New release coming soon! (Esterlon project)
Added 2021-10-31 06:11:03 +0000 UTCAs part of your help in our project for October 2021, we are continuing to develop our fictional map: Esterlon. We are beginning in the region of Prahdor (province name) in the outskirts of Zacattle (Prahdor’s capital). Currently, we are working on farmlands over the main corridor of Expressway 15 (E-15) along with National Route 66 (N-66).
Here is a rough example of the overall route. (More pictures way below)
Due to the complexity of this first update and the time it is taking for us to prepare the project, we have made the decision to split up the initial update into two separate releases rather than a large first release in order to provide our supporters with playable content.
-The first release will take place mid to late November 2021, which will include some detailed urban areas and small towns, the main corridor of route N-66 and E-15, as you see in the picture above, this update will consist of 40 kilometers of detailed areas, with many industries for delivery and beautiful sights to behold. We’ll give some more details of this first release further below.
- We are expecting to be able to release the second update in late December or even January 2022; we, unfortunately, can’t give an exact date, as we will need to take some time to detail the city of Saint Louis and Ventura, which probably will take a month to provide the best we can in detail. The content of this release will have extreme mountain road routes, snowy mountains, open-pit mining, forestry areas, and a scenic highway with tunnels, which will be part of this update. As with the first update, we have some screenshots of the initial work of this section further below.
Here’s a WIP concept map of the area we are working on:
With the outline in red is what I call, Update A, which will be targeted for a November release. This part of the update is 85% complete, just some minor fine detailing and testing is needed to be able to share for you, so you can have a smooth and playable experience.
The outline in blue is what we call Update B, which could take place in December or January, which in its current state is around 50-60% complete. You can see some yellow and green color overlay in the map; green is completed areas and yellow are areas that need some attention and will take into development these two final months of 2021.
The entire route you see in this map from Zacattle (east end) to Ventura (west end), is over 140 REAL kilometers long, which means for example in the current game scale of ATS, it would be like driving from San Diego to Denver. Because our map will not have any scaling, you will definitely need to take some time to travel entire routes, making the whole experience much more realistic.
(Again our map to give you an idea of the plan, consider this map a concept and road shapes, town names, and planning will change or will have been changed.)
For the development beyond December or January, YOU can help us choose where you’d like to go or what kind of landscape you would like to travel, I can list 4 options to choose from;
Option 1; Coastal travel route.
Personally (as Eblem) this is my favorite option. It would be to design a scenic coastal highway similar to California Pacific Hwy 1, and in some spots to Chapman Peak Drive in South Africa or Amalfi road in Italy (I can combine the 3 options to get some interesting spots over the route. Some inspirational pictures:
(google street view photos)
This route in our map is between Ventura and Sotelo, approximately 80-100 real kilometers of coastal challenging roads, this update could take into development early 2022 and first update by March or April. For this update, I would have to design two coastal cities, Ventura and Sotelo. Some fishing, port areas, and mining industry could take place.
Option 2; Mountain “interstate” travel. To design an interesting scenic mountain highway, between some long valleys and forestry areas, I take into inspiration mountain passes over I-5 in northern California (Shasta-Trinity and the Cascades), I-64 in West Virginia and Virginia, and a mix of other highways with inspiration such as Autopista de la Plata in Spain and Mexico-Puebla federal highway 150D. The common landscape of both areas is the use of forest along with high-speed highways and many long grade curves. Some example pictures:
(google street view photos)
In our map, this proposed route is between Zacattle and Autlim, which goes north (from Zacattle), known as E-15 (not present in the map), which is major south to the north highway in Esterlon, this will require designing the city of Autlim, some logging, mining and farming industry could take place for deliveries.
Option 3; Extreme mountain road (similar to Mexico Extremo) between some volcanos.
Almost a replica of a mountain road located in Jalisco, Mexico changed with our map vision. This will be a challenging, beautiful road that traverses different biomes. Some example photos:
(google street view photos)
(Abraham Almodova photo)
As an additional easter egg, I could design an extreme dirt road route up to the volcano in the photo above, which can be also useful for the logging industry.
In our map this road goes from Ventura to Autlim (add another town called Gussaman at the east end), this update will require designing two additional cities, Autlim and Gussaman.
Option 4; Some mountain passes, long valleys, and lakes in “interstate” travel. This is Raul’s favorite option. This update consists of designing a major highway going north towards the major city of Huntington, but would only be designed up to Gossaman, which will be a mid-sized city midway between Huntington and Zacattle. This major road is scenic, consist of a highway going over hilly areas, long valleys, and vista points to some awesome lake views. Our main example will be Mexico 15D (Guadalajara-Mexico City) and some regions over Interstate 10 in Texas (San Antonio-Kerrville). Example options;
Our next target is to design these cities;
Ventura, Sotelo, Autlim and Gossamann. We are not quite sure yet how exactly those cities will look like, but here are my references of the cities:
- Ventura will be loosely based off of Ventura, California
- Sotelo may be similar to Positano, Italy.
- Autlim will be placed in the general landscape around Autlan, Jalisco
- Gossamann’s landscape may be incorporating areas around Ciudad Guzman, Jalisco
If you have any proposal or ideas, please let us know so we can make a replica of a certain area you like. Of course, any area we choose to recreate will have Esterlon specific urbanism and design.
With all the planning discussion out of the way, here are screenshots of our latest work for your enjoyment. Spoiler Alert! If you want to see for yourself in game, please stop reading from this point onward.
For the first release (Update A);
Update on the main corridor we've been building, routes E-15/N-66
Please let me know if any of these different looking signs are understandable or not. All feedback is appreciated!
We're in the outskirts of Zacattle.
In about 5 miles, we will get to a major interchange known as Moreno Junction. From there, there are two freeways that will more or less take you to the same major city but through different regions, so I thought it wise to make these signs indicating ETAs for each route.
Now outside of the Zacattle metro area;
An example of an off-ramp Wrong Way sign;
Here you'll be able top notice the freeway used to have a different alignment
The beginning of Moreno Junction, which itself as a town.
A call box / SOS phone
This one was a bit tough to figure out. There are three exits in a very short stretch here. And the left three lanes will take you to North E-15 and West N-66, so I wasn't sure if I can easily fit it all on an APL. Is this understandable?
Now past Moreno Junction, and heading towards the airport and the industrial town of Calera.
If you're wondering, the southbound lanes are about 2 kilometers to the left. The northbound lanes use the original alignment through here when this highway must have been 2x2 and the souothbound lanes use a new alignment.
We now rejoin the southbound lanes. You can see a monorail connection from the main rail line here to the airport
These will be part of Update 2 which again, will not be released until the end of 2021 or January 2022.
Thank you very much for your support and appreciation thus far. We hope we can continue to provide you with excellent and fun maps for American Truck Simulator!
