I’ve been really struggling to put fingers to keyboard over the last few weeks. I think it’s a lockdown thing and it’s probably affecting some of you too – though I see there are quite a few people still posting regularly. I was going to tell you another trucking tale but it just isn’t writing itself at the moment so I guess it will just have to be a factual report on what I’m doing in the American and Euro Truck simulators.
In my last Digest I was almost up to date with my American Truck Sim Steam Achievements. There were just a couple more Frac Tank deliveries to do and I was having to pick them up as hire jobs. The last but one of those was a fun drive. I was given a Mack R with a 285HP engine. No real issue with that as my own one, Ol’Dawg, has the same engine. What was different was the gearbox – an Allison 6 speed automatic. Although these can run at 50-55mph they are really more likely to be found in trucks used for in-town deliveries. Couple that with the route – Pendleton to Vernal – and you have a recipe for some hard driving to complete the task on time. Fortunately, I had driven the Pendleton-Burns section twice in the very recent past so I knew the road well. That gave me the chance to push every bend to the limit on the downhill sections to make up time that was lost on the climbs. Here’s a shot taken as I passed through Mount Vernon…
South of Burns and on the 95 it was easier to keep the speed up and I needed to as I had targetted Winnemucca as my overnight stop with McDermitt as the fallback if I was running out of drivers hours. That’s when we started meeting traffic that wanted to slow us down. A combine harvester was easy to pass as we were lucky to catch it on a long straight section. But when we caught up with another truck it became apparent that we would need to do a risky pass. I chose a long gentle curve where I could see a long way ahead and began the pass. Winding up the Mack with a 6-speed auto box takes time! I was half alongside the other truck when an opposite direction car appeared ahead. 3 options presented themselves. Stamp on the brakes and drop back behind the slower truck – the correct and sensible option. Or, carry on regardless and hope the car driver would take avoiding action – in the real world self-preservation would probably make them do just that but the in-game ai doesn’t have a self-preservation instinct programmed in 😉 The 3rd option was to leave the road ourselves and take to the desert beside the road, allowing the car to pass between our trucks. That’s what I did – neatly picking a gap between the road markers and avoiding a couple of cacti before returning to the carriageway to complete the pass! A rare piece of reckless driving from me – I’d love to have a screenshot for you but I had my hands full at the time 😉
I subsequently went on to complete the the last of the Frac Tank deliveries and that was all my American Truck Steam Achievements complete…
Until the next state gets released when there are sure to be some new achievements to get 🙂 SCS software have announced that they are working on both Idaho and Colorado at present, so we can expect those soon.
I’ve now turned my attention to Europe and the significant number of outstanding Steam Achievements available for Euro truck. Some of these are long term goals – getting 100% of the map for the Pathfinder Achievement will be a labour of love with all the maps that are out there and with the Iberian Peninsula expected sometime later this year along with a re-working of the maps around the Franco-German border area. So, increasing the percentage of completed map is always going to be one step forward – two back. Other long term achievements are dropping in slowly but surely…
The other achievements I can actively work towards are slowly dropping into place. I’ve been utilising a DAF XF105 finished in Michelin colours for some of these. Here she is delivering a Yacht from Turku to Oslo to complete the Sailor Achievement…
I switch trucks quite frequently. Here’s one of my Renault T’s finished in a special Berliet livery, helping to complete the Miner achievement by delivering to a quarry in Stavanger…
Those trucks between them clocked up over 50000km in-game during the period of 11th-30th of April. I have been doing a lot of driving and I think that will continue for the foreseeable future with lockdown ongoing. Having so many achievements to aim for is definitely helping to keep me mentally active but I could do with being able to get out more! I’ll continue with the Trucking updates in another post as there is too much to tell in one hit. Stay safe and well everyone 🙂
Images from Finchley 