Thursday, October 24, 2013

ETS2 Update 1.7.0 now ready for everybody

It has taken us a few hours of extra packing and testing but finally you can grab also the non-Steam update 1.7.0 of ETS2:

Preferably please use torrent protocol now if you are at least a bit technically inclined, as our servers will no doubt be immediately under heavy load. We hope that the update will soon appear on the mirror servers.


Meanwhile, a lot of great screenshots of the new Volvo FH is already appearing on World of Trucks, so we hope the update will be well accepted.

Now our focus will shifting to 1.8 update, with the plan to bring you all new traffic AI code.

Euro Truck Simulator 2 version 1.7 update

There are actually two pieces of news we'd like to share with you today here, and also in a more graphically richer way on World of Trucks.

NEWS #1

The 1.7 update is available! Yes, the big star of this update is the new Volvo FH and FH16. Freshly off closed beta, we are in such a hurry to give it to you that for now we just have the Steam-only update ready. But please have patience with us, non-Steam version of the update is coming soon. (Or of course you can take advantage of the fact that any genuine Product Key we have ever issued for the game will also activate the game on Steam. Once.) The logistics of the release is actually quite simpler for us when working with Steam.



NEWS #2

With Halloween coming, we have created a special Halloween Paint Job Pack DLC for the occasion. It features 6 exclusive dark and scary themes applicable to all trucks in the game.


For veteran players of the game creating and using mods, we are aware that this is not major news for you - you can always satisfy your truck tuning appetite with a vast variety of custom mods or even your own creativity. But there are tens of thousands of players out there who never dare to apply any unofficial mods. We believe that if we take this road, we may be able give them something interesting and worthwhile. And of course completely optional.

After several months of work, we have just finished the new truck model, and we are giving it to our player base for free. We are committed to giving you more free trucks in the future, actually already two more are under development.

The idea with the paint job DLC is that such small paid-for "cosmetics" DLCs are our chance to accelerate development of the core game. Instead of begging for donations, we can offer something of value to help us fund further evolution of the game. And if this catches on, we'd like to consider more than just simple paints - there are definitely more cool opportunities, like offering support for decorating the inside of the cabin.

The Halloween Paint Jobs Pack DLC available now on Steam. This DLC is a Steam-only release. With our limited back-end infrastructure for monetizing and managing DLCs, we are not going to offer it from the official website.

We hope you'll enjoy driving the new Volvo FH and wear those beautiful Halloween paint jobs as much as we enjoyed creating them! Thank you!

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Oculus Rift and Euro Truck Simulator 2

A few days ago we released a new testing build of ETS2 with tighter support for Oculus Rift virtual headset. If you happen to own one, feel free to download the beta on Steam. Download and configuration notes can be found on our forum.

If you don't have access to Oculus Rift, perhaps you can have a little fun watching Eric as he is playing Euro truck Simulator 2 in front of the camera:

Monday, October 21, 2013

Yes, it's coming your way very soon!

We are excited to see so high level of fan community anticipation for the upcoming new Volvo FH release.

Currently the new truck model is in final stages of tuning and testing. This also involves going through final approval step with the brand owner, so the exact release date is not fully in our hands now. We feel very confident though now that the release date of the 1.7 update is not very far away.

We are in the final stretch, and no doubt you may have noticed already that our community beta testers started to share their thrill from the new Volvo FH in screenshot form via World of Trucks website. The website has great momentum still as more and more fantastic images are getting uploaded and more and more accounts are being created. And we are just starting to scratch the surface of what kind of opportunities the service will bring.

To fuel your hunger a little more, let us show you some dev-made shots of the new truck. Stay tuned, and see you soon on the roads in the new Volvo FH. Enjoy!





Friday, October 18, 2013

Euro Truck Simulator 2 - Trucking Handbook

We are extremely happy that more and more people are registering on the World of Trucks website and exploring the features of the latest 1.6 Patch along with it!

Switching gears a little: We have come across such a wonderful creation - Trucking Handbook. The video covers many of Euro Truck Simulator 2 features in depth, we always wished we had something like this! Now this wish has come true, thanks to XboxAhoy.

It features so many topics, including: Trailer Handling, City Traffic Driving, Motorway and Local Roads Driving, Speed Limits, Mirror Usage, Rules of the Roads and difference of driving trucks between UK and Europe, Various road Hazards, After-crash Recovery, and much more.

In a word, its a perfect introduction video to the Euro Truck Simulator 2 universe. We are hoping you will enjoy watching it, just as we did!


Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Update Time: World of Trucks is launched!


We are happy to announce that World of Trucks web is available for public!

In order to activate the communication between Euro Truck Simulator 2 and World of Trucks your game must be updated to the latest version 1.6.

The most notable 1.6 game features and improvements are:
  • Photo Studio - includes Photo-mode and Screenshot Manager allowing upload of your best screenshots to World of Trucks
  • Online profiles - ability to connect your profile to your World of Trucks account
  • New Iveco Stralis Hi-Way sounds recorded from actual truck
  • Individual air-horn sounds
  • Realistic fuel consumption option 
  • Adaptive automatic transmission option
  • Shorter jobs generation probability increased
  • License plate changes fixed 
To make is easier on our download servers and your nerves, initially we will start by offering just the torrent links before we get download mirrors up and running.

If you are a Steam user, it is much simpler, the game in Windows as well as Linux incarnation will be updated automatically - the new version is immediately available in Steam library.

We hope that you enjoy this alpha and that it will whet your appetite for upcoming updates in the World of Trucks universe!

Monday, October 14, 2013

World of Trucks v0.01



World of Trucks start is almost here. After two re-starts, we have finally got the project to a state (alpha state!) that we are eager to show you and to test drive it with you.

To begin with - World of Trucks is not a whole new game. Well not now anyway. Think about it as an evolution of Euro Truck Simulator 2, an extra optional service complementing the game and building on top of the game.

Certain future DLCs and certain features in upcoming game updates will take advantage of the additional World of Trucks layer, in fact some goals we will be pursuing will be tightly connected with World of Trucks, as we expect it to be more and more strategic in the grand scheme of things.

With World of Trucks, we are taking a shortcut building it on and around an existing game. The route should allow us to iterate faster, to deliver features and content more often, at least compared to a building a game from scratch. You may remember that it took us almost three years in case of ETS2 after all! We sure don't want to let you wait so long for some of the cool stuff we are planning.

We will be continually plugging-in new features into the service as they get implemented, so you will be able to witness the progress and if you choose to, become an integral part of its development and evolution. Such approach requires an overhaul and adaptation of our own development processes, which is still an on-going effort (you have been the judges of that while waiting for such a long time for the mid-summer patch). We hope the further it goes into 2014, the better will be be at it.

So, finally, this week the www.worldoftrucks.com portal will start working. Using your ETS2 key (or via provided Steam link), you will be able to register at the website and begin using some new features of ETS2. Let's have a closer look at "v0.01 stage" features:

1. Custom license plates

Using a selection of templates from countries featured in ETS2, you would be able to design your own plate. This new plate, after setting in up on the website, will automagically appear on your truck in the game.

2. Game avatar

You will be able to upload custom image serving as your in-game avatar. This avatar image will also be your representative on the World of Trucks portal.

3. Photomode

We have a new more advanced tool available if you want to grab cool screenshots from the game. You can pan the camera freely in the vicinity of the truck, play with DOF and change FOV. There is a also a management screen to work with your screenshots collection.


4. Publish the best shots using Screenshot Manager on your WoTr profile

Would you like to share your truck design with others, or maybe you want to share a particularly interesting route? Now you will be able to publish up to six screenshots using the built-in Screenshot Manager and share them with the others through your Profile screen.

5. User gallery

The place where your shots are visible for everybody. The other drivers can rate or share the images. The gallery will be accessible for unregistered users as well.

You can see that with the initial set of features, we do not yet attempt to add any gameplay depth. The goal is to start carefully, getting the infrastructure up and running first.

We hope to see you soon in the World of Trucks! It will be a quite a journey, we will be taking it step by step. Stay tuned for more!

Friday, October 4, 2013

October is here!

We'd like to make our future Euro Truck Simulator 2 updates focused each on one major new feature, while of course providing regular little fixes. The highlights of the updates include launch of the World of Trucks website, the new Volvo FH model, and a whole new traffic AI. These are things we have previously revealed or at least hinted at, but there are some more little surprises coming, too.

With the release of Going East! add-on, we have it confirmed that loyal fans are also loyal customers, ready to support continuous development of Euro Truck Simulator 2. We are committed to giving you regular free updates of the game, but we will also try exploring new business opportunities to help us further grow the company and to be able to accelerate the development progress. We hope that many of you are ready to come along for the ride!

And here is a glimpse of something that we think will be fun to drive, don't you agree?