Aegis & Bellicos, The Pulsar System

Your recent forays in interplanetary space have lead you to uncover an ancient "stargate" orbiting Calidus. Still functional, crossing the stargate sent you to the outskirts of a unique star system far away from Nauvis: the "Bellicos" pulsar, surrounded by a crowded asteroid belt you've dubbed "the Aegis".

Overview

• Adds a new star system with exclusive space locations (but no new surface)
• New local asteroids, providing danger and new resources
• Quick spoiling products and slow crafting processes
• Mid-game and late game science packs and technologies
• Extra logistic systems meant for space platforms
  • New faster transport belts exclusive to space stations
  • New faster inserters, including long arm variants
  • New underground pipes exclusive to space stations
• New ammo types made in space, both for midgame and endgame uses
• Alternative processes for crafting circuits and low density structure
• Alternative fusion fuel source and fusion-based generators, controlled by fluid temperature
• New thrusters with alternative thruster fuel sources
• Extra productivity bonuses for space platforms

Goals

• Create a new star system based around the concept of the shattered planet (no surface to land on)
• Encourage building large space faring factory-ships early
• Provide challenges to building space platforms later on
• Offer upgrades, buildings and items to improve the efficiency of large spaceships
• Use the base game spoilage and temperature systems in new interesting ways
• Allow for the collection of uranium and tungsten in deep space
• Keep the experience self-contained and accessible as early as inner planets (Vulcanus, Gleba, Fulgora)

The Aegis, first barrier to the pulsar

The stargate near Calidus can be reached from either Nauvis or Fulgora, and leads to the outer side of the Aegis. Unlocking these space locations has the same science requirements as the other early planets (Vulcanus, Gleba, Fulgora), allowing the player to head there as soon as they have a working space ship if they wish.

The asteroids on the outer parts of the Aegis are tough and brittle. Mineral analysis indicate they are composed mainly of beryllium compounds, with traces of tungsten. Berylline asteroids only appear in the vicinity of Bellicos, mostly located inside the Aegis, due to cosmic ray spallation.

Crushing berylline asteroid gives beryllium ore, which is then turned into liquid beryllium oxide.
Beryllium oxide can be alloyed with iron plates, iron gear wheels or copper plates to make lightweight parts, for use in lightweight science and to craft new machines.

Advanced berylline asteroid crushing lets you extract some tungsten ore from them, eventually allowing you to upgrade lightweight ammo.

Lightweight tech

Lightweight science packs are made mainly using beryllium coated gears obtained from crushing berylline asteroids, as well as logistic related entities.

Lightweight science unlocks a whole slew of applications for beryllium, including:

• Space transport belts: A set of transport belts made for space stations, including underground belts and splitters. Move items at a rate of 75 items/s. Can only be built in space.
• Space underground pipes: Underground pipes that can be connected up to 16 tiles away. Can only be built in space.
• Beryllium solar panels: Bigger, more efficient solar panels. (5x5 with a maximum output of 250kW)
• Alternative LDS recipe: Beryllium can be used as an alternative to craft low density structure from iron and copper, without requiring steel or plastic.
• Lightweight inserters: Very fast inserters that can only grab items 2 by 2. Includes a long armed variant.
• Lightweight arsenal: Various beryllium ammunitions, including magazines, "impactors" (missiles) and tank shells.
  • Magazines, impactors and tank shells boast faster firerate and longer effective range.
  • Impactors and lightweight tank shells deal a small amount of "impact" damage instead of "explosive" damage, making them effective against bigger asteroids.
• Tungsten tipped arsenal: Improved versions of the lightweight ammunition made with tungsten. Boasts superior damage while retaining the lightweight arsenal's faster firerate and range.
• Space platform crafting productivity bonus (infinite research)
• Asteroid crushing productivity (infinite research, replaces agricultural packs)

All these new items and buildings provide significant bonuses and incentives to improve your space platforms and expand them further.

Bellicos, the warrior star

Getting closer to Bellicos was no small feat, breaching the Aegis was difficult due to the berylline asteroids' resistance. Still you made it through thanks to lightweight ammunition and more efficient turrets.

The oxide asteroids in Bellicos's vicinity are ionized by its cosmic rays. These ionized asteroids are particularly resistant to regular sources of damage, however they're weak to laser weapons, as their core is susceptible to fission.

Crushing them yields highly unstable radioactive ice, which will fizzle after 10 seconds, and traces of uranium ore. Radioactive ice contains massive amounts of tritium, a key resource for a new kind of fusion power.

To extract more ionized asteroids chunks, you'll have to send your space platforms spiraling towards Bellicos... and retrieve it in one piece. Reaching the close orbit of Bellicos is almost impossible, and not necessarily a good thing. Think of it like a second shattered planet.

Pulsar science tech

Pulsar science packs are made using radioactive ice, tritium, uranium 235 and some electric motors. The crafting process will return uranium 238 and has a 75% chance to return the electric motors, creating several loops to manage.

Pulsar science unlocks plenty of new fusion-based applications:

• Tritium fuel cells: More energy dense fusion fuel cells usable in any fusion reactor
• Basic fusion reactor: A steam-based alternative to fusion reactors. Uses fusion fuel cells to superheat steam of any temperature to 1200°C. Use circuit logic to balance fluid temperatures and optimize power efficiency.
• High-temperature steam turbines: Efficient steam turbines that can work with steam up to 800°C hot.
• Thermonuclear artillery shells: The final solution. An absolutely devastating artillery warhead that can annihilate biter nests at a safe distance.
• Tritium fusion thrusters: A more powerful space thruster that uses tritium-based fuel and superheated steam (500°C - 1200°C).
• Fusion thruster fuel productivity (infinite research)
• Nuclear isotope extraction productivity (infinite research), which affects the extraction of tritium from radioactive ice and the extraction of U-235 and U-238 from uranium ore.

Tritium fusion will eventually let you produce Helium as a byproduct of radioactive decay.

• Helium is produced from the slow, controlled fusion of tritium using beryllium/lithium loops.
• Helium is also recovered from used tritium fuel cells.
• Efficient circuit production: Using helium as a controlled atmosphere, you can greatly increase the speed and efficiency of crafting circuits and processors.
• Helium fusion thrusters: Helium can be used to power even stronger space thrusters, which use helium-tritium fuel and superheated steam at a specific temperature (800° - 1000°C).

Building a decent factory ship able to supply your other factories with tritium power cells and Helium is a monumental task. This is the final challenge of Bellicos.

Basic fusion

"Basic fusion" is a low tier form of fusion energy generation which uses superheated steam as a medium instead of plasma.

• The basic fusion reactor consumes either tritium fuel cells or fusion fuel cells and steam as an input, and outputs 1200°C steam as an output.
  • Steam can be easily made in space through Ice sublimation, which consumes ice to produce 15°C steam.
  • If tritium fuel cells are used, depleted tritium cells will be produced, which can be recycled into helium.
  • Basic fusion reactors have no neighbour bonus.
• Superheated steam can then be used to power high-temperature steam turbines or fusion thrusters (along with thruster fuels).
  • High-temperature steam turbines have a 800°C threshold for steam temperature. Hotter steam will produce more energy until the temperature exceeds 800°C.
  • Tritium thrusters require steam hotter than 500°C to work.
  • Helium thrusters require steam between 800°C and 1000°C to work.
• In order to maximize the efficiency of your basic fusion systems, you should mix 1200°C steam with colder steam to achieve the desired temperature.

Pictured above: a basic fusion reactor setup

Lategame research changes

All these changes are optional and can be turned off in the settings.

• Asteroid crushing productivity now require lightweight science packs instead of agricultural science packs.
• Railgun fire rate and Railgun damage additionally require lightweight science packs and pulsar science packs (respectively).
• Promethium science packs and Research productivity require lightweight science packs and pulsar science packs, since they usually require all kinds of science packs.

Trivia/Tips

• Names of the astronomical objects
  • Bellicos, the pulsar - Derived from latin "Bellicus" meaning "warrior". Refers to the erratic behavior of pulsars and the violence of their astrophysical jets.
  • The Aegis asteroid belt - In greek mythology, "the Aegis" is a legendary shield/armor carried by Athena and Zeus. Refers to the belt's protective effect against Bellicos's pulses.
  • Calidus, Nauvis's star - Latin for "warm/hot". Based on naming conventions from Space Exploration and Metal and Stars.
• When travelling towards Bellicos, ionized asteroid frequency goes up and down in more powerful waves as you approach it. This is to simulate passing near the pulsar's astrophysical jets.
• When travelling, fuel throttling through circuit logic is advised to avoid the brunt of the asteroid waves.
• Gravity shenanigans
  • Stargates have a negative gravity. If your ship is out of fuel in the middle of a space route towards them, they will be pushed away.
  • The close orbit of Bellicos has an extremely strong gravity. Beware of getting too close if low on fuel!

Recommended mods

• Temperature Combinator & Show fluid temperature in storage tank and pipe gui - Aegis & Bellicos relies on specific fluid temperatures for several buildings to work, using circuit logic to mix fluids. These two mods help with that.
• Space platform graveyard - Crossing the Aegis and travelling towards Bellicos are hard tasks, unprepared spaceships are bound to be destroyed. This mod help see what went wrong and copy destroyed platforms to improve them.
• Two More Turrets & Cannon/Shotgun Hit Asteroid - These mods allow you to use the new cannon shells against the tougher asteroids.
• Visible Planets from Space - Compatibility tested. The various space locations show up properly in space. Pretty handy to know where your ships are stationed.

Credits

• Valent125 - Creator and uploader - Coding, concepts, most of the spritework (kitbashed base game art)
• Supershadow30 - Contributor - Artworks for atomic 3D renders, sprite touch-ups, localization help, mod portal page help
• Kongy - Artworks for thumbnail, space map, research sprites and some item sprites

Shout-outs

• 5forsilver - Creator of Metal and Stars - Main inspiration behind this mod, most notably for the stargate idea
• FNEI - Mod used to display the recipes in the mod page graphs. Highly recommended.