How to develop a game for these 99%? Everything would be based on pure guessing! And arguments, which try to take care of these 99%, are very weak.
I just wanted to point out why I'm reluctant to base decisions solely on the voice of what I think are 1% of the players population. Also tried to point out that there are more players than just the people who speak in the forum. I think these facts get forgotten in discussions way too easily.
I agree that we cannot know about the opinions of those who are not here. But we should keep in mind they are there.
I wonder why nobody refered to the KISS-principle yet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle
I hope, no one mentioned it, because it is well known to everyone and people keep it in mind all the time.
My personal opinion is that it works great for technical questions, less for questions of entertainment, though.
Edit: Dwachs message reminded me why I'm pro splitting the project and developing variants: There are so many opinions and wishes, it's not possible to get together in a discussion easily, and most likely the demands of the players are as varied. So I'm happy that James started his own variant, and that Prissi maintains another one.
Edit 2:
How to develop a game for these 99%? Everything would be based on pure guessing!
Another answer from a game developers forum: Basically one doesn't. Maybe if you are a business, but independent developers don't. One makes a game that one likes by oneself. One includes the ideas that deem the right and good ones. One listens to players, but makes ones own decisions.
There is a rule of thumb: players know, if something is wrong. Players do not know what the right solution is. So listen to complaints, but do not listen to prosed solutions for those problems. One should find ones own solutions, that work well with the game.
This is not entirely my own opinion, but I'm leaning strongly towards it.
If the ideas do not catch players, it will tell you that you are fairly alone with your wishes, but doing what you like to do, and make a game that you like, is most likely the better driver for a hobby, than to make what others want you to do.
Edit 3: Simutrans no longer is a hobby, thus the last point is not very relevant. But what I said in my first "edit" is most likely the best what we can do in the current situation - widen the scope of Simutrans, and offer different versions for different audiences. "One size fits all" usually just means it doesn't fir well for most. So better have a few choices. PAK64/PAK128 and the other PAKs already started it, and branches of the executable will take it a step further.
And now I'll try to remain silent again for a while. Sorry for the big amount of text.