MudRunner vs. SpinTires

My intention with this topic isn't to create controversy or start some flame war, so please let's avoid that. Let's keep the discussion honest. I have over 700 hours on MR but I actually just got ST yesterday because I read it was getting updated soon, including with dynamic weather and to make it more polished so I became interested. Here are my observations of the current version before the upcoming updates and how it compares to MR. Some of the things I even found surprising.

  • The interface and menu in ST look very dated, though it's not surprising since it's an older game.
  • ST is more colorful, like AW is.
  • Supposedly original grills in ST on the Russian trucks. Some look pretty nice. I'd say the C-65115 looks better in ST than in MR.
  • No tire tracks in ST. I've read they were removed (by Pavel?) but Oovee will hopefully put them back.
  • Mud looks surprisingly good in ST, in some ways better than in MR. There are no ugly chunks of mud sticking to the tires and the mud looks smoother. It also makes trucks sink more into it, causing a more frequent sticky situation, at least with the heavier vehicles. The lighter vehicle in the base game (A-469) seems to float more over the mud than in MR. Strange.
  • Overall the graphics seem crisper and more polished in MR.
  • Logs make a sound when being dropped onto a truck in ST, something missing in MR.
  • Force feedback actually works in ST. No unplugging of USB cable required.
  • Automatic transmission actually works in ST, no stupid downshift to first gear every time.
  • But ST supports only one USB control device at a time, which prevents me from using both a wheel and a shifter.

What are your thoughts & observations, those of you who've played both games? Now I can't really decide which game I like more, but for now at least until ST gets the updates, I'd still go with MR.

last edited by Unster

A couple more things:

  • No cab view in ST. You get a roof cam instead.
  • Tires seem more grippy in ST, especially on pavement. In MR they slide a bit more, as if there was snow on the ground. It could be just a visual effect.
last edited by Unster

will say you got basicly the majority covered with the first post.

ST, first and foremost for me. brakes work while using force accel (cruise control) with key board. i guess i am one of the few if not only person to use the mouse for throttle control and just have gotten used to using the default cam settings for cam movement (well 90-95% of the time actually. still have to move it around sometimes to see better or for screenies)

ST, Hardcore is still actually Hardcore. i can see why MR would be "adjusted shall we say" to be more friendly to the casual player. but seriously Hardcore for MR is just sad and way too easy imo.

MR, i like that flowing water can actually push you over now, where the original the water flow basicly just gently pushed you downstream.

MR, maps in workshop, need i say more?

mods? i think this is something that time will tell. ST has had years to build up user created content. although MR is steadily growing as well.

i like MR and that is being kept up to date and there is advancements being made. so much so they are finally making it with a new engine and more capability. which it (ST/MR) has needed for such a long time now.

ST? while not as current or up to date as MR there are announcements being made that work is currently underway to get ST back going again.

now the big question for me. if i had to choose which would i take? hmmmm...... hard decision imo. i really do not know what i would do. 🤔

think i would have to go with....... drum roll please .... Spintires.
i make my decision by way of, MR is nice, but yet might not be heading the way i would personally like. fine by me this game was not made just for me personally. lol
ST while it is a bit old and not quite up to date. i still feel it has some worth in this little niche the game has created. note i say "niche the game has created", because MR would not be a thing if it was not for Spintires. 😘
at the moment though i will still play MR.
now for me, the not so good side. most of my friends play MR and do not plan on going back to ST unless something major happens. so there would be some unhappiness there persoanlly.

till they release MR2 and ST finishes updating itself. this is where i shall stand i suppose. playing mostly MR, but still ST from time to time till something finally happens to make me decide on one or the other.

🤔 hmmm... after writing this i find even harder to decide. lol

@8up-local Thanks for the input. What are the differences between MR hardcore and ST hardcore? So far I've only played on the Proving Ground in ST. Haven't actually started any mission yet. Probably will tonight.

I'm a little conflicted about these 2 games to be honest. I'm kind of hoping they'll grow apart actually and become 2 distinct products. For now they are pretty much the same game, just with some implementation and content differences.

@unster hard to describe other than it is just harder really. not like it is 1000X harder or anything, but noticable to me and other long time players (aka. old tires players as some call it lol)

another thing that i want to mention, but is a bit out of place would be the things that have been removed. like tire tracks mentioned in another thread, then there is stuff like the log scavenging, which used to be in the original game, but then got removed. only to now have it come back as a "new" gameplay feature. wait what? i know right?

@unster said in MudRunner vs. SpinTires:

A couple more things:

  • No cab view in ST. You get a roof cam instead.
  • Tires seem more grippy in ST, especially on pavement. In MR they slide a bit more, as if there was snow on the ground. It could be just a visual effect.

Man we used to have a Roof Cam in Mudrunner, you kinda had to fiddle around with the camera and kinda confuse the game to go into it, but still it was there and it was awesome. The roof cam was by far my favor camera angle, and those nimwads at Focus decided to patch it out and remove it. I'll be honest, that really upset me. I'd take the roof cam back again any day over first person mode.

last edited by justinlynch3

@justinlynch3 Really? I'm not a fan of the roof cam yet. It just looks weird to me. Maybe I'll come to appreciate it as time goes on. I do like the cab view in MR, especially once I moved the control panel / gauges down in many of the trucks so they're below the windshield. That's one thing that's missing in ST.

@unster said in MudRunner vs. SpinTires:

@justinlynch3 Really? I'm not a fan of the roof cam yet. It just looks weird to me. Maybe I'll come to appreciate it as time goes on. I do like the cab view in MR, especially once I moved the control panel / gauges down in many of the trucks so they're below the windshield. That's one thing that's missing in ST.

For me the roof cam just gave you best view. Using the K-700 was so much easier with roof cam and being able to line up your load. Same with crane to, having a kinda top down view was great. It even worked really well when driving offroad. The 3rd person cam can sometimes get blocked behind items, or I've had times where it even seemed to zoom in pretty close to your vehicle, limiting how far ahead you can see. But the roof cam was always great, allowing to at least see hood of most trucks and letting you view the trail pretty far ahead.

1st person cam is alright, but I really only find it effective on road travel. I find it's easier to control a vehicle at high speed in 1st person cam. But I don't really use it outside that.

@justinlynch3 I agree with all of that actually. I just wouldn't take the roof cam over cab view. The game should have both. The cab view is nice not because it's really essential for anything, but it's nice to check out the driver's view, since this is a driving simulator after all.

@unster said in MudRunner vs. SpinTires:

@justinlynch3 I agree with all of that actually. I just wouldn't take the roof cam over cab view. The game should have both. The cab view is nice not because it's really essential for anything, but it's nice to check out the driver's view, since this is a driving simulator after all.

Of couse we should have all 3 views, roof, cab, and 3rd. I'm just saying if I had to choose between roof or cab, I'm going roof hands down. It's just such a useful viewpoint.

@unster a another thing i have trouble with. the whole "Driving Sim" thing, is it really though? i do not call it a driving sim nor do i think it is a driving sim. if anything, at best this is a deformable terrain sim. yeti it is still a sim though, so.... idk 🙄

@8up-local It's not your typical driving sim for sure. But I think it certainly falls in the sim category and it's more of a sim than other games that call themselves sims. ATS with its terrible handling physics comes to mind. By sim I don't mean 100% realism, it never is, but a game that tries to be realistic in all areas that matter.

last edited by Unster

@unster yeah, i get ya and agree it is a sim, but not quite like other sims. definitely not your usual driving sim for sure. lol

last edited by A Former User

@unster few things here

  • Mud Chunks,

Spintires has mud chunks they just got deleted by @pavel wich im okay with it but i wanted the tire marks back

  • ST is more colorful, like AW is.

no its not lol, aw has more colors than any of the 2 and Mud runner has more colors that St

  • Spintires has more grip

kinda does but its not grip from the tires, its grip from the terrain and mud,while Mud runner has les grip in the AW cars/trucks but the other trucks have same grip as ST in Mud runner

  • Mud does looks better in ST than mud runner, and yeah they sink faster and has more resistance to the movement of the trucks throug it

I really liked the Top view from spintires despite the kinda lag it had over the truck movement, i want that back in Mud runner too

overall Mud runner is better than spintires, mostly because it improved the load times and multiplayer sinc and also colisions models of objects and high speed collisions (still bad tho but better than ST)

i feel more likeness to mud runner than spintires @8up-local , and im not amazed/hyped at Mud Runner 2 teasers i kinda what to know from devs whats new and what is official in it, same goes for the update of Spintires ill problably install it again to see what they add to the game

p.d there are good deals on G2A for spintires keys (i bought mine for 3$ back then LOL)

@forces said in MudRunner vs. SpinTires:

  • ST is more colorful, like AW is.

no its not lol, aw has more colors than any of the 2 and Mud runner has more colors that St

That's a strange thing to say because everyone else I've heard from says otherwise, and my own observation supports it, that MR is much more desaturated, except for the AW maps. I even have a monitor preset for MR just so the russian-style maps don't look so gray. No such need for ST or AW maps. Now I haven't tried any of the ST mission maps and this is judging purely by the Proving Ground level, but I was assuming the other maps would be the same.

As far as tire grip, I didn't actually mean that ST had more, just that the tires act more "grippy" on acceleration from stop. They kind of stop and spin repeatedly. In MR, they just spin like they're on snow.

last edited by Unster

A few more observations, after playing the Plains level for some time (aka Bog in MR). While the mud is less chunky in ST it's more spiky and sometimes a little ridiculously deep considering the truck is still moving. So does it look better in ST? Not really, just different. I still don't like the mud chunks in MR though. I wish they had more vertices and were flatter.

Another nice thing about ST that I already knew about but didn't mention is that towed vehicles can be set to auto-steer or steer left or right. That can be useful.

But without support for my manual shifter, the clunky interface especially the on-screen shifter, and the lack of a cab view (the roof cam is kind of ugly with its blurriness up close) I must say I enjoy MR a lot more, absent any updates for ST. Those could change everything. Until then, I'd say to anyone go with MR.

@unster whenever i have talked about the "old" mud (ST) being changed to be easier. this is what i mean. for how deep a vehicle can get, it can still drive out and has bee this way since. before that first update the vehicles could actually get stuck, but it took those extreme spots to do it in. wasn't like you was getting stuck everywhere.

"...why back in my day...." moment. 👴🏻
i remember the very first time i played, it was the plains map, hardcore. i tried to cut across the big plain in the wrong spot. managed to get every vehicle i had unlocked stuck there. restarting the map was the only choice. figuring out the crane controls was a fun time as well. no instructions or key functions in the settings. just had to figure it out. it is still the same layout now. no mention anywhere of Force Accel and happened to have found/figured it out myself one night. not long after that i saw a vid where a guy was using it as well and called it that and it has stuck with me since. well till "cruise control" actually became a thing.

personal pet peeve i have with that name change. lol
cruise con·trol
/ˈkro͞oz kənˌtrōl/
noun
an electronic device in a motor vehicle that can be switched on to maintain a selected constant speed without the use of the accelerator.

this is not what "cruise control" does in game. it holds a set throttle position, not speed. it was put into the game for KB users to have anolog throttle. now if we could just figure out anolog steering for KB 🤔 lol

@unster Well, the chunks are back in ST with the new update, so...

@deathcoreboy1 Yeah I saw your post on the Oovee forum about the chunks and the rain update. Sounds like it can still use improvements. I hope these updates come out fairly soon, so I can make a decision whether to keep ST before the 2-week Steam refund window closes. Until then I wouldn't mind seeing more screenshots from the new ST beta.

@unster I bought the game just like you a few days back out of the hype. It was on discount and only paid like 3.45 so I'm gonna keep it anyway to see if it worths the while in the long run. So far just seems like they hired LocalHost and Draconous who have been working in the game all this time and made their mods official. Not my idea of a good product tho.