TruckersMP

TruckersMP News TruckersMP News - What is going on?

  • Fruity Freight Fiesta
    on June 5, 2023 at 3:05 pm

    Start your engines and buckle up truckers!! With Summer now upon us, it is the perfect time to launch a new type of in-game event here at TruckersMP - Cargo Delivery Events. We frequently receive requests from the community for us to add more varied content to our servers for players to enjoy, so our Add-On Team have been hard at work and we are delighted to bring you the latest fruits of their labour - the Fruity Freight Fiesta event. From June 5th until July 2nd, we have five new TruckersMP exclusive special cargoes available, ready for you to deliver across Europe and North America in both Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator. For taking part in the Fruity Freight Fiesta event, players can earn some juicy rewards - read on for all of the details; The Cargoes Boxes of Grapes Giant Mangoes Boxes of Oranges Giant Pineapple Giant Watermelons Personal Reward As a reward for participating in the Fruity Freight Fiesta event, all participants can earn a special achievement for their profile - to get this reward simply complete at least five deliveries of any of the special cargoes listed above in either game. Community Reward In addition to the personal reward, we want to make sure that player's efforts during the Fruity Freight Fiesta event prove to be fruitful, so we have set an additional Community Goal of 20,000 deliveries across both games to be completed during the duration of the event, be sure to make as many deliveries as you can! Once the goal is reached the community will be rewarded with the release of a special set of themed cabin accessories to celebrate the event. We hope you are as excited about this new event as we are, hopefully it will be the first of many Cargo Delivery Events to come here on TruckersMP! Let us know what you think on the forum or Discord and be sure to share your pictures with us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter using the hashtag #TMPFruityFreightFiesta -TruckersMP Team

  • TruckersMP Featured Zone
    on June 3, 2023 at 12:00 pm

    Greetings truckers! Since the first iteration of Real Operations back in 2017, it has been one of the most popular community events on TruckersMP. With fourteen editions (and more to come in the future!) under our belts, we have come a long way, constantly working hard to develop new ideas and tools to make each event better than the last. Following the introduction of one of the most useful of these tools, our Dynamic Objects System (DOS) - which enables our talented team to interact with the in-game environment on live servers, allowing the placement of a whole host of custom objects including traffic management solutions, smart signs, props and vehicles - we have had ambitions to bring live events to our most popular server - Simulation 1, and have been working hard behind the scenes to make this a reality. Today we are very excited to announce the launch of Featured Zone - the first of our live events to take place on Simulation 1. What is Featured Zone? In this edition of Featured Zone, taking place between 3rd June and 2nd July, TruckersMP will be undertaking a live, in-game construction project to bring the highways around Calais up to ‘Managed Motorway’ standards, this includes the installation of permanent overhead gantries and smart signage, that will allow this heavily populated area to be more effectively managed on an ongoing basis. The event will give players the chance to see the construction progress in real time as well as witness a variety of special vehicles at work across the Featured Zone area, providing plenty of interest and opportunities for unique interactions. To facilitate the works, a series of lane closures and speed restrictions are in place to give our team space to work safely, additional full closures and diversions are also planned across the four weeks when required. Members of our Event Team and Game Moderation Team will also be on hand to make sure things go smoothly. Whilst travelling through the area please remember the following; Queues are likely, please be patient and follow all road rules whilst travelling through the zone Follow all signage and instructions provided by TruckersMP staff Reduced speed limits with speed cameras are in operation throughout the zone Do not stop in the zone, if you break down use F7 to teleport to services We hope that you enjoy this new innovation from TruckersMP, we’d love to hear your feedback about Featured Zone - let us know what you think on the forum, Discord or by submitting a feedback ticket to Community Management Be sure to share your pictures with us too, on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter using the hashtag #TMPFeaturedZone -TruckersMP Team

  • Dev Blog: Under the Hood of the Replication Framework
    on May 8, 2023 at 3:14 pm

    Foreword As we enter our ninth year at TruckersMP it is a great opportunity to not just look back at all we have achieved with the platform over the years, but also look ahead into the future, as we strive to achieve the ambitions we have of making the MMO (massively multiplayer online) experience we offer more feature rich and compelling for the community to enjoy than ever before. One of the main barriers we face as a modification of American Truck Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator 2 is the way we have developed our platform to work with the games over the years, whilst the methods used have served us well, allowing us to create and provide all of the features we currently offer, we want to do more. To deliver some of the most highly requested and anticipated features such as AI traffic on our servers, we need to change the way things work under the hood, that is where our new Replication Framework project comes into play, already in development for more than a year, this ongoing project will allow us to deliver the kind of game-changing features the community craves, and that is key to our ongoing continuation as the destination of choice for MMO (massively multiplayer online) for virtual trucking. Introduction In this blog, we will be taking a technical deep dive into this new replication framework. You may be curious about what this means, what benefits it will provide us in the short and long term, and why it is taking so long to develop. This dev blog will provide a peak under the hood of that framework, and whilst it will mainly appeal to the tech-savvy users among us given the technical language used, it should broadly provide an overview of some of the challenges that we face whilst developing TruckersMP. TruckersMP is a multiplayer modification, so we must synchronise the game world between clients. Our modification is an MMO (massively multiplayer online), and we rely on synchronising the game state using a server. This means that we use a client-server architecture where clients connect to a server. The game server has knowledge about the entire game state, including the location of players' vehicles, the accessories required to build them, players' nicknames, the contents of their chats, and so on. To better understand the concepts involved, it is important to have some knowledge of what packets are. In computer networking, a packet is a unit of data transmitted across a network. Think of it as a message sent from one computer that can be received by another. A packet can contain any data, such as text or binary, but it cannot be too large. If a message is too big, it will be divided into packets and reassembled by the receiver. Challenges of developing network games When developing network games, there are several important factors to consider, including bandwidth usage, CPU usage, security, stability, and reliability. Bandwidth usage refers to the amount of data transmitted over the network, measured in bits per second (b/s). A dedicated server can transmit up to 1 Gb/s, but it can be expensive to upgrade. Preparing packets on the server requires CPU usage, which can be resource-intensive, especially when preparing packets for 4000 clients 10 times per second. We also want clients to maintain good FPS (frames per second). Security is crucial, as we must ensure that hackers cannot take control of the game server application, leading to breaches or infecting clients' computers. The game server and client must also remain stable and reliable, with entities reliably synchronised to avoid desynchronisation issues. Since the project's inception eight years ago, we have employed a simple network code architecture design. Whenever we need to synchronise the state of something, we manually construct a packet with a specific ID and send it to the client. On the client side, the packet is received, read, and the state is applied. Similarly, when a local player vehicle changes position, for example, a packet is constructed, and sent to the server, and the server applies the changes. This architecture has its advantages and disadvantages. On the positive side, bandwidth usage appears to be manageable, and the code is straightforward and low-level, making it easy to create in C++. Security is linked to the packet receiver, and reliability is based on the network library. However, there are also several downsides to this design. High-level and low-level code are mixed, making it difficult to scale the code base. It is challenging to transmit only modified properties over the network to save bandwidth, and synchronisation is spread across many parts of the code, making it hard to optimise CPU usage on both the in-game client and game server. Utilising more than one CPU core/thread is challenging, adding new features is complicated, and reliability is based on the network library. In reality, bandwidth is not always under control. Let us clarify each of these points: (Pro/Con) Bandwidth usage seems to be manageable, but in reality, actually isn’t: We manually create a packet in specific C++ code each time we want to synchronise something, which keeps the bandwidth usage under control. However, this may not be foolproof. With many entities to synchronise, and with synchronisation code spread across the whole code base, there is no real control of bandwidth usage. Each part of the code will try to send packets without any orchestration. Another big problem is that we do not know which systems take the most bandwidth in real-time (per player, and globally, that is important). (Pro) The code is simple and low-level: Creating packets is a straightforward concept to understand. You send them, receive them on the other end, read packet ID, and apply specific logic for deserializing. This simplicity is due to importing an existing network library (e.g., RakNet), creating sockets, and writing packet handlers. (Pro) It was easy to create in C++: Using the existing network library and writing packet handlers for synchronisation makes it easy to create the synchronisation code in C++. (Pro) Security is dependent on the packet receiver: The deserialisation code is well-written, and security flaws can be avoided if you are careful. However, you must be cautious during packet deserialisation, as a single mistake can introduce security vulnerabilities. (Pro/Con) Reliability depends on the network library: We opt for the use of UDP (User Datagram Protocol) to transmit packets instead of TCP (Transmission Control Protocol). TCP does not allow the sending of unreliable packets, meaning that the protocol must ensure that every packet is delivered. This approach results in additional bandwidth overhead. For a real-time simulation game, the use of TCP could lead to high latency due to packet loss. TCP always preserves packet order, resulting in high delays due to the overhead. This may be problematic when considering the distance that a player's vehicle can travel during that time. In the case of, let's say, 500ms latency and a player's vehicle travelling at a speed of 150 km/h will move 41 metres every second, meaning that it can travel up to 20 metres within 0.5s. Such a delay could cause issues with the current player’s vehicle placement, leading to the game becoming unplayable. UDP doesn't ensure the delivery of packets nor does it preserve packet order, in contrast to TCP. However, it's possible to construct a reliability layer on top of UDP. Many network libraries offer features such as sending acknowledgement packets, buffering packets until required ones arrive, and packet counting. Although constructing such a library can be challenging. Despite this, it's preferable to use a network library that offers reliability features on top of UDP rather than TCP. The reason for this is that the network library permits the transmission of both reliable and unreliable packets simultaneously. When sending a packet, one can decide whether the network library should guarantee its delivery or not. (Con) High-level and low-level code is mixed: Mixing network code with gameplay features can make the code harder to understand and maintain, especially when there are several high-level concepts to synchronise. (Con) It does not scale well: Every entity type requires a different set of properties and synchronisation code, which can make the code hard to scale. For instance, the synchronisation code for AI vehicles differs from that of player vehicles, and the synchronisation code for traffic lights differs from that of bus passengers. With multiple entity types, it is challenging to create different network codes for each of them, making the codebase hard to maintain. (Con) Sending only modified properties to save bandwidth is difficult: Suppose we have already sent the vehicle light state, and it has been received by the client. In that case, it is unnecessary to resend the same information if only the vehicle's position has changed. This can be an issue if the code manually creates packets for each entity type separately. It is challenging to create code that sends only modified properties to save bandwidth. (Con) Synchronisation is spread throughout the codebase, making it challenging to optimise CPU usage: Since synchronisation code is placed in many parts of the code, it is difficult to optimise CPU usage. If synchronisation code was placed together, it would be easier to measure and optimise CPU usage. Additionally, it is challenging to use more than one CPU core/thread for synchronisation, which can result in lag in the game. (Con) Hard to add new features: Whenever you need to add a new synchronised feature to the code, you need to write low-level network synchronisation code again. It is really simple to make mistakes there, but it is not the biggest problem. Because bandwidth is limited for dedicated servers (1Gbps let's say), you cannot send too much data to a specific client. You only want to send data that the client should be interested in. Like, only players around. It is hard to maintain logic for every single thing, that will synchronise properties to the client that came to a specific location, just joined the game, or left the location, so the thing should be despawned. Complexity is high. Also, unreliable packets might not be received by the other side, and you don't know if they were received and you should resend modified property data. You can assure reliability by sending reliable packets, but every time you do that, it brings costs with it. Towards the replication framework Eventually, the aforementioned issues will prompt the need for a general solution for synchronising game objects and their properties, which is commonly known as replication. The replication code provides an interface for replicating entities and their properties. Its architecture is straightforward: The server starts the replication session. Clients connect to the replication session. The server creates a vehicle object for the client. The server adds the vehicle object to the replication session. The replication session creates generic packets and sends them to ensure that clients receive the entities they are interested in and their updates. When a client disconnects, the vehicle is destroyed and removed from the replication session on the server. The replication session ensures that the vehicle is removed from all clients. This design simplifies the network code architecture and provides a single point of responsibility for synchronising game objects. While this design has numerous advantages, including controlled bandwidth usage, simplified code, and better security, it also has some disadvantages, such as the difficulty in developing a reliable replication framework and the potential for bugs. It is worth noting that the replication session is only one part of the framework, and there are several other aspects, including support for the internal Entity Component System, various data types, replication graph, and Remote Procedure Calls. Conclusion We hope this blog provided a useful insight into the work our Game Development team is doing behind the scenes. In the short term, implementing the replication framework will lead to clear, high-level, and manageable code, making it easier to synchronise existing game features and new ones. In the long run, it will enable the addition of more complex game features, such as AI traffic, a shared economy, and a global reporting system. TruckersMP Team

  • TruckersMP 9 Year Anniversary - Events
    on April 19, 2023 at 5:08 pm

    Greetings! Another year, another anniversary! This time of year is always exciting on TruckersMP, as we reflect on the past and celebrate becoming a year older. TruckersMP first opened its doors to the public on May 1st 2014, meaning we’re now looking forward to celebrating our ninth anniversary, with #TMP9. Over the span of TruckersMP’s existence, we have seen huge developments and changes, as well as immense growth and support from the community. Fast-forward to this year; TruckersMP has reached an impressive milestone of 5 million players. We've worked hard to note your suggestions, listen to your feedback and take this forward on TruckersMP, such as implementing a new server configuration. As with any anniversary, it’s great to look back and see how awesome our community is, and what we have accomplished together. For that reason, it is important to come together and celebrate the success of TruckersMP. Show your support by wearing #TMP9 in your player tag To celebrate TruckersMP turning 9, we need a party and everyone’s invited! Want the details? Well, get your party hats and poppers ready. Friday 28 April 2023 The festival will once again make its return to kick off the weekend in style. We recommend bringing your best pair of dancing shoes, along with lots of food and drinks 😉 Like the past few years, we are partnering again with TruckersFM to bring you a one of a kind 5-hour Festival! Haulie Island will be opening its doors to bring you this one of a kind event and let us just tell you it’s an island like no other…the festival grounds will be located on a huge site next to the race track where our TruckersMP Tournament was located last month. That’s not all, as the island also includes a spectacular custom stage, lots of party decorations, a custom dragstrip, dirt track, race track and most importantly - great music broadcasted to you LIVE from the Truckers.FM studio. To get to the Island you will need to catch the ferry connections from Europoort or Hull. The festival will be open on Friday 28th April between the hours of 17:00 - 22:00 UTC. Alternative Timezones: https://notime.zone/NT4DaykWtai5u Server: TMP9 Festival The Festival server will be non-collision, so that it is easy for you to get around and meet others. Everyone is welcome! Saturday 29 April 2023 The celebrations don’t stop there, we're heading to ATS for a convoy! It’s time to hit the American roads to celebrate TruckersMP turning 9, so make sure to have that truck sparkling clean and ready. Here’s all the details: Departure Location: San Diego Departure Time: 17:00 UTC Destination Location: Phoenix Estimated Convoy Time: 2 Hours Alternative Timezones: https://notime.zone/NTekgOfT_L_c- Server: TMP9 Convoy Convoy Rules: https://forum.truckersmp.com/index.php?/topic/45829-temporary-official-event-rules Sunday 30 April 2023 It’s the third day of the celebrations already - we’ll be hitting the roads of Europe for an ETS2 convoy. Here’s the details: Departure Location: Lyon Departure Time: 17:00 UTC Destination Location: Munich Estimated Convoy Time: 2 Hours Alternative Timezones: https://notime.zone/NT4Dx_R5qn8fX Server: TMP9 Convoy Convoy Rules: https://forum.truckersmp.com/index.php?/topic/45829-temporary-official-event-rules TMP9 Freeroam It’s not a TruckersMP anniversary without this server opening up! The ‘Freeroam’ server is back again for another year. If you celebrated with us last year, you may remember we released a unique server in which the community could play online in a 'sandbox' environment. It was a massive success, and once again as a thank you to the community, we will be reopening it again exclusively for our TMP9 celebrations. So what's so special about this server? On our TMP9 Freeroam [No Road Rules] server, players will be granted access to our staff-exclusive Police car! And, to ensure you can enjoy the experience with reduced restrictions, the server will have no road rules enforced, but with the player collisions ON. As well as all of this, our very own Haulie Island will be available on the server to race your friends or even go head to head on the dragstrip, try out our new dirt track that made its debut last month or if you are not into all of that, you could just chill and take in the beach views that the Island has to offer. The server will be available on Euro Truck Simulator 2, exclusively between Monday 1st May - Sunday 21st May. Click here for TMP9 Freeroam server rules! Achievement And finally, brand new to this year’s anniversary, if you join any of the TruckersMP 9 events (including the freeroam server), you will automatically receive a #TMP9 achievement on your profile. Thank you for playing, and we look forward to celebrating with you <3 -TruckersMP Team

  • New TruckersMP Trailers
    on April 5, 2023 at 9:55 pm

    Greetings truckers! We hear frequently from users that they love to see custom content added to TruckersMP, especially in the form of accessories they can use to customise their truck. That’s why the Add-On team has been working hard on making this possible, with a new set of trailer accessories for all Euro Truck Simulator 2 players, and an exclusive TruckersMP Cargo available to Master Trucker Patrons. Over the years we have continued adding unique content to our platform, in order to improve and add to your driving experience. Back in 2022, many players will remember taking part in our hugely popular Operation HQ event. One aspect of this that players enjoyed was the ability to unlock a profile achievement. As such, we're excited to announce that there is a new achievement to collect! New Additions TruckersMP Curtainsider Trailer Accessory This brand new trailer accessory is available for all players to equip to owned SCS trailers as an accessory similar to how lights can be attached to a trailer. Please note that an illuminated variant is available exclusively to Master Trucker Patrons. Illuminated & Non-Illuminated TruckersMP 3D Logo Cargo Carry our very own TruckersMP 3D Logo Cargo on your owned SCS trailers. This cargo is available exclusively to our Master Trucker Patrons. Please note that both illuminated and non-illuminated versions are available. Rewards As a bonus, Master Trucker Patrons will be able to receive a special achievement for their profile when they complete at least one delivery of the 3D Logo Cargo to or from any city! We hope you're as excited about these new additions as we are! Not a Patron yet? It is never too late! Become a Patron here and support us in keeping TruckersMP operational and developing new features. As a thank you for your support, you’ll have access to exclusive channels on our Discord, along with the ability to Patron-exclusive content in-game. Don't forget to connect your Patreon account with your TruckersMP account. If you’re not sure how to do this, you can find out more by clicking here. We wish you a pleasant journey out on the roads with our new trailer accessories and cargo. Feel free to provide us with any ideas or suggestions by contacting our Community Managers through the feedback system. Happy trucking! TruckersMP team

  • Project Update: Back to Basics
    on March 30, 2023 at 4:00 pm

    Sometimes, major updates are necessary to change course, adapt to challenges, or address unsustainable situations. In March of 2020, a significant update was made regarding save editing. The team had received widespread criticism for enforcing (too) restrictive save editing rules that were considered unhelpful and unclear to many users. Additionally, many team members responsible for enforcing the rules lacked the technical knowledge required to make informed judgments. As a result, it was decided to allow any form of save editing that did not adversely affect others. Today, three years later, we make another major project decision, this time regarding server configuration, specifically with regard to speed limits. After observing an extremely high demand for higher speed limits and having seen unprecedented participation in one of our survey, we have decided to adjust our server offerings to meet the community’s wishes. This decision was not made lightly and, instead, was the result of a lengthy, multi-step process. In this blog, I will take you through those steps. A brief history of our 'Road to Simulation' To fully appreciate the context of this decision, we must go back to 2018 and 2019 when the EU1, EU2, EU3, and EU4 servers were available. These servers offered players a choice in terms of conditions on the server. Specifically, EU1 had a speed limit of 110 km/h with collisions enabled, EU2 had no speed limit with collisions enabled, EU3 had no speed limit with collisions enabled but no cars, and EU4 had no speed limit with collisions disabled. Among the community, EU2 was the most popular server by far. During the summer of 2019, the decision was made to place a greater emphasis on simulation by offering two distinct server types: Simulation and Arcade. The EU1 and EU4 servers at that time were the equivalent to today's Simulation and Arcade servers, respectively. It was determined that a speed limit of 110 kmh would be most appropriate for a truck simulation environment, while an 'Arcade' server with no speed limit and no collisions would appeal to those who wanted to drive faster. Additionally, save editing rules were tightened to prevent 'unrealistic' modifications (although these restrictions were later lifted in 2020 in response to community feedback, as mentioned earlier). In August of 2019, further changes were implemented to take a more stringent stance against users who engaged in 'unrealistic' driving. This involved significantly longer punishment lengths than before, as well as the introduction of rule 2.9, which allowed the game moderation team to issue permanent bans against users they deemed unsuitable for driving on our servers. Furthermore, in February 2020, further enforcement measures were put in place to increase the strictness of game moderation. The 'Road to Simulation' initiative has been underway for over three years now, with ongoing debate among our user base about our direction. Particularly in regards to our game moderation, there are many comments about it across our community, as well as in other sub-communities, TruckersMP reviews, social media posts, and YouTube videos, among other sources. Our vision has remained consistent throughout this whole time: we strive towards providing a fun and entertaining massively multiplayer online (MMO) environment where players can meet and play together. Along with the aforementioned changes to servers and game moderation, we also pushed map updates to enhance traffic flow (such as a complete rework of Duisburg city and the intersection on the road between Calais and Duisburg). Despite all these changes and the evident debates among the community, we however have never really reached out to community what your thoughts on all this is. Towards community-driven insights When I became the Project Manager in May last year, this was one of the key elements I wanted to address, considering that this project ultimately depends on its community; you guys are what makes this multiplayer mod flourish. It was my aim to involve players more in the decision we make and to learn from their needs and wishes. Instead of deciding for the community, my vision was to decide with the community. The first step in this direction was the Community Survey in the summer of 2022. This survey was taken by 2,153 users, a respectable number. I mentioned in the previous section that we had implemented map changes to improve traffic flow, but users were never asked for input, and after the fact signals reached me of players indicating that their 'fun factor' had been taken away and that we had made things more 'boring'. Through the survey, we learned that 65% of the respondents preferred driving in highly populated areas, and that 81% did not mind traffic jams. In fact, many pointed out that dense traffic (or, as others coined it, 'chaos') is what makes our multiplayer environment so enjoyable for them. One of the key reasons players mention why they play on our servers is because they like the interaction with other users, and that highly populated areas make it challenging and interactive. This thus raised the question whether traffic flow improvements is something we should have strived for; efficiency at the cost of fun!? We also asked users to indicate their preferred server configurations based on three options: collisions enabled/disabled, speed limit enabled/disabled, and road rules enforced/not enforced. A majority of 66% indicated a preference for the current Simulation 1 server, while at the same time half of the respondents (50%) also expressed their support for a Simulation-like server without a speed limit! Only 9% supported the current Arcade server, while a slightly larger group of 12% preferred an Arcade-like server with collisions enabled. In the open-ended questions, we additionally received hundreds of comments regarding our game moderation and the speed limit. Note: Total number of participants: 2,153. Participants could vote for multiple server types. Interpreting the results and follow-up surveys To discuss the survey findings with a select group of community representatives and dive deeper into player sentiments that are difficult to capture through surveys, we asked interested users to apply for a User Panel. After reviewing roughly 600 submissions, we invited around 20 candidates to participate in a pilot program that was initiated in December 2022. During the pilot, we discussed the survey results and exchanged thoughts and point of views, and panel members also sought feedback from their own networks to share with us. The pilot concluded earlier this month, and we are grateful for the panel's participation and input. We may consider starting a new panel in the future if we need input on another issue. After analysing the results of the initial survey and panel discussions, we conducted a series of follow-up surveys in February of this year. The first survey (with 1,954 participants) focused on various aspects of our game moderation based on feedback we had received. The second survey (with a very impressive and unprecedented 8,912 participants!) delved into server configurations in more detail, with a particular focus on speed limits due to the highly divided opinions we had received. Finally, the third survey (with 954 participants) was not in response to any specific feedback but rather an internal audit of engagement on our community platforms, seeking to gather user perspectives beyond raw data. Community platforms When we first started this project, most of our services were provided through our forum. However, as time passed, various systems have migrated from the forum to the website, including support, events, and VTCs. In addition, platforms like Discord have become essential for many online communities, and forums have lost some of their appeal. We have found that many users prefer Discord for real-time communication, while the forum is better for structured discussions. Users also use the forum to react to our news, blogs, and development updates, or for social networking activities like posting and responding to status updates. Discord is suitable for active discussions or 'hot topics', while the forum is better for elements that require structuring, such as suggestions and guides. Game moderation As mentioned before, we had received numerous negative comments about our game moderation practices and rule enforcement. In response, we decided to focus on specific areas of game moderation to gain more insight. While 73% of respondents believe that the official rules are sound, only 51% are satisfied with rule enforcement, and 49% are satisfied with the quality of our game moderation team. Although not the end of the world, these results highlight a certain level of dissatisfaction with our rule enforcement and game moderation team. One factor that could be contributing to this dissatisfaction is our strict approach to game moderation as part of the Road to Simulation initiative. About 68% of respondents would prefer us to be more forgiving towards minor infractions: many players indicate they would prefer a more relaxed approach to game moderation, particularly in situations that don't impact others. In addition to forgiveness, the community has raised concerns about the fairness of bans, the strictness of our game moderation, and the length of bans. Half of the respondents believe that bans are issued fairly, but a third disagree. Similarly, half believe that ban durations are reasonable, while a third do not. When it comes to the issue of being too strict, 39% agree, 31% disagree, and 30% are neutral. These results show that the community is highly divided on the topic of game moderation, but it is clear that many players would appreciate a more 'casual' approach, especially in situations where it doesn't matter. Our game moderation management has endorsed the results and and has adopted new, more lenient guidelines that align with the survey findings, including overall shorter ban durations and a greater degree of forgiveness. These new guidelines were pushed earlier this month, and we hope that they will have a positive impact on the community. Game server configuration As shown before, the 2022 Community Survey showed a strong desire for a Simulation-like server without a strict speed limit. We had also previously received many comments from users requesting a reconsideration of the speed limit. These insights prompted us to rethink our server offerings. The survey about game server configurations clearly demonstrate the importance of involving our users in our decision-making processes, considering that we received a record high engagement (an unprecedented 8,912 responses), which indicates high demand for certain basic needs. A large majority of respondents favour higher speed limits, with an overwhelming majority preferring a limit of 150 km/h for both ETS2 and ATS. Additionally, our User Panel also suggested implementing a regional speed limit around Calais and Duisburg, but the idea did not receive sufficient support with 43% in favour and 50% against. Another idea that was raised by our panel was applying speed limits by road type, so a rural road would have a different speed limit than a freeway, for example. We investigated the feasibility of this idea and while the game does label certain roads, not all roads all labelled as such, and thus we would not be able to apply speed limits to 'unlabelled' roads; that idea was therefore not deemed feasible for application. Our primary goal is to provide a fun and enjoyable online gaming environment for our users. Although we introduced a speed limit of 110 km/h in 2019 to create a more realistic simulation environment, we understand that there is also a need for more casual gameplay. When the Road to Simulation was pushed in 2019, we assumed that the Arcade server (no collisions, no speed limit, no road rules) would be able to meet that demand. However, we now know from internal data and reports that our Arcade servers are underutilised even during peak hours, and user testimonials have indicated that the vast majority of players do not believe servers without collisions or road rules are enjoyable. Indeed, our surveys revealed that 48% of respondents would prefer collisions on Arcade servers, and servers without collisions or road rules received only little support. There is, however, a small but not negligible group of users that do utilise our Arcade server, e.g. to get away from all the traffic or to set up convoy control profiles for events. Someone recently said that "what the game is supposed to be is what the players make it out to be", and another reflected on the relation between driving style and speed limits by stating that some "people will be reckless regardless of their speed" and that the Road to Simulation did not change the way people play the game, but was rather a restriction of the options players have. Having a diverse group of players, each playing the game in their own respective style, is the charm of a MMO environment. Not everyone has the same interests and therefore forcing a one-size-fits-none solution is not fruitful, while a solution that only favours one group of players will antagonise the other. Our community can be roughly divided into a relatively small group of ‘hardcore’ simulation players and a larger ‘casual’ player base – each with very different preferences. We recognise that it is not possible to meet the demands of both groups simultaneously. Therefore, we have decided to offer the best of both worlds: a server where people can come together to drive in a more realistic manner, and a server where people can be more casual. We therefore go 'back to basics' by returning to similar server offerings as those that we provided in 2018/2019: Simulation 1 (similar to EU1), Simulation 2 (similar to EU2), and Arcade (similar to EU4). Specifically, the speed limit will globally be increased to 150 km/h and it will be up to players themselves to adapt to the conditions on the road. Should you not wish to worry about any rules, then we will still have an Arcade server available. This gives players the ability to drive faster should they wish to, while others that wish to drive slower (e.g., by completing World of Trucks deliveries that are limited to 90 km/h or by completing 'real miles' in external companion apps) have that ability as well. We will maintain the current "Simulation 1" configuration as well, in a similar fashion as back in 2018/2019. "Simulation 1" will be the equivalent of EU1 (collisions, road rules, 110 km/h speed limit), a new server coined as "Simulation 2" will be the equivalent of EU2 (collisions, road rules, 150 km/h speed limit), and "Arcade" will be the equivalent of EU4 (no collisions, no road rules, no speed limit). We intend to use the Simulation 1 server as our basis where we continue to build on our unique simulation environment, for example with special 'live' events such as Operation HQ. We also hope that the Simulation 1 server provides a place where the more 'serious' and 'realistic' simulation enthusiasts can come together. Finally, we were also informed that there are many users who believed that our automated AFK kick timer was too strict. This timer was set to 10 minutes and some felt the need to use external tools to bypass that timer. In the survey, we asked our players what they believe would be a more user-friendly timer. 95% of the respondents stated that a timer of 30 minutes or less would satisfy their needs. We have decided to go for a dynamic timer, that will automatically adjust based on how busy the server is. In the infographic below, you can see our new timers. By default, the timer will now be 30 minutes in case less than 90% of the slots are used; in case the server is busy, the timer will go back to 10 minutes. Patrons (Master Trucker tier) have received additional benefits. For them, the AFK timer will be disabled, unless more than 90% of the slots are utilised, in which case their timer will be set to 30 minutes. This change was already pushed back in February; check this infographic for an overview. The new server configuration will be applied to all our servers, including the ProMods servers with consent from our partners. The overview will be as described in the table below. Initially, slots for Simulation 1 and Simulation 2 will be divided equally as the Community Survey showed a large body of support for both configurations and we do not wish to steer where the demand goes; this is up to you guys. We will adjust the slots to favour the most popular server as soon as we have witnessed where the demand goes. The slots for arcade servers have been adjusted as well to distribute capacity better across a range of servers; the amount of slots is based on our server data from 2022 and meets peak demand. Servers with a 150 km/h speed limit have city speed limits of 80 km/h (50 mp/h) Closing remarks For TruckersMP, this is the beginning of a new chapter and I understand that not everyone may support this change. In fact, this is and has been a controversial topic within our team. However, I believe that sometimes it is necessary to listen to the community's voice and look beyond our own vision to meet their desires. We have carefully worked to consider our options and hope the new servers should satisfy both ends of the spectrum – those who prefer a more realistic gameplay experience and those who are more casual. Ultimately, our most important function is to enable players to have fun, and I hope this update contributes to that. For me personally, this also marks the beginning of a new chapter as I will soon be stepping down from my role in project management and transferring to a role that combines accounting and consultant responsibilities. Representing both the community and the team has been an honour, and I hope that my contributions and philosophy endure. However, it is now time to make place for others to take the lead due to less time to dedicate as a result of real-life obligations and a desire to focus primarily on the technological aspects of this project rather than the people management and politics that come along with project management responsibilities. I thank the thousands of users that have provided their input and everyone who has worked closely with me to make things possible; your contributions have been tremendously helpful. Enjoy and see you on the road! With regards, Jeronimo Project Manager

  • Easter Egg Hunt 2023
    on March 27, 2023 at 7:14 pm

    Greetings truckers, Last year, the community came together to help Haulie track down the missing Easter eggs they ordered. The community did an eggcellent job and found them all! However, this year, we received another urgent call from Haulie as they have lost the tracking of all of the eggs they ordered. Haulie needs your help to get those eggs back before the end of Easter. Do you think you can help them out? Let’s do this! The mission is simple! Haulie left us a note of all the eggs that need to be found. You'll need to find the white, green, blue, yellow, purple and aqua eggs. Haulie’s drivers will be with each of the eggs, however they’re too egghausted to deliver them in time. DLC Required: Going East! How to play Six eggs have vanished across Eastern Europe. Finding them is essential. If you are one of the top three players to find the eggs fastest , you will win a special prize! The eggs are represented by our Event team, with their player tag matching the colour of the egg they are hauling, e.g. 'Yellow Egg'. They will not appear on the tab menu nor the TruckersMP Map, so your only way to find them is by being vigilant, and looking out for them on your GPS! How does it work Launch TruckersMP, select Euro Truck Simulator 2 and connect to the Easter Egg Hunt 2023 server. Prepare for the 15:00 UTC start Click here for more time zones. and be aware that player collisions will be disabled. Meetup with your fellow participants in a city listed on the map. Any company yard is fine. Leave your trailers in your garage, as you won't be needing them. Remember, speed is key! You will have six hours, from 15:00 UTC - 21:00 UTC, to make your journey throughout Eastern Europe. The decision of which road to take is up to you. Garage travelling is permitted. When you have found an egg, toggle your tab menu ON. Then take a screenshot by pressing F12, to prove you found it. You must be able to see the egg, as well as your tab menu in order to fully complete the find. When you have found all six eggs, you are eligible to submit your entry into the competition by completing our form. Prizes Following your hard efforts hunting down the eggs, here’s what is up for grabs: Winner (first to find all the eggs and submit) - €25 Steam Gift Card 1st runner-up (second to find all the eggs and submit) - €15 Steam Gift Card 2nd runner-up (third to find all the eggs and submit) - €10 Steam Gift Card Digital gift cards will automatically convert to your local currency. Prize winners will be announced after the event. In addition to this, all participants who successfully hunt all six eggs, and submit a valid entry before the end of the event, will receive a special Profile Award! Profile awards are very exclusive and a great way to show off your skills and participation - so don't miss out! Hints These will appear on the event day. We may egg you on the right path! Hint 1 Hint 2 Hint 3 Hint 4 Hint 5 Submission Form The form will open on the day of the event. View the form here! We hope you find all the eggs before the end of the event, and who knows - maybe you’ll be a lucky winner? Happy hunting!

  • TruckersMP Tournament 2023!
    on March 5, 2023 at 3:01 pm

    Greetings truckers, It’s time for the return of the TruckersMP Tournament! Do you think you have what it takes to win? The TruckersMP Tournament features some of the most competitive challenges in ETS2, including our custom built drag strip, knock the cone, racing circuit and brand new to 2023, the dirt track. Ensure you set a reminder in your calendar for the 11th & 12th of March at 16:00 UTC Click here for more time zones.(The server will open at 15:00 UTC) The tournament will see hundreds of truckers attending, each bringing their racing experience behind the wheel to reach for the prestigious golden title - Tournament Champion. This event is famous for its high-speed action, spin-outs, crashes, jumps, and drifting. It is an event you truly don’t want to miss. Haulie Island is returning as the host of TruckersMP’s most competitive event! In order to get to our very own Island, you will need to catch the ferry connections from Europort or Hull. We’ve ensured the price of the ferry is nice and affordable for everyone. The event consists of five rounds spread over two days each with its own unique challenge. Each round will have some racers succeed, while some will unfortunately be eliminated. You must be available for the entire event to enter! Day 1 - 11th March Round One The first event will consist of drag races, with eight players competing in each race. Here are the requirements and instructions on how to enter: Be available from 15:00 UTC - Click here for more time zones. (The first drag race starts at 16:00 UTC). Able to understand English (to read event instructions). Connect to the TruckersMP Tournament 2023 server. Ensure your truck is fully fuelled, serviced, and prepared for the first event. (There is a service station and fuel station on the Island) Meet up at Haulie Island using the ferry connections at Europort or Hull. Please ensure you're familiar with the event rules before participating! Eight players will be selected from the queue (first come first served) to compete in a drag race. How many players qualify depends on how many players attend. For example, if 216 players compete, only half will qualify, meaning the fastest 4 out of 8 from each race will qualify. The maximum number that can compete is 432 players! After all of the races are concluded, the fastest 108 players will qualify for the next round. If you didn't qualify, there may still be an opportunity! Should a qualified player not turn up for their event, we will randomly select a runner up, should you be online. Round 2 For everyone who qualified for the championship, this will be your big moment! It’s time for the infamous knock the cone event which will see a test of speed and braking. How late do you dare to slam on? If you are qualified, please ensure you are online throughout as we will start to place you concurrently alongside the first event. Here's a quick overview of what to expect! There will be one practice run only, so you can get a feel for where the cones are at the end of the strip. Your aim is to knock the front cone (marked by the first of the two white lines) over WITHOUT hitting the back two over (marked by the second of the two white lines). If you hit the back cones (or cross the second line) you will be disqualified. The first to hit the first cone but not the second is the winner! Day 2 - 12th March Round 3 Quarter-Final Day 2 kicks off in our brand new dirt track. This will start at 16:00 UTC! Click here for more timezones. (The server will open at 15:00 UTC) In previous years we’ve had parking challenges; however, this year we decided to change it up and replace it with a dirt track. This track will have its challenges like harsh turns, hills, and one tough terrain to drive on. Round 4 Semi-Final Congratulations on making it this far! You will now get the chance to race on our coveted Island Racing Circuit! You will race against six other players on our track with your starting position being judged by your finishing time on the Dirt Track! The top three from both races will qualify for the final! Round 5 Final You're in the final! This is the last race of the series and you've managed to outrun (or brake) the competition and you will not leave empty handed! Survive this round to be crowned the Tournament Champion! The races will be streamed on the official TruckersMP Twitch channel! Rewards Qualifier Each Championship qualifier will receive a unique profile award! Finalists If you make it 2nd or 3rd on the final you won’t go home empty-handed. 3rd Place - 5 EUR Steam Gift Card + Map DLC of your choice. 2nd Place - 10 EUR Steam Gift Card + Map DLC of your choice. Tournament Champion Being crowned the Tournament Champion will also grant you the following rewards: Exclusive Champion Award on your profile, for all of your well-deserved bragging rights. 25 EUR Steam Gift Card + Map DLC of your choice. Gift cards will be automatically converted to your local currency via Steam. -TruckersMP Team

  • Reaching 5,000,000 Registered Users
    on March 4, 2023 at 3:01 pm

    Hey truckers, ⠀ There’s always a great sense of accomplishment when we look at the amazing community we have built here over the years. When TruckersMP first began, it was a small pipedream, with the team at the time having no idea it would eventually become something to this magnitude. TruckersMP was first launched by a group of dedicated Euro Truck Simulator 2 players who were looking for a more realistic and immersive multiplayer experience. The mod quickly gained popularity among the game's community, and over the years the team behind TruckersMP has continued to develop and improve the mod to include new features and support for new game updates. February marked a new, incredible milestone: 5,000,000 registered accounts. This achievement is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the TruckersMP team, as well as the dedicated community of trucking enthusiasts who have made the mod such a success. It was only in February 2021 that we celebrated reaching 4,000,000 users - so to gain one million players in such a short amount of time is truly spectacular. Since then, we have continued to bring you exciting new content such as our very own job dispatcher, Operation HQ and our partnership with DBus World. We’d like to extend our thanks to all of you that continue to play TruckersMP and interact with us on a daily basis - the community is at the core of what we do, and without you, this project would not exist. This is also a perfect moment to recognise the immense amount of time given by our dedicated staff team. Without them, everything we do here really would not be possible. You can watch our video marking the occasion, by clicking here. As we have reached this impressive 5 million registered users milestone, we would like to take a moment to celebrate and thank the entire TruckersMP community for their continued support. We look forward to the future and continuing to develop and improve the mod for years to come. Your feedback and participation in surveys & polls give us the energy to keep developing the community we all love. Thank you! The TruckersMP Team

  • Feedback February: Take part in three short surveys this month!
    on February 10, 2023 at 2:35 pm

    Last Summer, we conducted a community survey, to which we received many responses – thank you for sharing your views! Some of the things you shared with us required additional information to interpret. In order to do that together with the community, we invited community representatives to the user panel we announced along with the survey. Some productive discussions have followed since then, including topics about game moderation and server configuration (which entails settings such as collisions and server speed limits). As we move forward, we would like to gather more insights from the wider community to refine our approach. We are aware of dissatisfaction regarding our game moderation and have taken note of numerous complaints and concerns from within and beyond our community. Furthermore, we have received much feedback about our server configuration, particularly with regards to the server speed limits we enforce on the Simulation servers. In short, a lot of the feedback we have received has challenged the 'Road to Simulation' initiative we launched in 2019 (see blogs below). Road to Simulation blog 1 | July 2019 Road to Simulation blog 2 | August 2019 Road to Simulation blog 3 | February 2020 Announcing a series of short surveys The feedback from the community survey provided mere indications for the most part. In order to align our practices with the community's needs, we hope you can help us by providing more specific insights. Throughout February, we will therefore be conducting short 5-minute surveys every 'long' weekend on a specific topic, with the surveys opening Friday afternoon and closing Tuesday night (UTC time zones). Surveys will be posted on the following dates: Feb 10-14 | Game moderation Feb 17-21 | Server configuration (has been extended to the 28th due to high interest) Feb 24-28 | Community Platforms: Forums and Discord Stay updated! Please keep an eye on the Polls & Surveys page this month if you wish to participate and voice your opinion. You can also stay updated by joining our Discord server or following our Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. The results will be shared via a blog post later in March. Thank you in advance and see you on the roads!

  • Patron & Supporters Convoy - Saturday 7th January 2023
    on January 4, 2023 at 7:17 pm

    Greetings truckers! Are you prepared for our Supporter Convoy? Similarly to our previous supporter events, patrons, Nitro Boosters and Twitch subscribers will all be able to join us on this lovely scenic route throughout American Truck Simulator! Join us on Saturday 7th January 2023 at 17:00 UTC. (Alternative Timezones) The convoy duration is estimated to be 90 minutes. There are no scheduled breaks or fuel stops; you are welcome to pull over into a safe place should you require some rest. Feel free to comment or ask any questions in the patron or supporters channel on our Discord! This is a patron , Nitro Booster and Twitch subscriber exclusive event which means you must have an active subscription to one of our Patreon tiers, be a Nitro Booster on our Discord or have an active subscription to our Twitch channel. Please note that to be eligible to join as a Twitch subscriber you must be in our Discord with a connected TruckersMP account as well as having your Twitch account connected to your Discord profile. If you do not do this you will not be able to participate! Not a patron yet, but want to participate? It is not too late, make sure you become one of our patrons before the 6th of January 2023! Become a patron here. Don't forget to connect your Patreon account with your TruckersMP account! Not sure how you can do this? Click here! You can also subscribe to our Twitch channel here! Don't know how to connect your Discord account? Click here! Note: If you’re boosting our Discord before the 6th of January 2023 you are also able to participate. Departure: San Francisco Destination: Redding Additional Event Info: Event Rules | DLC: None | Server: Supporters Convoy We look forward to seeing you there! TruckersMP Team

  • Christmas Convoy 2022
    on December 10, 2022 at 3:45 pm

    Greetings! It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Every year the TruckersMP community comes together to celebrate an important holiday...Christmas! Throughout the year TruckersMP has seen many exciting events, which thousands of you have participated in. As a well-known 6 year long tradition within the community, hundreds of players and staff gather together to attend a massive 12-hour convoy. This is an event that allows us to properly celebrate our success in 2022, and go out with a bang. I hope you're starting to feel festive truckers, as we are proud to announce that the TruckersMP tradition of a 12-hour Christmas Convoy will be returning, taking place on Saturday 17th December 2022, starting from 09:00 UTC, and finishing 12 hours later at 21:00 UTC! That's right, this Saturday we will not be hosting a 90-minute convoy, but 12-hours, consisting of 4 convoy routes and a surprise activity in the middle! Each route is scheduled to run for 2 hours, with 30 minute breaks in-between. The full convoy will be a massive 2590 miles, or 4,169 kilometres - so make sure to have a full tank of diesel! Convoy control will be present to guide you throughout this massive convoy, to ensure you do not get lost. Take a look at all of the routes we have planned below! To see when each route starts in your timezone, check out our alternate timezones link. From everyone at TruckersMP, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope to see you on the convoy with us! Additional Event Details: Event Rules Server: Official Christmas Convoy -TruckersMP Team

  • Introducing the New TruckersMP Launcher
    on November 18, 2022 at 3:25 pm

    Hello everyone! ⠀ ⠀ Exactly three years ago, back in November 2019, we started brainstorming about a new launcher - the app that players use to connect to our servers. Due to various reasons, however, the project never really came to fruition. Hiring our DevOps engineer 3v changed this and revived the project, going back to basics and starting from scratch. ⠀ Until now, the launcher was mainly used to connect to our servers, but it was our dream to expand the possibilities and improve the user experience. There is plenty of information that we know users like to keep themselves updated with, and we have an understanding that it can be hard to keep track of everything going on through just the website sometimes. Have you ever wanted to see what servers are busiest before launching TruckersMP? Do you want to take a look at upcoming events without having to head to the event system? Or perhaps you want to make sure you do not miss any quick announcements from the website, check our official socials or the current versions of the games? ⠀ We are happy to announce that we are now ready to share our brand new, modern launcher with you! All of the above and more is now possible from directly within our launcher, allowing for you to spend less time looking for information and more time playing. In addition, moving forward, the new launcher allows us to maintain and improve our download server infrastructure, and more easily tackle technical issues as they arise. For users that have recently experienced connection errors and reached out to our support, the new launcher should resolve the issue; if not, please reach out to our team again. ⠀ ⠀ Enough talking for now… why not try the new launcher out for yourself? You can download the new TruckersMP launcher by clicking here. We hope you enjoy the new launcher as much as we do! We would also love to hear your feedback, both positive and negative! Please tag us on social media while using the hashtag #TruckersMP, start a conversation in our Discord server or reach out to our Community Management team by opening a feedback ticket.

  • Real Operations V14!
    on November 12, 2022 at 1:24 pm

    Greetings! It’s back for the second time this year! If you attended our 13th Real Operations in June, you will have seen many operations, traffic jams and one of the most immersive experiences Euro Truck Simulator 2 has ever seen. So… are you ready for another one? Our upcoming Real Operations will be on Euro Truck Simulator 2! This event will feature lots of vehicles and many operations. During our last event, we hit well over 2000+ players, creating the most thrilling adventure European roads have ever seen. As this is one of TruckersMP’s biggest events of the year, everything will be happening in real-time for you and your fellow truckers to witness! From emergency vehicles responding to incidents, including; fire trucks, police cars, and ambulances, to dynamic custom roadworks, rescue missions, and even police chases! To create a more immersive experience, during the event you may find that an operation could occur right in front of your eyes. Real Operations V14 Remember to put the date in your calendar as there’s not long to wait to experience TruckersMP’s biggest and most immersive event. We're very excited to confirm the event will be live on Saturday 19th November 2022, between the hours of 16:00 - 20:00 UTC. That's four hours to experience the Real Ops. To join, you simply have to select the “Real Ops V14” server! If you're not sure when you can play in your timezone, please refer to our Alternative Timezones. Real Ops V14 will be held around eight different cities, including Munich, Milan, and Klagenfurt am Wörthersee. All of the cities and roads where the operations take place are shown in the event zone map below. During Real Operations, you can choose which city you start in, and where you want to end. You can take a trailer with any destination or use your own trailer if you've purchased one. You don't need to set a destination either! Participants are welcome to freely roam the highlighted area above to experience any route you choose. Want to check out that awesome operation again? You can always return to the operation by turning around safely such as using a junction or simply going around in a circle! Just don't stop in a live lane! This is going to be a unique event and as such the temporary rules have been adjusted to ensure it goes smoothly. It is strongly suggested that you read them before attending the event, to ensure that you fall within them! It is also recommended that you read our Smart Sign knowledge base article as this event will make heavy use of these custom assets! We’re excited to bring this event back for the second time this year, and we hope to see you there! -TruckersMP Team

  • Halloween Convoy - 30th October 2022
    on October 23, 2022 at 7:53 pm

    Greetings, truckers! Have you ever been driving down an empty, dim road and felt like you're being watched? Unsure if that figure in your mirror was just your imagination? Was that scraping noise a bush or something more sinister? If you're looking for a surreal trucking experience for Halloween this year, we're hosting a convoy to push your bravery to the limit! Complete with custom modifications to push the scare factor to the max! Join us this Sunday 30th October 2022 at 18:00 UTC (Alternative Timezones)! Our spooky convoy will begin in the city of Bakersfield, California. Unfortunately, truckers that are frightened of the dark should not expect to see much light throughout the experience... To add to the terror, the destination will not be announced! Try to stay together, and always follow the Event team directions/instructions. You don't want to get lost alone out there, do you? The convoy duration is estimated to be 150 minutes. It may be longer if you are towards the rear of the convoy. No breaks are scheduled, but you are welcome to pull into a safe place should you require a rest (If you aren't too scared). Departure: City Bakersfield, California Additional Event Info: Event Rules | DLC: None required | Server: Official Halloween Convoy Happy trucking! -TruckersMP Team

  • Discord Rules Update
    on October 21, 2022 at 3:15 pm

    Hello everyone! Following recent updates and changes both internally and externally, we decided to take a look at our Discord rules and have reworked them to better fit the current situation. This blog post will cover the most important changes. You can find a copy of our full Discord rules here. - 2.06. Pinned messages and channel topics may serve as channel rules if applicable. To clear some things up, we added this section to ensure pinned messages are taken as actual rules, and not suggestions as they were previously seen. - 2.17. Pictures, videos and other content that encourage dangerous driving are strictly prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to: using a mobile phone while driving on a public road if deemed unsafe, driving with excessive speed on a public road, showing illegal/unsafe/unfit vehicles and/or modifications. Dashcam footage is an exception, as long as you did not cause any danger yourself. Unlike previously, this rule will start to officially get moderated throughout the entirety of the Discord guild. Media or content that is beneficial to an ongoing conversation is allowed in moderation, as long as it does not encourage dangerous driving or violate any of our other rules. Starting today, we will no longer permanently ban players due to history. All other permanent ban reasons will however remain as they were previously. Rule 9.01 has therefore been updated to the following: - 9.01. Punishments work as follows: • verbal warning • 3x logged warnings • 7 day mute • 14 day ban • consecutive bans are 90 days. All permanent bans issued based on previous Discord violations will be lifted. Players affected by this change will therefore have their punishments revoked and will regain the ability to rejoin the official Discord guild, effective immediately. Rule violations that would have originally warranted a permanent removal previous to this change, will now turn into consecutive 90 day bans, starting from the seventh violation and onward. In order to gain full access to the guild, we ask you to connect your Discord account to our website. That can be done by following this guide, or by looking in the #connect-truckersmp channel in the guild. Due to the amount of punishments that have been altered, some minor issues are bound to happen. We will therefore welcome anyone who wishes to have us manually review their punishments to create a feedback ticket towards the Community Moderation Management. A changelog showcasing all the changes will be displayed in the #discord-rule-changelog channel.

  • Security Update, September 2022
    on September 30, 2022 at 2:31 pm

    On September 28th we discovered a suspicious file on the web server hosting our forums leading to immediate investigation into the matter. As a precaution we took the forums offline while we verify the integrity of our systems. The file’s existence on this server is our fault and we do not believe unauthorized access has occurred, but we cannot be fully certain. Potential access would have included our forum and website databases, including registered emails and passwords. Out of an abundance of caution we will imposing password resets on everyone over the weekend.

  • Duisburg City Rework
    on September 11, 2022 at 11:27 am

    Greetings Truckers, Several years ago, we received feedback about the state of the city of Duisburg. Some veteran players may remember the permanent traffic congestion, which mainly formed around the entrance and exit of the service station. Upon review, we found that the default city, as designed by SCS Software, was simply not suitable for a multiplayer environment due to the high amount of traffic that constantly flows through the city. Back in early 2021, we attempted to solve this problem by making a few small map edits: we moved the entrance and exit of the service station to a road that nobody used at the time, created a bigger fuel station just outside of the city, and added traffic lights to regulate the frequently used road intersection at the eastern side of the city – which leads up to the road between Duisburg and Calais. While these map edits did have some positive effects, it did not resolve the traffic flow issues inside the city. In fact, it had moved the issues to a different hotspot rather than actually fixing them. In order to temporarily eliminate the issues, we considered it best to introduce a no-collision zone for the entire city to both improve the user experience and remove the strain it had on our Game Moderation team. Regardless of how much effort our Game Moderators would put into moderating that area, the user activity was simply too high for the design of the area. We very much realize that introducing a no-collision zone is and was far from an acceptable solution and we have read all your feedback throughout the years, such as on the forum as well as in the most recent community survey. At the time that the no-collision zone was introduced, it was clear that the no-collision zone would not be a permanent solution and that we had to look for something else to address the issue. Shortly after it was decided that our Add-On team would redesign the entirety of Duisburg city to make it suitable for multiplayer use. The process of the redesign was initially supposed to take a few months at most, but it is now clear that this was far too optimistic. Apart from the fact that our Add-On team is relatively small and that our talented members may leave at any time for various reasons, our Add-On team is also very much involved in higher priority projects, such as official events with unique map modifications. Moreover, this project was not simply about changing a part of the city, instead, it was about completely rebuilding the city and its surrounding road network from scratch, with various practical and technical challenges to overcome. All in all, the planning, execution, and testing all took much longer than expected and we sincerely apologize for how long this all eventually took and the lack of action and communication throughout the process. This has certainly been a learning experience for us, both for how we internally deal with complex projects as well as how we should communicate such changes with you. On the bright side, we can finally announce that we have created the new city of Duisburg and its surrounding areas. As promised, the no-collision zone will be removed. In order to ensure a better traffic flow, all traffic entering the city will come in from the northeast and exit to the south. Speaking of the south, we have created a convenient fuel, service, and parking area for you to enjoy. In addition to a whole new city, we have also created a whole new road network with many new highway interchanges and overpasses. We hope the new city will relieve traffic stress on the area and provide a much needed facelift to the area to bring it up to modern standards. We would love to hear your feedback – both positive and negative – and we can’t wait to see you out on the road! -The Add-On Team

  • Patron & Supporters Convoy - Sunday 28th August 2022
    on August 14, 2022 at 1:00 am

    Greetings truckers! Are you prepared for our Supporter convoy? Similarly to our previous Supporter events, Patrons, Nitro Boosters and Twitch Subscribers will all be able to join us on this lovely scenic route throughout American Truck Simulator! Join us on Sunday 28th August 2022 at 17:00 UTC. (Alternative Timezones) The convoy duration is estimated to be 90 minutes. There are no scheduled breaks or fuel stops; you are welcome to pull over into a safe place should you require some rest. Feel free to comment or ask any questions in the Patron channel or Supporters channel on our Discord! This is a Patreon, Nitro Booster and Twitch Subscriber exclusive event which means you must have an active subscription to one of our Patreon tiers, be a Nitro Booster on our Discord or have an active subscription to our Twitch channel. Please note that to be eligible to join as a Twitch subscriber you must be in our Discord with a connected TruckersMP account as well as having your Twitch account connected to your Discord profile. If you do not do this you will not be able to participate! Not a Patron yet, but want to participate? It is not too late, make sure you become one of our Patrons before the 27th of August 2022! Become a Patron here. Don't forget to connect your Patreon account with your TruckersMP account! Not sure how you can do this? Click here! You can also subscribe to our Twitch channel here! Don't know how to connect your Discord account? Click here! Note: If you’re boosting our Discord before the 27th of August 2022 you are also able to participate. Departure: Redding Destination: Reno Additional Event Info: Event Rules | DLC: None | Server: Supporters Convoy We look forward to seeing you there! TruckersMP Team

  • Your Opinion Matters: Community Survey 2022
    on July 25, 2022 at 2:00 pm

    We would like to invite you to take part in our general community survey, which will be held every year from now on. It is essential for us to continuously monitor the state of the community and understand your needs and expectations. Your opinion matters! Through this survey, we will collect your valuable opinion that we can use to improve your experience on our platform, whether it is a particular service we provide or your experience in the game. Your feedback will be analysed and used to develop strategies to align our services and your in-game experience with the expectations of the community. We therefore ask you to take your time and reply truthfully if you decide to participate. Do you want to become more involved? Apply for our user panel! At the end of the survey, a new initiative will be introduced: focus groups. While surveys are a great way to collect feedback, it can sometimes be more useful to personally interact with people to gather more in-depth knowledge on what they think or believe. Focus groups consist of active users with particular traits, interests, or backgrounds, and all groups will form a joint user panel to regularly exchange their views and thoughts on subjects relevant to the community. In case you are interested in becoming involved as an active co-creator in our community, please complete the survey to show your interest in this panel. More information will be provided in the survey. Click here to participate in the survey! Profit from participation! Apart from sharing your opinion and thereby influencing the future of the community in a direction that you like, you can profit in another way as well. To thank you for your participation and time, we will be giving away 10x €5 Steam Gift Cards to randomly selected participants! Instructions on how to enter the giveaway are provided in the survey. The survey is available until the 31st of July (inclusive; UTC time zone). Thanks in advance for your participation! The TruckersMP Team