FF2: Filling in the Suburbs

[krigl]

Hi there! I'm Krigl and I've been posting screenshots in here since October 2017, using ProMods since 2015, using ETS2 since 2013, and taking screenshots of simulation games since 2005 (starting with FS2004). I'm an Englishman living in the Czech Republic.

This is my 3rd screenshot thread in here - I'm on a mission to tour the entire ETS2 and ProMods map in detail, as well as the ATS map too. Here's a brief overview of the progress so far, just in case anyone cares.

First screenshot thread - Heartland Journeys: October 2017 - October 2018: https://www.promods.net/viewtopic.php?f ... 43#p193043

I toured the entire ETS2 base map, with ProMods of course, and Grimes's weather mods + some light editing to bring out the sometimes well-hidden beauty of this ancient region. The ProMods content made a massive difference, of course. Today many of the areas look very different - SCS has updated Germany, and ProMods have significantly updated the UK, so it can be seen as a bit of a historic document. Last thing I heard it had been included in the digital repository of the Library of Congress as a Significant Cultural Artifact.

Here's the map, just for perspective or whatever.



Second screenshot thread - Fantasy Freelancers: October 2018 - June 2021: https://www.promods.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=26492

My original plan was to work outwards from the 'Heartlands' of ETS2, but I got distracted by ATS, other games, various problems and activities in life, and SCS kept announcing new DLCs, so I ended up touring 3 different ProMods areas just before SCS erased them more-or-less from the map. Instead of a celebration, it became more of an obituary. Still, again it's worth a look through if you're curious or nostalgic about what the ProMods areas of the Baltic States, south Finland, Romania and Spain once looked like. Also got through the Scandinavia DLC and retoured the UK and Ireland. Map:



Meanwhile, in ATS I decided to go through the base map there, and also took in Arizona and New Mexico. In this current screenshot thread I hope to get through 4 more states - Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Colorado. Fascinating infographic below:



As for ETS2, the plan for this thread is to do that spreading out from the heartlands I was hoping to do 3 years before. The planned areas are below in green:



Hope I can manage to keep motivated, it looks like an awesome project. So let's get started!

Wait! Wait a minute! Why the stupid name? Fantasy Freelancers 2: Filling in the Suburbs? Like, really?

Well, the best way to deal with that is simply to translate it into Japanese:

Fantajīfurīransā 2 - kōgai o umeru
(ファンタジーフリーランサー2-郊外を埋める)

Now that looks like a manga about schoolgirls with cat's ears and katanas fighting ghouls and ninja robots...
...so that settles it, then. It's a brilliant title.


Enough of that, on with the screenshots... The first tour will be the venerable region of the Going East! DLC, and here to take us through it is Dusan...




Here we are at my garage in Kosice, Slovakia. Honza (in the orange vest) has just finished polishing my truck ready for it's journey across the north of Slovakia and the Czech Republic to Prague via Banska Bystrica and Ostrava.


We have a premium view of the city skyline.


Kosice is the easternmost city in Slovakia in Going East, and it's also a ProMods modded city.




It's a great place for my HQ, and for raising my family.






Today we're going to take a cargo to Banska Bystrica.




Still getting out of town.


The housing estates are just fading from view, and we're into the sunflowers...


As I mentioned in the last thread in the Scandinavia tour, Scandinavia may be newer than Going East and it certainly has some very nice parts (often thanks to ProMods) but in some ways it's less interesting than GE.


Here, ancient assets used even in ETS1 in some cases rub shoulders with very modern scenery areas added by PM very recently. You never know what's just around the corner. There's lots of variety.


And the assets made specially for GE, while not up to modern SCS standards, still have a kind of grimy realism about them that makes them somehow more, er, real-looking than the squeaky clean and colourful Scandinavian architecture.


So, there's plenty of interest in the GE region and I'm looking forward to seeing it all, and sharing the screenshots, of course!


We're going to do the DLC in two parts, with the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary in the first, and Poland in the second, separated by a tour of Oregon.





Right, that was more than enough waffle for any sane human being, so for the last few shots I'll shut up at last.








Ruzombarok. Time to head south to Banska Bystrica.









And here we are. Hope you enjoyed this first set from northeast Slovakia.

Dusan

[Bernhard_]

Impressive start and a big project / goal!
I am looking forward to more.
Good luck finding special content!

[krigl]

Thanks Bernhard, hoping I can keep the momentum going!


Alright, well here we are in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia. Took the truck for a little city tour before dropping the cargo off, as you do.












Time to drop off the cargo and go to a local pub for some halušky, hopefully with plenty of cheese and bacon.


After a simple but satisfying lunch, washed down with Birell unfortunately, we headed back towards Ruzombarok to pick up a new cargo for the second leg of our tour to Ostrava. Sorry, Ostrava!!!


Ruzombarok.


Western Slovakian countryside.


In this tour we're going to start by going around Slovakia and the Czech Republic via a circular route. Well, more of an extremely flattened and crinkled ellipse, really.


My company does a lot of deliveries within the two countries, so it seems logical to start with that. Then we're going to do some mostly short trips out of the two countries into neighbouring states - just to the first city or big crossroad we meet - just to get a feel for the position of the Czech Republic and Slovakia right in the centre of Europe. And then we'll do something similar for Hungary. Should mean a lot of variety.


Getting close to the border with the Czech Republic.


Crossing the border.


A small Czech town. I once met Czech politician and ex-President Vaclav Klaus there IRL. He wasn't very friendly, I have to say.


This is another small Czech town, Hranice, which means either border or bonfire. For some reason, this one is recreated in detail.


I'm all for recreating smaller places in-game, it's great to experience passing through smaller towns and villages, and not just visit small clumps of jobsites with a cut-out skyline on the horizon pretending to be a major city. But why Hranice? I can only imagine that the ProMods author who's been updating the local scenery recently must be from there.


Well, anyway, here are a few shots of Hranice, a typical small Czech town. It's just one long main street, but nicely and realistically made.






Busy streets!


Back out in the countryside, and heading for the industrial city of Ostrava!!! in Czech Silesia.


The signage really makes me feel at home driving here.


Nice understated lead-in to the city, quite natural, like it. Not sure if PM have upgraded Ostrava, but it's pretty cool for a default city if they haven't.




Time to drop off the cargo. Next set will be Ostrava-Prague.

Čau - Dusan

[Bernhard_]

I think, i understand what you mean. Don't lose your momentum!

Thanks for your recordings and keep it up!

[krigl]

A very rainy trip today...


Dropping off last post's load in Ostrava.


Off to the hotel.




Here we are. Hope there's a bath. Feel like a beer and a nice, warm bath.


The next day it was bucketing down.


Very suitable weather for this city.






Rain drumming on the windshield, wipers struggling to keep up, we head out for a new cargo.


God, what an awful place.


'How is it still raining?' I tentatively ask.


Love it when it rains in-game, makes the environment seem more alive and real. I have the chance of rain turned down low as I usually want places to look their best... but here Ostrava IS looking it's best. Have to say it's a very atmospheric place in the rain.


Heading in the direction of Olomouc.




Olomouc. Should stop off in Lostice and get some tvaružky. Ate a ton for dinner today IRL. They taste good, especially melted on lightly toasted rolls, but they stink to high heaven.




Ye Olde Skoole scenery continues as we head towards Prague.








Approaching Prague, and it's STILL raining.


Prague. I was here in my first screenshot thread about 3 1/2 years ago and back then I commented on how SCS has its offices in Prague and yet this beautiful city in real life is such a dump in-game.


Nothing's changed. ProMods haven't touched it either. I have a feeling it must be all the roads radiating out from it. Perhaps it's impossible to improve it?


Not going to hang around - we need to deliver to the Skoda plant in Mlada Boleslav.


That's the chimney on the horizon, just outside Prague.


A nice shot to finish things off. Next time - Mlada Boleslav back southeastwards to Brno.
Dusan

[krigl]

Dropping off our cargo in Mlada Boleslav today, and then heading for Brno.


That looks grim...


Here's the car factory. Hard to tell from here, but it's a hotbed of union activity.


Look at that!


Parked up. Should have gone for a coffee while I wait for an employee to turn up and swap trucks with me, but I just sat their stroking my chin pensively, lost in thought, trying to work out what they are protesting about.


Looks like they don't like Skoda's new car design. Or are they suggesting that cars shouldn't exist? Perhaps they want to promote car sharing? Whatever it is, it looks awesome. PMFTW.


I was awoken from my reverie by my employee rapping on the glass of my window. We swapped trucks, and I went to pick up some car parts or something from Skoda to take to Brno.


Both the Prague and the Bratislava paintjobs are really nice. Taking the latter back towards Slovakia.


She forgot to fill it up before we swapped. The youth of today, eh?


Passing Prague, the Golden City, The Mother of All Cities, The City of a Hundred Spires.


Jazzycat is at the very least a demigod of SCS game modding - a new BMW already showing up in traffic, with its characteristic 'buttocks on the photocopier' new front grille design.


Down the D1 towards Brno.


Concrete panel roads? We must be in Moravia.


They REALLY don't want birds to fly into that glass. Or perhaps they already have?






We were almost at Brno, when a random road accident blocked our path. It would have meant quite a detour, I feared, so I decided to take a leaf out of Anna's book and just coast right by on the hard shoulder. Nothing could go wrong, right???
Wrong. Take a closer look at the right-hand fire engine...


I had almost reached the gap between the fire engine and the edge of the road, when suddenly the fire engine grew tired of its atoms having to share the same space with those of another vehicle, and vigorously yeeted the ambulance out into the gap right in front of my face. I literally saw it fly out sideways like a very large boxy yellow crab. I think it made a kind of Vrrrrrrrrp! sound when it shot out, but perhaps it was just my startled brain filling in a sound effect automatically.


Well, I slammed on the brakes, but had no chance of stopping in time. 12% damage. Got off lightly, I guess. Should things like this really be happening? Why do they happen? How can such an event even exist? Well, I don't have all the answers, but I like it. Reminds me of the time something even stranger happened when touring Romania in the last thread in a problematic yellow modded BMW that kept getting engine damage and wobbling all over the road. The car skidded into a metal railing so hard that it KNOCKED THE ICONS OUT OF THE SATNAV.
They spent about a minute drifting up the windscreen after the impact. Don't believe me? Check it here - about half way down the page: https://www.promods.net/viewtopic.php?f ... &start=100


Brno's housing estates looming on the horizon. This is the city where I live, so it's just amazing to be able to drive through it in-game.


New scenery additions. When I saw this, I felt a sudden jolt of recognition - I know exactly where this spot is. Granted, a lot around is missing, but it was a fantastic moment.






When I was dating my wife before we got married, I used to take her home from my place late at night on the Number 1 tram. It was a long journey to her house there and back, and I had to get up early and teach the next day... but I didn't care about that. It was love... Whoever put the No.1 in there made me very happy.


I know this spot too, driven round that corner many times.




What can I say - I'm glad I don't live in Prague! : D

Cheers, Dusan

[Polestar]

Nice screens! Loved the remark on the BMW grille - I've seen a couple now in traffic and it ain't getting prettier.

[krigl]

Thanks, and you're too right : ) They stuck to very similar designs for years - guess they hired a new design team, wanted to shake things up a bit. Can't stop thinking of it as 'buttocks on the copier' now though. Perhaps that was what they were going for?


Leaving Brno. Today we're heading back into Slovakia, visiting Bratislava and Trnava.


Rain again? Better turn the 'chance' down, rain is actually rare in the Czech Republic, or at least it is around Brno where I live.




River levels are rising... Doesn't take much for people to start getting flooded in this country.


Approaching the border.


And we're back in Slovakia.


Bratislava is only a short hop from Brno - even in real life it takes about an hour or so, I guess.


B'lava is pretty nice ingame.


Hmm, this reminds me of something... ah yes... my truck.






I wonder if truck drivers really do see as many crashed vehicles and accidents in real life. Seems awfully common in game.






Explored for so long, the sun started going down. Better make tracks to Trnava quickly. It's just down the road.






Here we are.


Cargo dropped off, sleeping in a parking space tonight. Let's find one.


Okay! Engine off, night night.
Dusan

[krigl]

This time we're starting off in Trnava and heading along the south of Slovakia via Zvolen back to our HQ in Kosice, to close the loop and complete the first part of this tour.


Nice early start.


Trnava.


Heading out.








Approaching Zvolen.




Zvolen. It's just a scenery town, i think.




Starting the last leg.








Another castle.






I remember when it came out, this area of Going East was one of the only places in the whole available map where there were hills. I was playing properly at the time, I couldn't afford a great truck, and I actually had to think about the weight of the cargo, the power of the engine, the gearbox - should I even take the job - will we make it over the hills. In some cases we slowed to a crawl, got stuck, ended up sliding backwards. Ah, the memories...








Okay, back home in Kosice. I have a day off today, so I might post once more later. Now off to do some driving...
Dusan

[krigl]

Time to start the second, largest part of this tour of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary: journeys out of the upper two countries to nearby cities.


Today I'm just trying out the new DAF. It won't be in production till October, but Harry Wolters phoned me up from Eindhoven and said ''Dusan, my old mate, we've got a new truck coming out and I want you to have first dibs at driving it before we let it loose on the rest of Europe. Give me a full report on how it performs.'' Well, Harry and I go back a long way, so of course I said I'd love to try it out. I mean, it's got mirrors inside the cab.


Here we are in Kosice, Slovakia, starting off on our first trip out of the region we've just been exploring. Today we're literally going east to Uzhorod in Ukraine, and then making another short hop north over the border to Sanok in Poland.


I've covered a lot of ground in recent days, and I'm about 12 sets of screenshots ahead of this post. Having driven out of the region in all directions all around Slovakia and the Czech Republic I have to say that I'm very pleasantly surprised with this part of the world. I started the thread with it because it's the last really old area I haven't covered, and it would be nice to get it out of the way.


However, I've found that there is so much variety and interest in the area - it certainly wins over the 2-years-newer but somewhat bland Scandinavia DLC hands down. Of course, the ProMods content in both areas is excellent, but the final result is a clear win for Going East in my books, particularly if you take into account its location and the variety of neighbouring countries within easy reach.


One of those is Ukraine, a completely new ProMods area. We're just going to dip briefly into it twice during this tour, but I can already see it's pretty nice. Coming up on the border now.


Here's the border post. We're going to be seeing a lot of borders over the next couple of weeks in these screenshot sets.


Leafy Uzhorod.


We're not going to explore it properly - saving that till another time.


Looks good though. I wonder what that blue cupola on the horizon is. A watertower, or an Orthodox church? Will have to wait and see.


Back in Kosice again, getting an early start on our second job - for Sanok in Poland.




Looks like a nice load of Europallets there.


Alright. We're going to Poland - haven't been there since late in 2017.


The new DAF looks good. Modern, streamlined, quite radical. Way better than the last 'laughing smiley' design. Have to say with that grille it does look just a tiny bit like a Scania, really. I'm not going to put that in Harry's report, though.


Having the mirrors in the cab is great. Looks a bit strange on the outside, like someone cut its ears off. But so convenient to have them in there
with you.


Dukla Pass War memorial near the border. There was a big and bloody battle here in 1944.




And we're in Poland! The two countries of former Czechoslovakia have a long border with Poland, and we'll be making quite a few trips there over the next few days.




Passing through our first Polish scenery town. Not sure which one, Krosno maybe? Poland is a very heavily modded part of the map, as everyone knows, as what we have in ProMods is a mix of Poland Rebuilding and ProMods' work. Many parts of the map are very nice indeed...




...like this one.


Last leg for today - to Sanok.


The cabin and dashboard of the new DAF also look great, and I really enjoyed driving it. Will look forward to taking it for a few more spins later in the year.




Sanok, and we're done for today.
Cheers - Dusan