Hi, I've been playing TSW for some time now, and so far i enjoy it, despite some bugs. Here's a couple of things that, in my opinion, would make the game better. - A "Use local measurement unit" option in the settings, because you always have to switch units manually and it does get quite annoying if you often switch between the german and US/UK routes. - A couple of "Cold and Dark" services for each route, as the locos are always running when you start a service - More interactions with the refueling stations and the washing tunnels in service mode, for instance when a train finished its service and on routes where it's applicable, you would wash your train and/or refuel it. - Now this, i don't know if it's easy to add or not, but we need cars on the roads. Especially for NY. It just doesn't look right with those huge streets and highways empty. Make the far away ones static if it would be too frame-heavy, as if they were at a stop light, but right now it really feels dead.
I agree with everything you've suggested except the vehicles on the roads. They're present in TS, but have the annoying and distracting habits of popping in and out of view and failing to stop at crossings as one drives the rails. Come to think of it, the latter could be made quite realistic by adding vehicle-train crashes.
Yeah I was very confused by not having any vehicles in TSW, and the level crossing barriers never opening. Especially on long straight stretches of rail, it's very common to see vehicles crossing the track in the distance, and when passing by, see that you're actually holding up traffic. I miss that in TSW, seems a bit like a ghost town sometimes.
The simulation for cars seems to be the tricky one where level crossings are present but I remember in OMSI they added a yield instruction or halt to the road network, maybe a gizmo could be added to the cars that carries this instruction (maybe!)
I bought LIRR recently, and while playing it, i noticed one the world felt a bit empty, despite all the detail. I think it's due to the fact that there are no parked EMUs anywhere. it would add a lot to yards in my opinion, because the line really doesn't feel lived in. It's like owning a beautiful house, but with no furniture.
I'm a long time Train Simuator 20xx user, since the Railworks 2 days and have only just recently got TSW. I quite like it at the moment but the neccessity to switch from Metric to Imperial (or vice versa) to see the correct units of measure for the route you are running on is very annoying. All the trackside signs are in kmh or mph so it would make sense for the HUDs etc to display in the route's default setting.
They did started adding cars and road traffic with the Main Spessart Bahn DLC but the developers will add them to the existing routes somepoint in the future.