Truck Driving Proficiency / Nerd of the Road achievement

[agiar2000]

2. Blind Decisions
Unfortunately for me, blindside backing isn't one of my strong suits, and this scenario still tests me, I was only able to do it with exterior camera so far, so this 3 star still eludes me.....

3. Dirt Rodeo
By far the hardest one for me atm, mainly due to the zig zag chicane with cones before the return to asphalt, I either mess up on the left hand, not set up enough for the 2 right, or the trailer tail swings out and hits a cone.....Still have yet to beat this one cleanly.....

Thanks so much for your post! I really like seeing more detail like this on how people have managed these so far. You seem to have completed more than I, but I am happy to see that there are a couple of scenarios where I have gotten 3-stars on which I might be able to help! Each scenario in Chapter 4: The Home Stretch has taken me around 3 hours of practice to earn 3-stars, so I believe that you can do it if you keep at it!

2. Blind Decisions
I have no idea how to enter either of the two parking spaces on the ends. The only one I have gotten is the one in the middle, though the one closest to the starting position seems a little wider, in case you want to try to find a way to get into that one. I found that trying to turn gradually too early sets me up to hit both trucks on either side of that middle space. Ultimately, I find it pretty hard to get a true feel for these scenarios, so I have to think very carefully and experiment methodically as I go through it. Basically, I start off in the middle, and I give myself some sort of very precise visual cue for when to start jacking the truck and how far to do so. When that fails, I do my best to take careful note of exactly how it failed so that I can figure out in which direction to adjust, and come up with a different visual cue. For "Blind Decisions", I mainly got better results when I experimented with being a little further left or right to start when I reach the waypoint, before I even started turning.

3. Dirt Rodeo
I actually just got 3 stars on this one! I drove the Volvo, and I used the following visual cues after the 4th waypoint. I approached the post on the left, about parallel with the left barrier. I looked out the right window until the last cone on that corner just disappeared. Then, I looked forward and inched ahead a bit until one stripe on the cone ahead disappeared under my view. Then I stopped, turned the wheel all the way to the right, and moved forward until I was heading straight for the grass, and I went ahead until the edge of the grass just disappeared under my view. Then I stopped and turned the wheel all the way to the left before going forward again. At this point, it looks from inside like I am going to hit that first cone ahead of me, but if I follow these steps precisely, I barely miss it, more often than not. After that, I stop and look with an external camera occasionally to make sure that I am staying as close to that line of cones on the right side as I can until I am far enough along that I am confident that I no longer have to worry about the corner on the left side. At that point, I turn hard to the left, go forward a bit, and then hard right turn at the point at which I think I have just enough room to turn without hitting that green barrier in front. After I clear the barrier, depending on how the right side of my trailer is doing, I might even need to hop up onto the curb just a bit to keep from hitting that last cone on the corner. There is a little leeway there, but of course, do not go too far onto the grass, or you will fail the scenario due to not following the designated path. Once you hit the 5th waypoint, it should be easy, though I even failed after that one time because I took too long overall to get the time-based bonus star and even screwed up the parking (by staying too far to the left to avoid the other truck) so I had to go back and forth, missing the direction change bonus star as well. I recommend continuing through the course anytime you get a small collision, just so that you can get in the practice on the later parts of the track, so they are less likely to throw you off when you clear a tough part earlier on and your adrenaline is pumping.

A piece of general advice I have is also to try to find videos online of people completing the scenarios with 3-stars. I found a few very helpful channels, such as BaB, Oldman Vampire, and SabreCat. SabreCat in particular comments on his performance and goes back over it in replay mode to break down the steps. Even with the help of these videos, I still need a few hours to complete each scenario with 3 stars, but the videos give me an excellent starting point to know generally how these can be done and where to begin with my experimentation.

I have never driven a large truck, but I do love this game, and I think that all this focus on tricky parking has actually helped make me even better at parking a regular car in real life, with greater consciousness of my corners, angles, etc.

Best wishes, good luck, and happy hauling!!

[rookie31st]

For the Blind Decisions, and pretty much any tough situation in other challenges, what helps is stopping, setting the parking brake, switching to external view (2 by default) to check the space, getting back inside, and continuing driving after disengaging the parking brake. This may not help if it's already too late to correct, but I found it useful at times to see if I could push further or need to ease, when done on time.

Some challenges can be completed differently, as Killer-of-Night noted. Like Advanced Alley Backing can be done differently after backing through the alley - you can do driver-side turn into the blind-side final parking, like extended offset parking, and it basically leads you in since available space doesn't give you much room to go anywhere else, or you can back to the barrier and then go forward to the left for driver side backing into the final spot. Similarly, Turning in a Dime can be completed by 180-turn either backwards or forwards, depending on your preference, both work with the same number of direction changes at the end.

[sethtriggs]

I definitely endorse SabreCat's videos. I've rage quit for today but it is nice to see how this can get done actually. I'm not as skilled as the people who do this as I am a dirty casual player, and at least it's good to know that this is an IRL job I wouldn't be capable of doing.

[DAFmanXFE6]

So, after struggling with Ch 4 originally when it came out, I went back today and was able to do most of them to 3 stars....

2. Blind Decisions
Unfortunately for me, blindside backing isn't one of my strong suits, and this scenario still tests me, I was only able to do it with exterior camera so far, so this 3 star still eludes me.....

3. Dirt Rodeo
By far the hardest one for me atm, mainly due to the zig zag chicane with cones before the return to asphalt, I either mess up on the left hand, not set up enough for the 2 right, or the trailer tail swings out and hits a cone.....Still have yet to beat this one cleanly.....

You might already be doing these but:

2. blindside reversing I found mapping a button/combo of buttons to "zoom interior camera" helped trying to pick out detail in my near-side mirrors without using the exterior camera at all.

3. The rodeo is a very annoying place to move around in, I found that being more right angles (driving forward more then full lock right) when entering the that sequence of cones helped me get the trailer kind of straighter to get it through the second bit. Fortunately the time limit is very generous so don't rush and you'll get it.

[agiar2000]

4.Blind Side into a cluttered lot.
This one....surprisingly wasn't hard. I 1st tried it with the exterior camera, to figure out where to position the trailer with the minimal amount of pull ups allowed for 3 stars. Once I did that I tried it the interior, and got it 2nd try, wasn't as clean as possible, but the no time limit allows to you stop and GOAL multiple times to make sure you got it right....

You are amazing. Now, I WAS surprised at how quickly I managed to ace this scenario on Exterior camera! Within the first 15 minutes of my practice of this scenario, not counting the time I spent watching another video on it, I did this:
2:33
↪2
Exterior☆

I spent the rest of that first hour trying in vain just to clear using internal cameras with no collisions. There are SO MANY barriers to consider, and I never did get consistent at it. You have to balance the sharpness of those turns so precisely!

In my second hour of attempts, I still was unable to get 3 stars at once, but at the very end of the second hour, I did get a different set of 2:
5:06
4
Interior

As usual, it is very hard for me to determine what I needed to do differently when I end up getting a collision. I will definitely need a lot more time experimenting with this one. Even SabreCat really seemed to struggle to explain how to approach this one.

[Drive Safely]

@agiar2000 - It's possible to ace this scenario without a blind side reverse at all. I used the Western Star 57x for this and it seems like a better approach for keeping clear of the barriers.

Video of how to approach it:

Watch on YouTube

[agiar2000]

@agiar2000 - It's possible to ace this scenario without a blind side reverse at all. I used the Western Star 57x for this and it seems like a better approach for keeping clear of the barriers.

Still not easy, but it worked! It took me about 35 minutes of trying on the Volvo VNL 860, and I finally accomplished this:
4:06
0
Interior

Wonderful! Thank you so much! On to Truck Stop Escape for me!

[agiar2000]

Truck Stop Escape has to have been the easiest one for me so far! I normally start by doing external view, but this seemed just about simple enough to try internal from the beginning, and within 20 minutes, I had it!
1:42
0
Interior

It all seemed to be about getting those tight turns just about as late as possible, while staying as close to the outside of the turn as possible. Having a very good sense of just how far you can go before your nose hits something is key.

That completes "Advanced Student" and "Nerd of the Road" for me! Among the 0.0%! On to Advanced Alley Backing, because I want to complete every tracked challenge I can!

[Drive Safely]

@agiar2000 - Congratulations!

[agiar2000]

7.Early Bird
Another one that wasn't too hard to figure out once I found a decent way to do it, just pull forward, alley back, adjust to turn right, go to the end of that space and back in normally, only got 2 stars on this one ATM cause I was 1 second to slow....

I am truly amazed that anyone can find this one "not too hard". I spent about an hour on this one today, and I only managed the very first reverse turn, the "alley back" part, twice. I still have no idea how I did it those two times, as every attempt I have made for the last 20 minutes or so has resulted in hitting the truck on my left side while trying to back up. I watched SabreCat and Oldman Vampire do this multiple times, and I still have no clue where I am going wrong or what I need to do differently in order to pull off that first reverse into that little spot adjacent to the starting position. Those couple of times I got past the first reverse turn, I found the next reverse turn also incomprehensible. There are so many trucks in the way all over the place, and I do not see how to keep track of everything and get the angles just right. As much as I have accomplished so far, I am starting to wonder if I will ever be able to accomplish Early Bird. I am going to keep trying for now, though. Maybe things will go better tomorrow.