West Balkans Expansion Discussion

[gaillard]

And mistakes DO happen. We have examples...

[oldmanclippy]

I hope that after Russia and the Balkans, developers will go to Scandinavia.

I think it's pretty likely although who knows really. The background map for Europe in the editor was updated with cities in central Norway and Sweden. Plus none of the alternatives make much sense. But SCS often surprises us with their choice of the next map DLC.

[Sergeo1994]

Well, as they say, gentlemen, time will tell. Maybe the developers have changed their decision or some other circumstances. In general, we are waiting for news from the Balkans and the release of the Heart of Russia.

[ovcl]

Plus none of the alternatives make much sense. But SCS often surprises us with their choice of the next map DLC.

Maybe soon after the West Balkans, SCS will suddenly announce the DLC Greece?
Because the Balkans together with Greece is too large a territory, but in my opinion it makes sense to make them in turn.

[JaDaKa]

Maybe soon after the West Balkans, SCS will suddenly announce the DLC Greece?
Because the Balkans together with Greece is too large a territory, but in my opinion it makes sense to make them in turn.

That would make sense as the plan was for Greece to be included in the Western Balkans DLC.
Plus they will have already concluded most of the research about it and foliage etc and other elements will be quite similar to WB's.

But again they might think it would be too much to publish two very similar DLCs in a row and go for something different in between?

[Marcello Julio]

I really doubt that Greece will be the next map expansion after West Balkans. SCS usually does expansions in different regions so as not to do one after the other in the same region. I would bet something like Northern Scandinavia or Ireland. I would say it's probably Greece to come after the next after West Balkans.

[Evil_Jason]

Well the current Balkans DLC plus Greece is actually not that big compared to Iberia:

West Balkans: 284.688 km²
Greece including islands which are way too small to map: 126.637km². But I could imagine Crete with 1 or 2 cities. Crete has a seize of 8.261km²

Those small islands are 11.471km² in total

So West Balkans plus entire Greece would be 411.325km² and without those islands it would be only 399.854km²

Iberia DLC: 598.182km²

What also might be possible, that SCS decided to remove Greece to speed up with the Balkans DLC since HoR has not been released yet and we don't know when it will happen

[JaDaKa]

What also might be possible, that SCS decided to remove Greece to speed up with the Balkans DLC since HoR has not been released yet and we don't know when it will happen

Yep that's the case, the countries included are all known and Greece is not one of them.

I will agree that it makes more sense for another area to be featured after WB and I could actually like if Scandinavia was expanded; it is my favourite region to drive.

[oldmanclippy]

There are three major things that make it unlikely for Greece to come directly after West Balkans:

- SCS would surely get accusations of "chopping up West Balkans to sell Greece for extra later". I don't think that's a fair analysis since Former Yugoslavia + Albania will be a plenty large DLC for $18, but the perception will certainly be there among the casual fans.

- No DLC has ever bordered the DLC that came before it in ETS2. This happens often in ATS but in ETS2 it hasn't yet. They like to mix up the biomes at play to keep things fresh. This won't be possible forever but it is possible now so until we see differently I expect that trend to continue.

- europe_bgn.dds has been updated with marked cities in central Scandinavia. It's not conclusive proof but it is very strong evidence IMO that the 2024 DLC will be Northern Norway and Sweden.

Greece I think could come as early as 2025. Either with a small part of Western Anatolia as an ATS-sized $12 DLC to be released in the same year as a $12 Northern Finland or $12 Ireland + Rest of UK, or with a more substantial part of Anatolia to be released as a normal $18 DLC. I just don't see it coming alone, it's too small.

[JaDaKa]

Sounds about right.