Thursday, 21 August 2014

Getting ready for ETS2 1.13 Update

Euro Truck Simulator 2 version 1.13 is entering finalization for release - and this time it is all about Achievements!

As you may have noticed from our blog posts jumping from topic to topic between different projects and sub-projects, the team at SCS Software is actually a swarm of quite a number of micro-teams developing various new features to grow the truck simulator ecosystem. Some things take longer to develop, with some we may even be notoriously slow, but we believe that our approach is right to achieve our ultimate goals eventually, and we hope that you are having fun being along for the ride. Achievements is one little step among many for us to help us in testing the necessary improvements in our infrastructure towards game data persistence.

So, achievements. Actually, at this stage we are preparing two different sets of achievements for you:

  1. Steam Achievements
  2. World of Trucks Achievements

Steam achievements were much requested by our Steam player community. Thankfully, the native integrated Steam achievement system made it reasonably simple to implement, certainly compared to us having to roll our own superstructure on top of in-game achievement tracking.

On the other hand, the initial set of World of Trucks achievements is a turning point in setting up the the back-end codebase for extensive future updates. WoTr updates are sure promising to be interesting and we'll talk about them in the future...


We understand that at this stage of the life cycle, with many players having sunk tens or even hundreds of hours into the game, some achievements might be, shall we say - not timely. You might even think that you have tried everything the game has in store for you...

So with that in mind and with help of Steam community, we have compiled a list of ETS2 achievements with a very seasoned player in mind. You can think of some of the more difficult ones as little quests or challenges for you to undertake in the game. Still there are achievements that are very easy, we still have new players coming aboard having just bought the game, and we want them to get some satisfaction quickly. Experienced player can take them for granted already.

It was not our goal to make anyone suffer pursuing our achievements, as it sometimes the case with games; forcing players to grind. Almost all our achievements are within the reach of average player given enough dedication.


Let's have a peek at the current ETS2 Steam achievements in more detail:

Total Achievement Count: 28
  • Easy - 8 - pretty much everyone would achieve those and so quickly notice the achievement feature, that's how easy it is ;)
  • Medium - 8 - not all achievements get unlocked quickly, but none of those should be a problem for any user
  • Hard - 11 - certain degree of patience and dedication is required to track and complete those. However the truckers are patient people and we have all confidence in them.
  • Extreme - 1 - thats for the most hardcore, never to give up types that drive through the world of Euro Truck Simulator 2

Exploration
  • Discover more than 60% of the map - I am a GPS Medium
  • Discover 100% of the map - Pathfinder Extreme
  • Use the train to cross the channel - Choo-Choo Easy
  • Utilize a boat - Sardine Easy
  • Discover all recruitment agencies - Head hunter Hard
  • Use all ports in the game (counts sea and train ports) - Successfully docked Hard
Trucks
  • Buy a truck online - From the comfort of your home Easy
  • Design and apply to your truck a custom multi-color metallic paint - My precious Easy
  • Drive at least 999 km with each truck brand featured in the game. Only your owned trucks are counted. (MAN, DAF, Majestic, Renault, Iveco, Scania, Volvo) - Test drive limited Medium 
Jobs
  • Take an urgent delivery for a minimum of 550 km and complete it with less than 30 minutes remaining - Just in time! Medium
  • Complete a delivery that was greater than 2,000 km - Long hauler Medium
  • Perform jobs for at least 15 different companies in the game - Reliable contractor Hard
  • Complete a job worth over €130,000 and minimum 2,200 km without using a ferry - Profit hunter Medium 
  • Complete deliveries with all trailer types (Machinery, ADR cargo, Container, Refrigerated, Liquid cargo, Fragile cargo, Construction, Bulk cargo) - Experience beats all! Medium
  • Complete a perfect delivery (no damage, no fines, in-time) for a job that is at least 1000 km. - Job is only worth it if it's done well! Medium
  • Complete 5 jobs in a row - in-time, without taking any damage and without using autoparking - Careerist Hard
  • Use automatic parking - Friends are always here to help you Easy
  • Take and complete jobs with at least 30 different cargoes - All is possible - Hard
  • Gain 20,000 XP for several consecutive jobs with the total distance below 10,000 km - Minimaxer Hard 
Company Progression
  • Use quick travel to return to your headquarters - Honey, I'm home Easy
  • Own a garage in every city in your headquarter country - National company Medium 
  • Own a garage in every city - Property magnate Hard 
  • Achieve 100% of productivity for at least 5 large garages at the same time - Working with the elite Hard 
  • Reach an average daily profit of €450,000 - Bath of success Hard
  • Achieve at least 75% of the average garage productivity across all of your garages. Must own at least 10 large garages. - Performance optimizer Hard
  • Have at least 10 female and 10 male employees of maximum level in your company - Aspects of professionalism Hard 
Misc
  • Use a rest stop - Zzzzz Easy
  • Use a filling station - Gas, no petrol! Easy

In the future we might add more interesting achievements, of course also shaped for a seasoned user or related to some particular expansion with fresh content. So if you wish to contribute an idea, we'd be glad to hear it in comments.

According to our internal plans, we are aiming at the early September time-frame for release. Stay tuned!

Monday, 18 August 2014

The New DAF XF Euro 6 tease images

Greetings!
One of the trucks that you have been so anxiously anticipating is finally getting close to completion… Rest assured we are pushing hard to make sure you’ll get it as soon as possible.


Trucks happen to be the most notoriously difficult type of 3D model to build and implement for our games than any other of our assets. We are always thinking about ways to speed up their delivery to you, but there was not a single case where it would take us less than half a year to implement a new truck. How can we speed this up? We are now looking into more advanced 3D scanning technologies to acquire high-detail reference data. We are also discussing internally if we should not try shipping an initial release of a truck with limited amount of cabins, chassis and upgrade variations. Would it make sense for you?
Anyway that won’t be the case with The New DAF XF Euro 6 – it is coming with traditional palette of cabin, chassis selection, and other upgrade options.


 Even if trucks are eating considerable amount of company human and financial resources, we still resist the temptation to ask for money for the upcoming Euro Truck Simulator 2 standard truck models and will continue bringing them to you free of charge in future updates of the game. We feel that it's fair to ask for support from time to time with additional optional elements for the game, but the core experience is improved for everybody.


 Thanks for  your patience. Currently the new DAF is about ready for final testing iterations, we are targeting its release for the second half of September.

Sunday, 17 August 2014

Life Of A Virtual Trucker Part 39 ( Poznan To Wroclaw )

Well the latest life of a virtual trucker video is finally here ( yes the wait is over ), this time bringing footage of the latest DLC from SCS, and by that I mean, the trailer is carrying a brand new load, the large tractor RS-666 enjoy.




Friday, 15 August 2014

ETS2 1.12 Update retail edition is available now


Euro Truck Simulator 2 v1.12 retail edition is finally ready and uploaded to mirror servers.

Please strongly consider use of mirrors and torrents instead of direct download, for faster speed and to avoid overloading of our own lines.

Follow to the ETS2 update page for download links.

Update your copy of the game to version 1.12.1!
Please do not apply this patch manually to Steam edition of the game. It will be applied automatically.

Fast download links

For Advanced Users - Use Torrent and get the game fast!

Local link (slow)

What's new in this update:

1.12.1

  • Added truck and trailer browsers
  • Added support for color balance&saturation tweaks to the photo mode
  • Added support for camera roll to the photo mode
  • Added cargo group filter to the job selection screens (e.g. in top left corner of the screen). Requires new attributes we added to game_data.sii so if you have a modded version without those attributes, it will not work.
  • Added missing straps texture
  • Better messages are shown when removable DLC is missing instead of using the message originally intended for MODs
  • Enabling news on the profile page using the "Enable news" button will also load them
  • Fixed visualization of the initially selected button on the mirrors adjuster
  • Fixed speed limits in UK
  • Fixed calculation of vehicle bounding box
  • Fixed crash in delivery log if city is missing as result of mod removal
  • Game will try to fix game time when it is too far behind during game load as the result of use of the MP mod
  • Workaround for possible hang in the truck configurator in profile which was broken by the MP mod
  • Set cargo weights for AI trailers
  • Removed calcium cargo
  • Removed reference to non-existing animation
  • Updated localization
  • Updated credits

Thursday, 14 August 2014

Euro Truck Simulator 2 - High Power Cargo Pack



We are happy to announce the release of a new update for Euro Truck Simulator 2 - version 1.12. At the same time, High Power Cargo Pack DLC is released on Steam.



As has become the habit, the Steam version is updated first in the very
final stages of test/release cycle to make sure no hot-fixes are needed
for the 1.12 update before producing the retail update in a day or so.




Today we are making available a new type of game expansion - High Power
Cargo Pack DLC is adding a bunch of additional optional cargoes into the
game. It will only be available for the Steam edition of the game.



While people who are comfortable with using mods have a variety of
cargoes to pick from beyond the standard set, customers sticking to
official releases have been repeatedly requesting that we add more
content to the game. This release marks another small step in expanding
the ETS2 universe; in the future we'd like to look into additional truck
tuning options, both inside the cabin and outside of the vehicle, but
we also plan to revisit trailers and cargoes again. A new official
license from a trailer manufacturer is on the horizon, it may inspire us
to pursue this type of evolution of Euro Truck Simulator 2.




Here is a short promo trailer for Euro Truck Simulator 2 - High Power Cargo Pack: