multiple pages of discussion that had nothing to do with Texas. You have plenty of toher threads for those discussions.

[Shiva]

Hey everyone. Sorry I've been pretty MIA these last few weeks. Started my first full-time lawyer job at the beginning of the month and I've had very little time to check the blogs and hunt down locations with y'all. But I went back in and added all the locations you've found onto my map as usual!

Here's an updated map of the blog photo locations for Texas as well! We're definitely getting a lot more photos from throughout the state, but nothing on I-10 between Fort Stockton and Houston now. Excited to see San Antonio soon since that's where I spend almost all of my time in Texas.

https://i.imgur.com/N0NnbBo.jpg

Regarding 6/15 of Texas - Intermodal Terminals it might rather be in Brownsville, than Galveston, that I wrote before. Fits way better with how one can see scaffoldings, on both sides of the water.
And 6/8 of the Texas - Offshore Shipyard, looks like an opposide side screenshot. Not 180degrees, but close to.

[Travismods]

Removed multiple pages of discussion that had nothing to do with Texas. You have plenty of toher threads for those discussions.

How about moving the discussions to another thread instead of just deleting them? Feels like pretty wreckless moderation and a disregard for the community when you guys just go in and delete everything like that. There was a lot of interesting debate, some Texas relevant too. We should be able to view and read it, even if you cut it out in this topic. You know very well that all topics here are filled with "off topic" discussions more or less, its impossible to control. This kind of action only serves the purpose of shutting down debate. You are rubbing people the wrong way with these actions. Move it, don't delete it.

[PBandJ]

Or people could post in the correct section of the forums and need no moderation at all....

[Travismods]

@PBandJ Or...they could just move it, like other forums do, since it's completely expected that the discussions take off in one direction or another at times, and there really is no issue since people always come back to the topic at hand. People always find their way back to the topic themselves, without the need for a mod to delete it all.

This kind of "delete it all" moderation shows a lack of respect for the users of this forum (they deleted a lot of interesting posts, some were Texas related, I know because I read them all) and comes off as some sort of power trip from the mods. Many other forums use a move feature, these mods could do the same if they cared for the discussions going on. These are important discussions to have around Texas. But sure, I suppose you are all for shutting down debate as soon as people deviate from the topic. That kind of forum gets boring and stale fast. I suppose they will ban me next for taking issue with this, but I think its a shame how much debate is lost due to these actions. Just move it and let people steer the ship when it gets off topic. People always do.

That said, I understand we must return to Texas, but I think its wrong that that much input is just flat out deleted and thrown away.

[eonellivlem]

Just start the discussion again but make it relevant to the thread.
Texas will be just more of the same copy/paste prefabs and nothing 'really' new will come with it.