American Truck Simulator gets real life event update

[Shilka]

It has been mentioned before as being on the developers wishlist at SCS software, incorporating real life events into the game as an influencing game play factor.

And this time it is going to happen in ATS. In May this year, a big landslide covered part of highway 1 at Big Sur, California.

To reflect this event in American Truck Simulator, Highway 1, better known as the Pacific Coast Highway, will be closed at arrival of the next update in ATS. It's reopening will entirely depend on real world events.

As you can tell, not only the road will be closed, but the landslide itself has actually been modeled and placed in the game as well.

I am kind of curious about your opinions on applying real world events into the game like this. Of course not only unexpected events like this, but also think of things like new bridges getting added, new routes being opened, things like that. Personally, I think it does add to the game and makes the already developed parts of the map less static, knowing that things might change in the future

 

[Skid_Marc_]

I get the appeal from adding real-time events, but if they don't have a feature that allows you to disable this, then, for the better part of a YEAR, you won't be able to drive on the Pacific Coast Highway, even in a sim?

According to fire.CA.gov, there are currently 15 non-contained forest fires (2 more are "contained") burning through California north of Los Angeles... Maybe next they'll just close off the whole CA map north of LA...

 

[Kenadian]

I really like the idea to be honest, after all, it's supposed to be a simulator (according to the title) so why not simulate?

The major problem I see however is pretty much what Zac alluded to in that it's horribly short sited. We don't even have Seasons so there's no way they can accurately depict man-made or natural disasters accurately outside of road closures. This is a cheap parlor trick honestly and I don't believe adds anything to the game.

Not to mention we get this news but to date still only have 3 States with one "coming" which is more of the same that we already have.

If they had America done or even half or a 1/3 of the States ingame then I'd say go for it but for now this is spinning wheels and feeding us fairy tales about a bright future we've yet to see any signs of.

I do love the Heavy Cargo DLC and appreciate the resizing but honestly I've yet to see any true value in ATS especially when compared with ETS.

This is not totally apples to apples which I understand but given the whole World of Trucks hype leading up to ATS I feel the entire product is exceptionally underwhelming.

 

[Shilka]

I guess I'm looking at it a different way. With route finder always sending you along the same route no matter how many routes there are between A and B, stuff like this sends you along detours you might normally not take unless you start setting way points yourself. I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing, or something short of a feature. I don't think it's a bad thing to make small steps in development either, if it could lead to better things in the future. It may start off as a cheap gimmick, sure, but it is a reason and an incentive for the devs to revisit and revamp existing parts of the map, something that the initial released map part of ETS2 could do with for example.

I understand your desire to see more map, but I don't see how that requires stopping developments in other areas to be honest. I doubt they pull people from state expansions projects to add features like these. Fact is that the game as a whole is in development, and in hindsight I for example have to say that improved physics, and stuff like advanced coupling, and recently steering axles and multiple pivot points added a lot of value to the game for me. I still have no problems with SCS working on several aspects of the game instead of just adding more miles only. Most of it is free updates too.

Of course closing off the entire state because of forest fires is ridiculous, but hey, what if this first step leads to the game having forest fires as random events in forested areas, meaning that this week a certain point in the map will be closed, but it might be drive able when you try the same route next week, so you get some extra challenges, or get to drive along routes you normally wouldn't take? Is that a bad thing, or is simply having no development at all the better option...

Development of ATS/ETS has always been in baby steps for sure, but taken over the entire development time, it has so far always eventually led to a better game and better features, and actually made ETS2 to what it is now. Lets not forget, when ETS2 just came out, you could do 0-65 mph in 3 seconds with a truck trailer combo. We've come a long way since then

 

[Shilka]

After a successful "Operation Big Sur" , Highway 1 has been restored to its original condition

 

[Kitlope]

Just to add, I recently bought the base game so looking forward to doing some long haul in the future!

 

[Kenadian]

I'm probably going to re-install this weekend and bring ETS2 up to date with ProMods.