Another week driving in the Beta Test environment for Euro Truck. There have been lots of new code drops over the past week and sometimes it’s very difficult to see what change was made. The game now seems to be very stable so that’s good. In the circumstances I have been concentrating on trying out the playability of the new truck and trailer company owning role.
A further week down the road of testing this and I have a clearer idea of the impact of this change on the game. Everything takes much longer despite the fact that you earn a little more using your own trailers. This is because your have to buy both truck and trailer to benefit. So an initial expenditure of around €130k becomes closer to €170k if you go for a basic curtainside trailer. Don’t take this as a negative – this is much closer to reality and therefore to be welcomed. Growing a company becomes much more of a slog despite the relatively well paying jobs in the game. Now you need to look closely at when you buy the second truck and when you get another trailer. Your drivers can still take other work without using an owned trailer as can you, but it’s better (more realistic?)if you can each use your own trailer to handle the majority of jobs.
This raises an interesting dilemma – what is the ideal trailer type and what should your ratio of trailers to trucks/drivers be. So far it looks like there should ideally be 4 trailers to 3 trucks/drivers to allow flexibility in operations. Even then some of the work that your drivers do will be freight market using other peoples trailers rather than your own. The best general trailer is the Curtainside – handling a wide range of general dry goods. For a small garage with three drivers I’d recommend having 2 of these. Then the trailer compliment should be completed by 1 flatbed for things like pressure tanks, etc. And a cool-box on wheels – a reefer or an insulated box van. This seems to give the drivers the necessary options to use your own trailers most of the time. From a personal driving point of view, don’t spend too long with a flatbed trailer in tow. There are very few cargoes so you’ll soon get fed up with the lack of choice. Fortunately, your ai drivers don’t give in to boredom 😉
In the last Digest I showed a shot of our new trailer skin. That was while driving the Mercedes-Benz New Actros. Very pleased with that truck and I’ll be looking to buy a couple more for the staff and myself in future. When looking to employ my 3rd new driver I passed the Merc onto Danny and set out to buy a new truck in the MAN TGX with the 400HP engine. This time I had intended to part exchange the MAN for a new truck but I decided instead that it was time to expand the company. I paid off the original €100k loan and took out a new €400k loan. This allowed me to buy myself a new truck – a Scania R with a 500HP engine – and pass the TGX on to new employee Izabella. She promptly nicked the refrigerated trailer and I haven’t seen any sign of her since – except for the money she’s making me 😉
My new Scania R has a lot of extra’s and set me back €280k but she’s a lovely truck that I will enjoy driving for a long time. Then it was time to pursue buying the second garage. I had decided that Clermont Ferrand was the right choice for the amount of different cargo opportunities around that city. So that garage was purchased. Subsequently I’ve moved 2 older trailers there in readiness for use and added 2 more to our Montpellier fleet. Now I just need to buy a new truck… So much planned spending to do 😉 Here’s a couple of shots from this week’s action…
Before passing the Merc on to Danny – Here I was minding my own business, driving within the speed limit with a sneaky Gendarme hiding in my blind-spot. They’ll do anything to get an arrest! 
I took this shot as I blasted through Belgium with an urgent job in the new Scania R while using the flatbed for yet another Ventilation Shaft delivery. It has been modified using tonemapping for effect…
Now we can own our trailers it makes sense to have our own skins. You’ve seen my Martin Transport et Logistique skin. I thought I’d do a special skin for my local football club. I shared it on Twitter and it seems to be popular with the supporters and club chairman :-)…
I have a skin for a refrigerated trailer in the design stage and I will probably do a special one for Remembrance Day and Christmas too. Watch this space 😉
Images from Finchley 