Re: American Truck Simulator How To Get Out Of Truck
Christian Erdmann
Trucks are together with the map the most important feature of American Truck Simulator. There are 7 truck manufacturers and 19 different models (5 upcoming truck models are the Kenworth W990, Mack Pinnacle, Peterbilt 579 Next Gen, Volvo VNR Electric and Western Star 4900), all of which can be upgraded in service shops. Breakdown is a Freightliner, 3 Internationals, 4 Kenworths, 2 Macks, 3 Peterbilts, 2 Volvos and 4 Western Stars.
Since American Truck Simulator launched with California and Nevada back in 2016, the game has slowly been expanding eastward with DLC introducing new states to drive through. It's taken eight years for developer SCS Software to finally reach the heart of the midwest, and as thrilled as I was to learn that my home state of Missouri is coming to the game, I'm downright ecstatic at the news that my teensy hometown is going to be part of the game.
In a recent blog post introducing the dev team working on Missouri, a developer named Filip writes, "I'm looking forward to creating Cape Girardeau, an unmistakable city on the Mississippi River. I hope to translate the genius loci of the riverside town both in the more industrial areas as well as in the urban part of the city."
You probably have not heard of Cape Girardeau, Missouri. It's a city of about 40,000 people, and notable for precisely three things: housing the university where Cedric the Entertainer and former Marvel Comics editor Roy Thomas graduated, producing the infamous conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, and serving as the primary filming location for the fictional Missouri town of North Carthage in David Fincher's Gone Girl adaptation. It's utterly bizarre to hear the town referred to in such flowery terms as these, especially coming from the Czech development studio of a small-scale trucking game.
Cape is not precisely my hometown - I've never lived within the city limits - but like many population centers centered in rural areas, it's the fulcrum of the region's outlying towns, sporadic homes, and local industries, such that it's effectively the hometown of everyone for miles and miles around, myself included. American Truck Simulator is the only game I've ever played that accurately conveys the spirit of the rural US, accurately capturing the gentle sense of decay you feel passing through small towns along the open road.
It's not as if ATS has anything particularly poetic to say about rural America, but playing it often feels meaningful just thanks to how accurately it recreates sights and sounds that aren't often given much care in other video games. While there isn't even a single screenshot of digital Cape Girardeau out there yet, there's no studio I'd trust more than SCS to bring the very peculiar sensibilities of a very particular midwestern town to life.
SCS has two other map expansions coming before Missouri - Nebraska and Arkansas - so it could still be quite some time before I finally get to bring my canary yellow Peterbilt 389 down these familiar streets. But I've already waited the better part of a decade for this moment, so I guess I can stand a few extra months.
Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator."}), " -0-10/js/authorBio.js"); } else console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); Dustin BaileySocial Links NavigationStaff WriterDustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.
Trucks are the key component of American Truck Simulator which allow you to transport goods from one location to another. There are currently 7 truck manufacturers and 14 different models in American Truck Simulator, all of which can be serviced and upgraded in service shops. For information on where to purchase the trucks, visit the truck dealer or used truck dealer articles.
Models marked with * and in italic lettering are initially only available in a used state from the used truck dealer feature. After you bought a used one you can buy this model as new from the truck dealer when you select "Fleet" (or "My Fleet Configurations" if buying online) instead of "Stock Offers" and as long as you have this model in your posession (since update 1.49).
I think things feel pretty good while driving, but I'd like to try and convey some more "weight" through the wheel when the truck is stationary so that it resists turning a bit more. Any ideas on what I should start tinkering with?
I don't by any means claim these to be the ultimate settings, as a lot of it was just trial and error. Others may hate how this feels. But I feel like it's good enough to get what I expect from the game. Steering feels suitably heavy when the truck is stationary or moving slowly, and lightens up with speed. There's a decent amount of road feel without being too noisy. One thing to note: if you drive very much on unpaved (non-tarmac) roads, you may find that the feedback is a bit violent unless you slow right down to a crawl. I may at some point see if I can dial that down a bit without messing anything else up, but it doesn't bother me enough to want to mess with it atm.
Well, I tried out the new FFB model with the 1.42 update, and...I'm a bit underwhelmed, tbh. It's apparently now using a proper physics-based model as opposed to previously where, if I understand correctly, everything had been a mixture of canned effects and simply increasing wheel resistance the further you turned from center.
The new model is a step in the right direction I feel, for sure, but it's not quite the step up I had hoped it would be. My biggest issue is that there seems to be a sort of dead zone approximately 5 to 10 degrees to each side of center. It's not actually dead, as the wheel does respond, but it's as if the damping within that range of movement is very very low. So you'll be driving straight down the road, and if you turn the wheel slightly one way or the other, there's very little resistance, and then beyond that 5-10 degree range, you can feel that the damping of the wheel all of a sudden will ramp right up...almost like what you might feel when hitting soft lock though not as intense.
I'm open to the possibility that it could be my inability to dial in the proper settings to counteract this issue, but I'm thinking that may not be the case, as I've seen several comments on the developers' blog and forums stating similar issues, among users of various different wheels, so it's not just a Fanatec thing or a CSL DD thing.
(It's nearly impossible to tell from this pic, but Engine Resonance is two tiny clicks up from the minimum value...which I think gives it just enough to be able to feel a nice subtle rumble when the engine is under load. This slider is VERY sensitive. Go much beyond where it is now and it'll feel like your whole truck is going to shake apart!)
I notice from your settings that you are not using higher sensitivity. One of my reasons for wanting a CSL DD is the option of using more truck like steering angles of 1800 modern trucks and 2520 for some of the American classics trucks I have. 1.42 does allow you to set higher sensitivity numbers, but I am not sure if this is just animation or taken from direct user wheel input. I have tied dialing in 1800 with my CSW v2.5 but you just see the on screen wheel turning at 2:1, very unrealistic imo.
I didn't change the sensitivity slider at all... just didn't seem like something I needed to mess with. I chose 900 Degrees of Rotation mainly for two reasons. 1) because it seemed to line up with the in-game wheel animation, and 2) it allows a decent range of movement without being twitchy, but without requiring a whole lot of hand-over-hand steering, which isn't exactly easy given my choice of wheel (McLaren).
Are you saying that when adjusting the sensitivity slider along with your wheel's DOR, the in-game steering wheel animation doesn't match up? Seems like it should. Too bad there's no option to turn off the in-game wheel.
The links toward the top of the thread are broken. They likely got wiped out from a recent forum update. Besides, those settings are for an older version of ATS with a completely different FFB model.
I can't really say for sure what happens when you adjust steering angle in Fanatec cp advanced settings, other than I saw on youtube a guy calbrating his CSL DD wheel in ATS after setting 1800 in Fanatec, his lock to lock in ATS calabration screen was 5 turns lock to lock, but that did not translate to the in game wheel. However, that was in 1.41 which lacked the range of sensitivity adjustment.
Oh ok, thanks for the tip regarding hiding the wheel. I'll have to check that out. I know what you mean though, I do kind of like seeing my wheel in game (most racing games I don't though), but it would be nice to have the option.
I'm sure there must be some kind of .json or .ini file that contains the actual numerical values for FFB settings, I just haven't had time to sit down and figure out where it actually might be. That should make tweaking settings a bit more sensible than clicking on stupid sliders and hoping for the best.
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