About the retarder

[Frontiersman]

Dunno if it'll do any good Tiger. We're all a bunch of knuckleheads apparently lol
IRL I mostly had engine brakes only. There were a few instances I wished I had a retarder.

Snoqualmie, or the Grapevine.... listening to the jake all the way down as a team driver, verses a retarder.. no contest.

LOL okay on the sound level I agree. But I have hauled a few that the jakes weren't quite enough.

[Lexx]

To the op, go into gameplay options, turn off the automatic retarder and engine brake, THEN get a heavy haul load preferably the lift truck then take said load and take it on a long descent with turns in it if possible and only use the foot brake. Then report back here with how many cars you took out and how badly you wrecked.

That is if I can make it out of the company yard. The whole point of my topic was the uselessness of the manually controlled retarder. Using the assigned keys for increasing and decreasing the retarder does no good - with a decreased retarder (probably turned off, but there's no on-screen indication to show the state of the retarder) the truck accelerates a whole year and reaching 50 mph is a challenge even with a 10 tons cargo, not to mention heavier ones. With an increased retarder it doesn't want to accelerate at all and the best top speed I reached was under 10 mph. When the asphalt is wet the increased retarder causes the truck to turn wheels in place. I think the term for that is "slipping" but I may be wrong. I made all the chassis to be 6WD and even with a 6x6 wheel drive it's still slipping.
I always disable the automatic engine brake bc I prefer to engage whenever I need it, especially in hairy situations where I have to use engine brake in conjunction with the parking brake. That performs miracles in fast stopping.
It took me a lot of nerves and experimenting with the retarder and the only option worth using the retarder is when it's automatic. Manually controlled retarder is just a nightmare.
As for your suggestion about the long descending with turns - I've done this many times without scratching even one vehicle of the AI. When I see such a descent (at the times with no retarder), I disable the CC, slow down to a more controllable speed (like 30-40 mph) and keep pressing the foot brake in equal intervals. If the trailer is very heavy (like one of the last I hauled - 63 tons), I include the engine brake along with the foot one. In rare occasions I engage the parking brake as well for half a second. The result is always the same - no damage on the cargo, no damage on the truck and no damage on the AI. Having an increased steering sensitivity (approx. the middle of the slider distance) along with 100% non-linear steering also helps a lot in these kind of situations.

[Frontiersman]

When I was speaking about wishing I had a retarder several times, I was talking about in real life, not ATS.

In game, if you have a retarder, and have cruise control on, the retarder will hold the speed within the range you set it in the settings.

I use the red wheel on my G29 to control the retarder manually. I rarely use that function but if I do, clockwise turns on the retarder and increases it, counter clockwise decreases and turns it off.

[Lexx]

Once I tried playing a game with a steering wheel. If they had made the car to actually take damage and break, it would look like a ball with wheels when I finished the race.

[Frontiersman]

I would hate trying to drive in ATS/ETS2 without a wheel. Gosh, actually I think I would not play them at all.

[Tiger313]

I have no problems with mouse steering, but both in ATS and ETS2 I have to have mouse sensitivity set very low. I do other stuff with my PC as well, I find it a hassle to set up a steering wheel and a set of pedals on my desk, having to take it all away again when I need to do something else. But I do feel that it adds a whole new level of realism to the game.

[xXCARL1992Xx]

what is there a nightmare to control the retarder manually ?!

if you fo downhill you set it till your speed is constant or slightly decreasing, it is easy as cake to use it

[Deranged_Maester]

LOL okay on the sound level I agree. But I have hauled a few that the jakes weren't quite enough.

Oh, I agree with ya, I've a a load or 20 that Jakes just couldn't cut it.

Mostly cause the transmission would scatter at mach 4. I was just pokin fun

[Lexx]

Aaand apparently the retarder isn't meant to break unwanted acceleration downhill when you're hauling 63 tons behind you. The small green numbers that aren't well visible are 65 mph. See the current speed on top of the route advisor with auto retarder turned on.

[ external image ]

[xXCARL1992Xx]

srsly, we explaind you, the auto retarder option is when you use your service brake then the retarder brakes too