I have taken a break from this game, and after this recent update I'm considering to dive in again.
I installed a bunch of vehicle mods back in the day, and there is one thing both in vanilla what bothered me a lot, and even now I don't see mods which solved it:
The vehicle progression is both boring and unrealistic.
Whenever I compare two vehicles which can transport the same thing, then always, one of them (usually the newer one) has ALL the following differences:
- is more expensive to buy and maintain
- has a greater capacity, speed, acceleration, cargo loading rate, and power
Therefore whenever a new vehicle appears, unless I'm broke, it's always best to replace all older vehicles with it. And a certain type of cargo at a certain time period is always most optimally served by ONE and only ONE vehicle.
But take a look at real life: There are many types of vehicles around for the same type of cargo, because there is no single vehicle which is best at everything at the same time.
Consider the following real life differences which I miss from the game:
- buses: in the city, buses are slower, but have a greater capacity and a greater loading speed, because they have many wide doors. Long distance buses are faster, but only have 1 or two narrow doors, so loading and unloading passengers is slower. Same for passenger trains, intercity coaches travel faster, but have fewer doors.
- cargo: there are specialized trucks and carriages, for example, tanks for fluids, and there are general ones which can transport anything. If both are available, then the player just chooses the generalist one. But consider transporting fuel in a tanker: it can be loaded and unloaded fast, with a pump. If you use a general purpose truck, you have to load it into barrels first, so it will be slower. So there should be trucks which have all stats the same or almost the same, but the generalist ones should load slower than the specialist ones.
- Locomotives. In real life there wasn't a single locomotive most optimal for everything at a given time. Especially in the steam era, you had to chose between speed and traction power. Passenger and cargo locomotives were vastly different.
What I'm saying is that there should be a variety of vehicles from the same era, when one is not superior in EVERY parameter, compared to the other one. I would like to have, for example, two vehicles where one is not clearly superior in every way. Maybe under certain circumstances one would be better, under other circumstances, the other one.
Are there mods being planned or developed into this direction?