How to set up an American Truck Simulator dedicated server

An American Truck Simulator server guar­an­tees the best long-term mul­ti­play­er sessions. You can download the software for dedicated ATS servers using the SteamCMD command-line client. You do not need to have an ad­di­tion­al license for this. Keep on reading to find out how to carry out the in­stal­la­tion and setup.

How does an ATS dedicated server differ from Convoy sessions on a PC?

An American Truck Simulator server offers a mul­ti­play­er mode with the Convoy feature, which you can start directly on your own PC at home. However, if you shut down your device or quit the game, the mul­ti­play­er game will end abruptly for everyone. In addition, the session’s per­for­mance depends heavily on your PC’s per­for­mance and the internet con­nec­tion.

ATS Dedicated Server software, on the other hand, ensures an optimal gaming ex­pe­ri­ence. You can run the ap­pli­ca­tion con­tin­u­ous­ly on ex­ter­nal­ly rented server hardware and do not have to buy another license or DLCs (down­load­able content) for the simulator. Recre­ation­al truckers can join the server at any time, accept new orders and finish routes. Hosting with a pro­fes­sion­al provider means that you can rely on powerful hardware and a fast broadband con­nec­tion.

What are the re­quire­ments for an American Truck Simulator dedicated server?

Your hardware should have suf­fi­cient computing power for your ATS server to run smoothly. The per­for­mance re­quire­ments will depend on various factors such as the mod­i­fi­ca­tions or the number of players active. The following are the minimum re­quire­ments:

• Processor (CPU): Dual core from 2.4 GHz
• Memory (RAM): 2-3 GB RAM
• Hard disk space: 10 GB

The operating system will also have its own re­quire­ments. You can choose between the Windows server operating systems from Microsoft and the classic Linux server dis­tri­b­u­tions such as Ubuntu or Debian. If you are working with Windows Server 2022, you’ll need the following resources:

• 1.4 GHz processor (64-bit)
• 512 MB (without graphical user interface) or 2 GB RAM (with graphical user interface)
• 32 GB (without graphical user interface) or 36 GB (with graphical user interface) hard disk space

American Truck Simulator servers from IONOS

You can rent powerful hardware for your ATS server from IONOS. There are three different server models to choose from with a guar­an­teed broadband con­nec­tion up to 400 Mbit/s. The servers are available in different price-per­for­mance classes. The servers have the following features:

• vServer (VPS): IONOS’ vServers or VPS (Virtual Private Server) use vir­tu­al­ized computing resources in a fixed host system. You choose a specific service plan and pay fixed monthly costs.
• Cloud Server: IONOS’ cloud servers also take advantage of hardware vir­tu­al­iza­tion. However, the resources in this model come from several different host systems. The computing power can be scaled flexibly at any time, and you pay by the minute for the per­for­mance used.
• Dedicated Server: Dedicated Servers from IONOS give you access to fixed, en­ter­prise hardware with high single-core computing power. The hardware is reserved ex­clu­sive­ly for you, and services are billed by the minute.

ATS servers and cor­re­spond­ing IONOS Cloud Server plans

To give you a better overview of the server models, we have outlined three scenarios for an American Truck Simulator dedicated server in the table below along with the best server solutions from IONOS for each of these scenarios.

How to create an American Truck Simulator dedicated server (A step-by-step tutorial)

Once you have decided on a hosting variant, you can start in­stalling and setting up your ATS server. We’ll outline the steps for IONOS customers (Cloud Server, vServer or Dedicated Server) using the Windows Server 2022 as the operating system.

Step 1: Establish remote con­nec­tion to the hosting en­vi­ron­ment

The first step is to establish a remote con­nec­tion to the rented server hardware. The Windows Server can be accessed using the Remote Desktop Protocol, which is supported by default. The setup is con­ve­nient­ly done through the IONOS Customer Center:

1. Log in to the IONOS Cloud Panel with your customer cre­den­tials.
2. Click on Server & Cloud in the product overview.
3. Select your server package.
4. Scroll to the cre­den­tials overview and click on the download link next to Remote Desktop Con­nec­tion.
5. Run the down­loaded rdp file by double-clicking on it.
6. Confirm the server’s security cer­tifi­cate and log in with the server in­for­ma­tion (user and initial password).

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Step 2: Install SteamCMD

Once connected to the hosting en­vi­ron­ment, you can install SteamCMD. This tool is a command-line version of the Steam Client. This allows you to connect to the public Steam servers and download ap­pli­ca­tions at any time. Proceed as follows to carry out an in­stal­la­tion on the server:

1. Download the SteamCMD in­stal­la­tion package.
2. Unzip the ZIP package to a folder, e.g., C:\steamcmd.
3. Run the steamcmd.exe file to install the client.

Step 3: Install American Truck Simulator dedicated server

You can now download and install the official ATS server software American Truck Simulator dedicated server using SteamCMD. Open the client and log in anony­mous­ly to the public Steam servers by running the following command:

login anonymous

Create a folder for the ATS server program files:

force_install_dir C:\american-truck-simulator-server

The dedicated server ap­pli­ca­tion will be available after using the Steam app ID (2239530) and the app_update command:

app_update 2239530 validate

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Log out of the Steam servers with the quit command once the in­stal­la­tion is complete.

Step 4: Copy con­fig­u­ra­tion files to the server

You will need access to the following three con­fig­u­ra­tion files to get your American Truck Simulator server up and running:

• server_config.sii: This is the main con­fig­u­ra­tion file. It contains important server settings, such as the name of the lobby, the maximum number of players, and the au­then­ti­ca­tion token.
• server_packages.sii: This file defines important details about the map, the DLCs and mods.
• server_packages.dat: This file has specific, internal data for the re­spec­tive map.

The server_config.sii file is au­to­mat­i­cal­ly generated with the default con­fig­u­ra­tion as soon as the ATS Dedicated Server ap­pli­ca­tion runs for the first time. Simply run the amtrucks_server.exe, which you can find in the subfolder .\bin\win_x64 in the server folder.

Since the other two con­fig­u­ra­tion files are still missing, the server start cannot be carried out. However, the server_config.sii is now under the path .\Documents\American Truck Simulator in the user folder, which you can adjust with an editor.

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The other two con­fig­u­ra­tion files with the in­for­ma­tion on the game world, DLCs and mods need to be created after this. Simply create a new session in American Truck Simulator or select a saved game. Since the game must be installed for this, it is rec­om­mend­ed that you export the con­fig­u­ra­tion files using your personal computer:

1. Open the C:\Users\username\Documents\American Truck Simulator folder (replace username with your username).
2. Open the config.cfg file with any editor to activate the ATS console.
3. Find the line uset g_developer and set the value to “1”.
4. Find the line uset g_console and set the value to “1”.
5. Save the document and start a game session in American Truck Simulator.
6. Open the previous Console with the tilde key (~), which you will find to the left of “1”.
7. Run the command export_server_packages.
8. The con­fig­u­ra­tion files server_packages.sii and server_packages.dat will now be in the C:\Users\username\Documents\American Truck Simulator.
9. Copy the files to your server in the .\Documents\American Truck Simulator, where the server_config.sii con­fig­u­ra­tion file is located.

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Step 5: Create au­then­ti­ca­tion token

Your American Truck Simulator server must be as­so­ci­at­ed with an au­then­ti­ca­tion token to make it available on the listing of official mul­ti­play­er servers. The token can be created in the Steam Game Server Account Man­age­ment tool as follows:

1. Log in to the account man­age­ment page with the Steam account used to purchase American Truck Simulator.
2. Scroll to Create new game server account.
3. Enter the American Truck Simulator ID (270880) in the field App ID of the base game.
4. You can also enter a short de­scrip­tion in the Memo field to simplify assigning the token in Account Man­age­ment later.
5. Click on Create to generate the token.
6. You will see the token in Your game server accounts af­ter­wards. Copy and paste it using (Ctrl + C) and (Ctrl + V).
7. Open server_config.sii on your server and find the line server_logon_token. Paste the copied au­then­ti­ca­tion token between the quotation marks and save the con­fig­u­ra­tion file.

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Step 6: Open ports

You must also enable TCP/UDP ports 27015 and 27016 in the Firewall Settings to make your American Truck Simulator server ac­ces­si­ble online. Your server will be displayed in the overview of available mul­ti­play­er servers once these ports are open.

As an IONOS customer, it is easy to open the ports for your server in the Customer Center:

1. Log in to the IONOS Cloud Panel.
2. Open the product category Server & Cloud.
3. Select the hosting en­vi­ron­ment where you have installed and con­fig­ured the ATS server.
4. Click on Network and Firewall Policies.
5. Create the rules for TCP/UDP port 27015 and TCP/UDP port 27016 under Incoming.

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Step 7: Start ATS server

Start your American Truck Simulator server by running amtrucks_server.exe in the .\bin\win_x64 folder. The ap­pli­ca­tion will run au­to­mat­i­cal­ly in a command prompt window.

Step 8: Connect to the American Truck Simulator server

You and your fellow players can now connect to your ATS server at any time. You can find it using the lobby name you chose in the server_config.sii or using the server’s session ID. The command prompt will present these options to you after starting the server.

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Connect to your server as follows once your lobby name or session ID is ready:

1. Launch American Truck Simulator.
2. Select a driver profile and start a game.
3. Press [Esc] to open the menu and select Convoys.
4. Use the search function to search for your server.
5. Select an entry in the listing and click Join convoy.

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Once you have es­tab­lished a con­nec­tion, you can accept orders and rule the streets of America with your trucker troop.

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