Promods adds some much new map content that I consider it nearly essential (and it’s all really quality stuff). About the only mods I use are the ones they release (map, trailers, cabin accessories). Updates breaking it are a bummer, but they are pretty quick about releasing their fixes and it only happens a couple/few times a year so it doesn’t bother me too much.
I started out using ProMods maps, and didn’t mind the updating requirements. I ended up turning it off for two reasons:
1 - The base game with all the DLCs added was plenty for me to explore on a first game.
2 - There are syncing issues with the World of Trucks jobs. So you’ll finish a job and the game won’t let you complete it because the ProMods maps have tweaked the location of something that prevents the job from syncing with the World of Trucks server. It always happens when you use ferries, and sometimes happens when you run other jobs. So really, to make ProMods work you’ll want to avoid doing the World of Trucks jobs. This was limiting enough that I decided to just disable the mod.
For a second career, the ProMods maps would be awesome. The mod worked great for me as long as I avoided World of Trucks contracts. The mod adds a ton of new places to go, and I found the quality of the new areas very good.
There’s also the World of Trucks issues. I like the events.
I haven’t done anything with the World of Trucks. I’m registered and it’s connected to my game, but I have no idea what it is or what it does.
No mods here whatsoever.
I’ve got a couple of graphics mods, which may not really be necessary any more, some truck mods, and a real companies mod.
It’s a different source of contracts. It doesn’t give you heavy or special cargos afaik, and I think it has different parameters for routes and stuff than the local.
Overall, it doesn’t matter. But when SCS runs events - typically paint jobs or cab decos for rewards - they use WoT contracts to participate.
I tried real hard to use some of those “replace the fake names/logos with real ones” mods. They kept getting abandoned and not covering the map expansions so I gave up.
I think the fake company names are adorable.
So do I.
They are, but it wears off after 100s of hours.
Very few things don’t. ;)
There are three basic types of contracts in the game: Quick Jobs, Freight Market, and External Contracts.
The External Contracts jobs are the ones that route through the World of Trucks server.
I like having access to the External Contracts because it provides a much greater range of contracts. Especially if you’re into hunting for achievements or just want a job to a particular city, the variety helps a lot.
Also, the External Contracts are on a real-world clock. So if the job says you have 8 hours to complete a job, that’s 8 real-world hours to get the job done. By contrast, the Freight Market jobs are on the in-game clock. So if you pick up a freight job that says expected delivery is in 10 hours, that’s 10 hours of game-world time. So the real-world timed external contracts can be helpful if you’re looking to get particular achievements with time constraints, or just don’t want to worry about missing deadlines.
So for both the additional variety and the timing differences, I’ve found it nice to have access to both.
Thanks. I decided to remove Promods - too busy and vanilla has plenty of content. I’ve been playing with Yet Another Economy Mod, which really slows down the game a lot. Tickets and crashes are punishing to the point of me usually reloading. I’m a little worried about how much I’m enjoying this game. I’m also playing ATS, which despite being basically the same game, has a much different feel. There’s something so relaxing about driving an the interstate with the classic rock station on, but the parking is so much harder.
Couple more questions:
My biggest difficulty is parking at night. I have been generally using the mirrors, but at night it’s just too dark. Any mods or suggestions for that?
I still haven’t done any WOT missions - still don’t own a truck in my current profile on either game. Will the economy mod interfere with those?
Thanks.
Something that adds side lights to the trailers would probably help.
Since the position indicator glows, I use it as a guide. You’ll get used to it.
But remember: when you reach the delivery point, you’re given three choices - auto parking, easy parking, and hard parking. I never auto park, but I’ll take easy parking every once in a while, even more so when the place is particularly hard to park, or with bad lighting. So keep that in mind as an option.
The one thing I miss the most, not only when parking, but also in roads with no lighting at the dead of night. Can you add lights to owned trailers? Because if you can, I might have to buy my own trailer.
Update 1.39 dropped today! Any idea what mods it breaks? I’m using the realistic lights mod, the corner mirror mod, and Yet Another Economy Mod. The latter is the one I’m most worried about since I can’t just disable it. I stopped using the realistic graphics mod because it messed up the night sky - made it look like morning.
I may switch over to ATS for a little bit as I don’t think they’ve updated that yet.
I’m having some trouble getting back to ETS2 after playing ATS. Something about ATS makes it feel more like a sim, and that means that when I go back to ETS2 it feels more like a game? It’s like ETS2 is now in some kind of “uncanny valley” to me. Weird. I can play it fine… but it fails to evoke the same feeling I have currently in ATS.
I meant to recommend the Local Radio Add-on. It’s a little fiddly, but when you change countries, it will automatically change to a list of local radio stations.
I think what you’re describing is the difference in in tech/skill/whatever in map design that SCS had when they released ETS2 vs. what they have today. And there’s a lot more repetition of the stamps (or whatever they’re called), or at least its more obvious, in ETS2. They’re very slowly remastering the older parts of ETS2 to bring them up to current standards, but that’s a lot of map to rework.
On the other hand on and off ramps in ETS2 are lot more sane than in ATS. I can’t speak to how well it reflects reality.