The Dakotas (North and South) Discussion Thread

[55sixxx]

I appreciate others ideas. But I have an awful hard time seeing them bundle 70k+ square mile states. There's no incentive for them to do it that way. At all.

They may seem slightly big alone but keep in mind both Dakota's are quite sparse regarding road network and has I mentioned in another topic, that is before SCS cuts a good portion out due to scale. If they come separate, we'll have something similar to NV that doesn't have many roads and just a few cities. And out of those 70+sq miles, I doubt we'll even get 1/3 of it.

And I honestly can't see them being released with more than 10 cities in each state.

[angrybirdseller]

Will see, the detail bar is far higher than five years ago for map DLC than when New Mexico came out, and if map takes year to produce they will very likely charge 11.99 for it. North and South Dakota do not use same signage or traffic lights at times. It's not like Nevada at all there alot more small towns in South Dakota than Nevada has cities. Both Dakotas are very rural and more towns than Montana and Wyoming has especially toward the eastern parts of the state closer to Minnesota border. I do not think Dakotas will come before Iowa and Missouri does as I-29 corridor needs to started before creating bad road gaps.

[VTXcnME]

We'll see how it goes. At the end of the day, bundled or not, I'll be buying both states.

[flight50]

Honey was identified as a potential industry for both North and South Dakota. Anyone else find any interesting new industry for either state. Or even possibly something new to add to an existing industry? Canola is one for North Dakota (if it hasn't come by then).

For North Dakota I found soybeans, corn and wheat are the top 3 crops. There was also mention of cattle/calves and sugar beets. At least the last 2 we already have. I expect Kansas or Nebraska to bring corn though. Possibly even one of those 2 brings wheat as well. We'll see. I also found this very old list that could be a guideline as its from 2011. But still worth looking into.

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For South Dakota, agriculture is also stated that its the state's number one industry. The top five for it are cattle, corn, soybeans, wheat and hogs. Its pretty similar to North Dakota. Cattle we have so lets hope new a new prefab or 2 there. Corn and Wheat should be in before the Dakota's come. So perhaps a couple new prefabs though. Both farm and processing facility. Hogs must come eventually. We can't just have cattle to haul around. At some point, poultry also has to make the game. There are tons of breeders for it. Between those 3, we need a processing plant. SCS can easily do what they do in ETS2 and not allow livestock to come in but we can get things going out to export, distribution centers and cold storage (if they make them). Missouri has a very very cool underground cold storage that needs to make ATS. So I expect cold storage will become a depot someday. Well need a few above ground ones as well. Not all of them are below grade.

Now there are some things that would be nice to see the Dakota's take advantage of once they come. There are some things that should be in place before hand. I mentioned corn, wheat and cattle are a few. Oil/gas is another. I expect Texas to take things up a notch there. One thing I'd like to see come with Texas are contractor type depots. The Texas microsite mentions Oil Fields Services. I sure hope this means companies that stage oil/gas equipment to push out to oil well sites. These type of companies are very wide spread where there are oil sites.

It would be nice to get Lowe's as a national competitor for Home Store but regionally, Menards must come to split up the dominance for both Home Depot and Lowe's. Kansas could be the first state to bring Menards. There enough of them to make sure Menards make ATS for the MidWest. SCS can even go back into Wyoming to add one. Casper, Gillette and Cheyenne has them.
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The Dakota's are a ways out but I think they could more interesting states that the surface stuff reveals.

[rbsanford]

Menards will really be a must as we move into the Midwest. Around here, those are more common than Home Depots (or at least that's what it feels like). The great thing about Menards is that you can get anything there: not just home improvement things like at Home Depot, but also furniture, appliances, bulk groceries, animal feed, clothing, etc, so it would almost rival Wallbert as well, but a parody of Target, K-Mart, and/or Costco would be better. Maybe even Kaarfor to represent Aldi, which is becoming pretty common in the US, but that's more of a dedicated grocery chain.

[flight50]

Oh wow. I didn't know that about Menards. I actually never went to their website. So they can get the same cargo as Charged (appliances), Home Store (building materials), grocery stores and Heartland Furniture. And that is why we need diverse competing companies because they can use a lot of the same cargoes we already have. More meaning to developing a huge cargo pool that both games can share.

[VTXcnME]

Menards would be a good one to parody. But I still think we need Target/Costco/Lowes to be parodied. That would add numerous delivery points for already existing cargo helping to pad out the cargo market.

I'd also really like to see actual distribution hubs for all these businesses. Most product doesn't get moved from retail store front to retail store front. It moves from a container yard/port or rail station to a distribution hub, then hub to different retail fronts. This is where we would really need mulitdrop. Leave a walbert D.C. and head up a certain route, delivering to 3 or 4 walberts along the way. That would be a little more realistic. On your return trips, thats where you'd get empty pallets or waste cardboard. Now we'd need multi load. But honestly, those few things would really help improve the way the cargo loads feel.

[hangman005]

Would they call it Urnards

[angrybirdseller]

US-12 in Eastern South Dakota lots of large lakes to drive across Waubay SD it would break up same old test scs ability to build lakes and ponds on large scale as slip off the road your truck is water log. Its Rush Lake close by I-29. Another one body of water along US-12 east of Aberdeen in Gorton SD. I doubtful they will add it but submerged truck from accidentally driving into the lake becomes very rusty think manufacturers would frown on it. Huron SD World's Largest Pheasant landmark Corn Palace got competition.

[rbsanford]

Huron SD World's Largest Pheasant landmark Corn Palace got competition.

Jamestown, ND, also has the World's Largest Buffalo, and New Salem, ND, has the World's Largest Holstein Cow, both visible from I-94.

An good achievement for the Dakotas would be finding all the giants: Salem Sue, the World's Largest Buffalo, Geese In Flight, the World's Largest Pheasant, Dignity, Skeleton Man Walking Skeleton Dinosaur, the Wall Drug Dinosaur, and of course Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse. It could be named "Giants In The Earth," which is also a book by O. E. Rølvaag about immigrants living in South Dakota in the late 19th century.

Looking around the Mt. Rushmore area, I see another road for whoever did Going to the Sun: the Iron Mountain Road, which has some crazy loops and nice views.