I have been roaming - Thank you!

[MarkShot]

First, I have been roaming after spending quite a while with OTTD. Other city/transport games.

I have to say that it is only the graphics upon which OTTD doesn't really blow everything else away. But this is NOT only a weakness, but a strength. One can plan BIG and build BIG without listening to the fans of their OC'ed PC make it sound like they are sitting next to a vacuum cleaner. (and in the Summer heat ... it need not end up a battle between your PC and the AC)

But in terms of maturity, sophistication, and features. OTTD is simply amazing.

I wanted again to thank all the contributors for something non-commercial, and yet polished beyond many for market products.

Thanks.

[Guy from Wildesford]

Yeah, most commercial, closed-source games that are neither first-person shooters nor MMORPGs tend to be beautiful casual games. The visuals are souped-up 3D graphics that are easy on your GPU as long as you've only got one line serving small hamlets, but that require a high-end graphics card once you have a big central station in a city (a point that even the game devs have probably never reached). And the game mechanics are simplified and dumbed down so that neither a manual nor any kind of support is necessary, and everyone can "enjoy" the game to its full extent right away, maybe even without any built-in tutorial.

OpenTTD puts the focus on game mechanics, the patch packs even more so. It's made by transport sim aficionados for transport sim aficionados. And it's indeed more tricked out than any commercial competition.

So while switching from commercial transport sims to OpenTTD is a downgrade graphics-wise, the other way around is a downgrade gameplay-wise.