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Why are roads so wide in ETS2 & ATS?


FawnPrince

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Hello everyone,

 

As a decently experienced player, I tend to seek more challenging and realistic environments. One thing that has always bugged me down is the width of roads. You can almost fit two trucks in one lane! Quite unrealistic for European road standards.

I know what you are going to answer to my question: 'It would be unplayable for some players.' (Notably newer players who struggle to stay in their lane). But that is simply an assumption. So, in order to obtain a clearer answer for my question, I have made a survey with a couple of questions which won't take more than 3 minutes to complete. I promise!

 

The data gathered from your answers will not only allow me to get a better answer to my question, but also understand the needs of the community around the width of the roads. If the knowledge extracted from this survey happens to highlight a need for tighter roads, I will make more research in order to make a well structured and documented suggestion on the official SCS forum using the data of the survey.

You will be able to view the result after answering the survey. It is anonymous, yes, despite the fact it asks about your e-mail address, it is just to make sure you don't answer multiple times.

 

The link to the survey: https://forms.gle/PQjRFNKjV8wgqUqw7

 

Thank you for your precious time, have a nice day.

 

Edit: Time is up! The results are here and were indeed in favour of tighter roads. You can click on the link above to see the raw data.

 

I have also spent the week working on the suggestion for tighter roads that uses the data from the survey. On this thread, you will be able to see the entire case on tight roads in ETS2. From the arguments, to an actual maquette of a DLC that could contain tighter roads along with all its benefits for SCS and the community..

https://forum.scssoft.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=287159

 

Thanks again for the support from each of you!

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I always enjoyed driving tighter roads on ETS 2, sadly there aren't that many and most of them aren't really that tight either.

Luckily promods is way better in this regard and has so many interesting, challenging and cool roads to drive on.

I would appreciate if they were to add roads like those can be found in promods (or other map mods) into the base game.

 

I would also really welcome a collaboration between the Promods team and the SCS team.

Many other game studios/developers have brought community made content into the base game or even teamed up with them.

 

Really looking forward to how SCS, ETS 2 and ATS will evolve and what they will be like in the future.

Maybe it won't be continental but global? Who knows.^^

 

Best Regards

 

Zysto

Have a nice day!

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Are we talking about city streets and highways too, or just 2-lane roads?

In case of ETS2 highways, I don't have a feeling, they are too unrealistic, standard highway lane width should be at least 3,5m, european trucks are about 2,5m wide, minus the mirrors.

Of course, 2-lane roads could use more variety, instead of uniformly wide lanes, we have now, still I don't have the feeling, they are so wide you coud fit 2 trucks in one lane, unless you utilize hard shoulder, which I think is too generous for most roads.

We could get more roads with very narrow, or completely absent hard shoulder, like you can find in promods.

 

Btw, that picture in the survey is not the best representative sample, there could be hard shoulder, while the lines are missing, you should choose something more typical, than road without markings. Last 2 questions, you can mark all answers.

 

Oh, completerly forgot about AI, remember, this is singleplayer game. Have you tried driving up to Honningsvåg / Nordkapp in promods singleplayer with AI traffic. Better turn off fines, because rocks are smarter than AI traffic, at least rocks are completely still, and can be avoided. Or the simple thing that pisses me off in ATS - you are trying to make left turn on some 2-lane city street, but AI cars coming from your left and turning right are going so freaking wide, it is impossible not to smash into them with your trailer.

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I have made an answer for each comment, so find the one where you are tagged.

 

 

10 hours ago, Zysto said:

I would also really welcome a collaboration between the Promods team and the SCS team.

@Zysto This kind of collaboration would be a game changer. The two could really complement each other just like some sort of symbiosis.


 

 

Thanks for bringing in the link @TheCanadianTrucker. The reason given in the blog post was to be expected... However, it was back in 2011. More than 9 years ago. The game has evolved, the community along with it, and ETS2 back then was just a conglomerate between UK Truck Simulator, German Truck Simulator, and some pieces of land around these two countries. Today, we have 6 map expansions that have steadily increased in quality since the Going East DLC. Along with better, more detailed and faithful maps, we have had more challenges presented to us. For example: The twisty Norwegian roads, the remote areas to access some quarries in Italy, the HCT doubles in Finland, the intricate road layout of Istanbul... I, personally, have rejoiced over these new challenges, and hope for the same regarding the community.

Now, I think that ETS2 should evolve towards something new, with a newer kind of challenge and a new scale for some places, using tighter roads that feel more remote or city-like. And to do that, we need to find a middle ground that will satisfy both the drivers that want a new challenge with tight roads and drivers with difficulties to stay between the lines which are mostly newer players.

In order to do that, I’ve made the survey so that we can see what most people think, along with ideas on how to implement tight roads. The ultimate goal is to bring tighter roads in ETS2 while satisfying most or all players, and of course, SCS (financially).

On the survey, you will find a proposition for a second stage map expansion which would focus on tighter and more faithful roads. This idea comes along with the idea of satisfying most players. Because newer, struggling players, with less initial interest in the game tend to only buy the base game, it would keep them away from these frustrating tight roads, until they get better and more interested in challenges. On top of that, this could give a new opportunity for SCS to release more premium content for the future, ranging form the map extension, to city hyper center designed trailers or rigids? 

 

That was a long speech, but I hope this brought something useful to the discussion.

 

 

 

@Granite, I am mostly talking about city roads, country roads, field paths or private paths. I agree that highways are mostly acceptable, but I have seen extremely tight lanes on city highways (Around Paris notably, see attached picture).

Thanks for pointing at the AI. It is undoubtedly dated for 2020 standards and will, without a doubt struggle and frustrate players even more with tight roads. However, there are some quick fixes and AI mechanics that already exist in the game like or should be relatively easy to implement:

Way less traffic on tight roads and / or only cars without trailers so that they don’t interfere with each other. This idea could be applied in remote areas of the countryside or city hyper centers.

If only cars can drive in a certain place, it means that their predefined paths on the map can be adapted to be more realistic.

If there are choke points or chicanes, basic priority rules are applied, they just have to be clear with signs so the player isn’t too confused.

Vehicles can already move over the side of their lane. You can see this while transporting an oversize cargo. This could be applied on tight roads where only one car and the player can fit.

If all these aren’t enough, the size of the player’s truck might need to be decreased. Perhaps rigids will have their importance?

 

Thanks for reading, hope I brought something useful.

Sans titre-1@0,5x.jpg

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Update: Time is up! The results are here and were indeed in favour of tighter roads. You can click here to see the raw data.

 

I have also spent the week working on the suggestion for tighter roads that uses the data from the survey. On this thread, you will be able to see the entire case on tight roads in ETS2. From the arguments, to an actual maquette of a DLC that could contain tighter roads along with all its benefits for SCS and the community...

 

Thanks again for the support from each of you!

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