Beyond the Baltic Sea released!

We celebrated another important day for SCS Software  - the release of Euro Truck Simulator 2's large map expansion Beyond the Baltic Sea.

Beyond the Baltic Sea was published 06:00PM UTC on Thursday, November 29, 2018

To shorten the wait before release, we held a broadcast of a live-stream from our just-established studio in SCS Software's office. It's was the first experiment with streaming by ourselves, it was a bit improvised. You can see on the screenshot how it looked just a few hours before the start! We made a couple of interviews with people from the development team, answered some of the questions that may come our way, and of course, we played the new DLC live most of the time. You can watch the recorded stream on our Youtube channel.

As mentioned in the previous blog post, we also published three new national paint job packs bound with this expansion. It means that the players in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia will get an option to get and use their own unique graphics packs from now.

Typically, country-specific paint jobs are purchased by the players from the given country. But we know that there are some players out there who like to collect every DLC related to our game. So we have prepared a special sweetened offer lumping together the new map DLC with the paint job packs of all the countries in it, including Finland and Russia which have been available for some time already. You may consider checking out Baltic bundle first before clicking any other purchase button on the Steam Store.

Baltic National Colors

With the release of Beyond the Baltic Sea just around the corner, we are excited for you to explore three new countries that have not yet been featured in Euro Truck Simulator 2. Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia are proud independent countries, home to many communities and industries, and we know that our truck sims have many eager fans there, too. Together with the upcoming map expansion, we have prepared national paint job packs for each of the three countries.

These new paint job sets will contain traditional thematic graphics including the national flag and/or the coat of arms and other national motifs of these countries.

The paint job packs will become available at the same moment we release Beyond the Baltic Sea. We're also preparing a special Steam bundle with an interesting discount covering all the countries featured in the map expansion. We wanted to give you this advanced information ahead of tomorrow's release of Beyond the Baltic Sea, as the big star "stealing the show" will be the map expansion itself.

American Truck Simulator Update 1.33 Open Beta

When there was no announcement of a Beta for American Truck Simulator, some of you were worried that Euro Truck Simulator 2 is getting all the love. It's true that ETS2 acutely needed an update to enable us to release Beyond the Baltic Sea map expansion, but there is more to ATS taking a bit longer out of the gate. Let's check the story below. We are proud to bring you American Truck Simulator Update 1.33 Open Beta, packed with new features!

As a counterpart to HCT trailers in Europe, ATS 1.33 brings you Turnpike double trailers (up to 100 ft). These trailers are pretty difficult to handle - in reality, they are in use only on specific roads built to meet their limitations. As of now, they are only allowed in Nevada in our game. You won't find jobs involving turnpike double trailers in freight market or quick jobs. The only way to use them is is to buy them (same as with HCT in Euro Truck 2) so that new players are not exposed to a challenge beyond their skill level.

There is one unique (and temporarily exclusive) new feature in ATS 1.33 - detours. We needed some time and focus to thoroughly review it internally before a public test, and this was the very reason why we avoided doing open betas for both games at the same time.

The goal of this feature is to introduce a bit of uncertainty into planning of your routes. The world in our games tends to be very predictable, while in reality the truck driver cannot take everything for granted. We wanted our players to have to improvise occasionally, and hence the concept of detours was born.

From time to time you'll find the road ahead of you blocked, maybe with state police waving you to go a different way, forcing you to remap your route. Or to search your memory for another option to reach your destination if you're so hardcore that you do not use the GPS. There'll always be a guaranteed way to deliver your cargo. But sometimes it can take more time than you'd be comfortable with, or move you away from the gas stations where you planned to refuel and get some rest. Detours are adding some adrenaline to the driver's job.

Think of this addition as "phase one" and please do give us your feedback. We hope that you will appreciate our ambition to spice up the universe of our games to make it feel more alive and dynamic.

For those of you hungry for new tarmac, we've added the first segment of OR-140. It remained on our wish-list for Oregon, and we are now catching up. We know how important this road is (trucking-wise) and its significance as "a shortcut", allowing you to avoid the long way around via US-20, or through California. The section we open today connects Lakeview and Klamath, a future extension we are also considering should reach to Nevada.

The list of changes continues with the features that we have introduced in ETS2 1.33 already. You may have spotted them outlined in our 1.33 update video.

Steam cloud-based profiles have received very positive reaction. Saving the game to a "cloud" can prevent potential loss of your profile due to a computer malfuction, or when changing your machine. It will also allow you to play on multiple computers without the need to carry a flash drive with you.

Reusable truck and trailer configuration templates also received a pretty warm welcome, as the life of a big fleet manager became much easier. We have some ideas to take the feature even further in the future, but we believe it's going to be a great time-saver for many players in its current form already.

Minor changes include improved rain drop behavior on the windshield, music shuffling and localization for names of states (countries).

For people having issues with blinking lights, we've added a new cvar. Try different settings with writing g_disable_beacons 0/ 1/ 2 in the console. We hope that one of these will suit you well.

So enjoy all the new additions, but please remember: It's only an open beta, not a stable public version - so you may encounter bugs, instability, and kinks. It's completely okay if you want to wait for the final release. But if you're interested in helping us to move there faster, we'll appreciate all of your feedback on our forum and your bug reports in this section.

If you wish to participate in the open beta, you can find this version in the public_beta branch on Steam. The way to access it is as follows: Steam client → LIBRARY → right click on American Truck Simulator → Properties → Betas tab → public_beta → 1.33 public beta. No password required.

CHANGELOG:

• Buyable turnpike double trailers (Nevada only)
• Detours
• Added OR-140 road (Oregon DLC required)
• Steam cloud based profiles
• Reusable truck and trailer configuration templates
• Physics improvements (suspension, damping, braking, cogs)
• Rain drops behavior on glass improved
• Music shuffling
• Country/ state name localization settings
• g_disable_beacons (0/1/2) - for people that have issue with blinking lights
• various customization options

MOD ALERT:

• Due to the number of changes, most mods will need some work to catch up!

Euro Truck Simulator 2 Update 1.33

You're probably used by now to SCS bringing a new game update just ahead of a major DLC release. This time is no different. We need to add support for new features specific for the new DLC content, but we also take the opportunity to add new gameplay and technical features that every player of the game will enjoy.

We've decided to do a little trial and released an Experimental Beta prior to the Public Beta. It proved us right with putting our trust into you, our amazing community – The Experimental Beta, or rather your bug reports and general feedback, helped us a great deal in getting to the stable Public Beta, and eventually to the full 1.33 update faster than anticipated.

A huge thank you to all who participated in helping us to pinpoint all the problems the Beta builds had. This was one of the smoothest Betas we’ve ever had, which is interesting, considering the number of new features. So enjoy all the new additions - including our first update video! We hope you'll like it!



To enjoy the 1.33 update, make sure to OPT OUT of beta branches and your game will be automatically updated on Steam.

CHANGELOG:

• Buyable HCT (High Capacity Transport) double trailers (Finland only, Beyond the Baltic Sea DLC required)
• Buyable double flatbed trailers (Scandinavia DLC required)
• Buyable container and brick trailers (flatbed variants) and cargo market
• Buyable Krone Boxliner (Krone DLC required)
• Steam cloud based profiles
• Reusable truck and trailer configuration templates
• Physics improvements (suspension, damping, braking, COGs)
• Rain drops behavior on glass improved
• Music shuffling
• Country and city name localization settings
• g_disable_beacons (0/ 1/ 2) - for people having issues with blinking lights (watch the video)
• Two new port cities added - Kapellskär in Sweden and Travemünde in Germany (read more)
• various customization options

MOD ALERT:

• Due to the number of changes, most mods will need some work to catch up!

Beyond the Baltic Sea releasing on November 29

The release of the Beyond the Baltic Sea map expansion is knocking on the hood! The results of the latest testing are in and are so positive that we can establish a firm release date. We can't wait for you to cross the border and to explore the countries of the Baltic Sea. We thank you for your continued patience and support of this eagerly awaited expansion.

We are happy to announce that the latest addition to Euro Truck Simulator 2

'Beyond the Baltic Sea' DLC will be released on Steam on November 29th, 2018!

Today we're presenting Beyond the Baltic Sea main features list for the first time. We hope that a summary of the upcoming expansion will leave you with no doubt in your mind that this is a very content-rich DLC.

• Over 13 thousand kilometers of new in-game roads
• Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia to explore
• Southern Finland containing major cities and industry
• Russian territory including Saint Petersburg and Kaliningrad
• 24 new major cities and many smaller towns
• Characteristic Baltic architecture
• Famous landmarks and recognizable places
• Brand new unique 3D-assets
• Lush climate accordant vegetation
• Local AI trains, trams, and traffic cars
• Over 30 new local company docks and industries
• Finland-only High Capacity Transport (a tractor and two long trailers)
• Baltic-region achievements to unlock

You may start seeing reviews, videos, and streams appearing online early this weekend. We have allowed the media, trusted content creators and members of our senior volunteer tester group to show video footage and other visual material from the DLC today at 22:59 UTC.

The Steam Awards 2018: Nominations!

The Steam Awards 2018 have arrived and we are calling on you, the community to vote! There are several different award categories this year, where you can nominate your favorite games. There are awards for games that have been continually supported since their release, games with the best- looking environment and even an award for your favorite developers!

Our fans were quick to spot the announcements of the Steam Awards, and immediately brought it to our attention with numerous supportive messages on all social media and communication channels. It's so wonderful to be a part of this fantastic truck simulation community!

If you choose to nominate us for this years awards, we will be very thankful for your vote and for your continued support of our games. You are of course completely free to make your choice, but judging from the many messages we have seen, the opinion is kind of settling on these particular choices. Synchronizing your votes is probably not a bad idea to avoid having our two games competing against each other ;)

Thanks!

Baltic Ports

The Baltic Sea connects the countries of the upcoming Beyond the Baltic Sea map expansion for Euro Truck Simulator 2, it is even the basis for the name of the DLC. Seaports are a key part of freight and logistics of the region. They also play an important role in our ETS2 world expansion.

Two new ports have a specific role. They are located outside the territory of the newly added countries, but they are appearing in the game as part of Update 1.33, you can already check them out in the Open Beta. Kapellskär is located in Sweden and Travemünde is in Germany. These new ferry ports will provide links with the new region even for players who do not own the Going East! map expansion.

Euro Truck Simulator 2 Update 1.33 Open Beta

A part of our hard-core fan community has been asking us for ages to involve them in the testing of our games, to allow them to see under the lid sooner. Last week, we decided to do a little trial and released an Experimental Beta of ETS Update 1.33. This was a build of the game which was not yet deemed stable enough for a large-scale public beta release, but having more feedback based on it would be a benefit for us to identify potential issues faster with more eyeballs on the new features. We only announced it on our forum and hoped for the best. The volume of feedback has proven that this was a successful experiment, spotting certain issues this early has definitely helped us a lot.

With this experience, we may consider adding another step to our regular testing progress. We are always starting with internal betas, and continue first through a closed beta test with our much-appreciated stable cadre of trusted volunteer testers. Now the new step may be a still-raw experimental beta for the most daring of you before we reach the widely publicized open beta release ahead of the final game update.

Thanks to everyone involved in the experimental beta, we are now able to launch the ETS2 Update 1.33 Open Beta sooner than anticipated!

This update brings some long requested features, as well as some of the most desired trailers. The double flatbed is the first of them, now with an option to be converted to a container trailer. With that also comes the Krone Boxliner, for owners of the Krone DLC. Another highly demanded addition is the brick trailer - a great white whale amongst trailers - which can be added to your fleet now. That will, of course, rob you of the joy of "hunting" this one on the freight market - the choice is yours :)

The system changes also bring certain features eagerly anticipated for quite some time. Generally the most important is the option of Steam cloud-based profile. No more profiles lost or deleted by mistake! No more need for keeping profiles stored on a flash drive for those playing on more than one PC! While this function needs some more testing, we hope to give you a safe place to store your profiles pretty soon.

Last but by no means least on the list of requested functions, we give you reusable truck and trailers configuration templates. This feature should make life easier, or so we hope, for everybody - but especially those who like to have a completely unified fleet of heavily modified trucks. We're sure that owners of fleets consisting of dozens of trucks and trailers would agree :)

And the additions don’t stop there. Rain is said to have a calming Zen effect (a lot of our players are after the soothing experience of just driving through the cool countryside in our games), so to improve this effect, we improved the graphics effect of rain. Raindrops on the glass should behave more realistic now. Speaking of the driver's point of view, you should feel (and see) the improved physics right after you start your truck. The center of gravity for almost everything in the game was tweaked, along with suspension, damping and braking. We are trying to find the right balance to make driving enjoyable for users of steering wheels and gaming controllers, as well as for players just using the keyboard. Driving your rig should feel different now, hopefully for the better. The newly added music shuffling may also help in this.

To close the list of important changes, we've added a cvar for people having issues with blinking lights. Try different settings with writing g_disable_beacons 0/ 1/ 2 in the console. We hope that one of these will suit you well.

So enjoy all the new additions, but please remember: It's only an open beta, not a stable public version - so you may encounter bugs, instability, and kinks. It's completely okay if you want to wait for the final release. But if you're interested in helping us to move there faster, we'll appreciate all of your feedback on our forum and your bug reports in this section.

If you wish to participate in the open beta, you can find this version in the public_beta branch on Steam. The way to access it is as follows: Steam client → LIBRARY → right click on Euro Truck Simulator 2 → Properties → Betas tab → public_beta → 1.33 public beta. No password required.

CHANGELOG:

• Double flatbed trailers (Scandinavia DLC required)
• Buyable container and brick trailers (flatbed variants) and cargo market
• Steam cloud based profiles
• Reusable truck and trailer configuration templates
• Physics improvements (suspension, damping, braking, COGs)
• Rain drops behavior on glass improved
• Music shuffling
• Country and city name localization settings
• g_disable_beacons (for people having issues with blinking lights, 0/1/2)
• Krone Boxliner ownable (Krone DLC required)

MOD ALERT:

• Due to the number of changes, most mods will need some work to catch up!

Postcards from Finland

Finland is one of the many new countries featured in the upcoming DLC 'Beyond the Baltic Sea'. You will be able to drive through the more populated southern areas, where you can explore Finland's largest cities, industrial centers and where most of the Finnish population live. At this time, Finland is one of the most northern areas you can drive in the world of Euro Truck Simulator 2.

Some of you may know that when it comes to trucking in Finland, the HCT will be an important part of your experience. High Capacity Transport is currently one of the less common types of freight transport found within European countries. The most interesting types of HCT found consists of a truck, a semitrailer dolly, and a semitrailer. We hope that these new pieces of information about upcoming content will make you even more excited. We can't wait for you to cross the border to explore the Beyond the Baltic Sea expansion and see what lies ahead!

Event: Trade Connections - Germany Summary

There were some bumps on the road, but the last few tons of the required amount have been delivered!

The number of people participating in this event was extraordinary, especially when taking into account the amount of new content introduced around the event, you managed to stay focused on the task at hand!

As you can see, tens of thousands of you participated in driving your rigs between different countries, and as the stats of the average length of jobs shows, most of you chose to drive the more scenic and longer routes rather than the shorter ones.

However, there are some who didn't manage to finish their personal goal yet, so we've decided to prolong the deadline of the event. The event system will keep registering your deliveries until November 15th, 00:00 UTC.

We hope that numbers above mean you've had some fun travelling the "old" Europe - because soon enough the borders will open and you'll have a whole new region to discover. So make sure your fleet is ready for a new expansion - you know how it is - first come, first served!

ATS: Special Transport Released!

The Special Transport DLC for American Truck Simulator has been released and is now available on the Steam store!



Do you have what it takes to deliver such large and heavy cargoes through the challenging roads of American Truck Simulator? It's not going to be an easy task, but if you pay attention to the road and work as a team with the escort vehicles, then you will be successful in delivering these special cargoes.

Key Features

• 11 huge cargoes (up to 170,000 pounds (85 tons), 21 feet (6.5 m) width, 17 feet (5+ m) height and 52+ feet (16 m) length)
• New Special Transport trailers
• Unique job routes for the Special Transport (most in the base map, some through New Mexico, more for Oregon to come later as a free update!)
• A combination of over 90 special transport jobs
• Custom AI escort & police vehicles
• Original intros for the cargoes and jobs, crowds and police cars along the routes
• New models, characters, and animations of people assisting or spectating the transport
• Curious pedestrians, journalists or transport co-workers along the routes
• Special Transport achievements

Gameplay Features

• Close collaboration with AI escort vehicles is required
• Enhanced AI behavior: clearing the path, stopping traffic, giving advice, pushing opposing vehicles to the side etc.
• Possibility to fail the given job on the spot if you don’t adhere to strict instructions or regulations 
• New checkpoints system to keep your progress in a special transport job safe