...it'd be very nice if you would clarify if the new resource is (a) mined like ore/oil, or (b) just part of a production chain that is fairly fundamental to your factory.

One of these is a hard "new game", one is a soft "rebuild everything" new game, and it'd be nice to know. :)

Just open in-game console and paste in this. Will spawn a big square array of gas fields under your player.

/c for y=0,20 do
for x=0,20 do
game.player.surface.create_entity({name="adamo-carbon-natural-gas", amount=100000, position={game.player.position.x+x7-7, game.player.position.y+y7-7}})
end
end

...it'd be very nice if you would clarify if the new resource is (a) mined like ore/oil, or (b) just part of a production chain that is fairly fundamental to your factory.

One of these is a hard "new game", one is a soft "rebuild everything" new game, and it'd be nice to know. :)

OK, so what you're saying is that when I say "resource" not everyone automatically realizes I mean resource as in a mined resource in the game, they think it might also mean "item", for example. Roger that! Thanks.

well, me, at least. :) I don't claim to be bright, but I like to imagine that I'm not alone in that confusion.

The confusion is more "resource you dig up" vs "resource that is produced from something else", like the difference between iron ore to iron plate vs iron plate to steel, but yeah.

the new description is clear, and tells me exactly what is going to happen. thank you.

For sure, I appreciate useful feedback. Thanks.