What locations disappointed you in ETS2

[DragonZee]

Ofc I mean the newer ones, pre-2016 ones are bad due to simply being old, I recently started to travel through Iberia after buying the DLC an I'm pretty disapointed with how they depicted some locations. Some look really great like Porto or locations in Northern Spain. But some look simply bad and I think Barcelona takes the cake here. It is the second biggest city in Spain and it seems like they purposely ommited most of the city and only left out the south-western part which is mainly industrial zones and port. I understand the game depicts places that are mainly points of interest for truckers, but the city simply feels hollow, like one big industrial zone, not a city that is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Europe. And I know SCS can do much better with how they depict places. I was also kinda disappointed with Lisbon - when you look at the city from the 24 April bridge it doesn't look like the characteristic "cluster" of buildings, but a bunch of randomly placed blocks.

What do you think happened here? Should Barcelona recieve a rework like Lyon or Linz? I know this is nitpicking, but imo ATS 2 is so much better at depicting big cities, even with the limitations of scale and the enigine.

[gallagher4005]

It's ATS, not ATS2.
Just saying.

[Wolfgang]

These big trucks are generally not allowed into these other parts of the city. There is a reason as to why you aren't seeing things like the Eiffel Tower or the Colosseum. Because trucks are not allowed to drive there.

[DragonZee]

Originally posted by Wolfgang:

These big trucks are generally not allowed into these other parts of the city. There is a reason as to why you aren't seeing things like the Eiffel Tower or the Colosseum. Because trucks are not allowed to drive there.

Cool, but they still could've shown it in the distance, the entire north-eastern part of the city feels empty.

[lee_bobbins]

my first garage was in Paris, but no eiffel tower! *sad eyes* Also, unless i missed it, there are no canals in venice, it looked like any other random small city.

[Ryu]

Originally posted by lee_bobbins:

my first garage was in Paris, but no eiffel tower! *sad eyes* Also, unless i missed it, there are no canals in venice, it looked like any other random small city.

Don't know if you've been there, but trucks (and most traffic) don't ever get anywhere near the canals in Venice. ;)

[davmorm]

I've been to Barcelona many times in real life and I'm pretty satisfied with the ingame version. It's true that you basically don't see anything of the northern part of the city, but the industrial Zona Franca, the Port Vell, the Montjüic Mountain and the El Prat Airport are pretty well made. The bypassing AP-7 is also rather accurate to real life. For what the game scale allows, I think Barcelona's pretty good. At least I like it more than the DLC rendition of Madrid, which is missing the Cuatro Torres skyscrapers.

[DragonZee]

Fair.

Then again, I've seen some opinions about Iberia with which I can agree - there's a heavy focus on highways and industrial zones, even the viewpoints seem to show some pretty boring spaces instead of landmarks or landscapes. It's still an enjoyable ride (especially Portugal or North), but when compared to ATS or reworked Austria it can get really boring in the longer runs... It seems like the development team had a different core philosophy about how they want to depict this region (more "what a trucker sees" focus?). Just wanted to know if it's only my opinion or a general one.

[Wolfgang]

Originally posted by DragonZee:

Fair.

Then again, I've seen some opinions about Iberia with which I can agree - there's a heavy focus on highways and industrial zones, even the viewpoints seem to show some pretty boring spaces instead of landmarks or landscapes. It's still an enjoyable ride (especially Portugal or North), but when compared to ATS or reworked Austria it can get really boring in the longer runs... It seems like the development team had a different core philosophy about how they want to depict this region (more "what a trucker sees" focus?). Just wanted to know if it's only my opinion or a general one.

They have entirely different teams working on ETS2 and ATS. And for every game they have multiple different teams for map DLCs and reworks.

[lee_bobbins]

Originally posted by ~{DCMT}~ Ryu:

Originally posted by lee_bobbins:

my first garage was in Paris, but no eiffel tower! *sad eyes* Also, unless i missed it, there are no canals in venice, it looked like any other random small city.

Don't know if you've been there, but trucks (and most traffic) don't ever get anywhere near the canals in Venice. ;)

without the landmarks or things the city is known for, it all looks so same-same and gets kinda boring tbf. I was also surprised that none of the buildings had balconies or flowers on them, just... not a lot of detail.

[davmorm]

Originally posted by DragonZee:

Fair.

Then again, I've seen some opinions about Iberia with which I can agree - there's a heavy focus on highways and industrial zones, even the viewpoints seem to show some pretty boring spaces instead of landmarks or landscapes. It's still an enjoyable ride (especially Portugal or North), but when compared to ATS or reworked Austria it can get really boring in the longer runs... It seems like the development team had a different core philosophy about how they want to depict this region (more "what a trucker sees" focus?). Just wanted to know if it's only my opinion or a general one.

To be fair, in real life truckers usually visit industrial areas more frequently than touristic landmarks, so it's to be expected that the in game cities will focus on industrial estates rather than city centers. And I say this when I actually prefer landmarks and landscapes rather than companies. But not all the players are the same and there's many people who cares more for new companies and prefabs.

In general I think the Iberia DLC is pretty good, most of the main roads are included and the cities are all pretty accurate to real life. What I only miss is more elevation changes and a third connection between France and Spain through the Pyrenees, such as the E7 between Pau and Zaragoza. The lack of roads in that area leaves an empty gap in the map bigger than Switzerland. It'd be nice if some day we could see some of the Pyrenees in the game, since after the Alps they are the second most important mountain range that is fully in Europe.

[DragonZee]

Originally posted by davmorm:

To be fair, in real life truckers usually visit industrial areas more frequently than touristic landmarks, so it's to be expected that the in game cities will focus on industrial estates rather than city centers. And I say this when I actually prefer landmarks and landscapes rather than companies. But not all the players are the same and there's many people who cares more for new companies and prefabs.

I would be ok with this if not for the fact that most of the time they actually do put an emphasis on "landscapes" and "landmarks". Heck in ATS they even enable truck traffic on routes that aren't supposed to enable truck traffic in RL in the first place (ex. Crater Lake NP), just so players can see some stunning landmarks while traveling virtually. I know it's supposed to be a truck sim first and foremost, but why take away the fun of exploring some nice places if you can add it? I think ATS team is generally more "fun while exploring" oriented. But yeah, guess there really might be a case of a differently focused team with Iberia DLC, it seems like the more "authentic truckers expierience" (following industrial zones more then tourist spots) was the focus here.

Originally posted by davmorm:

What I only miss is more elevation changes and a third connection between France and Spain through the Pyrenees, such as the E7 between Pau and Zaragoza. The lack of roads in that area leaves an empty gap in the map bigger than Switzerland. It'd be nice if some day we could see some of the Pyrenees in the game, since after the Alps they are the second most important mountain range that is fully in Europe.

Yeah that is a bummer as it stands out like a sore thumb. Not to mention the road itself would probably provide some nice view or even a challange (like the Austria road).

[davmorm]

Originally posted by DragonZee:

I would be ok with this if not for the fact that most of the time they actually do put an emphasis on "landscapes" and "landmarks". Heck in ATS they even enable truck traffic on routes that aren't supposed to enable truck traffic in RL in the first place (ex. Crater Lake NP), just so players can see some stunning landmarks while traveling virtually. I know it's supposed to be a truck sim first and foremost, but why take away the fun of exploring some nice places if you can add it? I think ATS team is generally more "fun while exploring" oriented. But yeah, guess there really might be a case of a differently focused team with Iberia DLC, it seems like the more "authentic truckers expierience" (following industrial zones more then tourist spots) was the focus here.

I agree that ATS is more focused in landmarks and landscapes than ETS2, but I believe that's also infulenced by how the American and European road networks compare in real life. Take the cultural sites of interest: in Europe most of them are centuries of years old and are located in the historic city centers, whose narrow streets are seldomly accessible by trucks. In America there are not many old monuments and many of the cultural attractions are sites like bridges, old city halls, water towers, memorials and odd things like "The World's Biggest Thermometer". In many times these places are right next to main roads. American Towns are more recent and most of the streets, organized in grids, are wide and accessible to trucks.

Then there are the natural landmarks and landscapes: in Europe many of the conservation areas such as National Parks are pretty small and in most cases don't allow motorized traffic inside the protected perimeter. In the states, in contrast, National Parks and National Forests can cover very large areas and several of them have roads traversing their interior. Europe is also more densely populated and urbanized than most of the United States, so places in Europe have a higher possibility to be ignored in the game than in America.

These are the reasons I think ATS allows for more sightseeing than ETS2. Fortunately, I think the ETS2 map teams are starting to show more touristic landmarks with the Austria rebuild, since the scenic Grossglockner High Alpine Road is also closed to truckl¡ traffic in real life. I also think ATS will have more difficulty in including landmarks when mappers get to the more densely populated eastern states.

[DragonZee]

Originally posted by davmorm:

Fortunately, I think the ETS2 map teams are starting to show more touristic landmarks with the Austria rebuild, since the scenic Grossglockner High Alpine Road is also closed to truckl¡ traffic in real life. I also think ATS will have more difficulty in including landmarks when mappers get to the more densely populated eastern states.

You are right about USA, there is even this so called "road trip" social and cultural practice which the roads there are built around, so that's why some many "places of interest" are near roads. Still I feel like there's more "love" overall in ATS (all those little touches like scenes where cops are catching bad guys in the middle of a town, or people taking photos in popular spots etc, not to mention more varied and detailed models), maybe becasue SCS did start with USA based sims so there's this "soft spot" for ATS, even when ETS 2 is their "flagship".

I was blown away by the Austria rework though, I would say it is similar to ATS in this regard, it's one of their greatest work to date. I think Road to the Black Sea also strikes a good balance between "sightseeing" (Bran Castle, Danaube Valley etc) and interesting cityscapes like Istanbul which does not cover the historic centre, but is still very interesting becasue the roads take you through some nice high-rise disctricts and not almost only the environs - actually I was hoping Barcelona and Madrid will be the same in this regard. Or let's even take the Lyon rework which takes you through the strict city centre. Iberia while fun to travel in it's own regard does feel a bit too much like "mostly highways and storage areas" (with some good exceptions ofc) as far as road networks go. They can do better... and I really hope Balkans will be interesting in this regard.

[Wille Wilse]

As a swede I obviously have more experience of landmarks here in Sweden and they have succeeded very well with that. The industrial area of Stockholm is located at the right spot, only missing a gas station after that roundabout going ahead to where the garage is located.
Also the marina on Lilla Essingen is spot on - there is a private marina there on that location. Even the small bridge from the marina back up on the E4 going south via Stora Essingen is there too. (I live in that area :) )

[Penqvino]

I'm dissapointed with northern germany, mainly that part what would be Mecklenburg Western Pomerania. That would be between Kiel and Szczecin, north of Berlin. Can't remember what it looked like before the reworks as it was the first reworked region in the game. But it just has way too much hills, which also looking too high. This is a region with almost no hill, not a single mountain and over 2500 Lakes. Granted, those are mostly small lakes and wouldn't even count as a lake in Sweden or Finland if you combine all the lakes, but one drop of water in that whole region for all the lakes?