New Mexico Coming to American Truck Simulator

Paul Jeffrey · Feb 2, 2017

SCS Software have confirmed the next major new DLC to hit American Truck Simulator will be a brand new map of the New Mexico region.

Adding a bit of flavour and colour to American Truck Simulator, New Mexico will be the focus of attention as the team look to release their first map expansion DLC since the recent update to the game that increased the map scale from **** to *** . That update, released at no additional cost, was a major improvement to the title as SCS strive to better reflect the vast nature of the American landscape featured in ATS.

The state of New Mexico is already well under construction at SCS and the several screenshots recently revealed by the studio do a good job of showing off the usual attention to detail produced by the Czech team. With such a varied and diverse nature of the American landscape that features in ATS, New Mexico should make an interesting change of pace both experienced and rookie truckers alike. Already we have seen some interesting new rest stop locations lined with regional stone and very much representing the mental image one may have of the state, plus I've already spotted some pretty unique pieces of roadside furniture... such as a rocket!?!

During the reveal post by SCS, the studio have confirmed they are looking to expand their development team in order to meet customer demand for new content and features across both American Truck Sim and European Truck Simulator 2. The team have already grown from the initial five man setup right at the start of the development of ETS 2 to now reaching over 20 people working solely on the development of American Truck Sim. With a diehard following for both games and recent recipients of two Steam Awards, the team confirm they have a vision to at least double their production bandwidth for both ATS and ETS2 in the near future. Looks like exciting times ahead for SCS Software and fans of these addictive trucking games.

Sadly SCS fell short of announcing any further details with regards to the upcoming DLC offering, so we are yet to know exactly what will be included in the pack or indeed when we can expect it to be made available in the sim. Keep an eye out at RaceDepartment in the coming weeks as we share more information as and when it becomes available.

American Truck Simulator and European Truck Simulator 2 are both available to purchase for Windows PC exclusively on the Steam Network. Additional DLC for both titles can be purchased via the Steam Store.

At RaceDepartment we have dedicated sub forums for both American Truck Simulator and European Truck Simulator 2. Here you can find a wide selection of mods for the game, from new skins, trucks and even maps. If you want a cool place to catch all the latest news and engage with the ever faithful community around these two games, head over to the sub forum and get involved today!

Are you excited about a new map for American Truck Sim? Do you think New Mexico is the right choice for the next DLC? What other areas / states would you like to see added? Let us know in the comments section below!

Lars Hansen · Feb 4, 2017

Paul Jeffrey said:
plus I've already spotted some pretty unique pieces of roadside furniture... such as a rocket!?!

There's a pretty big rocket test-site around White Sands, NM.
Presumably it's from somewhere around there.

Paul Jeffrey · Feb 4, 2017

How cool would it be if we could go and interact with the site, or at least get to sit around and watch rocket testing! That would be a sweet piece of attention to detail

Looking forward to this new expansion. ETS2 and ATS just keep getting better and better. Which is strange, because let's be honest about this - on paper the game sounds dull as dishwater. Somehow it just works, and is brilliant with it too

Paul Jeffrey · Feb 4, 2017

Has anyone managed to get either title up and running satisfactorily with VR yet?

I see it usually ranks pretty high up in lists of the "best games to play in VR" type polls, but for me it always runs pretty poorly and just doesn't really feel all that good. All this despite having a pretty good PC that should be capable of running it fairly well.

I've done the usual and dropped my graphics settings and stuff, but all that does is make it look pretty ugly and doesn't seem to buy me much better performance.

Anyone having the same issues, or am I just doing something wrong?

Fineraft · Feb 4, 2017

I hope this DLC will be free like the nevada dlc

Piotr Dul · Feb 4, 2017

Fineraft said:
I hope this DLC will be free like the nevada dlc

I don't think so.

AndrewBo · Feb 4, 2017

@Paul Jeffrey
Yes, it works. Make sure you are on the ATS steam beta branch Oculus 1.3 version for the game. Launch Oculus Home. Then launch ATS but don't use SteamVR. Oculus Home will launch it.
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Found in the interwebs..

Paul Jeffrey · Feb 4, 2017

Cheers @Andrew ! I can't remember if I launched through SteamVR or not now, so that could be the issue maybe. Soon as I can get back on the rig I'll have to check it out... It's a frustration because I love the games, and in VR I suspect they will be awesome

Just runs like poo for me in VR atm and It's an incredible annoyance !

thewarmer · Feb 4, 2017

This will not be free . it would have been worded differently . SCS tend to us the word DLC expatiation for paid content.
Not played much Truck sim for a while, need to get back into it again.

MerrixSS · Feb 8, 2017

Paul Jeffrey said:
Cheers @Andrew ! I can't remember if I launched through SteamVR or not now, so that could be the issue maybe. Soon as I can get back on the rig I'll have to check it out... It's a frustration because I love the games, and in VR I suspect they will be awesome Just runs like poo for me in VR atm and It's an incredible annoyance !

I spent a lot of time trying to find the proper balance between lowering the graphics settings to allow supersampling to try and sharpen the image. I've not found the perfect settings yet. It's definitely more resource intensive than a lot of other sims I've tried so far. Being the Oculus support is in beta we can only hope they improve performance in some future update, but for now I still enjoy it with supersampling at 2.0 and most graphics settings turned to low. For reference I have a 1080 and an i7 6700K using an Oculus CV1.