Trukz New Player Guide

Your first task in Trukz will be to create a driver using the Create A Driver link on the left navigation menu. Give your driver a name, a valid email address, choose a password and select a starting city to be the first city that you drive your first route from.

Once you register you will automatically be logged into the site. Click the Purchase Truck link on the left navigation menu to be taken to the used truck lot. From the Trucks Purchase screen you will notice that your driver has started the game with $5,000 and a small number of trucks will be available for you to choose from. These trucks are in general poor condition as you can tell by the looks of them, but for a new driver with just $5,000 they will at least get you started. As you progress in the game and acquire more money you will see more varieties of trucks become available to you.

Once you purchase a truck you will be taken to your driver profile screen. This screen can always be accessed via the View My Driver link on the left navigation menu. The driver profile screen will display all the information about your driver and your truck. You can even sell, refuel, and repair your truck directly from your driver profile screen.

Now that you have a truck and have taken a look around the driver profile screen it’s now time to select your first route. Click the Select A Route link on the left navigation menu. This will bring up a map of North America with numerous map markers located throughout the United States, Canada, and a few Central American countries. You will also notice a green marker on the map. The green marker indicates your current city (the city you chose as your starting city when you registered with the game). Your current city will change throughout the game as you deliver routes to the various cities in the game. If you are a member of a company you may also notice blue markers on the map. Blue markers represent company terminal locations that provide a significant bonus to goods delivered to the city of the company terminal location. Occasionally you may also see black markers on the map. Black markers indicate cities that are too close to your current city. In order to drive a route in the game the destination city must be 300 miles or father from your current city.

Clicking on the markers located around the map will display an information popup for each city which will include the distance from your current city to that city and what they supply and demand. While you can deliver any cargo type to any city and receive money for your load, your driver will get a significant bonus for hauling specific cargo types that a city demands. To do this, you’ll need to pick a cargo that your current city supplies and connect it to a city that demands that cargo type (Indicated with red text in the popup displays)

To move forward in creating your first route click the link on the city name in the pop up window in the map for any city that you want to haul a load of cargo to. This will take you to the route selection screen where you will be able to select your cargo type from the list of cargo types that your current city supplies and determine the total weight of your cargo. The default legal limit for cargo in Trukz is 40,000 lbs. Your truck's hauling capacity, know as its load limit in the game, may be above or below 40,000 lbs. If you haul more than 40,000 lbs you risk the extra money the extra cargo weight will bring but face potential tickets from the police along the way. Additionally, hauling cargo over 40,000 lbs will increase your trucks chances of having a random mechanical failure and will also decrease your truck's fuel economy. Hauling cargo below 40,000 lbs will decrease mechanical failure odds and will increase your truck's fuel economy.

Once you select a desired cargo type and cargo weight click the Calculate button to determine exactly what you can expect in gross profits from that particular haul. As you make changes to your cargo type and cargo weight the results from the route calculation will reflect accordingly. If you are not satisfied with your route selection click the Select Different Route button to be taken back to the national map screen. Once you are happy with your route selection click the Driver This Route button to create the route.

Once you create the route you will taken to your Route Dashboard, the screen where you will drive all the legs of your route from. This screen will display all the details about the route that you are driving as well as current weather conditions, driver fatigue level, current speed limit, fuel costs, and many more route details. From this screen you can also refuel your truck, perform repairs, and if you have enough money and your driver is tired stop at a rest stop.

Routes are broken up into what is called "Route Legs" commonly known as "Turns" in other games. Route Legs consist of simulating driving your route for one hour at the selected speed from the input box at the top of the Route Dashboard screen. To drive for one leg hour enter a travel speed (you can't go faster than you truck's condition will allow) and then click the Next Leg button at the top of the Route Dashboard screen. You'll now see that the speedometer has changed to reflect your last travel speed and your fuel gauge has changed slightly to reflect the fuel consumed during the last leg of your route. Additionally, your truck's current condition will have dropped slightly due to the wear and tear of the road. As your truck's condition slowly deteriorates due to wear and tear, random mechanical failures, or crashes, your truck's top speed will become lower and eventually fall to the point where repairs are required in order to move on. To repair your truck at any time click the Repair button at the top of the Route Dashboard screen or in your driver display screen.

After you drive for a few leg hours you will notice that your driver fatigue level will increase with each route leg to the point that your driver will become tired, fatigued, sleepy, and then exhausted. Driving while exhausted is very dangerous and can lead to crashing your truck and forcing you to pay expensive repair and/or towing fees as well as ticket fines for driving beyond the legal HOS (Hours of Service). Once your driver gets to the point of exhaustion you will need to let him rest. It takes one hour of idle time in the real world away from the game to regain 1 fatigue point for your driver. For example, if your driver is at a fatigue point level of 8 then after 8 hours away from the game your driver will be at a fatigue level of 0 and rested and ready to go. As another example, if your driver fatigue point level is at 8 and you return to the game 3 hours after your last route leg then your driver fatigue point level will be at a fatigue point level of 5.

As you drive your route, you may receive tickets from the police for having an overweight cargo load, for speeding, or for driving beyond the legal HOS (Hours of Service). If you receive a ticket from the police for any reason you will be required to pay the fines before moving on in your route. As mentioned earlier, you may also encounter random mechanical failures. While such failures are random they are influenced by your trucks total odometer miles (The higher your odometer the more chance for failure) and your selected cargo weight (Heavier cargo loads also increase failure odds).

When you complete your route you will be taken to a Route Completed screen which will provide an image of the city of your route destination along with details of your completed route. Once you complete a route you will be able to select a new route but by this time your driver will likely be quite tired so you may consider putting the game aside for a few hours to allow your driver to rest before picking up a new route.

Now that you have completed your first route in Trukz you should explore some of the other options in the game such as companies. Companies are created by players for $7,000 startup cash and provide members significant reasons to consider joining such as repair, fuel, and ticket assistance as well as bonuses from cities for belonging to a company.

Loans are another feature of the game that might interest you. Each driver is allowed to have up to 3 open loans of up to $1,000 each. Interest is charged at the interest rate of the loan on a weekly basis so having multiple outstanding loans for long periods of time is usually not a good idea.

There are numerous other screens and information displays not mentioned in this guide that you will want to take the time to explore and understand but for now since we have covered the basics of Trukz that should be enough to get you started in the game. So, pick a new route, haul the cargo to your next destination, and enjoy your Trukz trucking simulation experience.


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