OT: 3d transport tycoon help?

[lth]

So, drawing on the collective experience here, I was wondering if anyone knew of any shortcuts I could take in building a 3d transport-tycoon-alike game?

Ideally, I think, I would really like some sort of 3d engine with deformable terrain and a floating camera with a relevant tutorial / demo project already set up for me dive into.

If I didn't need the landscape to be editable, obviously I'd just do it in Quake!

Any help or pointers gratefully received!

[Downsider]

What languages do you know, first off?

I'd suggest XNA, personally. Tons and tons of libraries for rendering and editing heightmaps, models, collision with them.. Should speed up your development..

[lth]

Java, C#, PHP (heh, very appropriate), C, NOT C++, easy enough to learn Python if required.

[c0burn]

If you know C# just go ahead and dive in with XNA