The most wanted features for ATS - A research

Which new features would you like to see the most? Choose 5

Walk Mode
75
7%
Multi-drop
151
14%
Dirt/Rust
102
9%
Damage
35
3%
Brake Fade / Overheat
45
4%
Truck and Trailer Interactions
80
7%
Asphalt Imperfections
88
8%
Seasons
173
16%
Truck/Trailer part failures
39
4%
Bigger and More Detailed Depots
86
8%
Garage Overhaul
81
7%
In-game VTC
37
3%
License System and Consequences for DG jobs
26
2%
Truck Emissions
15
1%
Tire Deformation / Physics
54
5%
 
Total votes: 1087

Optional Features
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Re: The most wanted features for ATS - A research

#111 Post by Optional Features » 03 Aug 2022 00:07

Cargo dlcs should have come years ago: the fact they still haven't come is flabbergasting.
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Re: The most wanted features for ATS - A research

#112 Post by flight50 » 03 Aug 2022 00:09

JeeF wrote: 02 Aug 2022 20:28 @flight50 I'm actually quite surprised with 600+ votes, as the forums seems rather dead as of late, at least to me.
I also thought about the location not being ideal... but if I posted a poll of this nature in the General section, good chance a moderator would've moved it here anyways.
But if you click on each of these forums and at the bottom look at the number of people around, it ranges from zero to 3, except for General, which has around 20. So 120 voters is a LOT.
No doubt. I'm not faulting the location at all. Its just the reality of it. I totally agree that a moderator would have moved it. I've had a thread or 2 moved before. I was encouraged to create a particular thread from a particular person and despite my explanation to the moderator on who it came from, the moderator didn't reverse it. So now that thread gets much much less attention as no one contributes to it. But luckily I post a lot everywhere so particular topics can be accessed via my signature vs trying to search for it. But any thread that has the potential for a ton of pic references, it will get removed from the general discussion threads if I'm not mistaking. It might be a site performance thing.

Once day, that 600 votes will hit 1000 votes though. It'll take time. Still a very good thread to have just for ourselves to see what everyone is thinking. Seasons was acknowledged by Pavel on the June 2018 stream though. Pavel stated that at some point, they have to do it. But for Pavel, he wants it to be perfect, flawless. It will never be perfect though. But it has to be dynamic to be the huge hit that it can be. Imho, it can start out as static via pull down menus. So all 4 seasons need to be implemented but to make it dynamic enough, they can't make just 4 seasons. They need multiples of 4. So 4 x (x) 12,16,20 or even 24 seasons. In order to get seasons to blend, we'll need incremental seasons.

For static, its a constant. This can happen now technically. Mods are doing this. But for SCS to make good of it, they must do some serious, serious research to find out how all 4 seasons appear in the US for all the areas they map in the game. How far and what's the path/the line of these climate changes. The entire map cannot be treated as a whole when it comes to seasons. This is a ton of work across the board. Back in 2018, Pavel mentioned he hired a guy to look into it. But a few years after that stream, they had to push it to the backburner obviously. We don't even know if that person is even still there. No telling how far that person got into it though. Perhaps they will get to return to that research though.
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Re: The most wanted features for ATS - A research

#113 Post by rookie31st » 03 Aug 2022 01:03

flight50 wrote: 03 Aug 2022 00:09Seasons was acknowledged by Pavel on the June 2018 stream though. Pavel stated that at some point, they have to do it.
It was over 4 years ago. I wonder what has been done to make seasons a reality during these 4 years. Obviously, new lighting and DX11/12 provide the groundwork for the best possible visuals
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Re: The most wanted features for ATS - A research

#114 Post by flight50 » 03 Aug 2022 01:27

Agreed. I don't see anything ground breaking kicking in until this next engine update. I don't think seasons will be right away but I think the upgrade gives them more wiggle room to have it work easier. Especially if multi core support comes. But I still think the 2nd place vote getter could have the largest impact on the game of all the options in this poll. Like everything, it can be in phases. Everything can be tweaked if the foundation is laid first. A house will never stand if you don't have a sound foundation.
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Re: The most wanted features for ATS - A research

#115 Post by JeeF » 03 Aug 2022 02:30

flight50 wrote: 03 Aug 2022 01:27 But I still think the 2nd place vote getter could have the largest impact on the game of all the options in this poll.
I'd expect for the most impactful feature implementation would be related to multiplayer, as MP is the single most engaging and demanded game feature in this generation.
Players want MP, specially new players. And I assume SCS would want to attract new players. So making MP actually worth playing would be #1 in my list. In other words, in-game VTC.
"Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something." - Plato
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Re: The most wanted features for ATS - A research

#116 Post by flight50 » 03 Aug 2022 03:38

Both our suggestions are also opinions. What you may think and what I may think, doesn't answer for everyone. But based on your own poll, multi drop is no 2, not MP. Not everyone plays MP like you may think. There are still tons of people that rather single player campaigns.
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Re: The most wanted features for ATS - A research

#117 Post by JeeF » 03 Aug 2022 04:15

flight50 wrote: 03 Aug 2022 03:38 But based on your own poll
Results are representative of mostly (if not all) current players of ATS, mostly even long time players of ATS, forum members. These do prefer SP.
But I was speaking of bringing new players. About how "I assume SCS would want to attract new players".
What I see most on community discussions for upcoming games are comments like "Will this have MP?"
"Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something." - Plato
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Re: The most wanted features for ATS - A research

#118 Post by Optional Features » 03 Aug 2022 04:20

flight50 wrote: 03 Aug 2022 03:38 Both our suggestions are also opinions. What you may think and what I may think, doesn't answer for everyone. But based on your own poll, multi drop is no 2, not MP. Not everyone plays MP like you may think. There are still tons of people that rather single player campaigns.
I think part of that is because MP is currently a slightly laggier SP where you can see one to seven trucks that are not AI. Speaking for myself, I was very excited when MP dropped, and my group was one of the first playing with mods using the cheat that SCS quickly closed thereafter.

But that excitement quickly wore off after a few trips. Yes, it is incredibly nice to play with others (I do a lot of MP with farming sim, almost exclusively now). But the reason I do MP for that game is to work with other people towards a common goal. Once, my group cut approximately 1000 acres in three weekends. We had six combines, a bunch of trucks, and several grain carts: it was generally an impressive operation. Then we hauled grain in those trucks for some time: I think it was like a million liters or something (could be wrong). That was fun and incredibly memorable.

I posted a timelapse of the trucking portion on my channel:


Playing MP in ATS is far less enjoyable because we really can't do much other than drive. I personally would like to see a passenger mode where two players could ride in one truck and share driving duties on a long trip. I'd like to see the ability to share trailers and garages, dispatch loads, contract multi-truck jobs, or even drive a player's truck if he or she has to leave. A couple friends and I did a recent convoy through Wyoming, and one of them had to leave part of the way through. Once he left, there was no sign he had ever been part of the convoy. I'd like to see his truck left behind and one of us able to finish the load. Or maybe his truck had a mechanical failure (we do have engine damage in game), and one of us could pull his tractor out of the way and take the trailers. Come back and load the truck on a trailer later and take it back to the yard.

I'd also like to see the ability to push a heavy load over a mountain (like is commonly done in Alaska). We also tried this in Convoy mode on the 1:1 Alaska map, and my truck (the pusher) just came to a complete stop every time I tapped by friend's trailer at speed. Not realistic, but the physics need a lot of improvements as Jeef has pointed out in part of this discussion.

I'd also like to see server support. I can buy a server for a number of games, from GTA (FiveM) to Farming Sim to Minecraft and more. Server support for ATS would provide a much more stable base for gameplay: my PC specs aren't the greatest, and it's much easier to tie into something that is already built to handle the load.

The overall point is like many things, MP could be far more. I could add in points about walk mode or the ability to customize characters and how that would impact gameplay. My character in ATS looks like every other driver character (minus the female ones). I wish I could look kinda like me irl, and everyone else could look like themselves as well. I wish I could put on a safety vest or a hard hat when arriving at a construction zone or port.

The game has a solid map base and a growing fleet of default trucks: it's the feature department that could use the most improvements, and MP is another example of that.

In a dreamworld, I'd drive my car from a modded house to a commonly shared yard owned and customized (buyable land) by my VTC in game on our server. I would get out, find my truck (as would the others on with me), and we'd pick from a selection of visibly stored trailers and head off into the night. Arrive at the shipper, pick up pieces of say a crane (multi-part loads), then turn and burn towards the destination. Maybe hit some bad weather along the way or a really slow traffic jam. Arrive at the destination, drop off the load, go to the truckstop, get out and take a team pic. That would be ideal.

Currently, we could RP that, but there would be a lot of pretending.

To add, a dreamworld SP scenario revised from a post of mine in a separate group:

It's a cold morning in Denver, and I have to warm up the truck to get going. I drive to the shipper to find out my load is a two-part pickup. One part is on the other side of town. Open my doors and back in to the dock for each, maybe see a cutscene of my trailer being loaded, then head out onto the highway. As I pull onto I-25, I turn on the radio to hear "forecasted snow for the Rockies today by noon." It's 11 am. As I begin to climb the grade to Eisenhower, rain turns to snow, and the road changes to white. Traffic slows for the conditions and enters the tunnel. On the other side of the tunnel the weather is far worse: the winds are howling, visibility is down to a few feet, and traffic is moving like 10 mph down the hill. Some AI cars are even struggling to stay in their lanes as they navigate the reduced visibility. Then somewhere before Grand Junction, the weather clears up, but there's an AI accident that slows me down for five in-game minutes: thankfully the electronic readerboards warned me ahead of time. When the accident clears, the road has iced over, but an AI snowplow and deicing team is hard at work trying to clear things. I have to slow down to avoid losing control.

By the time I pull into Grand Junction, my white truck is covered in brown deicer grime, and I'm running 2 hours behind schedule. I top off my tanks (on both sides with hoses), wait for a truck to clear the fuel island, then head out. As I cross into Utah, the ice has claimed an AI semi: he's jackknifed over all lanes of traffic. It takes a couple minutes for a tow truck to arrive and clear him, and then traffic gets going again. A bit later, I'm heading into Salt Lake and climbing the hills on the east side of the city. It's snowing again, and I pull over to throw on a single set of chains. I bounce and bump over the pass and into Salt Lake, arriving at the shipper an hour after they close. Looks like I'll be sleeping in the truck tonight awaiting them opening at 5:30 am.
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Re: The most wanted features for ATS - A research

#119 Post by TexasWhirlwind » 03 Aug 2022 12:41

Yes this would be the greatest thing sense coffee...
-.- -.-. ..... -- ...- ...-
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Re: The most wanted features for ATS - A research

#120 Post by rookie31st » 03 Aug 2022 14:23

JeeF wrote: 03 Aug 2022 02:30Players want MP, specially new players. And I assume SCS would want to attract new players. So making MP actually worth playing would be #1 in my list. In other words, in-game VTC.
Surprisingly, implementation of in-game VTC didn't even need convoy - it could have been done on the WoTr platform years ago. We'd need the ability to create the company and have drivers join it and get the company's truck (with VTC covering the cost of fuel, repairs, and maybe even traffic violations) as an alternative to doing quick jobs until they get enough money to buy their own truck. WoTr still has so much potential to enhance the game without significant changes in the game code itself.
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