OpenTTD has the `cargodist` option which simulates reality more closely. Passengers enter stations with a destination in mind and will transfer at other stations.
Note that a big difference between cargodist and simutrans is in simutrans the customers have a destination before they come to your station, so opening up new routes will increase your customer base. In cargodist, you get the same amount of passengers, regardless of connected destinations, and they just choose from among connected destinations in your network.
I really want somebody to mod this into OpenTTD because cargodist was a good step and a nice approximation for a time, it's no match to the "destination in mind" pax. I'm reduced to play commercial offerings like Transport Fever 2. But as far as I know, it would be a considerable undertaking.
Elsewhere in the thread chain:
>[OpenTTD has bad UI]
Hmm, really? It's cluttered with windows and options but I think the mechanics of windows popping and quick dismissing works out for this kind of a game really well. It scales across #n of monitors so well. I run mine on a 43" 4K television panel, no scaling, and I get all my screen estate I need. Works out so swimmingly.
so ... ideally you would see how many people would be waiting at the station if there were this or that route through the network?
so the game would simulate economic preferences (which then translate to met and unmet demand)
so for every city (and industry?) there should be a preference table of where to buy from (and where to sell to) - and in case of passengers where to go? (and ideally there should be consistency, so if it's possible to go from A to B directly but also through C then preferences should be direct then indirect flows)
> ideally you would see how many people would be waiting at the station if there were this or that route through the network?
Simutrans has this.
> for every city (and industry?) there should be a preference table of where to buy from (and where to sell to) - and in case of passengers where to go?