Pilot Cars

[Green Fraggle]

Can we get a little space from the pilot cars please? those pilots stay ONE car length in front of you and keep braking if someone pulls in front of them.

[tdjpack]

Originally posted by Green Fraggle:

Can we get a little space from the pilot cars please? those pilots stay ONE car length in front of you and keep braking if someone pulls in front of them.

Really don't have a problem with the front car. The rear escort seems to be VERY poor at his jib as most delays are due to him.

[Wolfgang]

That sounds more like you are driving a bit too fast and are thus getting too close to it. Drive at max at the speed limit and you will have enough space ahead of you.

[ttower]

The pilot cars stay farther in front of you if you go slightly slower. They do not move faster than 40 MPH, so if you go 41, you will close the gap, and then cruising at 40 you will maintain a tiny gap. Try slowing down a little, to like 38, and you will see the gap increase

[Green Fraggle]

Originally posted by ttower:

The pilot cars stay farther in front of you if you go slightly slower. They do not move faster than 40 MPH, so if you go 41, you will close the gap, and then cruising at 40 you will maintain a tiny gap. Try slowing down a little, to like 38, and you will see the gap increase

this works, but then the pilot car will brake. suddenly he's too close again and wont pull ahead. i wish i could post a clip

[nitishsingh149]

Try to trun on the hidden feature which will help you to maintain distance between you and pilot car, it will apply the retarder whenever you get too close to the car. But i think even if you don't trun on this feature just set the limit of cruise to 40 I don't think you will hit them just be careful on the slop your truck speed will increase and you will get close to the front car and avoid the cruise inside the city.

[The Pitts]

The space between you and the pilot car ahead is entirely within your control. There may be instances where that car slows down unexpectedly but it is always possible to cope. Now if they get stuck and refuse to move, then that's a different matter.

[Green Fraggle]

Originally posted by The Pitts:

The space between you and the pilot car ahead is entirely within your control. There may be instances where that car slows down unexpectedly but it is always possible to cope. Now if they get stuck and refuse to move, then that's a different matter.

My question was "can we get more space between the pilot car and my truck". I'm not saying theres a bug in the game, i'm asking if there's a way to make the pilot car move up a bit. it's ok not to know, i dont. But dont cloud the question with odd answers please.

[The Pitts]

What do you think is odd about my answer? What else can you mean by 'space' than the distance between the two vehicles? What are you expecting the game to do that is not within the control of the player driver? Bear in mind that some of the behaviour of the escort vehicles is dictated by information held in the map data and that what you are seeing might depend on where you are. Perhaps some screenshots or a short video might help elucidate?

[Green Fraggle]

Thanks. I really appreciate your attempt at helping.

[RacerMachinist]

I am having the same issue. It has nothing to do with the speed limit... Any time there is a "lane change" or even on off-ramp corners, the stupid pilot car slows down so much that I lose all my momentum on these heavy loads just to slow down to 5 mph, watch the pilot car make an abrupt lane change and then try to get up to speed again. As, I think, the OP was getting at, is there a setting that anyone knows of to adjust the pilot car distance or no? If no, then fine, I'll just limit my piloted deliveries because it gets really annoying.

[Wolfgang]

Originally posted by RacerMachinist:

I am having the same issue. It has nothing to do with the speed limit... Any time there is a "lane change" or even on off-ramp corners, the stupid pilot car slows down so much that I lose all my momentum on these heavy loads just to slow down to 5 mph, watch the pilot car make an abrupt lane change and then try to get up to speed again. As, I think, the OP was getting at, is there a setting that anyone knows of to adjust the pilot car distance or no? If no, then fine, I'll just limit my piloted deliveries because it gets really annoying.

Since you apparently know when it happens, why aren't you then preparing for it and slow down before that? And no, there is no setting for that.

[mojo_musica]

Necro a 3 year old thread with a comprehensive reply, just to tell us your driving skills can't match the NPC vehicles in the game? Wow.

[Fish]

You mean game driving skills. Because if this was more realistic there is NO WAY your front pilot stays that close to you. I just did 75 missions to get the achievement and the entire time I was frustrated by how close he is, and the fact that he brakes HARD soooooo many times... I've done oversized in real life and that front pilot with stuff the size we're doing in ATS would be at least three times as far out front, and the guy in the back would be where he is (approx) and there would be a third guy a mile or more ahead relaying to the driver anything to watch for "narrow bridge" - "cyclist on right shoulder" - "breakdown lane occupied" - "traffic slowing ahead" etc etc. The lookout would also block off intersections where a wide turn is required (which does happen in game for the most part... but sometimes the lanes you actually NEED to use are the ones occupied by AI traffic anyways).

EDIT to add: you guys saying prepare for it... after I just did my 75 missions... if I slow down the pilot car in front slows down, he does NOT give me more space. If AI traffic passes him on a freeway, changes lanes to be in front of him, and there is a cop at the next on ramp the AI traffic slams on brakes causing your escort to slam on brakes causing issues... and it's mostly to do with how close the game puts him to you. He needs to be minimum of twice as far as he currently is IMHO. Then you could react. Because right now you have a MICRO second to react.

[Wet Valley Mayor]

The front car is...very obedient in speed limits (if it wasn't brake checking). Slow down a bit to let move away from you, then resume speed limit.

[Greyhawke]

Originally posted by Fish:

You mean game driving skills. Because if this was more realistic there is NO WAY your front pilot stays that close to you. I just did 75 missions to get the achievement and the entire time I was frustrated by how close he is, and the fact that he brakes HARD soooooo many times... I've done oversized in real life and that front pilot with stuff the size we're doing in ATS would be at least three times as far out front, and the guy in the back would be where he is (approx) and there would be a third guy a mile or more ahead relaying to the driver anything to watch for "narrow bridge" - "cyclist on right shoulder" - "breakdown lane occupied" - "traffic slowing ahead" etc etc. The lookout would also block off intersections where a wide turn is required (which does happen in game for the most part... but sometimes the lanes you actually NEED to use are the ones occupied by AI traffic anyways).

EDIT to add: you guys saying prepare for it... after I just did my 75 missions... if I slow down the pilot car in front slows down, he does NOT give me more space. If AI traffic passes him on a freeway, changes lanes to be in front of him, and there is a cop at the next on ramp the AI traffic slams on brakes causing your escort to slam on brakes causing issues... and it's mostly to do with how close the game puts him to you. He needs to be minimum of twice as far as he currently is IMHO. Then you could react. Because right now you have a MICRO second to react.

1) Of course mojo_musica was talking about your in-game driving skills as it's pretty safe to say that ATS and ATS-land are not reality.

2) I'm confused. Did you do all 75 jobs while being frustrated the entire time because you were having fun? Or do all the ATS achievements mean that much to you? Just seems pretty ironic that a player would do something 75 times that they didn't enjoy . . .

3) FYI, the distance traveled in 1 microsecond @ 40mph is 0.00005.867 feet or 0.0000048892 inches (and due to the in game scaling this number should be further reduced by a factor of 20).

So, if what you say is true and you're not just being hyperbolic, then you were virtually driving almost as close as possible to the escort vehicle's rear bumper as possible without actually touching it, at 40mph.

4) Your cruise control works during escort missions. Use it if you can't maintain a constant speed manually. This will also keep help to keep your eyes on the road and any developing / potential problems in ATS-land while OTR.

5) If there were absolutely no challenges at all in the game, do you think it would be more or less fun to play, than it currently is? Do you think this would increase or decrease the sense of accomplishment for achievements earned?