Update Speculation thread

But in any case there will be speed bumps and chicanes everywhere to make it almost impossible to get faster than 30kmh because France is filled of those car killers

 

Some streets are very narrow already, the fact that you can't use the map with ai traffic currently is testament to that...

 

Well, you know, "real Italy" isn't that much different from France... or any other western-european country...

Just in case you haven't noticed, we're not in the XIV century anymore...

 

I think a map bigger than italy is likely in the future, there are no engine tweaks that would allow that announced currently. But the devs probably recognize that even italy is too small to allow for proper career mode gameplay... I think such a map would have to be at least 16 km² in size. I think the setting will either be a alpine german/austrian/french/italian map to extend italy™ or a US map that combines Utah Wecusa Ecusa...

 

You can use traffic on Italy.

Italy is 16 km². 4x4=16

 

...which makes a map bigger than Italy...

...so I think we're on the same page here

 

I meant 16x16... Long work day:/

 

I do not know if you ever tried to drive the whole SSRB (100 km), but around 30 km from spawn the car starts shaking, and although it does not affect handling, it looks weird. Because of this, maps shouldn´t in my opinion get bigger than 32x32 km (1984 km²).

 

Sometimes a single-use map is justified - like in the case of Derby Arenas or Grid, Small, Pure. Granted, those are older maps, but there's something to be said for a map that's purpose-built.

I kind of hope that at some point, the dev team takes the wilderness assets from Utah, adds to them, and pours them into a 4km x 4km companion map that's almost strictly wilderness. Just offroad trails crisscrossing the landscape, with maybe one divided highway and one twisty-turny two-lane. There are a lot of offroading oppurtunities in the current map, and in the game itself, but they're mostly short jaunts, or they cross several paved roads. There's nowhere in the current game where you can get really far off of the pavement.

Terrain can change fairly quickly in certain states like Utah and Colorado (see the 7 Mile Loop Trail and Black Bear Pass respectively), so there should concievably be enough visual variety to keep a long offroad drive interesting even independant of trail obstacles.

The other option for that might be to develop an Austrailian outback map - complete with corrugated roads. That would have the added bonus of introducing a new continent, and being the second map with RHD roads.

I'd be surprised if a map set in Japan didn't make it in to the final release. That would be a unique driving experience.

The snowy rural map idea is good. Right now, all we've got for frozen conditions are a patch of ice in Gridmap, and a light dusting on the highest altitudes of the Automation Test track.

I'm wondering what the relative merits are of having said map set in Finland vs set in Sweden.

 

The JRI remaster was definitely planned to be in Japan at some point. There is an unused mesh that is literally called "japan_test" that is an unfinished low poly Japanese port town/city. The map also is covered in Japanese bunkers, and there is even a wrecked Japanese Zero fighter in the JRI hangar. The map doesn't resemble Hawaii at all, and there are similar islands in Japan.

 

JRI I believe could very well be disputed territory between the US and Japan, or may have been meant to have started out as Japanese territory and then been gifted or otherwise ceded to the United States after post WWII tensions settled. A lot of small remote pacific islands had that happen.

 

But it wouldn't be under Hawaii's jurisdiction. JRI has Hawaii license plates.

 

?? It doesn’t for me, although I do have some license plate mods installed so it might be related to that.

 

In the vanilla game it has Hawaii license plates. That is definitely a mod conflict on your end.

 

I don't recall that. Thanks for letting me know about that - it's interesting enough that I'll have to check that out later.

I'm thinking more of a map that's currently inhabitated and set on, or in very close proximity to the six main islands of Japan. Something a little less overgrown, with small cities (and perhaps a former Ibishu factory converted to an auto museum) seperated by scenic, winding roads along the coast and up nearby mountain passes. With maybe one or two small road-course racing circuits sprinkled in here and there beneath the cherry trees.

 

There is in the big drag hamger

 

It's in the back left corner, behind some vegetation. It's a little hard to see.

 

I remember there was once talk of a "Soliad Palisade," which was rumored to be a Soliad-badged wagon variant of the LeGran. Since there are now all kinds of slots for various parts, we could be looking at an incomplete Soliad Palisade that is just awaiting custom fascia and such. This makes sense - get more LeGran variety while also immediately establishing Soliad with two models. At that rate, there might even be three Soliad models if there is a Palisade-based sedan as well!

 

it has a legran badge on the image though