I do think this mod is a very cool concept, especially with the scrap mod.
One thing that I did not like about my first attempt was that you obtain void science way too fast. I think the amount of science you obtain is scaled for a "normal" playthrough, and not void block where all resources are obtained through voidcraft.
What this leads to is that you can easily handcraft void science and hand feed it even to a single lab faster than you can do any other base building. By the time you have red and green science set up you have enough void science to unlock essentially all void sciences requiring the pink void science. Especially if youre not familiar with the mod and youre a bit slow.
A further consequence of this is that you unlock void alternatives basically immediately after you unlock it through normal science. Like you unlock void batteries immediately after you unlock batteries. I never did any oil processing for example. I unlocked void sulphur and red chips basically at the same time I unlocked oil.
Thus leads to this weird discomfort where you feel like you can never set up anything, because you will immediately unlock alternate methods for making it.
For me at least it was frustrating to set up and take down things, which I found myself doing a lot.
I started a new playthorugh with 20x science cost, more expensive landfill and more agressive scrap chance (from the scrap mod). While 20x is a bit excessive, it gives you time to actually set up different builds and play the game. The void sciences especially feels like actual unlocks, and it feels great. Pacing feels much better, progression feels much better.
So a few things that could be done for better balance and pacing:
- Make void sciences much more expensive (10x at least). Epsecially some important sciences like voidfuel, which completely changes how you play.
- Make void gems rarer.
- Make void sciences more costly and/or slower to produce, change the recipe.
- Make void sciences also require the appropriate normal sciences.
- Make landfill a bit more expensive. Im playing with double cost which feels better.
When that is said, another thing that would be cool: Put rock "enemies" randomly spawning on the map. To expand your base, you need to destroy these rocks with weapons. They gain more and more armor the further from spawn you get, meaning that there is more reason to invest into military science.
