We have been receiving a lot of feedback from the players that truck wheels customization in the game is too limiting, as truck rims and tyres are essentially baked together now in game data. In the Real World out there, the truck owner is of course free to choose any rim and match it with any compatible tyre type.
We are happy to report that at last we have separated the rubber part and the metal part into two separate pieces - tyres and rims. This should provide way more flexibility in tuning the trucks both with stock game content as well us with mods (existing mods should not be badly broken on 1.17 release, but mod authors will want to revisit their creations and reorganize their wheel mods to take advantage of the extra degree of freedom).
Another good reason for us to focus on the wheels now is that we keep trying to establish a working dialogue with tyre manufacturers. How great would it be to introduce real tyres from the likes of Michelin, Continental, Goodyear, or Bridgestone into the game simulation, including not just the looks but also actual technical data and physical properties!
We do not think the changes should stop at cosmetics alone, we are sure that gameplay would only benefit if different tyres would have different properties, and it would be up to the player to choose the correct tyre for a given situation. So for future evolution beyond the 1.17 update, we plan to get inspiration from real world tyre labelling when expanding the simulation properties. We think of adapting the officially existing tyre grading system for our needs...
Source: http://blog.scssoft.com/