Virtually indistinguishable from magic

I've been tinkering for a little while on something quite ambitious (for me, anyway). I've sort of hit a knee-high wall in progressing it further so I thought I'd show what I have and talk about the things I found hard when writing it so far, before I vault my wall and carry on. Making sketches and notes to figure out designs. This is a sketch of a artillery car from a 1939 Polish train. (Don't google 'armoured train' because then you'll know this is the first thing that comes up!) The basic idea is a singleplayer videogame in which you command an (armoured) train across vast landscapes. You progress by transporting goods from town to town and hopefully turning a profit so that you can kit out your train to better fend off baddies. So far, so gamey. I wanted to rely on some optional storytelling, presented  in text form to fill in the gaps and make the world make a bit of sense, and to give you a reason to keep exploring. An aesthetic aim would have b