West Balkans Expansion Discussion

[ninjawarrior1x3]

@kerimtuerkeli @oldmanclippy
You know what they say that you see more things the more times you look at it?

Well, I've had another look at the hidden WB roads, specifically at the interchanges and paid close attention to whether or not barriers have been places in certain locations. I have seen no barriers at the Malence (south east of Ljubljana) or Slivnica (south of Maribor) interchanges and both interchanges were visible to a large enough extent to determine whether or not barriers would block off certain routes. This leads me to believe that the A2 and A4 motorways heading in the direction of Zagreb will both be included (as well as the A1 between Maribor and Ljubljana and between Ljubljana and Koper).
I have ruled out the Dragonja border crossing to Istria because the H5 only stops in Bertoki and will force you to exit there for destinations in Koper. There is a clover-leaf interchange closer to Koper itself that will not be shown in the game which is crucial for connections to Istria from Koper. Without it, any direct connection between Koper and Istria is impossible, and Istria is only possible with the Croatian A8.

I think I have pretty much everything from Slovenia in my WB map now (except for mabye another remote depot somewhere... perhaps that caravan factory in Novo Mesto?).

[oldmanclippy]

@ninjawarrior1x3 That makes sense actually, thanks for pointing that out. And thanks for adding one crossing and removing another so my number of crossings is still 30 and not 29 or 31

[ninjawarrior1x3]

@oldmanclippy
Looking at your map, I'm struggling to think which towns in Montenegro will be marked and which ones will not. There are like 4 cities which are important to Montenegro's industry & economy and I'll list them from largest to smallest:

1. Podgorica (capital city and therefore a must have)
2. Nikšić (has a bauxite mine and steel mill)
3. Pljevlja (has Montenegro's only thermal power plant, as well as a large mining, lumber and agriculture industry)
4. Bar (home to Montenegro's main sea port)

On one hand, I can't imagine a country as small as Montenegro (with a size similar to Kosovo and a population similar to Luxembourg) having 4 marked cities. On the other, I struggle to see how industries in Pljevlja would be remote depots to Podgorica, a city which is about 100km away. I'm going to say that Bar is most likely to end up as an unmarked town with its industries tied to Podgorica, but the other 2, I won't be totally sure until the country-specific blog for Montenegro.

[oldmanclippy]

I am thinking along the same lines as you: Niksic and Bar will both have remote depots tied to Podgorica. I think Pljevlja will be included for those mines, since I think that's the only reason we'd get the Đurđevića Tara bridge. Whether or not it's too far from Podgorica to get remote depots, not sure. I think I might put it as marked but it doesn't matter much either way.

[ninjawarrior1x3]

My thinking was to have Nikšić as a marked city with remote depots in Pljevlja. Nikšić is larger than Pljevlja and the distance between them is not only shorter than the distance to Podgorica (at around 72km) but also similar to the distance between Klagenfurt and Lendorf (where one of its remote depots is located). This would require the relevant sections of the M-3 and M-6 roads in order to make journeys between the two more direct. Of course, we'll have to wait and see if either of our theories are true.

Other important industrial towns I could see being included as unmarked towns with remote depots are:
- Prijedor (Banja Luka)
- Čakovec (Zagreb)
- Ploče (Dubrovnik)

Then there is a decently sized area in Western Serbia where there could be room a marked city. Čačak is the largest city in that area and hosts several companies including Sloboda. Nearby Užice also seems to have quite a bit of industry itself, but perhaps its industries could be remote depots for Čačak? Again, I'm not sure on this one and we'll have to wait until the Cities & Settlements blog for Serbia to confirm or deny this one.

I also accidentally found something on the other side of the trees south of Pančevo. I don't have the image here, but if you turn left at the petrol station and keep going, the Danube river and this industrial area appears:
https://www.google.com/maps/@44.8238354 ... 312!8i6656

[Shiva]

There's a missing section between koper and the service area (which is in Logatec). That's where the intersection could possibly be, but once again it might just not be worth it to include this highway judging by the space available.

South of the service area? No, no space for that road there, just west or southwest from it, is Wartsila, Località Bagnoli della Rosandra, 334, 34018 San Dorligo della Valle TS, Italia.
Cheers for telling what service station those are

Checked out the Szeged to Subotica area and hopefully no one minds a bit of constructive critique, but after years of enjoying that area in PM, I must say this is a significant downgrade for two different reasons.

1. The Roszke crossing is bigger (PM has only one unified crossing if I'm not mistaken), but it's not that much bigger to necessitate throwing out Subotica, the second largest city in the north and 5th largest in country with a large industrial zone (Continental, Swarowsky, Boysen,etc.), PM had several recognizeable streets in addition to a really detailed industrial zone and suburbs around it. I think that if SCS's additional border buildings were added to PM's map, their Subotica would still fit at least partially, not to mention PM still managed to fit a long highway to Novi Sad (90km in real life). If it stays like this, I hope that at least Novi Sad will be much larger or instead everything shrunk down just for that additional border part.

2. The landscape is unfitting, it is agricultural, but it is not flat, instead it's way too hilly, like something you'd expect in central Serbia in it's wineyard regions. PM had an almost completely flat landscape and a mostly straight highway to Novi Sad, but here you right away come across a way too curved highway that would make sense only in the mountainous section of E-75 after Leskovac towards North Macedonia.

Landscape south of Roszke: https://www.google.com/maps/@45.9948059 ... authuser=0

Vojvodina is like the Iowa or Nebraska of Serbia, so if it's main cities and landscape aren't present and have generic hills and mountainous highways, then that really ruins the immersion, so hopefully this will be changed until release.

South of Szeged towards Novi Sad, ingame https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Mol/%D0 ... 551399!3e0?
Not too bad, maybe west of Наплатна станица Суботица, A1, Bikovo, it could been a bit flatter.
Rascian, have you checked in the mapeditor, how the distances are?

[Adriatic Sea Team]

It looks like we won't get any news this month. As more the time passes fewer blogs we get SCSoon

[JaDaKa]

I am now 100% sure we are getting a WB blog in the next couple of days

[Aziz]

Month: is nearly 10 days away from ending
People: DOOOOOOOOM!

[JaDaKa]

I think Adriatic knows he jinxes it and tries to make a WB blog appear