Here is an article I've written on the SCS forum.
Last night DaSquirrelNuts was livestreaming his ETS 2 gameplay with special guests: Pavel Sabor the CEO of SCS and Nico Van Gerwen the author of the Scandinavia Map mod.
In the next couple hours or max one day there should be video on DaSquirrelNuts YT channel with the most important part of the interview.
Nico explained all about the ProMods and how it all started, how they even come up with the idea of creating the Scandinavia as well as what are the future plans. The whole interview was very interesting and "stuffed" with informations. Nico has confirmed that France will be included with the ProMods map extension in the future as well as Ireland and some other parts of the EU.
It was a surprise when he said it took something over a year to finish this project; I thought it was a project from couple guys who are not going to make something major or important. But after following their work on FB I realized how big this project will be. Nico explained why there are some cities included and some are not; it's because there was no room for it, it's planned for future updates or simply it's not planned at all.
After Nico finished the interview DaSquirrelNuts gave 3 keys to the lucky winners, congrats to the winners!
Soon after the giveaway we had an honor to hear from Sir. Pavel.
At first I thought it's all fake and that we will not see Mr.Pavel but he was there, and it was really nice. HUGE thanks to Mr.Pavel for staying up late and taking the precious time from his Saturday evening to be there.
Pavel explained a lot about the game, future plans and how this all started. I had no idea that only so few man worked on this game (Pavel said about 10 people, or something like that, I don't remember exactly now:) ), I mean it was declared a game of the year on few sites and it does feel like it was created by some major and rich company. He said that nobody from the team expected this huge success and it was actually a shock for them. Soon after they realized how big this project has become they've decided to continue their hard work, make game even better and in the future perhaps have a full trucking simulation with variety of vehicles and things to do.
Pavel is a really nice guy, no doubt about that. During the who conversation he never said: "no I can't tell you that", or something similar. Most of the people asked questions about the Multiplayer, DLC and etc.
Pavel explained a lot, the DLC was supposed to be finished a lot sooner but they made huge changes to the whole map in the ETS 2. It was a logical and necessary step to divide map into smaller sectors. This way multiple countries can be created, edited or built from scratch without modders interfering with each others work. Besides that lack of manpower was a bigger problem here as well as small and crowded working space. Now the team consists of around 30 people working hard on some new features that Pavel shared with us.
So the most interesting features that new patches will bring us are, the completely new AI, 3 new truck models, map expansions and the World of Trucks.
The new AI will be included with one of the patches and it should be here sooner than you think. As Mr. Pavel said: The new AI is completely changed, from the very beginning to the end, everything is reprogrammed and adjusted to make traffic much more realistic and to adjust according to the situation on the road. I must say that we are getting, probably, the best patch for the ETS. AI will be reprogrammed to react differently according to the situation, for example there will be cars who are driving too fast, too slow, braking hard etc. Pavel didn't wanted to over-promise things but there was some talking about police chases, fire trucks, ambulance and much more diversity in the AI and ETS 2 world!
Next thing, the 3 new trucks? Well it wasn't discussed to much because Pavel doesn't know when exactly we can expect new models. We are sure that new Volvo FH (BTW it's declared the truck of the year 2014 yesterday, yay!) will be here very soon. Also we don't know models that will be included after the new Volvo; could it be the Majestic (Mercedes), MAN, Scania? It's very hard for the modelers to create exact models because they don't have all the documentation required to make it all correctly. Pavel said that every truck has to be very realistic and accurate, that's why it is taking so long to make specific models. Also we can not forget how small SCS team is and how much hard work is put into making this game.
The DLC that we are already familiar with is mostly concentrated on Eastern countries. This is because of the huge player base and many team members that are living there; also it not as big as other parts of the EU and therefore it was logical move. It's easier to make it, even though it took them a year. Pavel apologized for this long waiting time, they had many problems due to changes that are made by players during the DLC making. After those changes the whole DLC had to be tested and checked for compatibility with different game versions, they had to make sure we are not going to loose our save games and profiles etc.
Next thing, one of my favorites - World of Trucks
Now it's a step toward a Multiplayer, it's kinda web site that will include informations about the drivers, a place where we can talk, share and in the end drive together in the massive multiplayer. Pavel wants to create a huge environment for players to enjoy. The main features would be a huge map covering the EU, USA and most important parts of the World (and the whole World one day)
Also players would be able to create VTSs and hire drivers and assign trucks and stuff. Pavel mentioned that players kept asking about truck paints and liveries, so far it's too hard for them to adopt the current game engine to do this. However he want's players to be able to apply liveries, decals and whatever shape they want to their machines. We might see this in ETS 3 or whatever project in the future, but in the ETS 2...no
So, Pavel has a great idea of creating this huge environment for players, aka Multiplayer but it will take some time before it comes to a final and usable product.
Future will bring some major changes to ETS 2 as well, Pavel told us that new graphics engine optimisation will be included with some other tweaks. Right now it's not sure when can we expect these updates but, as Pavel said, it's important to create content and features with quality. And trust me, he seems like a person who wants everything to be perfect and realistic.
One thing we waited to hear from Pavel was binding the trucks, truck damage and pretty much everything related to the trucks.
Pavel, spent most of his time (3 years!) in talking, exchanging e-mails, visiting and negotiating with truck manufactures to get the brands in the game. Mercedes is a huge brand and company and there were times when they were close to getting the licence but the person who they've talked to was sent to another country or even continent to work. Right now there will be another attempt to get a Mercedes in game as official brand (and logically that would mean getting MPIV as well
)
We hope that deal will be a success and that we'll have most of the major brands in the ETS 2.
In the end, American Truck Simulator!
Yes, ATS will cover northern part of the America for now; also it will be offered as Alpha version to buy. What this means is: you can buy incomplete game for low price (Alpha), later Beta for higher price but still missing some components and in the end full game for the set price. If you buy alpha or beta you will receive all future patches for free, this way you can buy great game for few € and still that money will be wisely invested in the polishing and finishing the game.
In the very end, Pavel thanked to the whole community, supporters and everyone who supported the SCS during this hard process. Trust me, I can tell you this and I'm not lying; community means a lot to Mr.Pavel and he does respect our opinions (all good suggestions are written down and read in the SCS team, some of our wishes are implemented in the game already!)
Pavel, personally doesn't have too much time to post updates or create articles here and forums; he is a family man and he is working hard to improve the game.
Anyone who's been watching the livestream please notify me of any possible errors and mistakes, I hope video will be uploaded later today or at least tomorrow with the important bits and parts.
Oh and not to forget to thank Paul who hosted the whole event (it lasted about 4 hours! and he gave away 10 ETS 2 keys), it was really nice watching Paul, especially when he flipped his Scania over
So, thanks to Nico, Paul and Pavel for the amazing event!
Video will be uploaded here:
www.youtube.com/user/DaSquirrelsNuts/videos
