So here are some points I would like to ask how hard it would be to code this into the game:
Scale - Make each building actually produce a realistic amount of people to transport and population to the town - so towns should be way way way bigger than now, while still the rest of the world uses the same size. I think this is the easier and biggest solution to make all the world be more into a real scale. It would only need now a bigger station catchment area and a realistic time/distance price.
This is the utter most important aspect that I find lacking in ALL transport tycoon games alike.
* In my dream game, you could zoom in and out of the real map up to a top strategic view, like in Supreme Commander real-time strategy game. But that's probably for another day......
Day and year length - This probably already exists up to a point, and don't need much to change.
Tickets for the train are bought before the actual travel - you get the money before the train starts to actually transport people. The ideal price is calculated by an projected time and then an average time travel. But then, you could set the actual price accordingly to demand and offer or whatever you want..... But at first this would be automatic as dealing with price numbers is a thing that I hate (damn you Cities in Motion).
Train acceleration and speed - Make this as close as could be with the real world. The trains just accelerate way too fast and don't seem to have a realistic top speed. Though it probably look bad seeing all your trains moving over 1 pixel per second on the start of each trip. Still, I'm curious how this would look into the game and if its closer to how it actually is, there should be an option for it to be this way.
Construction time - Everything you make take a time to build, at least a small amount of time would still be fun. But once again, there should be an option to make this as close to the real world as possible. And for that, it would need another feature....
Blueprints - All you make is actual blueprints of what it will be, and you could fiddle with it as much as you want before you give the green sign and even after, maybe, if it that part didn't start to be build. After it started then it's a particular case for each build as for how much money you could have it back or would have to pay to change the project, but at first it could be just a fixed amount, like 50%. Or 0% so we don't have to program that at all.
But still, how hard it would be to make a blueprint system? Probably a lot for terrain changes but maybe less if it's just to build a railroad or a station.....
More realistic costs for everything - Once again, the ideal number is probably in between real world and OpenTTD default. But I wonder how the game would be played just by making a more realistic approach as to how much it costs to build a station and a railroad for example and how much you earn on each travel. Then again, in real time, on train will make way more travels per year. Still, I wonder how would it be if those numbers were more realistic (not taking into account competition forcing price changes / price by demand / real world policies - those are all other elements that could be turned on and off).
Other features that I would love to see in a game one day:
No magic fit it all depot - One game where the trains don't just vanish into a depot - they would always occupy a space on some track, and during night time, they would be parked in a huge parking lot. Off course, the software would come with a blueprint for such a thing so you don't have to waste your time building it yourself, and even better - one could get shared blueprints from the internet.
Automation - Have you ever played the '4x' "Distant Worlds"? On that, you can automate a lot of aspects of your empire - you just can't manage everything when you have more than 200 planets spread all over, not to mention your navy... So, just like we already have the Auto-Replace button, other things could be automate - setting up the right amount of vehicles and wagons per vehicle to carry all the goodies in a particular line. And even build a line and depot in between 2 towns, or in between a town and the main railroad. And, if you want, there should be an option to automate everything, just like you were watching an AI playing the game for you, if you so choose.
