When comparing Tales of Maj'Eyal vs Simutrans, the Slant community recommends Tales of Maj'Eyal for most people. In the question“What are the best open-source games?” Tales of Maj'Eyal is ranked 25th while Simutrans is ranked 33rd.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro A lot of depth through many character classes and quests
Pro Pretty polished compared to other open source games
Pro Easier to learn than some other roguelikes
The graphical menu system helps a lot.
Pro Built-in but optional chat system for bragging or when you get lost
Pro Passengers & goods have their own travel destinations
Each product has a chosen destination and they will only use your company if you deliver them where they want.
Pro Multiple paksets
There are multiple graphic packages to choose from, each with different dynamics. So even though you have mastered one pakset you can have a different gameplay with another.
Pro Cross platform
Available for Windows, Mac, Linux & Steam-OS.
Pro Available through Steam
Simutrans is available through Steam for those who prefer automatic updates and game management through Steam.
Pro Transportation
For fans of transportation games it has lots of vehicle options and things to transport. The multiple graphical packages also mean a, kind-of, multiple games in one, as each graphical package can be completely different from the others.
Pro Multiplayer
Multiplayer support still has bugs and disconnections happen, but it works and is easier to setup with version 120.3 and up. It also allows you to setup servers without announcing them to other players, though that requires manual work.
Pro Map customisation
The map has multiple customisation options, like map size, climate zones, terrain 'roughness' and number of rivers, cities, industries and tourist attractions, & more.
Pro Modding
Creating new objects is not too hard, as long as you have some drawing skills you just need a text file with some parameters and then you can compile it to enjoy. Some paksets even rely on rendering from 3D objects.
Pro Community
Even though the game is old the community is active and open to developers and modders who want to improve the game. Decisions on how the game evolve also accept the decision of the majority of the community.
Pro More complex version called "Extended" for hardcore gamers
A fork of the project called Simutrans Extended extends the standard game with more complex and realistic features for extra complexity and realism for those who like hardcore gameplay. The fork is available in their official forums.
Cons
Con Bad balancing
Not all classes are balanced. Some are clearly weaker. As an example, every class that can summon, cannot avoid their summons to waste their skills. This is not important, except if you only have 1 summon, like the alchemist, that often charges you.
Con LUA bugs
It depends on LUA for many (if not most) things, this could ease the development, but in the end, the result is several crashes which are hard to debug.
Con Heavy resource need
Lots of graphics effects, which may make the game run slower on older systems.
Con Graphics may not appeal to everyone
Mostly because they are a mix of styles assembled throughout the lifetime of the project instead of one consistent whole.