ETS 2 Coaches: Over 100 Bus Stations Reworked, and the Map Changes Are Free
If you drive coaches, you need somewhere to pick people up. SCS Software’s latest Coaches update is about exactly that: the bus stations of Euro Truck Simulator 2, how many there are, and what is happening to them before the DLC arrives.
Seven old prefabs, more than 100 locations
According to producer Dominik, the map already had seven bus station prefabs used in over 100 places when work on coaches began. Six of them are almost ten years old and are being completely rebuilt. The seventh, a newer design from the Road to the Black Sea DLC, only gets a light refresh.
Some layouts will stay close to what you know, others are being redesigned from real stations. The old prefabs were boxed in by fences or walls; the new ones can do without them, so the stations will blend into the streets around them. Dominik makes the point that the old placeholders were not wasted work. Because they were already placed across the map, the team now has more than 100 locations ready to turn into working coach stations.
Filling the gaps
Not every city had a station, so SCS checked the coverage and added new ones to fill empty areas and reach most major cities. Where map designers had already built a custom coach station, it gets used. Where nothing fit near the real location, the team falls back on a smaller stop, which is also how coaches work in real life in plenty of towns.
Landmark stations get special treatment when they fit the map scale. Dominik names Hunedoara in Romania as an example of a unique location that was built as a completely new station.
Some will be tight
Map designer Kain warns that a few custom stations will be harder to drive into than others. Testers are tuning them to be difficult but possible, and in some you may even find other vehicles already parked in your way. That will be rare, but it should make certain stops memorable.
The new prefabs were also designed around real regulations for how much space coaches need to manoeuvre, so the bigger terminals should behave the way real ones do.
Free for everyone
The most useful answer in the post is to a question that came up on the SCS forums. All changes to the base map and existing map DLCs will be free for anyone who owns ETS 2 or the map DLC in question, whether or not they buy Coaches. Truck drivers get the reworked stations too.
SCS also says support will not stop at launch: new stations are planned for future map DLCs and reworks, and for the base map.
Source: SCS Software blog. Images and video: SCS Software.
