BeamNG meets ETS2

BeamNG meets ETS2 — what would you actually want to see?
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Hi everyone. My name is Josh. I've been a software developer for a bit over ten years, but I started modding games very recently.

I'm working on a mod that rethinks BeamNG's career mode — trying to turn it into something more immersive and grounded than what's there today, using the incredible core the game already has and giving it cohesion. The idea is simple: a PC that feels like a PC instead of a menu. Parts that you actually have to pick up and install, not magic them onto the car. A FedEx-style courier system where you drive for a company and earn a wage. Police that reacts to what you do instead of spawning around you. That kind of thing.

A good chunk of it already works.

Spoiler: What's already built

• PlanEx Delivery — A courier company with multi-stop routes, 37 pack types across 5 tiers, and real risk mechanics (fragile cargo, temperature timers, urgent deliveries, speed limits). You get a star rating per delivery and progress through 20 levels from temp driver to fleet captain.
• Windows XP Desktop — An actual desktop with a working IE-style browser. All the mod's sites live inside it: your bank, the used car marketplace, 10 brand dealerships, PlanEx dispatch, the parts shop, real estate, email, weather.
• iPhone with 19 apps — banking, iMessage for NPC negotiations, calendar, weather, credit score, heat tracker, and more. Auto-closes when you drive fast.
• Used car marketplace (eBoy Motors) — Every listing is procedurally unique: different seller, different ad, different personality. 9 seller archetypes from grandmothers who underprice to scammers with rolled-back odometers. You negotiate over chat, sellers have moods, defects can hide until days after purchase. The market is alive — listings appear and disappear, prices drift over time.
• Parts system — Browse the O'Really catalog on your PC, add to cart, choose delivery or warehouse pickup. Domestic and imported parts ship from different facilities. Install them yourself through a terminal on your desktop (with compatibility and cascade protection) or pay a shop to do it.
• Police — Adaptive presence. Drive normally and you barely see them. Break the rules, NPCs report you, and things escalate. Pursuits scale by damage, not timers. Persistent heat across sessions. Police recognize your car at high heat. Country-aware pools (Italy has Carabinieri, USA has its own).
• Multi-map travel — You can already drive between maps preserving your vehicle, trailer train, cargo, progression, and per-map heat. Fog-of-war discovery, toll system, 4 maps supported (West Coast USA, Italy, East Coast USA, Utah — the last two are drivable but still light on dedicated content).
• Banking — FICO-style credit score, 4 different lenders, weekly loan payments, mortgages, repossession if you miss enough payments.
• Real estate & garages — Buy properties, rent them, or use the free backup garage on each map. Per-part painting with pro finishes unlocked by garage tier.
• Dynamic weather & full 365-day calendar with real seasons and sleep cycle.

Plus a dynamometer, full bilingual support (EN/ES), and a handful of websites with more personality than they probably should have.

But I'm not here to sell you the mod.

I'm here to open a conversation.

The next major piece I want to build is a proper long-haul trucking system inside this mod — something ETS2-shaped that uses BeamNG's physics, multiple maps, and real trailer dynamics to do what ETS2 can't. I know map loading times are a concern (there's not much I can do about that, though I'm looking at making the loading screen productive somehow). What I want is a system you can sink into for hours if that's your vibe.

Here's roughly how I'm planning it. I'd rather hear what you want before I commit too hard to any of this.

PROGRESSION — FOUR PHASES

Gated by level, not just by money. You can't skip the ladder with cash.

Phase 1 — Freelance. You drive for a company. They provide the truck and trailer, you show up and deliver. No fuel costs, no repair costs, no risk to you financially — but the pay is thin. This is where you learn the feel of a loaded truck and build XP.

Phase 2 — Your own tractor. Once you hit the level threshold, you can buy a truck (used, ratty, cheap — or a bank loan to cover the difference). Now you go to the cargo market, pick trailers directly from facilities, and keep more of the money. But fuel, tolls, fines, and repairs all come out of your pocket.

Phase 3 — Your own trailer. Further up the ladder, you buy and configure your own trailer. This is where specialization kicks in — refrigerated, tanker, flatbed, car carrier, lowboy. Each type accepts certain cargo, each has its own rhythm.

Phase 4 — Fleet owner. Endgame. You hire NPC drivers, assign them trucks, and they generate passive income while you keep doing whatever you want. Fleet management layered on top of your own driving.

SKILL TREE — SIX BRANCHES

One perk point per level. 20 levels total. Six branches, six tiers each = 36 tiers. You can't max everything — specialization is forced.

• ADR (Hazmat) — Each tier unlocks a dangerous goods class: flammable liquids, gases, corrosives, toxics, explosives, radioactives. Without the perk, these jobs don't appear. Pay is significantly higher.
• Long Distance — Each tier extends the maximum route range. Low tier = local routes. High tier = transcontinental routes crossing multiple maps. More distance = more total pay, but tolls and fuel eat margin.
• High-Value Cargo — Unlocks electronics, luxury vehicles, industrial machinery, artwork, ultra-high-value prototypes. Better pay, but damage penalties are much harsher.
• Fragile Cargo — Defensive perk. Reduces damage penalty percentages. At max, you can still get paid after a rough run that would have zeroed you out without the perk.
• Just-in-Time — Unlocks time-limited deliveries with tighter and tighter windows as you level it. Huge bonuses for hitting them. High risk, high reward.
• Eco-Driving — Passive bonus for smooth driving — no heavy acceleration, using momentum, moderate speed. Stacks on top of anything else you do.

ROUTES AND THE MAP NETWORK

Maps connect to each other as a graph. West Coast connects to Utah, Utah to Johnson Valley and East Coast, East Coast by ferry to Italy, etc. You can't jump continents — you travel the network.

Every connection has a toll. Land crossings are cheap. Ferries are expensive. Transcontinental crossings are serious money. Long-haul routes pay more, but the tolls eat your margin — you have to plan.

Fog-of-war discovery — at the start you only have access to where you spawn. Physically visit a new map and it unlocks permanently, revealing its own connections. Your world grows organically. (This part already works in the current mod; it's the foundation the trucking system will plug into.)

COMPANY REPUTATION

Facilities belong to companies. Deliver well for a company and your reputation with them grows — better contracts, exclusive cargo, higher pay. Each company has personality: some pay well but are strict about deadlines. Some pay less but are flexible. Some offer rare high-value loads you can only access once they trust you.

REST STOPS

Gas stations, service areas, motels. Placed strategically along long routes. Double duty as rest + refuel. Adds rhythm to the long hauls.

ROAD TRAINS (MULTI-TRAILER)

BeamNG natively supports multi-trailer setups. Late-game routes where you pull two or three trailers. More cargo, more pay, much harder physics. Limited to certain maps or route types.

ECONOMIC PRESSURE

Fuel is meaningful (around $2/km for a loaded truck in current balance). Repairs are real. Tolls bite. A bad accident can wipe a good day's earnings. Fragile cargo penalty can turn a $5,000 run into $1,200. You have to drive well, plan routes, and pick jobs that match your vehicle and skills.

The goal is a system where a careful driver with the right skill tree makes real money, and a reckless one burns out fast.

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So — what would you change?

What would you add, what would you cut, what do you think is missing? Is there an ETS2 mechanic you love that I haven't mentioned? Something you hate in ETS2 that you'd want done differently in a BeamNG context?

I've got the structure above as a working design, but nothing is built yet for trucking specifically. Right now is the time where your feedback actually changes what I build.

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Discord: discord.gg/WqwvAhjH2w — drop by if you want to follow along or keep the conversation going there.

GitHub: github.com/thingsbyjosh/better_career_mod — download the current mod or look at the code.

Thanks for reading. Looking forward to hearing what you think.

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Credits: the car carrier trailer shown in the screenshot is the Car Carrier Trailer by RenAzuma66. Not part of BCM — go grab it separately from their page if you want it in your game.

 

Hello ChatGPT

 

before chat gpt I would've had to run it through google translate, I'm not good enough at speaking english to write posts that detailed XD (although it's not chat gpt)

 

Nice

 

What makes ETS2 and ATS appealing for long haul trucking is 3 things:

1. Time progression. When you're on the highway, time passes more quickly than when you're in the city, making a half an hour journey in real time feel like going hundreds of km between countries or states.

2. Long IRL periods of driving on the highway through varied countryside and biomes.

3. Lots of places to do industrial deliveries to. Atm in BeamNG, there's only West Coast USA (and to a lesser extent, Italy, Industrial, and East Coast USA) that have many areas for large trucks to make deliveries to.

If deep access to the Torque3D engine was possible, it would be immersive to have some sort of dynamic loading where you loaded into WCUSA, then could spend 10 minutes driving on a basic level while loading (ex.) Johnson Valley in the background, then drive through Johnson Valley, then another 10 minutes of driving before getting to Utah.

Aside from the technical challenges, there would also have to be some reworks of levels to have more places to make deliveries to. There isn't much industry in Johnson Valley or Utah, so those would have to be updated too.

My two cents as someone who exclusively uses ETS2 and ATS to satisfy my long haul trucking desires. I think it will be harder to make BeamNG into a game like ETS2, since the engine simply wasn't intended for large maps.

 

it is great

 

breaks the game

 

great input! the idea is exactly to create the feeling that travelling isn't just a teleport, and that the further you travel the more maps you'll have to cross including mods. I'm gonna write your ideas down because it helps me a lot! thanks
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can you give me more detail? what's failing for you? if you want you've also got discord available and you can share more detail there