Euro Truck Simulator 2 News

Today we are excited to announce and confirm that we are in the process of completely reworking the country of Switzerland in Euro Truck Simulator 2. As one of our older base game areas, it will be receiving a complete overhaul as part of a free update for players. Today, we wanted to highlight just one of the cities being worked in this project, the city of Bern.



Located in the heart of Switzerland, Bern is the gateway to the Alps which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. To better represent this historic part of the region, our team has reconstructed the whole city from the ground up to bring it up to our current quality standards.



Previously, Bern featured 2 logistic depots and 1 farm industry which players could deliver to and from. In this rework, our team has added 5 brand new depots and reworked 2 of the existing industries. These include a chocolate factory, a supermarket and a railway depot. Outside of the city, players can find a farm industry, a sawmill and a quarry. Drivers can also find their usual garage and mechanic services, as well as a MAN Trucks dealership!



The entire road network has also been reworked to better represent it's real life counterpart, including road junctions that lead into the city. Landmarks have also been reworked in the area and better reflect their real life locations. Some of the Landmarks that will be featured include Bern Palace, The Cathedral of Bern, a local church and a popular shopping mall.



Surrounding highway networks have also been repositioned and reworked at a more realistic standard, which will allow for easier navigation when passing by or visiting Bern!



We hope you enjoyed this look into our development into reworking Switzerland. We have quite a bit more to show in the future, so keep an eye on our blogs for more showcases and updates in the future. Until then, keep on truckin'!

The Thrustmaster T128 wheel and pedal set is pitched to beginners as a first step into the world of sim driving. That is, people who love driving or racing games and want to ditch the pad, but who don’t want to spend Proper Money just yet. And that’s certainly one type of consumer who will benefit from this package: the type of person for whom it will be a placeholder. A toe in the water before a full-on plunge. But I think the greatest value of the T128 is in its suitability as a daily driver for those of us who simply don’t have room in their lives for anything more substantial: making the full-fat sim experience accessible to those of us who can’t commit to a full-fat setup.

The extent to which driving games are enriched by a proper interface can’t be overstated. There’s nothing wrong with using a pad, of course. It’s a perfectly decent way to control a pretend car. But having a sim wheel which mimics the way you would control a real vehicle connects you to a driving sim in a profound way that makes the game world come to life. All of a sudden, cockpit view becomes your default, and you come to find simple joy in the way your wheel turns in sync with its on-screen counterpart. The force-feedback allowing the road surface to fight against you. The car itself being able to communicate with you via sensation rather than just by the sound of revving and instrument readouts.

It turns something like Euro Truck Simulator 2, a dry game about transporting wooden pallets to Aberdeen, into a deeply captivating experience where the dull intricacies of controlling the vehicle and obeying local traffic laws become magical and, if you’ll forgive the pun, transportive. A pad just doesn’t translate mirror, signal, manoeuvre into an engaging game loop. It’s too much of an abstraction. With a good sim wheel, your connection to the world inside the silicon is much more direct, much less dulled by the extra steps taken by your brain and nervous system to map twiddles to turns.

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With 8 countries included in the upcoming West Balkans DLC for Euro Truck Simulator 2, something drivers will be doing a lot of is crossing border controls. With 30 of them in total, we recommend having your paperwork and documentation always in reach and ready.



Each border control requires documentation checks and in some cases, the border agents or police may be required to conduct a deep inspection of your truck. This could be carried out by taking an X-Ray of your vehicle and trailer in a special building or by manual inspection. The reason behind these checks is for the security and safety of both the driver and the country, as there are many different rules and laws when it comes to what can and cannot be imported into a country.



As you can imagine when creating a DLC on this scale, border controls vary in size and complexity depending on their location. From small border crossings found high in the mountains between Bulgaria and Serbia to large scaled crossings in Horgoš; each border crossing is unique in its own way. Our map and asset teams have constructed these crossings as realistically as possible. From researching how the border was constructed to recreating each lane and route, a lot of work has gone into them.



In order to create these border crossings to the best detail possible, our teams had to create a huge number of new and unique prefabs and models. Over 130 unique assets were created for this project alone! This includes new vehicle models and animated characters who patrol and work at the border controls.



Thanks to the locations of some of these border crossings, you will find some really interesting border crossings. Such as a border crossing found between Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina which is divided by a bridge over a river!



Part of this project also includes the creation of 10 border crossings between existing countries in Euro Truck Simulator 2 which are Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Austria and Italy. Three of these borders are part of the Schengen area and do not require stopping.



We are really looking forward to you visiting all these wonderful and unique countries in the future. Until then, make sure your documents are up to date and correct and keep on trucking.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2004210/Euro_Truck_Simulator_2__West_Balkans/?snr=1_5_1100__1100

Since the release of Convoy, our native multiplayer mode for Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator, we have been making small updates to further improve the players' experience. Today we are excited to share that a much-requested addition has arrived and that is the option to host a dedicated server!



So what are the main differences between hosting a dedicated server and just creating a convoy session through the main menu? One of the biggest advantages of hosting a dedicated server is that your session will always be running, even without any players online (unlike a convoy that needs a host). This means players are free to join the session to continue their job and leave again freely when they need to without worry. You can also run a dedicated server without having any ownership of the game or the DLCs.



Another advantage is that you don't have to run the server on your own machine. You can run the server standalone outside of the Steam client with no user interface on a rented or paid-for server that a hosting company owns. Alternatively, it is also possible to download the tool via the Steam Console Client (or SteamCMD) which is a command-line version of the Steam client. Its primary use is to install and update various dedicated servers available on Steam using a command-line interface.



It is also possible to host multiple instances if you so wish, however, keep in mind your server or system specs when doing this. Another important note we would like to include is that dedicated servers do not handle NAT punching. However, sessions hidden behind NAT can still be found via the direct search function.

If this is your first time setting up or using a dedicated server, we understand things may seem a bit complicated or overwhelming. That's why we've included some documentation (a readme file) in the dedicated server package, which includes information on how to get started and important commands that'll help you get the content you want on your server. We hope that this helps you when it comes to setting up for the first time.

When setting up a dedicated ETS2 or ATS server, it is also important to create a list of 'known players' in the config file, this will give the listed player admin controls, which will provide them with the option to moderate players on the server.



Ready to get going? The Dedicated Server tool is now available for both Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator, which you can download for free from the Steam Client. If you don't own the game then the Dedicated Server app will not be displayed in the list of available tools. In this situation, you need to use SteamCMD for installation with the Steam IDs below.

• Euro Truck Simulator 2 Dedicated Server ID = 1948160
  
• American Truck Simulator Dedicated Server ID = 2239530
  

We look forward to seeing how you get creative with your dedicated servers and wish you many miles of happy trucking together.

However, please keep in mind that this is the first iteration and that there may be a few bugs or things that need tweaking. We also plan to bring you more extensive tools and moderation features in future updates. However, for now, all the features of a standard dedicated server should be available. If you have any feedback, we'd love to hear from you on our official forums.

A while ago, at the end of our blog post dedicated to the rework of the city of Hannover, we teased you with a potential new look coming to other cities in Germany as well. Today, we are excited to let you know that our work continues with a brand-new rework of Stuttgart!



In order to represent the wonderful city of Stuttgart as best as possible, we had to tear down virtually the entire city with an exception of the recently reworked areas (airport, city circle) and build it anew. The overall layout is now larger and, in addition to exploring the industrial areas, you can look forward to taking a drive through some parts of the city as well.



The city has a rich history with discovered local settlements dating back all the way to antiquity and there are several landmarks from different eras that deserved to be featured in this project. Neue Schloss, the Staatstheater Stuttgart, and a castle in the distance are just a few examples of the amazing real-life structures that you will be able to check out.



At the moment we are unable to say which city is going to be next on our path of bringing German cities up to the current standards, but keep an eye out on the blog and our social media (Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook) to never miss anything important!