Germany Development

[Omicron]

By the way when will bug fixes arrive?

Bug fixes either arrive in the next version or the next major release, depending on the severity of the bug.

Example A27 the signage is wrong. If you drive not with GPS and don't know the Area the signs lead you the wrong way.

I would call it a priority bug.

In my opinion, this is not a high priority bug. Most people will follow the GPS (and/or voice navigation), and even if they don't, there are opportunities to make a U-turn (if they realise they've gone the wrong way, of course ). High priority bugs are bugs that need urgent attention, like the invisible walls or graphic glitches that have been found so far.

[jdenm8]

I wonder if the mapping team has become smaller? There were times as the updated Promods for the game updates were faster there. Or the merge of Baltics was also not that long as the black sea... So are there less Mappers now? Less time for all issues.?

In addition to what Plum has said, Baltics was an overall less challenging merge. If I Recall Correctly, the most challenging parts were the connections to Elblag, Suwalki and (IIRC) Pori. In total, there were only about five or six connections we actually had to make. For the most part, we just had to move around existing connections.
With Black Sea, we had to make (IIRC) seven connections. Almost all of these connections were as hard or harder than the hardest connection to the Baltics DLC. Several of the them were wholly new, we had no roads in a number of these areas, SCS had left little to no provision for them, and they generally involved difficult terrain and (sometimes) complex border crossings.
At the time, we were also still working on new content that you're only seeing now as part of 2.50.

I expect merging the Iberia DLC to take less time, since we have a dedicated developer for Spain and there should be fewer connections.

[ScuL]

There is a difference between providing constructive feedback and forcefully demanding to have things your way. I think that some of the comments posted in the thread recently lean more towards the latter direction than the first.
It's proven time and time again that many ETS2 players have a strong sense of "home bias". They would prefer that 100% of our capacity is dedicated to making their home region, or home country as detailed as possible.
Where realistically we have to divide our man power, time and efforts, throughout ALL of Europe. And this is not a small area to cover, even in 1:19 scale.

When it comes to delivering new content in Germany there are several factors that relate to slower development
1) We only have a limited number of developers who (want to) work on Germany
2) Developers may have real life obligations such as family, work, school and so forth and are not able to build large areas
3) We intentionally postponed ground-breaking developments in Germany because of the SCS rebuild project(s) not being entirely finished yet as it makes no sense to spend much time when it is likely to be erased soon(ish)
4) We had to dedicate a LOT of our time in merging the Black Sea DLC. This has been the most time-intensive DLC addition in the history of ProMods, exactly as explained due to the landscape and the amount of connections. This DLC has delayed 2.50 by more than 6 months and taken development time away from areas which would have otherwise been completed.

Now comments on some of the specific areas mentioned:

BAB1/BAB226 Travemünde
This junction was built because the vanilla game doesn't have a link to Fehmarn/Rødby. Unfortunately due to the nature of map design, it makes it very complicated to build a direct western entry into Travemünde unless we basically stop the BAB226 straight away and turn it into a country road with a huge S curve.

ets2_20200903_131530_00.jpg (1.12 MiB) Viewed 1339 times

BAB1/BAB39 Lüneburg
This junction has been built during Germany rebuild phase 1 to provision a future connection. Currently we don't have any resources to expand this area.

BAB2/BAB39 Wolfsburg/Braunschweig
This junction has been built during Germany rebuild phase 1 to provision a future connection. Currently we don't have any resources to expand this area.

BAB4/BAB72 Chemnitz-Leipzig
There is no room to build this connection at all because the flat landscape surrounding BAB38 requires very large scenery areas due to the sight lines. Also connecting BAB72 via B95 is not an option because there is nowhere to connect it to.
Please refer to the map below.

ets2_20200903_133423_00.jpg (1.43 MiB) Viewed 1339 times

BAB4/BAB14 Chemnitz-Leipzig
We created junctions for both areas but connecting them requires a shift of the whole area because the sight lines require wide areas as you can see on the map above.
There was no time to do this before releasing 2.50 but we will connect them hopefully soon.
In the small game world we have it seems that having BAB4/BAB14 connected takes away the need of extending BAB72.

BAB7/BAB72 and BAB7/BAB4
There is highly limited room to created more space between these junctions (Bayerisches Vogtland/Hermsdorfer Kreuz) because of the way that BAB72 curves.
If you want more space here we will have to remove BAB72/BAB93 and forget about Regensburg.

BAB72/BAB93
There is a provision here for Regensburg or further connections into the Czech Republic. Currently we don't have any resources to expand this area.



Comments about other issues mentioned;
BAB27 signs have been misplaced by the developer and have been swapped around for the next update.
BAB261 is part of the Maschener Kreuz area and seems fine as it is. In fact the whole Maschener Kreuz is complete.
Bremen rebuild is on our project wish list but not for the near future.

Added in 1 hour 26 minutes 2 seconds:
btw here you see the problem why the BAB14 was not connected sooner.

ets2_20200903_153810_00.jpg (1.85 MiB) Viewed 1320 times

[MG Mike]

Hello Scul,

Sorry if something is misunderstood by you but it was from my side meat to be a constructive crictism. I not about to want to force the team to build what I want.

Thank you for your explanations. Some things are clearer by now.

But with the Travemünde Connection:
What was planned there?

Before these dead-end junction was there I mean there was a simple exit in Promods. I think it was Scharbeutz. If you exited there you could go left side to the beautyful beach road at the timmendorfer Strand which is sadly gone now. And right side it leaded to Travemünde as at Vanillamap also has.

I see at your picture that is a hard thing to connect and if the road is then realistic is another story. So if this connection to Travemünde is not possible for space issues as it seems so why is this junction build anyway!?

I think it is not good to remove a working exit for a not working scenery junction. Especially not if this one blocks the way to Ferry port which is important.

I know some players don't want ferries, but it is there by SCS, you adapted it and so there should be a proper way to it. Also from the BAB 1

Bit that is only my personal opinion.

[Vøytek]

why is this junction build anyway!?

Some interchanges are built for visual purposes, or to let you know where you are, based on interchange name and cities on signs. If a dev decides he wants to add an interchange, instead of fields and forests only, he can do it if there's space. Not all of them have to be functional.

[TimmyTurner95]

@Scul
concerning the A1/A226 junction near Travemünde:
The ferry port should be shifted to the north and the you can extend the A226 and build the exit to the port. The B104 connection is a bit nonsense. This road leads to the ferry port eventually, but only after a driving around Lübeck and through a tunnel. So A226 is the better option. And when you look at Google maps, you see that you can drive onto A1 towards Fehmarn at the A1/A226 junction comming from Lübeck, but you have to leave the highway first.

And the end of A20 towards Kiel is also unrealistic as it ends in a building site in real life, so it should be like this in promods and the road to Kiel as well as the city of Kiel itself is depicted in an unrealistic way in ETS2 so it should be rebuild too.

[MG Mike]

Yeah I agree full with TimG95

Please think about it and make this intersection usable. It is well build and should have a sense. If the Travemünde port were scenery only without function it would not matter, but since it is usable ferry port for reaching the baltics or maybe Sweden also it is important to have it reachable from BAB 1. Otherwise just return the Exit Scharbeutz and the lovely Beach road to reach Travemünde. It would anyway be great if there would come a proper replacement for it. Germany has some very nice roads with view on the sea. And since these Interchange the one of the two in Promods, or the only one of ETS2 Germany has gone. That is pity.

Maybe there are some chances for improve Schleswig Holstein a bit.. With the Fehmarn rebuilt you did a very great thing, which I like still to say thank you for this, but the rest of Holstein could also use some love..

Best regards
MG Mike

P. S.
I have an additional request. It is not really from me, ahm.. I am watching a let's play Series on YouTube from Tom Diesel. He is from Kassel and he drives Promods but also Vanilla and also the new Euroadnetmap.

Since he is from Kassel he said the Area around Kassel looks more realistic by SCS in their new germany and he wishes to have it also in the promods map and maybe if it is possible regarding map space also keep the A44.

[realdeal350]

It was my intention to rebuild Travemünde and connect it accurately to the A1 but I never got around to it... I might pick it up again soon. The interchange was built for a reason.

Also, I must admit that I don't understand your critiques regarding the Maschener Kreuz. It is 100% accurately represented. It's also possible that the rest of Hamburg will be rebuilt one day, including the port area, but it will be quite a large project.

[Shiva]

I might be odd, but the current SCS + ProMods Hamburg is quite good, in my opinion.

[Krieger84056]

when do you think SCS will finish germany?