Trucking Digest

You know how it is when you’re excited – you skip a bit… There I was in the last Trucking Digest going into things like skill points before I’d answered a couple of key questions that might plague the beginner when they fire up a Truck Sim game for the first time. So lets ask those questions and hopefully answer them too.

The game wants me to choose a favourite truck – does that mean I’ll have to buy that truck?…

No – in fact the choosing of a favourite truck right at the beginning is only there for two reasons. Firstly, the game wants a truck to display in the User Interface during the period before you buy your own truck – after you do, it’ll display the truck you are driving instead. Your choice of favourite also decides which truck you will be given for your first drive – so picking the biggest truck in American Truck Sim might not be the best idea if the game starts you off in a tight spot😉 To clarify; I chose the International LT in American Truck but I know that will not be the first truck I buy. The game will not lock you into the truck you chose as a favourite right at the start.

I have to choose a city for my base Garage – is it important to choose the right place?…

This is slightly less straight forward – definitely a yes and a no😂 On the original maps, the perceived wisdom was that you should start in a city like Berlin because it had more industries than other cities. Times have moved on and as new maps have been added, the number of cities with 4 or more industries has grown. Rebuilding the original maps has also affected the availability of industries in cities – Stuttgart is now a major player in this regard with lots of cargo producing options…

…So the choices according to the old wisdom have grown. But, was the old wisdom right in the first place? When you’re doing Quick Job’s to earn that money for your first truck, do you only drive jobs from your chosen base city? No… I didn’t think so! When you get your first truck, are you going to only work from your base city and then return to collect the next load… I doubt that very much. Where you choose to base your company is only going to affect your game in one way – whether to expand your garage beyond small and that choice will be guided by how much work there is at that city for your employees – because they will work to and from the garage they’re based at. You, on the other hand, are a free agent😎 In fact, I think your choice now should be somewhere you feel a connection to. There’s nothing more motivating than being based in your home town or perhaps, a place you know and love👍

There is one other question that predates even these…. Should I buy this game in the first place?

I have over 5000 hours of my life invested in playing these games. On the surface they are simple – collect cargo, drive somewhere, drop off cargo. If only that were all, I’d have walked away several thousand hours ago! It’s a bit like Flight Simulator – you choose to take on a responsibility to deliver the cargo. You face challenges to that goal along the way. Despite those challenges, you seek to drive professionally and it becomes a point of honour to get there safely and on time. You take pride in how your truck looks and possibly even go on to build a company image. But, the most compelling part of the game is the inner peace as you drive through the virtual world that surrounds you, see all the beauty that surrounds you – much of it drawn from reality.

In this game you can drive in places that you may never visit in real life. For people with disabilities it can be a godsend, and also for those of us who are perhaps a little less sprightly than we once were. And when the job is done and you’ve just handled a particularly difficult parking spot…

…There’s that feeling of satisfaction that warms the soul 😎

Both of the Truck Simulator games regularly go on sale on the Steam Store – here. If you’re someone who wouldn’t normally play computer games because running around shooting aliens is not something you want to do as recreation, perhaps driving a truck is for you👍

Now, I’ll get back to the game-play tips. But if anyone has a serious question about the Truck Sim games, please ask in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer.