American Truck Simulator

[on_wisconsin]

American Truck Simulator (or ATS) is scheduled to come out on February 3rd of this year. The states included in the launch (or soon there after) are CA, NV, and AZ. Which other states get added and when is unknown outside of the developer, SCS Software. This game will be the sibling to the incredibly well received EuroTruck Simulator 2.

There is some leaked gameplay on YouTube:

(Yes, this is Beta footage but at this late stage it should be very close to the sale version.)

The trucks look realistic, if a bit plastic'y, and all the fine tuning adjustments and settings from ETS 2 are present. The non-freeways look decent and fairly accurately marked and signed. 

However, this game looks terrible, judging from the footage, at grasping the concept of rural Interstate(s). Check out mins. 40:27-46:45 there are level intersections on I-15 between Vegas and LA, including a traffic light in the downtown area of a small village. Also there are hardly any inner hard shoulders most of the way and the rest stops have gas stations which of course is illegal on non-tollways. Going on, the game uses "EXIT ONLY" signs at most exits even when there is no lane drop. (To be fair, more games then not mess this bit up.) 

I could continue but knowing that SCS is more then capable of at least basic, bottom level accuracy as it proved with ETS 2 is a let down. Especially considering the anticipation among the simulator community for this game and the build up to it.

[realjd]

I could continue but knowing that SCS is more then capable of at least basic, bottom level accuracy as it proved with ETS 2 is a let down. Considering the anticipation among the simulator community for this game and the build up to it.

Except they were just as bad with their representation of European roads as they seem to be with American roads. You just didn't recognize the inaccuracy.

Great game with the Oculus Rift BTW.

[kj3400]

I wouldn't worry too much. As with ETS, I'm willing to bet there are people who are willing to mod ATS to bring some realism to it and (hopefully) add some more states.

[noelbotevera]

If you didn't have gas stations at a rest stop, do you expect somebody to drive 300+ miles just to fuel up for gas?

My point is that sometimes you have to be unrealistic for the convenience of the players.

Alright, 2nd edit, I'll nitpick some stuff.

8:15 - I-15 control city should be Salt Lake City and Las Vegas. US 93 is also missing.
14:34 - Wrong font.
14:40 - Chevrons and rural roads don't mix....
15:26 - There doesn't need to be curve signs for every curve, T signs for every intersection...
15:41 - Ugly font, wrong shape
17:20 - Missing mileage for the green sign

[vdeane]

If you didn't have gas stations at a rest stop, do you expect somebody to drive 300+ miles just to fuel up for gas?

Get off and get back on like in real life?

[US 41]

If you didn't have gas stations at a rest stop, do you expect somebody to drive 300+ miles just to fuel up for gas?

Get off and get back on like in real life?

I didn't watch the entire thing, but based on what I watched it appears that all 2 lane rural highways have double yellow markings. Most rural 2 lane desert highways have tons of passing opportunities. ETS2 has passing lanes FYI. ETS2 is one of my favorite games. I still think this game will be a lot better than the  original 18WOS, but I'm not entirely sure it will be better than ETS2 especially without passing zones on 2 lane highways.

I agree that they should have put truck stops at the interchanges to get gas at rather than at the rest areas. In Europe that is very common, but in North America not so much unless they're on a toll road.

Another note. I saw cops on the game. Hopefully the cops aren't ridiculous like on 18WOS. On 18WOS there would be no cops anywhere, but they miraculously knew that you were going 5 over the speed limit. I actually would prefer speed cameras / red light cameras over cops honestly, even though cameras aren't very widespread here.

Another note is I didn't see any weigh stations, but I might have missed them. I would actually prefer weigh stations to not be on the game either. On 18WOS they would put weigh stations in stupid spots and you'd get massive tickets for avoiding weigh stations even when you didn't. The one I'm referring to was in up in either South Dakota or Wyoming along I-90 I think. If they are on the game hopefully they put them in good spots.

BTW does anyone know how much is this game going to cost? I'm aware it will only include California, Nevada, and Arizona at first. Hopefully its not like $50 for only 3 states.

[on_wisconsin]

.BTW does anyone know how much is this game going to cost? I'm aware it will only include California, Nevada, and Arizona at first. Hopefully its not like $50 .

Twenty dollars will be the launch price, according to the official blog of SCS.

Just found out that the game will be at 1:32.5 scale compared to 1:19 in EuroTruck. Scaling is not something that is easy to mod and could make distances/ trip times stupid short once they get east of the Mississippi.

[noelbotevera]

.BTW does anyone know how much is this game going to cost? I'm aware it will only include California, Nevada, and Arizona at first. Hopefully its not like $50 .

Twenty dollars will be the launch price, according to the official blog of SCS.

Just found out that the game will be at 3:32.5 scale compared to 1:19 in EuroTruck. Scaling is not something that is easy to mod out and could make distances/ trip times stupid short once they get east of the Mississippi.

Most of the distances are close to realistic. Las Vegas to Barstow via I-15 is 157 miles in real life, and it's 131 miles here. Only off by 26 miles.

[US 41]

.BTW does anyone know how much is this game going to cost? I'm aware it will only include California, Nevada, and Arizona at first. Hopefully its not like $50 .

Twenty dollars will be the launch price, according to the official blog of SCS.

Just found out that the game will be at 1:32.5 scale compared to 1:19 in EuroTruck. Scaling is not something that is easy to mod and could make distances/ trip times stupid short once they get east of the Mississippi.

I'll probably end up buying it then if it's only $20. I think this game will be really good once they finish it completely. They are also supposed to add Canada and Mexico to the game as well which should be interesting.

[Pete from Boston]

Is there a bladder meter?  It might add some challenge to coordinate pit stops with refueling.

[corco]

This sounds like a really lame knockoff of Cross Country Canada.

[SteveG1988]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBr7EhL6Jpg

[jeffandnicole]

15:26 - There doesn't need to be curve signs for every curve, T signs for every intersection...

Why not? Both are very standard.

[vdeane]

Still, they're not usually used for every curve/intersection.  I'm guessing it was easier for them to program them in for every intersection though because they can tell the game "just place one X feet before everything that isn't a straight line".

[Rothman]

Ah, the time I spent playing Crosscountry USA...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5Dp-BJ2S5o

[Zeffy]

Decided to pick it up today. I'm pretty terrible at driving trucks apparently, but here are some screenshots I've captured:







Despite being terrible and attempting to use my keyboard as a steering wheel (the mouse was way too sensitive for me), I'm having a lot of fun in this game. I've never played a Truck Simulator series before, so $20 was well-spent here.

[US 41]

Decided to pick it up today. I'm pretty terrible at driving trucks apparently, but here are some screenshots I've captured:

Cool! Where did you buy it at? I think I might go buy it tomorrow too.

[Zeffy]

Decided to pick it up today. I'm pretty terrible at driving trucks apparently, but here are some screenshots I've captured:

Cool! Where did you buy it at? I think I might go buy it tomorrow too.

I bought it off of Steam, downloaded it in less than a minute (!). The game was only 1 GB large.

Another pic. Heading down I-5 towards San Diego:


By the way - plugging in my Xbox controller has improved my handling at least tenfold.

[noelbotevera]

Decided to pick it up today. I'm pretty terrible at driving trucks apparently, but here are some screenshots I've captured:

Cool! Where did you buy it at? I think I might go buy it tomorrow too.

I bought it off of Steam, downloaded it in less than a minute (!). The game was only 1 GB large.

Another pic. Heading down I-5 towards San Diego:


By the way - plugging in my Xbox controller has improved my handling at least tenfold.

No route shields or exit number...they need to hire roadgeeks.

[US 41]

Thanks for the info.

Well we all know now that Tijuana will be in the game one day.

Looking at the advertisements for the game it reminds me of GTA5 without the violence. 

[coatimundi]

I wanted to update this because I've been playing ATS regularly for a few months now, and they've had some very nice updates recently that would be of interest to this group.

This summer, they added Arizona. The detail is quite good. They have things like drives by the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, along the old Route 66 through Peach Springs, and up Salt River Canyon on US 60.

Just a few days ago, they released a big update that fixed a lot of things that I saw as issues in the original release. For instance I-80 used to not connect to the Bay Bridge, I-10 did not connect to I-5 directly in LA, I-17 ended up on SR 51 in Phoenix, and you had multiple grade intersections on interstates. All that has been resolved, and they added a realistic US 101 with the addition of Santa Maria as a city.

Thus far, I've found the terrain graphics extremely well done in terms of realism. Even the look of the pavement seems to stay close to reality.

So, if you haven't looked at it, this may be a good time to do so.

[ET21]

I've been tempted to get it, seeing it now on discount I might buy it. I hope that they continue to expand on the country

[coatimundi]

I've been tempted to get it, seeing it now on discount I might buy it. I hope that they continue to expand on the country

I read something online that someone had used a mod to explore a part of northern Nevada that you can't reach normally, and found roads with cars, indicating that Oregon may be the next state. Personally, I think the Utah makes the most sense. Both the BGS on I-80 and I-15 at their current ends in the game are for "Salt Lake". The road is there and there are cars, it's just blocked off.

[Interstate Trav]

I've played this and I think it's a good game, a lot of fun, but Southern California, they need to re do it a little, add the Los Angeles Suburbs, and instead of having the 14 be a small road make the actual Antelope Valley Freeway, and add Mojave as a destination since Tonopah Nevada is why not Mojave.  Also add Palm Sprnjgs San Bernardino and make the drive between Barstow and Primm look more like the real thing, with the drop from Mtn Pass.

Also update the signs so they look like California.  Other then that they did pretty good with the Grapevine and New Mexico looks a lot more realistic.

[RobbieL2415]

Two words:

BIG. RIGS.