I mainly want to bump the planning tool and undo option mentioned here. The method of laying tracks is way too simplistic for the complex nature of the terrain.
I just spend two hours trying to lay down a hilly track unsuccessfully (I want it done right, I take the money-making goal seriously). I think I spend even more time reloading the save game than actually building tracks.
Although on easy mode the money is not a problem, on medium and hard we (at least I) don’t want to spend 5 mil for a track that in the end costs 1 mil to build. Reloading a save game every 30 seconds due to a tricky piece of track is also not my idea of spending my sunday morning.
Currently it’s more of a chore, while it could be very fun without these annoyances.
The contour lines are not really helpful either. It only shows the large differences of height you can easily spot by yourself, while all the shallow valleys and hills are not shown. I would rather see an additional overlay; For example a colour gradient could do very nicely to show any height differences of some significant degree. The contour lines could be used to plot a strategic route with some waypoints (Just an icon, easy to implement and makes it much more comfortable from zoomed in horizontal angles), while the gradient overlay could be used while laying tracks to chart the best course through the actual (smaller) hills.
Maybe for some people, the harder it is the more fun it is. But I don’t want it to be hard because the tools are limited, I want it to be hard because the task is difficult. Currently when you see the best route to take your train, it is still hard to actually make the route happen.
Summary:
Current method of making a track is like making an exam (determining the best route), but using the pencil is for some reason harder than the exam itself.
For me the (metaphorical) exam is the fun part, and should be hard to solve, but the arbitrary difficulty of the pencil is getting me extremely frustrated.
(let’s just say for sake of argument that it is a fun exam:P)
