Scandinavia - more eye candy?

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Fafhrd81
Posts: 2
Joined: 10 Aug 2013 11:36

27 Sep 2013 20:49

First of all, I want to express my total appreciation and give my sincere thanks for you guys putting so much effort into this. The quality of the mod is very high and the contribution you gave to the community is very big. So please realize that the these are suggestions and not "requests" or a rant. I think that seeing your project growing and having Ireland and the Baltic area in the pipeline is great, but please don't abandon Scandinavia!

After several hours around, I have to admit I find myself taking jobs to Scandinavia less often. The cities are good, and it's clear that much work went into locations like Scania, bridges and ferries. But the longer roads (I am mainly talking about Oslo-Stockholm and Malmö-Stockholm) can get boring. Well, I guess that's how they are in reality! Very long distances, straight and plain, not much to see because just crossing plains and forests. While I can understand this simulative approach, I think that some more scenery elements would make the driving experience more enjoyable.

A mind trick that SCS uses in their maps is to always have something on the horizon. A hill, a small wood, some houses, whatever. It is not important that is something big, original, or shiny. Just something, to accentuate in the player the illusion that he is traveling, going on, crossing areas.

These are some random picks from googlemaps (Oslo-Stockholm):

Birch trees are very common in Scandinavia, and quite typical of their culture:
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An overpass: there must be some human life nearby! While having the impression of crossing an empty wilderness is cool, southern Scandinavia is not THAT wild and empty! Several villages/small towns can be found along the way.
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(btw, wooden red huts seem to be quite a common sight)

An opening, with a farm in the distance:
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Big rocks:
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Maybe anyone here is from Scandinavia and feels like giving some more suggestions?
I for example feel that the look of mountains in Norway needs some more attention, and that some more landmarks in the cities would be nice.

Promods, you wanted to distinguish yourselves from other mods with your quality over quantity approach, please keep it like that!

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Nico
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27 Sep 2013 21:53

I am agreeing on several points you raised. I have never been in Sweden or Noway but I heared that roads are long and pretty boring.

About the horizon I think that most roads contain something in the horizon. Especially Norway has a lot of scenery because of the mountains.

I don't agree on the point you raised about the mountains in Norway. I think lot's of work went into that and the far and close difference of models/textures have been used quite properly (if you compare it to for instance TSM)

For the extra life: I have tried several things. The first problem we ran into is that there are no real Scandinavian models ingame. We created about 5-6 of them and they are placed mostly in Norway. Working in Ireland and the Baltics is easier in that perspective since alot more resources are available. Things I did to make the journey "less boring" or more of a "challenge" are for example gas stations where you need to exit the main road, creating several overpasses, crossing that go nowhere. It makes it more real but alot of people complain about it if they are there/not there, which is making life alot harder for us modders.

Landmarks: We have added about 2-3 building landmarks and futhermore we created almost everywhere irl scenes (e.g. Oresund, Storebaelt, Kristiansand, bridges in Norway, Vättern etc...)

We would love to add more irl buildings for towns from google warehouse. Problem is that we need some more knowledge about 3D models and 3DMax and so far we haven't gotten any succes on that matter.


Hope this answers most of your suggestions.
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MandelSoft
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Location: Delft [NL]

28 Sep 2013 00:05

Furthermore, it's an ongoing effort to improve what's there. I've already did some work north of Malmö

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And redesigned two interchanges:
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Furthermore, I have this on my to-do list:
- Add some more scenery to the E6 between Göteborg and Helsingborg
- Add scenery only exits (AKA, unaccesable) and city development near Ljungby and Halmstad.
- Add Ulricehamn near the rv40 as an eyecandy only city including the lake

For long term plans, I have these points:
- Create a new road, the E22 from Malmö to Kalmar to Norrköping. Create Linköping as well as a twin city with Norrköping
- Create rv13 to Ystad for a ferry to Poland.
- Add Örebo to the map.
- Turn the rv75 (Sodralanken) into a tunnel, and redesign the scenery in Stockholm overall (needs a lot more water and bridges).
- Review other Scandinavian cities to look where these can be improved.

Best,
MandelSoft
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Fafhrd81
Posts: 2
Joined: 10 Aug 2013 11:36

28 Sep 2013 15:44

great stuff! i am totally reassured now :)

good work and have a good time! thanks again!

as a token of friendship and to keep up the morale, i will link this video of a polish trucker that i think everyone should watch ;)

abasstreppas
Posts: 31
Joined: 06 Aug 2013 13:48
Location: Stockholm, Sweden

28 Sep 2013 20:16

- Turn the rv75 (Sodralanken) into a tunnel, and redesign the scenery in Stockholm overall (needs a lot more water and bridges).
Great MandelSoft! :) This is exactly what I'm been waiting for. I live in Stockholm and to be honest the only area I recon in the game (as it is now) is Frihamnen and nearby. I'm really looking forward to the improvments. ;)

Thanks,
abasstreppas

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n4gix.bill.leaming
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30 Sep 2013 23:00

All of those are going to help make something good, better. One of the things that have irritated me in the past has been mostly mitigated in the DLC package: providing side roads to buildings, homes, villages, et cetera that actually connect with the B road one is already on.

It would be better if the mappers had placed the neon, glow-in-the-dark barriers a few hundred meters back from the intersection, but at least it appears that there is some logical way for the folks who work and/or live "out there" have some way to access the bloody highway passing by! :lol:

I would even suggest adding some "driveways" and "parked cars" to help foster the illusion that there is some life in the world.
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PanzerRanger
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01 Oct 2013 13:05

Problem, I guess is a lot of things isnt the way they should be. But I like the improvment around Malmo. Looks like the real deal. Orebro is also a big stepup cause of the area being a large distrubutionarea with terminals from both Schenker and DHL

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ScuL
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01 Oct 2013 13:18

The biggest problem is that you can only work with the tools you have. The amount of models & prefabs (junctions/roads) in ETS2 is very limited by default so doing non-standard things means inventing the models/parts/buildings yourself which is very very time costly. Then you have to choose whether to make more roads or focus more time on detail. I think our balance has been quite good so far
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PanzerRanger
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01 Oct 2013 13:24

You got Brahehus at least. Thats a landmark =D

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ScuL
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01 Oct 2013 15:10

PanzerRanger wrote:You got Brahehus at least. Thats a landmark =D
Yes but there are so many more I'd like to include
I'd like to add the big candy cane at Gränna and the Saab fighter jets at Linköping.. and also the big wooden troll near Huskvarna..
but not enough time :(

What we really need is a permanent 3D Modeller in our team!
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