After some teasing of the upcoming Convoy feature for ETS2/ATS, it’s finally here! (Well, sort of.)
But first, what’s Convoy? Convoy is a new multiplayer game mode for ETS2/ATS, where players can set-up and host their own private sessions (password optional) to drive with their friends or other fellow truckers. There is currently support for synchronized AI traffic, time and weather, and the ability to take the same job as other players. There is also an option, before you leave the Convoy, to restore your game progress to a previous save game state, which may be handy if you are not happy with what happened to your truck, cargo, or wallet during your Convoy driving session.
As we’ve sometimes done with our past game updates, we’re starting off with an Experimental Open Beta. We’re giving you the chance to be the first to test out this exciting new game feature, but we do stress the “Experimental” nature of it. There might be bugs, crashes, and occasional frustrations; the Convoy feature is still very much a work-in-progress. It’s not quite ready yet for its primetime, but we feel confident enough to release it now to a limited and selected audience so that we can gather your constructive and valuable feedback.
What we are preparing for release now, in Update 1.41, is the first iteration of Convoy. We have a long list of improvements and features already collected to consider for future major updates, and we are sure more suggestions will come. If you’re ready to dive in and help us get to the finish line quicker, please follow the instructions below to update your game to the experimental beta branch and start playing. You may share the password with your friends, but do remember that we’re still working on polishing everything and that this isn’t a final release. Also, do tell us what you like and don’t like about Convoy. Your feedback will be very valuable to us!
We are both excited and anxious about the first shakedown of Convoy outside of our inner closed beta testing circle. We are interested in feedback on the stability and dynamics of the small-group sessions. At the moment, we are even intentionally not promoting the existence of the Experimental Beta outside of our forums; no social media promos or anything in the news. We prefer to start small, being able to manage the expectations to some extent.
To be able to use the Convoy feature, you have to switch to the 1.41 Update Experimental Beta (Convoy) branch on Steam first! Most of you already know how to do that, but just in case someone would like to get a helping hand on the instructions: right-click on American Truck Simulator in your Steam Games Library -> go to Properties → go to the Betas tab → paste this special password/unlock code into the small window: XZo2orrgbG92XMQ-> click on Check Code. Make sure you did not copy/paste it with an extra space at the beginning or end of the password. After this, the newly unlocked special branch should become available for you. The game will then update itself quickly and you should be good and ready to dive in and help us test it!
Also, we highly recommend that you backup your profiles or use a fresh one, because the save-game version from this branch will make any profile incompatible with the current non-beta version of the game.
Feedback goes here: viewtopic.php?f=178&t=300265
Bug reports go here: viewforum.php?f=280
The current feature list includes:
- Any player can host and create their own private sessions for up to 8 people
- Ability to haul the same contracts/jobs together from the same company and to the same destination
- Synchronized AI traffic
- Synchronized time and weather
- Synchronized paint jobs, truck accessories, cabin accessories, and more
- Ability to communicate with other drivers via CB radio broadcast (X key), quick replies (Q key), or text chat (Y key)
- Mods are not supported in the initial release.
- Players can currently join only if they have the same set of cargo and map DLCs installed as the host has.
- Weather is not fully synced (only good/bad weather).
- Cables for remote trailers aren't rendered.
- When using an owned trailer, there might be a company trailer spawned in the same location you are supposed to go to to load your cargo.
- AI vehicles might disappear when a player disconnects.
- Lifting bridges are not synchronized. They will be stationary for the initial release of Convoy.
- Sounds for trucks of other players are a work-in-progress.
- Sharing of the World of Trucks external contracts is not yet allowed.
- Steam invites work only through the Steam overlay.
- CB radio broadcast (hotkey "X") interferes with the text input line.
- Cargo on an owned flatbed might sometimes intersect with the trailer
- The on-screen map in Convoy "M" zooms out together with chat scrolling in the Route Advisor.
- Time progression rate does not change when entering a city.
- The time in a Convoy session will advance to match the host's time, but it is only visual - the economy time is not affected (If you had 2 hours remaining to finish the job before joining the Convoy, you should still have the same time remaining to finish your job).
- Special Transport jobs are not allowed. You can't join a Convoy session with such a job active.
- Dynamic collisions are disabled for parked vehicles (you can't push a parked vehicle away, but you will still collide with it).
- Knocked-down traffic signs are not visually replicated for other players; their collisions are simulated locally and works only in close proximity to the player.
- Toll gates aren't synchronized, however, the opening is based on proximity like for AI vehicles.
- AI vehicle colours may differ after some time (so cached vehicles can be reused to limit memory consumption).
- Time and weather adjustments in photo mode
- Quick travel
- California reskin part 1 including 7 agricultural stations and a road layout rework
- New icons in the map legend