Steam page (http://store.steampowered.com/app/270880)
The sequel to the hugely popular - for good reason - Euro Truck Simulator 2 is here! Initially the areas offered are California and Nevada (excellent choices in my opinion), with more, starting with Arizona, to come.
I've bought it already and am very excited to play it tonight. ETS2 was, to my complete surprise, absolutely brilliant and hopefully ATS will be even more so. I'll post impressions later.
Only £15 by the way!
Quote from: Huw the Poo on February 02, 2016, 02:08:45 PM
Steam page (http://store.steampowered.com/app/270880)
The sequel to the hugely popular - for good reason - Euro Truck Simulator 2 is here! Initially the areas offered are California and Nevada (excellent choices in my opinion), with more, starting with Arizona, to come.
I've bought it already and am very excited to play it tonight. ETS2 was, to my complete surprise, absolutely brilliant and hopefully ATS will be even more so. I'll post impressions later.
Only £15 by the way!
I really amazed myself by how much time I spent in ETS2. America is the land of highways, not to mention a large and geographically diverse nation, so in theory, ATS could be a significantly more varied and altogether superior game. I have really been looking forward to this, and am a little surprised it is already out.
A bit disappointed, though, that there are only 2 states. I may stay out of the pool for a while - especially since I just got my Xcom 2 key from cdkeys.com!
It's not really an American Truck Simulator if you can't drive from Texarkana to Atlanta. :coolsmiley:
Quote from: glen55 on February 02, 2016, 02:50:08 PM
A bit disappointed, though, that there are only 2 states.
Arizona will be free when it's released, but yeah, I imagine plenty of others will come as paid DLC. But really, what were you expecting - the entire country all at once? I don't think any of us would have even dared to hope for that!
I've had a very quick go and I'm impressed so far. I began in Las Vegas and driving through the Nevada countryside is quite the experience. Also, I don't know if it's because of my new mouse, but handling seems incredible. I can't wait to coast into Los Angeles at night when it's all lit up!
Right, time to load the radio playlist with some well-chosen driving music ahead of my main session later this evening. O0
Yeah, you're right, I knew that was too much to expect, these guys earn their bread off of DLC . . . but I still want it!
And I figure I have X number of hours of ATS in my future before I hit the wall - I would rather wait until I can do long hauls to burn those hours up. Don't know if I actually can and/or will wait, especially if I read great reviews about Cali (where I live, by the way) . . . but I would rather!
I'll definitely be keeping on eye on this as I play quite a bit of ETS. AS long as the individual state DLC's are high detail, I don't mind paying a small fee to add more states and eventually Canada.
I'm definitely getting this game at some point. It's obvious that if you want all 50 states you will have to purchase them via DLC but that won't stop me. I wonder if the modding community will create some of the great Euro trucks for use in this game? I would love to drive a DAF on US soil. :)
There are plenty of people on the Steam forum saying they won't buy until whatever state is released. Heh. Depending on what they want, they may be waiting a long time! I'm happy enough with the two states for now, knowing I'll get at least one more free. There are some really nice steampunk paintjobs available for free just for following the official group, too, although I won't be able to acquire those in game until I have my own truck.
Parking the trailers, at least in the two jobs I've done thus far, is a lot harder. In ETS2 I was quite proud of my ability to park any trailer anywhere, but I haven't managed it once in ATS yet. The first wasn't too difficult but I ran out of patience and just wanted to get what was effectively the tutorial out of the way. The second...christ. The trailer had to get around an extremely tight corner...backwards! Even using the overhead view I just couldn't manage it and gave up. Admittedly I had gone in forwards first, and the difficulty mainly lay in trying to reverse the bugger out, but I thought if I can't reverse it out, I wouldn't have been able to reverse it in in the first place.
Ah well. Plenty more to see and do later.
Quote from: WallysWorld on February 02, 2016, 03:35:42 PM
AS long as the individual state DLC's are high detail
Apparently the cities are much more detailed than in ETS2. I wouldn't know, my first job was only nine miles and my second took me straight out of the city. I'll report more on this later.
Quote from: Huw the Poo on February 02, 2016, 03:42:47 PM
Quote from: WallysWorld on February 02, 2016, 03:35:42 PM
AS long as the individual state DLC's are high detail
Apparently the cities are much more detailed than in ETS2. I wouldn't know, my first job was only nine miles and my second took me straight out of the city. I'll report more on this later.
As if I wasn't sold on this game before but after reading your report I'm sold even more! :)
By the way are the trucks extremely expensive to buy therefor requiring a loan? Or can you make money fast enough as a contract driver and buy your own truck easier than you could in ETS2?
Just did one more job, the longest route that was available to me. I'm happy to report that there does seem to be more detail. There's definitely a greater variety of buildings in towns and cities, and the road networks are a bit more complicated too; twice on my last job I drove around vast highway entrances/exits, gazing up at sections of highway that were higher than my current position. It was a nice sight to behold. So far nothing has ever seemed "samey", which ETS2 is definitely afflicted with on occasion. Although take that with a grain of salt as I've hardly scratched the surface yet.
Another thing I like: American roads are wide. In ETS2 you can barely fit your truck in a lane, but in ATS you can drive a bit more leisurely, and afford to spend more time appreciating the scenery instead of locking your gaze on the road at all times.
Speaking of roads...did y'all know that you drive on the wrong side of them?! :idiot2: It's quite jarring to be sat on the left side of the cabin!
One negative, although it says more about my skill than the game itself...fuck parking in this game. For the third time in a row, I had to give up parking at the end of my journey because I was expected to reverse the trailer into a space that I could easily have done going forwards. It's frustrating. Either I'm going to have to get used to using autoparking (at a detriment to XP gain) or learn how to park in reverse. Eurgh.
W8, to answer your question...the cheapest truck I've found so far is around $110,000 and you're making $2,000-$3,000 per job at the start of the game, so unless you're willing to grind it out a bank loan seems inevitable (incidentally, the bank option was opened to me after my third job). You can take a $100,000 loan at a repayment rate of around $1,800 a day, which is easily doable, so I wouldn't be bothered by it. I'll certainly take the loan next time I play. I keep getting speeding tickets anyway, so I'll never work my way up to that truck otherwise.
Didn't have as much time to play as I expected this evening, but I'm happy to answer any more questions as and when I can.
Big thumbs up so far!
Quote from: Huw the Poo on February 02, 2016, 05:49:45 PM
Just did one more job, the longest route that was available to me. I'm happy to report that there does seem to be more detail. There's definitely a greater variety of buildings in towns and cities, and the road networks are a bit more complicated too; twice on my last job I drove around vast highway entrances/exits, gazing up at sections of highway that were higher than my current position. It was a nice sight to behold. So far nothing has ever seemed "samey", which ETS2 is definitely afflicted with on occasion. Although take that with a grain of salt as I've hardly scratched the surface yet.
Another thing I like: American roads are wide. In ETS2 you can barely fit your truck in a lane, but in ATS you can drive a bit more leisurely, and afford to spend more time appreciating the scenery instead of locking your gaze on the road at all times.
Speaking of roads...did y'all know that you drive on the wrong side of them?! :idiot2: It's quite jarring to be sat on the left side of the cabin!
One negative, although it says more about my skill than the game itself...fuck parking in this game. For the third time in a row, I had to give up parking at the end of my journey because I was expected to reverse the trailer into a space that I could easily have done going forwards. It's frustrating. Either I'm going to have to get used to using autoparking (at a detriment to XP gain) or learn how to park in reverse. Eurgh.
W8, to answer your question...the cheapest truck I've found so far is around $110,000 and you're making $2,000-$3,000 per job at the start of the game, so unless you're willing to grind it out a bank loan seems inevitable (incidentally, the bank option was opened to me after my third job). You can take a $100,000 loan at a repayment rate of around $1,800 a day, which is easily doable, so I wouldn't be bothered by it. I'll certainly take the loan next time I play. I keep getting speeding tickets anyway, so I'll never work my way up to that truck otherwise.
Didn't have as much time to play as I expected this evening, but I'm happy to answer any more questions as and when I can.
Big thumbs up so far!
As a Southerner, I appreciate the use of the word "y'all" in the bolded above.
So you're saying backing into spaces is much tougher in this game? I eventually got the hang of it in ETS2 - but you never had to back into a super-tight space, or around the corner!
Nice about wider lanes - especially if there is better scenery to gawk at. You're right, I spend most of my driving time in ETS2 eyeballing the side mirrors to make sure that the line stripes stay a constant distance from the wheels. Just a few more inches would really help.
And yes, ETS2 can be "samey," for sure. There are like 2 types of rest stops and maybe 4 or 5 types of interchanges. You don't see many buildings on the highway, and the ones you do are all the same. Why is the game so fun, anyway? Beats me, it just is.
Quote from: glen55 on February 02, 2016, 06:09:29 PM
So you're saying backing into spaces is much tougher in this game? I eventually got the hang of it in ETS2 - but you never had to back into a super-tight space, or around the corner!
Sorry, I haven't been making myself very clear in this thread. Yeah, you generally back into parking spaces in ETS2, but you can at least approach them forwards and just turn around. However in ATS, on all three occasions so far there hasn't been room to turn around, so you have to manoeuvre around two or three tight corners backwards. I just can't do it...yet.
QuoteNice about wider lanes - especially if there is better scenery to gawk at. You're right, I spend most of my driving time in ETS2 eyeballing the side mirrors to make sure that the line stripes stay a constant distance from the wheels. Just a few more inches would really help.
Yeah, I think you'll be very happy with this aspect of ATS. :)
QuoteWhy is the game so fun, anyway? Beats me, it just is.
Haha! I literally tried the demo of ETS2 to see why on Earth anyone could ever enjoy a game like that. I think I bought it the same evening. :) There's just something so relaxing and enjoyable about hauling cargo around the country, eh? No idea why.
Great news. Actually their older title Scania Truck Simulator has one of the most trickiest parking situations and strictest traffic police. I haven't tried American Truck Sim yet.
Blog about Scania below back in 2012.
http://jomnisgames.blogspot.sg/2012/09/truck-driving-games-are-actually-fun.html?q=truck
QuoteThe most challenging aspect of the game is actually parking the trailer. Your clients (the random mission engine) has this tendency to give you very challenging requests once in a while. This will test both your intelligence and skill. Once you become frustrated, there is actually a "cheat button" which automatically parks for you. I have only used it a couple of times but I believe that I should park the trailers myself as much as possible as it is the highlight of the mission. It is similar to landing an airplane in Flight Simulator. Bringing the cargo to the destination awards you some points but is not the only thing that you need to think about. You are penalized whenever you break traffic rules (speed limit, traffic light, driving on the wrong side of the road) and when you hit another object with your truck (even if it's a minor accident).
Too bad they made parking pretty easy in ETS2.
How's the map coverage?
Quote from: jomni on February 02, 2016, 06:23:48 PM
How's the map coverage?
Two states which, at a very rough guess, look to compare to two countries in ETS2. So, definitely a long way to go until it catches up with ETS2, but there's plenty more on the way by all accounts. Arizona should arrive soon, which will be free.
Quote from: Huw the Poo on February 02, 2016, 05:49:45 PM
Speaking of roads...did y'all know that you drive on the wrong side of them?! :idiot2: It's quite jarring to be sat on the left side of the cabin!
Don't you know your history, man? The inalienable right to drive on the
correct side of the road is one of the reasons we Yanks fought the American Revolution.
Pretty sure it's in the Bill of Rights........ :D
Quote from: glen55 on February 02, 2016, 02:50:08 PM
Quote from: Huw the Poo on February 02, 2016, 02:08:45 PM
Steam page (http://store.steampowered.com/app/270880)
The sequel to the hugely popular - for good reason - Euro Truck Simulator 2 is here! Initially the areas offered are California and Nevada (excellent choices in my opinion), with more, starting with Arizona, to come.
I've bought it already and am very excited to play it tonight. ETS2 was, to my complete surprise, absolutely brilliant and hopefully ATS will be even more so. I'll post impressions later.
Only £15 by the way!
Only two states, one of which is over 1200KM from north to south. California alone is 77% the size of France.
I really amazed myself by how much time I spent in ETS2. America is the land of highways, not to mention a large and geographically diverse nation, so in theory, ATS could be a significantly more varied and altogether superior game. I have really been looking forward to this, and am a little surprised it is already out.
A bit disappointed, though, that there are only 2 states. I may stay out of the pool for a while - especially since I just got my Xcom 2 key from cdkeys.com!
It's not really an American Truck Simulator if you can't drive from Texarkana to Atlanta. :coolsmiley:
The rest of continental Europe drives at the same side as America.
I managed to put in a further hour and a half tonight and I'm happy to report that I'm even more impressed.
So far the scenery has definitely been much more varied than in ETS2. In fact, doing a relatively lengthy job this evening I actually drove through a couple of small towns, which I don't recall doing in ETS2. The towns are all hand-crafted, nothing identikit to them, and coupled with the more varied scenery I haven't felt like I've seen it all before at all yet. The graphics are pretty good too, and crucially, the game runs extremely well. On high settings neither my CPU nor my GPU break a sweat.
Parking. It turns out that when you get to your destination, you have a choice of hard parking, normal parking or auto parking. The normal parking is comparable to ETS2 so I've finally been able to park a few times now! Hard parking remains beyond my skill. The last job I just did, I had to go onto a tanker and the hard parking choice wanted me to turn around in an extremely small space and reverse in between two tightly-packed rows of containers. I could barely get it in going forwards, there was no way I could do it backwards!
The roads continue to be much wider than in ETS2 wherever I've gone so far. I mean it isn't stupid, you still need to keep your eyes peeled, but you can definitely enjoy the scenery more in ATS.
The only real criticism I can level at the game so far is the lack of content compared to ETS2. The map is obviously smaller, and thus far there seem only to be two truck dealers (there are more than two dealerships, but only two dealers). More will come in time, just as it did with ETS2, but if you think you'll get bored very quickly then you may want to hold off for a while - although if you do, you're missing out big time in my opinion. If you liked ETS2 this is a no-brainer. ATS is a very, very good game.
Just bought my first truck:
(https://i.imgur.com/ZXUoV9o.jpg?1)
The plan for now is to do jobs in as many different places as possible in order to build up a cash reserve while mapping the area. Then, when I've found some recruitment agencies, I'll hire another driver and start making serious cash.
Quote from: glen55 on February 02, 2016, 02:50:08 PM
Quote from: Huw the Poo on February 02, 2016, 02:08:45 PM
Steam page (http://store.steampowered.com/app/270880)
The sequel to the hugely popular - for good reason - Euro Truck Simulator 2 is here! Initially the areas offered are California and Nevada (excellent choices in my opinion), with more, starting with Arizona, to come.
I've bought it already and am very excited to play it tonight. ETS2 was, to my complete surprise, absolutely brilliant and hopefully ATS will be even more so. I'll post impressions later.
Only £15 by the way!
I really amazed myself by how much time I spent in ETS2. America is the land of highways, not to mention a large and geographically diverse nation, so in theory, ATS could be a significantly more varied and altogether superior game. I have really been looking forward to this, and am a little surprised it is already out.
A bit disappointed, though, that there are only 2 states. I may stay out of the pool for a while - especially since I just got my Xcom 2 key from cdkeys.com!
It's not really an American Truck Simulator if you can't drive from Texarkana to Atlanta. :coolsmiley:
i passed a truck this morning with this exact image painted on the back
So can you get in the left (passing) lane and not pass anything, holding up traffic, like so many American truckers do?
Yeah, the only traffic laws that are enforced are speed and crashing into other vehicles. Apart from that, you can be as much of a bellend on the road as you like. :)
How is speed enforced? Are there actually cops on the side of the road every so often? Or does it just automatically fine you? The latter sounds lame.
There are cops actively patrolling. A suspiciously high number of them if you ask me! Yeah, you can often get away with exceeding the speed limit but if a cop sees you exceed it by so much as 1mph you're instantly fined. I've acquired a lot of fines.
Look, here's me being a bellend:
(https://i.imgur.com/6dNYoaV.jpg?1)
As you can see, I'm within 1mph of the speed limit so it took me bloody ages to pass that guy. :)
Stopping for petrol at sunset:
(https://i.imgur.com/tHlGHZe.jpg?1)
Driving through the California wilderness shortly afterward:
(https://i.imgur.com/xD5Rb5Y.jpg?1)
Hanging around in LA, watching all the failed actors going in search of their next heroin fix:
(https://i.imgur.com/W82wzlm.jpg?1)
Hmm...I haven't tried running anyone over yet...
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn3-www.shocktillyoudrop.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F12%2FMaxOv6.png&hash=21145fd58047f9b31aa101c6d5895cc9963699ed)
^^ Thought that was an early mod at first! >:D
A few years ago, my brother actually had an opportunity for us to invest in a small trucking company (although someone else would have been the driver. But since I don't have a family, I could have learned and gotten a license and been the first fleet extension.)
Had things worked out differently, I'd be doing this for real right now. :coolsmiley:
Instead I'm playing Evochron. :P ::)
Do they model seedy truck stops with meth dealers and hookers?
Quote from: Banzai_Cat on February 06, 2016, 10:51:22 AM
How is speed enforced? Are there actually cops on the side of the road every so often? Or does it just automatically fine you? The latter sounds lame.
I got speeding tickets twice already. :(
There are cops all around. They patrol or sometimes hide and wait.
In Europe, there is no speed limit for most stretch of highways. O0
Yeah, ETS2 is definitely more lenient in this regard. There are no cops at all, just speed cameras which are easily anticipated.
For various reasons, ATS is turning out to be a more challenging game.
Quote from: Huw the Poo on February 06, 2016, 07:30:58 PM
Yeah, ETS2 is definitely more lenient in this regard. There are no cops at all, just speed cameras which are easily anticipated.
For various reasons, ATS is turning out to be a more challenging game.
But really small map. :(
Hopefully it'll be as good as this timeless classic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DshAs75Vv_c
Quote from: Huw the Poo on February 06, 2016, 07:30:58 PM
Yeah, ETS2 is definitely more lenient in this regard. There are no cops at all, just speed cameras which are easily anticipated.
For various reasons, ATS is turning out to be a more challenging game.
In ETS2, I made my best money taking long runs and putting the petal to the metal the whole way. Slow down enough not to crash. Try to slow down for the speed cameras when I saw them coming, but otherwise just take the occasional ticket as operating expenses.
Sounds like that won't be the ticket in ATS.
The comments in this thread definitely make it sound like an improvement, but I'm still waiting for more content before I dive in. As I mentioned previously, I expect I have a certain number of hours that I can play ATS before I hit the wall, and I want them to be good.
There are really no speed limits in Europe. At least in Germany. If there are in other countries, then it's way too high for trucks as you can only go so fast.
I also like the performance of European trucks more. I feel the American trucks are too slow to accelerate and has too much gears.
Glen55, going by your comments, I think my advice to you would be to hold off. The only serious drawback to ATS right now is the size of the map, it really is quite small albeit very nicely detailed. I've already seen every major city and by the time I was level 3 I'd been to around 20% of it - god knows how much I've seen now. I hope for the developer's sake they get Arizona out quickly because map size is a frequent complaint on the Steam forum too.
I must emphasise though that this really is the only drawback, unless you consider the higher difficulty a problem too. I stand by my earlier comments that ATS is a very, very good game. As someone who put a lot of time into ETS2, I'm satisfied with ATS. It just needs to get bigger. :)
San Francisco discovered:
(https://i.imgur.com/SEnuIeK.jpg?1)
Driving along a particularly beautiful bit of coastline:
(https://i.imgur.com/JuHERUw.jpg?1)
The new steampunk paintjobs are in, so I immediately grabbed one:
(https://i.imgur.com/MmvMmCD.jpg?1)
That was just as I was delivering some mechanical equipment to the arse-end of nowhere.
Guess who just found the photo studio!
I took a much better shot of my steampunk skin:
(https://i.imgur.com/ZNT56HT.jpg?1)
Took a big loan, bought a truck. Here goes...
The reasonable part of my game says there's nothing fun about this, but yet I am intrigued.
I bought it, what the heck:) Might be a nice stress reliever after all my deaths in xcom 2!
Pick up a Grogheads trucker cap from the cafe press store to get you in the truckdrivin' mood.
First surprise....game is only about a 1gb download....that's a stunner nowadays....but looks pretty so must have some good optimization or something...
I really hate driving through towns due to the sudden change of speed limit from 55mph to 30mph with out warnings.
Must always check out the GPS for the actual limit.
Quote from: Banzai_Cat on February 07, 2016, 07:52:27 PM
The reasonable part of my game says there's nothing fun about this, but yet I am intrigued.
Heh, that's what
everyone thinks to begin with, myself included! Try the demo - if ATS doesn't have one yet, ETS2 does. You'll soon see what all the fuss is about. ;)
Grim, yeah, I think it's very well optimised. My mid-range PC can handle it with everything turned right up and doesn't break a sweat.
Jomni, I agree, the speed limits are up and down like a whore's drawers sometimes. When you start getting pulled into weighbridges the limit drops to 20, so be careful of that!
Quote from: Huw the Poo on February 08, 2016, 01:46:58 AM
Jomni, I agree, the speed limits are up and down like a whore's drawers sometimes. When you start getting pulled into weighbridges the limit drops to 20, so be careful of that!
Damn! Thanks for the warning. I always compare to Europe. In ETS2, at least you get ample warning about the speed limits per section. There are signs everywhere.
Hard parking.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.akamai.steamusercontent.com%2Fugc%2F309989521293828996%2F4BDDFEC55FD84E4148BBE677D41D632E74E29424%2F&hash=7387ce14359401afc725b721b3729f75f1608d12)
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.akamai.steamusercontent.com%2Fugc%2F309989521293829338%2FD5D8440FACEC5993BB39008296A9338650F02534%2F&hash=116284e58485d08bd09c70255bae4d64d8dfbc86)
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.akamai.steamusercontent.com%2Fugc%2F309989521293829466%2F4172F5FD92FDE0990410625EE0134E346B20878E%2F&hash=2a003df84594afc3f31d12dae8737199fc0ee90f)
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.akamai.steamusercontent.com%2Fugc%2F309989521293829593%2F43F29D84095DBB1094E947C369B083428180F18F%2F&hash=30f3e6194ecdf71a7a933f5c5518824ef9c9271e)
Quote from: Huw the Poo on February 08, 2016, 01:46:58 AM
Jomni, I agree, the speed limits are up and down like a whore's drawers sometimes. When you start getting pulled into weighbridges the limit drops to 20, so be careful of that!
I can't say about the West Coast but here in my part of the East Coast, especially in the older cities and towns, it's common to see sudden speed changes due to old roads with sharp corners and hilly sections, or even places where the small towns have reacted to local residents complaining about traffic speeds in front of their homes. These spots almost never have a warning sign before the actual sign posting the limit.
^^ True everywhere in the US I've ever been (though no farther west than Dallas), whether as far north as New Hampshire or as south as Miami.
I'd never set up my factory to force trucks to do insane things like that, though. I'd say it seems gamey (in the sense that the designers are screwing with you), but I know places are that thoughtless in real life, too.
Ok that speed limit thing is kind of turning me off to the game now. Are the speed traps and fines frequent enough to be irritating to the gameplay experience? In ETS2 I could drive as fast as my rig would let me on the highway and there was always proper warning to slow down when near big cities.
Quote from: W8taminute on February 09, 2016, 06:55:34 AM
Ok that speed limit thing is kind of turning me off to the game now. Are the speed traps and fines frequent enough to be irritating to the gameplay experience? In ETS2 I could drive as fast as my rig would let me on the highway and there was always proper warning to slow down when near big cities.
I get fined for every job. Really have to get used to it.
I haven't been fined in the last few runs. It's just something you have to get used to; when you go through towns the limit will change, and various other times you soon learn to spot. As long as you keep your eye on your satnav you should be fine.
The reason I kept being caught out at the beginning is that it's quite different to ETS2. Now that I'm used to ATS it isn't really a problem.
Good to hear guys.
Demo now available. It's limited to California and by the number of jobs you can do, but is otherwise exactly the same as the full game.
Did you guys check out the radio? I tuned into Truckers FM. I have yet to put in custom URLS for The stations.
I just put a symlink in the music directory pointing at my collection, although I have no idea how the in-game radio orders the tracks; it groups albums together but the tracklisting within an album seems random, which is a bit annoying.
For internet radio, I already have my favourite channels set up in Amarok so I just play that in the background before launching the game.
Still, having an in-game radio is pretty bloody awesome innit?
I read that you can listen to internet stations and they play the actual news on the hour, every hour. Which is pretty damn immersive for a trucker game. . . .
Patch released with new truck added....looks like they are adjusting the offenses...
•Player has more time to react to changes in speed limit before it is enforced by the police.
•Tweaked police offence probabilities for 'no lights' and 'speeding'
•Added option for disabling traffic offense
•Added reduction of fines based on player's level
Yeah the fines now scale with player level, which should make a lot of people happy. Also apparently you can now turn right at a red light as long as you indicate. I didn't even know that was a thing...
SCS are clearly paying careful attention to player feedback. :)
Quote from: Huw the Poo on February 15, 2016, 05:41:58 PM
Yeah the fines now scale with player level, which should make a lot of people happy. Also apparently you can now turn right at a red light as long as you indicate. I didn't even know that was a thing...
SCS are clearly paying careful attention to player feedback. :)
Many states here in the US have a road rule which allows motorists to turn right even if the light is red provided you come to a complete stop first. Do they have this kind of rule on European roads?
Nope, or at least not in the UK. Although, now that I think about it, it does sound like a good idea. It must help to ease congestion somewhat.
^It does help a little during the morning rush hour when everyone is queued up at a red light. If there is room and you need to turn right you can squeak by getting you to the office a few minutes earlier.
Some screenshots of the upcoming Arizona map: http://blog.scssoft.com/2016/04/the-grand-canyon-state.html (http://blog.scssoft.com/2016/04/the-grand-canyon-state.html)
Arizona was released today, for free. O0
...and, yes, it includes the Grand Canyon.
Any mods exist to make this a "70's," American Truck Simulator? I have a need to shut smokey down and do what they say can't be done in my cab-over Kenworth.
Quote from: Dammit Carl! on June 07, 2016, 08:06:47 AM
Any mods exist to make this a "70's," American Truck Simulator? I have a need to shut smokey down and do what they say can't be done in my cab-over Kenworth.
Watch out for them Bears in the Air, man!
I saw this on sale on Steam and almost grabbed it, but then I ran it through Can You Run It's website, and nope. Glad I checked first. :-\
Quote from: Banzai_Cat on June 11, 2016, 09:48:58 PM
I saw this on sale on Steam and almost grabbed it, but then I ran it through Can You Run It's website, and nope. Glad I checked first. :-\
Dude, those websites are incredibly unreliable to the point where I'd call them useless. ATS uses the same engine as ETS, which is very scalable. Looking at the minimum requirements posted by the developer, they're very low. Just how bad is your PC?
The PC I upgraded from last year was able to run ETS no problem. Its specs: Pentium-D Dual Core 1.8 GHz (that's right, not even a proper core 2 duo), 4GB RAM, nVidia GT 240.
Quote from: Huw the Poo on June 12, 2016, 03:06:23 AM
Just how bad is your PC?
Quad CPU @2.5 GHz
4 GB RAM
AMD Radeon HD 5700
And almost 9 years old.
So you think it would run ATS? I admit ignorance when it comes to the CPU.
Well your CPU smashes the minimum requirements, RAM is fine and considering Intel HD 4000 graphics are supported, your radeon should be fine.
Why not try the demo?
Quote from: Huw the Poo on June 12, 2016, 03:14:57 PM
Well your CPU smashes the minimum requirements, RAM is fine and considering Intel HD 4000 graphics are supported, your radeon should be fine.
Why not try the demo?
I totally overlooked that. Thanks. I'll check it out!
I had time today to run the demo...and wow, it works! Works great, too. Maybe the graphics could be better (I didn't tweak anything in the Options page; I just let it do its thing). It ran very smoothly. I can't believe how I was NOT tempted at all to go GTA on everyone around me and actually drive, obeying the speed limits and stop signs and turn signals and...yeah, that was strange, everyone ELSE was using their turn signals, so I know that's how I'm not in a real simulation. ;D
Anyway, I only played it for about 45 minutes, but it was enjoyable...and I HAVE NO IDEA WHY. ??? I might buy it eventually. It's on sale for $15.99 right now, but I usually only partake of mega-discounts. I'm sure it'll be there at some point. The demo looks like it has a lot to it so it might be a while before I run out of options with it.
It's a good game and the developer has announced that it has sold so well that they are expanding the scale of the game to match ETS2's scale: http://www.pcgamer.com/american-truck-simulators-map-size-to-increase/ (http://www.pcgamer.com/american-truck-simulators-map-size-to-increase/)
Acknowledging complaints that its roads are too teeny, developer SCS Software has announced that the sim's world is soon to expand, from a map of 1:35 scale to one of 1:20 scale, basically resulting in 75% longer roads out in the wilderness. The new scale will be equivalent to that of the map in Euro Truck Simulator 2, and as you can see from this visual demonstration, there'll be a pretty substantial increase in the size of the world.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/americantrucksimulator/announcements/detail/970905287446484931 (https://steamcommunity.com/games/americantrucksimulator/announcements/detail/970905287446484931)
Fortunately American Truck Simulator started strong out of the gate, and we are now confident that its sales can sustain an even larger development team than we originally hoped for. SCS Software has since more than doubled in size, and we are in the process of hiring even more map designers and 3D artists.
I could see how the world is a little small. For my last haul, I chose a Sacramento > Bakersfield route, which in the real world is close to 300 miles/4+ hours or so, I think. Of course, I do NOT want to drive in a game for 4+ hours, so I totally get why the world is a bit 'shorter' than normal. However, I wouldn't mind seeing the driving lengths extended.
One thing I noticed, and maybe it was designed like this on purpose, is that the gas stations aren't exactly convenient. I found it odd that I had to pull into what looked like a 'normal' gas station as opposed to a full-on truck stop. Are there full-sized truck stops in the full version/demo? Just curious.
Bless its heart, I had to go and buy the full version. WHY IS THIS GAME such fun?
Quote from: Banzai_Cat on June 29, 2016, 05:17:27 PM
Bless its heart, I had to go and buy the full version. WHY IS THIS GAME such fun?
It's relaxing
The map re-scale beta has been released for ATS. You have to opt into the beta on Steam to download it. I am doing so now and the download is about 640 MB is size.
Was really waiting for this re-scale to be released even if it's beta.
ATS developer blog (http://blog.scssoft.com/search/label/American%20Truck%20Simulator)
Quote from: WallysWorld on November 15, 2016, 03:22:33 PM
The map re-scale beta has been released for ATS. You have to opt into the beta on Steam to download it. I am doing so now and the download is about 640 MB is size.
Was really waiting for this re-scale to be released even if it's beta.
ATS developer blog (http://blog.scssoft.com/search/label/American%20Truck%20Simulator)
Interesting...changing the scale from 1:35 to 1:20 will certainly add more driving time. Let us know how that goes - I don't usually mess with the optional betas. If I install it does that mean the 'regular' version of ATS goes away?
So far, very good. No crashes or anything like that and SCS released a beta update yesterday. But some users have complained of frame rate issues in cities. I haven't found any myself.
Really like the re-scale as the old scale made the driving way too short.
Almost all mods that I did have work fine with the beta: jazzycat's AI traffic, physics mods and so on.
I hadn't thought about trying any mods, WW. Which ones do you recommend? I take it the one you mentioned is good.
I did install the beta but I haven't fired it up yet.
The AI traffic mods by Jazzycat are excellent as they add a bunch of varied traffic to the game: Jazzycat's ATS traffic mods (http://atsmods.lt/?s=jazzycat)
The longer yellow lights mod is also good as I find that the yellow lights are too fast: ATS longer yellow light mod (http://atsmods.lt/longer-yellow-lights-2/)
Lastly this sound pack is also very good: ATS sound pack mod (http://atsmods.lt/sound-fixes-pack-v-17-4-anniversary-edition/)
Nice! Thanks for the recommends. I'm going to play this when I have a few hours of uninterrupted time...