Balkans Development

[mads1153]

This is from #developments-news in ProMods Community Discord server (message made by MandelSoft):

The Western Balkans DLC has been released! We get a few common questions about it:

Will ProMods work when I install the Western Balkans DLC?
Yes, it will work. However, you will see no content from the DLC at this time in ProMods 2.67, but it should work without problems.

Do I need to install the Western Balkans DLC right now?
No. We'll notify you here when a new release will require it.

How long will it take to merge the DLC into ProMods
Probably months. Don't expect anything soon.

[ScuL]

The answer is here viewtopic.php?p=352834#p352834

[DeadDave]

Thanks for the info.

I am going to forego the DLC and stay with PM 2.67. I think your treatment of London and Berlin alone is enough to keep PM over the existing vanilla ETS2.

[BarrGDA]

Noticed people opted for 2.67, probably not to hurt anyone's feelings. I for one, have chosen NOT to pick ProMods and test the West Balkans area, in preparation for objective feedback to the team. It might get lost, I hope it does not.

I read some negative things like "lack of Slavonski Brod", "only four towns in Serbia", that "roads aren't even real and windy" - I take all this criticism with a pinch of salt and do not agree with it so far

Positives
all of the route from Austria to Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Mostar, Sarajevo, Osijek with Vukovar as a scenery town and Belgrade - so far.
The amount of detail - advertising space on bridge fencing, advertising in different languages, signage in Cyrillic in Serbia etc.
Mosques in Bosnia, and the differing border crossings - large in Croatia and Serbia, small and compact in Bosnia.
Old AI cars (they are probably there to stay, ProMods rarely messes with AI traffic unless it involves service vehicles).

Very pleased so far with the northern part at the very least. Rural parts of Bosnia remind me of the rural parts of Poland and Slovakia.

I propose that all of the DLC is kept, models are purposefully made for the DLC, so I don't think with all due respect that ProMods can replicate these areas better. Not from what I've seen so far, and I've not even scratched the surface. I'd compare it to the quality of Austria, just two pegs better. Instead, I suggest that missing areas are added and reworked instead - for example:

Changes/reworks/negatives
Pula in Istria missing
Slavonski Brod gets omitted, unless you can work magic in such a tight space. The A3 feels like a real highway with all the custom made service stations, something so rare ...
Rijeka is lovely, the only downside is that Cellar isn't an accessible company
Add companies and their definitions in Uzice as the quarry is too far away from Kragujevac anyway
Add Cacak, southern Serbia looks very empty, that's because it does seem very rural IRL. Maybe a road connecting to Pristina south of it.
Keep all the existing cities for achievement purposes
Bring back the city definition for Pancevo and expand it from a scenery town to one/two company town
Montenegrin coast, Dubrovnik, Bar etc missing
Villco in Zagreb is actually an IKA Bohag

Thanks, regards

[KTeo]

@BarrGDA i'm glad to see someone not picking only negative things

[Velrond]

@BarrGDA The things they got right are really well made. However there are a lot of issues at least for me since i am from Serbia and know a lot of the roads that i feel should be in the game. Subotica is missing for no apparent reason, road from Serbian border to Sarajevo has nothing while irl it passes through Visegrad which should have been added at least as a scenery city. Road from Kragujevac to Cacak is too short and then it goes from the roundabout directly into the canyon while in fact you have to go through the city to get there. Montenegrin coast is missing and with it you can have a coastal road all the way from Slovenia to Albania that would be fun to drive.

This is a personal nitpick of mine since i am from Kragujevac but i feel they left the most interesting part of the city out of the game. As it is now you go from one industrial zone to the other. They should have added at least 10-15 more seconds of driving to transition from west side of the city to the east since right now at least to me it looks completely off. To give a compliment to SCS both enterances to the city are spot on.

[Gamerhcp]

As someone living in Bosnia I am disappointed with the DLC.

Banja Luka especially is a disaster, all of a sudden the newly built (but not in function) bridge in Gradiska is availalbe in the DLC, the highway from Gradiska to Banja Luka is missing the tunnels, the city itself is super small. The road from Jajce to Banja Luka is iconic and while parts of it are in the DLC, the (in)famous Vrbas canyon is nonexistant.

Also not having at least just the state road from Banja Luka to Bihac is awful, having to go south to Jajce shouldn't be required.

Sarajevo is hit and miss, the iconic government buildings in the centre of the city are just generic SCS buildings but at least they fully replicated the shopping centre near it.

Looking forward to using a mix of SCS and Promods, as usual.

[Morawatz]

@Morawatz copied?! how do you mean?!

I was wrong about that. SCS did a lot worse than expected. There are positive things, like nicely detailed cities and landmarks. On the other side, biggest looser in this dlc is the largest country of the region - Serbia. Only four cities, ridiculously small road network and above all - SCS choped off a southern region of Serbia.
For a long time now, SCS prioritize money over players. And it's fine, they're free to choose their priorities, but it's disapointing for me and others who were supporting them since the era of 18 Wheels of Steal.

[Shiva]

I agree on that there is nothing south of Kragujevac and west of Niš.
But regarding depots. There is more than a few faraway depots.
Feketić, Vršac, Loznica, Radinac, Užice, Paraćin, Boljevac, Prokuplje, Vranje.
Pančevo's windfarm,

Looking at the map, zoomed out, I, sort of, understand why SCS did not put those depots on their own cities/towns.

38 depots, in Serbia.

Don't worry, PM might be able to add a few more cities and or towns to Serbia.

[marknemensis]

Yes scs uses this tactic or they have use it a long time actually. Only annoying thing is when you pick up a job, you have to drive over 100 kilometers "inside the city" to pick up your cargo. If that makes any sense to you.