OpenTTD is indeed great, but I wouldn't categorize Transport Tycoon as a city building game, instead you build a transport company. You can have some influence

OpenTTD is indeed great, but I wouldn't categorize Transport Tycoon as a city building game, instead you build a transport company. You can have some influence on how the cities in the game develop, but they are more tricks to influence the city building AI in building a more optmized city instead of actual intended gameplay elements imho. Things like grid layouts for roads (which the AI won't destroy) or terraforming terrain around the city.