I have a strange feeling about ATS game mechanics after playing ETS

[Анатолий]

I have spent quite some time in ETS. And then i have switched to ATS. And now and then i feel that trucks in ATS do not feel like "real".

What i mean here is that in ETS i could make my truck "jump" by pressing thrust or pressing brakes, or when i was carrying very heavy load and was trying to make a turn while just starting to move (it was funny to watch my truck jumping on its rear axle and being unable to turn because front axle could not get enough of traction with road).

The story is completely different in ATS: my trucks do not "jump". No matter if i use starting level engine or put move powerful - the truck starts moving pretty smoothly. If i use brakes it reduces its speed smoothly until last moment. It feels more like modern passenger trains where you sometimes don't feel the moment of move staring.
For example: i unpark my truck with two cars attached (78000 lb weight in total) using R1 transmission from parking zone. The truck moves like there is no cars attached at all. No jumps, nothing. Engine (450 hp) does not sound like it has any load.

Maybe this is simply difference between trucks. Maybe European cabovers are simply lighter than American bonnets? Or it's the difference in game mechanics? Or it's me completely misunderstanding these "hp"s and "lb"s?

[Capt. Carrot]

It could just be the difference between American and European trucks. Don't forget as well that modern European trucks have suspension on the cabs whereas, as far as i know, American trucks do not so the differences that you are seeing could be due to the simulation of cab suspension on European trucks.

i have noticed that when i set off in ATS the nose of the truck DOES raise ever so slightly as the power is applied

[Reese]

In ETS2, there's a specific slider in Gameplay for handling cabin suspension. With a cabover, most-of-the weight of the cab is on the front axle alone. It's going to move a lot more than the rigid conventional trucks will.

Perhaps that "jump" you're talking about is what makes it hard for me to drive cabovers in ATS. That cabin suspension simulation doesn't exist, so it's harder to tell what's actually happening for me. I can crash cabovers in ATS all day long, but no matter how hard I drive them in ETS2, they're beautifully smooth and I never hit anything.

I think in ATS one thing that's really missing is frame torquing. As an arcade simulator, leaving cabin suspension or frame torquing out makes it feel more arcade than it should. We might be experiencing that.

[Robinicus]

The game doesn't simulate either accurately but does a better job with ETS2. Good point on frame tourquing, that is a significant miss in the modelling today and hopefully it will come eventually.

The weight of a cabover isn't all on the front axle; there is a higher % there of course but the bigger issue that impacts it is the front anchor point of the cab is ahead of the front axle while on a conventional it is (depending on BBC and whether it is a set back axle spec) roughly 3-5' behind the front axle.

Conventionals are generally a much smoother riding truck and have a tendency to feel a little like a boat in some ways vs the sharper reaction to any environmental input you feel in a COE. Typical specs for a conventional vs a COE (EU spec) also have drastic differences in frame length which makes a significant difference in the reaction rate of any enviro input felt; both in relation to time and magnitude.