Weather, Seasons, and Weather Events

[Lantea]

Its great to see another US state ready for release, but SCS really needs to work on and improve the weather system in the game, so we get more than rain and sunshine. We especially need snow, seasons, and weather events.

There need to be weather events like tornadoes, hurricanes, big hail, flash floods, etc. to make it a more realistic representation of real world. You could then have detours around washed out roads, damaged towns, snowed in mountain passes, etc.... once the system is in place the events could be automatically generated same as with current car accident scenes, just a lot more complex.

This is way overdue and people have been asking SCS to improve the weather system for years as well as implement seasons (spring, summer, winter, fall), and have the in-game world change accordingly; so I really hope this is something that is well underway internally, and I would love to hear what SCS has planned in this area for the future, because as it is now the game is slowly falling behind in the immersion aspects and being a true simulator that recreates real world road conditions.

[Wolfgang]

That all takes a ton of time and work to do. Unlike some mods you can not have snow in WA while also having it in FL. That is not a thing that really happens. So you need a ton of more assets and a lot of work on the boundaries to make them not harsh but smooth.

[Lantea]

Originally posted by Wolfgang:

That all takes a ton of time and work to do. Unlike some mods you can not have snow in WA while also having it in FL. That is not a thing that really happens. So you need a ton of more assets and a lot of work on the boundaries to make them not harsh but smooth.

Sure it takes a lot of work, I never said its easy, but its also a lot of work doing each new state, or getting a new truck into the game, etc.
Ultimately as a developer you have to decide what sort of game you want, and if you are after a high quality simulator, sooner or later you will need to implement better representation of real world weather systems and seasons.

ETS2 is out for 11 years (ATS for 7 years), and the weather system has largely remained the same, apart from some visual improvements. I think its well overdue for this archaic approach to weather/seasons to get a major upgrade, especially if SCS wants to continue releasing new states and content for the next 10+ years.

New states/countries, new trucks, new trailers are all great and I look forward to getting them all, but the key underlying systems are just as important and need to advance with the times as well.

[Wolfgang]

Originally posted by Lantea:

Originally posted by Wolfgang:

That all takes a ton of time and work to do. Unlike some mods you can not have snow in WA while also having it in FL. That is not a thing that really happens. So you need a ton of more assets and a lot of work on the boundaries to make them not harsh but smooth.

Sure it takes a lot of work, I never said its easy, but its also a lot of work doing each new state, or getting a new truck into the game, etc.
Ultimately as a developer you have to decide what sort of game you want, and if you are after a high quality simulator, sooner or later you will need to implement better representation of real world weather systems and seasons.

ETS2 is out for 11 years (ATS for 7 years), and the weather system has largely remained the same, apart from some visual improvements. I think its well overdue for this archaic approach to weather/seasons to get a major upgrade, especially if SCS wants to continue releasing new states and content for the next 10+ years.

New states/countries, new trucks, new trailers are all great and I look forward to getting them all, but the key underlying systems are just as important and need to advance with the times as well.

Here is the thing: Making a map (and the new assets that come with it) for the one fixed season in the game is easier than to do it for every season and transition. That way they can get things done faster and focus on this when all the assets are done. Which in sum will be faster than doing the whole season thing now and applying this to the new maps as well.

[BlueSixMuze]

Originally posted by Lantea:

Originally posted by Wolfgang:

That all takes a ton of time and work to do. Unlike some mods you can not have snow in WA while also having it in FL. That is not a thing that really happens. So you need a ton of more assets and a lot of work on the boundaries to make them not harsh but smooth.

Sure it takes a lot of work, I never said its easy, but its also a lot of work doing each new state, or getting a new truck into the game, etc.
Ultimately as a developer you have to decide what sort of game you want, and if you are after a high quality simulator, sooner or later you will need to implement better representation of real world weather systems and seasons.

ETS2 is out for 11 years (ATS for 7 years), and the weather system has largely remained the same, apart from some visual improvements. I think its well overdue for this archaic approach to weather/seasons to get a major upgrade, especially if SCS wants to continue releasing new states and content for the next 10+ years.

New states/countries, new trucks, new trailers are all great and I look forward to getting them all, but the key underlying systems are just as important and need to advance with the times as well.

I believe that ATS is always Summer-Time and won't be getting seasons ever. This question comes up a lot since I've browsed these forums in the past, but it's a most requested feature that already has been answered.

I think it would require them redoing the entire engine running the game for just that one feature.

Anyways someone else that knows more than me can chime in on the topic.

[GamerXT]

Originally posted by Lantea:

You could then have detours around washed out roads, damaged towns, snowed in mountain passes, etc....

The problem with some of that is it would keep appearing in the same places.

And there`s already detours in the game, which again can keep appearing in the same places, like that highway section in Sacramento which confuses the auto navigation system

[Lantea]

Originally posted by gamerXT3:

The problem with some of that is it would keep appearing in the same places.
........

That would entirely depend on how they implement and develop such a weather damage detour system.

[Vernon]

I would like to see snow/seasons, but not any of the other stuff.

[Lantea]

Originally posted by nonreV:

I would like to see snow/seasons, but not any of the other stuff.

Snow alone would be a huge improvement.

[Vernon]

Originally posted by Lantea:

Originally posted by nonreV:

I would like to see snow/seasons, but not any of the other stuff.

Snow alone would be a huge improvement.

Agreed. I lived in Colorado for a short time, during winter. Kinda weird to drive through and never see snow in the game.

[Vernon]

Originally posted by luZk:

Originally posted by nonreV:

Agreed. I lived in Colorado for a short time, during winter. Kinda weird to drive through and never see snow in the game.

There is a snow mod, I use it every december.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2691599621

https://grimesmods.wordpress.com/2017/05/04/frosty-winter-weather-mod-ats/

Ive seen that mod, just havent used it yet. My concern with it, do states like California, Nevada, etc.... get covered in snow too? If so, that kinda defeats the simulator purpose.

[Wolfgang]

Originally posted by nonreV:

Originally posted by luZk:

There is a snow mod, I use it every december.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2691599621

https://grimesmods.wordpress.com/2017/05/04/frosty-winter-weather-mod-ats/

Ive seen that mod, just havent used it yet. My concern with it, do states like California, Nevada, etc.... get covered in snow too? If so, that kinda defeats the simulator purpose.

Yes, they do. It is snow everywhere because it changes assets.

[Vernon]

Originally posted by Wolfgang:

Originally posted by nonreV:

Ive seen that mod, just havent used it yet. My concern with it, do states like California, Nevada, etc.... get covered in snow too? If so, that kinda defeats the simulator purpose.

Yes, they do. It is snow everywhere because it changes assets.

Which is what I assumed and the reason I havent used it yet. Maybe Ill check it out in a few months when winter hits. But I dunno. Dont like the idea of snow in states that dont usually see any significant snow accumulation.

[GamerXT]

Originally posted by Lantea:

That would entirely depend on how they implement and develop such a weather damage detour system.

It isnt like there`s a million roads in the game to make it more varied, although I guess if the frequency was sort of low, then would be more realistic.

[tdjpack]

I would love every MOD to be SCS as then updates wouldn't wipe MODs out. There are how many MODDERs doing how many MODs, that should tell you something on the work required. Price would then become the big complaint. $60 to $80 for a game with an end or installments for a game without end. ATS and ETS2 for me.

[TwinShadow]

Mods are third party, nothing to do with SCS Software. If you use mods, it is your responsibility to keep up-to-date with them. If you want official "mods" from SCS, buy the DLC they release for additional content.