To celebrate the opening day of the latest Steam sales, virtual truckers have been given a present as they head into the weekend: even more roads to traverse. (Eventually.)
In an post on Steam, SCS Software — via the amusingly titled account Timmy The Duck Thief — has informed users that they will be working on a future patch that will, amongst other things, increase the scale of the American Truck Simulator’s map.
The plan is to broaden it to 1:20 from 1:35, which would result in a vast lengthening of the roads outside of cities. Here’s a visual representation of the old map and how big it’ll be once the rescale project is complete:
It’s a big change, and it won’t come easily. As a result, SCS is asking fans to be patient. “It will take several months to re-scale the existing world before we can move on to building completely new areas and DLC,” the developers said.
“We are very excited for this expansion and feel strongly that it is in everyone’s best interest. You get more compatibility, new content, and better modding technology for free, and we get the space to expand the North American continent into the truly majestic landscape that it is. This is the right step to take for the health of the game and its community in the long term — two, three, even five years into the future.”
The post also revealed that the success of American Truck Simulator has allowed the studio to grow to twice the size it was after the release of Euro Truck Simulator 2. “Just a few months after the release of Euro Truck Simulator 2, SCS Software was a team of about 20 people … fortunately American Truck Simulator started strong out of the gate, and we are now confident that its sales can sustain an even larger development team than we originally hoped for.”
“SCS Software has since more than doubled in size, and we are in the process of hiring even more map designers and 3D artists.”
American Truck Simulator is currently 20% off on Steam, while its European cousin is available for less than $US7. There’s also the highly popular multiplayer mod, which supports both games.
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