Beacon Overhaul

The current implementation of beacons is functional, but not without its faults. Vanilla beacons often act less like broadcasting towers and more like scaffolding when they surround other machines. We want more options.

If we want to build crafting machines around beacons instead of the opposite, and also want to keep the options provided by vanilla beacons, we need a new beacon with more module power and maybe a larger area too. But it also needs to be limited somehow, or else it would just obsolete vanilla beacons instead of being an alternative. This is where "exclusion areas" come in.

All beacons now have exclusion areas in addition to their distribution areas. These new areas affect other beacons instead of crafting machines.
By default, other beacons within the exclusion area are disabled. This addresses one of the fundamental balancing problems of beacons, that of beacons with larger areas "reaching past" smaller beacons. Larger exclusion areas can be used as a balancing factor for more powerful beacons. For beacons with less module power, the opposite could be done. But for now, no beacon has an exclusion area smaller than its distribution area.

Additionally, some beacons will ignore specific beacons in their exclusion areas and not disable them. For example, the standard vanilla beacon only disables non-standard beacons so it is functionally unchanged.

New Beacons

This mod includes 5 new beacons, each with a different niche. They can be enabled or disabled individually in the settings.

With these changes, many more beacon layouts become viable options with different advantages and disadvantages. Generally, the more spatially constrained a layout is, the higher module power it will provide for individual machines. Standard 12-beacon layouts are still the go-to for maximum module power among individual 3x3 machines, but other options offer greater density, accessibility, or flexibility. The same concept applies to larger machines too.

• Focused beacons work well in tight spaces. They offer more module power but their small distribution area means an inserter and belt can't fit between them and machines they affect.

• Node beacons are relatively versatile but aren't powerful enough to outmatch standard 8-beacon layouts in terms of module power per machine.

• Conflux beacons provide significant module power while still having a relatively small exclusion area.

• Hub beacons enable a paradigm shift: building machines around beacons instead of beacons around machines. They have wide distribution areas which lessens the spatial constraints and reduces the number of beacons needed, but they also introduce spatial constraints of a different sort due to their wide exclusion areas and unique behavior with other beacons.

• Isolation beacons have even wider distribution areas. They're powerful alone and potentially very convenient, but won't outclass purpose-built beacon layouts.

The above beacons are unlocked alongside standard beacons by default, but a setting allows players to instead unlock them in groups or even individually if desired. Their recipes use the same ingredients (in higher quantities) as standard beacons, and with default settings, those ingredients will be updated according to changes made by other mods.

There are also some other beacons which can be enabled:

• SE-like beacons - if Space Exploration is inactive, a setting will allow users to enable 5 beacons which emulate the behavior of SE's beacons
• Singularity beacons - if both Space Exploration and Krastorio 2 are active, a setting will allow users to re-enable K2's original singularity beacons

Strict Beacons

The isolation beacon and some beacons from other mods have "strict" exclusion areas.

Beacons with "strict" exclusion areas will disable other beacons from further away than usual - instead of disabling beacons which are in their exclusion area, they'll disable beacons whose distribution areas overlap it. This prevents other beacons from affecting the same machines, effectively making them "solo" beacons.

If multiple "solo" beacons ignore each other's exclusion areas, they'll instead function as independent beacon groups. This system allows different styles of beacons to exist in the same game without interfering with each other. For example, both the AM:FM beacons from Pyanodons and the beacons from this mod will function as they would normally using either mod alone - they'll just disable each other if beacons from either group are placed too closely to each other.

Compatibility

By default, new beacons from other mods will use an exclusion area which is equal to their distribution area. For a list of other changes per mod, see the FAQ page.

Each beacon's in‑game description covers exactly what it does.

Other Features

• Beacon areas are drawn consistently to have the same offset relative to their tile range
• Beacon stack sizes are adjusted to match the largest stack size among them
• Beacon descriptions include info vital to their functionality (can be disabled in settings)

Performance

This mod has zero UPS impact under normal circumstances. There may be a temporary minor impact when many beacons are constructed or deconstructed within a short period of time.

Languages

Currently, only English and Russian localisations are supported.

Credits

Most new beacons use graphics from Classic Beacon by Kirazy

Hub beacons use graphics from FFF-339 Beacon Graphics by Tedium_0xFF

Isolation beacons and wide-area SE-like beacons use the other graphics from FFF #339 by Albert

Russian translations made by Kupidon