How to Increase the American Truck Simulator Convoy Size Limit

Convoy, the official American Truck Simulator multiplayer mode, supports 8 players. That is the cap SCS ships, tests and supports. You may have seen hosting companies advertise 16, 32 or even 128 player ATS servers. Every one of those numbers comes from the same unsupported config edit, and it only works if every single driver also edits their own game files.

The official limit

The dedicated server generates its config with max_players: 8, and 8 is the highest value SCS supports. There is no premium version of the server with a higher real cap; anyone advertising more is doing the edit below.

How the tweak works

On the server (self-hosted):

1. Open config_ds.cfg in the server's home folder and set uset g_max_convoy_size "16" (or another value; the game accepts up to 128).
2. Open server_config.sii and set max_players to the same number.
3. Restart the server.

On every client, without exception:

1. Every driver must edit their own config.cfg (in Documents\American Truck Simulator) and set uset g_max_convoy_size to the same value.
2. A driver whose limit does not match cannot even see the session in Convoy search, let alone join it.

That second half is the part the "128 players" ads leave out. The server edit alone does nothing for anyone. The limit is negotiated between the game clients and the session, so a bigger convoy is only as real as your ability to get every driver to hand-edit a config file, and to walk every new driver through it later.

What to expect above 8

• Convoy's synchronization was built around 8 drivers. Position sync, AI traffic and the shared job market degrade as the count grows, and the jump past roughly 16 to 20 drivers is where desync complaints usually start.
• Server CPU and bandwidth use grow with every extra driver.
• SCS support does not cover problems on an over-cap convoy, and a game update can change the behavior at any time.

Where we stand

We sell American Truck Simulator servers at the supported 8 driver cap and would rather tell you the truth about the bigger numbers than put "128" on a pricing page. For almost every friend group and VTC, an always-on 8 slot convoy that just works beats a 32 slot one that needs every member to edit game files. If you do run over-cap convoys on your own hardware, the steps above are the whole trick: it can work for organized events, at your own risk.

For a private convoy that works the moment your friends search the ID, ATS server hosting from SurvivalServers is online in minutes, shows your Convoy Search ID live in the Command Center, and stays on the supported settings.