October 2018

We’re a day late for which I apologise. It has been a very busy week with two football matches to photograph and some IRL things that needed to be done. I’m going to start this week with something non-Truck Simulator.

Sometimes we have to make difficult choices in virtual life. These may be driven by those real life issues often referred to as disc space. I wanted to try out a couple of other games and looked long and hard at the games currently installed on my hard drive. I took into account how often I currently play certain games and how likely I am to play them again. I decided that it was time to blow the final whistle on Train Simulator. That was a very hard choice as it has given me much enjoyment over the years but in my heart I knew I would not be going back there. There is an issue with the design of that game when compared with the Truck Simulators. Free roam gives you a clear track with only speed limits to worry about. Scenarios give you issues like unexpected red signals and other delays to your journey but they do not change with each new run. There is no element of randomness like there is in the Truck Simulators. To illustrate the point, I did three runs along the same stretch of road in Euro Truck between Düsseldorf and Luxembourg this morning. The road didn’t change but the traffic situations and weather did meaning that each drive was totally different. That just does not happen in Train Simulator and that is what has killed an otherwise enjoyable game for me 😦 Uninstalled and around 100GB released for other games.

I have recently added My Summer Car to the games on the pc so you may occasionally see something from that madcap game. And I’ve added Fallout 4 which is a post apocalyptic role play and shooter just to give myself a little variety. Ongoing regulars are Car Mechanic Simulator and Fishing Planet. There are a number of other games also being tried out too. Anyway, back to the trucks.

During the past two weeks while the Trade Connections – Germany event has been progressing, one or two interesting bits of news have seeped out of Vlad Dracula’s modern castle in Prague, otherwise known as SCSHQ. Firstly, there is the ongoing ‘missing’ Renault Range-T. SCS completed the build of this truck a couple of years ago so why isn’t it available in the game? It’s down to licensing as always but the Renault situation is more complicated than most because the Renault diamond logo is worn by both the trucks and the cars. Where’s the issue with that? Renault Trucks and Renault Cars are now totally separate companies and SCS have to get agreement from both for any Renault badged vehicles to be added to the game. So, we’re going to have to rely on the venerable Magnum and Premium for a while yet. In America, things are looking better. Reputedly, we will be getting an official Volvo VNL very soon (next month!?) and it’s likely that another company’s trucks (Navistar or Western Star?) will also become available in game soon too. This slipped out in a Twitter conversation post the deployment of the Oregon DLC but is almost certainly a true representation of the state of play. Of course, we have to temper our enthusiasm with the knowledge that SCS don’t use the standard 24hr clock or the Gregorian Calendar when talking about releases 😉

How is the Trade Connections – Germany event going? It’s dragging along nicely. In my last post I mentioned my concern that the community was going to be spread pretty thinly and I think that is the case as I see a mix of tweets relating to Europe and to the Oregon DLC. I’ve personally done all my hauling this week in ETS2 – driving in and out of Germany for the Community. SCS set a very big total of Tonnes-hauled for us to achieve – 50 million. At the time of writing we’ve achieved 9.9 million tonnes over a 2-week period. SCS apparently set the total so high to give players whose commitments get in the way of their real job of driving virtual trucks – ‘to give them a chance to complete the challenge and earn the rewards’. Some players have complained about the short duration of these challenges in the past so I can see where they’re coming from. But it’s a big challenge for the community. I’ve personally shifted over 750t so far with 41 deliveries and I’ll keep nibbling away at it until we get there. But next week I’ll be doing a mix of ETS2 and American Truck to break up the party a little – it’ll be nice to get back in the FLB after these modern Euro Trucks.

I have added to our Martin Transport et Logistique fleet this week, buying a Scania Streamline with a 580HP V8 Euro VI engine. This is going to be the first of a small number of trucks in the fleet aimed at Heavy Haul and she’s a full time 6×4. I’ve also expanded the company into Clermont, passed the MAN to my senior driver at Montpellier and moved the original Merc to Clermont for our new driver Jenevive. So we’re up to 4 drivers plus myself and 4 trailers (3 curtainsiders and one flatbed). My fleet will now be comprised of Merc New Actros 4×2’s, MAN TGX 6×2/4 mid-lift’s and Scania 6×4’s. I have one Volvo which will get sold and replaced in the future for reasons of standardisation. In terms of drivers we’re an equal opportunities company – 2 male and 2 female drivers currently. In non-company terms, the current challenge requiring me to do World of Trucks jobs is pushing me rapidly towards that 1 million km Longest Job achievement too 🙂 Here’s some shots of our new Scania…

…The ones without the chrome grill were taken on shakedown runs. Then I completed upgrading her appearance with additional pieces inside and out. Hope you like the colour 🙂