Monday, May 29, 2017

Suit Up in the Colors of SCS Software!


Today is a special day for our company. When we're on the road - at public events, truck shows, or any gaming industry expos - we are often asked if there is any way to buy some of the game-themed clothes we're wearing. We have been hesitating for years, but as we've been getting these requests more frequently, we've started to think about SCS Software merchandise a little bit more. Finally, we decided to give it a try and offer our fellow truck sim fans a chance to get clothes or other handy stuff with the Euro Truck Simulator 2 or American Truck Simulator motifs.

We are happy to open our new SCS Software merchandise E-Shop!

The selection of goods is currently pretty basic (we welcome your tips for more types of merchandise to offer), but everything is in stock and ready to be shipped. Our clothing comes in different colors and sizes, and it's of really good quality.


Clothes are not the only stuff that you can browse. You can go on a trip with a new backpack, pack your lunch along, or sip your coffee from a nicely decorated mug.


Only time will tell how popular our merchandise will be. Most players care only about the games of course, but we are very excited to offer our fans this extra option to show your enthusiasm for our games!

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Community's Driver Seats #3

We're still receiving really great pictures of gaming setups and places from our fellow truck simmers and we'd like to share another batch of these photos with the rest of our fanbase. It's so motivating to see that our work can inspire some of the players to spend considerable time and effort to build so elaborate setups for virtual trucking!

If you've missed the previous sets of gaming rig pictures, you can check them at the links under this article. And if you'd like to share your awesome place where you're hauling digital cargo, please send us your photos to inboxes at any of our official facebook profiles: Euro Truck Simulator 2, American Truck Simulator or SCS Software.

Here come the pictures:









Thank you, our fellow truckers! And until next time - take care and have a great time!

Friday, May 19, 2017

New Mexico: Places to Rest and Refuel

We are always thinking of opportunities to make our tech more flexible, to help us bring the "touch of real trucking spirit" into our virtual worlds. Besides driving, the places to stop and rest are an integral part of a driver's life. We have decided that they deserve our focus now as we work on New Mexico DLC for American Truck Simulator.

Even smaller rest areas for New Mexico are now being created as custom works. Instead of monolithic prefabs used repeatedly across the world, we are now combining smaller building blocks into unique sets for each location. This approach also makes it easier to mix in location-specific objects.




An even greater amount of care is given to big truck stops. They are truly vast unique locations that are recognizable as real world landmarks. We have separated petrol stations for passenger cars and trucks. There are dedicated spots offering virtual drivers complete services as they are: fuel, repairs, rest, and services. This required a bit of technical innovation - we had to teach the AI drivers to navigate around the sprawling rest stops. The invisible AI guidance "rails" were historically only created in Maya or Blender as part of one-piece prefabs, but now the map designer will be able to flexibly lay them where needed. That should push the immersion depth and the overall feel of our truck stops to a new level.



Related articles: New Mexico: New Prefabs

Friday, May 12, 2017

ETS2: Heavy Cargo Pack DLC is here!

At SCS Software, we always have several internal projects under way, big and small, in various stages of completion - from pure concept research to pre-production, to full-blown production. We try to keep things mostly under wraps until we gain enough confidence that a project is viable. It is always a great pleasure to finally make the announcement when we are ready to release something new!

Today, we are proud to bring you a new DLC for Euro Truck Simulator 2 - the Heavy Cargo Pack is here!

Along with this new pack, there is a lot of content which will be added into the base game as a FREE update for everyone. But first, let's check out the new content in the DLC:


New Cargoes



Prepare yourself for 8 new heavy haul cargoes:
  • Asphalt Miller
  • Industrial Cable Reel
  • Concrete Beams
  • Crawl Dozer
  • Locomotive
  • Metal Centering
  • Mobile Crane
  • Transformer

New Trailers



The new DLC contains a pair of new high-tech trailers: Single Extendable Flatbed and Semi Lowloader with Drop Deck. These trailers come with steerable axles for safer navigation around tight bends.


The good news today don't just stop here. We are also adding a lot of free content and a new feature into the base game!

New Truck Chassis Variants and Tuning



While working on the new heavy cargoes, we were inspired to take a look at special transport variants of truck tractors. The fan community has long been asking for 8x4 chassis options, and this is a great opportunity to finally introduce them into the game. We don't have 8x4 chassis option available for all the trucks in the game at this moment, but we hope that you will be happy to find it available for Mercedes-Benz New Actros, Volvo FH 2012, and both Scania R and Streamline trucks.

The new chassis variants are a free part of today's game update so you can try them out immediately even without buying the Heavy Cargo Pack DLC. For each new vehicle variant, we have also created a set of new paint jobs too, to make you feel real unique and anxious for the more difficult challenges. In addition, we have added several new truck tuning accessories into the game, such as wheel tuning parts.

Truck Analysis Screen


With the new heavy loads, you may find out that not all trucks are equally suitable for hauling them. There are technical as well as legal limitations and implications for transporting heavy cargo in the real word, and while Euro Truck Simulator 2 is only a game, we felt that the players should be aware of them. All manufacturers offer a wide range of options for the trucks, and the companies that buy them try their best to optimize the configuration to best suit their needs while making the purchase economical - both at the time of purchase and even more importantly while operating them.



The new Truck Analysis screen is our attempt to indicate the suitability of a particular truck configuration for various operational scenarios and conditions. This new feature works in the upgrade shop too, where it may help you configure your truck to best fit your goals and budget.


The Truck Analysis screen doesn't impose any restrictions on your choice of vehicle, it is only there as a guide. But we think it may be a good idea to pay attention to the advice. You may make the screen disappear with a single click, but half an hour later, you may find yourself in real trouble trying to pass a difficult spot in the world, and upset that you have not made a wiser choice of the truck to pull the heavy cargo.

Well, do you have what it takes to answer the call of heavy duty? We bet you do!

Related articles: Big in America, Heavyweights to enter the ring soon

Friday, May 5, 2017

Doubles

Today we have an announcement that should make many of our fans happy. After quite some years of internal discussions and frankly some frustrations and struggles to have the gameplay as well as technical side of multi-trailer physics support ironed out, we finally feel ready to reveal fresh info about our progress on doubles.

It has taken us a long time, but hope never dies! We are polishing double trailers for inclusion in the next major updates for Euro Truck Simulator 2 as well as for American Truck Simulator. We have a few pictures for you to prove that we are serious...


Our games' fans have patiently (or not so patiently) waited for double trailers for a long time, and the wait should not be that long any more. The new trailers and physics improvements will be a part of the next big "point release" update of both games. Our hope is to release the updates in early summer. It's going to be a FREE update.

Meanwhile, we are also wrapping up work on Heavy Cargo packs both for ETS2 and for ATS, which are going to be paid DLCs, comparable to our existing High Power Cargo Pack DLC. So if you are into cargo transport in particular, there is a ton of cool stuff to look forward to!