Space Age: Hardcore Mode

Hardcore Mode is a collection of tweaks & small mods for Space Age with the following aims:

• Removal of shortcuts.
• Gameplay tweaks to require a bit of extra creativity.
• Allow game mechanics to be 'more like themselves', even if that increases difficulty.

It's intended as a relatively thin layer on top of Space Age — in a sense it's a 'replacement for vanilla' — and can be extended by further mods if desired.

Features

• Players build from scratch on Vulcanus, Fulgora and Gleba, as dropping materials (beyond construction bots) is impossible without a specific technology requiring science packs from that planet.
  • Each planet's tech tree has been slightly tweaked to incentivize a small science build before launch of the first rocket.
• Many recipes are delayed in the tech tree.
  • Active provider chests require science from Gleba, and active requester chests require V+F+G.
  • Infinite upgrade technologies are restricted prior to Aquilo tech, limiting the ability to technologically scale out of difficulties.
  • See here for more.
• Optional dependencies contain a range of extra content and tweaks.
  • Notably, Hardcore Cerys extends the modpack philosophy to a modded planet. It is hoped other planet authors will make such mods independently, consulting this short need-to-know guide. In any case, modded planets should be compatible.
  • If you'd like to make a suggestion, comment in Discord or Discussion. Pull requests are also welcome on Github.

Get started

Hardcore Mode is compatible with existing saves, with the partial exception of Vulcanus. It is also well-suited to a first playthrough of Space Age by advanced players.

For new maps, map generation sliders can be freely adjusted. The Deathworld preset comes with a recommendation, except some players may wish to turn the time factor of evolution back to its default setting. This is because time evolution progresses on all planets in parallel, even when you're not there.

Virtually every feature of the modpack can be disabled or configured in the checkbox settings.

Mandatory dependencies

• Hardcore Vulcanus
• Hardcore Fulgora
• Hardcore Gleba
• Hardcore Aquilo
• Hardcore Delayed Tech
• Space Undergrounds Require Research
• Planetary Distance Adjustments
• Behemoth Enemies
• Diurnal Dynamics
  • Lighted Electric Poles + is also included as a hard dependency such that players downloading this modpack have a better tool to deal with darkness. As with other features, you can disable in the checkbox settings to replace it with another mod for this purpose.

Standalone tweaks in top-level mod

• Efficiency modules are 25% less effective, bringing trouble to bases that scale too quickly.
• All enemy units and asteroids have +20% HP.
• Utility science packs require 3x the materials.
• Space platform foundation tile weight is increased by 10%.
• Half of all Nauvis iron, copper, stone and coal patches are mixtures of all four.
  • The amounts and ratios of each ore are the same as vanilla.
  • The starting patches are unmixed.
  • On a later date, we may mix modded ores (that don't require liquids to mine), but for now only the vanilla ores are mixed.
• Medium asteroids have some base physical resistance.
  • Relatedly, asteroid crushing ore yield is increased, and advanced metallic asteroid processing is available in early-game space.
• Locomotives burn fuel at 3x the rate.

Localization

• English, Russian.
  • To help translate more languages, submit a pull request on Github.

Special Thanks

• Tserup for creating the custom technology icons.
• kocur4d for verifying with statistics that the mixed ore generation algorithm works as intended.
• All those that contributed feedback, particularly NekoBaron.