Matter tech is a pretty good way to get common legendary intermediates like iron, copper, and plastic. Once the user get their hands on some legendary matter stabilizers( which has 0 cost to upcycle when used in matter associators alongside some quality modules), the possibilities open up exponentially(you can even automate legendary ammo in spaceships). Since legendary stabilizers are not consumed most of the time, this interaction allows player to get legendary everything infinitely.... In my game, I got to automated legendary tier 3 speed and quality modules(1 per second) in 2 hours of messing with the mechanic.
EXCEPT
Not all intermediates require stabilizers to craft using matter. Stuff like coal, immersite, stone puts you in a awkward position. The player can get coal and stone simply with asteroid upcycling but immersite is a problem. The only way to get legendary immersite items is brute force upcycling which takes time and serious infrastructure. SO, in the endgame you just wait your immersite upcyclers while having every other legendary resource ready for crazy builds.
This trend also consist in space based intermediates. Matter tech also allows player to acquire legendary tungsten and holmium based products, but is incompatible with Gleba intermediates. So in a similar manner, you have to wait for carbon fiber upcyclers.
This is a serious inconsistency within the mod's own recipes. Waiting for a few items to upcycle while having the rest is not so much fun. Once the player discovers this method, he/she will go on a spending spree of legendary items and their new builds will have everything legendary BUT the advanced chemical plants and advanced furnaces: two of the most fundamental items in this mod. For the same reason, most legendary grid equipments are also blocked behind long upcycling processes.
In conclusion, I believe krastorio has to make a decision to how to approach the quality mechanic. On one hand, some quality items are quite easy to get, on the other hand, you cant use them as desired because some key ingredients are locked behind the long process of brute force upcycling. My suggestion is expanding use cases of matter stabilizers so that they can create all available intermediate products. For illustration, simple matter to coal recipe will remain but adding a matter stabilizer into the mix will yield more coal or yumeko mash and jellynut can be crafted from matter. This change will allow some crazy endgame builds for legendary science, spidertrons, reactors, and spaceships(with legendary explosive rocketry which is locked behind carbon at the moment).
Moreover, this approach should be encouraged by the intergalactic transreceiver research. Maybe it could solely accept legendary science or maybe it would require legendary components to craft?
As the final note, thanks to the development team and the community for this mod. The journey of exploring this mode for the first time, discovering this method and the following legendary spending spree was quite memorable and entertaining. I havent derived this much joy from a video game for quite some time.
