ATS Road Trip: Atlas Adds Tourist Boards, Landmarks and Postcards

We now know what Road Trip drivers will do when they are not just cruising. SCS Software has revealed Atlas, an exploration feature for American Truck Simulator that turns selected places on the map into something to find, visit and read about. It is very likely the exploration mechanic SCS teased in last week’s Mustang gameplay video.

Tourist Boards first

Atlas sits in the in-game desktop under the Navigation tab. The feature is built around Tourist Boards placed across the map. Pick one in the Atlas screen and your GPS takes you there. Once you arrive, the board reveals several exploration locations spread around the surrounding region, usually its best-known sights.

Your goal is to visit all of them. They come in three types:

• Points of Interest, which are new. You do not stop or hit a trigger, you simply drive through the marked area. Explored ones can be revisited in Atlas or the Gallery as a live camera view of the spot, and if your vehicle is parked there, you will see it in the feed.
• Viewpoints, which ATS players already know.
• Photo Trophies, also already in the game.

Each discovery brings up an on-screen widget (it can be switched off in the widget settings), a short sound and a brief description of the place, which stays readable in Atlas afterwards.

The postcard

Clear every location tied to a board and the board is marked complete. The reward is a postcard with a design inspired by that region, and you can display it on your vehicle’s dashboard. Atlas also keeps a record of everything you have found, so you can go back to read the descriptions or replay unlocked cutscenes.

Where, and who gets it

At launch, Tourist Boards will appear in California and in the Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota DLCs. SCS plans to add them to the other states gradually.

Atlas unlocks with any Road Trip DLC, so either the Ford Car Pack or the RAM & Dodge Car Pack. It is not tied to cars: once unlocked, it also works when you are driving a truck.

Our take

Viewpoints and photo trophies have been in ATS for a while, but finding them has mostly been luck. Atlas gives them a structure and a reason to leave the interstate. Opening it to truck drivers is the right call too, since plenty of players will never park their rig for long. The weak spot is coverage. Seven states at the start leaves a lot of the map, including Arizona, Nevada and Texas, waiting for later updates.

Source: SCS Software blog. Images and video: SCS Software.