SCS Software's blog: October 2021

Friday, October 29, 2021

See Europe Through Our Eyes

Ever since viewpoints have been featured in Iberia DLC, it was only a matter of time until these cinematic cutscenes would start appearing in various places in the previous ETS2 map expansions. Today, we have great news for those who would like to enhance their exploration experience and take a look at some of the most interesting places in the previous map expansions a bit differently. Get ready for new viewpoints arriving with the 1.43 update!

A very long story short, there will be 35 new viewpoints added across already released ETS2 locations. From cities and ports to industrial areas, there will be a lot of reasons to revisit some of the older locations and see them from a different perspective. If you’d like to know a couple of more precise examples, you will be able to find new viewpoints focused on landmarks such as Cernavodă Bridge or Viaduct Poiana Teiului. In addition to that, apart from looking for a new job to take, you may want to hang around Steelworks of Pernik and Civaux Nuclear Powerplant.

We can’t wait for you to take a look at these new additions to the ever-expanding world of ETS2. Once the 1.43 update will be available, you can let us know which of these viewpoints you prefer the most by tagging our social media accounts on either Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, and be sure to attach a beautiful screenshot or a clip!

Tuesday, October 26, 2021

Retrowave Paint Jobs Pack Release

Take out your colorful blouses and vintage jeans, because it’s time to go back to the past! With great excitement, we are glad to announce that a new retro-styled Retrowave Paint Jobs Pack is coming for American Truck Simulator. Take a look at what you can expect from these brand-new paint jobs.

All of these designs are retro-themed and the selection is truly massive, as there are twenty-two new paint jobs arriving into the game. Two of these are shared across all trucks and additionally, every truck has two extra and unique paint jobs as well!

And don’t worry, your trailer doesn’t have to feel left out and it can also join the party because the two new styles that are shared across all trucks are applicable to the trailers too!

We can’t wait for you to let us know which paint job you like the most, so if you decide to obtain this pack, share your screenshots with us on social media using the hashtag #RetroTrucking, and let us know which of these numerous designs managed to strike the right note!

Monday, October 25, 2021

Steering Wheel Roll-Out Event

Help us celebrate the release of Thrustmaster’s new Steering Wheel, the T248, by taking part in our latest World Of Trucks event – Steering Wheel Roll-Out! For over 30 years Thrustmaster has been creating new designs to satisfy and entertain all types of gamers and we’re offering for you to join us in celebrating by rolling out this new hardware, as cargo, within Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator.

This will be your own personal journey and it will come with some nice perks along the way, including a World of Trucks Achievement and a unique cabin item, for taking part and delivering the T248 Steering Wheels cargo using our special event trailer. All you have to do is make sure your T248 Steering Wheels cargo delivery is over 248km / 154 miles.

During the #T248RollOut, players will also have the chance to enter up to 4 different ways and test their luck to win 1 of 11 very special T248s that have been specifically crafted to include either our ATS or our ETS2 logo!

Rules

Using External Contracts with a World of Trucks-connected profile in Euro Truck Simulator 2, American Truck Simulator, or both, your Personal goal is to complete at least 5 deliveries of T248 Steering Wheels cargo.

All jobs for the event need to be at least 248 km / 154 miles in length, or more.

You can check if your recent deliveries met these conditions using your Log Book in your World of Trucks profile.

Rewards:

Personal goal: Players that complete 5 or more deliveries of the T248 Steering Wheels cargo will gain a personal World of Trucks Achievement, a T248 Pedals dashboard toy as a Steam inventory item for Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator.

Don't forget, our previous Thrustmaster promotion is still running, which means that anyone who logs in to their World of Trucks account will automatically receive a matching free gift - the Thrustmaster T248 Mini Wheel cabin accessory item. Together they are the perfect pair!

The event will be concluded on Sunday the 7th of November at 23:59 UTC.

But this cool event is not all that there is, our dear #BestCommunityEver! During the #T248RollOut, players will also have 4 unique ways to win 1 of 11 very special T248s that have been kindly provided by our friends over at Thrustmaster.

However, these are not your normal T248s! We are talking about a very exclusive and limited edition T248 steering wheel & pedal set, all of them boast a distinctive red & black colour theme and proudly carry either our ATS or ETS2 logo on the base! Be aware that you won't be able to buy these anywhere else. Only those among the few winners will ever be able to get their hands on one!

Now that we have your attention, let's talk about how you can actually win one, shall we? We will be giving away 11 of these (6 carrying ETS2 and 5 ATS logos) in total. However, this time we have designed multiple ways you can participate and try your luck.

1) Steering Wheel Roll-Out Event - Live Stream Giveaway

You know us, when there is a new event, there's also a live stream. This time it won't be any different, so we look forward to seeing you join our live stream featuring Gavin, our Game Designer who'll be hauling some of these steering wheels, either in ETS2 or ATS on Twitch and YouTube.

The stream will take place on Wednesday, October 27, from 18:00 CEST. During the stream, we will host a giveaway in which you'll have a chance to try your luck to win one of the limited edition T248s mentioned above. We can't wait to go live with you all once again!

2) #T248RollOut Social Media - Giveaway

Another thing we normally do is host a supporting campaign, whenever we release any new content. This time, we call upon our #BestCommunityEver to hop in their trucks, either in ATS or ETS2, to participate in the event, get their T248 Pedals personal reward item, and then decorate their truck cabin with it alongside the Thrustmaster T248 Mini Wheel cabin item that you can get from our previous, and still running Thrustmaster promotion! Then, take a screenshot at one of your favourite locations that includes both the T248 steering wheel and T248 pedals cabin items, and post it over on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. The post will need to tag the social media profiles of both SCS and Thrustmaster, and include the #T248RollOut hashtag.

At the end of the event, when we'll be wrapping it up, we will pick 2 posts internally that include screenshots that stole our hearts the most, and reward each of them with one of these exclusive Thrustmaster T248 steering wheels!

3) Personal Goal Finishers - Random Lottery Giveaway

This is a new way to approach our giveaways, but we feel it will bring some extra love to all those who took their time to finish their personal goals in this event! This will be done by our internal World of Trucks team, who will export a list of WoTr account names who have accomplished their personal goals. Then we'll randomly pick 5 lucky winners from it! These winners will be contacted later, with each winner receiving 1 of the limited edition Thrustmaster T248 steering wheels!

4) Gleam.io - Giveaway

Last but not least, we want to offer a chance for a winner from an even broader audience, so that as many people as possible can try their luck. So, this one is for those who prefer a social media challenge.

Gleam.io is a great service through which we have created a fully automatic application form, allowing anyone to join and have the chance to be among the lucky winners. Once we'll be concluding the Steering Wheel Roll-Out event, we will randomly pick 3 people who'll each become the lucky new owner of one of these limited edition steering wheels.

The rest is up to you! All you need to do now is pick a way you want to enter this giveaway competition, and how high you want to make the chances for yourself. The more steps you do in the form, the more chances you get. It's easy and it can all be done in the form embedded below. In order to be able to contact the winners, we will need to ask for your email before letting you enter the form. We promise that all email addresses gathered will be deleted right after the winners are picked.

Now it's up to you, to choose one (or more ;-) ) of the ways listed above and try your luck! We are looking forward to seeing more of your photos as you roll-out these latest T248 Steering Wheels from Thrustmaster! Share them with us using the hashtag #T248RollOut on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram profiles and we will share our favourite ones (we may even feature some of them in a future blog post!).

Thursday, October 21, 2021

ETS2/ATS 1.42 Release

We are excited to announce the arrival of update 1.42 for both Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator!

We'd like to thank all those who took part in the 1.42 Open Beta, made bug reports, and provided general feedback on this new version. Whilst our updates usually feature many new changes, this update is focused more on introducing a new and substantial feature to our Convoy online multiplayer mode alongside some smaller updates and general fixes.

So without further ado, let's take a look at what the 1.42 update has in store!

Convoy MOD Support

Support for third-party modifications in Convoy was a very frequent request from our community when we first released our multiplayer mode. Since then, our teams have made it a high priority on their list to support the use of MODs.

However, this was not an easy task for our team, especially when it came to the challenge of profile recovery when a crucial MOD is removed or changed, and visualizing what MODs are missing from the Steam Workshop when players join a server that contains modifications. We have done our best to overcome these hurdles; however, there may be a few things that might need tweaking and changing before we are fully satisfied with the results.

We have also created a completely new UI to accommodate MOD support. When you enter the session browser, you will see a new section on the right side listing the MOD compatibility requirements for the server. We have also included new icons for servers to let you know which servers have MODs enabled and which do not.

Session names in screenshots are blurred for privacy reasons.

Previously, next to the server session, we indicated if you could or could not join the server using a red or green icon depending on if the session was full or due to problems with map compatibility or even with different game version numbers. We have now introduced an orange icon, which indicates you cannot join the server now, but via the new MOD synchronization UI, you can download the missing modifications and join then!

If a modification is missing and it is available via the Steam Workshop, you will be able to download it via the Steam browser which will be overlaid in-game, so you do not need to exit the game to subscribe to it. This will be accessible via a new window that opens when you try to join a session where you have some missing MODs. This window will show you all your currently active modifications on the left side and all the modifications the server is using on the right side.

Session names in screenshots are blurred for privacy reasons.

If the server is using a modification that is NOT available on the Steam Workshop and downloaded via a third-party site, then you will need to source the modification yourself. Unfortunately, our system will not be able to check what version of the modification the server has or where it is sourced. Once you have everything required by the server, the confirm button will become available and you will be able to join the session.

We expect a majority of popular modifications to work from the get-go with this update, however, there may be some compatibility issues with others.

At this time, a convoy session will only allow for a maximum of 70 modifications during a session. We understand that a smaller percentage of our community may use more than this number and we will continue to monitor feedback made across our social media channels to tweak and make adjustments in the future if we see it necessary.

MOD authors please be aware that some modifications will require some adjustments to work properly in Convoy. Sound modifications will be heard locally by the user, but other players will not hear them as remote trucks use a simpler soundbank (or they may just hear default truck sounds) if the modification is not configured to do so. Vehicles, Trailers, and Cargo modifications must also include proper traffic models for other players to see and interact with.

Our teams will continue working hard to overcome the difficulties that may come with using third-party modifications in the convoy mode. Your help and contributions during the Open Beta have been extremely valuable to our teams, so please continue to submit your bug reports and feedback onto the appropriate sections of our forums (ETS2/ATS).

We look forward to seeing the many wonderful and creative MODs that will be used whilst convoying together with friends! We also plan to release a new FAQ in the future with more up-to-date information as we continue to work on the Convoy feature. You can find our first Convoy FAQ blog here, which answers the community's most popular questions!

Third-party modifications were used to create illustrative screenshots for this blog article. By choosing these publicly available MODs to make such screenshots we make no claim or endorsement of any kind that these MODs or their authors are officially supported, recognized, preferred, or recommended by SCS Software.

Force Feedback Update

1.42 also brings an update to our Force Feedback profiles for steering wheels and controllers which are compatible with Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator.

The new FFB has been written from scratch and utilizes a 120 Hz refresh rate, independent from the main game loop. It combines some of the old artificial effects with the new centering and tire friction force feedback, which is based on real calculations from forces on the first steering axle and simulates the behavior of a hydraulic steering gear system used in most of today's trucks. This brings a more realistic and immersive feedback experience for our players!

We highly recommended resetting your Force Feedback settings to their new defaults.

We recently released a detailed FAQ blog about this update which answers some of your most asked questions about this update and goes more into depth about the topic of this update. If you missed that, you can take a read of that here!