I really wish someone would do an OpenRCT3. It was so much fun being able to ride your creations. I had a 3D projector back then too, which made the game even more awesome. Such an underrated sequel.
And yes I’m aware that Planet Coaster exists but has anyone actually tried playing that game? They made everything way too complicated and I just can’t get into it. I don’t want to engineer every single bend and design the perfect landscaping from scratch, I just want to slap some rides together, see the guests come pouring in, and occasionally ride one of my rides (in VR, ideally). No game since RCT 3 has satisfied that itch for me.
OpenTTD is fantastic. The graphics might give new players pause, but if you like building networks or logistical puzzles, or just like trains, it’s still one of the best in the genre.
No variant rules unfortunately according to the Fdroid. You should check out the sudoku games from Cracking The Cryptic on the Google Play store if you want that. They aren’t FOSS but they have hundreds of handcrafted puzzles for a few bucks.
Probably not unless you get public funding (eg, run a massive deficit, take control of the public AI to build stuff, debug features, etc) or you first create a resource chain or two to pay for transit.
I asked this a while ago which is how I discovered Beyond All Reason which has been my FOSS game of choice as of late.
I’d also recommend Naev and Endless Sky (Both are based on the Escape Velocity Series, Naev is getting a 3D PBR renderer in the next release). Mindustry is good fun, actually purchased this one on steam to support the amazing developer. Extreme Tux Racer is a bit of fun and Super Tux Kart seems to get better with every update (did I mention it can run on the Nintendo Switch via homebrew!)
Edit: I forgot about 0ad and Minetest which I used to play a bit of a while back
BAR is great – Total Annihilation was always one of my favorite games from childhood and BAR feels the most like it compared to other spiritual successors like SupCom/FA and other community projects. I actually tried to contribute a couple commits to the project but I don’t think they took them.
I played this in high school circa 2013. There was a server up 24/7 that hosted an infinite loop of the Venice map that always had the highest server pop. You’d occasionally find other servers going, or be able to host your own and get randoms, but more often than not, I played a TON of Venice for about a year. Good times.
From a quick video I saw, they seem similar indeed, but I haven’t played Thrive enough. I have only made it to a single-cell prokaryotic organism, lol (which is basically very close to the beginning of the game).