This mod tries to improve upon Wube release by adding a bit more depth and fun challenges for experienced players, especially in the later stages of the game. It is intented to be the ideal version to megabase on.
I designed it to be played with the following 3 submods, but you can easily opt out if you so chose.
Enhanced beacons
Beacons now affect a large (7x7) area and have 8 modules slots, but the diffusion effect do not stack, and even negatively affect machines under the effect of 2+ beacons (“interferences”). They also consume significantly more power and are more expensive to build.
Breaks the default “beacon arrays” designs resulting from vanilla balance. This mod will favor tight direct insertion designs to make the most machines benefit from each beacon.
High precision manufacturing
A quality mechanic overhaul. Quality modules are much more potent, but recyclers can no longer benefit from them. Higher quality tiers are also harder and harder to reach.
These changes favor “upstream quality” production lines to get epics/legendary (such as uncommon ores > rare plates > epic circuits> legendary end product) rather than brute forcing your way crafting / recycling hundreds of items like in vanilla.
Aquilo science juggling
Heavily inspired from the arcosphere balancing of Earendel's Space Exploration, this mod adds 8 Aquilo-specific recipes allowing you to juggle between science packs types. Extremely useful at megabase level to make use of science packs not consumed by the current tech.
That is, if you are able to solve the challenging logistics and engineering problems!
Nauvis/Base game changes
- Most surface restrictions beside science packs are removed, you can now craft pretty much anything anywhere as long as you have the mats available.
- Most production buildings are now more expensive and only stack to 5. This makes space logistics, and quality production lines more expensive in the later stages of the game.
- Carbon is now an early game intermediate obtained from coal, mainly used in steel and explosives recipes
- Heating tower can now be obtained at blue-science level, giving you another power generation option
- Concrete and ammo recipe can now benefit from productivity modules
- Plastic bar, military & production science pack recipes reworked
- Molten metal recipes are now Vulcanus-restricted. Sorry, no easy infinite throughput everywhere!
Foundries are however given access to the most efficient ore-> plate recipe, and can now also craft gear, wires, pipes and low density structures from plates. - Speed modules are a bit weaker, and efficiency modules a bit stronger
Space
Space logistics are now significantly more challenging to encourage you relying as much as you can on local ressources, and to give more purpose in min/maxing your space platform designs.
- Rocket parts are twice as expensive
- Most buildings only stack to 5, or less for bigger structures
- Platform thrust is now strictly proportional to its mass, and less dependant on its width. Each tile counts!
- Distance between the planets are 50% greater
Vulcanus
- Metallurgic science pack now requires low density structures & lubricant instead of molten copper
- Foundation tiles require carbon fiber in place of lithium, and available after Vulcanus + Gleba
Gleba
- Spoilage can now be pyrolyzed into carbon and a bit of crude oil
- Agricultural science pack now requires an extra rocket fuel as well.
- Captivity research now gives access to a new revenge recipe, the Biter Egg liquefaction. Neighboors might not like it much tho!
Fulgora
No major changes beside the quality rework (optional submod).
If you play with it, you'll have double the vanilla odd to get low density structures on scrap recycling, making Fulgora a rather good location for the utility science pack.
Aquilo
No major change besides the science juggling recipes (optional submod)
Promethium
The routes to the system edge and to the shattered planet are reworked and are now less about tunneling a way through endless huge asteroids, killing your UPS on the way.
Beside a dense asteroid belt near the system edge and within the SP close vicinity you’ll encounter less hazards. However, thrust being directly proportional to weight means huge carriers using belt weaves to bring chunks back will be quite slow and inefficient to get significant amount of promethium science packs.
The elegant, if downright dangerous way to get them is to get rid of all safety measures, load a bunch of fresh eggs on your ship and rush to the system edge, throttle down as little as you can to get through the outer asteroid belt, and then full speed to the shattered planet, which is now at a more reasonable distance (800kkm). That is, if biters or asteroids don’t crush your ship first.
Good luck!
Bragging rights
The intended final challenge for this mod is to design a ship optimized enough to reach the shattered planet with biter eggs still on board. This is rather (extremely) difficult but should be doable. Probably.
Want to support?
If you like the mod and would like to contribute, you can :
- Propose a locale file for your native language
- Help me implement a special promethium recipe available only in shattered planet orbit
- Suggest icons for the new recipes I introduced (do not have the patience to do it myself!)