User blog:Wuiwedjksfsfdjsd/Map Scale in ETS2 and ATS

Europe and the USA are too big to be featured in 1:1 actual sizes, so in the Truck Simulator games we have something called map scale.

Notation

First let's talk about how to write map scales. If you have ever seen 2D paper maps, then you should be familiar with it. The map scale is written as a ratio, typically as 1:x, where the 1 represents the length on the map and x represents the actual real-life length. For example, if you see a map with scale 1:10,000 that means 1 centimeter on the map represents 10,000 centimeters or 100 meters in real life.

Different games, different scales

You have probably learned from at least one source that the map scales of ETS2 and ATS are both 1:20, but this is not actually the case. The map scales in these two games only differ by a little, for that the map scale in ETS2 is 1:19 and the scale of ATS's map is 1:20.

Inconsistency

It is likely that you have noticed the inconsistency in map scales. For example, when you enter a city, the speed of the time suddenly drops significantly without you noticing, and as a result a distance of just 1 mile feels like 10 miles. Although this could make the distance display in the navigation misleading, the idea here is to prevent some unrealistic events such as stopping in front of a red light for 20 minutes or refueling for 2 hours.