Map order of difficulty

[mendel]

The 5 maps that come with the game seem ordered alphabetically. Is that also the order of difficulty? Which is the best map to start?

[boxanata]

Difficulty (easiest to hardest) (In my opinion)
Plains > Volcano > The Coast > The Hill > The River

[Aqu]

Interesting ranking. I feel the plains in clearly the hardest and I have solved all the other maps without too much problems. It has the swampiest, muddiest roads where you get stuck all the time. You have no access to 537 truck so you have to try carry loads with 6 wheelers and those are quite prone to turn over. It has only one lumber yard (so 8 load points needed) but driving with medium logs is very slow there so using short logs only seems more tempting. However then you cannot have a crane so if you drop your logs you cannot lift them back and it is back to the loading point. And with short ones it is 4 trips anyway even if you don't drop any.

[mendel]

Yeah, I started on Plains (still am) because I thought, "level ground ftw". I had an interesting time trying to move the garage trailer through those forest roads. As an aside, I'm not ashamed to reset to garage when I figure out I was completely mistaken about what would work and what wouldn't... not doing that with the locked vehicles, of course.

Of course one could say it's easiest because you're basically not using trailers, not using the orange truck, and better not be using the A-469 either, except far away from any truck routes. The C-4320 and the C-255 get through ok for the most part, so I guess once you figure this out, the map is not too hard.

Thanks for the ranking, I'll try that in that order!

[Erik]

Plains is by far the hardest map imo. Even on vulcano it is easier to complete a route with the long logs equiped. Also you don't have the MAZ on te Plains map in single player, which makes it even harder.

My ranking from easy to hard:
The River > The Coast > The Hill > Volcano > Plains

[mendel]

Erik, that's pretty much the opposite of boxanata's ranking. Now I'm confused.

[Erik]

The River is really easy once you find out how to cross the river. Also, on one side of the map there's a perfect tarmac road, which make the objective on that side of the map really easy.

[DuckSick]

I agree with Erik, river is simplest map because of tarmac. Plains - hardest one, i fail delivery of medium and large logs so many times... and there no good roads at all.

[Hovis]

Plains is really tough. There's no tarmac roads and the 'roads' that there are basically consist of rivers of deep slimy mud and sneaky stones. Have completed it but it involved a lot of loading up with short logs and orienteering over the central 'plains', which are more like a peat bog. If you park up to look at the map you'll sink, so have to plot the route in advance.

[mendel]

Ok, so the general advice is to start on River?

[Erik]

I would say, yes. :)

[mendel]

I finally finished Plains (which I started on by accident, as mentioned above) after 8+ hours of gameplay.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=280768674
It takes a lot of patience, but I learned so much about getting stuck, falling off bridges, and operating the crane that the other maps (which I've played in multiplayer) seem easy by comparison.

[Arya]

I actually had to most trouble with The Hill. Plains isn't too bad if you stay off the central plain(it's the consistency of yoghurt) and use a smaller, lighter vehicle. Using a trailer I wouldn't recommend, unless you skirt around th edges of the map.

River is the easiest, once you leave the first garage. As soon as you've got a decent vehicle and know how to cross the river, it's not too bad at all. Just mind some of the Cloaking markers, they're nastier than they look.

[Wheagle]

Agreed. Having the hardest time with Plains on Hardcore. Thanks for the advice.

[Matumbu]

As Vindekar said, Plains map is easy if you stay out of the center of the map.

I uncloacked the entire map using the A Jeep. I used Kamaz (Orange truck) to unlock garage (long trailer), C-255 to carry logs. I even successfully carried long logs without much problem. C-4320 was my support truck.

In my opinion, if you have the D-537 truck you can do whatever map you want. The Plains, while you don't have that truck, you can easily finish it by driving on the roads around the edges of the map, never the center.

[Arya]

There's a good road on Plains that goes from the initial garage, along the south end to the south-east corner. It then goes north along the north border until it reaches the north edge, and turns again-this time going west, straight to the lumber yard.

It's not perfect, but it's definitely passable even with a full trailer.