First of all, really nice mod idea and very good execution so far. I just wanted to share some feedback from my first playthrough, because I see a lot of potential in this mod.

• Space assembling machine

I might have missed something, but the crafting speed of the space assembling machine seems to match the assembling machine 2, while being cheaper to craft.

It would probably make sense to either reduce the crafting speed of the space assembling machine or remove the assembling machine 2 from research and crafting, since it feels somewhat redundant.

• Research costs

Currently, the research costs feel a bit out of order. Base game research is very cheap compared to Space Age and the mod’s own research.

It would feel nicer if the research costs followed a more linear progression, so the jump between different technology tiers is less abrupt.

• Oxide asteroid reprocessing

After researching oxide asteroid reprocessing, there seems to be little reason to make the spaceship fly around to collect asteroids faster.

You can create a reprocessing loop to generate effectively infinite oxide asteroids and then reprocess them into the other asteroid types. I do like the mechanic itself, but it somewhat removes the purpose of flying the ship to actively farm asteroids.

• Coal recipe cost

While setting up production chains for every science pack, I noticed that some of the recipes added by the mod feel unbalanced, especially coal production.

The number of chemical plants and oil refineries felt reasonable, but the amount of crushers needed for advanced carbonic asteroid crushing and advanced oxide asteroid crushing seemed disproportionately high.

For example, for 2 refineries and 5 chemical plants, I needed around 44 crushers. I would suggest reducing the cost of synthetic oil and coal synthesis to around one quarter of the current value.

Thank you for the detailed feedback. This is exactly the kind of information that helps with balancing, especially since the mod is still incomplete and many recipes and technologies have not yet received a proper balancing pass.

The space assembling machine is currently intended to replace several early assembling options in space, but its crafting speed and cost will likely need to be adjusted.

Research costs are also still inconsistent. A lot of the base-game, Space Age, and custom technologies were added at different stages of development, so their costs do not yet follow a smooth progression. I plan to revisit the technology tree and make the costs scale more naturally between tiers.

The oxide asteroid reprocessing loop is an unintended balance issue. Reprocessing should be useful, but it should not completely remove the need to move the platform and collect additional asteroids. I will look into reducing the efficiency of closed reprocessing loops or adding some form of material loss so they cannot generate resources indefinitely.

The coal and synthetic oil recipes also need adjustment. Requiring around 44 crushers to support only 2 refineries and 5 chemical plants is far beyond what was intended. Reducing the resource or processing requirements to around one quarter of their current values sounds like a reasonable starting point, although I will need to test the full production chain before deciding on the final numbers.

Thanks again for taking the time to test everything and provide actual production ratios. The mod still has a lot of unfinished progression and placeholder balancing, so feedback like this is very useful.