Wondering if this is making to easy. Sure it takes a lot of resources to make the ultimates, but still.
Currently it is x4 or 5 per tier? Why not reduce it to x2 on power and x2.5 cost.
Making a huge factory only powered by like two squares of 8 panels and 12 accumulators each is to easy IMO. 60MW per panel is a lot.

I agree that it can get a bit easy at the end, but by the late game it's usually gotten a lot easier anyways, except for enemy spawning.

I have some ideas on how to make it harder, and I may be changing some recipes to do that in the future, but I do not plan to decrease the power production/storage values at all.

I specifically chose to do upkeep on this mod because I disliked how most every other mod did tiered solars and accumulators, and this one did it how I liked it. There are many other mods that do things the way you've described, but there's only one that does it this way (as far as I know).

If you'd like a different mod that does things more your style, I'd suggest FactorioExtended, which I use for all things except which overlap the 4 mods I maintain. They do x4 power.

honestly, i really like the way this works. truth told asking for balance on solar compaction is pretty pointless as far as i see - you can just put solar panels in a continent and leave them there, expanding away from your factory every time. this fits just right into that niche of "this DOES cost more than just churning out solar panels, but not so much more that you'll just not bother using the mod." - it handles the question of "what is the cost of space in an infinite world" really neatly

for me, this is a really nice mod. it's "considerate," i guess. space reduction, entity reduction, lag reduction. i like it! if you do make balance changes, though, can you include a config that toggles between the behavior it has now, and whatever behavior changes you make? i know that i'd appreciate that, at least =p

[also sorry for threadjacking, i just wanted to commend the mod and show some gratitude to y'all]

honestly, i really like the way this works. truth told asking for balance on solar compaction is pretty pointless as far as i see - you can just put solar panels in a continent and leave them there, expanding away from your factory every time. this fits just right into that niche of "this DOES cost more than just churning out solar panels, but not so much more that you'll just not bother using the mod." - it handles the question of "what is the cost of space in an infinite world" really neatly

for me, this is a really nice mod. it's "considerate," i guess. space reduction, entity reduction, lag reduction. i like it! if you do make balance changes, though, can you include a config that toggles between the behavior it has now, and whatever behavior changes you make? i know that i'd appreciate that, at least =p

[also sorry for threadjacking, i just wanted to commend the mod and show some gratitude to y'all]

It's fine. The point of a thread is to discuss. Thanks for adding to the discussion.

Unfortunately, adding a config is beyond my coding abilities. I am really just an Upkeeper, not a Moder myself. I know enough to modify someone else's code. So while I am able to keep mods up to date and change some mod behavior, adding settings and config options is beyond me.

That said, if I do make any recipe changes, I look forward to persons like you telling me how it works and how it doesn't. I had never considered the effect on lag and entity reduction this mod has, though it seems obvious now.

It's fine. The point of a thread is to discuss. Thanks for adding to the discussion.

Unfortunately, adding a config is beyond my coding abilities. I am really just an Upkeeper, not a Moder myself. I know enough to modify someone else's code. So while I am able to keep mods up to date and change some mod behavior, adding settings and config options is beyond me.

That said, if I do make any recipe changes, I look forward to persons like you telling me how it works and how it doesn't. I had never considered the effect on lag and entity reduction this mod has, though it seems obvious now.

the lag suppression is most effective in maps where you have maybe 10 thousand panels all calculating sunlight changes at once - the moment i installed this mod i was able to craft maybe 300 tier 2 solar panels because i already had over 3000 in-world - by which point, of course, you prooooobably have enough solar panels to entertain the notion of crafting a tier four panel already, hah

now i've got these two big fields of green solar panels (oh, that reminds me - the graphics look fine for now, they do their job) churning out 235MW or something of power, not because of any long grinding, but just because that's how many panels i had before.

i only suggested adding a config system because forking this mod into two different branches and maintaining them separately could be pretty time-consuming if you've already got better things to do =p

from experience, it's not as though you're giving us the recipe "ten panels is one better panel"; the steel cost grows RAPIDLY when you start making big fields (see Madzuri's Roboport Solar Panel design i guess, that's what i use!), but it feels quite fair. based on cost alone, the 25 steel and 15 circuits (by my reckoning) has the equivalent cost of "one extra solar panel" (5 steel, 15 circuits, 5 copper), maybe 2 to balance for steel. so let's say 12:10 on that

considering this alongside the fact that you absolutely require oil production for tier 3 solar panels (advanced circuits) and strong factory throughput and circuit production for tier 4 panels (processing circuits (each of which contains 20 green circuits!)), it almost balances itself. yeah, you can run a small factory off one tier four solar panel - but if you have the resources to make a tier 4 solar panel, the only reason you need it as far as i can see, is to save space. feels like 1300:1000, 125:100, 12:10, at worst

seeing as this mod styles itself based on "denser energy producers" and not "stronger energy producers" (you still need to be capable of producing that amount of power normally) then it achieves exactly what it means to

i won't lie, i acknowledge the desire to "rebalance" the mod for challenge-seekers, but that kind of thing always struck me as a marathon-mode mentality. the logic at that point for me might as well just be, "Well, if making this costs more than doing something simple, why bother? Fundamentally, I can only lose out."

some people love that! some people love proving how their factory can handle anything; myself, i just like convenience 'w'

i reckon ive rambled enough (gosh this post got long) but hey, that's my two cents! or two dozen cents, maybe =P

I'm a bit late here, but I've just got this mod for a new world. As it is now, I like how the cost is, you still need to make that many solar panels to be able to have the output. The only gain is the space, like others have said, the cost of space in an infinite world is very low at least. However the cost of walking all the way to the end of your farm to add more, makes this a life saver. You can't automate expansion outside of putting blueprints down whenever you need more power. In late game when you find out you need more power, you end up having to fill several max zoomed areas up with solar panels. This saves a ton of user time. They cost more than not having the mod, that is enough for me. More cost would be fine too, but I feel its okay the way it is, since its just space savings, not decreasing the complexity of a factory.

Great mod, thank you.