California Rework: Phase 3

It's been a while since we last spoke about the California Rework project; in which 2 phases were already completed and released as free update in American Truck Simulator. Today, we are excited to share with you some information on Phase 3, the team working on it and some teasers on what will be included this free update. 

Phase 3 of the California Rework 

Speaking with the map lead of this project, he was quite excited to tell us how much the project has progressed, and how the community has played a big deciding factor in shaping Phase 3. From our official forums to our social media channels, we've been listening to your comments in regard to adjusting layouts and sizes of cities and the balance between highways and smaller roads. In a few cases, the community influenced the shape of our Phase 3 content, even some time into development, adding or adjusting content on the go. 

So what is in store for Phase 3 of this project? We have quite a bit up our sleeves, which we won't share all in one go. Without going into too much detail, you can expect the rework of several cities, towns, industries and road networks and so much more; Which includes the introduction of the highly requested city of Modesto, which will replace the currently existing city of Oakdale. This addition was heavily influenced by the community, which we look forward to sharing more about in a future blog post along with another unannounced new city addition.

We are also excited to share that the US-50 between Sacramento and Carson City will be included as a new addition in this rework phase. Featuring mountain passes and ski resorts, this route is incredibly scenic and feels like a completely different region when compared to the rest of California. If you enjoyed Truckee and its surroundings, you know what to expect. 

Our team has focused a lot on reworking the layout of existing cities by taking advantage of the space created by the rescale after the release of American Truck Simulator. This means we've been able to utilize more of the map to create more road networks, expand city sizes, introduce new industries in the area, and ultimately, bring the quality of the state up to par with our current DLC quality standards.

We have also invested a lot of time and work into smaller secondary roads, especially around central California where a large part of the Agriculture industry exists. Finding the balance between highway and smaller road networks is always a challenge, but we believe that creating more secondary roads is a good investment of time and provides more options for players to choose a route that escapes the fast-paced highway life and experience a different driving style.

As you can imagine, a rework of this size has required a lot of work, with new assets, updated industries, roads, cities and so much more. The content density of this project is very high, and our aim is to make sure that this rework will stand the test of time; Trust us, it will be worth the wait! 

All of this exciting content wouldn't be possible without the team behind the scenes working hard on this project, which brings us to our next topic... 

Update on the Team

During the development of Montana and Texas, the number of dedicated members of the California Rework team was only around 1-2 people. This was because of the demand and focus needed on these DLCs at the time. However, thanks to the recent influx of new map designers, we have been able to return to normal stable numbers within all our teams. After Texas was released, we were able to return to 5 stable members of the rework team, which has been boosted by another 5 new map designers from January, so we now have 10 people dedicated to improving California.

With this, we are excited about the future and how the team will be able to progress with the current project at hand, as well as with other tasks in the future! For now, our focus is on Phase 3. 

As we mentioned earlier, we still have so much more to share, and as development progresses, we will post our progress and work in future blog posts. We can't wait to showcase them all and ultimately, bring Phase 3 of the California Rework to American Truck Simulator. Until then, keep on truckin'!