Montana Discussion Thread

[oldmanclippy]

At this point I'm just really pleased that US-20 is coming, and coming so soon after release. Whether it was a direct response to feedback, or a planned holdout from the beginning, I'm just really happy about it. At this point the only gaps we have are:

- the two segments between Ontario and Boise that aren't concurrent with I-84. And those are completely understandable and logical gaps. There was never going to be room for them.

- the segment along I-25 Business east of Evansville (the Gallon Oil in Casper), again that wasn't gonna happen

So no substantive gaps in US-20 at the moment which is great.

Nebraska we should get 100% of the road once Iowa finishes it off to get to Sioux City.

Iowa, same thing.

Illinois, we should get it from the Iowa border to Cherry Valley near Rockford, but that's probably it. SCS will have to be a bit careful because if you don't zoom in, it may look like US-20 and US-41 follow I-90 for the last mile of its stetch in Illinois before the Indiana border, but in fact they run next to it on Indianapolis Avenue.

We might see US-20 reappear in Gary and South Bend as an intracity route, but I don't see it being used as an intercity route.

Ohio, same thing. Might see it in Toledo and Cleveland but it probably won't be connecting them.

Pennsylvania, might see it in Erie but that's it.

New York, could come in Buffalo and Albany. If they get us to the Finger Lakes it might appear for a bit.

Massachusetts, could come in Springfield and Worcester if that's marked. In Boston, they'll have to figure out an excuse to get us to Kenmore Square so we can see this sign: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3490947 ... 384!8i8192 Best idea I can think of is by that point maybe we can deliver to stadiums so Fenway Park is on the table as a depot.

...

Moral of the story, US-20 will probably only feature inside of marked cities or at rest stops east of Rockford Illinois. But west of it, we'll pretty much get the entire thing. Which is awesome.

[Ryley03d]

flight50, only tiny hope I have for anything of Rexburg, is, if ID-33 continues east from I-15 Exit 143, to US-20.
And yeah, that route as you mention, could have a depot or 2, east of US-20.
I'm a pessimist, but still, I do hope.

Have them marked as Idaho Falls and you're set

[oldmanclippy]

A couple notes from my recent Montana discoveries:

- Butte might be one of the most well-made cities in either game. Great recreation of how hilly the city is combined with attention to detail and overall bustle makes it a gem
- Finally took US-93 from Kalispell to Salmon and it's a great road, particularly the Lolo to Salmon segment. Lolo Pass is done pretty darn well with decent elevation gain.

The major parts I have yet to see are I-15 from Idaho Falls to Butte (somehow), along with Lewistown and some other roads in the eastern part of the state. Specifically US-87 from US-89 to Billings, US-191 from US-2 to I-90, Lewistown itself, MT-200 from US-87 to MT-59, MT-200 from MT-200S to Sidney, and MT-16 from Glendive to Sidney. Which is still quite a bit.

Montana has some really great parts especially in the western half. If it had received another month or two in the oven to iron out the obvious quirks and maybe get some more eyes on certain stretches it would probably be the best DLC. Wyoming and Colorado are more consistent in quality but Montana is right up there I think. Especially now that US-20 is getting added so there's no glaring five-alarm misses anymore. A connection between Missoula and points eastward can wait.

[rbsanford]

Lewistown's pretty charming, and has many nice landmarks; I'd recommend stopping by. The east of the state in general is very well done, with some pretty well recreated badlands and wide open spaces, and some detailed small towns with plenty of character.

You also should really fill in that missing stretch of I-15, it's a very nice drive. I still love it how all three of the highway's crossings of the Great Divide are in the game (Deer Lodge was the one I was especially was afraid would be overlooked), and two of those crossings are on the Idaho Falls-Butte segment, which also has very nice scenery. IMO, Idaho Falls-Great Falls is the best segment of I-15 in the game so far (the reworked California portion pending); it's just one scenic show after another, and the part of that segment south of Butte is no exception.

US 20 being filled in will certainly bring Montana closer to being the best DLC. All we need now is US 191 between I-90 and US 87 (that curve just to the west of the rest areas is just about where the junction with I-90 could go, I figure).

[flight50]

For me, the only part of US-191 I'd like to get is for Judith Gap purposes. It would be nice to get the wind farms from Judith Gap into Montana. We don't have anything for wind farming in the state. We also need a revamp of the current wind cargo. None of it fits ATS. What we do have is way undersized. The rotor is attached to the generator when its should really be separate. But between the generator, the rotor and the tower sections, they should be 30-50% larger than what they are. They are tiny models. There are example of what they should look like here viewtopic.php?p=1256873#p1256873 if you scroll to the last group of pics. All 3 of these components should be larger than the truck cab itself. These are over sized cargoes and SCS has them smaller than the width of the lowboy and shorter than the top of the cab of the truck. They copied directly from ETS2 without modifications.

[Vinnie Terranova]

The longer we look at ATS the more misses we see...

[Tristman]

That holds true for most products in life

[oldmanclippy]

With Montana, I don't really feel like any of the remaining misses are worth putting people on at the moment unless it's used as a training exercise for newbies. Yes it's annoying to do Missoula to Great Falls only via interstates, but I don't really feel that it breaks the quality of the map like the gap in US-20 did. But that might be down to personal preference. Montana, for better or worse, is complete for now IMO. I think it's most effective to try to rally around one road to be added post-release in each state (well maybe 2 or 3 for Texas or bundles), and then all the other misses can be collected for a future "go back and fill in the gaps" effort after the reworks. I think SCS has shown that if there is a particular road that the community is very vocal about feeling like it was a miss, that they'll add it. Iberia got more rural roads after outcry over it missing rural roads. Wyoming got US-14 and Cody after outcry about the northwest corner being empty. Montana got US-20 possibly due to outcry over its absence. They 100% hear community feedback and will listen if they feel it is a strong enough desire. Now of course there are examples of them not doing that, like the Pyrenees, more expressways in the East Balkans, anything to fill a gap in Idaho's shoddy road network before Montana, Colville to Sandpoint, etc. But besides the RttBS one I don't think the community was as united behind those as the ones that actually got attention.

[Vinnie Terranova]

With Montana, I don't really feel like any of the remaining misses are worth putting people on at the moment unless it's used as a training exercise for newbies. Yes it's annoying to do Missoula to Great Falls only via interstates, but I don't really feel that it breaks the quality of the map like the gap in US-20 did. But that might be down to personal preference. Montana, for better or worse, is complete for now IMO.

I didn't meant missing roads, I meant missing things like @flight50 wrote about the size of rotor blades for windmills. Or *cough* ICCs *cough*.

[Trakaplex]

With Montana, I don't really feel like any of the remaining misses are worth putting people on at the moment unless it's used as a training exercise for newbies. Yes it's annoying to do Missoula to Great Falls only via interstates, but I don't really feel that it breaks the quality of the map like the gap in US-20 did. But that might be down to personal preference. Montana, for better or worse, is complete for now IMO. I think it's most effective to try to rally around one road to be added post-release in each state (well maybe 2 or 3 for Texas or bundles), and then all the other misses can be collected for a future "go back and fill in the gaps" effort after the reworks. I think SCS has shown that if there is a particular road that the community is very vocal about feeling like it was a miss, that they'll add it. Iberia got more rural roads after outcry over it missing rural roads. Wyoming got US-14 and Cody after outcry about the northwest corner being empty. Montana got US-20 possibly due to outcry over its absence. They 100% hear community feedback and will listen if they feel it is a strong enough desire. Now of course there are examples of them not doing that, like the Pyrenees, more expressways in the East Balkans, anything to fill a gap in Idaho's shoddy road network before Montana, Colville to Sandpoint, etc. But besides the RttBS one I don't think the community was as united behind those as the ones that actually got attention.

Yes, lots of people were complaining about US-20. This was just like the US-14 one. Honestly, Wyoming didn't have too many omissions as we can see in Montana. The only in Wyoming was US-189 south to Evanston (which could've made it Kemmerer, and not I-80 due to scale of Evanston itself) and US-16 from Worland to Buffalo. In Montana, it's too obvious. Helena is hanging off the map like a rest stop town. US-20 was definitely the most needed though. I think they should do a mega road adding update like they did for OR-140 and OR-58 years ago.