The ‘labour of love’ continues with Update 1.49 which has just been rolled out for American Truck Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator 2.
This new update brings with it a wealth of additions and improvements, including various changes to the skyboxes and weather effects, used truck dealers, keybind modifiers, and much more.
“It’s a bit of a fixer-upper”
Arguably the biggest change is the addition of used truck dealers; a feature that has been requested by fans for quite some time. Finally, SCS has obliged and has gone the extra mile with fleshing out its functionality.
Just like in real life, players must properly inspect the lot of used trucks and find one that’s a great fit for them, not just in terms of price-tag, but actual usability. This is due to used trucks having some mileage and wear, and are therefore rated by means of a star system to indicate their level of quality.
To expand this new feature further, the devs have also overhauled the truck maintenance system across the board. Wear and tear, along with damage is now separated into three types: structural damage (which can be fixed at a repair shop,) parts wear ( requiring replacement over time,) and permanent wear (can only be fully rectified by completing an expensive total restoration.)
Applying this to used trucks, each player must conclude if a particular truck will be more expensive to maintain in the long run, versus another one or just buying a new truck entirely. This whole overhaul adds a new layer of complexity to the gameplay of the sim.
Sky stories
The moon has returned to the night skies of American Truck Simulator, along with other enhancements made to the sim’s skybox tech. The devs have made sure to account for how the moon’s light behaves in the real-world, such as casting shadows, reflecting in water, just to name a few aspects.
Dynamic stars join the moon, emanating a “gentle twinkle” effect for more character and atmosphere to those long, night-time drives. It also helps that the skyboxes now support HDR displays, resulting in richer colours when illuminated and absolute onyx black when dark.
More upgrades to the sky include visible lightning when thunderstorms are present, further adding life to the world above American Truck Simulator.
More control
Another feature of Update 1.49 that needs to be highlighted is the introduction of keybind modifiers. Its arrival means that players can now string together multiple keys to initiate an action. SCS gives one example of pressing “Shift + L” together to turn on a truck’s lights.
As well as multiple keystrokes now being accepted, the binding system now accounts for short and long presses, diversifying the customisation options to help players adjust key functions just how they want it. A bonus of this upgrade is that controllers can also take advantage of this enhanced functionality.
American Truck Simulator has a wide variety of operations that can be handled via key/button strokes, so this will streamline the set-up process significantly as you no longer need to seemingly find invisible extra buttons for everything. As someone who uses a Stream Deck to help visualize a truck dashboard, this will be fun to dive into (and I recommend acquiring one if you can.)
Update 1.49 for American Truck Simulator is available now and the full list of additions can be found on the SCS blog. This update is expected to also come to Euro Truck Simulator 2 shortly.
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