Vehicle routes and schedules

Each vehicle holds an order list: an ordered sequence of stops, each with load and unload rules and optional wait conditions. The vehicle travels to each stop in turn, applies its rules, and continues. OpenTTD offers full load of any or all cargo, unload, transfer with partial payment for feeder services, no loading, go-via waypoints, timetables, conditional jumps, and shared orders across vehicles. Transport Tycoon pays by delivery time, distance, and quantity, so mail must be fast while coal tolerates long routes. Factorio train schedules use wait conditions such as full cargo, inactivity, or circuit signals. Inputs: orders, vehicles, cargo at stops. Outputs: cargo movement, revenue, and station service frequency.

Programming a fleet. Players design routes, tune load rules, and watch vehicles run. Well-tuned routes make money unattended; badly tuned ones leave vehicles waiting at empty stations.

• available order types and wait conditions
• payment model by distance, time, and cargo type
• shared orders and fleet management tools
• vehicle capacity, speed, and reliability
• station ratings that respond to service frequency

• Full-load orders at low-supply stations park vehicles forever.
• Complex order systems without templates make fleet changes tedious.
• Revenue models that ignore time make every route identical.

• Feeder and trunk networks emerge from transfer orders.
• Station competition between companies or players shifts cargo flows.
• Fleet growth eventually saturates track or roads, coupling routing to signaling and congestion.

• Could natural-language order entry ("keep this mine's output moving to the steel mill") replace order lists without losing player control?