For example changing vegetation over seasons were common to early train games (A-Train), but not repeated later. Weather (rain, snow?) in RRT3 was another example of adding some variation to the world.

I propose to explore if you can go further and link weather and seasons to the train operation, i.e. that preventive measures would affect the gamer’s route planning strategy. Just some thoughts for example:

• Excessive rain in plains could cause flooding of low laying tracks near rivers -> tracks could be temporally be impassable / destroyed (-> players would avoid laying tracks near rivers or floodplains, build tracks on more expensive dams or bridges in those areas).
• Flooding could also destroy bridges over rivers – if not high enough – Wasn’t this a ‘disaster’ that could happen in RRT1? Or rain could trigger landslides that may destroy tracks on steep unforested slopes.
• Snow and snow drift in higher and exposed altitudes could block tracks – cause delays and derailments (-> player would be wise to avoid high mountains with frequent snow, or build tunnels).
• More dramatically, avalanches in sloped mountain terrain could require gallerias (you will know this being located in Switzerland) (-> players would avoid snow-covered slopes without trees).
• High wind could disrupt power transmission (only steam powered and diesel trains would run) and windthrow of trees could block tracks in forested areas (players would then avoid tracks in dense forests, or cut a wide clearing for the train track).

Those points Scandi recommended are good, however I fear they might be hard to implement. But dynamic weather should be incorporated in the game! Also, if there is snow, well, it would be awesome if it could make certain sections impassable, so snow plow trains would be necessary.

But first of all: give us dynamic weather!

The towns and forests grow dynamic, so you’ve got a lot of change in your world.