Trucking Simulator Games Discussion

[timmelon]

I'm still playing 18WOS.   I can never get past 55mph.

Hmm, I have never encountered that issue. At least, in the first game there is no optional 90-kmh limiter like in *TS.

Also, I think I can take some of my words back:

And low-end trucks were not very dynamic .

I played the first 18WoS game (last time it was 18-19 years ago ), and I can confirm that the first thing you want to do is to get rid of the basic truck .

Why? Well, until today I never tried to play this game with a steering wheel — I remember how using it for Softlab’s game Hard Truck 2: King of the Road or for NFS: Porsche Unleashed didn’t really help to play better, so I never bother to play other old games in any way except using the keyboard . But, turns out that 18WoS is different: first, the wheel turn radius fits to my G27 (despite the game was born several years before this wheel), and second... the truck goes faster! It looks like pressing the arrow on a keyboard gives you only a bit of power (that HT2:KotR really had this feature — normally all the arrows gave you about 75% of responce, and pressing Ctrl made a 100), but pressing the throttle pedal gives you all of it. A quick test has shown that if you use a pedal, even the cheapest Rusty truck with a load can reach its maximum speed (65 MPH) a couple minutes after you leave a city, when with keyboard you could drive from LA to LV and never see even 55 mph . So, no more 18WoS on a keyboard, the wheel is a real game changer — any truck is enough for basic tasks, the weigh station or a speed limit sign is not a disaster, you can catch up your previous speed pretty fast, so just relax and drive.
Although there is a small downside — using the pedals drains your air system much faster — when with a keyboard you could not even know about why the air gauge is here, with a wheel I have used all the air for one looong braking before the first weigh station I met after leaving SF, so, my brakes disappeared and I stopped several seconds after I flew pass the scales platform. Second bummer — when the screen aspect ratio is not 4:3, you can’t see all fuel (which is also on HUD, so it’s not important) and air (which suddenly became critical!) gauges normally, because in 16:10 and 16:9 mode the picture crops at top and bottom, and you can’t readjust the FOV like in newer games.

So, to see all gauges I need, the game must be in window with 1280×960 resolution on my 2560×1080 monitor .

None of your photos appear for me @timmelon.

@RainySunshine can see them, so maybe it was a temporary error.

I thought I shared my first truck?  Well here it is. 

It’s pretty dark .

[Anyponedrawn]

Nice photos Tusszent and Soda!  Nice to see your trucks.  I see Tuss went with a similar silver/gray truck to his truck in ETS2.  Soda, your truck is indeed VERY dark.  It's purple and looks massive!  Lol!  Looks like you could live in it.

[timmelon]

Napa, Truckee, Redding... Today it’s Eureka

Another blog post, with another reworked Californian location. Looks like our artistic photo contest will get some new nice backgrounds in the future .
(I think the hype train is overloaded, and only the announcement of new patch can help to carry that weight)

[MasterXtreme]

^ Seriously, the N. California rework is looking incredible! 

[Silverwing]

It looks really good and Eureka will finally be a legit place to stay and stop.  Prior to this update, there was no truck repair center after Coos Bay until you either went to Redding or Santa Rosa (I think).  I don't think Ukiah had a repair shop.  So there was a large gap if you needed it.

It also annoys me to no end how only the ATS blog posts are filled with whining ETS2 players.  Just shut up you guys.  Be happy, be excited for the games we love.  You will get your own blog posts if you don't care about ATS.  Geez.  It annoys me to no end!





It is obvious so many of these commenters have either never played ATS and only play ETS2, or only played ATS for a very short time years ago.  They have no idea what they are missing and certainly not helping the developers feel like people are on board with their big investment in ATS.

[Captain Ridiculous]

^ Try not to let it bother you.  I know it's tough, but those people don't even deserve to be given attention or responded too.  They should be asking those questions they have in the forums, not on a blog post promoting new product.

[Captain Ridiculous]

So I was looking at the new Eureka blog post and comparing it to real life.  I know Eureka fairly well irl but they didn't show any landmarks in that blog post.  No building landmarks at least.  They seemed to avoid showing downtown, meaning it probably isn't done yet.  Environmentally, it was so much more accurate now.

This image actively shows that California DOT is trying to do what SCS is doing to Northern California and making it's roadways better.




One thing they mentioned in the blog was how the FUTURE downtown area would have two one way streets, unlike in the current game.  This will make it similar to Coos Bay, Oregon in the game where one way traffic each has their own two lane roads.  I drew it on this map of Eureka to show you how the game will do this.  It will be just like irl.


Larger Size

[Captain Ridiculous]

So I broke it down even further using locations and street names to pinpoint spots shown in this recent Eureka blog post, to where they are in real life.  Click on image to see it larger.

[timmelon]

What a long list of changes is here! I don’t have a lot of time to make a screenshot gallery from reworked Austria, so I just looked into the beta to make a map comparison:

As you can see, everything has changed!
Aside from other map improvements, truck controls improvements, there was also some unexpected and (IMHO) much less wanted features like mileage on the road signs, indication what truck parts are licensed or aftermarket ones, and even a rework of old companies logos — well, I have seen several of them and I can’t decide, are the new logos better or worse, they are just different .

[spoiler]Also, as reviewers say, there are parts from HoR DLC near the border parts of existing Russian territories, and the quality is great.
Even the authentic inhabitants are present:

As the comments say, «Babushkas are waiting for a DLC»[/spoiler]

[Soda]

I love the breakdown of Eureka you did @Captain Ridiculous! Neat to see they are possibly expanding the "width" or locations we can visit.  The early version seemed pretty simply, but now we might have more city blocks to drive on.  Also interesting where that road may go to the southeast.

Nice breakdown @timmelon! Looking at the new and old map quickly you don't see much changing. Roads are in similar spots.  But when you look closely you notice the more detailed routes.  Also all the new trailers look good, thought I sort of like the old SanBuilders and Stokes better.  The new Posped and Euro Goodies are much nicer in my opinion.


Do you guys advice playing the BETA or waiting for the official update?

[MasterXtreme]

Excellent break down of information @Captain Ridiculous & @timmelon.  The map locations on Eureka you are pointing out seem quite correct.  I might move that one on the top left of downtown along the waterfront towards the western industrial waterfront?  Just because the background would be the other shipping facilities as shown in the photo across the river.  Otherwise, I think you are pretty spot on.

The new Austria map looks great! So many new details, curvy roads, and a lot of NEW roads! 

@Soda You can if you'd like.  I personally wait till they figure out all the bugs and issues and beta and play it when it officially launches and downloads as the next full update.  If you do download the beta to play, it is highly advised to use a different save file than your usual one.  If there is ever an issue, you don't want your official save file corrupted.

[timmelon]

@Soda Even if you don’t play beta a lot of time, after you return to the 1.43 back, several latest autosaves from 1.43 may be lost, so my advice is to make a copy of all savegames from the current profile folder and only after that switch to the 1.44 beta. After returning to 1.43, just replace all the saves back. That folder is not very big, even if it has a lot of subfolders .

Don’t relay on the automatically created backup folders like that:

They keep all the savegames except of one or two latest .
And after you created the reliable backup, you can do anything in the beta and not be afraid for your progress in the game. Don’t forget that the beta exists for testing and bug reporting, not for enjoying the gameplay , but of course you are free to make a lot of lovely screenshots from reworked parts of map.

[RainySunshine]

To make it very simple Soda, I would not play the BETA.  Just wait the week or two it takes for the official update to come out.  It saves a lot of effort.

Also great news and analysis everyone.

[MasterXtreme]

ATS 1.44 Open Beta


SCS Blog Post

The amount of changes in ATS are astounding!  They also snuck in a huge rework without telling us anything about it.  Some details below...

Phase 2 of the California Rework is part of this free update for all owners of American Truck Simulator. The focus of this projects sees the cities Eureka, Ukiah, Sacramento, Redding, and Truckee which have been rebuilt from the ground up, along with local landmarks, architecture and surrounding road networks. Say goodbye to the city of San Rafael. Due to the map scale, SCS had to make the hard decision to remove the city from the in-game economy. To make up for this, they will be introducing a brand new city, which will be larger and of much greater importance in California's road network in Phase 3 of their ongoing project! Any guesses which one it might be?

New rest areas and truck stops have also been implemented, but that isn't all! You will also find new assets, vegetation, and textures too, giving the area a completely new look and feel.  Hopefully we will have a comparison map soon to share.

But they also snuck in a significant reworking on aspects of New Mexico?  Yes! There were no blog posts about it or even a paragraph in the blog post.  While not as in-depth as the Phase 2 California rework, they indeed did touch up parts of New Mexico. Border connections for several cities in New Mexico refreshed and some New Mexico cities received road network reworks!

Also Unmarked Road Exploration is now official. Once you drive onto an unmarked road, you will be notified about having done so with a message in the route advisor, and the explored road will appear on the map as an orange dashed line, with any unexplored part ahead of you shown in grey.

Too many changes to go over, so read the blog for it all. But here is a quick run down.

Map

• 2nd Phase of California Rework
• Border connections for several cities in New Mexico refreshed
• Some New Mexico cities received road network reworks
• Unmarked Road Exploration
• General Map Bug Fixes

Gameplay

• Mod Refund Feature
• Licensed vs Aftermarket UI in browsers
• Force Feedback Upgrade
• Adjustable Suspension Height
• Interior Camera Horizontal Lock
• Smart Sequential Shifting
• New Special Transport Routes

Vehicles

• New Freightliner Cascadia 2022 Interior Options
• Ownable Drop Deck Trailers

[timmelon]

Map comparison time!

I really like how the part around Truckee looks, but... where’s San Rafael?
As for that stepdeck trailers — the ability to take tractor or cable reel is cool, but I see they didn’t make Goodyear tires for new smaller wheels. Only the stock ones (without paintable letters) are available. Also, that «WIDE LOAD»-like signs can be mounted in lowboy fashion — not under the platform, but above it between two sticks.
This time the patch size was much smaller — only 1,7 GB instead of 4-5 in 1.42 or 1.43 .