Snow Sheltie

Sounds like they'd be right at home with the EVE Online folks who are obsessed with zkillboard. God, it's been so long since I touched that game. I wonder if that old carrier I donated to my last alliance is still alive?

How did I forget to mention those player tags? You're right, you can basically assume whatever somebody has in their player tag, they'll do the opposite.

Never really considered doing that myself mainly because I personally doubt other players have come to the same conclusion I have. Besides, I tend to drive in less populated areas so I can live out my fantasy of driving a semi with little to no traffic around. I drive a semi for my job and the four-wheelers and steering wheel holders are both entertainment and a curse at the same time, and I got a few good stories of people driving in incredibly stupid ways around my truck.

Maybe it's just me, but any time I see somebody with 'Rec' or 'Rec/Ban' in their description, it pops out like a huge red flag for me that this driver is reckless and I need to steer clear of them (sometimes literally) if I don't want my drive to end up reloading a save or restarting at the shop. I don't know why this is a thing. I've seen it for many years and so often I've considered it a driver stereotype in truckersmp. The number one rules in truckersmp is assume everyone's an idiot, but it's nice when somebody gives me a clue of who is the bigger idiot. Anyone else ever notice this pattern?

TruckersMP has done virtually nothing for creating what I'll dub "mod-official" events to encourage anyone to play ATS. I can't recall the last event I ever saw that was focused around ATS. The mod's a bastard stepchild that's been locked away in the basement and completely forgotten. For anyone with the extra states, fast-travel to the different cities and note just how many of those repair stations you travel to have full collision still enabled because nobody in the mod ever cared to make sure you don't get yeeted off the map because you fast-traveled into another player at the repair station. For ATS itself, when the game did arrive and the multiplayer mod was released, there was a single road along the California coast that was the game's version of the C-D road. During one of SCS's early updates to ATS (to address a lot of concerns ATS fans had of the map), the road was removed and that subsequently killed off the multiplayer very quickly. Personally I don't get the appeal of the C-D road to so many ETS drivers. I despise it because I already deal with a bunch of that nonsense in real life for my job, I have absolutely no desire to replicate the experience in a video game. You can definitely see that truck simulators is for some reason far more popular over in Europe and Asia than it is in the Americas. Personally I hate the looks of most of the European cabovers, especially the ones with what I dub the "frankenstein forehead" look on them. Quite frankly I dislike the Volvo VNL for similar reasons. I won't even get into real life reasons I dislike the truck, that's a story for another thread. The Cookie-cutter layout of the base ETS game is worse. You see one city and one road, you've seen them all. The basegame of ATS has a greater variety of road networks and unique locations in comparison but the idea of starting the game in California and Nevada instead of somewhere on the east coast was probably a poor decision. The only places I like in ETS's base game now are the areas that SCS has reworked since each city now has a truly unique layout to them and the updates to the road networks around those cities were much-needed. Likewise, try to find videos and pictures of the northern California area in ATS before and after the rework and the ATS rework is quite a faithful emulation of areas and routes the Semis would be using and delivering to in real life. I've grown to enjoy empty roads in ATSMP, mainly because I drive a semi for a living and it's just nice to be able to play out the fantasy of driving down the freeway without worry of steering wheel holders or 4-wheelers ruining my day. Given how it seems the average ETS player seems hell-bent on some sort of speedrun challenge to get a ban as fast as they can, they could stay on ETS for all I care.

I had way more fun setting this up than I should've. This is a yield sign. It is one of those rare signs that are universally acknowledged across the pond and means pretty much the same thing in both the Americas and Europe: Yield (aka STOP) for vehicles approaching the same intersection as you. Once the intersection is clear (or if it is clear to begin with) you may proceed. Christ, if I had a dollar for how many times I see drivers in real life fail to understand this sign, I'd own a boat. Or at least a very nice suit. This... ...is an intersection a number of you should be familiar with and you should be familiar with the traffic pattern here. For those who are fortunate enough to not recognize this, this is part of the infamous C-D road. Drivers (aka steering-wheel holders) love to barrel through this area at 110 kph and will happilly smash into or attempt to Forza their way pass slower or stopped traffic, resulting in many accidents, some ending with a comedic clash of the game's physics engine and much yelling on the CB. Now a rare set of drivers in this game are friendly. Some are too friendly. So here is the million-dollar question: If you are traveling on the C-D road see that a driver has exited the freeway and is waiting at this intersection to make a turn. what should you do? A. Keep driving B. Slow down and stop to allow the driver to enter the C-D road. If you answered B, you are the problem. Legally, the driver on the ramp has to stop and yield to traffic on the C-D road because he has a yield sign (two, in fact!) and therefore must wait for a large enough clearing in traffic to make his turn safely. Depending on traffic conditions, this may be a quick wait or it may take a while. For reference's sake, I drive a semi as a job in real life and I've been forced to wait 5+ minutes for a large enough gap in traffic to safely make a turn out of a customer's yard. It's not fun but it's part of the job. Sometimes traffic is slow enough (due to congestion or a traffic light) that other drivers can give me a big enough clearing to allow me to turn without disrupting the traffic flow. if you decide to be nice and stop to let a driver on the ramp to turn on the road, while traffic is still flowing at a high rate of speed, you will cause a crash. Either another driver will not notice you in time and rear-end you (because they're traveling at max speed oh and by the way what is the brake button?) or they'll decide to fly around you and collide with another vehicle (and bounce into you) or collide with the vehicle turning onto the road. Yes you could play the nice guy if traffic is extremely light or is and nobody or is stop-and-go with nobody moving anyway but the more polite thing to do is keep the traffic flow going, don't stop if not necessary, and let the rules of the road play its course. This has been a public service announcement by the City 17 & Northern Transportation services. Safe travels, drivers.

This is something that continues to be annoying, and it's been a "feature" of truckersmp for years. If you lose connection for any reason, you get a message prompt that tells you you lost connection to the server and you will automaticaly be reconnected. I don't think once in any gameplay session I ever had in this mod that I was ever automatically reconnected. I did bother to finish a lengthy load recently just to see if I would ever be reconnected. 45 minutes later, never happened. I am uncertain whether or not the mod team is aware that this message is either a lie or the intended function has just not worked since pretty much the mod's inception.

The bigger challenge I get is the generic Walbert distribution centers and backing into those loading docks to pick up a load or getting into any of the generic Eddy's grocery stores. The only other time I can recall having a real rough time getting into a spot was at the Plaster & Sons construction yard near Los Angeles right off of I-5. That was not a case of backing up issues but turning around problems. I didn't have space to turn around in the yard with a sleeper and 53' flatbed and I had to pull some stupid manuevers to manipulate the trailer to avoid hitting a concrete barrier and a few parked trailers in the yard. I'll give you an insight into backing up based on my own real world experience. The biggest mistake I see drivers make when backing up is not pulling forward enough so the trailer can turn into the targeted parking spot on its own. If you stop in an open lot, turn the truck slightly in either direction, then keep moving the truck backwards in a straight line, the trailer will slowly turn sharper and sharper granting you make no extra manuevers with the tractor. Ideally you want the trailer to do most of the turning on its own with the tractor either following the trailer in or making minor adjustments when needed. Other notes When watching the tandems (trailer wheels,) you should be backing up slow enough to see where those wheels are going to end up and making adjustments as needed (I see ETS players trying to reverse at mach 10 and constantly failing even the most basic backing manuevers, slow it down!) The longer the unit, the more space you need for any adjustments to work. If you have a 72' long unit (sleeper + 53 foot trailer) the trailer, in general, will move about 10 feet before any steering adjustments you make will start working. You may need to pull forward 10 feet or farther if you realize you need to make an adjustment in a tight space. Shorter trailers need less distance to fix backing errors. It's also worth noting you need to recognize when you're placing yourself in a bad spot and you need to pull all the way forward and try again from the start. Honestly, that initial setup before backing up is far more important than people realize. If you're trying to back a double or triple, then you drove somewhere you're not supposed to be. If a sleeper and a 53' trailer is too much, get a daycab and/or a smaller trailer, they're far more forgiving for mistakes, then switch back to that sleeper when you want the greater challenge.

So you're trying to tell me that a 50% sale of $250 is cheaper and therefore complete justified spending? Are you even listening to how ascinine this sounds? The implication I am presenting here is that as this game is developed, the expansion sales per state will help pay the bills for SCS but at the same time it will reach a point where a new player may look at this, notice the price tag and just think "nah" If the standard (not sale) price of state expansions drops as time progress then there would be some sense in the madness but at the same time I still see 10+ year old games on steam being sold at near or full sale price compared to their original launch price tag so I also have little hope for that.

Man, I wished you all could've picked one of the reworked california areas as a start or finish since there's proper truck stops in those places players can group up in.

State expansion packs for American Truck Simulator currently cost roughly $12 per state. Out of the forty-eight lower states, three states are included in the base game. Given that the price of states averages to that $12 range (and given that no older expansions are gradually added to the base game), the game will end up costing roughly $540 to drive around the continental United States. It's nowhere near the $8,000 price tag in DLC another infamous game has, but it's gonna be ranked up there as an expensive project.

I honestly wonder what would happen to server population if that C-D road was ever removed entirely. Thus far, what I've seen I like. It seems that anywhere from a quarter to a third of the server at any given time does nothing but run laps on that section until they get kicked or banned for wreckless behavior. I also avoid that section of road because it's such a minefield and I play the game to just have a nice trip, not be watching every other driver with paranoia and fully expecting each one of them to suddenly turn into my truck because, well, reasons. This doesn't explain ETS's popularity, given much of the base game is in a similarly bland state. Where ETS does beat ATS is in the official customization options, especially with the truck and trailer packs. Yes you could install player-made addons or edit files but file editing is fidgity at best and workshop addons aren't supported in this multiplayer mod. I know some drivers just like to show off their trucks and/or trailers. Lots of latinos as well. There's a spanish-speaking convoy that frequents ATS and I've driven alongside them a couple times.

Wait, there was a rebuild of that road? I haven't been on it in ages, can't stand all the boneheaded steering wheel holders that treat that section of road like Need for Speed Most Wanted (Truckers edition, of course).

Never been a fan of trucks with the frankenstein forehead look. And since one cannot drive American trucks in this multiplayer mod, I gotta settle for other trucks. Been particular to the Mercedes Actros (new) mostly because it's pretty much the closest thing I'll get to a Freightliner in this game.