Love the concept for this mod! I'd been thinking of a simple method to force the player to launch a rocket on new planets (other than Aquilo) before allowing cargo drops, but didn't consider something like this, it's nice & elegant.

I have some feature requests (although of course if these aren't feasible / worthwhile then I'm still happy to just have the mod at all):

• Is it possible to add an option in the mod settings to customize the amounts of items required for cargo pod shielding, to separate the "locking cargo drops behind local resources to require building a rocket silo on new planets before cargo drops" aspect of the mod from the "adding significant costs per cargo drop to increase logistic challenge" aspect? I.E. Give the option to increase the amounts required for even more challenging logistics, or to lower the amounts required to 1 to almost eliminate the costs but still lock cargo pod drops behind building a rocket silo on each new planet (other than Aquilo).

• Is it possible to add an option for a set number of "free" cargo pod drops to new planets (such as 1 or 2 "free" cargo drops before shielding is required), or alternatively to whitelist specific materials as not requiring shielding to drop (e.g. construction bots)? I'm specifically thinking of the situation where a person may want to start new planets mostly fresh, but with the addition of a stack of construction bots to use with personal roboport equipment (I personally tend to think of personal construction bots more as an extension of my personal equipment grid, which the game otherwise allows taking to new planets).

• Alternatively, perhaps some players would want a "true" fresh start on each planet even without any armor or personal equipment as an extra challenge, so perhaps some option to disallow the player to drop down to a planet while wearing armor, requiring the armor to be dropped separately in a cargo pod, which would require building a rocket silo to provide materials for shielding.

Now that I've uploaded the full Hardcore Mode modpack, I'm getting around to adding more options. Appreciate your thoughtful suggestions!

Regarding #1, I agree those functions should be peeled apart. I've implemented your suggestion as described.

My concern with free pod drops is that it's a little difficult to control how many cargo pods your materials get sent in. (If you know what you're doing you can include some of the same material in each drop to rate limit, but many players won't know this.) This is a mild problem if you're bringing a boatload of plates and dropping everything else with Ctrl-Click, but is likely to be more severe if you have a specific number of free drops. For now I've added an option for construction robots to ride free.

Great suggestion with #3. This is now included under the setting 'Super hardcore mode'.

Thanks so much for the prompt response!

That's a good point about the difficulty of controlling exactly how cargo drops get parceled out. The "construction bots ride free" seems like a good solution, since without roboports, robust power generation, defenses and materials set up on the planet they'd really only be useful as personal construction bots for some time.

Looking forward to trying it out, and interested in seeing how the Hardcore Modpack develops since the concept is right in line with the kind of mods I tend to make for other games. Thanks again!