[REL] Egypt Addon for SCS Map Promods 2.0 and MsHeavyAlex

You can share and discuss other ETS2 map mods here
Chadedala
Posts: 456
Joined: 03 Feb 2015 14:49

11 Jan 2016 14:33

Yes, you read right.

This is an Addon for:
SCS Default Map
Promods 2.0
( i think, MsHeavyAlex should work to)

If any Problems with Compatibility, please report to

ets2egypt.de

Image

Image

Image

The reason for this, is personally.
I leave TSM ( it is not in the News Today, will coming soon )

if i countinue the Projekt i can not say, i dont know.
Depents on this, promods does with her Sectors,
Mr.HeavyAlex to.

Copyright by me, DONT REUPLOAD! KEEP THE LINK!

Addon "Cairo / Egypt" map.


Modder:
RustyNail666 ( new Name: MightyAnubis )

Game: Euro Truck Simulator 2

Version: 1.22

compatible to:
scs Map
Promods 2.0
and other, not tested jet.


Credits:
Thanks to: Steinmetz Omi,for help with Zmodeler + Trailern

Ex Deejay, for start in the Defs and some little Fixes later

Graywolf (TSM) for the Trailer Skins.

Carribean Princess - Herminio Nieves
Sailboot - edson
Boat 1 - kheiro
Boxes 1 Palm some less items - Yughues
Oasispalms - Yughues
Plants and Staff - Nobiax

THIS IS NOT A KOPIE! THIS IS A LEGAL HOST! I am the Owner of this Art!


to all other: Have Fun with the Work.

ShortView:
Towns:
Cairo
Al Wasta
Samalut
Al Fayyum (Oase)

11 new Companys
30 Cargos
2 Trailer, 4x heavy Load (mummy, Horos, Chests and other.)


For any Questions or Bugfixes, visit:

ets2egypt.de


1. - Egypt map
2. - Promods Fix


DOWNLOAD:
MASTER Link:
http://promods.net/sm_forward.html?lnk=/tvwon841dpe1/ETS2_ ... d.rar.html


Or Mirror

http://www.share-online.biz/dl/HT64IS0OGXQ
Last edited by LoaderSaints on 26 May 2016 08:38, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Corrected Mrs Alex :P

lelux
Posts: 232
Joined: 03 Apr 2014 08:24

11 Jan 2016 17:31

Am i wrong or this is a section of Tsm map?

Chadedala
Posts: 456
Joined: 03 Feb 2015 14:49

11 Jan 2016 17:38

This is a Promods Addon

please read my text.

Its compatible to:
promods
HeavyAlex
and SCS Map.

not 1 word from TSM here.

lelux
Posts: 232
Joined: 03 Apr 2014 08:24

11 Jan 2016 17:43

Perfect! I've asked cause i remember there was also Egypt in tsm map...

Chadedala
Posts: 456
Joined: 03 Feb 2015 14:49

11 Jan 2016 17:49

no, this you can drive with ProMods
that s the reason to find it here :D

User avatar
MandelSoft
Lead Developer
Posts: 3835
Joined: 08 Aug 2013 10:48
Location: Delft [NL]

11 Jan 2016 22:37

I was in doubt if I should post this, since it may not be the nicest thing to say when I state my honest opinion. But OK, here it goes. You can't say that I didn't gave a warning... :lol:

First things first, before I go into negative aspects, one thing I can't blame the map creator is being lazy. The sheer amount of new models and trailers are a proof that large amounts of work has been done. So whatever I say next, the effort put in this map needs to be recognised.

However, this map has some problems I can hardly look past. First of all, I'm not so satisfied about the textures of the new models. They all look overly saturated and too clean. This gives all the new models an overall kitsch and a too-clean-to-be-ancient look. It looks like something China would build in the past few years to bring the world to China, not like ancient Egypt. What would help a lot it to desaturate the colours of all textures and add weathering effects (dirt overlay textures and such, anything that indicates the harsh desert conditions everything is exposed too).

Second of all, I once heard that you want every road to be drive-able. While I get the idea, this actually kills immersion; making all roads drive-able also indirectly display how small the map is and the scale is very apparent. We often block roads to actually make the map look bigger than it really is. By closing down roads in the city, we can make the city look huge as it expands beyond what the player can access. Berlin is a perfect example of this; the city feels huge, but not all roads are accessible. But the inaccessible scenery is there to manifest an atmosphere of a huge city.

Third, the map feels rather unnuanced. It goes to one extreme to another without enough moderation to compensate. A super-huge garage with a roof 15 meters high, with a 2×2 lane access ramp? Sure it looks big, but it looks too extreme to be believable. You spent a lot of time on the assets, but you still use in basics standard SCS prefab ramps instead of custom interchanges (to me, standard SCS prefabs feel very crude, inflexible, repetitive and sometimes poorly designed). Steep slopes, sharp curves, switching between lots of gimmicky details to very little details, it just feels rather unbalanced. And if you say that the desert lacks detail because it's empty, think again: Iceland is also basically empty, yet Purno, PH-AMG and Abraxas made it look incredible. How? By adding subtle, nuanced details to it. A little bit of variation in grass textures, some vegetation here and there (Iceland is not completely barren), small props, rocks, etc. Subtle details may not be really noticed explicitly by the players, but these are highly underestimated things that greatly contribute to the immersion.

And finally, and this is one I can hardly deny as a mapper: no matter how much you stuff things up with all these custom Egyptian models, add new companies, change textures... Cairo still basically remains a copy of Lyon, too clear for me to see. If there is something I critisise TSM upon, it's the mindless copy-pasting of whole sceneries and cities (Dutch landscapes and German cities in Greece, are you serious?) . We used to have copy-pasted cities in ProMods, but with the Scandinavia DLC, most of them were gone (and frankly, we were planning to replace them anyway at some point). Aarhus and Karlstad are built from scratch with the new DLC assets, and our last copy-paste city, Turku, also recieved a full rebuild, which makes the number of copy-pasted cities in ProMods finally 0. Even better: 5 cities from SCS in Germany (and a few more in Poland) actually have been completely been abolished and substituted by our own cities.

And even then, we sometimes completely start over with some cities when we think the city doesn't reflect its real life counterpart well enough and we can do better (this happened to Stockholm (twice!), Linköping, Tórshavn and Blönduos). Heck, even MHA doesn't even bother to blatantly copy-paste cities. Each city needs to be tailored to capture the essential parts of the city, and you must look at it as a whole: you need the right road structure, the correct buildings, the correct city layout, the correct landscaping. That can make a difference between "wow! I can recognise the Sundsvall bay and bridge" and "where are we now?". If you copy-paste cities, you can completely kill immersion. You may give it another name, you may add a few different models, but it still wouldn't feel like that place. And in this case, Cairo still would keep a French feeling to it, and not African.

I may be harsh in my honesty, but I rather be harsh yet constructive than someone who just blindly praises something. But at least I gave you some pointers how you can improve in the future. As always, if I'm harsh in my honesty, I'm doing this with the best intentions to be at least constructive ;)

Best regards,
MandelSoft
Your daily dose of wisdom!
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Don't ask us for a release date; we don't know either.

Chadedala
Posts: 456
Joined: 03 Feb 2015 14:49

12 Jan 2016 01:22

Hello Mandelsoft.
First thing: Very thank you for your time, to write all This :D
And no problem, no need for a "Warning" i always happy to read something i can improve.
The point is only the Form how any one tells this. You have found the right way :D so dont worry.

The Models + Textures.
Maybe, there are some Things, i not happy with. Indeed: the Models of Cairo was a hard way to do. To bring to big textures in, will be lesser performance
that was a Point i want to pay attensione on. Also the next Problem is: find Textures for Egypt, and the next thing is: watch Cairo. It is in the Most cases,
just a Garbage Hill, nothing "really nice".
The next is: this town have massive "living in" and a big split between rich and poor. If you want to do something, you need Exploring in cairo by yourself,
for any good Things to use it, on Textures. So it was a unbelivibal hard way, to find only a small Pool of "Textures" to use for this Addon.
That starts at Windows, ends at Doors, and going familiar with all this parts (like Walls and other) in the Case of a good Performance.
So that was not an Easy Way. Was happy to find a way to realize this. Trust me: an Europe Model is much more easy than Egypt.
So also you have the Problem with the "Feel in". Like: This looks to colorless, this dont fits to the sand, this is to much Europe, the next to old and
the next to much Dessert. So just i choose a Form of Cairo, i like very much. You are right with the Way, its likly a little "clean" and "clear" but this is
a View that i like very much. I choose the "Pastel Colors" for the View, to bring a soft and nice Feeling in. But at the End, is there the Point: if you do something
you never absolutly happy about.

I like this Feeling very much. Maybe, there will be PPL that like this, and PPL not like this :) Is like all the Things in Life. Also i go some new Ways to set Windows
on Buildings, here or there the Finish is not perfect. I fix this in later Models, and choose an other Way to build this, like you can see on the later Models
- Al fayyum, and the Models in Samalut, i think the best of the Stack. Also it was a very hard Thing to do an Alabaster Mosque that looks nearly original, and the Egypt Musee, was a nightmare, but - now it is final, and it looks not bad at all. The Windows can be improved, okay, but like i say: no one is perfekt.

With the Landscape left and right, i go a complete other Way, than your point of View. I want to show and build a Dessert, like a Dessert is "seen" in Europe.
For real, lot of Places there just sand, and are plane. There is not so much how to think about. So my Egypt is more a Thing of 1000 / 1 Night, than the Oriental feeling, that is spiced with a lot of Side Seeings, that in the Real Positions (on Atlas and on Distance) and with a little Fantasy. So i want to do a feeling like
"You drive a Dessert" that also i think, ist well done. You know (i think) there 4 Roads that hit the Nil Valley. This are only 1 Road, and 2 Roads from Al Wasta to Memphis. Memphis is real, on the right side of the street, not on the left, but i think the Bridge was a nice Idea. It do not need to build every thing in "absolutly real", its more likly: do it a little Fantasy, with more Real someone think, and not so much real to do it ugly, like many places of Egypt are. So you right in some Positions: the Nil valley is for normly green, i mean: it s the green Nil. But: if you do it green and build all Streets there, you have on 1:19 only streets and nearly no landscape left :D

But away from this. You right with the Brushes. I begun late to work with, and i dont want to say i am a master on this, but it goes better and better.
So it s a point of view. My reason was to say: lesser is more here or there, and more is great on some Places, but not to much.
Third, the map feels rather unnuanced. It goes to one extreme to another without enough moderation to compensate. A super-huge garage with a roof 15 meters high, with a 2×2 lane access ramp? Sure it looks big, but it looks too extreme to be believable. You spent a lot of time on the assets, but you still use in basics standard SCS prefab ramps instead of custom interchanges (to me, standard SCS prefabs feel very crude, inflexible, repetitive and sometimes poorly designed).
yeah, here you right in some Things. But there is a Reason for the Big garage: 1th the Landscape was tiled there, ( the Street ) if i want to go down
i need a small fork. TSM dont have this fork, so that i have a very "extreme" hill, if i want from "2x2" to "1x1" ( it s ever a Part of: what you have to do
what you want. ) Next and hardest Thing: Cairo is made on Patch 1.19, later than on 1.20

so there was a Problem: All Nodes outside the Center of the Map, connect mad. That was a Problem to go crazy with. With the Goal, to bring a Release
befoure Christmas, i have the Need to have some "Tricks" to fix this Problem. 0 Prefabs was on Connect, no Nodepoints worket. So i change my mind
to build a Cairo from "0" and take the cairo (Lyon) there, and rebuild it. That is a very big difference, to do a thing by myself.
Its absolutly right. The Garage was also a little "big" to me, but now i find it really nice. It s like a little "monument" if you drive in. Have it s own Charme :D

Nobody is perfekt, and : a man does his 2th Map mod, cant be perfekt in all Things. It s a long way to learn, i think it s a nice finish, but not perfekt
can anyways better... we will see. It s not the last Time i modd in ETS 2 :D

So i see some Ways, to improve. That is a nice Thing. Something here or there, i know by myself. So i am not happy with the Pyramide Pension, is really to big for a small Hotel, and i know the Problem with the Flat Textures ( it s called flat something clean ).
Also i have a lot things, i think about: "Here or there is to empty, or you can do more" that was than a thing of Time.
so after 3,5 Months of building, i say to me: this is a mod like it is, it cant be perfect, but it is well done. There a lot things i can improfe, like Sand on the BEach or surly more Brushes.

but the Time it comes, it was good like it was to this time, and sometimes, if you go something as an 1 Humen Army, you need a little Rest :D

maybe the Future changes something, i dont know.
But i think: it is a nice little - lets call it: "non DLC Addon" with a lot of new stuff.
Surly, not the perfectest work on earth, but it have a lot of Egypt Flair. So i cant say, i hate myself going this way :D

But:
i know the not so nice things very well, and i see that i can improve. Maybe in Egypt, so the community this like

... or on an other Work :) We will see.

If Promods not build in my sektors, and the Community want to drive this, maybe i go one. Than is always time, to improve it here or there.
nobody was born as a master

but only fair and good Kritiks like your Text here, can help to go a master someday :D
So: very thank you, its a very useful information :)

The best Greetings,
Chadedala.

User avatar
MandelSoft
Lead Developer
Posts: 3835
Joined: 08 Aug 2013 10:48
Location: Delft [NL]

12 Jan 2016 11:15

Chadedala wrote:It is in the Most cases, just a Garbage Hill, nothing "really nice".
Then create a garbage hill! One of the reasons why RusMap is so popular is that it is gritty, it does not look away at the dirty side of Russia, but rather embraces it. Same goes for ProMods Romania and Ukraine. In Poland, there are quite a lot of locations where things "went wrong" and this adds great detail to the world. Imperfection, dirty areas and gritty cities are also a work of art and people like to see something different compared to the clean looks of Western Europe...
Chadedala wrote:You are right with the Way, its likly a little "clean" and "clear" but this is
a View that i like very much. I choose the "Pastel Colors" for the View, to bring a soft and nice Feeling in. But at the End, is there the Point: if you do something
you never absolutly happy about.
I actually avoid pastel colours because they quickly become over-bright in the game engine. I rather go for darker, desaturated colours, which often do a job better. As for making things look dirty, you can use multi-layered textures with different UV channels. This is also a trick SCS applies in the Scandinavia DLC. The models below that I edited all look a bit dirty, darker, desaturated, but also more realistic:
Image
Image
Image

It's all more subtle, but therefore even more beautiful ;)
Chadedala wrote:With the Landscape left and right, i go a complete other Way, than your point of View. I want to show and build a Dessert, like a Dessert is "seen" in Europe.
(...) So you right in some Positions: the Nil valley is for normly green, i mean: it s the green Nil. But: if you do it green and build all Streets there, you have on 1:19 only streets and nearly no landscape left :D
If I have learned one thing from mapping is not to follow stereotypes. Adding nuances or to recreate something people don't expect often catches more impression than stereotypes. Gritty city blocks in Germany? Sure, why not when they are supposed to be there. A beautiful landscape and bridge in Romania? If it's there, then why not? The world is not black and white (or in bright colours). There are lots of shades of grey. In this case, instead of an endless desert landscape, you can add some small patches of green landscape or a transition zone that is not really green, but not a desert either. Furthermore, you could add different texture patches of sand and dirt throughout the landscape, add a few rocks, maybe some nomads on camels and with tents, etc. It doesn't have to be in your face, but it doesn't need to feel monotonous either.

Again, nuance and subtlety is the key to top-quality content creation. ;)
Chadedala wrote:yeah, here you right in some Things. But there is a Reason for the Big garage: 1th the Landscape was tiled there, ( the Street ) if i want to go down
i need a small fork. TSM dont have this fork, so that i have a very "extreme" hill, if i want from "2x2" to "1x1" ( it s ever a Part of: what you have to do
what you want. )
Or you could just have build the exit elsewhere, just saying. Still the garage could be a lot smaller (and it misses support pillars).

Chadedala wrote:so there was a Problem: All Nodes outside the Center of the Map, connect mad. That was a Problem to go crazy with. With the Goal, to bring a Release
befoure Christmas, i have the Need to have some "Tricks" to fix this Problem. 0 Prefabs was on Connect, no Nodepoints worket. So i change my mind
to build a Cairo from "0" and take the cairo (Lyon) there, and rebuild it. That is a very big difference, to do a thing by myself.
Ah, the time limit. We were very well aware of that during the ProMods 2.0 release planning :lol:
Maybe a full rebuild could be done in the future, maybe with new prefabs from FLD? Since this project is not connected to TSM anymore, you don't have a release schedule anymore, so no more time pressure.
Chadedala wrote: but only fair and good Kritiks like your Text here, can help to go a master someday :D
So: very thank you, its a very useful information :).
You're welcome
Your daily dose of wisdom!
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╚╝──╚╝╚══╩╝╚╝╚╩══╩══╩══╝
Don't ask us for a release date; we don't know either.

Chadedala
Posts: 456
Joined: 03 Feb 2015 14:49

12 Jan 2016 12:53

Hello Mandelsoft :D

Ah, a Few Things can happen there. We will see. This Time, is only interesting: how think the Community to this Addon.

So if the ppl like this, i do future, if not, maybe i start a new map, or something other.

To the FLD Prefabs is the Question:
Promods uses FLD
is the Index the same like FLD did, or did you reindex this ?

the Reason is: if i put FLD inside, so no need to use "FLD" in an extra File, for Compatibility to Promods.
if you use an other Index, i need to map with the Promods Files together, so the Addon is than "just Promods compatible".

That s a very big question to this thing.

Maybe: if the Community likes Cairo very much, than - it can happen a lot of things.
if i go to create Alexandria, and the next 2 Nil Valley Towns + there Side Seeings, than i think a lot of Rework can happen in Cairo to :D

there is not the point, that is anything made of Granit there... öhm, not inside ETS2 ^^
:D

you're welcome to :D

User avatar
MandelSoft
Lead Developer
Posts: 3835
Joined: 08 Aug 2013 10:48
Location: Delft [NL]

12 Jan 2016 13:06

We kept the same structure for the prefab item names as FLD sent to us for convenience, so that would not be a problem.
Your daily dose of wisdom!
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Don't ask us for a release date; we don't know either.



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