Future of ATS

[fajnymarcin0]

Hello community. First of all I don't want to sound harsh, because it is not my intention. But I think it is time to say some things about future of ATS project. I would like to know from SCS, and probably thousands of others members of truck simulator community around the world - What are the plans for ATS. But the thing is, people want some real info, not something like - we are planning to push new stuff as soon as we can. Of course we don't want precise dates like for instance - Texas will be released on 23 rd of October 2017. I would like to know the information from SCS like - Ok the whole ATS map will be covered in 5-6 years time maximum. That is real information, and some respect for community.
Look after 1.5 year we got 1 new state (Arizona), which was promised to be released SOON after ATS comes out. This SOON took 3 months. Now, if SCS releases 2 states for a year, that means, we are going to wait 25 years!!!! for whole map + Canada. O.k. I know that some smaller states could be released with packs, consisting 3-4 states. But even if? 1 pack a year will give us 10 -15 years!!! of waiting.
I got my work, my real life, so trucking is just one way of relaxing for me, but I like it , and I would also like to help SCS by buying new content ( which I do - I bought every map dlc for both ets and ats plus other dlc's), but there has to be something to buy.
I want one statement from scs if somebody from there is reading this.
Are you going to finish ATS project, and if so in what time (5 years 10 years?)
Or are you going to stop ats project after New Mexico dlc?
I think true statement would be fair for all community.
The funny thing is that SCS is saying that they hired about 80 people - What? Are we serious? Where are effects? Besides I really don't know where they get money from if they don't release any maps (it is still business right?).
Just imagine - if you buy something, would you wait 15 years to use it as a complete product? I think nobody would. Finally I know argument that USA is a big country - one state can be bigger than whole Germany, Poland, or France. But hey didn't SCS know this before they started ATS?. It is not a rocket science to check how big it is. I hope i did not offend anybody. It is just my opinion, and I think I am not the only one

[RobertKNL]

I honestly can't find your actual question, just an endless and pointless rant.

I am quite happy with the amount of love they invested in the 3 states, and understand why it took so long. And if you see the new prefabs they're making, combined with the fact they want every city to have some level of diversity and they want to place some easter eggs plus achievements...

Yes it takes a while to make, but keep I am not even close to done with the current map (with only Project West as "extension"), and knowing oversized cargo will come shortly and they are pretty far with New Mexico...

Somewhere in your barrage of letters you mentioned you have a busy life and use this game to relax...then why don't you relax and enjoy the game instead of getting worked up over this?

[fajnymarcin0]

I asked major question and i don't see my arguments as endless. Well the actual question is - Are they going to built all map, and if in what time? That is all. If you are happy with the actual scs attitude I accept it. It is you right to have an opinion. I also like the quality, I just want to know what are the plans, and how long is it going to take. Our right is not only to admire scs , but we as a community can put some honest criticism, which is not because we don't like scs, but just the opposite.

[Roudou]

Finally I know argument that USA is a big country - one state can be bigger than whole Germany, Poland, or France.

And that's a false argument in my opinion. Only Alaska and Texas are bigger than France or Spain or Sweden. New Mexico (5th in USA) is ~315 000 sq km; Poland (9th in Europe) is ~ 313 000 sq km. Germany is comparable to Montana.

Funny map here.

And once again, the problem is not size of states. The problem is assets, cities, and road networks.

[RobertKNL]

Especially once SCS gets closer to the more densely populated states in the East I expect progress to be even slower

[MandelSoft]

I do work at SCS, but that doesn't mean I know everything what's going on there. I mainly focus on the ETS2 side of development (as that's where I'm assigned too and I don't have much overview of what's happening over at ATS. All I can say is that there will be a map DLC after New Mexico and I think development has already started on that. I can't say more than that due to my Non-Disclosure Agreement. But even without the NDA, I have no idea how far SCS is really planning to go on this. We mainly work on one DLC with one other in the planning stages, but we don't really look further beyond than that and plans are very subject to change in the planning stages. I can't give you solid statements because there are no solid statements to begin with.

There are still a few things you have to consider.

First of all, the map started at a 1:35 scale. However, SCS came back on that decision and rescaled the map to a 1:20 scale. And soon after, Arizona was released. All free of charge!

Second, SCS has around 90 people in their office (they hired six or seven people after I was hired in November), but you have to consider not all of them are mapping. There's much more that needs to be done. Of these 90 people, only 20-25 are actually working in the map editor (split over both ETS2 and ATS). Do note that not everyone has the same amount of mapping experience or the same workflow speed, so adding another mapper doesn't mean that the speed will increase by x% or something.
So what's the rest doing? Well, you have a team of modelers for map items, like trees, signs, buildings, etc. This is split into two teams too, one for ETS2 and one for ATS. Then you have the vehicle modelers, who not only design the trucks, but also all AI vehicles (and yes, there are still new vehicles being added, including trains and such). But what is a game without programmers? So that's also a part of the team. Then we have dedicated internal testers, the marketing department, the WOTR website maintenance crew, the legal department and of course, management and administration. And that's how you rack up to 90 people in the company. And even with more people coming in, you'll only see the effects later, since these people have to get to know the workflow first...

And finally, both ETS2 and ATS are long term projects. A lot of games are dropped from support 2 or 3 years after release. ProMods is even older than that, and SCS is still not done with ETS2 too. So SCS is clearly in it for the long run. Don't be afraid they will stop development anytime soon

[cdawg9999]

That's a very good breakdown of the company structure. Something I've always wondered myself. Hopefully the there's more concentration on increasing the map team size for both games. But I'm guessing not much more will happen until SCS moves into their new location so they can expand more

[Peterson]

Well, all you need is a bit of thinking - you want to have a paint shop, which doesn't just mean that you need a garage and a paint room, you also need a lot of space to prepare cars (not just one, maybe even five, plus parts), space to store them (and parts), plus enough space for customers (reception, handling, parking...). There's a lot of things to think of.

And remember, ProMods is not a company, but that doesn't mean that it's just mappers there. There's quite a number of people in the background, all you need to do is to look into the member list, and I'm sure that there's a silent part that's not even registered here. We might be talking about 2/3 of SCS, in terms of manpower.

There's a lot of potential, and both teams are playing it safe. Safe doesn't always mean good, but when you're dealing with such big playerbase that is very, very polarised - you have ass lickers and pathologic demanders, both are equally loud, and we don't know how big the margin between those teams and normal people is, but idiots can make a lot damage, even if it's just one. And these days, public opinion is more important than ever.

Future looks bright, it all depends on us.

[ETS2-User]

A list of all ProMods contributors can always be looked up here:
https://promods.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t ... 103#p11103

[Tanksome]

they hired six or seven people after I was hired in November

Ur from SCS
How did i miss that news