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Balancing Suggestions
I’m playing a hard game and I think with a few balance changes it would be much more fun.
Choosing the right amount and type of vehicles for each line to be profitable is a central part of this game. Its a major point of appeal as it satifies a sort of “rolling stock fetish”. The german word “Bahnsexuell” is most appropriate here ;-).
Especially on hard games though, it feels messed up:
-The only profitable passenger transport is intercity bus and tram lines. Even the cheap railbus, wich is for “less profitable branch lines”, racks up huge deficits in spite of >90% occupancy rate.
-Intercity tram and bus lines are extremely profitable and lead to very large population growth. This feels overpowered, compared to railway lines.
-Instead of being about finding the sweetspot of the right mix of passenger transport capacity and frequency, it becomes a game of building as much cargo and intercity tram and bus lines as possible and not too many railway lines at the same time.
A few ideas that might offset this imbalance:
-Lines with a certain occupancy rate should be profitable, period.
-Increase the cost (in hard games) of buying new, “shiny and powerful” vehicles, make it more of a reward to own one of the great fast trains.
-Trains accelerate slowly, compared to trams and buses. Together with the shrunk distances on the map (compared to reality), the simulation underestimates the advantage of trains over trams and buses, when running them over larger distances. Also the duration for passengers to get to the railway station, wait for the train, board it and repeat the same at the destination, takes too long when compared to the actual journey on the train.
-A comfort bonus (maybe as a time budget bonus?) for using modern and not too overcrowded trains might me included. I’m sure any frequent train traveler would agree with me, that it absolutely is the most comfortable form of transportation.
