I play with a Xbox 360 controller and I use the right stick to look around just fine.
You may have to bind the controls yourself if the gamepad is not working how you want it to.
Just in case anyone was wondering, I had some head tracking software that was interfering. Once I Uninstaller that, all was ok.
Oh, interesting, now I wonder if that’s what caused my right stick to stop working - timing seems about right though I’m not 100% certain it started after I reinstalled ED Tracker. Now that I have the face tracking set up on Flight Sim I might as well uninstall ED Tracker anyway.
ETS2 supports head-tracking, so you can use your device to look around instead of the gamepad. I recommend it, as it’s much easier to check for traffic, look into a turn, etc. Not sure about face-tracking though, haven’t tried it.
If it supports Open Track I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.
So now I’m obsessed. I bought ETS2 a few days ago just because ($20 is pretty low risk). I was having a bunch of fun, bought the cheapest truck (wish I had waited and gotten the second step up, but whatever). Then everything went on sale yesterday, so I bought ATS and an embarrassing amount of DLC (all of the map packs, the cargo packs, and some of the flavor stuff that was in bundles). Wow, that expanded the map. My wife is from Romania, so I’m hoping to get there eventually (based in Frankfurt) before I get bored of the game.
I tried ATS for a little bit this morning. I live in Phoenix, so I thought I’d check it out. Boy, ATS seems a lot harder. I dunno, maybe the trucks are bigger. I quit after getting an assignment with one of those double trailers. No way am I ready for that! So I went back to Europe. I’ll save the new world for another day.
What gameplay settings do you guys use? I switched over to manual transmission. I’m not sure if it’s worth the hassle. I am also trying to park using only the mirrors. So far I have been successful zero times. I have no idea what a lot of the other settings do.
Mine are pretty much default. After the first 20 hours or so I turned off sleep requirements (at that point it adds little more to the game than busywork - but I recommend keeping it on until you learn to manage it), and I also tuned traffic events (blockages, etc) down a little bit in ATS because I thought they were too frequent. That’s pretty much it.
I use auto (or semi-auto?) transmission. Manual can be too complicated in a gamepad. And as far as driving and parking goes, I never use any cameras other than the first person view. It’s a simulator, so I’d rather simulate. It’s hard, yes. You’ll need a little time before you get the hang of it, and it’s by far the hardest challenge in the game most of the time, but it’s very worth it.
But while you’re learning to park, it might be a good idea to use the external camera to understand what you’re doing, and then only do it first-person. Your call, obviously.
When parking, make sure you have eyes on the rear most wheel. That’s where the pivot happens. Position it well, and your parking/docking will be fine. This applies to real life too. In fact when dealing with confined parking space, backing it in is easier, safer and quicker once you learn how to aim with the rear wheel.
Also, are there any other DLCs that are must-have? You know, since they’re on sale. :)
Must-haves are the new areas/states, of course, and if you like more job variety, the DLCs that add new cargos/trailers (Special Transport, Heavy Machinery, etc). The rest is pretty much cosmetic.
I use whatever the halfway house is between auto and manual. Gear changes but no clutch.
Yeah, I’d second what rhamorim said. Pick up the bigger DLCs for the expanded map and areas, and the special transportation ones that add different types of jobs, etc. Those are a nice change of pace. The cosmetic truck mods are for eye candy, get them if the visual appeal of your truck is important.
There are lots of mods out there to add to the experience as well. I like the various traffic mods by Jazzycat that provide more variety in the vehicles you see on the road and the Realistic Brutal Weather mod for better weather graphics. (There are a fair number of excellent weather mods.)
When I started playing, I used ProMods map mod too, to add a massive amount of new cities to the game. I disabled it after a bit, though, because it conflicts with the World of Trucks jobs enough that it was annoying. At some point, after I figure out how to clone myself, I’d like to start another career with that enabled.
I really enjoy the challenge of backing up in the game, and always try to take the hardest parking challenge. I found the My Trucking Skills YouTube videos so helpful for improving how to park. The guy makes truck parking videos with about six different cameras, and is a great teacher.
With regards to the backing up, I created my own house rule: When the truck is moving, I only use the first-person camera. When the truck is stopped, I allow myself to use other cameras and views. I figured this is the closest thing to real life, where GOAL (Get Out And Look) is a huge part of learning how to park real trucks.
I also really enjoyed hunting for achievements in the game. They gave me some tangible goals to work towards as I played. The game’s metagame (building your trucking company) gets ridiculously easy after just a short while.
Auto transmission with key presses to move between F <> N <> R. Traffic violations tuned way down, or off depending on how annoyed they’re making me :) Sleep on. Air brake simulation on. I forgot what its called, but there’s a setting for more realistic fifth wheel hitching that I have on.
I consider all the map packs and the cargo packs (heavy and special) essential. Especially in ETS2 where you can have runs of thousands of kilometers. Personal longest was a bit over 2,500 km, and I’ve heard of over 3,700 km. And ATS is fairly quickly closing the gap.
(To be fair, that’s only a little over 600 miles and there’s an achievement for that in ATS.)
All they need to do is add Texas and they exceed ETS for max distance. Houston to Seattle matches Aberdeen to Istanbul.
I have driven I-10 through Texas on my way from California to Florida. I think I might have some kind of PTSD.
There is no way it can be worse than I-80 through Nebraska, or even I-70 through Kansas.
ATS is on sale now on Steam.
Does anyone use Promods? Recommend it? I’m thinking of starting over with Yet Another Economy Mod to make the economic model a bit more challenging. Maybe start in London and work my way across the continent east. My wife is from Romania. I’d like to see it.
Any other mods recommended/essential? I’ve installed the minimal adviser and top corner mirror mods on ATS and I like them a bunch.
Getting better at backing in a trailer just using the mirrors. Something really nice clicked for me this morning while I was driving in Arizona (where I live IRL) and listening to classic rock on the in-game radio.
I like Promods in theory, but the total breakage whenever the game updates turns me off. For similar reasons, I try to keep to a minimal set of mods. Even jazzycat’s excellent mods to add more types of vehicles turned into a chore. Also load times :) And that I prefer the mod to be available for both games also keeps me in check.
Other than the advisor and mirrors that you already have, I use a few “realism” enhancements: “Realistic Graphics Mod” and “Realistic Vehicle Lights” by Frkn64, and “Real Traffic Density and Ratio” by Ciphino. Oh, and a couple random mods that SCS themselves publish - can’t remember the names at the moment.