Have you ever lost interest in a game?

[Optional Features]

@seriousmods apparently carl is all over it. He'll have it done before dinner. It's easy. LOL

Haha, yep.

[rookie31st]

I definitely lost most interest in ATS. I'm at 11/12 deliveries for #CruisingMontana and really don't feel the urge to keep driving after my next and last delivery. I don't even want to discover the rest of the cities.

But speaking about other games, I abandoned the TheHunter Call of the Wild some time ago. I was enjoying it by doing missions and achievements, and playing maps in order of release. What I noticed is that it was becoming more about hunting for the rarest and largest trophies than about the hunting process itself. It simply became grinding and annoying.

I tried to come back to it not long ago after the big UI update but noticed that the game runs my PC hot, unlike any other game. Now, I was watching streams of the new Way of The Hunter and it made me want to come back to COTW and complete it before moving on for good.

Still, MSFS is on my priority list and whenever the weather is good I'm flying. I'm using FSEconomy to make it more interesting and immersive. I already flew along the east coast from NYC to Brownsville, TX (The Starbase) and now making my way upstream of the Rio Grande River to cross into California eventually and fly north along the west coast. I don't see how I can get bored of flying when having entire world to explore, but I certainly wouldn't be flying this much without FSEconomy or other career/economy addons. Mods matter so much when the game is lacking.

[Optional Features]

Yeah, a handful of mods (all not possible) would make me play ATS way more. One of them is the ability to spawn a large number of trailers and assemble them. I think that could be fun. Not sure how many the game can handle, but definitely more than one.

Another thing I would enjoy doing is customizing a yard starting with a piece of blank land. Make it my own over time.

And being able to load some cargo would be nice as well, especially something oversize.

I also would probably enjoy making a paint scheme for a truck in-game. While skinning isn't the most fun thing, doing it where I could see the result and copy it across multiple trucks would be ideal.

But the thing I want most as a player is challenge: right now, I know I will make it on every load. Don't have to worry about a bad accident stopping traffic, bad weather making for a perilous drive, or something going wrong with the load.

It's way too easy, and even with mods, I think a child could master it as long as he could generally follow a black ribbon.

More challenge, money that doesn't come naturally, and it would be a much more intriguing experience.

[Grafsky]

I also lost interest in the game. Driving for a whole year on the same roads and states, it's very boring! SCS does not want to speed up the creation of new states! ETS2 the same became boring. For several years this project, and half of the map of Europe is still old!

[Optional Features]

They can never map themselves to player satisfaction. The map is only a place to do things, not the thing to do itself.

[nodin747]

Cant force myself explore montana. I just not interest to drive for no reason. It was better it contained something new for gameplay. For me extreme truckers 2 montana looks way much authentic and natural

[rookie31st]

I also lost interest in the game. Driving for a whole year on the same roads and states, it's very boring! SCS does not want to speed up the creation of new states! ETS2 the same became boring. For several years this project, and half of the map of Europe is still old!

See, imagine them giving us a new state every month, would it change much? It takes 15-20 hours to fully explore each state, and states will become even smaller soon
You'd be happy for another 2-3 years, and then you will realize you are back to "the same roads and states" again.

[Optional Features]

Yeah, there is so much more that could be done within this existing framework.

Let me give another example using a few pictures:

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This is a steel company in Oregon, default SCS map. I looked through the load board and found something going north, so I took it. It was 7 pm when I booked the load. I doubt any steel company is open at 7 pm on a Wednesday. I had no clue it was Wednesday by the way: the game has no sense of days of the week. So I arrived at the pickup and decided to sleep in the lot next door till 5 am (a more appropriate time to be open). Notice there are no gates on this company, despite gates and fences blocking half the map. There's no sense this place ever opens or closes.

There's also not one person on the premises despite a crane working seemingly autonomously to move plates back and forth.

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The doors on this facility are also either permanently closed or open it appears, and the loading equipment outside doesn't move ever.

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Essentially, this is a dead block on the map. While it serves as a place to load steel, it really could be replaced with a trigger and accomplish the same effect.

Because of how I was parked, I decided to go around the block to come into the facility. This wouldn't normally be possible because of more walls. These pics are taken "off the map".

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I pull into the business, and have to block traffic to interact with the load trigger. Pick my load, and drive back to dock.

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Now, I've never delivered cargo myself, but I have signed BOLs before for truckers dropping off cargo. I know in real life I would be getting documents with my load. In game, despite the "delivery report" cabin accessory, there is no paperwork whatsoever.

Then there's the positioning of my truck. Again, I have never hauled steel, but I don't think this is where I would position a truck to load it irl.

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I have almost no room to work on the right side, and I'd need that for load securement. Plus, unless a crane was available, a forklift would need room to work on both sides of the truck to get the load centered.

Now, I don't expect SCS to allow me to pick out my load from the piles of steel laying around and load it myself (that would be amazing, but unexpected). I do expect, though, that there could be more to loading than pressing two buttons and a load "appearing" on the deck. Since we're forced to position our trailers in a certain spot for loading, there could theoretically be a cutscene (skippable) that showed the load being placed on the trailer with forklifts or other equipment. But no. Engine off. Enter. Done.

It took more than an in-game hour of total darkness to put my load on the trailer, but when the game returned, there it was. Now this is a modded trailer (and truck), so the load isn't an SCS one.

Still, modded or not I have no interaction with the cargo whatsoever. Irl, I think that lower level of square tubing could use some more straps. But I have to learn to mod to make that appear done. I can't do it on the fly like a real trucker. I can't even pretend. What would load securement look like in game? I'm not sure. In Farming Sim, you walk up to a trailer and press a hotkey and straps automatically go over the load at the highest point. So if this was loaded manually in game, I could strap the bottom first, then have them load the top portion, then strap it. But in ATS, I can only dream.

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Again, no paperwork whatsoever, and I'm ready to head out. It's a bit shy of 7:30, and I have to head towards a major city to deliver this load. Now from real life driving experience, traffic is heaviest in the morning and afternoon. So I would probably turn on the radio (or even the CB) to get a traffic report. I would also be concerned, depending on my load window, of making my delivery on time.

I hit the road north, and unsurprisingly hit no traffic jams whatsoever. I even turned up the traffic to 10 (with detours and random road events on) to increase the odds. Sadly, despite there being a detour, it slowed down the lane I wasn't in (maybe I should have turned traffic up earlier), and I just carried on.

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As I neared by delivery spot, I was sideswiped by an AI who thought she had the right of way because her lane ended. This did create quite a bit of traffic as well as the general nature of the city (intersections, lights, etc).

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Then pulling into my drop, I recognized the building from the pickup. The prefab is exactly the same, even with the self-working crane. The only main difference was this one had a few AI standing around (better than the pickup). They didn't appear to be actually contributing to the cause in any way: looks like one was just contemplating his life from a high vantage point.

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And finally the dropoff. Again, no paperwork whatsoever to complete the delivery, and the place to park makes almost less sense than the pickup.

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I'm not in reach of the crane, and the beams are long enough that a forklift would have a heck of a time unloading them (if it were possible at all). It doesn't make sense to back into a "dock" at a steel yard. This isn't dry van freight at a warehouse.

And so that concludes another uneventful trip through the ATS map. It's not a bad game, but it could be so much more challenging/interactive.

[AgMech]

Almost every game I have played gets old after some period of continuous play. I mainly stick with sims now, Farm , Flight, ATS, Hunting. Only strategy game I was interested in was Hearts of Iron. I just take a break from one and go to another after a while. Have 680 hours on ATS, and use a steering wheel, pedals, and button box for immersion. Likewise with the flight sims, have 400 hours on FSX and another 500 hours on P3D, while using a reasonably accurate cockpit dashboard, yoke, throttle and pedals. Have maps in the flight sims for detailed areas of Alaska / Canada. And mods for float planes or bush planes. Pretty specific.... With Farm Sim 22, have a steering wheel, pedals and equipment box. So immersion in those sims is THE big deal. Would never go back to any if it was mouse and keyboard or controller. Play exclusively on PC. On Elite Dangerous, I have almost 1200 hours, and mounted HOTAS controls onto an office chair for immersion. So most of these sims revolve around driving or flying cargo...( same stuff/ different day ) . Also play Hunter Classic (1050 hours) and COTW ( 260 hours) for something different. But yes, after some time, you want to move to something different. Plus when I work longer hours, there is not enough free time after work to play certain sims, so those get put on the shelf for a couple of months, and play the ones that you can get in a few hours a week. Then months later I can start fresh with a driving or flying sim again. It does break up the monotony . Once something gets repetitive, it is easy to lose interest in . The more challenges and complexity the sim has, the more likely I stick with it. In the flying sims, I use a mod called Air Hauler, that allows you to buy air bases, hire AI pilots, buy and maintain aircraft, and dispatch cargo jobs. Really like the management aspect to running your own company , as well as flying some jobs on your own. It would be great if ATS would allow us to do something like that with our " garages " . Actually " run" our own companies and drive as well . Defines Owner-Operator . Driving from point A to point B, rinse , repeat .. gets old pretty quick. Need to inject variables like weather , breakdowns, AI skills affecting performance or damage , reputation affecting available contracts, ect . Would make it more immersive and challenging. Farm Sim has more than enough variables to keep it interesting longer. More vehicle choices, crops / livestock, personal choices in layout of buildings, ect. The flying sims inject weather, mechanical failures and such to keep you on your toes.

[VTXcnME]

I agree Farm Sim has more diversity. When I get tired of running crops, I move to livestock management. When I get tired of that, you can run an entire forestry operation. When you get tired of that you can add mods that allow you run your own Breweries/Distilleries. There's so many different things to keep you entertained, and throw in seasons to keep it fresh on top of that.