Please SCS, stop placing invisible walls so aggressively. It's taking the fun out of the beautiful map.

[Travismods]

Here is something that really bothers me with the ATS map. At a random location with several dirt roads with challenging curves that would just be fun to drive to see how far you get, I can't even get to the crossroads because 5 meters ahead of it, next to the road, my truck meets an invisible SCS barrier. Why? There is even a farm down there on the right hand side I can't get to. Why can I not explore these places, or at least come a bit closer to them? For places with holes in the map and ground, I get it. Nobody wants to see that. But why block off modeled parts of the world everywhere? It makes the whole world seem smaller than it actually is. My truck in the picture could not get further because where it is sitting is right next to an invisible wall:

[ external image ]

It would be much more fun if we could explore these areas, as they are beautiful, and the invisible walls were pushed back a bit further so we could at least maybe drive a bit further and see what is clearly there on the map. Why aren't we allowed? Nobody cares if not all textures are perfect, but exploring is fun. Now there are some locations that lead to just a hole in the map, but why block huge chunks of the map by placing an invisible barrier already right next to the road? Why can't we move at least more than 2 meters from the side of the road, into areas that are very clearly modeled? I even took the developer camera and went down there and I found no reason for why these dirt roads could not at least have let me drive at least 10-20 meters. And if I get stuck, whats the harm in that SCS? That would just be a fun challenge to get back out.

Why ruin parts of the map with such aggressive barriers? Please don't do this for the Texas DLC and block off parking lots, modeled back alleys and dirt roads that actually leads to a house or modeled area and please don't close off all driveways in suburbs, I should be able to pull into a driveway if I want to. No map mod I have tried does this this extent so why does SCS do it? Let us use the map you created, anything else makes absolutely no sense. I mean I don't even expect these places to have deliverable businesses such as farms and what not (although it would be nice), I just expect to be able to explore them more than 2 meters off the highway before the game tells me no, as the places are clearly modeled in detail a lot of times, but its not possible due to such extreme usage of invisible walls. If its there, why not let us see it and use it?

[Optional Features]

Thank you! This is the only open world game I know of (could be wrong) that directs you exactly where you can go with brick walls.

They are everywhere, even in places that clearly don't need them. See a nice hotel? Nope: brick wall. See a undeliverable, yet detailed business? Nope: brick wall. See a ranch or logging detour? Brick wall. Why?

[Digital X]

i completely agree, looking at this one image alone I can see potential for at least 3 different company prefabs that coule be utilised.

A farm to the far right and/or far left, the road leading to the very top could be a hotel overlooking the land and there's a road just to the right going off into the distance.

I know we have off road sections but most of the time they just lead into one straight road into a farm or other similar company. More challenging offroad sections would be very welcomed. I might be overthinking company prefab placement here but in essence it would open the game world an awful lot. Regular roads are fine and all, but I think it would be beneficial for the team to expand past these boundaries (in both sense of the word with the colboxes on prefabs preventing you from going further.)

Make them challenging. Put logs, rocks, dips, angled roads etc on them. A majority of the off road sections are just flat, plain roads (In the sense of being barren when a dirt road has all sorts of clutter on them.)

This is all food for thought but if this idea is built upon or considered it could lead into an off road DLC or something that could be tied into these roads, prefabs and whatever else could be constructed.

By the off road part I mean grippier tires, heavy duty bumpers, chassis protection etc. I'm sure lots more is possible but off roading isn't my forte.

[abasstreppas]

If they did that the mapper team would need to make all the visible surroundings at that extended part of the map to look good, like adding new dirt roads behind invisible walls and distance farms to make the map look beautiful.

What will happen then? Some people will be moaning about those new invisible walls, and into eternity, lol

Short answer: the usable/drivable map has to end somewhere

[plykkegaard]

Remove the barriers with a mod to discover it is set at that location for a reason
It looks driveable but is it truely driveable?
Is the scenery nice without missing parts?

You can also enable the developer console to move past the barrier or check the area in fly mode

But obviously you are too lazy to do this, better to add a wall of text and a rant for good measure

[Optional Features]

If they did that the mapper team would need to make all the visible surroundings at that extended part of the map to look good, like adding new dirt roads behind invisible walls and distance farms to make the map look beautiful.

What will happen then? Some people will be moaning about those new invisible walls, and into eternity, lol

Short answer: the usable/drivable map has to end somewhere

It's called a loop. You tie that road back in to another functional road, and end the section.

But some areas with these barricades don't need tie-ins. Just the barricades need to go.

[Travismods]

@plykkegaard If YOU would have been less lazy and actually read my post you would have read that I stated I already did it with the developer console. The picture is literally taken with the developer camera. So whos lazy now? I constantly use the developer camera and I have explored literally hundreds of little spots on the map that had no reason to be blocked off. You know that is not what my post is about so YOU quit being lazy. The post is about why we can't drive further and hit immediately invisible walls, even where there is detail.

@abasstreppas It has to end somewhere. It doesnt have to end literally a meter off the highway, like it often does, if the modeled area is literally hundreds of in game meters in more or less full detail beyond the road. That's not how an open world is supposed to work. Nobody is saying we should be able to drive all the way until we reach the end of the map and everything is falling apart, just a bit further than 1-2 meters off the highway in these spots, when the world is so very clearly modeled beyond just directly beside the highway.

[plykkegaard]

I already did it with the developer console.

Sorry but wall of texts / rants are skipped by default

[Travismods]

@plykkegaard And from now on, we all know that you don't even bother to read what you respond to. Get out of here with your lazy accusations when you are too lazy to even read. In fact @plykkegaard, don't ever respond to me again. As a modder that knows all functions of the game and hundreds of console commands and the map editor in and out, your comments are on the level of just wasting time. I don't need users that can't read responding to my comments teaching me about the most basic features of the game or of the console.

[plykkegaard]

We?
At least you could have given a location
Not for my benefit though as I haven't had the game runninng since the Christmas event