These locations will serve as the main hubs where players pick up and drop off passengers, and they’ve recently been receiving extra attention from our team as we prepare the in-game world for coaches. From refreshing old prefabs to introducing brand-new stations, we spoke with two of the developers involved in shaping ETS2 for this upcoming module.
"When work on Project Coaches began, there were already 7 prefab bus station models used in over 100 locations across the ETS2 map." Dominik, Producer of Project Coaches, explains “Our plan is to completely rework 6 of them, as they are almost 10 years old, while one of the newer prefabs from our Road to the Black Sea DLC will receive a light refresh. Some layouts will remain similar, but others will receive brand-new designs, based on real life locations. Unlike the older prefabs, which were surrounded by fences or walls, the new ones will allow us to remove them, so stations can connect more naturally with the environment. It may sound like creating those stations in the first place was work wasted, but it wasn’t, those prefabs served well as placeholders, and thanks to them, we can now rebuild and have over 100 coach stations ready across the map.”
However, not every bus station you’ll encounter was already in the game. In fact, many new stations are being added to improve overall coverage across Europe. “We checked the station distribution and tried to cover as many blank spaces as possible, and also add coach stations to most of the main cities,” explains Dominik. “Sometimes our map designers had already built custom coach stations, similar to custom depots. In other places, we didn’t have anything close to the city centre or to the real coach station location, so we had to improvise and use a small stop, which in reality is sometimes used by coaches.”
Of course, some stations stand out more than others. When possible, we’ve aimed to recreate famous or landmark coach stations. “Whenever there was a possibility to include a real-world landmark coach station within our map scale, we tried to use it and build a completely new station. A perfect example is Hunedoara in Romania, which is a completely unique landmark location. In some cases, we could even add a new road and fit a reworked prefab with a few notable landmarks around it.” explains Dominik.
Kain, one of our Map designers, adds: “Some custom stations will be harder than others to navigate. Our testers are making sure they are difficult, but not impossible, to manoeuvrer in. In some stations, you may encounter other vehicles already parked up, this will be a rare occurrence, but will make that stop much more challenging.”
Beyond visuals, the functionality of bus stations has also been improved. “With the new prefab stations, we did research on regulations for how much space is needed for coaches to manoeuvre. With the addition of smaller stops, players will have a really different experience depending on where they are” adds Dominik.
We’ve also seen some players on our forums asking whether the map updates coming with Project Coaches will be exclusive to those who own the DLC. We’re happy to confirm that any changes made to the base map or existing map expansions will be available to everyone who owns ETS2 or the respective map DLC, regardless of whether you own the Coaches DLC itself.
The work doesn’t end at release. As Dominik tells us, “We plan to long-term support Coaches by adding new stations to future DLCs and reworks, as well as to the current base map.”
We hope you enjoyed reading about the ongoing work for Project Coaches for Euro Truck Simulator 2. If you're excited to get behind the wheel of a coach, be sure to add this upcoming module to your Steam Wishlist. We look forward to sharing more news with you about this addition as development continues. Until next time, safe travels!