Hey there! I am quite a fan of the concept of this mod, as well as many of the related ones you've made. I'm brand new to modding and I am theorycrafting a modpack I want to make designed around applications of the 4 Fundamental Forces and their use for new logistics systems. Would you be interested in hearing about some of the ideas I have for it and maybe some advice on implementation? If so, what would be a good way to contact you aside from the forum?

Great, of course I would -- the forum is probably best, you just reminded me I haven't visited there in a long time. I'm afraid to see how many messages I have there, now. I'm a DevOps engineer professionally so this everyone-work-from-home-because-of-SARS-II thing has meant that we are insanely crazy at work. But I think work is dying down now and I'm just about to apply some new changes to my factorio dev environment and start up the production train again.

One thing that immediately comes to mind is that some sort of building that could extract heat OUT of things (like if you were trying to create a superfluid, or something else where the nuclear forces become important) might fit right in with the Heat Processing mod.

That sounds rad! I'm glad to hear that work is starting to let up. I've been bouncing a few ideas off of a close friend on Discord and have been looking at learning lua, so this is in really early stages,

Essentially, the modpack I'm picturing is logistics-focused. I want to introduce lots of new TYPES of transport, each that have their own use cases and drawbacks, such that the engineer is incentivized to use as many interconnected systems as possible. However, I want to avoid things that just feel like more content for the sake of more content, like faster assemblers or modules, or Bob's Umpteenth Belt that transports a million items a second. Or things that reduce the challenge of the game, like LTN. One line of transport I'm thinking to include would be Cargo Ships, and make it so oil is only accessible via oil rigs, incentivizing the player to use this system. Transport Drones, Mining Drones, train tools like Automatic Coupling System, Do Robots Build Automatic Trains, etc.

I'm a really really big fan of trains, and so here are the unique concepts that I'm actually thinking of learning to code for:

Applications of Electromagnetism:
Magnetic Locomotive that are moved using Electromagnets in the ground. The Electromagnets would likely have built-in solenoids to convert electric energy to magnetic force. This means that the train's acceleration and braking force would by dynamic, based on the strength of the gravitational force in the track. This type of train would be incredibly efficient in interconnected (cityblock) train networks, in which a lot of throughput is lost due to stopping and starting. However, it would have a lower top speed to compensate, making it inefficient for long-distance travel. The cables connecting power to solenoids/transformers would have to be insulated to prevent magnetic interference, as would circuit wires, so I was thinking that they could be insulated with Teflon, as it could share ingredients with your Hydrocarbons mod. I was also throwing around the idea of Bulk Magnetic Unloaders, which would use assets from the Bulk Rail Loader mod, and would be able to use a large magnet to very quickly unload robust resources like metal plates, but would damage more delicate items like circuits and wires. The highest-quality electromagnets would have increased power consumption and be made from Neodymium, an ultra-rare metal that has to be made into a metal alloy.

Gravitational Force, Strong Nuclear Force:

Highspeed Particle Collider - a super-lategame building (whose crafting recipe might steal the Singularity from the Power Armor Mk3 mod) that can create certain rare particles. Namely, it makes antimatter, which can be used to make Bullet Locomotives and Antigrav Wagons. Bullet Locomotives take a LONG time to accelerate/brake, but they have a very high top speed (or maybe none at all), making them incredibly efficient for long-distance resource-gathering and outpost travel. Antigrav Wagons' weight would be dynamic - inversely proportional to how fast they're travelling, meaning that, at really fast speeds, they weigh almost nothing. Also, I figured they could run on Frictionless Track, which could share the Teflon ingredient as it is near-frictionless.

In terms of the Weak Nuclear Force, I feel that's already covered pretty well by your Nuclear mod, but I would be really interested in Fission as an energy source, maybe to bridge the gap between MOX power and an Antimatter Drive. I think it goes without saying that all of this stuff would need a LOT of power.

Keep in mind that this isn't super-duper thought out yet, and please feel free to tear apart any ideas that you think would be incredibly difficult / unreasonable to implement / adjust gameplay cycle. Thanks so much for taking the time to read/respond!

Dynamic prototype modifications are not possible afaik. You can prepare all variations in advance, and use script to substitute them during runtime, but that may encounter a lot of errors if not implemented correctly.

Hey, I read this, and I'm going to respond to it when I get the chance. I'm actually trying to get back to factorio now that they're along in version 18. I've got my ESXi host going with the cluster online, but I've been setting up this automation program to run tasks, got kind of sidetracked. Almost done. :P I moved to change careers about 6 months ago, and never really setup my server rack or git and archive storage since then. So my mods are just sitting on my harddrive, and my old git server is down. My goal is for my program to automatically set up a fresh gitlab container on one of the hosts in my rack, then I'll upload all my factorio mod repos to it, then start to work through all of the suggestions I've been receiving. Appreciate it, guys.

Thanks for the read! I've actually been working with a close friend to develop the above ideas into a custom modded scenario (not unlike seablock) in which you're stranded in orbit around a mars-like planet. It's going to be much more resource-management focused than vanilla, in that you'll struggling to balance/maintain oxygen, energy, and defenses against aggressive bacterial lifeforms who copy your technology and incorporate it into their physiology. Ultimate goal will be to build and maintain a massive starfactory capable of harvesting planets and turning them into fuel and research for further ship improvement. If you're interested, I'd be thrilled to share more details.

I've got my dev machines up and running so I am adding this to the todo list to take a look at your ideas. I love hte idea of expanding off this stuff. I'm going to be expanding the nuclear mod with some new utilities for better behaviours with other mods so once I finish that up we'll be at a better baseline to talk about expansion.

Been going through my mods, doing updates, and finally got back to this... New types of transport, all very interesting. I think from my end, what I can offer you are materials. For example, I'm already planning to institute a hydrogen network in Adamo Nuclear. That is involved with making heavy water for the CANDU reactor which I will also make. Well, you also often use heavy water in fusion power. So you could potential build off that. I would also very much be willing to include other resource/chemical types in Adamo Nuclear or Adamo Chemistry or possibly one of the others, as long as it makes sense to do so. Keep me updated and let me know what chemistry/physics you think you could use in your production chains.