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American Truck Simulator

Ever wanted to become a truck driver without the cdl and road rage?

By Ajax the PoetPublished 3 years ago 5 min read
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Being a maniac truck driver

If you are not into just driving a truck all day or night in a video game, than please this game is not for you. This game is you driving a truck with loads to different cities or states and that's it. No fancy little minigames where you go all GTA V on people (which sometimes I really want to do in this game.) This game has quite a bit of customization options for your own truck that you can eventually buy in the future. You can change the livery, the colors of the wheels, mirror sizes, etc. Now this game has been out for some time now, it was first released back in 2016.

Even though it has been out for some time, there isn't that many states that you can travel to just yet. I am okay with that, because the amount of detail that they put into each city/countryside is a pretty daunting task. The contracts that you can take will increase in price the higher level you are and the skills that you pick. I usually try to max out my long distance haul and eco friendly stats before the others just because you can get some very high paying contracts with the very long haul contracts. (Yes the high value cargo would probably be more efficient, but I'm a rebel.) The DLC for this game are pretty pricey in my opinion, but I guess they need to make some more money to get the other states started I guess.

Now if you are using a keyboard it's going to be a little bit harder for you, just because a push of a button will never be the same as a joystick on a controller or the turning motion on an actual wheel setup. Now I'm a keyboard user because I refuse to use a controller on a PC, just because I think it defeats the purpose of a pc; why would you use a controller on a pc when you could just buy a freaking console for that sole purpose? (Don't get me started on those mobile game users that uses controllers; that'll be a whole new article in the future.) The keyboard controls are quite easy to understand, but the turning is horrid! You have to either start turning very very early or come to an almost complete stop to correctly turn into the right lane and not hit another car or objects around you. If you can get a wheel set up you will have a much better experience with this game.

If you are into being a crazy driver and hitting everything in site, this game is not for you. You get penalized every time you hit another car. The one downside to that is that the AI is not that smart at all, so if they run into you you get penalized for it. The AI will tend to turn right in front of you when you are going through a stoplight and when you slam into them you are at fault and have to pay for it. Make sure you also give yourself a bit of time to stop at a stoplight, if you go over the line just a bit you will get penalized for running a red light; Yet you can blow through any and all stop signs and it's all fine in dandy.

If you are a risk taker like myself, than you can speed as much as you want, but make sure you really look out for cops because them speeding tickets are not cheap at all and they hurt your overall driving score. Also make sure you are in the right lane, because the gps in your truck really sucks and only those exits sure come up fast when you are going 90 in a 60. If you are starting a contract at night or close to night, remember to turn your headlights on! The cops will ticket you for that as well. The police do not pull you over, you just see them turn their lights on and they blow past you and must throw the ticket through your rolled up window somehow. The other thing that I really hate is that you will have to go to a weigh station most of the time while all the ai trucks just get to go right on through it, and if you do not get weighed you get fined once again. So you have to be patient with this game or you will be in debt in a matter of a couple contracts if you do many "bad" things.

Do not take a bank loan out unless you can really pay it off. The longer you play the game the more the bank will be willing to loan you. So only take the amount you really need and can pay off. You will go in debt faster than you think if you can't pay the loan off and your AI employees are pretty dumb and don't make that much money compared to yourself. (Your employees are the same rating or lower than yourself so keep that in mind as well). You can make a pretty good amount of money from contracts, but I would try to stay away from anything under $10k later in the game, just because they are normally shorter routes and not really worth the hundreds of dollars of gas you will have to pay to do them and the repair costs if you keep hitting cars or objects. When you get to your destination you can get bonus experience points by putting the truck exactly where they want it. You can skip this step to get no bonus experience, go an easy one for 15exp points or do a hard one for 30exp points.

You will also have to keep in mind that when you eventually do the longer routes you will have to sleep at some point. If you ignore the sleep, than you will start dozing off and that means the screen goes black for a bit and you will have a high chance of crashing. If you keep ignoring the sleep the dozing will come sooner and last longer until you either find a parking space to sleep or until you kill your truck completely. The parking spots are the only place that you can rest though, which I don't like at all. You should be able to stop on the side of the road like real truckers do to rest, but I guess they want it to be annoying for the players.

This game is so relaxing if you can sit for this long and just drive. You can be a maniac, but you cannot go all "Convoy" in this game which kind of sucks and they should totally make a DLC for that. (If you have not watched Convoy, go watch it.)

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About the Creator

Ajax the Poet

Canada/United States

Father

Horror Stories/Poems

Poems

Love the outdoors and nature

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