American Truck Simulator has launched! (Linux, Mac, Windows)

[Huw the Poo]

Steam page

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!

[glen55]

Steam page

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.   

[Cyrano]

Nope...

[Huw the Poo]

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

[glen55]

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!

[WallysWorld]

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.

[W8taminute]

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.   :)

[Huw the Poo]

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.

[Huw the Poo]

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.

[W8taminute]

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?

[Huw the Poo]

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?!  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!

[glen55]

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?!  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.

[Huw the Poo]

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.

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.

Yeah, I think you'll be very happy with this aspect of ATS. :)

Why 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.

[jomni]

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

The 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?

[Huw the Poo]

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.