May I have a suggestion:
Trains such as the CC 40100, Taurus, Lok2000, etc. cannot use their top speed at all in any game year with wagon speed limits on (and strict).
Also, there is no real reason to use the 5th gen intercity or regional car above the double-decker.
--> Why not lower the limit on the double-decker to 160 and raise the intercity to 241, and regonal as 201? They would be competitive.
The situation is worse in earlier years such as 1965, when you have a 241 kph electric engine and the fastest car it can pull goes 160 kph. Then again the CC 40100 is a bit unbalanced compared to engines of it's time, it's a large leap forward in speed compared to anything else. Or try the second half of the 19th century, where you can pull hopper wagons at 90 km/h yet the passengers have to go at a slow 50 km/h. I don't believe that this is an accurate depiction of reality
Here's a little table comparing the speed of the fastest locomotive engine with the top speed of the fastest, most expensive passenger carriage:
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1850, 1860, 1870, 1880: See 1890.
1890: Engine 96, Wagon 50 (90 for cargo)
1900: Engine 96, Wagon 80
1910: Engine 130, Wagon 80
1920: Engine 130, Wagon 80
1930: Engine 135, Wagon 80
1940: Engine 160, Wagon 120
1950: Engine 160, Wagon 120
1960: Engine 160, Wagon 160
1970: Engine 241, Wagon 160
1980: Engine 241, Wagon 160
1990: Engine 241, Wagon 160
2000: Engine 241, Wagon 201
And a Table of engine speeds:
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1835: 35
1848: 96
1910: 130
1919: 144
1935: 160
1964: 241
1970: 201*
1991: 231*
* Ignoring the SNCF CC 40100.
Thus I suggest the following Wagon speeds:
P: Passenger and Mail carriages.
I: Intercity and Mail carriages.
R: Regional
D: Double-Decker
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P1: 100; 1845
P2: 130; 1900
P3: 145; 1915*
I3: 160; 1930**
I4: 241; 1960**
I5: Scrapped
R2: 100; 1900
R3: 120; 1930
R4: 140; 1960
R5: 180; 1990
D4: 120; 1960
D5: 140; 2000
* New wagons
** Old I3 becomes new I4. Old I4 becomes new I5.
Or, ignoring the CC 40100 (which is rediculously fast for 1964 compared to the rest of the set, top speed should probably be 201 and not 241), and going by the article on high-speed train on Wikipedia, which lists adoption in France in 1967.
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P1: 100; 1845
P2: 130; 1900
P3: 145; 1915*
I3: 160; 1930
I4: 201; 1967
I5: 241; 1990****
R2: 100; 1900
R3: 120; 1930
R4: 140; 1960
R5: 180; 1990
D4: 120; 1960
D5: 140; 2000
* New wagons
** Old I3 becomes new I4. Old I4 becomes new I5.
*** Timed with the NS 1600.
**** 231 if the 40100 gets a lower top speed.
Cars are long from generation 3 onward.
Actually, maybe I should try plugging the engine numbers of this set into a spreadsheet to calc. profitability. While playing it's noticeable that some engines are overcosted greatly and others are quite cheap.
F = PerFormance, P = Power, TE = Tractive Effort, L = Length, RC = Running Cost, C = buy Cost
F/ RC,F/ C, P/RC, P/C, TE/RC, TE/C, P/L, TE/L, 'cool factor (subjective)' for both passengers, heavy freight, express or light freight
--> In at least one category should an engine be (close to) best among all engines previously introduced. Else you have a pointless engine.
Other fairly obvious balance flaws are the following:
- Track costs are off with standard tracks;
Rail: 1
El-Rail: 11.875
Metro Rail: 2
Maglev: 2.196
'Metro' and 'Maglev' still use the default values, causing them to be quite inexpensive. If track costs are set reasonably high then building [electrified] metro tracks is quite cheap while electrified rails are overly expensive, esp. when maglev is available.
For example, the NuTracks uses
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VSR: 1.00
VSE: 2.85
LSR: 2.85
LSE: 9.96
MSR: 9.96
MSE: 28.5
HSR: 28.5
HSE: 99.6
XSE: 199.2
Subway: 5.70
Maglev: 711.4
when working with the Set.