Realism through Simulation
Until next time….I’ll just keep waiting for AZ. We know it will be worth the wait.
Happy Trucking!!!
J
This weeks ATS Mod Review features the wonderful AI Traffic Pack by JazzyCat. If you want to “jazz” up your AI traffic with all sorts of new real world vehicle types like Ford F150, Jeep Wrangler, Chevy Tahoe, Volkswagen Beetle and even Harley Davidson Motorcycles…then this traffic pack is what you need. The images below are property of Jazzycat and obtained from the mod. I included them in this blog article to provide you a better view of what is available from the mod.
This mod is the AI Traffic Pack by Jazzycat mod for American Truck Simulator. The mod adds real world AI cars, pickups, SUV’s and even motorcycles to your in-game traffic.
The Freightliner Classic Truck mod mod for American Truck Simulator is available here.
Please see my blog post “How to Install Mods in American Truck Simulator” for complete instructions.
Until next time…
Happy Trucking!!!
J
It’s been a while since I’ve spent much time in American Truck Simulator. As I believe I’ve mentioned before, within the first few weeks of playing I had pretty much discovered everything there was to discover within California and Nevada. ATS was released almost two months ago (2 Feb.) and at the time I write this blog posting, we are still very much patiently ANXIOUSLY awaiting for the official Arizona DLC to drop. Oh, before I continue…let me just speak my mind regarding the Arizona DLC. I’ll also just state (for the record) that my thoughts/opinions on things are completely my own. But…(again in my opinion) I would have thought SCS Software would have already released the Arizona DLC by now. I’m not suggesting it should be released if it was not ready, but I believe there was a certain amount of momentum, excitement, anticipation, drama etc. etc. built up with the build up to the official release of American Truck Simulator (2 Feb.) and it would have been awesome to ride that momentum etc. with the official release of the Arizona DLC around the first month anniversary mark. Keep in mind that I’m also not suggesting SCS should commit (or even indicate) they can release a new US state every 30 days. But I just think some of the air has been let out of the balloon. The more time which stands between the 2 Feb date and the date Arizona is ready will see the balloon go a bit flatter and flatter. But again, this is all just my opinion.
As we spent time in Europe for our Trucker’s Logbook #3 and #4, it is time we come back to the USA. Again, with no Arizona DLC…I’ve just been occasionally hauling cargo within California and Nevada. I’ve also been developing all my hired drivers and making sure they have everything they need to be successful. Our current status is much the same as it’s been the past several weeks. Our HQ is in Los Angeles and we have a garage in San Diego and in Las Vegas. All garages have been upgraded to accommodate 5 trucks/5 drivers. In addition to the three garages, we own 14 trucks and employ 13 drivers. There is a reason for keeping one garage slot open. This allows me to test (occasionally) some new truck mods. But I’ll likely fill this up soon. Overall our company is healthy and with over $500K in the bank (and no loans) we are cooking with gas.
So as I said, we are back in the USA and you may remember several weeks ago I discussed the Coast-to-Coast map. Back in late February I drove from LA to Boston (and back). In the past several weeks the maps developer, Mantrid has released many updates to this map including the most recent version (1.5) which includes several new routes. One of the new routes added includes the complete stretch of US Interstate 10 from Los Angeles, California to Jacksonville, Florida. On Mantrid’s new coast-to-coast map, I-10 takes you through Phoenix, El Paso, San Antonio, Houston, New Orleans, Mobile, Tallahassee. There are also routes covering a portion of I-35 and I-45 in Texas and he’s included a route from Jacksonville, FL down to Miami and up to DC.
Before I get into the meat of our posting today, allow me just to re-state the following. Mantrid’s Coast-to-Coast map was a project he started for his own personal interest of driving from the west coast to the east coast of the USA. He shared his first version of the map and made it extremely clear it was a work in progress and that the scenery (when there is something to see) is mostly a cut/paste from California and Nevada. So this meant seeing palm trees in New York City. While I have been critical of some of the map projects currently under development for ATS (read this post), Mantrid made it 100% clear his map may never be 100% accurate and include 100% real life depictions of the cities and routes he includes.
As I’ve already driven the more northerly route from LA out to Boston, I wanted to pick up a route that would take me out across the southern portion of the USA on I-10. The one we chose was hauling a load of toys from Sell Goods in LA out to Charged in Miami (in a Fedex trailer). The route is a whopping 2,716 miles with an estimated drive time of 70 hours, 36 minutes. The job will pay $66,245 or $24.28 per mile.
Again our route takes all the way across the southern portion of the US along I-10 from LA to Jacksonville, Florida. Then down I-95 through the Space Coast portion of Florida to Miami.
As we did for our last coast-to-coast trip, I have opted for the Kenworth W900. It’s still dark thirty as we fuel up at our LA garage. The trailer pickup point is just around the corner.
We pickup our FedEx trailer just before 4:30 AM on Thursday morning. We are fully rested, fully fueled…”we’ve got a long ways to go and a short time to get there”.
The absolute worst part of this entire 2,700 mile trip will be the first few hours of driving 55 mph through California. Thankfully, once we cross the state line into Arizona and continue eastbound, the speed limits keep rising. (well mostly) Welcome to Arizona!
Unfortunately, Mantrid placed a red light intersection and a 30 mph speed zone through Phoenix.
Hello New Mexico!
Our first night (and fuel stop) will be near Deming, NM. We still have a very long way to go.
As I said earlier, there isn’t much to look at in terms of scenery. Miles and Miles of Texas (I-10 between El Paso and San Antonio) Speaking of Texas and I-10, US Interstate 10 is just over 880 miles from the entry point just before El Paso to the Texas/Louisiana state line at Orange, Texas. We spend the better portion of Day Two just crossing Texas. We would spend our second night just outside Lafayette, Louisiana.
The scenery just outside New Orleans with a few ships in the gulf. This is somewhat near the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway (but not really depicted on this map)
After a very long day 1 (driving across CA, AZ and NM) and a long day 2 (driving across TX), the US States of Louisana, Mississippi, Alabama zipped by pretty quickly. Our third night would place us around Melbourne, Florida (along the Space Coast portion). This would set us up for an easy day 4 with less than 200 miles to drive. As I’ve said, the coast-to-coast map has a lot of cut/paste features from CA and NV. Does the image look familiar? This is in Miami, but this is also in LA.
We’ve arrived at Charged in Miami, Florida.
I continue to level up and progress nicely.
Parked up at the nearby repair shop where will plan out our next opportunity.
If it can be worked out, ideally I would love to get a route from Miami that I could haul north up to the DC or NY area. Then before I head back to Cali, I would like to head back to Oklahoma City then South down I-35 through Dallas/Ft. Worth and continue south on I-35 to San Antonio. While there is nothing to see along this route. My parents live half-way between Waco and Austin (Temple) on I-35. We’ll see if can make all that work out.
If you aren’t bothered by long stretches of open road with little to nothing to look, and you aren’t bothered with some cut/paste to populate some of the cities along the way AND you truly want to experience driving the long and open road, then check out Mantrid’s Coast-to-Coast map.
Now for a bit of good news. I really don’t follow that many of the add-on on map projects for ATS. You can get a better understanding of this by reading this blog posting. But, I do follow Mantrid’s progress. Mantrid continues to work on this map and is adding more routes, more cities and more stuff all the time. This map may never be to the level of quality and accuracy we will see from SCS or from the likes of ProMods. But it was never designed to be.
Enjoy it…or pass it by. The decision is yours….
By the way, it took me just under two hours (real life hours) to drive from LA to Miami.
Until next time…
Watch out for those bears….
Jerry
Would you like to see other types of AI truck traffic in American Truck Simulator than the Kenworth/Peterbilt offered in game? This mod will introduce many different types of trucks to the AI fleet and provide much variety including cab-over and conventional.
This mod is the Truck Traffic Pack by Jazzycat. This mod will introduce many different types of trucks to the AI fleet and provide much variety including cab-over and conventional.
The Truck Traffic Pack by Jazzycat mod for American Truck Simulator is available here.
Please see my blog post “How to Install Mods in American Truck Simulator” for complete instructions.
Until next time…
Happy Trucking!!!
J
I have briefly made comments when talking about map mods for both American Truck Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator 2. The words I’ve used to express my own opinion of map mods is quality over quantity. At the present time (according to the SCS forums for ATS map mods) there are about ten different ATS map mod projects underway in various forms of competition. With ten or so being actively discussed in the SCS Forums I linked to above, how many are currently in various forms of development that we may not know about? Who knows right. In all honesty, the only expansion may I’m truly interested in is the map of Arizona which SCS Software is currently working on. But that of course is a different story.
The ATS Map Mods actively being discussed in the SCS forums include the following: Coast to Coast Map, Hawaii, MHAPro map ATS – by Heavy Alex, Alaska, Project Australia, USA Offroad Map, Project Utah, Republic of China, DFW Metroplex, Project Idaho and Oregon. Whew….what a list!
I’m going to re-group the above list into a few different categories. The first being, “I Get That”, “I don’t know what this is about” and “Why?” This will be fun, let’s go!
Coast to Coast – This map project started as a personal project of a modder named Mantrid. I’ve talked about the Coast to Coast map before as well as another helpful ATS mod titled Speed Limit Fixes. Mantrid created this map for his own use in order to be able to drive longer distances than what we currently have access to in ATS. When he shared this map he indicated it was a work in progress and for the most part, the map consisted of a route taking truckers from California through Arizona and out to the furthest point of Boston. The cities included along the way were pretty sparse and the scenery was really just a duplicating cut and paste from that of the base California and Nevada map. That is why on the first release or so of this Coast to Coast map you’ll see palm trees around New York City. This map (current release is 1.4.1) has been much improved and Mantrid has plans to further develop it based on feedback received in the forums. One of the next major editions to the map will feature Interstate 10. I-10 runs from Los Angeles all the way to Jacksonville, Florida. The route will take virtual truckers through Phoenix, Tucson, El Paso, San Antonio, Houston, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Mobile, Pensacola, Tallahassee. At least this is the real world route. It’s unclear just how far Mantrid is planning to develop this map. While I drove the distance to Boston once, I’ll likely drive the I-10 route when this version is released at least once.
USA Offroad and Alaska – This is really a combined project from what I understand. While I attempted to install, I had issues and quickly backed out. But the concept is worthy of me classifying it in the “I Get That” category. With Alaska, every one has probably seen the History Channel program titled Ice Road Truckers. I’m not sure why this is on the History Channel, but that is a completely different discussion. The program showcases life as a trucker driver moving goods across the the dangerous roads in Canada and Alaska. Unfortunately, to get to Alaska you sort of drive north to the California border and the next thing you know you are in Fairbanks Alaska. I’m not sure what happened to Oregon, Washington and much of British Columbia. I think I would almost prefer this map to just be a stand-alone map, not tied to California.
DFW Metroplex – Perhaps the only reason why I’m not placing this into the “Why” category is based on what I’ve read about this map mod in the SCS Forums. The mod developer is planning to create new prefabs, roads and road signs which better meet those seen in this area. He has created this YouTube video showcasing the prefabs for his new DFW map. I grew up and lived many years in the DFW area and this is one map that I’m looking forward to playing. However, the discussion thread has gone quiet with the last posting being from me back on the 19 of February.
MHAPro Map ATS by Heavy Alex – For the life of me I can’t figure out what this map is about. I’ve read the three pages in the SCS Forums and I’ve read a portion of his blog site but I’ve yet to see a image of the map or a detailed description of what his map mod does. Best I can tell is this is just a modified map to cover the already existing California and Nevada region. I’m currently watching a YouTube video titled ATS Gameplay Jackpot Elko MHA map. But there is no narration and it’s hard to tell what really has been changed with this map mod. While I could try it to find out. Nope, not without a better description into what the map mod does and what it covers. I’ll pass….
Of course, anyone is free to develop and distribute any mod they are capable of creating. Just like anyone is free to download, install and play these map mods. I also completely understand that based on the length of time it has taken SCS (from release of ATS) to still not release Arizona…that we’re talking several years before all of the lower 48 US states are available. The last update from SCS Software regarding the release of the Arizona DLC was back on 1 March and here’s the direct quote from SCS Software “We don’t have a release date to announce yet, but there should not be more than a couple of months of solid work ahead of us, plus the final testing and polishing stage.” So a couple of months? That could be two, it could be three…it could be even more. I say this only because if my wife asks me to do something, my response might be…Yes Dear! She may ask when I’ll do it, and my response might be “I’ll do it in a couple of minutes”. In most situations, my definition of “A Couple of Minutes” is more than TWO. So having said that, let me start with the Utah, Oregon and Idaho.
Utah, Oregon and Idaho – History often repeats itself. For whatever reason SCS chose to start in California and Nevada they will likely move East and North as they develop and release DLC maps. Depending on whatever direction SCS decides to go AFTER Arizona, the states of Utah, Idaho and Oregon are bordering states to California and Nevada. Most likely (at the very least) chance are pretty good that Utah “might” be coming after Arizona. Of course, I could be complete wrong and SCS could continue their eastward expansion across New Mexico, Texas etc. But my gut is telling me they will work their way north and east as they expand across the lower US 48. So in time these map mods will be obsolete.
Finally, with regards to Hawaii, Australia and Republic of China map projects. Just why?
In closing, here’s my recommendation to all who want to create ATS map mods. Please visit the ProMods forum and read this thread. ProMods is recruiting developers who want to be part of a team in creating quality map mods similar to those we see from ProMods for ETS2. For me, quality is always better than quantity.
Until next time…
Happy Trucking!!!
J
I just love all the various eye candy we’ve been given in ATS and ETS2. I’ve seen several chatters in various Twitch ATS Streams ask what these yellow tubes are hanging down at some truck stop parking areas in the American Truck Simulator. While there are different brands, they essentially depict technology similar to that of the IdleAir systems. The IdleAir technology allows truckers to have comfort of air conditioning or heating without the need to idle their truck during rest periods. These are great in helping to save on fuel costs and just as importantly, helping to keep the environment just a bit cleaner.
In addition to the AC/Heat these systems provide to the relaxing trucker. They also provide 120V AC power for various appliances, basic satellite cable TV service connection, Telephone, and high-speed internet access. (see below)
A similar system to the IdleAir connected
Close-up view
I hope SCS Software will continue to provide these great looking pieces of eye candy as they continue to expand the USA map.
Until next time…
Happy Trucking!!!
JT
In a similar theme to last weeks mod review, this cool mod brings about some excellent weather effects such as fog and dust storms in the desert.
This mod is the Foggy Weather 1.6.3 update. It produces fog/smog effects along the west coast, sand storm effects in the desert and cloudy/light rainy weather near west coast and desert areas.
The Default Weather Update mod for American Truck Simulator is available here.
Please see my blog post “How to Install Mods in American Truck Simulator” for complete instructions.
Until next time…
Happy Trucking!!!
J
On Friday, I wrote about the World of Trucks (WoT) website and shared some basic background information about the site and provided some details on how you sign up and link EuroTruck Simulator 2 (ETS2) and/or American Truck Simulator (ATS) to your WoT account. This all needs to take place before you can proceed into the Job Market function of World of Trucks.
At the present time, the Job Market function is only available for ETS2. However, I read in the SCS Forums that there are plans to introduce the Job Market function for ATS at a later stage in 2016. So for now, the WoT Job Market is exclusive to ETS2.
When you first click on the Job Market link on the World of Trucks website, you’ll see a drop down menu listing a few dozen European cities. I don’t have a screen shot available to show you, but you’ll only see the drop down menu one time. Select the city you wish to operate your first job from. The city you choose can be the same city where your truck currently resides in ETS2 or it can be any other city. If your truck is not presently in the city you select, your truck will automagically be transported to that location at a later stage.
Once you select the city, you’ll see a listing of job offers available from that city. You can sort this list by several variables including distance, destination, time etc. I usually use either distance or destination. In the example below I’m using distance.
When you find a job that interests you, you click that job (example below is a job transporting chimney systems from Lille, France to Klagenfurt, Austria). A few things to note. The “Time Left” indicates the amount of real world time you will have to complete this job. Meaning, at the time I was browsing for job offers it was approx. 5 AM MST (in real life). The WoT Job Market is based on real world time and not ETS2 in-game time. As you know there is a big difference. Another point of interest is the “Est. Delivery Time”. Again, back to the image below…the Est. Delivery Time showing ~1 H 19 MIN is the approx. amount of time (real world time) it should take me to complete the job. Once you are ready to accept this job, click the “Sign Contract” button.
The next screen displayed will be the “Contract Signed” screen and will just provide you the basic information about the load. Click OK and return to the ETS2 Game application.
Back inside the game, click on “Job Market”. You’ll notice you now have a third option in the “Job Type Selection” screen titled “External Contracts”. Click the External Contracts button.
You’ll now be presented with the screen below showing your delivery job. Once again, take note of the remaining time. In the example below we have 21 hours and 11 minutes to complete this job. This is real world time and not in-game time. Click on “Begin Delivery”. Once you’ve done this, regardless of the location where your truck was last, it will be automagically teleported to the starting point and already connected to the trailer.
All you now need to do is drive….just remember, these external contract jobs work off of real world time. In the screenshot below, we’ve arrived in Klagenfurt and dropped off our trailer.
The deliver was successful (as shown below) and we’re close to earning our level 27 promotion. Want to do another job? Sure……
So we return to the World of Trucks website and click on Job Market. WoT now knows our truck is located in Klagenfurt and provides a listing of all jobs from this location.
Find a job which interests you, and sign the contract. This next job we are taking is a load of Copper Roof Gutters to Kassel Germany. We have 14 hours (real world hours) to complete this job and the estimated time required is one hour. Click Sign Contract.
Now return back to the ETS2 game and click on Job Market and once again select External Contracts. Then click “Begin Delivery”. Assuming your truck was still at the previous drop off location, it will once again be teleported to the next pickup location. So, if you need to discover the current city you are in, or if you need to repair your truck etc. and want to do this driving around with a trailer attached…then you’ll want to do that before you click “Begin Delivery”.
Not that you require proof, but I thought I would show you a before and after screen shot to illustrate how the time works with WoT Job Market. In the screenshot below, we have pulled into a rest area. We’ve parked and shut off our engine. Our in-game time is Thursday 11:03 and we have 13 hours and 41 minutes to complete this job.
We have now completed our rest. The time is now Thursday, 20:03. We’ve rested for our required 9 hours and we still have 13 hours and 40 minutes to complete this job.
We made it to our destination and completed another “Excellent” delivery and earned our level 27 promotion. This marks the 6th WoT Contact job we’ve successfully completed.
So, what happens if we decide to perform jobs from the ETS2 Freight Market? So in our example above, we completed our delivery to Kassel, Germany. Let’s say we opt to just use the ETS2 Freight Market and we select a job to Antwerp, Belgium. We complete that delivery and we go look at the WoT website. It will still show our location as Kassel, Germany. If you want to perform another job from WoT, you can either pickup an ETS2 delivery back to Kassel or just allow WoT to teleport you.
A few questions you might be asking yourself….
Why use the WoT Job Market? I think as it stands today, this is a valid question. As you can tell I also don’t exclusively use the WoT Job Market. While the extra step in logging into the WoT website to select a job is minimal effort and I’m personally not that bothered with it making me start in the last city I visited. I really would rather drive from previous drop point to new pickup point versus being teleported to that location. But I think the WoT Job Market has some wonderful potential down the road and I suppose having access to it now and using it as frequently (or infrequently) is really up to you.
Are the WoT Job Market offers similar to ETS2 Freight Market? I haven’t done a side-by-side comparison on each and every delivery. But I have spot checked a few and found the price per mile to be similar. If you are just starting out and every Euro counts, then you may have some concerns. But as I presently have over a million Euro in the bank…I’m more about the overall experience than I am on making sure I can pay my bills.
What do I see for the future of the WoT Job Market? Of course, I am in no way affiliated with SCS Software and I am not in communication with them. Any knowledge I have is completely public knowledge that I’ve obtained from public sources. But I think the potential for the WoT Job Market is HUGE!
Basically, if you are familiar with the concept of a virtual airline in the flight simulation hobby, then the WoT website and specifically the WoT Job Market can be just this. Yes there are VTC’s or Virtual Truck Companies. But without direct integration into the ETS2 or ATS games, (in my opinion) there is just too much manual work required. I don’t want to have to visit a website and fill out a manual job completion form to track my deliveries. This would be like the virtual airlines of 15+ years ago with their manual PIREP process.
Because WoT is owned and managed by SCS software, they have the integration into both the ETS2 and ATS game platforms. So further enhancement will only make this a better experience. As I mentioned in part 1, some of these future enhancements may allow for setting up VTC’s within the WoT environment. So that would be cool….
But here’s an idea I came up with in the shower this morning. Yes, I do some of my best brainstorming and thinking in the shower. But let’s say you start out in Europe with ETS2. You pick a job from Bucharest, Romania to Los Angeles, California. The job is a shipping container. You select that job through the WoT Job Market and you drive that container from Bucharest to Southampton. It’s delivered at the port of Southampton. Through the magic of web databases, the shipping container is virtually moved via container ship from Southampton to New York (or Miami or wherever). Then you start up ATS, pickup the container and drive it to its destination. This concept could be done via single player or even handled by multiple individuals as part of a VTC. Sound fun? I think so too…
In closing, while I’ll admit that the WoT Job Market may not be appealing in the current stage, I do encourage you to use it (even just occasionally). We need to use it so we can show there is an interest. To quote that famous line from Field of Dreams, “If you build it, He (WE) will come”.
Well that is just about all the time I have for today’s update. I think I’ll head down to my basement office and do a little trucking now. But make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed to get all the latest blog postings sent direct to your favorite RSS Reader. Or just bookmark the website and return often. You can also follow me on Twitter. I have also started streaming some of my gaming activities on Twitch. Drop by if you see I’m streaming.
Until next time…
Happy Trucking!!!
J
World of Trucks – Part One If you’ve been playing Euro Truck Simulator (ETS2) for any period of time, you may already know about the World of Trucks (WoT) website. However, perhaps you are brand new to the trucking sims by way of the newly released American Truck Simulator (ATS) and either just simply don’t know about WoT or want to know more. This blog post will be part one of two postings I will write regarding the World of Trucks website. Today I’ll introduce you to the website, the basic features, how to interface with ETS2 and/or ATS. During part two, I discuss the Job Market function.
I started playing Euro Truck Simulator 2 in the early summer of 2015 and joined World of Trucks very soon after. While the website has been in “alpha” mode for as long as I’ve been using it, the features and functionality have evolved nicely in the almost 8+ months I’ve known about it. The World of Trucks website is operated by SCS Software (the developers of ETS2 and ATS) and was launched in October 2013. I suppose in website standards, having a system remain in alpha for over two years may be viewed as a negative. But considering WoT is free to join and in many ways helps to bring our community together, not to mention the fact they are adding many new features, I think it shows a lot of promise.
Anyway, as I previously stated…World of Trucks is a companion website for both Euro Truck Simulator 2 (ETS2) and the brand new American Truck Simulator (ATS). With exception to the Job Market function (which I’ll cover in part 2), ETS2 and ATS function the same with WoT. Joining the WoT website is both free and super easy. If you purchased ETS2 or ATS via Steam, you can just use your Steam account information to join the WoT website.
Once you have joined the website, you need to link the ETS2 and/or ATS game to WoT. From inside the games main screen, look for the World of Trucks button. Just click that button and your ETS2 or ATS will be linked to WoT. It’s really that easy.
Now some really question why even use World of Trucks. Many compare and even liken it to Facebook, but for trucks. While this comparison may have been somewhat accurate, things have changed with regards to the job market function and all that is planned for WoT in the future. Some of the future plans for WoT is to allow the users (us) to create virtual trucking companies (VTC’s) and even shared multiplayer experience. Today, both VTC’s and Multiplayer functionality exist, but they are 3rd party applications and not official to SCS Software. But of course, these are future plans and there really is no ETA on when we might begin to see this functionality.
So for now, if you are interested in World of Trucks, go sign up, then link your ETS2 and/or ATS games to the site and customize your profile.
Until next time…
Happy Trucking!!!
J
Looking to get a little better weather in American Truck Simulator? This mod may be what you are looking for.
This mod is the Default Weather Update. It produces brighter sunrise and sunset and a much darker night. It updates the color and reduces the yellow tint.
The Default Weather Update mod for American Truck Simulator is available here.
Please see my blog post “How to Install Mods in American Truck Simulator” for complete instructions.
Until next time…
Happy Trucking!!!
J
