Trucking Digest

I’ve been remiss in updating you on changes to the base truck simulator games. v1.37 released into American Truck Simulator back on April 20th after completion of the Truck at Home event. It brought the ability to open your truck windows and improved sounds. I think the community were generally very pleased with the update. Euro Truck didn’t get the same update until May 5th – SCS neatly sidestepping any Star Wars connotations. Included with the improved sounds for Euro truckers were updates to the maps in the Reims, Metz and Strasbourg areas of France. I suspect, but this is pruely speculation on my part, that these changes are a necessary precursor to updating the Koln, Dusseldorf part of the German map and a preparation for upgrading Switzerland to the latest standard. With changes to the way that the sounds work I was naturally concerned that my favourite mod trucks might be broken as has happened in the past. But, as a result of SCS releasing the update to open beta testing a long time in advance of deployment, the modders seem to have been able to get their trucks updated in good time. Autumn Gal, Harven’s FLB, was certainly sounding good when I drove her after v1.37 release. You’ll note that she’s had a respray since you last saw her……That wasn’t the last of SCS’s presents to the community. More on that in a while.

9th May saw my total distance doing World of Trucks deliveries pass 1.5 million kilometres – which probably means that my total distance driven in-game is closer to 3 million given that I mix and match between in-game jobs and web based WoT jobs. It’s quite an achievement and I guess the next target is the 2mKm in World of Trucks! I was driving our Renault Magnum and exploring rural France at the time…

I’ve continued plugging away at the achievements in Euro truck Simulator. It’s hard but we’re slowly getting there. On 11th May I finally got a delivery to Pirdop in Bulgaria from Marseille! It was a very long run but I had to take it as Pirdop was last but one of the cities I needed to complete the Balkan Explorer achievement – visit all the cities in the Road to the Black Sea DLC map. From Pirdop I was able to get a load for the relatively short trip over to Cernavoda where. After dropping off that load I had to drive into Calarasi for maintenance and, that being the last city I needed, to complete that achievement. Another one down – 17 to go!

I’ve made some progress with the Pathfinder achievement and my map completion currently stands at 81%. I’m also trying to complete the ‘Industry Standard’ achievement which involves delivering 2 loads to each of the paper mills, locomotive works and furniture makers in the Baltic area. Most of these are having to be completed by doing hire jobs as the necessary loads aren’t dropping for me. So I’ve been mixin’ n’ matchin’ to progress that achievement alongside Pathfinder – currently I have 15 out of 24 deliveries completed. As part of my Pathfinder activities in the Romania, I did complete the Ferryman achievement. Nothing complicated about that one, just needed to take a drive up the road between Constanta and Galati…

Back to SCS Software’s updates and hot on the heels of the v1.37 release in American Truck, a much anticipated new truck was released on 28th April – the Mack Anthem. After the first drive I wrote on Twitter… “Mack Anthem – Purposeful looks, good engine/gearbox combos, nice instruments, awful mirror placement! In other words, like the other Mack’s in my fleet! I know I’m going to have a love-hate relationship with this truck… ” It’s true, you could hide a squadron of ai bandits in the blind-spot caused by the main mirrors and the hood mirrors are a must if you want to avoid getting a stiff neck on a long drive. In the real world, where the driver can move their head back to see round the mirror at a junction, I’m guessing it’s not a problem. But I bet most Anthem’s are delivered with hood mirrors! So, it’s time to meet Balto, our first Mack Anthem…

…I’m very impressed with the quality of the modelling by SCS of this new truck. It bodes well for future additions to both Truck Sim games. And she is a very nice drive 🙂

The final gift from SCS for this report – on 7th May, the reward for meeting our personal goals in the Truck at Home event was released and I now proudly display it in some of my trucks. Here it is in Balto – simultaneously giving you a look at the Mack Anthem’s dash…

That’s about it for this Digest. But, SCS have dropped a hint that we have a major event coming up in Euro Truck very soon – so I think we can guess at the subject matter of the next Digest. Keep the shiny side up everyone 🙂