I'm starting to realize I like a specific kind of game. Examples include elements of Kerbal Space Program, Space Engineers, RoboCraft, SimCity, MineCraft and even tower defense games. The element in these games that I like is the designing of something that satisfies the rules of the game. In Kerbal, its designing a rocket is able to survive the trip into space and conduct space missions. In RoboCraft, its designing a vehicle that can take hits while dishing out hurt on other vehicles. In SimCity, its growing a sustainable city that has enough resources, manage traffic, population explosions, natural disasters and so on. While MineCraft is a sandbox game and not a design game, I like it because I can design redstone circuits to power things like a retractable drawbridge, or a hydroponic farm that uses a single source of water, or a mob trap/automated slaughter farm. Yeah so I like games that let me design and build stuff, be it a vehicle, spaceship, city or death trap. A lot. I would like to find more of such games, but for some reason I can't think of what games of this genre are called. Its not exactly a "sim" game, nor a "sandbox" game. So what do you call it?
Sounds like you like experimenting with what works. I'm much the same way. I pretty much have to play things out by error.
Yes, to me its almost like an open ended puzzle. I find myself having a lot of fun trying things out until I figure out what doesn't work and what works well. Hmm.. that does explain why I'm so hooked on MMOs. I am always dabbling to push the most out of my characters by swapping gear and trying out new combos of abilities.
^Other than 'Space Engineers'? Not that I'm aware of. I think there's a similar game in the pipeline but what I saw was very early alpha and really just looked like a knock-off.
Oh I've been playing RoboCraft non stop for the past several months. It is practically addictive to me. According to Steam, I've already played it for 300+ hours. I have 5 garages, each with a completely different vehicle. A hover-tank named "Borg" because its highly redundant and can still continue to function with 80% of the craft destroyed. A plasma cannon with hover-blades, "Plasmavore", that's my most successful vehicle that routinely kills 2-5 enemy vehicles. "Garage", a very fast yet quite resilient armored craft with nano-repair guns that can quickly zip around to fix damaged crafts. A flying bomber, "Sideswipe", that can fly both forwards and in reverse. This feature allows it to do incredible things like hover in mid-air or pop over a ridge to fire a shot before ducking back down the ridge. And finally, "Ruby on Rails", a skeletal frame with a heapload of thrusters and 6 sniper rail guns rail gun craft that is so fast that it can fly without wings.
I'm not sure what to call the genre, either. At one point, I'd have said simulators, but Steam seems to stick a lot more in that category than I would. Best I can do is recommend a few games I think you might like based on your list, which is a list that I share enthusiasm for most of. Rollercoaster Tycoon Railroad Tycoon Civilization IV or V Crayon Physics Deluxe (I believe Robert Maxwell aka Solstice had a free code for this in his free games thread here if no one has claimed it and he's still offering. (Two codes for it, actually - one by itself and one in Humble Bundle 3) Garry's Mod
Railroad Tycoon is pretty fun. Some more honorable mentions; the Age of Empires series, the Empire Earth series, the Total War series, the Mechwarrior series (robot building), and the Star Trek Armada series.
LOL. Right after I finished typing my last post here, I went and played a game of Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion with the Star Trek Armada III mod.
Construction, simulation, management games--those are all pretty good descriptors. One you might want to check out is Factorio. It's still being developed but is already quite complete and fun to play with. If you love obsessive management/construction games, you'll probably go nuts with Factorio. I sunk a crazy number of hours into it.