Have you given any thought to the prospect of starting in space instead of on a planet? It might be a bit masochistic, but it sounds like an interesting challenge to me.

I figure there are a few adjustments that would have to be made for it to be possible:
1. Begin with a space platform and some initial parts so you could build out a platform to do some basic resource collection.
2. A few technologies to be unlocked at the start:
- Advanced Asteroid Processing (copper, sulfur, calcite for Simple Coal Liquefaction)
- Coal Synthesis (coal for plastic and Simple Coal Liquefaction)
- Simple Coal Liquefaction (provides heavy oil, and thus rocket fuel and petroleum)
3. A source of stone (to make refineries), and refineries would need to work on space platforms
- I'm imagining that all asteroid processing could have a chance of producing stone, or another asteroid processing recipe could produce stone specifically
- Alternatively the refinery recipe could be changed to not require stone bricks, which might be more reasonable
4. A solution for furnaces
- There are several options here, but the one that appeals to me would be a new furnace that runs on thruster fuel and thruster oxidizer
- It would be simpler (but less fun) to just start with a sufficient number of electric furnaces to get to the point of being able to make more

Dropping to Nauvis would essentially invalidate the scenario so perhaps something would need to be done about that as well.

Anyway, I'm curious what your thoughts are. If it seems plausible and interesting, I would be more than happy to contribute. If it doesn't seem plausible or doesn't interest you, I would appreciate any tips you would give me should I attempt to make it myself.

Thanks for the mod. I've been enjoying it immensely. Cheers.

While I don't think starting in space is a bad idea, it's not something I personally want to include in this mod, for a couple reasons:

1. I set out to make this mod because in vanilla Space Age, all three of the starter planets are bootstrap-able upon landing on them starting from nothing, provided you have the research it took to get there. Since that was the case, it was reasonable to extrapolate that a mod could restructure only the tech tree and make it possible to start a game from each of those planets. That is the main ethos of the content this mod provides by default, to not change anything* but the tech tree (technically there's one or two other things it does but it's nothing super game-changing).

2. This mod is meant for starting on planets, not in space. I'm sure it's doable to support both, but a lot of it has been built around only planets and by proxy the planet surface specifically. I'd have to redo a significant portion of the mod in order to accomplish even just giving other mods the ability to do it.

3. APS has become the de facto alternative start mod whether I like it or not (a lot of modded planet starts use this mod to accomplish said task), and I'm trying to be cognizant of the influence this mod has. If a space start is added to it, it's effectively saying "This is the 'official' space start" and I don't want to be in charge of something like that. As previously stated, a space start would require many more changes than just the tech tree, and thus is much more susceptible to opinions on how the game would supposed to be played. After all, everyone who's thought about a space start has different ideas on what it should look like, so why should I be the deciding factor?

All that being said, I do like the ideas you have for a space start, and I do think it would be cool to see them as a standalone mod akin to Platformer. I haven't taken a closer look at what that mod in particular does, so it might share some of the same ideas, or it may be completely different, but should you pursue making it yourself I'm sure it would be a good resource to take inspiration from. Do note the license is GNU GPLv3 though, so don't use any code or assets unless you plan to use that license as well. You're also welcome to take a look at the insides of this mod, I'm sure there's a bunch of handy stuff whether it's the small library for tech changes or the "scenario" code to handle the start of the game, teleporting, respawning, etc. The Factorio discord is another great resource for getting into modding, it has a dedicated modding section with a guide channel and many helpful community members happy to answer questions, myself included.

Last of all, thanks for playing the mod! I'm glad you're having fun with it.