Operation Genoa Bridge Event Announcement

Last week we posted a teaser image of a construction site hard at work in an unknown location within Euro Truck Simulator 2. After thousands of comments of speculation from our community, we are excited to announce what this image represents.

We are calling on you, our community, to prepare your trucks for a very special World of Trucks event to help complete the new Genoa Bridge, located in the northwest of Italy. The construction of this bridge has become a symbol of hope for Italy; with the help of thousands of industry professionals having worked around the clock for the last seven months, even during the current coronavirus outbreak, to finish this important connection.

With this project set to be completed in the near future, we plan to reflect that reality within Euro Truck Simulator 2, but this won't happen without the help of our community. We hope that you can all come together and assist in delivering the materials, equipment, and manpower needed to complete this very special project.

While we make final preparations for the start of this event, keep an eye out on our socials and blogs announcing the start of this event in the near future, tentatively in about a week from now.

Idaho: Sandpoint to Lewiston Gameplay

It's time we take a closer look at our next upcoming state for American Truck Simulator, Idaho. We are starting off slow here, as we do not want to spoil the enjoyment of discovering the beauty of the state by showing you too much, too early.

Take a seat in the position of the driver and join us as we haul lumber from a harvest site near Sandpoint to a paper-mill factory in Lewiston. Let us know what you spot along the way!

We are excited to give you a look at what Idaho will have to offer come this year with this footage. Please note that this map expansion is actively being worked on and the contents of this raw gameplay footage may not represent the final product.

Idaho: Check Your Log

From housing to flooring, furniture and the paper in your book, wood products are more prevalent in your daily life than you may realize. The logging industry plays a large role for the economy in the United States.

In the North of Idaho (also known as the panhandle), the forest and timber industry is one of its leading economy contributors thanks to the region's rich and thick forests. For many players of American Truck Simulator, logging industries have become a favorite destination as many of them are located off-road and present a unique challenge for drivers.

Drivers can look forward to more challenging climbs between rocks as well as some tight turns which may prove difficult for longer or heavier trailers.

We will also be revisiting your favorite timber harvest sites, introducing a few new assets and 3 new timber harvesting locations as part of our newest Idaho DLC! These industries have been given a lot of love by our ATS community, and in turn we hope this will bring a fresh look to these popular industries.

Idaho will also see the introduction of a new prefab that will bring a new overall feel to the timber harvesting industry. 

Like what you see? Before you log off steam, it wood be nice if you could add Idaho to your Steam Wishlist! Plus make sure to check out our Twitter & Instagram for more axe-clusive images not found on this blog post!

Calling On The Community

Recently a traffic camera picked up this interesting scene. It appears that a construction site is hard at work! Rumor has it they might need a lot of drivers to assist in this project.

 Let us know if you have any ideas on what might be happening!

Trucks World Cup 2020 - The Next Phase

For those who have been closely following the various matches & voting results in the Renault Trucks #TWC2020  screenshots competition, know that the 16th of May was the last day of the group stages. This means it's time to progress forward with the next round. Before that, let us introduce the lucky contenders who have made it through to the next stage, as voted by all of you from the community!

Do you see your name among the finalists? Congratulations if you do! Make sure to check your email inboxes, as a representative from the #TWC2020 team will be in touch shortly. We will need to know how we should deliver your rewards ranging from Steam keys to merchandise from SCS Software's Eshop and Renault Trucks store! Also, please make sure to check your email settings and spam folders; we've unfortunately received a few server error messages (about undelivered emails) when trying to contact some of you for your first reward - a free Steam key for being selected into the 32 participants.

So, what happens next? Well, now things get a bit more interesting. The top 2 contestants from the original base groups will now compete against one another. One match, one chance. Winners will be rewarded and move on to the following round to get even closer to the ultimate prize. As you can see on the schedule above, winners of these rounds will compete against each other again. And it will continue this way until we get to the grand finale! And you all are still the judges! Keep a close eye on our and Renault Trucks' Instagram profile, as the voting will keep happening in the Instastories sections there! Plus any info can be found at the dedicated Facebook page too!

And do we have some really awesome prizes! These cool items have been kindly provided by our friends over at Intel, HyperX, Tobii Eye Tracking, and Thrustmaster. We can't wait to see who's going to grab them, and who's going to be the ultimate Trucks World Cup 2020 winner!

Iberia: Car Industry

In 2015, Spain produced 2.7 million cars which makes it the 8th largest automobile producer in the world and the 2nd largest car manufacturer in Europe. As our team continues to work on Iberia for Euro Truck Simulator 2, we couldn't miss the opportunity to represent this important industry.

Thanks to the ports across Iberia with connections to Europe, the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Atlantic, shipping across the world makes Spain and Portugal an ideal location for automobile manufacturers. Some of these operations are so large that many ports have their own dedicated car shipping terminals which are solely dedicated to the transporting of automobiles overseas.

However, car ports are not the only new prefabs you will find around Iberia. Drivers will play a vital role in delivering parts and cars to and from the various car factories to the shipping terminals. With millions of cars rolling off the production line each, you will have no shortage of logistic jobs in this industry.

If you wheely like the look of Iberia, be sure to add it to your Steam Wishlist and make sure to check out our Twitter & Instagram for more exclusive images not found on this blog post!

Our Trip To Colorado

Back in 2019, four members of our American Truck Simulator map team (Nicolaj Toft Nielsen, Tomas Opekar, Tomas Dubsky and Patrik Sadlon) took to the skies and traveled across the pond to the USA on a very important research trip. While we couldn't tell you at the time (as it would ruin the surprise), our team made sure to keep a detailed account of their trip, and here are just some of the highlights of what they got up to.

Traveling over 2000 miles in just 7 days, they managed to visit everything they had planned on their list. From capital cities to small towns and everything else in between, our team had an important task to complete; to photograph and document various locations around Colorado to assist in the creation of our upcoming map expansion.

"Our trip across Colorado was a really unique experience for me, not just because I was in US for the first time, but mainly because of how diverse Colorado is." Tomas O., one of our ATS map designers explains "We were able to see a big metropolitan area of Denver on the edge of the Great Plains, travel across the beautiful Rocky Mountains and through deep canyons to see vast desert landscapes around Grand Junction... considering our game and work, the trip was beneficial in many ways. We took a huge amount of reference pictures, which was especially useful in areas with no or low-quality Streetview photos"

"One might think that looking at pictures of such places is enough & that you do not need to visit these locations, but then when you do, you immediately gain an understanding of the size of that place, its orientation, what kind of buildings are there, what type of road material they use, what vegetation grows there and so on" Tomas D says "And you can feel the atmosphere and the vibe of towns, landmarks, truck stops and it really helped me gather inspiration out of it."

"The most beneficial thing for me was gaining a sense of the vastness and size. Especially when compared to Europe, where you have a city or village around every corner and freeways are divided with one crash barrier and not a 60 meters wide grass strip... One can easily miss roughness of the road and other subtle details as well as a sense for tilt and steepness. What seems like a completely straight road across a wide plain landscape on Google Maps, may not actually be like that in real life."

The team found many examples of this on their journey, as they discovered many natural features that would have not been picked up in online photo references. Locations such as the Million Dollar Highway where the team took references of various rock formations that would not have been visible from the public road, which included a waterfall running right underneath it! Instead, they made sure to take plenty of unique photos and videos from their journey, to show and share with their colleagues back in Prague.

Along their travels, the ATS map team also came across many of the truckstops that dominate the U.S highways. With each stop, the team learned something new about these rest spots for drivers and what makes each one unique. They even had the opportunity to chat with a few friendly truckers and ask a few questions! "The best part of the trip for me was definitely to see the big truckstops, services, those huge junctions and impressive road infrastructure." says Nicolaj T. "We learned an important lesson about how truckstops work and how we can make them much more realistic! For example, trucks always back into their parking place"

The team didn't just learn about the infrastructure of truckstops but also the environment that surrounds them as Patrik S. explains. "Now we all know truckstops are much noisier then we thought... we also saw some very unique cargoes parked at these truckstops, we made sure to take some inspiration for future ideas!"

So how does all of this translate in-game? Well, you'll just have to wait and see, but thanks to this trip, the ATS map team has gained an invaluable amount of information and understanding of Colorful Colorado. "I think it’s very important for developers to see the thing they are about to recreate, with their own eyes" Nicolaj T. explains. "Especially in this case where we are developing content from the other side of the world. Personally, I’ve never been to the states before, and I actually didn’t think to have a trip like this would change my perspective as much as it really did"

We hope that trips like this will help us push the quality level of our map expansions to an even higher level. That we will be able to recreate some of the places we visit more precisely than ever before. See the examples we've prepared for your below. Did we nail it?

If this makes you excited as we are for Colorado in American Truck Simulator, make sure to add it to your Steam Wishlist!

Idaho: The Old Familiar

Truck stops have served highway drivers for many years, providing fuel, food, and a place to rest for many weary travelers. Found along the highways of America, these stops have evolved into more than just a place to fill up the tank. From the small roadside fuel pump islands to large plazas with multiple amenities, major chains have developed, offering services across the country.

Each truck stop often has its own unique features to help drivers feel relaxed, such as a certain color or design that allows those who frequently experience a familiar feeling of being somewhere they know.

Just like their real-life counterparts, you will find many of these virtual truck stops on the highways and interstates of our upcoming DLC, Idaho. Each comes with their own unique look and feel and of course a place where truckers can fuel up and take a rest during their journeys. While you are fueling up, you may notice there is more space than before as each of the truck stops has been revisited to allow for a more realistic feel.

During your travels in Idaho, you will also come across new traffic light designs that are unique to the several cities they are found in. Although this may seem like a very minor change, drivers often spend a lot of time looking at the lights, so a change in design or looks can be very pleasing for most.

If you are ready to explore Idaho for American Truck Simulator, make sure to add it to your Steam Wishlist. You can also find exclusive pictures from Idaho posted across our Facebook page, Twitter, and Instagram profiles.

And as promised, we've just released a small update for both Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator that contains a new cabin accessory items for all those who achieved their personal goal in our recent #TruckAtHome event! Once again we'd like to thank all of those who participated in this event! Stay awesome, stay healthy, and if you can, #TruckAtHome so we all can help the world get back to normal.