Development on version 1.x (Current Map Improvements)

[Nico]

I hate it now because it's hard to see what is written on the higway signs like this

[tkk7406]

people didn't want their houses to be visible in the internet for everybody

I'm really disappointed in the way the average German feels so paranoid about these technologies.

In the truth it´s only a Little Group who thinking like that.

But in Germany you had to make it right, for EVERYBODY. That´s our Problem.

It's a shame really.

[getrixx]

We had the same discussions in Luxembourg. End of last year Streetview went finally online.
With pictures taken in 2008-2009, half a decade ago.

[tkk7406]

We had the same discussions in Luxembourg. End of last year Streetview went finally online.
With pictures taken in 2008-2009, half a decade ago.

Same for Greece. It started last year too. But it hasn't done the whole country; only the mainland and some big islands.

[M4rkus]

I want to note something on the choice of new cities in Germany. In my opinion, the map should be more or less representative of the importance of a country's cities. At the Autobahn Rebuilding Project this seems not always to be the case. In particular, I'm referring to Oberhausen instead of Essen (country rank #9 by inhabitants) and to Bad Oeynhausen (#192). I assume the appearance of Bad Oeynhausen as full city might have to do with Porta Westfalica (surprise? ) – still, to have it as a full city feels a bit strange. There are so many bigger cities even in North-Rhine Westfalia that don't have companies and garages. So what I want to bring across is that I feel for releases after 1.9 it should be better planned which cities to be included as full cities and which not. So here's a concept list of cities I consider to be appropriate and with reasons.

Please note that I don't ask you to build any of them, it's more a compilation of information. I'm aware that you might build even none of them. However, if there are plans to add cities, I think you should do it with a concept in mind. Surely, it's a bit subjective but I'm giving reasons as well

Essen: Biggest German city missing in-game and one of the biggest of current in-game Europe. I said it before, but for completeness of this list I repeat myself. It is one of the most important Ruhr cities and in my opinion even more important than Duisburg (#15) and maybe even Dortmund (#8). It is way bigger than Oberhausen (#34).
Wiesbaden/Mainz: Capitals of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate. The latter one does not have any cities in-game. Could be nicely built as double city on both sides of the Main.
Potsdam: Same goes for Potsdam. Brandenburg is missing a city and Potsdam may add to Berlin area and a destination to Berliner Ring A10 autobahn. I would not include any other city of Brandenburg, though.
Koblenz: Not a very large city (#73) but one of the biggest in Rhineland-Palatinate and relatively central. To include Rhineland-Palatinate, Trier might be an option as well. I wouldn't include both, though (and I doubt, you would do that ).
Saarbrucken: Missing capital of Saarland. Also this Bundesland does not have a city in-game yet. Furthermore, the whole region seem to lack in-game infrastructure. If some was added, it might be garnished with cities, too. This is Koblenz-Trier-Saarbrucken category.
Augsburg: If there are additional cities planned in Bavaria, I would vote for Augsburg. It's #3 in Bavaria and capital of Swabian district in Bavaria. If you add it, you had all three Bavarian capitals (Nuremberg, Munich und Augsburg). Regensburg would be an option as well but for given reasons I'd prefer Augsburg.
Schwerin: Missing capital of Mecklenburg Western Pomerania. However, Rostock is included so this has lower priority than the other capitals in my opinion.
Stralsund: Not very big town in Mecklenburg Western Pomeria yet the gate to Rügen island and also with quite scenic architecture. If Rügen is included, Stralsund might be considered.
Freiberg or Heidelberg: Important cities in Baden-Wurttemberg with the latter one being a cliché city for tourism. Maybe nice for Americans to have it in-game. I would prefer one of those over Karlsruhe which might be also an option, though. These aren't of high priority, in my opinion, considering that Baden-Wurttemberg has two cities already.
Münster, Paderborn, Aachen or something: Might be nice, however, North-Rhine Westphalia has quite some cities so far.

I would also like to see Lübeck but I know that due to low space it will be a scenery town only and I think that's alright. I wouldn't consider Braunschweig and Wolfsburg to be very interesting, however, if there were specific deliveries (car industry and VW) they could be an option. It would be nice to have a city in every Bundesland. So far, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland and Brandenburg are missing cities. The other ones all have one city at least.

[grega]

I can agree with you M4arkus, but i think that because of the scale, wich kills all of us mappers, makes your plans little bit beyond the reach. And also, I think that then the Germany would be overcrowded with cities, and not left much for rest of the scenery :/ But yes, your ideas sound good for me

[M4rkus]

I didn't intend to say that I want all these cities to be built. Which can be found in my post

Please note that I don't ask you to build any of them, it's more a compilation of information. I'm aware that you might build even none of them. However, if there are plans to add cities, I think you should do it with a concept in mind.

[ETS2-User]

Totally agree with you! And if we look at maps like the Reisproject or Harry's map for GTS (although by TSM-founder and therefore of the same quality) we see that it's possible

[MandelSoft]

Let me go down the list of suggested new cities:

• Aachen: too close to Liège. Doesn't fit at all.
• Augsburg: probably this city will not be implemented in favour of other cities. We were thinking about implementing Regensburg, Ulm and Würzburg. For all these cities, there is plenty of space. We have not reached that area yet in the ARP.
• Bad Oeynhausen: This is a one-company city. On the map, it's not much. However, it is something characteristic on the BAB30, and that's why we implemented it. Bad Oeynhausen also connects to a few country roads on the map.
• Essen: this is a hard one, but unfortunately does not fit. TSM may have implemented it on their map, but in their map, Dortmund is 40 kilometers too far east. In that scenario, you can easily fit more cities in the Ruhr area, but the entire area will be highly disformed. And we don't want that. Essen may be large, but it's competing for space. Furthermore, on signs Oberhausen is oddly enough more present than Essen, especially from the Autobahns we have built in the ARP. For such a large city, Essen is not well signed in Real Life Germany, which does gave us the impression in the design stage of the ARP that this city was (seemingly) less important than Oberhausen. If you compare it to the Netherlands: there is no room to fit the city of Den Haag (#3) and Utrecht (#4) will be a hard fit. However, we do have Groningen (#7), IJmuiden (#52) and Europoort (no inhabitants at all) on the map. Finally, implementing Essen at this stage would require a huge amount of work on a part of the map that already looks very good. Some connections would make less sense when Essen is implemented at this stage. Therefore, we are keeping Oberhausen, despite the fact that Essen is larger.
• Heidelberg: too close to Mannheim.
• Karlsruhe: either this city or Freiburg im Breisgau will be implemented. Personally, I'd opt for Karlsruhe.
• Koblenz: we have it in our plans. We have not reached that area yet in the ARP.
• Mainz/Wiesbaden: could be considered, but I'm afraid it might be too close to Frankfurt. We have not reached that area yet in the ARP.
• Münster: too close to Osnabrück
• Lübeck: might be possible to add one company there. However, this will not be done in 1.9, but Lübeck will have quite a presence on the new signage
• Paderborn: under consideration, but not for 1.9. Actually, FH-Fahrer did add this city in his own map, but we didn't have the time to implement it yet.
• Potsdam: the area within the Berlin Ring road is really smal. Berlin already overlaps with Potsdam, so it doesn't fit.
• Saarbrucken: definitely on the wish list! We haven't reached that area yet.
• Schwerin: we have not considered that one yet. Could be implemented along-side of a full re-fit of the BAB24 in a next version of the ARP.
• Stralsund: a connection to Stralsund is made in the ARP, but Stralsund itself is not present yet. We do consider implementing this city.
• Trier: Too close to Luxembourg, but could be considered as a scenery city if we make an eastern connection towards Luxembourg.
• Wolfsburg: Could be considered, but it's quite close to both Magdeburg and Hannover. There's not an awful lot of space there on the map.

Best,
MandelSoft

[tkk7406]

MandelSoft, you forgot about Freiburg. And in any case, I'd like to see Bonn on the map. It has around the same distance from Cologne as Dusseldorf does, so it will stand out on the map, and it's an important city. Just a suggestion.