Map Scale will be a problem in the East

[Space King]

I was looking at Google Maps and thinking that the scale of the map is going to become problematic once they get closer to the east coast. Right now they are able to get away with the relatively small scale because it still takes enough time to drive across states for them to feel big, and for the drives to feel long--basically it establishes an effective illusion of size despite actually being pretty small.... But what will happen when they get to states like Maryland, Delaware, and Rhode Island? Those states will only take like 3-5 minutes to drive through, max. It will completely demolish any illusion of scale and break the immersion. At the very least, it will feel off.

I love that they are expanding eastward, but man... I think they "scaled" themselves into a corner and it's going to get problematic as they push further east.

[Oz Gaming]

When ATS was released back in 2016 the map scale used to be in 1:35 scale. If i remember rightly it was increased to 1:20 scale later that year..

[TransylScania V8]

at the very least you have brought up an interesting point

[Wolfgang]

We will see. I'm sure SCS has some ideas regarding that.

[MagnusA]

Europe is quite dense and contains some small countries. ETS2 map scale is 1:19, I think.

[MirkoC407]

The same will happen as in ETS2 when you are passing Slovenia, Montenegro, Kosovo or Luxemburg - although Luxemburg is a bad example, despite being the by far smallest country in the game as it is far outdated and from the original game release looking awful.

It will be only 1 or 2 cities and indeed you will be through pretty fast, like in 2 minutes - a real I-95 passage through RI will also take only 40 minutes unless there is a traffic jam. A little more than the trip from Dallas to Fort Worth, which is reasonable.
Having not been to the West but to the Seaboard already real life, it is somewhat dense up there and I was surprised how short the trip from Philly to DC eventually was. Especially considering it is 70 mph maximum there and I'm from the land of unlimited speeds. So it is not completely off if trips feel short there.

[Dark & Realistic™ Nessie]

Not really an issue if they keep doing what they're already doing: choose only one city or road out of about other 400 available, preferable those where trucks are allowed. Nearby towns are joined together with cities that are named on map.

The difference will be its look only, like a neverending city instead of a road in the middle of nowhere connecting cities.

[hackintoshchap]

The whole map would never get completed if you used a lesser scale. It would just be to big a project to give any detail in the map and DLC prices would need to be significantly more expensive which would make the game less popular and more niche.

Regardless, there has to be some level of compromise and that means that a lot of real cities will not make it into the game.

You have to realize that some compromise needs to be applied with any scaled map. Its pretty simple to understand really. Much of Europe has been made in the same way.

[GamerXT]

The smaller areas shall perhaps be part of one map DLC, if I was to guess.

And they hinted that the technology used for the winter village, could be used elsewhere. Although probably wouldn't be wise to use for larger scales of some entire maps, since the timescales would be odd if compared to other places.

Yet maybe could still be used for cities and towns if possible, since that would free up space while being believable.

[Jdwarfer]

What about ETS2 about Luxemburg? Monaco, Andorre lol
SCS sure thought about that when switching to 1:20. It would be stupid if suddenly, when making the smaller states, they realise it's too small xD

[Sandhill]

Originally posted by MirkoC407:

The same will happen as in ETS2 when you are passing Slovenia, Montenegro, Kosovo or Luxemburg

This
You drive the Benelux countries in just a few minutes, and I'd guess that the smaller
East coast states will be similar, some with only one city, some with two or even three, but not much ground in total.

[Jdwarfer]

Considering the time needed to build the map, I wouldn't ask for more. It's good as it is. I'm not that old but I don't want to wait for a dozen years to get the map complete xD

[Creamy Mints]

To be fair, if you come into delaware from the Delaware Memorial Bridge heading south on I 95, it really is like a 10 minute trip into Maryland. Following I95 down, its about 2 hours to get through it to DC from the Delaware Line. these are all IRL times, yeah its gonna be quick, but the I95 Corridor is jam packed with industry. Whats going to be interesting is how they decide they want to lay out NYC, Newark, Elizabeth, Jersey City. All of which have a metric ton of industry, and ports. Let alone setup major routes like I 95, I 78, the Gothels, The Verrazano, Staten island, The OuterBridge, the GW, and White stones, and Throgs Neck Bridges ETC. Will they even bother with Long Island? These are the real issues that have me concerned about the North East.

Maryland is surprisingly big. Delaware is long, not wide, same with NJ. Conn, RI, NH, Vermont same as well. Long not wide. Mass? Wide not long. Maine.... is Maine.

[Geauxboy]

I assumed Staten Island would just be a tiny non navigable area you would see when going to/from Brooklyn/Jersey. They may include somewhere like Jamaica and call that Long Island.

[jeremyj621]

They'll have to exaggerate distances between cities that are close together as they've done in the game already. In Montana, for example, the distance between Billings and Laurel IRL is less than 20 miles. In the game, it's 50.

[MisterElm]

I wonder if they could gradually change the scale as you approach the areas too. Make it so subtle you don't really notice....

Or go 18 Wheeler arcade game where you do NY-Key West in 68 seconds :D