East Coast USA is a great map and all, but compared to it's West Coast counterpart, it comes off as rather bland. It's been a while since the map received a facelift. I'm not talking about completely reworking the map, but more along the lines of adding some more signs to identify places around the map, stop signs/traffic lights, labeling the stores, police station, etc within the City of Firwood, and scattering some more buildings within the surrounding countryside, which as of now is a bit empty for the amount of roadway and infrastructure it has. Within the city it would also be nice to have some new textures and decals and such aswell, as at the moment it feels like it is rather empty and dead. Adding road signs around the map and fire hydrants, and mailboxes within the town would be icing on the cake. In the long run ECA could become a map as detailed as WCA and also be able to showcase the detail of BeamNG to those who cannot run WCA. I don't have much else to say, is this is rather open and shut, but as always, feedback is appreciated. --- Post updated --- As stated earlier, feedback is appreciated. I'm not the only one here who feels this way.
That would probably involve tons of work from the developers due to the fact that making it would probably be similar to making a new map. What I am suggesting shouldn't take very long and builds off the existing map.
I agree, ECUSA is rather bland and could use a little of a facelift, maybe add another town somewhere or expand on the existing town, or just some more buildings in general and slightly better textures
A second town in the countryside would be nice, but it would take longer and could cause some compatibility issues for ECA mods/scenarios/etc. Although it would make the map feel even bigger, I'm not sure if the devs would go for it. Could you show where on the ECA map it should be?
It could be on the other side of ECA, and there could be an route highway somewhere in there, like WCA.
What do you mean by "Route Highway"? A two lane highway similar to the roads on ECA, or a 4-8 lane expressway?
Something like that would work. Where do you think the town should go, and where should the main highway be? (An annotated map would be nice)
The town could be around an barren area of the map (since most of it is just roads, and forests), and the highway could be on the east side.
That would just make it WCUSA with fields instead of desert. Right now it is a New England/Upstate NY setting, which is unique for the maps which actually feel complete. I'm sure if the devs had the resources they would want to redo a lot of the map since they have probably learned a lot about road layouts and such (the road layout is much messier in ECUSA than the new maps, though I personally like that). A couple new assets for the buildings and some roadside features would be nice; I don't think it's big enough to easily add anything of significant physical size.
Honestly, I'd really like to see all the enhancements mentioned in the OP as well as a smaller town near the gas station - that would give a good reason for the gas station to be so far away from Firwood, as well as giving a good reason to travel outside of Firwood. It would also fit neatly into the current road layout by allowing the high speed highway to be used as more than just a loop to and from Firwood.
Agree on everything, but ECA is 100% New England. There is no Upstate NY whatsoever in there. Exactly.
I would like for the town hall, police and fire station to be marked. Firwood is a small town so I think the town hall and police station might be in the same building. Some towns have the police and fire stations in the same building so it could be that all 3 are in 1 building. The large brick building and small white building with the large parking lot in the back is where I think all 3 are located. The reason why I think this is that the parking lot is big enough for the 3-4 active Firwood police vehicles (1 sunburst, 1 high speed sunburst, 1 200bx and maybe 1 sheriff roamer). The only problem with this is that the ambulance (a Firwood vehicle if you look at the computer inside) does not fit inside the garage door. Since we don't have a offical fire truck I'm using the t-series as a base and that would not fit either. Now this may just be a oversight, a place holder or the fire station does not exist. As for the gas station. The gas station might be far away from the town due to town codes, the lumber industry (they own a lot of land that the station could have been), protected wilderness, and EPA rulings. On top of all that I believe the gas station is also suppost to be on a state road so it means more outside business from passerby's. I would like to see what Utah and or WCUSA has and have 1 or 2 impassible roads that lead outside of the map. One on the West side across the bridge and one to the north by the gas station. A possible 3rd one might work by the off road trail to the Northeast.
We also need an established police station, an taxi depot, and also an bus depot alike to Cities: Skyline. Another idea could be an courthouse, somewhat like this one:
I hope you don't think a 747 is a light aircraft =P I would love a small dirt landing strip, but I doubt the team would want to put so much effort into adding onto an older map. There is the big field, maybe something could be done there or maybe find an excuse to put a helipad in.
It would be cool to have a little Neighborhood / sub-division in the country side with big yards and garages so you can park RV's and possibly planes in them. Also some designated federal / state Buildings.
