Overview
This is how to start a company, play the game, and buy a truck. It is a step by step guide meant to explain how to play the game. It also includes information about World Of Trucks and modding and the community.
1. Starting a Profile
Congratulations! You have bought one of the best TruckSim games on Steam! Now I will teach you how to play it.
First, hit New Profile. Customize it how you want, select logo, select name, and truck. Trucks are all overall the same, however my favorites are the Kenworth T680, Kenworth W900, and International Lonestar.
Once this is done, you will be sent to a map with cities to click. Find the city where you want your company. Not counting DLC (as most wouldnt buy DLC right off the bat), the best cities are:
Phoenix, AZ
Tucson, AZ
Flagstaff, AZ
Elko, NV
Reno, NV
Los Angeles, CA
I dont recommend California purely because of the speed limits and the roads are hard, but you do you.
Once this is done, you will find a little popup recommending tutorial. If you have played Euro Truck Simulator, you dont need this. If your new, go ahead and use it. It teaches you the basics of the game.
Once you complete the first job, you are given a garage. Its small and rundown, but it works.
End of Chapter 1.
2. Doing Quick Jobs/Exploring The Map
Now that you have finished the basics, you are basically free. Hit Escape and go to the Menu, hit Jobs, then Quick Jobs. Find which one you want and do it. The longer the better.
Once you get it, you are put inside a truck. Drive to the end, and select how you want to park. I always do hard parking, and it may be hard in the beginning, but practice makes perfect. ATS taught me how to back trailers IRL.
Do these for awhile, and feel free to explore the map on your way there. If you hit M, you get a map, and have the option to re-route.
Whenever you get to a town, always look for truck dealers. If its near to the dropoff, go unlock it.
Do quick jobs and level up, and when you level up, add to your Skills. You can take out a loan pretty early on, but the best way to play is to just drive for money. Then you have no loans to pay off, not as many bills, and the money is yours.
End of Chapter 2.
3. Buying a Truck
Alright, so now, you should have over $100,000 in funds, or have taken a loan out.
You have plenty of options for trucks. Not every truck is counted, but most are. There are also trucks on the Steam Workshop, will explain in a later chapter.
Go to a dealer. Depending on what city you are in, and/or what your preferred truck is, you will have atleast 1 dealer for your preferred truck, possibly 2 if the starting city has the wrong dealer. If you unlocked them on quick jobs, good for you. Thats the best way to go.
Now, find your dealer. For this example, we will go to the Kenworth dealer. (DISCLAIMER: THIS GUIDE WORKS FOR ALL TRUCKS, IM JUST TOO LAZY TO WRITE FOR ALL OF THEM)
You are greeted with a nice screen with a truck. There are 2 trucks, Kenworth W900 and Kenworth T680 (as of time of this guide). You can click through the dealer options, however for me its better to just start from the ground up. For this guide we will use Kenworth W900.
Hit Configure. You will be taken into another screen where you modify your truck. First choose Cab, if you can afford a bigger one and have one unlocked go for it, if you cant just get a Day cab.
Next, you have Chassis. There are Short and Long. Long frame is only for sleeper cab trucks, short for daycab. Find whichever one says somethnig like “Short 6X4 180gal”. This isnt exactly what its like, but make sure its a 6×4 and has large fuel tanks.
Now, you can customize engine. There are plenty of options, bigger the better. The biggest engine is a Caterpillar C15 625hp King of the Hill. However, its most likely locked. If you can afford anything bigger then the stock 370hp Cummins, go for it. The more the better.
Now, you can select transmission. This purely is decided by the player. I like to run Eaton Fuller 13 speed and 18 speed, but run whatever you like.
Now your done with the specs. Now you personalize it.
First, you have Paintjobs. Paint it however you like, if you get a Paintjob Pack you can use them too. The classic stripes pack is very nice. This has no limit on your imagination, just let it free.
Second, you have Interiors. There are 2, I always go with the nicest option. It doesnt do much besides cosmetics but woodgrain dash is always nice.
Third, you have cosmetic configuration. There are TONS of options. Smokestacks, Horns, Lights, Wheels, just tons. Customize these how you like, all the horns have different sounds too. I like having sunvisors, but some may thing its nicer without.
Fourth, you have interior customization. By standard you can change the steering wheel and add woodgrain to it, and if you have Steering Creations DLC, you have plenty of extra steering wheels that look great. Build this how you like it.
Once you are done, go to the bottom left and hit Confirm. You will be sent back to the main dealer, but your truck remains customized. Buy it, then you will be told it has Coinsurance (insurance, I havent figured out how it works but it seems to do more coverage the less you damage). Once you okay that you will be put in your truck outside the dealer. Congratulations, you have bought your first truck.
4. Using your Own Truck
Now that you have your own truck, drive it around for a bit. A few laps around the town and maybe a little bit of highway or interstate running is always nice.
To adjust some things on the truck, hit F4. The first screen is lights. You dont need this screen very much. Hit it again, you get mirror adjustment. Adjust it how you like, i like to see the trailer and the ground as a mix. Set them all how you like.
Hit it a third time, and you get seat adjustments. Make this how you like, and adjust the steering wheel too if you need. Once done, hit F4 a final time to close it all and put you back in game.
Now you have adjusted your truck. Go to the Menu with escape, and hot Jobs. Now you have access to the Freight Market tab. Click it and find something that pays well and is a decent length. Of course it doesnt have to be long, but when starting out the more money and more length the better.
Find a job, and take your truck to the pickup point. You will hit Enter over the green Jobs logo, and select the one you want. If you hit the Gear on the load, you can select the trailer. Selecting bigger adds more content and more price, selecting smaller takes away content and decreases price. Dont haul doubles or triples or Rocky Mountain Doubles till you have skill and can steer smooth. This is late in the guide but I recommend a steering wheel by Logitech or Thrustmaster. Makes it more fun and is much easier.
Do your jobs how you like. Explore more of the map, unlock achievments, buy more trucks, upgrade garages, etc. Next chapter is on Owned Trailers, then the end of the game.
5. Buying a Trailer and Using It
ADDED SECTION 4/1/20
Alright, now that you have your own truck, you can buy a trailer for it! if you want to.
To get to the trailer dealer, theres a button in the menu. It opens up a window with trailer options. Build these how you want.
Once built, put it in a garage. Garages have no limit on trailers, so you have no limit on trailers.
Now thats done, go to the Trailer manager. You will see all your trailers here and some statistics about them. The buttons on the side include: Sell, Relocate, Reconfigure, Use, and Make Private. Make Private basically makes it so your employee cannot use the trailer. If its public you may notice they go and take them for a spin.
Owned Trailers have alot more job options then the normal Freight Market. Freight market would have say 10 jobs normally, while the Cargo Market for owned trailers would have 20 or 30.
6. Steam Workshop/Mods
You may have noticed that this game supports the Steam Workshop. Feel free to go there and download some stuff.
When you get stuff from the workshop, please note: ANY issues you have will NOT be accepted by the steam community. It is a set of asses and all they do is tell you to get a better PC and disable all mods. If you have friends with it, chat with them. The community is heavily toxic in the mods department.
Ok, with that being said, check the mod’s upload and last update date. If its recent (within the last few months, and after major updates such as Trailer Ownership) then it should work. It doesnt have to be updated every update.
Now, go into the game. Select Mod Manager, and enable your mods. Start off small, slowly add as you please. Dont enable 20 mods on one save as its alot of load on the game.
Once playing, check stuff and make sure the mod works. If you start experiencing weird things such as you clip through the map, your having whats called a conflict. Disable whatever mods you have enabled latest (So, whatever was the last mod you enabled, disable it). If the issue still persists, ask me and I can help.
Mods are not in any way bad to your game. They unlock much more to the game, and make it much more fun. The community for them isnt good but if you ignore the community they are amazing.
Outside mods are a little different. First find a site you like using, some official modders sites are nice others arent (scr-rigs.com is amazing, he shows what he is working on and whats released on the Workshop) however others like FRKN64 modding arent good and are filled with ads and dont work correctly. He doesnt allow adblocker either which is retarded. SCR rigs for one disabled ads on his website and lets you use whatever you please. I enjoy using a site called atsmods.lt. Its safe, adblocker works, and they never steal anything and arent blacklisted.
Alright, now to download a mod. Just look around those sites, you can find all sorts of neat stuff. I found the OscarMayer Weinermobile as a load on there. Once you find that, download it. The downloading may be sketchy, but the file should download as a .SCS, .zip, or .rar.
Once you have downloaded a mod, figure out what file it is. If its an SCS file, you can skip all this. For zip and RAR files, you need to extract them. I recommend 7zip, and sadly your computer cannot open those files without it. Its good for many other things too, and its free. I originally used it for Spintires mods.
Once you have 7zip, your gonna open the zip or RAR file with it. It should show what all is inside, with most it just has the .scs and maybe a Readme.
Go ahead and extract it and grab the SCS file. Once you have just the SCS file, go to Documents/American Truck Simulator/mod. Drop the SCS in there and it will be in game.
Do be aware that these mods can be unstable. The newer the better again, but you still could have issues. Example, I got a custom 53ft box trailer mod and it made me clip through the world. I disabled it and have been great since. When I asked the community they offered no help as I had mods. I will help if you need.
7. World Of Trucks/End of guide
When you first opened the game, you may have noticed the “Connect profile to World Of Trucks” option. If you have a world of trucks profile connect it if not you should make one. It doesnt send you any mail, it offers you to share your screenshots, participate in challenges and offers the External Market which adds more load options.
Thats basically it. I like the external market cause it offers a more diverse trip range (no new loads, but the trips are normally shorter and theres plenty more) and you can participate in challenges and win stuff. Only downside is with External Jobs you can only go up to 65mph any time.
Thats basically it for this guide guys. Hopefully ive helped you learn how to play the game and stay away from the community for troubleshooting. If you find something you dont know or want help on an achievment, the community is great for that. Modding is terrible with them but the rest is fine. And the modders themselves are normally very helpful too if you find an issue with their truck/trailer.
Have a great day and Happy Trucking. Hopefully this helps someone, and as for the dislike towards the community, its purely on experience. Some people have gotten great help for mod issues, but everytime Ive done it everyone has been a total jerk. But the community isnt all bad, the modders themselves are great at helping if your nice to them and for achievments and questions the community is great.