Trucks Do Not Accelerate Down Mountains

[seriousmods]

For quite some time, I have noticed that trucks in ATS have little to no rolling mass. What cemented this fact in my head was a recent video showing the Eisenhower tunnel descent in the new Colorado DLC.

While the scenery was stunning, what was equally stunning was the driver repeatedly having to accelerate to maintain speed down hill. This literally never happens on a steep mountain grade.

What is wrong

ATS has a brake slider in the gameplay options, but this simply makes the truck harder to stop, not easier to roll. An 80k pound semi on a grade like those in Colorado would need to maintain constant use of the jake in stage 2 or 3 to avoid having to use the runaway ramps, and even with the jake, the need for additional service brake usage is likely.

How to fix it

What we need is a momentum slider which increases the mass of the truck from arcade (what we have now) to realistic. At its leftmost, a truck should require brakes to slow down in almost any circumstance, while to the right, the truck could be as it currently is, slowing down by itself even without the need for brakes.

ATS is a great game, and I have many hundreds of hours in it, but it struggles to be a true simulator for reasons such as this. While every player obviously doesn't want the feel of driving a heavy, difficult to control vehicle on challenging roads, many of us do, and it would make the game much more immersive in Colorado and the remaining mountainous states.

[plykkegaard]

Trucks roll fine downhill, 72 mph on a WoTr job

[seriousmods]

The only times I've had to use my jake on a mountain consistently were on Sierra Nevada's Donner with an oversize load. Anything lighter and it's jake on, accelerate, jake on, accelerate, etc.

Where were you by chance and how heavy?

[Underscore_101_]

Really don't see your problem, if anything i'm quite often annoyed that as an ETS2 mainly player i miss having a retarder in ATS, so much that i've started modding gearboxes with retarders into my ATS game

Though i read that the 49X now comes with a retarder, haven't had time to check that out.

[Buster335]

I agree, trucks feel too light

[plykkegaard]

Can't recall sorry but a very long descent going from north down south
WS49X and full load, wooden boards I think

[seriousmods]

Yeah, fair enough, maybe it's just me. I just feel like in general things aren't heavy enough in game.

It's not just the downhills I have issues with: acceleration too. It's so easy to get up to speed, way too easy imo.

And the AI traffic stops on a dime, also a problem with weight.

More momentum and needing to use brakes has the potential to add new realism features to the game like brake fade and overheating. It also makes the runaway ramps actually needed.

Right now, I feel like I'm driving a big car. Stops too fast, speeds up too fast, corners too well, etc.

[plykkegaard]

Use articulated trailers

[Underscore_101_]

Are we playing the same game?

That's of course a rhetorical question, but it does make a huge difference driving the most powerful truck with the best gearbox for it, or an underpowered truck with a not so optimal gearbox.

I only play with really powerful trucks when the load asks for it, but otherwise i stick to at most 550 hp, which is more than most irl trucks have.

[plykkegaard]

12 gears otherwise it won't cut it
And sometimes automatic won't work and I use tab to switch to manual
That's life