Euro Truck Simulator 2: Soul of Anatolia gets over 100 major interchanges!

Soul of Anatolia is increasingly developing into one of the more extensive map expansions for Euro Truck Simulator 2. The new region leads from Istanbul further into the center of Turkey and includes major cities, coastal roads, mountains, bridges and long-distance roads. Particularly striking is the number of planned major interchanges: SCS is talking about more than 100 interchanges and larger junctions within the DLC. That is a surprisingly high number when considering that every single one of these areas must be adapted to the game's heavily reduced map scale. Map Designer Pavel, who has been working at SCS Software for more than seven years and has increasingly specialized in roads, highways and complex junctions in recent years, is responsible for a large part of this work.

Among other things, his task at Soul of Anatolia is to design major interchanges and create specifications for other departments. This includes not only the roads themselves, but also so-called Prefabs, tunnels and traffic light systems. The sheer quantity makes the project particularly challenging, because a real interchange cannot simply be transferred one-to-one into Euro Truck Simulator 2. Large road facilities take up enormous areas in reality, while the map in the game is heavily compressed. At the same time, players should be able to recognize the distinctive shapes and basic structure of a junction as much as possible. This is precisely what creates the typical balancing act between reality, space requirements and playability.

Before such a junction is incorporated into the actual Soul-of-Anatolia map, a separate test version is created first. For this, SCS uses its own test map, where new road layouts can be developed independently of the rest of the DLC. It starts with a rough prototype, in which the required number of lanes and the type of interchange that makes sense are initially determined. Only after that does the detailed work begin: curve radii are adjusted, road lengths are changed and technical requirements are taken into account. These include, among other things, clearance heights beneath bridges, the incline of the road and maximum gradients. The goal sounds simple, but is quite demanding in practice: the junction should look as similar as possible to its real-world counterpart, require as little space as possible and still be comfortable to drive through even with a long semi-trailer.

These three requirements in particular can directly conflict with one another. An extremely compact junction may be easy to integrate into the scaled-down game world, but could create unpleasantly tight curves. A very realistic implementation, on the other hand, might simply take up too much space and thereby displace other areas of the map. That is why a compromise must be found for every major interchange. Only once the prototype works is it transferred to the actual map and adapted there to the terrain, surroundings and connecting roads. To players, it may later look like an ordinary interchange, but internally it often involves quite a bit of iteration.

The so-called Prefabsalso play an important role here. These are prefabricated road elements that can represent intersections, junctions or other complex areas, among other things. SCS does not necessarily build a completely new element for every individual situation, but first checks whether existing Prefabs can be used or adapted. Only if that is not reasonably possible is a new element designed. This process also begins with a simple road prototype before detailed specifications are created for road markings, traffic routing and the paths of AI vehicles. A new section of road therefore not only has to work for the player, but must also ensure that the traffic AI can navigate the area reliably.

Interestingly, Soul of Anatolia is even supposed to receive new forms of interchanges. Pavel speaks of a completely new type of junction as well as a significantly modified version of an existing Prefab. By his own account, he has wanted to implement both ideas in the game for quite some time. For players, this means that familiar ETS2 junctions will not simply be repeatedly reassembled. Major road facilities play an important role in Turkey, especially around metropolitan regions such as Istanbul or Ankara, where several broad long-distance roads meet. Outside the cities, these in turn alternate with smaller roads, mountain passages and considerably more challenging sections.

Soul of Anatolia is intended to depict precisely this change. Istanbul, Ankara, Antalya, Alanya and Aksaray have already been announced, among others. Important bridges are also being added, such as the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge, the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge and the Osmangazi Bridge. This means that not only long highway sections are being created, but inevitably also numerous complex connections between different roads. The more than 100 major interchanges therefore provide a pretty good impression of how dense and varied the expansion's road network could become.

Nevertheless, the number should not be misunderstood. More than 100 major interchanges do not automatically mean more than 100 completely different new models. Some facilities can be based on existing Prefabs or assembled from familiar elements. What matters instead is that SCS has to check for each of these areas how it fits into the map, how lanes and traffic routes function and how the whole thing can be connected to the surroundings. That is precisely why an apparently ordinary interchange involves considerably more development work than one would probably notice while driving past.

Soul of Anatolia is still in development. As of October 2, 2026 , SCS Software has not yet announced a release date. The team continues to describe the map as a project that is still being worked on intensively, meaning that individual road layouts, details and environments may still change before release. The work on the interchanges already shows, however, the scale SCS is aiming for with the expansion. If cities, bridges, long-distance roads, mountain routes and this multitude of junctions all come together in the end, Soul of Anatolia will likely stand out above all for one thing: a road network that feels significantly more varied than an expansion consisting only of long highways between a few cities.

Do you actually pay conscious attention to realistically built interchanges while driving—or do you only notice such details when an interchange is particularly complicated or particularly well designed?