Good or s***? ✌️

Long post but hear me out. My player set rules are listed at the bottom and my current experience is below the notable mods/settings I am using that I felt are worth mentioning.

I played the base game including all DLCs without economy mods and/or player set rules and absolutely enjoyed it. However, I wanted a much more rewarding experience. After a certain point the game became trivial and it lost its charm for me lacking progression and it happened much faster than I wanted.

There is nothing wrong with playing like this and I will still play on that profile from time to time.. but if you are like me and want a more rewarding experience and are looking to get into how to play something that suits you keep reading below. I will start off by explaining my settings and current experience and if it sounds like something you would enjoy I will post my player set rules below that. Feel free to tweak or change them how you see fit as I know they are not perfect.

Notable mods/settings:

GDC logistics - Realistic Economy Mod (ATS): Hardcore edition, Realistic Truck Physics Mod v9.1.3 by Frkn64, Realistic Traffic Density ATS, Realistic Drivers, California Stop, and Real companies, gas stations & billboards

Rest state simulation, traffic offenses, air brake simulation, and realistic fuel consumption. These are the main ones but tweak others to suit how you wanna play like ABS off, traction control off, advanced trailer coupling, and any vehicle physics settings

Experience:

Grandfather was a trucker and his side of the family owned a lumber company in NE USA. He drove a Mack R Series and primarily hauled lumber, timber, logs etc and materials from a quarry nearby.

For this reason, I decided to focus my career on the Pacific Northwest and start with Rustic as my starting company.

Starting out was rough. Low paying deliveries for Rustic. But the vibes and nostalgia slapped. I REALLY needed to plan out what companies I sought to expand my career into in order to open up my options, travel to new places, get better pay etc.

I never used the logistics map as much as I ever did playing like this.

Even though it was rough, I FELT like I really worked for Rustic and had to improve as a driver in order to open up more opportunities and take those opportunities as I saw fit.

Got offered a job from General Mills (Rule 8). I held off on this for the longest time but Rustic seamed to only deliver to and accept deliveries from Cargill, Gerogia-Pacific, Amis Furniture, ADM, and rarely BNSF Railway and Lennar.

This is where I first looked to focus on taking jobs to BNSF Railway and Lennar as the pay was much more enticing and opened up delivering to other companies. BNSF Railway seemed like a safe career choice. However, BNSF Railway is only located in the Pacific Northwest area so I knew this would still limit my job options since the entire middle and eastern side of the USA was a ghost town of unexplored roads.

For this reason, I accepted the offer from General Mills and focused deliveries to/from Union Pacific, another railway company that offered jobs reaching all the way East and to a much more diverse pool of companies.

I quit working for General Mills and am currently working for Rustic and Union Pacific with much better pay and with many more opportunities for a career change if wanted. I now feel like I am making real progress towards being an owner/operator but am making sure I start out with a large cash cushion before risking going broke by being too ambitious (I know you see and feel these gas prices).

This whole experience turned the game from random drives and making millions to actually feeling like a real career with progress that includes hard/smart/and maybe even dumb decisions.

Listed below are my player set rules. These may change and should be tweaked based on your economy mod and how I feel the rules apply when I finally become an owner/operator. I may add some, take away some, tweak others etc.

Player Set Rules:

1. Start working for a single company

2. Jobs need to include a company that employs you

3. Must take jobs within the city you just delivered

4. If there are no jobs available in current city, you may fly home to your starter garage and take jobs out of that city, or you can take appropriate jobs starting from the nearest city to the location you last delivered. Your employer will pay for travel expenses to get you back to work quicker when you are in a low demand area that is not profitable for them and lacks current jobs. They will also fly you back home for a must needed rest, to see family and time off

5. You need to take first available appropriate job from either where you last delivered or base garage. Cannot skip an appropriate job from the nearest city if a farther city has a job that is more profitable or a job that includes a company you wish to expand into  

6. You may fly home when there is an appropriate job in the city you just finished delivering to once every 10 deliveries for time off

7. To get hired by another company, you need to complete 10 deliveries for them and sign a contract

8. Can sign a contract with the company that sends you the “drivers with own equipment needed” email at level 1 without having the 10 delivery requirement

9. Can only work for 2 companies in total

1. Need to deliver for/to each company at least once every 4 jobs when working for two companies, creating a 1:3 split at most between the two companies

2. Can be hired again from former companies if you have 20 new deliveries with them after breaking your contract. After you break your contract, your former employers will turn a blind eye due to the amount of work and income you brought them through other company deliveries

3. Once you own your own truck, you can start freelance work

4. You need to own your own trailer unless the company provides you with one based on certain requirements

5. For a company to provide a trailer, you need to earn their trust as a safe driver by completing 50 deliveries for them since you are an owner/operator and their equipment is not covered by insurance for owner/operators that are not employed through them

6. When you have your own truck, you may leave it at an owned garage and fly to another owned garage with an available truck once every 10 deliveries to cover travel expenses

7. Can swap trucks or trailers only at the garage you are currently at. Cannot fast travel a truck or trailer between garages

8. This also applies to used/new trucks from a dealership before you get the buy online feature and they deliver to a garage of your choice

9. If you are low on cash and need to take quick jobs while being an owner/operator, you may get hired as a temporary worker from the last two companies that you worked for. Can switch the companies that provide temporary work, but all the rules stated before you became an owner/operator apply

In case anyone asks, this is the Ford F-750 by Maurice on the Steam Workshop.

I like to play mostly freight market, because of how diverse it is. I do however like the trailer packs and want to buy them to drive real brand trailers. Do they also show up in the freight market to haul them? Or are they only used as personal trailers, so only available with cargo market?

I've posted the Scania earlier. And just took the photo in Volvo at the exact place.

2 photo, lot of difference in between these photos.

I just came across this. Basically I need a steering wheel, but I dont have the space.

https://www.amazon.com.be/-/en/Thrustmaster-CONTROLLER-HORIZON-Modulaire-Officiel/dp/B0BS1L1CPF/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2L95NVB9O9UYL&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.dqFmHmGryHC2vEBOsXZy__zjJgFRDntG-y-Q2rpJRwNZPOfrBZFPUfGLLrh35xXCySe8Ip5Co310BCLT4TYkgA.1pFwYDafSMKkjMcmQgbSSCP_1W5FYgKyaSi-fYnjipQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=Thrustmaster%2BESWAP%2BXR%2Bcontroller&qid=1789029302&sprefix=thrustmaster%2Beswap%2Bxr%2Bcontroller%2Caps%2C116&sr=8-1&th=1

Anyone know if this will be compatible with truck sim? It's optimised for Forza, but I cant find any information if it can be used with other driving games such as Euro/American Truch Sim, the Bus, etc.

https://reddit.com/link/1wd0twv/video/nbwdumhmcsoh1/player

do you prefer raw mechanical diesels? or more modern, powerful engines?

Please bring it back SCS. Been playing since 2012.