Glad I skipped Kola for the time being

[Thieme]

Unlocked the first tower on Flooded foothills (Yukon) and it is beautiful!
https://imgur.com/GUCSZJJ
Also no damn rocks or just 0.01% of the amount in Kola. Cargo system seems more interesting too with the buildings you can tear down.
Anyone else skipped Kola or was at least very glad they finished it?

Also curious, I read a lot of people complaining about Amur. Can it really be worse then Kola Peninsula?

[elevenfourteen]

Yeah, that region was something special. Soloed it in my first playthrough and this region alone took me 400 hors to 100%. Well I wasn't rushing, though.

[Thieme]

Originally posted by elevenfourteen:

Yeah, that region was something special. Soloed it in my first playthrough and this region alone took me 400 hours to 100%. Well I wasn't rushing, though.

Damn dude! That is some dedication. I am pretty much only doing the contracts I automatically get on the map screen. I might revisit some maps to 100% them later but for now I just want to see more of what the game has to offer. Just drive around, deliver some cargo and relax. Kola wasn't very relaxing anymore though even the modded/tweaked trucks were having difficulties. Hope the relaxing part comes back in Yukon but from the little bit I have seen so far it is more fun for sure.

[totalwar360]

currently playing on Kola and oh boy its cancer its the only map at the moment i want just finish the 3 main quests (region quests) and than skip it

[i Love Cute Baby]

amur and kola are so damn difficult

[Ixia Irisborne]

So, two things:
1.) With both Kola and Amur, once you find the one and only route to achieve anything significant, things get easier. In my case, that one and only route for the early part of Amur seemed to not work. The truck I tried to explore that possibility with kept utterly failing to negotiate it such that I thought it was designed not to be a viable route. This caused me to believe that there was no "honest" way to get past the first map in Amur. Which brings me to my next point...
2.) "Cheat." If you only use the default trucks, both of these regions are so close to impossible they might as well be considered so. That early solitary route to get anywhere in Amur? It was a totally different story using a mod truck that had amazing grip on any surface. Later on in Amur, the fact that default tires cannot actually be good in both mud and on ice would make a lot of areas either impossible or just a long "spider-man" crawl where your winch is doing more work than your engine. However, plenty of mod trucks have tires that are excellent in both mud and on ice, and can be better at both than default game tires. In essence, these two regions are designed to encourage the use of "cheaty" mods, even if the designers don't admit to it.

If you haven't figured it out yet, the key to both Kola and Amur is driving on the ice, and leaving the roads and trails marked on the map. Kola's contract list is designed to point this out, but it's not overt enough. Some ice will hold literally any vehicle, no matter how heavy. Other ice won't hold anything. You'll learn to see the visual clues that tell you which is which.
Also, remember that nothing is *requiring* you to complete everything. I haven't done most of the contracts in Kola, and I might never do them. I've transitioned over to basically creating my own little missions, which don't yield any reward beyond just enjoying doing them.

If you want pointers, beyond "just go ahead and 'cheat,'" I can do that, but my answer may be something like, "Oh, er, I forgot how I got over there the first time."

[Thieme]

Originally posted by Ixia Irisborne:

So, two things:

I already use mod trucks which could be considered OP. I also made extensive use of the ice in Lake Kovd, not too much ice in Imandra. I also tried going off the labeled paths but most of the time I am met with rocks and trees.
I think I flipped my truck at least 4 times (and the rescue truck also at least 3 times) fixing
the powerline poles in Imandra trying to take a route that seemed very viable but ended up
being one big trap. I like having a choice, a choice of wether to take a road or a shortcut, a choice to take a big trailer or just two trucks winched to eachother. In Kola Peninsula I was really missing this. Maybe I did not scout enough, maybe I could have find good routes but the scouting was already slightly annoying and if I have to go and read a guide on best routes then I will gladly skip.
I will continue on with Yukon later today. It seems a much better place to spend my time.

Originally posted by ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏:

amur and kola are so damn difficult

To me there is a difference between difficult and just annoying. I understand this line is different for everyone but damn, from what I have seen from Kola it is just annoying and tedious instead of really hard. People are free to disagree.
I guess a lot of this also comes down to the maps resetting every time you load. If I could clear a road and make it safe it would be acceptable but the devs are let's add rocks!, after the rocks a random rusty truck chasis, after that a fallen pole/tree, a random hole 20 meters further and a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ more rocks after that. Ohh and I forgot the ice/mud!
I wish I could clear those rocks, remove and recycle the chassis, fix that pole or clear that tree and fill that stupid hole. You'd have at least a sense of accomplishment. Now you just drive on that road a few times and nothing ever changes and you also ask yourself are the people living there hermits or are they hiding some OP vehicles in their sheds to get around an area themselves??? Or maybe they just walk everything. It is a game but still I feel it could make a bit more sense and be a bit more engaging.

[Ixia Irisborne]

Tedium is probably the most defining feature of this game. Speed = death. Short paths are either traps or impassible with anything hauling a load. Yukon has its tedium, too, with all of those "haul a billion tons of cargo all the way across both maps, slogging through miles of submerged road" contracts.

[BigVern]

How I agree! It has just taken me nearly two hours over several gameplay sessions to do one element of Aid To The Island, which is one of the Michigan logging contracts. Don't get me wrong, I love the game to bits but I can't help but think it would benefit from a rebalance. I was hauling two medium log trailers over from Island Lake to Drummond Island with the Kolob. Now this is a massive tractor unit, 50+ inch wheels with mud tyres, yet as soon as it hit anything other than tarmac or dry mud (of which there is little on either of those two maps) it is down to a crawl at less than 5km/h. Sorry, but the equivalent real world truck would be able to chew that terrain for breakfast. Likewise, fuel consumption. Fuel consumption of >13 litres per minute is ridiculous. A railway locomotive doesn't use that much diesel.

I have been playing the game fairly constantly for over three months and am only just getting close to finishing Michigan, with a bit of Alaska and Taymyr done so I could get the better trucks. I haven't even touched the Season Pass DLC maps yet which I bought at the beginning; if I continue to play as the devs seem to intend it could be another six months before I clear Alaska and the original Russian maps.

[Thieme]

Originally posted by BigVern:

How I agree! It has just taken me nearly two hours over several gameplay sessions to do one element of Aid To The Island, which is one of the Michigan logging contracts.

From pictures of contracts in the DLC maps, those logging missions in Michigan will seem like a joke once you get further :D
It seems you play vanilla tho, that is very impressive. Props to you!

Originally posted by Ixia Irisborne:

Tedium is probably the most defining feature of this game. Speed = death. Short paths are either traps or impassible with anything hauling a load. Yukon has its tedium, too, with all of those "haul a billion tons of cargo all the way across both maps, slogging through miles of submerged road" contracts.

I met some of those roads when I finished scouting yesterday. Seems like great "fun" indeed but still doesn't seem half as bad as Kola

[Flashbaxx]

Amur seemed hopeless at the very start, but I eventually managed to open a warehouse that gives exactly the right amount of material to repair all of the bridges and rockslides on the first map's main road. With that done, the pace picked up greatly.

[NuclearToast™]

Originally posted by Thieme:

To me there is a difference between difficult and just annoying. I understand this line is different for everyone but damn, from what I have seen from Kola it is just annoying and tedious instead of really hard. People are free to disagree.

This is what caused me to quit the game for a while. Tough is one thing, but when every single possible obstruction is so obviously placed right where it causes the most difficulty, frustration mounts to the boiling point.

I'm back in Kola now, but only with modded trucks. Screw trying to play the game the way it was intended. Not with this kind of deliberate slap in the face.

[unitled]

I think I play these games in a slightly unusual way (I tend to do the tasks that involve unlocking areas or vehicles, then stick to just the contracts) but I think I enjoyed Kola more than Yukon? Yukon just had such *huge* orders that it really burned me out on it, Wisconsin seemed to get the balance a bit better?

Also Kola was the prettiest map imo, that helped haha

[Ixia Irisborne]

Originally posted by unitled:

I think I play these games in a slightly unusual way (I tend to do the tasks that involve unlocking areas or vehicles, then stick to just the contracts) but I think I enjoyed Kola more than Yukon? Yukon just had such *huge* orders that it really burned me out on it, Wisconsin seemed to get the balance a bit better?

Also Kola was the prettiest map imo, that helped haha

I try to play the same way. Get access to everything I can, and then start dealing with contacts and tasks that don't unlock anything.

Yukon's megaorders just gave me incentive to have several trucks out and working at the same time, each in a different task. Like, I figured out my Tayga could take the reasonably direct path up to the sawmill, but that necessitated chained tires, so I'd use a heavy crane to unload it so it could make another run up there, and eventually I'd have enough wood to load onto a third truck, with mud tires and a trailer, to slog all the way across the map to do whatever with the wood. When trucks came back for the next run, I'd have other trucks ready to repair and refuel them. If those loads needed to go up into the icy areas, I'd have another truck, with appropriate tires and a small crane, ready to swap loads and finish the run. And there'd be a truck ready to repair and refuel that "ice road" truck.

[Mr. Nugget]

I did not Kola like very much because it is grindy, just plow through snow and mud.

Amur on the other hand, I think it's the best region in Snowrunner.
I did not play Mudrunner or Spintires, but I think that this is what Snowrunner is really about.

It took me like 3 days to get to Zik, it's nuts. But I am loving it, it's a challenge.

[Thieme]

Well I finished Yukon the other day and decided to go back to Kola.
Got a very OP but very fun scout to do the check this area contracts and to visit the bunkers.
Then went and recovered the armored vehicles which was a pain in the butt.
But as I had read before the plane mission is the cream on the pie, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥!!
At first I couldn't find the 3rd plane part (in the rocky area) then my crane truck (modified kolob 74760 with heavy crane) just flew up in the air and rolled itself because on one of those loose pieces of ice. It was so damn difficult to get it upright again because the bottom of the truck was very close to the water, also just driving along the water edge completely wrecked my suspension twice (yes I have no patience). Loading the 2 trailers I brought went pretty well. Drove the 2 trucks (P12 + Zikz605) to the beach seperately and from there winch convoyed to the place where I exited the beach again. After unloading one of the trucks went back and got the West piece.
I admit I did google to know which route I could best take because the damn trees are really too tight in a lot of places and the fuselage was big! I did read you could unpack it so it wouldn't have collisions but I didn't resort to that and made it through fine.
Picture at airport: https://i.imgur.com/lhOOLBf.jpeg
I think I will indefinitely suspend the logging missions and one other I have left on this map. At least I have experience with the most dreaded contract of the game now.

When it comes to Yukon, you guys were right. Those contracts were huge! and stupid thing is you'd pretty much drive on the same roads most of the time. I really don't want to see that submerged road in the south on Flooded Foothills again!!! Although to be fair, I was stupid enough to fix the conveyors first which blocked some alternative routes...
Now doubting wether to start Wisconsin or Don region.