How I Reverse-Engineered ETS2's Cargo System (And Built a Better Route Planner)
So here's something weird I discovered while building my ETS2 companion tool — the in-game cargo market isn't actually random. It pretends to be, but there's a predictable weight-distance-value triangle that SCS has been tweaking since 2012.
After pulling data from about 200 hours of gameplay and cross-referencing it against the game's economy_data.sii file, I built a route profitability calculator. The project started as a messy Python script and eventually turned into something worth sharing.
What I learned about ETS2's cargo logic:
- High-value cargo (medical equipment, electronics) spawns more frequently near industrial zones with 3+ companies clustered together
- The game biases urgent deliveries toward cities you've visited less — it's literally nudging you to explore the map
- Scandinavia DLC cargo pays roughly 18-22% more per km than base game routes, even for identical job types
The tool basically scrapes the telemetry SDK output, matches it against a pre-mapped city database, and highlights routes that maximize per-minute earnings rather than just per-km. Nothing groundbreaking for experienced modders, but it made my long hauls way more efficient.
Actually ended up documenting the whole process with screenshots and the data structure — the economy file parsing alone is a rabbit hole I didn't expect to fall into: [insert URL]
Anyone else dug into the game files and found mechanics that aren't explained anywhere in the tutorials? Curious what else is hiding in plain sight.