This mod is awesome, man!

I'm playing the full thing + Rampant AI mod, and the game is finally hard to survive :)

Low iron yields, high pollution from the heavy infrastructure needed to refine it, extreme costs, and (from Rampant AI) semi-smart enemies. Amazing mix, already 8 hours in and struggling to survive. Great job!

:)
Thanks a ton, arides! You're certainly better at this game than me, as I tried that modpack and ragequit about an hour through :P
Just a survey to my users, what config options do you have enabled or disabled? This is so I can choose which ones to have enabled by default. Good look with your world!

ps. There will be an update very soon adding the hard-mode to more recipes in the game. Just a hint, make some transport belts now while they're easy!

Hm, while I love the added difficulty, I think the transporter belts are insanely expensive already!

If I may, I would suggest increasing the cost of higher tier items first. It took me more than two hours to connect coal with my mines - with triple the belt cost it might get completely absurd.
Also, the automatic alorium processing requires a lot of space - thus many belts. All of this is insanely expensive already.

If you are upping the belt costs, my suggestion is to either:
- Add a config to enable/disable this, since belts are used in extreme quantities
- Increase prices of higher tier belts only, and force the player to either cover more land with basic belts and then manage many of them, or pay heavily for higher belt speed.

I agree with you on the belts. I'll just make a config option called "High Tier Hardmode" and have, on enabled, express belts and fast / stack / filter / stack-filter inserters have tripple the cost.

Update:
Currently 28 hours in, 6 bases with trains, behemoth biters not yet sighted, but expected soon, tech level: on-demand blue science production, laser turrets, tanks, power armor, drones.

Man the game is hard, thankfully now with enough laser turrets it at least seems that i won't die anymore...

I especially love the cost change you did on solar panels. They are so bloody expensive that green power seems like an utopistic dream. So far I made ~5MW from solar (out of 20MW), and it takes bloody time to get more, even with a massive 6-base factory. But build them i must, since leviathans might be the doom of me with current pollution levels.

I also like the triple cost on electric furnace, since it's the only way of reducing pollution from smelting (with efficiency modules). Not that i have any of those yet, solar first..

Overall, it's a wonderful experience, and your mod really turns many otherwise mundane tasks (solar / electric furnaces / research) into challenges that each require several hours of dedicated effort to accomplish with reasonable results.

Keep up the great work!

P.S.: Are you still planning the increased cost of higher-tier items? Might fit in nicely.

Sorry for the really delayed response. I have been having many computer problems lately and finally got them all sorted out. Yes, I do plan to finish the High Teir Hardmode. Thanks for the dedication to my mod :)

Released an update with higher cost for the higher-tiered items. Thanks for the feedback and suggestions.