First impressions/experiences/opinions about ATS

[pottsie200]

The scale should have been the same as ETS2, 1/19, because in North America most cities cover large areas compared to the population in them and over the continent is huge so how does compressing into a smalll scale like 1/34 give you anywhere close to that impression, or how do you had the many small towns along the less populated roads without making it look like its one city. You can see Primm before you even get completely outside Vegas, I know that is not realistic in any way possible, Nevada is sparsely populated but I never got that impression on that drive at all. It seems like a person is driving in Europe more than America with all the towns and cities that seem to have very little space inbetween them anywhere one the current map. At on 1/19 the map would be huge and take alot of work but the Americas are huge so why shouldn't the game repersent that. A real life trip of six days should take about 6-9 hrs as that seems reasonable to me. Another question how do you make the complex interchanges around Chicago, New York, Boston, Los Angeles without taking up 50% of the space at 1/34 scale. ETS2 has enough problems with the scale of 1/19 to add landmarks and interchages close to cities.

Where I live Regina and Saskatoon are 150 miles (280km) apart but are about 10-15 miles (about 15-20 km) wide for about 250k populations, so ingame at about 1/5 scale for cities and 1/34 outside cities you end up with cities about 2-3 miles wide in game if realisticly mapped, which really icovers about 70-110 ingame miles for each city, which then leaves about 170-210 km left to add the Qu'Appelle Valley/River just outside Regina and Blackstrap south of Saskatoon, which is another main water run that crosses highway 11 plus there are several towns aong the way but to add those two important landscape features takes up alot of space nevermind adding the South Saskatchewan River through the heart of Saskatoon so adding any towns becomes difficult cause you can really only had maybe 3 or 4 if lucky and in reality there are about 15, some are really small but those towns make the feel of Saskatchewan as much as the larger town of 600+ people do, plus all the farmland inbetween the cities does. 1/19 scale would give much more room to add those landscape landmarks while giving enough space between each other and each of the cities close and room for a few more small towns with 3-6 buildings total in each. High

I havent played ATS since the first day for the simple reason the scale destroys the joy i get from seeing the great detailing that SCS did in the landscape, LA is small and almost seems non existent and even LV seems small to me even though they did a great job of repersenting the city. This all might have to do with that there is absulutely no open space between any city or towns. Most of America has a few large cities far apart with many small towns located inbetween that really wouldnt need a company or only one if it did and maybe two if it had a large local facility with another common one but in a small town that is rare.

To sum this all up America is HUGE and OPEN, nothing like most places in Europe, Scandanavia, Finland and Russia are the closest places where there are large open spaces like North America does. Canada has a population of 35 mil but Toronto has 6 mil, Montreal has 4 mil and Vancouver has 2.5 mil, with Ottawa having another 1.3 mil so that is about 14 mil just living in those cities never-mind the areas close to Toronto (Hamilton, London,Guelph, Kitchner, Oshawa) and Montreal (along the St. Lawarance River) and Vancouver. The only cities with a 1 mil plus in Central Canada are Calgary and Edmonton, with about 1mil each and then Winnipeg has about 600k and then the rest of the population is well spread out thoughout the southern parts of the West. The Northern parts have few small ciites, about 10k would be the largest with maybe with a few others about 5-10k but spread far apart. Most of Central North America is just plains to most people but it is those lands that built both Canada and the US, so discarding them as not important is really disregarding what is important to those countries culture and those who live there but also some of the most important lands in the world for food production and that wont change for years to come.

If the map was ever to expand to Central and South America it would be near impossible to truely repersent those countries cause some of the cities there would take up more space then the country shows on the map if done in 1/34 scale, some places could be done in small scale if you simply want quick deliveries and very few real interchanges in the game and just like everyone in Europe wants there country done right by Promods and keep asking for this or that even though it is impossible to add most as scale doesnt allow it but at 1/19 scale in America alot of those type places could be added that would make the game much more enjoyable for the people who live in those places or have been there , 1/34 allows very few places to be added because it starts becoming cluttered quickly. I have more of an open road feeling driving in Promods then anywhere I have been in ATS, becuase anywhere you drive in ATS seems only a few miles apart and at least ETS2 gives me the feeling that is some space between cities.

[Lolsmurf]

Same here, I stopped playing the game after the longest drive was like getting on the highway and off in 30 min lol.
Scale is ridiculous and so are some prefabs too.

Landscape and environment look nice and polished, but the lack of signs and pedestrians really bothered me.

[realdeal350]

The at-grade intersections on the interstates is also really stupid.

[smith121363]

So is stop lights and stop signs on an Interstate Highway.

[Mr Larrington]

Even with the daft scale it gives an accurate impression of just how tedious it can be driving long distances in Nevada

[Jan Verschueren]

First impression from dicking around in the demo: pretty much as I expected. As much as SCS have improved in mapping terms, attention to detail, textures and what have you, the mapping scale kills it. It might be alright if, as you progessed in the game, the whole of the US, Canada and Mexico were available from lauch, but, as it stands now, ATS is pretty much a payed version of the ETS2 demo, with so little territory to explore.

Firmly sitting on the fence for this one, until prices come down or content gets increased by a lot (through modders or DLC).

[Mr Larrington]

An enterprising fellow by the name of Mantrid has already produced a map linking California to Boston via Phoenix, Albuquerque, Amarillo, Okie City, St Louis, Indianapolis, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Philly and NYC, though there isn't much to see on the way yet. Actually, the part between Barstow[1] and Amarillo is pretty accurate in that respect

1: Can anyone put their hand on their heart and truthfully claim that they haven't yet said:

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold

[jasper]

First impression from dicking around in the demo: pretty much as I expected. As much as SCS have improved in mapping terms, attention to detail, textures and what have you, the mapping scale kills it. It might be alright if, as you progessed in the game, the whole of the US, Canada and Mexico were available from lauch, but, as it stands now, ATS is pretty much a payed version of the ETS2 demo, with so little territory to explore.

Firmly sitting on the fence for this one, until prices come down or content gets increased by a lot (through modders or DLC).

Tried the demo version , the game has stunning graphic quality , only thing that stops me from buying it , it's only the size of map to drive around that matters me( not really mistakes SCS made the people are saying as interstates etc....) , even there are resellers already lowered the price upto 34% discount , i will wait until the game get more states unlocked to do a long trip such as am enjoying in ETS2 from Bordarnas to Romania , more than 3500 kms , and lots of sceneries to enjoy until reaching destination , until then ETS2 rocks , especially due to Promods team members and others!.

[IanBFC2014]

Hi Guys

I have to say my first impressions are disappointing.

Yes, I understand that things like this take time and effort by developers, but only the states of California and Nevada available at release severely dented my hopes with this game. This would mean that at current rate of development, it could quite possibly take another 5 years to get the remaining 48 states in place (hope my knowledge of how many states is correct there )

If each state that is created from this point on, and is only available as DLC which players need to pay for, it will cost the consumer a fortune to get a completed map. I know Arizona is an exception to this rule as it will be free DLC.

Of course, I will be keeping an eye on development, but for the foreseeable future, I will be continuing with Promods ETS2, and look forward to your next instalment of your European map.

Keep up the good work fellas

[LoaderSaints]

My opinion about ATS after 70 -ish hours of playing:
The game is great but the map is way too small. I think the following image tells it all.

Driven all the roads numerous times, so many times they've got boring, so it is time for ETS2 again...