Euro Truck Simulator 2

I can't be the only one playing this game ( Or am I? ). I didn't see a thread for this game anywhere else on the forums, so I figured I'd start one. Picked the game up after the Giant Bomb quick look because I had a strange feeling I'd enjoy it. My father used to be a long haul truck driver and took me with him many times when I was young, I've loved the road and big ass trucks since.

I wasn't disappointed, the game is great to chill out and listen to a podcast to and the scenery, while pretty simple, manages to look great in spite of it. There are many upgrades to be had, and a company to manage via menus. I do wish the company management part was a bit more fleshed out, I'd like to actually see my drivers on the road but they only exist on paper, the only in-game part of the management being the garage which you can upgrade and see the effects of, but is otherwise useless.

There is a small but dedicated modding community for this game, hopefully the population will get larger when it releases on Steam, workshop support would be great. I'll post up a list of the mods I'm using here too:

AI Trucks Speed Mod
Remove Speed Limiter Mod
Air Brakes Sound Mod
Real Companies Mod (DL in description)
Brighter Flares Mod

I've also been playing around with the Truck-Sim map mod but I'm not sure I like it. It adds a bunch of new cities, however it also replaces the default map when viewed in the Freight Jobs window, which doesn't show where you currently are making it difficult to choose jobs.

So, is anyone else playing this? Feel free to join in with mod recommendations/discussion!

I'm playing it when I feel like a chill-out game, which has not been recently. Just slowly working on upgrading my driver, exploring the map and buying some upgrades. I should probably do the speed limiter thing (but don't you get ticketed when you go over 80 anyway?) and the AI truck speed limiter for giggles at least. 60km/h on the autobahn(s) is pretty unlikely.

I like the list of online radio within the game, I try to change it appropriately dependent on where I am. But I haven't found an easier way to do it than to pause, go to options -> audio and then try clicking the streams. Is there any faster way, like say, actually tying that to in-cab controls?

TrackIR adds a lot to it. I almost don't leave the cab now (AND IN THE GAME) except for the tiniest of parking lots. I am still unable to instinctively grok reversing ... LEVER PHYSICS.

Hmm, I wonder if we need a general sim thread. :) I wanted to ask whether anyone's tried the Zusi Bahnsimulator mentioned on RPS today ...

I also started playing this after the Giant Bomb quick-look. I agree that it's a good relax and listen to podcasts/music game. I can't stand playing it without TrackIR though (sometimes I forget to turn it on and then wonder why nothing happens when I try to look around) and have respect for anyone who does. I'm slowing getting a feel for backing up with a trailer, but I'm still just as likely to turn the wheel in the wrong direction. Thanks for the list of mods, Adekan.

Marcin to bring up the list of radio streams just hit 'R'.

Yeah, I rather wish I had TrackIR. Controlling the truck with the keyboard is too clumsy, and when controlling by mouse you need to hold down the RMB to toggle camera look, which in turn locks down the steering. I don't really play enough sims of this type to warrant the investment into a TrackIR. I have gotten quite proficient at driving in the outside view as a result of this, however.

And in response to Marcin's question about being ticketed, the response is: Yes, quite frequently. The Great Britain area is absolutely terrible if you like to be speedy, it seems that even the highways have speed limits of around 70 KM/H there, and there are speed traps seemingly every ten feet. However around Germany most of the highways have a pretty steady speed limit of 110 KM/H, with occasional speed traps.

I don't often actually make use of the increased speed limit because it can be fairly hard to keep the truck on the road at those speeds, as one of my front wheels will often lose contact with the ground and send me spiraling out of control. But it's nice to have when trying to pass some slow moving car or truck on those evil, evil side roads that the route manager likes to send me to.

I highly recommend the 360 controller as a cheap analog alternative to mouse/keyboard. I actually only tried the TrackIR on a whim and was pleasantly surprised it worked with no tweaking required - I was fine driving without it, just using the second analog stick for camera control. It does certainly add to it, but by no means required.

XenoCrash Holy cats, thanks!

That seems like a decent alternative. Might even give me a reason to finally install Dirt 3, and finish Assassin's Creed 3. Does a standard controller (I'm looking at this one) work out of the box with the game? Or is there some fiddling required?

Seconding the controller suggestion; pretty much any will do (using old logitech rumblepad or smth here). In addition to the stick for camera control i've tied one of shoulder keys to "interior camera" view which allows me to snap the view back to straight-on at moment's notice. Very convenient for navigating turns.

For the mods i'm using mostly just some gfx fixes (real car names, real company names and gas stations etc) and some slight physics tweaks which increase trailer weight and such.

Is there a site you use besides the developers forums for mods? The selection is pretty thin there.

I just fumbled about in my closet for a while, and managed to find an old Logitech Dual Action controller. It looks pretty much exactly like a PS2 controller, and so far works fairly well although I am having issues getting steering just right, it's either too slow at low speeds or too quick at high speeds. I put the in cabin camera on right stick click in, and the second out of cabin camera on left stick click in, with the D pad left/right for camera control, camera wise it's working very well so far.

I haven't used any form of controller in about 6 years, though, so my hands are taking some time to adjust.

Yeah, that's what I have, except the white version. Also, wow - they've gone up in price since I got mine. Weird, considering ... well, I can't believe there can be that much improvement to the hardware. :/

Anyway yeah, works out of the box with this and many, many other games. It sees use on my Windows box quite frequently these days, whereas my actual 360 console - almost never. So the adjustment time may be worth it. :)

If i rememeber right most of my mods came from this place: http://ets2-mods.com/ and some mod page in german which i can't unfortunately find in google again.

For steering, i have increased somewhat the dead zone and it seems to work well enough for me. You might want to play with two sliders in the "cotrols" preferences panel, the ones which control sensitivity and (especially) non-linear scaling which i believe controls what you have problem with -- that is, how the input affects the wheel at different speeds. And yeah, it may take few hours to get adjusted to the effect the controller has on the truck.

Not to be a crossposting whore (except that I am) but this might be of interest to fellow heavy vehicle drivers. I must say that after ETS2, OMSI feels like a throwback almost to .cfg files. Spotty controller support, very ahem, *unique* modes of control, massive lists of keys with and without modifiers (shift + ctrl) and of course the fact that nearly all the dashboard controls not only work but are actually relevant. It is definitely *not* a chillout game, despite having a similar core gameplay. :D

I downloaded the demo as kind of a joke after watching the Giant Bomb Quick Look, and after 6 hours of drunken driving around the EU from ~10pm to 4am, I bought the stupid thing because it's weirdly compelling. I can't explain it. Now I'm a level 6 euro trucker, with two employees who aren't really making me much money yet but keep working on those skills fellas!

The 360 controller works really well. I'm tempted to splurge on a TrackIR, but the rational part of my brain is stopping me. Thanks, brain.

You don't have to, not in this thread. :D

Yeah, don't worry, you're amongst friends here. Or at least, amongst others who can't explain why they find this game so compelling. I think I've spent at least 40 hours on this game so far, which surpasses my time spent on XCOM:EU and Borderlands 2 combined.

I used the controller for a while, but ended up migrating back to the mouse control. It just feels so much more natural to me, it's odd.

I was so damned close to Stuttgart!

I've been enjoying this, even though the lack of prostitutes makes me feel that I'm not getting the full experience of driving a lorry through Europe.

I've driven 30 odd kilometers without noticing a car stuck under my trailer before. I just figured I had clipped a sign or bollard.

UPDATE: I restarted Steam and now it shows up in my library. Hooray!

I bought this last week from GamersGate because $30USD was the cheapest digital price I found (and it still is). Seeing that ETS2 got added to Steam today I thought I would try to register the activation key I got from GamersGate. It registered as "Euro Truck Simulator 3P Retail Key", but didn't give me an option to install the game and it doesn't actually show up in my Steam library. I don't know if it not showing up means something like the GG version is region restricted or if the download for retail keys just hasn't been added yet. Since I already have it installed I don't need to download from Steam, so I'll just keep an eye on it and provide an update if anything changes.

NOTE: I'm assuming that since all the keys are the same no matter where you get them, if you have a key you should be able to register it on Steam.

Strange, you would think that would be the first mod available.

They've just recently gotten it working apparently. Just entered mine and it went through without a hitch.

Seems like it's topping the sell chart on Steam at the moment, as well. Glad to see it, hopefully the company will have more funds to work on patches/DLC now.

This game has no right to be as enjoyable as it is. Apparently, something deep within my soul cries out to make the ferry run out to Calais.

Oh Goddamit. I'm going to buy this, aren't I? Yes, I am.

So is the driving in this game... good, or something? The Quick Look made it seem like they had as much trouble keeping the truck in the lane as I do going 180mph in Shift 2.

Amusingly I fired up Shift after playing this to feel a little more of the road and ... I fell off of it. The road, I mean. Repeatedly. In the intro.

So no, the trucks in ETS2 drive pretty much like giant couches on hoverboards. I haven't seen the QuickLook but perhaps they were "messing around", as those lads are wont to.

Er, unless they're just using the keyboard? Digital could be tricky.

They were using a Logitech wheel, shifter and pedal combo with trackIR. Without the speed limiter removal mod it's pretty difficult to flip a truck, but I've lost control a couple times when hitting a corner too fast. Different truck models have different handling as well. The Volvo has the highest engine horsepower, but flips/loses control very easily. I've been almost unable to lose control of the Mercedes Actros, short of taking a 90 degree turn at 120KM/H. I'd say the driving skews more towards arcade than simulation, but nevertheless is still somehow completely enjoyable.

I have a mod which increases trailer weight to 30 tons from the default 20 or so, but if i remember right even with the default one you can lose the traction easily just doing a sharper turn at 85+ km/h. May depend on the trailer type too, not sure -- some are taller/more narrow than others, which should in theory make them easier to flip over.

Yeah, I took a quick look at the Quick Look (HAH!).

They are definitely messing around. The driving is as Adekan says, skewing far more towards arcade (the easy end of arcade) but still enjoyable. All it takes is well, not to run into other cars on red lights. Shocking, I know.

How about jacknifing? Is there any reason to break softly using the analog trigger so that the trailer doesn't break loose?

I usually fail at the not running into cars on red lights portion of the test.

Pogo I have never had a jackknife before, not sure if the game even is capable of it since I can pull a U-turn at a traffic light without an issue, and my regular braking regime is to slam on the parking brake and full standard brake from 130km/H. The only time my trailer has involuntarily detached was when I pulled a Vinny and drove over a car, causing my truck to fly into the air like some sort of wacky arm waving inflatable tube man.

OK that's... not the kind of physics I was hoping for.

Maybe I should wait for Truck Simulator: Ice Road Truckers edition... with a Frostfall survival mod.

There are some physics mods out there, although I'm not sure of the changes they make since I've not used one.

I sort of managed that while reversing the trailer into its parking spot (well technically i stopped just shy of it, but it seems possible) When driving, i don't know if it's possible as --going by the numbers in physics setup file-- the rain only causes ~20% lose in braking efficiency by default and there's no snow.

The main challenge seems to be dodging the dumb AI cars, anyway.

Maybe you want this, Pogo ?
http://www.gravitysensation.com/trickytruck/

Or this?
http://www.oovee.co.uk/games/upcoming-games/spin-tires/

This looks silly, I have to try this.

This has been added to my steam wishlist.

I think there might be something wrong with me.

THIS FUCKING GAME IS AWESOME

I had a feeling one of those would work for you. :D

So I got this a few days back and have gotten up to the point where I actually have my own truck. But one thing I'm still not getting a clear idea about is the rest requirement. Where do I see my fatigue level or whatever so that I can best get an idea about how to plan my jobs around rest? Cuz I have to think there is more then just hoping your guy doesn't start yawning in the middle of a run.

I've not yet found any way to gauge it. Doesn't seem to be any in-game indication whatsoever, apart from the aforementioned yawning. I have heard somewhere it's 8 hours before your driver starts getting sleepy, but I'm unsure if that's true. I usually don't have too much trouble pulling off at a rest stop and getting a quick nap in during a trip, having your driver fall asleep on the road is a huge pain. You can turn fatigue off in the options panel if you'd rather just have the driving sim and not so much a driver sim.

There is notification on the GPS screen how much time you have till the next rest -- it's on the screen which lists the current delivery details.

On separate note, it's amusing how much impact the game seems to have. The UK radio station now frequently features shout outs to the ETS2 drivers who write them emails, they even got a voting on their facebook page for the tunes people want to listen to while they are driving their virtual trucks around. Sadly, i don't know german or french and such enough to tell if the stations in those countries were similarly affected.