Hello again!
Checked out the new version and I think it's a lot "immersive" and beginner-friendly than before with the new GUI and performance improvements when no enemy detected. Gives me C&C vibes.

I noticed a bug recently though:
When constructing (bp's or by hand) and with no searchlights in the vicinity (100x100 at least), the construction gets blocked by an invisible entity.
Here's a screenshot for your reference:
https://imgur.com/a/ZiJYZ9q

Thanks, glad you like it! :)

That construction-blocking is pretty weird, especially because I did everything I could to make sure that hidden entity has no collision and that it gets destroyed when its associated searchlight does. Anyway, it sounds like there's a rogue hidden entity from before the 2.0.0 update that my migration files missed in my testing.

Any chance you can send me your save file so I can make sure I clean them up properly in the next update?

Hey sure! Thanks for the help!
Here ya go: https://we.tl/t-gdavsDxdOL

(This is a new save I started with SE 0.6 closed beta version though so not sure if you'll need it, maybe it'll open fine with SE 0.5)

Line 120 of space-exploration/prototypes/phase-3/space-collision.lua (v0.5.115) is adding collision to my entities, overriding my empty collision mask.
I'll report this to the author and see if they want to think about checking if the entity has an empty mask before adding to it.

In the meanwhile, I've published release v2.1.3 with with a migration file to help clean up stray entities, and a compatibility fix.
(The author has thoughtfully already provided an interface for 'allow in space' that I can enable on my hidden entities)

The new version should start to appear in the mod portal shortly.
If you don't see it in-game you can download it manually here: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/SearchlightAssault/downloads

Found it! Thanks so much!

I believe some entities like fallen meteors in SE already don't have collisions enabled, so there must be another method they're using to do that. Better check with them on Earendel's discord