Q: Why introduce the power armor MK3? There are some existing mods already introduced them!
A: Yes, there are mods already introducing them. But they are too OP and/or too cheap to craft, which are more like cheat than being balanced to base game in my opinion. Power armor MK3 from this mod has a reasonable amount of upgrades, while the material cost is increased in both quantity and quality. Space science pack and alien science pack are needed in research here. Therefore, it is no longer something you can easily get just a few minutes after power armor MK2 becomes available. The increase in grid size is also moderate to balance with various weapons.
There is nothing stopping you to use those power armor MK3, though. This mod can co-exist with those mods, since I have been carefully in avoiding these kind of potential naming conflicts.

Q: No worthy enemies for the new turrets and guns? Weaponry too OP? Want some challenges?
A: There is a new mod about extension mod about stronger aliens in development. They will appear only at endgame with very high evolution factor (>0.95), thus not affecting normal gameplay. There will be tiers of aliens depending on values of evolution factor, so they would not overwhelm your base defense suddenly, giving you time to upgrade. They will also be fully integrated with Schall Alien Loot mod, giving extra loots according to their sizes and strength. Bigger enemies for more and better loots, in turns allowing you to upgrade the alien tech further and faster! So you can test your power and get better rewards at the same time!

Schall Alien Mutation mod will gives you some challenge from mid game to later game, where some aliens are "mutated" that they have quite resistant to the new particle weaponry, so counteracting some power of the new weapons.

For testing the real power of MK3 weaponry, it is highly recommended to use Schall Endgame Evolution mod! It is designed for very late game (very high evolution factor), introducing extra tiers of aliens for some real challenge! Apart from that, it is very tempting to use this mod since their death will also rewards you with lucrative loots, scaled to their sizes. But beware! If you overdo by releasing the whole horde (have full settings with highest category X) and reaching very high evolution factor (say, 0.99), these "generous" aliens can become too hard to be handled, especially if you are not very well prepared!

Q: Why are the tanks MK3 series so OP? Why are MK3 equipment so OP?
A: The individual items can be turned off or adjusted to smaller sizes, under "Options" → "Mod settings" → "Startup" tab. (For multiplayer server, only the host can tweak options before hosting.)

Q: I feel the particle weapons are too overpowered/underpowered...
A: The "ammo" of particle weapons are crafted (mainly) from alien artifact, which is an infinite and renewable resources, but still take some effort to obtain. Therefore, particle weapons are designed to be slightly stronger than virtually free laser weapons; but still weaker than the conventional physical and explosive weapons. The BFG is the only exception, as it is THE ultimate gun and should be strongest weapon no matter what.
So the particle weapons maybe too strong or weak, depending on your point of view. But certainly these are rough settings, so still subject to fine tuning. Testing (especially from PvP battles) and user comments are welcomed. Please leave me a message in the Discussion section.

Q: Why the new items (power armor MK3, tanks MK3, MK3 equipment, etc) do not show up in technology tree?
A: Please check the corresponding checkboxes under "Options" → "Mod settings" → "Startup" tab. Make sure they are enabled!
Also note their corresponding lower tier entry in the "Schall Tank Platoon" section, since this mod shares some setting values there. For example, if "Enable tanks MK2 series" is disabled, then MK3 series will also be disabled automatically, since MK3 series will not independently exist without MK2 series in place.

Q: Why are the mega particle beam, particle cannon, plasma rifle and BFG dealing friendly fire?
A: Mega particle beam is dealing damage to EVERYTHING on its path and travels quite a long distance. Making sure do not stand there and put anything in front of them. The beam is narrow, however, together with a narrow arc of fire. So it should be easy to avoid friendly fire if the arc of fire is respected.
Plasma rifle, particle cannon, and BFG all fire projectiles having collision box. So anything getting direct hit from those projectiles will be damaged no matter friendly or not.
On the other hand, area damage of particle cannon and BFG, are targeting ENEMIES ONLY within its specified radius. So in a massive combat, as long as you do not fire DIRECTLY at your teammates, particle cannon and BFG are actually excellent in offering support fire.
Note that there are individual "Force Condition" options (under "Options" → "Mod settings" → "Startup" tab) for each of the clip type, preventing the possible friendly-fire. Hence you can customize if you wish.

Q: Why introduce those biosatellites? The big aliens and spawners drop them almost for free already!
A: Yes, fighting aliens is still the most cost-efficient way to obtain alien science pack. However, players may have different playstyles (e.g., peaceful mode) or do some challenges (e.g., not building turrets around spawners to "farm"), not to say many players are more fond of large-scale base construction. So with the biosatellites, now players can just launch more rockets as a stable and reliable source of alien science pack.
Yet, many items of this mod require alien artifact as ingredients. You will still need some small battle to obtain that.

Q: Do you plan to add more types of satellites?
A: No, biosatellites are introduced to provide alien science pack, for reasons mentioned in above FAQ. I do not feel other science packs need this, since they are quite cheap to craft, especially when compared to the cost of rocket parts.

Q: Do you plan to add more classes of satellites?
A: I wanted to, but I feel vanilla satellite (class I) is already using most of the advanced materials as ingredients. Class II has used the only remaining ones (modules level 3) as extra ingredients to make the recipe more advanced and expensive. It is hard to find any more materials for class III or even higher.

Technical Details

This mod is an extension to Schall Tank Platoon mod. This page only include the information about the new additions. For details on conventional tanks, weapons, and equipment up to MK2, please see here.

Power Armor

Weapons

• Particle Beam
  • Fires short pulses of condensed beam with high speed.
  • Target: Entity
  • Form: Fast shooting beam. (Behaves like laser beam.)
  • Collision: No
• Mega Particle Beam
  • Fires a giant beam, damaging everything on path.
  • Target: Direction
  • Form: Line attack. Also stun targets briefly. (Behaves like hidden railgun.)
  • Collision: No
• Particle Cannon
  • Fires an unstable ball of high energy particle.
  • Target: Direction
  • Form: Small area of effect attack, damage enemies only.
  • Collision: Yes (Direct hit still damage friendly units.)
• BFG
  • Fires a huge ball of doom, killing all enemies who dare to come.
  • Target: Direction
  • Form: Large area of effect attack, damage enemies only.
  • Collision: Yes (Direct hit still damage friendly units.)
• Plasma
  • Fires small plasma balls rapidly.
  • Target: Direction
  • Form: Fast shooting ball. Stun target briefly. (Behaves like cannon shell.)
  • Collision: Yes
• Stasis Beam
  • Slows enemies.
  • Target: Position
  • Form: Small area of effect stunning.
  • Collision: No
• Force Cannon
  • Pushes enemies back.
  • Target: Entity
  • Form: Direct push back. Stun target briefly.
  • Collision: No
• Stasis Field
  • Slows all enemies within range.
  • Target: All
  • Form: Whole area of effect stunning, affect enemies only.
  • Collision: No

Ammos

All the above weapon types have three variants of ammo types:

• Standard
  • Most resource-efficient for damage.
• Condensed
  • Available with research "Particle Compression 1".
  • Higher damage (+25%) at the cost of double amount of ingredient.
• Refined
  • Available with research "Particle Compression 2".
  • Higher damage (+50%) at the cost of quadruple amount of ingredient.

Vehicle

For conventional tanks, please see here.

• Light Particle Tank
  • Stat-wise nearly the same as Light Tank.
• Medium Particle Tank
  • Stat-wise nearly the same as Medium Tank.
• Heavy Particle Tank
  • Stat-wise nearly the same as Heavy Tank.
• Super-heavy Particle Tank
  • Stat-wise nearly the same as Super-heavy Tank.
• Mega Particle Beam Tank
  • Stat-wise identical to Super-heavy Particle Tank.
• Cargo Truck
  • Vehicle with very large inventory, size increases with each upgrade.
  • Designed to carry supplies to team, or carry back loot (esp. alien ores) to base.

Tank Stats

Mega Particle Beam Tank has identical stats as Super-heavy Particle Tank, so not listed here.
Compared to their conventional tanks counterpart, all particle tanks have +10 / +20% on laser/electric resistances, but -10 / -20% on physical/explosion resistance.
MK3 tanks have +50% weight over the listed value here.

Upgrades

Auxiliary Vehicle Stats

Vehicle Performance

Equipment

Energy Shield & Vehicle Energy Shield

Battery & Vehicle Battery

Transmutation

Uranium Transmutation

It is a probablilistic recipe. For each completed process, products include 5-15× (avg. 10) iron ores and 5-15× (avg. 10) copper ores. There is also 95% chance to get back the alien artifact (5% lost).

1× U-235 + 1× Alien Artifact → 5-15× Iron ore + 5-15× Copper ore + 0.95× Alien artifact

Satellites

From 0.17.10, there are currently two satellite series, and two classes each series:

Structures

Uranium Mining Drill

Uranium mining drill is a late-game upgrade for your mining drills. The drill head is strengthened with depleted uranium for higher mining efficiency.
Compared to vanilla electric mining drill, there are several differences:

• Extra module slot (4 vs 3)
• Larger mining area (7×7 vs 5×5)
• Built-in productivity bonus (+50% vs none)
• Less pollution (8/m vs 10/m)
• Mildly higher power consumption (120kW vs 90kW)
• Lower mining speed (0.4/s vs 0.5/s)

The lower mining speed confers lower consumption of ore deposit (giving a seemingly lower processing rate). However, the built-in productivity bonus fully compensates (and over) that, and actually give higher overall production rate. Combined with the extra module slot, this upgrade certainly outperforms the vanilla electric mining drill, by a big margin.

Full List of New (or Changed) Items

Tanks / Vehicles

• 5 basic tanks:
  • Light particle tank
  • Medium particle tank
  • Heavy particle tank
  • Super-heavy particle tank
  • Mega particle beam tank
• 5 upper tier tanks MK1:
  • Light particle tank MK1
  • Medium particle tank MK1
  • Heavy particle tank MK1
  • Super-heavy particle tank MK1
  • Mega particle beam tank MK1
• 5 upper tier tanks MK2:
  • Light particle tank MK2
  • Medium particle tank MK2
  • Heavy particle tank MK2
  • Super-heavy particle tank MK2
  • Mega particle beam tank MK2
• 10 upper tier tanks MK3:
  • Light tank MK3 [unlock to Schall Tank Platoon]
  • Medium tank MK3 [unlock to Schall Tank Platoon]
  • Heavy tank MK3 [unlock to Schall Tank Platoon]
  • Super-heavy tank MK3 [unlock to Schall Tank Platoon]
  • Flame tank MK3 [unlock to Schall Tank Platoon]
  • Light particle tank MK3
  • Medium particle tank MK3
  • Heavy particle tank MK3
  • Super-heavy particle tank MK3
  • Mega particle beam tank MK3
• 5 auxiliary half-track:
  • Rocket artillery MK3 [unlock to Schall Tank Platoon]
  • Cargo truck
  • Cargo truck MK1
  • Cargo truck MK2
  • Cargo truck MK3

Turrets

• 1 particle beam:
  • Particle beam turret
• 1 mega particle beam:
  • Mega particle beam turret
• 1 particle cannon:
  • Particle cannon turret
• 1 BFG:
  • BFG turret
• 1 stasis beam:
  • Stasis beam turret
• 1 force cannon:
  • Force cannon turret
• 1 stasis field:
  • Stasis field generator

Equipment

• 1 energy shield:
  • Energy shield MK3
• 1 vehicle energy shield: (vehicle only)
  • Vehicle energy shield MK3
• 1 battery:
  • Battery MK3
• 1 vehicle battery: (vehicle only)
  • Vehicle battery MK3
• 1 night vision equipment:
  • Nightvision MK3
• 6 active defense equipment:
  • Particle beam pod
  • Particle cannon pod
  • Stasis beam pod
  • Force cannon pod
  • Train particle beam pod [require Schall Armoured Train]
  • Train particle cannon pod [require Schall Armoured Train]

Armor

• 1 upper tier armor MK3:
  • Power armor MK3

Weapons

• 1 plasma:
  • Plasma rifle
• 1 particle beam:
  • Tank particle beam [used by all particle tanks]
• 1 mega particle beam:
  • Tank mega particle beam [used by mega particle beam tanks]
• 1 particle cannon:
  • Tank particle cannon [used by medium particle tanks]
• 3 BFG:
  • BFG 9000
  • Tank BFG 6000 [used by heavy particle tanks]
  • Tank BFG 9000 [used by super-heavy particle tanks]
• 1 force cannon:
  • Tank force cannon [used by light particle tanks]

Ammos

• 3 plasma:
  • Standard plasma clip
  • Condensed plasma clip
  • Refined plasma clip
• 3 particle beam:
  • Standard particle beam clip
  • Condensed particle beam clip
  • Refined particle beam clip
• 3 mega particle beam:
  • Standard mega particle beam clip
  • Condensed mega particle beam clip
  • Refined mega particle beam clip
• 3 particle cannon:
  • Standard particle cannon clip
  • Condensed particle cannon clip
  • Refined particle cannon clip
• 3 BFG:
  • Standard BFG clip
  • Condensed BFG clip
  • Refined BFG clip
• 3 stasis beam:
  • Standard stasis beam clip
  • Condensed stasis beam clip
  • Refined stasis beam clip
• 3 force cannon:
  • Standard force cannon clip
  • Condensed force cannon clip
  • Refined force cannon clip

Fuel

• 1 nuclear:
  • Particle fuel cell

Transmutation

• 1 uranium:
  • Uranium transmutation

Tools

• 1 repair pack:
  • Repair pack MK3 [unlocked by repair pack 3]

Satellite

• (1 new, 1 changed) astronomical:
  • Astronomical satellite I [renamed from vanilla satellite]
  • Astronomical satellite II
• 2 bio:
  • Biosatellite I
  • Biosatellite II

Structures

• 2 defense-related:
  • Uranium wall
  • Uranium gate
• 1 mining-related:
  • Uranium mining drill

Technologies

• 7 turret-related:
  • Particle beam
  • Mega particle beam
  • Particle cannon
  • BFG
  • Stasis beam
  • Force cannon
  • Stasis field
• 2 gun-related:
  • Plasma rifle
  • BFG 9000
• 1 armor-related:
  • Power armor 3
• 24 tank-related:
  • Light particle tank
  • Medium particle tank
  • Heavy particle tank
  • Super-heavy particle tank
  • Mega particle beam tank
  • Light particle tank 1
  • Medium particle tank 1
  • Heavy particle tank 1
  • Super-heavy particle tank 1
  • Mega particle beam tank 1
  • Light particle tank 2
  • Medium particle tank 2
  • Heavy particle tank 2
  • Super-heavy particle tank 2
  • Mega particle beam tank 2
  • Tank 3 [unlock to Schall Tank Platoon]
  • Heavy tank 3 [unlock to Schall Tank Platoon]
  • Super-heavy tank 3 [unlock to Schall Tank Platoon]
  • Flame tank 3 [unlock to Schall Tank Platoon]
  • Light particle tank 3
  • Medium particle tank 3
  • Heavy particle tank 3
  • Super-heavy particle tank 3
  • Mega particle beam tank 3
• 5 half-track-related:
  • Rocket artillery 3 [unlock to Schall Tank Platoon]
  • Cargo truck
  • Cargo truck 1
  • Cargo truck 2
  • Cargo truck 3
• 9 equipment-related:
  • Energy shield equipment 3
  • Battery equipment 3
  • Night vision equipment 3
  • Particle beam pod 1
  • Particle cannon pod 1
  • Stasis beam pod 1
  • Force cannon pod 1
  • Train particle beam pod 1 [require Schall Armoured Train]
  • Train particle cannon pod 1 [require Schall Armoured Train]
• 2 ammo-related:
  • Particle compression 1
  • Particle compression 2
• 1 fuel-related:
  • Particle fuel cell
• 7 damage-related:
  • Particle damage 1
  • Particle damage 2
  • Particle damage 3
  • Particle damage 4
  • Particle damage 5
  • Particle damage 6
  • Particle damage 7
• 6 speed-related:
  • Particle shooting speed 1
  • Particle shooting speed 2
  • Particle shooting speed 3
  • Particle shooting speed 4
  • Particle shooting speed 5
  • Particle shooting speed 6
• 1 transmutation-related:
  • Uranium transmutation
• 1 tool-related:
  • Repair pack 3
• 1 satellite-related:
  • Satellite 2
• 1 defense-related:
  • Uranium wall
• 1 mining-related:
  • Uranium mining drill