FIA European Truck Racing Championship

[Nico]

Buenos Aires is included?

Then I might get it, but I'll wait for a sale. This game didn't seem to be worth its full price during development and certainly still looks like that now. However, I like gaming experiences that differ from the normal standards.

 

[Ruy Horta]

On what graphics engine does it run on?

KT engine

 

[Ruy Horta]

Pretty mediocre stuff.
It is a niche game, but there is little or nothing that makes it attractive beyond that.
As a casual racer it is below average and that’s when you have to decide if it is worth your money and more importantly spare time. The latter I regard as even more decisive. If I have to choose how I spend my valuable spare time there are tons of games that I’d rather play.

There is no joy in writing something like that.
I am sure that many people worked hard to build and release this game.
Unfortunately at the end of the day it is a commercial product and I am not into charity.

Pretty meh even for Big Ben.

...I hope N Racing can improve the game, but I am not holding my breath and if I had to make a bet, I’d bet against it.

Note, of the 8 official tracks in the ETRC the Hungaroring is NOT included.
I just cannot understand a licensed franchise not to include 1 of only 8 tracks. It does not matter how many extra stuff is added on top.

 

[Ruy Horta]

Seems kinda unfair to criticize the FFB, only to then admit you've actually been using an unsupported wheel. Yes, the FFB will likely not be great on supported wheels either, but still.

Using the same wheel as in most promos - TS PC - I could repeat Paul’s description word for word as my own, including confusing.

 

[Case_]

(But again...that wasn't really my point.)

 

[Niels_at_home]

Bear in mind that the AMS trucks are VERY different to the Euro truck racing in specs. Euro trucks are bigger and heavier, by a lot! AMS trucks are hot rods in comparison.

 

[Patrik Marek]

No MPH lol

EDIT: Nvm I didn't look at the yellow highlight on the distance units xD

so what will be your next excuse for not buying ?

 

[Alex72]

AMS has trucks and im willing to bet it has better physics and FFB.

 

[BP]

2 Questions:

1. One thing I like about ETS2 and ATS is the the more realistic range/split modes for the gearbox. I see a "simplified gears" option in the menu screenshot above...does this game similarly use range/split with an H-shifter?
2. Is there triple screen or VR support? (and for triples: No, I don't mean just moving the HUD in the middle )

 

[MarkR]

Bear in mind that the AMS trucks are VERY different to the Euro truck racing in specs. Euro trucks are bigger and heavier, by a lot! AMS trucks are hot rods in comparison.

Your AMS (fab game ty) trucks are great fun and as you point out, at the same time, very different from the ETRC trucks. Your trucks feel like sports cars in comparison!

It seems to me there is more than enough room for both truck models to exist, what this game adds is the difficulty of keeping these slow heavy trucks up to speed and then keeping the brakes from overheating when you need to slow them down again, it's a unique experience imo.

I've seen a lot of 'if you want trucks just get AMS' type comments. I agree in that people should just get AMS anyway it's full of superb experiences. Equally, FIA TRC is something quite different if not quite worth the current full price.

 

[Ruy Horta]

I’m giving it another chance.
Some tweaking made the wheel feel a little more useful.
Performance is still meh, but passable.

Been doing quick laps and quick races, but after getting through the license process (which takes less time than feared) I am now ready to start my ETRC career.

BTW the game needs a gamma setting, sunny looks washed out, cloudy is a bit better.

 

[numbersevenhull]

Bear in mind that the AMS trucks are VERY different to the Euro truck racing in specs. Euro trucks are bigger and heavier, by a lot! AMS trucks are hot rods in comparison.

This is exactly right. I actually knew a former ETRC and BTRC competitor (won one of them, can't recall), his son currently races ETRC based in East Yorkshire. Naturally I had a couple of conversations with him regarding his feat and the racing, so maybe I can add a little idea as to the flavour of the racing as it was explained to me.

He was essentially a local farmer, who more or less fell into the sport but soon realised he could make more money racing and picking up appearance fee's than working the farm. Of course they are all privateer in nature, and a weekend would involve driving the truck to Italy or Germany, racing, then driving back and into the workshop, and if that is your racing schedule you are obviously going to be contact averse. The social aspect is a large part of the racing as well, rather like biking.

When asked what it took to become champion, the straight Yorkshire answer was 'big balls'. He described the difference between motor and truck racing as 'if you make a mistake in truck racing you're not getting out of it and you're not stopping'. Basically it's a pretty terrifying form of racing - you're essentially sitting 10 ft up with a huge piece of glass in front of you doing ungodly speeds, no chance of last second twitch adjustments, bumper to bumper and praying you or anyone around you doesn't make a mistake. And if you do, as he explained, you really know about it physically because two trucks colliding or hitting a wall, there is a monster amount of kinetic energy to disperse.

Obviously that mass and energy is a pretty hard thing to simulate in a tangible way. There is a sense of mass in sim cars, but you are never going to get across that real sense of danger of sitting inside a moving house. If you just watch a 30 ton truck backing up in your street you know you don't want to be stood behind it, never mind sat in it doing 120 heading toward a hairpin. So while comparisons with AMS might be fun, they are essentially moot.

This driver did have one other event he competed in though. He was a regular Sidecar racer at the TT. Did I say big balls!!!

 

[MarkR]

This is the most exciting racing I've had with the AI so far, Autodrom Most is a new circuit to me and the slow corners and elevation changes really challenge these trucks with stability and maintaining forward progress. It's easy to go too fast into corners and end up oversteering. The uphill section requires maximum bravery to just stay inside the penalty markers.

The first season of career mode only allows weekend contracts so the full money earning, truck upgrading isn't included which is a shame as it makes it a long first season with no real chance to progress your own team and truck.

The career mode points and standings sem to be bugged for the AI drivers too - my player score adds up fine but the AI drivers return to zero after some sessions.

The AI could do with being quite a bit faster but other than that the more I play the more I'm impressed with this game - it's all (career, single race, custom championships, lap times, penalties etc) working at launch too which is a rarity these days. A lot of those one and two-line negative reviews on Steam are just unfair and wrong. Sure it's niche but if you fancy playing something different, as I did, it's worth a look.

 

[FeltHat]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1075460/FIA_ETRC__Indianapolis_Motor_Speedway/

 

[MarkR]

Hmmm...ok it's significant bug time!

Having reached Career Season 2 and signed a full season team contract I completed the 1st event of the season at Misano winning all 4 races (yeah the Pro AI really aren't up to much, even reverse grid isn't a huge challenge).

The weekend review screen correctly showed the 4 wins and 8000 credits awarded. However, the next Team Finances screen showed Total winnings as 0. Clicking to the next screen, the main career screen, no credits had been applied to the player profile. I tried advancing to the next round but still, no credits applied.

This is a game-breaker as the credits have to be used to repair the truck, upgrade performance elements and pay the team their 'profit' for the season. No credits mean none of this is currently possible.

It's a shame because the maintenance of the suspension, turbo, brakes and gearbox looked like a reasonable career setup. From what I can see each element has 4 performance levels - 1 lowest to 4 best and the player can upgrade the part and the reliability of the part. The parts also become worn during races and have to be repaired.

Unfortunately good as all this is, I was able to win the ETRC crown in my first season as a 'rolling weekend' contract driver. I won all events though not every race without any real challenge against the top 'Pro AI' which isn't adjustable. I had hoped a higher AI difficulty might be available for the full season but it seems not.

I've attempted to contact the devs so we'll see what happens next. It'll be a shame if the game ends here due to this bug. I'll give the WTRC trucks a go in the meantime.

That'll teach me for praising a game on release!!

 

[Cheesenium]

Everyone should get AMS. It’s an awesome game. The trucks in AMS feels more like a 3 tonne drift car.

 

[Raikku]

I might get this on Xbox One's side when it's on discount. I'm quite sure that it will be on sale soon.

 

[Ruy Horta]

Been doing some more racing, starting to enjoy more of the gameplay elements enough to put in more mileage and get my money’s worth, but not enough to keep me coming back again and again. Still with some spit and polish ETRC could be easily improved, but knowing Big Ben it will probably not happen with this iteration of the game.

• FFB (have a setting that works on a balanced truck, if I change tuning to the cornering preset, FFB is acting completely different to the point of being practically undriveable).
• AI (have seen AI trucks just stand still before a corner, single or multiples - hard setting - still as in complete stop for prolonged time)
• Optimization (KT engine is not the smoothest out there, easy to have stuttering if not set just right, including monitor settings).
• Visuals (gamma - Sunny looks terribly washed out, more standard PC graphics settings - not all settings are clear, lighting effects)
• Ending a session is done via retire button - please call it end session.

ETRC is relatively unique and reminds me a lot of games like NASCAR Heat and Dakar, the good and the not so good.

 

[quicksilver384]

Well i must say my first impressions are mixed. As far as gameplay goes i do quite like it but 2 things that have really made me angry is the forced licencing and tutorials and the hand holding when you select almost anything. e.g. when you get the licence which although p!$$es me off was prety quick and easy to do then you goto select your championship you are forced to listen to some douche rattle on when all I want to is play the damn game. Jeez let me skip these things already. I am not 6yo I am prety sure I can figure out that if you fail to complete contract objectives it will negatively impact my progession in the game.

 

[Spinelli]

I must say, I'm quite surprised at the posts here regarding physics judging solely from watchig quite a few onboards of FIA ETRC.

Although it may technically have a less complex physics engine than AMS, ETRC surprised me with what looks like quite-a-bit-better at & over the limit physics for oversteer control but, perhaps more importantly for these types of vehicles, front tyre grip loss/regain.

In AMS (or Formula Truck or any vehicle/tyre being run under the ISI/rfactor physics engine), when the fronts loose grip, they "lazily" keep sliding for too much/long. I like to say it's as if the track suddenly turned to glass or as if the tyres like sliding and want to keep staying in a state of sliding once they start sliding. This is part of the tyre model itself and can easily be seen/felt/experienced regardless of car (the behavior is always there in the tyre - way too much - relative to the amount of grip and type of vehicle from FTrucks to karts to FVees to road cars to modern racecars). Whereas ETRC seems to resemble something much closer to real life (and, to a certain extent, other sim-engines) where the tyres sort of continue biting the track somewhat even if you are over the limit. The turning radius doesn't suddenly increase a huge amount just because you're a bit over the limit and "leaning" on the slip, and the slipping doesn't keep lasting for so long as if the tyre wants to keep lazily sliding on and on.

Maybe the Brazilian Trucks are more like "hot rods" compared to the European ones in terms of weight and/or power and/or max grip, sure, but tyre-grip/slip dynamics of the AMS /FT ones are still way too "lazy/sliiidddeeyyy" due to the general fundamental nature of the physics engine's at/over-the-limit tyre dynamics.