Hey guys, I used the test of ATS version 1.55 to tinker a bit with my little economy mod.

First of all, as usual, I updated the fuel prices. There's been a significant change this week. On average, prices in the US states included in the game rose by 14 cents per gallon, from average $3.549 to $3.689. The increase of almost 4% compared to the previous week seems to be due to the current geopolitical situation and the resulting unrest on the oil markets. This means there's noticeably less money left in your wallet.

Secondly, I've modified the new (more realistic) pricing structure for freight transport. I've done some fine-tuning. In the previous version, the prices were more based on the trailer used. I've spruced up my Excel spreadsheets a bit in this regard. In this version, the prices are now more based on the freight transported. That makes more sense, I think. The prices are now a bit closer to the values ​​I know from the statistics.

The last point is just a small detail. I've set the cost of hiring a driver to 85% of their projected daily profit. This brings a bit more dynamic to the game's cost structures. The value of 85% is arbitrarily chosen and is supposed to be derived from the statistical probability of 30% empty return trips (see post about version 1.16(1.54)), which means that a hired driver is only 85% productive.

As usual, I hope I didn't forget anything to check in. And, of course, that I didn't mess anything up again. Otherwise, I wish all 1.55 beta testers lots of fun with the changes.

For organizational reasons, I will only provide updated fuel prices for ATS version 1.54 (the update will be released tomorrow). Switching back and forth between the two ATS versions 1.54 and 1.55 involves transferring tens of gigabytes of data and requiring installation times of more than half an hour. I'm not really looking forward to that.

Change log:
* updated fuel prices and dependent maintenance, insurance and garage costs
* fine-tuning of cargo rewards to achieve better representation of the transported goods
* increased driver hire cost to 85% of his/her estimated profit per day

< previous version v2.0(1.55)