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American Truck Simulator News

Western Star® 57X Update

In August, we revealed that the Western Star® 57X would be arriving on the virtual roads of American Truck Simulator along side its real world premiere. Since then, we have been overwhelmed with positive comments, pictures and comments from your first journey with the 57X.



Today, an update was released for American Truck Simulator which contains some fixes, adjustments and new content for the 57X! All these changes were based on discussions with our friends over at Western Star and from feedback from you, our #BestCommunityEver.

Along with some general bug fixes, the 57X update will also feature:

  • A new roof fairing option (Aero II)
  • An option for non-heated headlights
  • A new side fairing option (Aero II)
  • Optional twin vertical exhaust stacks
  • An option to add the Christmas Light Accessory.




We hope that you continue to enjoy every journey with the brand new Western Star® 57X on the roads of ATS. We look forward to seeing even more screenshots & videos from you on our social media pages, so continue to share them with us! Until next time, keep on truckin'.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2093200/American_Truck_Simulator__Western_Star_57X/

Western Star® is a trademark of Daimler Trucks North America LLC and is used under license to SCS Software s.r.o.

Texas - Cities and Settlements #2

You might remember the blog article from a while ago that was the first part of the cities and settlements coming in the Texas DLC for American Truck Simulator. Today, we are back with even more areas that are now ready to be presented to you. Saddle up and join us for another ride across the Lone Star State.



Laredo

Located at the border with Mexico, Laredo serves as the main hub for transport between the two states. Apart from being one of the oldest crossing points in this area, it is also the nation’s largest inland port of entry. This is why the city will feature a large industrial zone in our game, along with a rail station and the possibility to drive directly through the center.



Wichita Falls

As slightly hinted by the name, Wichita Falls is famous for the "restored falls". Over 100 years ago there was a natural waterfall in the Wichita River’s course, which was eventually destroyed by a flood, and the city has made the decision to recreate this wonder by creating an artificial waterfall. And one more fact, the highway spans directly above the city, which is kind of cool, right?



Dalhart

Ranking among the smaller cities of Texas, you can find Dalhart in the northern area. Despite the long series of droughts in the 1930s, the city became an agribusiness center for Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico in 1990. While the local economy of today might no longer have such a massive reach, it is still centered primarily around agriculture.



Longview

Longview is located practically within a forest, so it comes as no surprise that this city is the hub of East Texas outdoor recreation and leisure travel. But truckers have no time for that! What you can expect instead is the industry that is surrounded by a forest - especially the local warehouse area.



Odessa

While the previous city is surrounded by trees, Odessa is surrounded by oil wells, so it makes sense that the industry of this particular area is dedicated mainly to oil processing. After all, the local population and economy grew rapidly during the so-called oil blooms in the past century. Additionally, there are a fair amount of warehouses as well.



Other major cities you can look forward to exploring while driving across Texas include Fort Stockton, Van Horn, Abilene, and Corpus Christi. Every one of these additions will feature a specific layout and well-developed industry.



In the first chapter we have also shown you several settlements, and this time we have another bunch for you. Can you guess which ones are shown on the screenshots? Hint: there’s five of them on the following screenshots.


We still have some bigger cities up our sleeves and we can’t wait to present them to you in the future. If you like what you’ve seen so far, add Texas DLC to your Steam Wishlist to show us how excited you are to get your hands on this map expansion. Also, to never miss out on anything important, you can follow our social media profiles (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok), subscribe to our newsletter, or check out our microsite dedicated to this project.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1465750/American_Truck_Simulator__Texas/

Texas - Constructions

Being rich in size and resources, Texas is constantly expanding its roads and cities. This means that construction work plays a prominent role all over the state and it is something we have to properly interpret in American Truck Simulator and the upcoming Texas DLC.



The construction work in Texas is actually so frequent that we had to update numerous landmarks several times during the production due to their real-life counterparts getting a fresh look. The same goes for the road network since the US-285 has only recently been changed because it was considered to be one of the most dangerous roads in the state. Unfortunately, there were also situations in which some buildings, such as a stadium or a bank, got added to the map but their real references were eventually torn down.



These are the reasons why you will quite often see or pass by construction sites while driving across the Lone Star State. Ranging from road and railway works to other generic constructions, such as wooden houses or wind tower assembly, you will always have a feeling that you are located in an economically strong and ever-expanding state. And while they say that Rome wasn’t built in a day, the construction process in Texas is sometimes so fast that even we have problems keeping up with the latest changes in our scale.



Time to put on your hard hat (just a joke, not necessary!) and add the Texas DLC to your Steam Wishlist to show us how excited you are to get your hands on this map expansion. Also, to never miss out on anything important, you can follow our social media profiles (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok), subscribe to our newsletter, or check out our microsite dedicated to this project.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1465750/American_Truck_Simulator__Texas/

Visit at the Volvo Facility in the US

Recently, we were honoured to have the opportunity to visit Volvo Trucks North America at one of their facilities located in the state of Virginia. The main reason behind this visit was to strengthen our partner relationship and meet with representatives of the company; however, this was not all we got up to!



We also had the opportunity to capture important reference data for our Vehicles department's next project for American Truck Simulator, an updated version of Volvo Trucks' legendary VNL. Whilst we know many of you will be excited to hear this news (we're too!) please keep in mind that this project is still in the very early stages of development. We don't have any work-in-progress shots to show you yet, but we will do our very best to work as quickly and closely as possible with the Volvo Trucks team to bring it to life in ATS.

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We look forward to sharing with you more development news for American Truck Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator 2 in the near future. Keep on truckin' our #BestCommunityEver!

Montana - Community Spotlight

After the recent release of Montana DLC for American Truck Simulator, we have been flooded with various feedback coming from all sides and lurking behind every corner. We love seeing all the screenshots and videos on various social media, experiences of the content creators, reviews, and both positive opinions and constructive criticism.



Today, we’ll present to you some of this feedback, starting with screenshots and videos which filled out social media channels to the brim. We love reading about the journeys of the members of #BestCommunityEver and we even share your posts with each other across our internal channels. You can continue to send us your screenshots and videos from Montana by tagging us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok.
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We have also received an outstanding amount of positive reviews on our Steam Page. We are grateful to everyone who takes the time to leave a review or provide us with constructive criticism about Montana! Here are a few of our favorites. If you would like to add a review yourself, be sure to do so at the Montana Steam Store Page.



Speaking of reviews, our latest DLC has also managed to catch the eye of some official press coverage, such as this wonderful review article from PCInvasion. If you are still unsure whether Montana is a worthy addition to your American Truck Simulator map, we recommend giving the full article a read.



Furthermore, we have decided to reach out to some of your favorite content creators, who have been busier than ever, recording and streaming their trucking journeys in the new map expansion. We would like to thank all these creators for sharing with us their opinions and allowing us to pass them along to our blog readers.



"Montana is easily the best 20+ hours of new roads to hit this game! Starting from the western side, I was immediately taken back by the mountains towering over the road. A back road I found is nothing short of a joy and shows the level of detail they are willing to put into things some people might not even find! I immediately headed up to Glacier National Park and was not disappointed. The views are breathtaking and now I probably have to go there in real life. One thing I have noted is that people that live in Montana from my community are blown away by the accuracy of the towns and roads. Once again another must-buy state." - RyaStream



"Wow.. just wow! Montana is packed with such detail and surprises in each town. SCS have put in such amazing work to make the state look absolutely incredible! The attention to the small details in this map expansion is absolutely breathtaking. I had such a fun time exploring all the new places in Montana but I have to say Great Falls is for sure my favorite place on the map with such great views to look out for. Make sure to stop at all the viewpoints to be even more blown away by Montana's beauty! Great job SCS you did the community proud for sure." - GamingPeach



"Montana is way better than we expected it to be! From the beautiful countryside scenery to the amazing architecture spotted in big cities, Montana is a must-have for anyone in the ATS world! We were amazed to see new cargo options as well! We have spent the last week exploring everything Montana has to offer, and we still have more to discover! Thank you SCS Software for once again blowing it out of the water and making American Truck Simulator even more enjoyable than it already was! 5 Stars from the 517!" - Stream517 (Chris & Laci)



"It’s hard to believe that SCS is able to top their map DLCs in quality every single time! This DLC features the ‘Treasure State’ of Montana where you can explore the famous Glacier & Yellowstone National Parks. The winding roads offer jaw-dropping vistas & stunning backdrops. The most challenging road ever in ATS with scary cliffs & broken bridges is also in the DLC (but is hidden in the map). It’s not just mountains though, as you can also find flat areas towards the eastern part. I must mention the wonderful industries too; they are unique and often huge!" - A. P. 101 Gaming



And finally, we’d like to take a moment to say how blown away we are by the collective force of the #BestCommunityEver. With the release of the DLC, we started a World of Trucks event with a community goal of driving 100,000,000 miles (160,934,400 km) while delivering cargoes to or from any city in Montana, and you have all absolutely smashed it in less than two weeks. Great job! Just don’t forget, you still have until 25th of September at 23:59 UTC to get your personal rewards, which you can learn more about in the dedicated blog post.

To wrap it all up, once again, we appreciate the general feedback so much and we bow before the immense support. All of our developers are always doing their best to transition their passion into game design, and it is encouraging to see it pay off by receiving such incredible feedback. Thank you all very much!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1811080/American_Truck_Simulator__Montana/