Q: Is this a mod of excellent quality?
A: I think so! This is my third Factorio mod, and I am not a programmer, but it seems pretty decent by now. This feels like my first "proper" mod, because I studied the game files, wrote and structured the mod from scratch, while thinking carefully about what I want this mod to do.

Q: Why make this mod?
A: My main purpose for this mod is to make the game less tedious and space-consuming, without destroying game balance. I am all about exploring the relations between machines, but have little interest in long rows of machines that do the exact same, trivial thing. This mod helps me focus on what I consider the core gameplay of designing neat, complex factories.

Q: Sounds great! Are you going to change or expand on the mod?
A: Thank you. At this point in time, probably not. It would be nice to find some easy way to deal with the extreme fluctuations on the power network, whenever a fast mining drill is underutilized, but I don't know if that is even possible.

Q: Does the mod really scale properly?
A: Yes! The mod does not change productivity, but the base mining speed. Power consumption, pollution rate and optionally recipe cost scales with it.

Q: How compatible is this mod with similar mods?
A: Mod conflicts should be few, since this mod adds a separate entity, the Custom Electric Mining Drill, and applies all changes to it. In principle, it works with my other mod, Configurable Mining Drills as well.

Q: I noticed that the mining drill doesn't produce any smoke!
A: That's not a question. But yeah, it's a small bug of sorts with the mining drill. If the mining speed is set very high so it produces ore faster than it can offload them onto a belt, the animation slows down (actually the drill turns on and off really quickly), and thus the smoke animation will never get started for real. I don't think I can do anything about it.