Biological Machines: Modpack

Warning

The mod module inserter is not included as a dependencies because it is not compatible with 2.1. It will be re added once updated.

Panglia is a recomended dependency because it is in beta/currently being updated and will be made a required dependency once it is more complete.

I recommend bringing a significant supply of food to start on Wit as it takes time to produce locally.

Any sufficient platforms (no players and a suspended clone) sent to the new system will be destroyed.

All BM mods should be safe to add to existing saves (and subsequently remove) but some have complications, see individual mods warnings for details. If there is nothing relevant in the mods warning, it can be added/removed without complication.

Description

Biological Machines is a space age overhaul focused on mundane and sci-fi biological processes. The pack adds new technologies, recipes, intermediates, buildings, weapons, equipment, planets, resources, a hunger mechanic, clones, a warp drive and more. This mod is the intended BM experience, although it only contains settings tweaks and dependencies, any of which may be left out for preference/compatibility.

Includes

Most optional/recommended dependencies for the above mods are modified by compatibility patches which can be skipped by disabling the mod override setting. All override settings are enabled by default and can be disabled for preference/compatibility. Any compatibility patch which fixes game breaking bugs has no override setting.

Features

Alternative nutrient sources on Nauvis, Vulcanus and Fulgora
Berries are farmable in the early game on Nauvis with agricultural tower
Unique bacteria can be collected on Vulcanus and Fulgora, both of which spoil into spoilage
Hunger, food is consumed directly from the engineers inventory. The consumed food type is determined by a ranked list in a new shortcut menu
Different foods provide passive speed/regen buffs or speed debuffs while they are being consumed
Equipment exists which prevents starvation and allows eating u-235 for a large buff
Capsule effect of base game foods has been moved to dedicated items
Brambalite from Panglia also used in speed capsules and fluroflux a new intermediate for better food and specimen production
New early game machines scrapyard (slow polluting recycler) and carbonizer (insert burnables, get out carbon + byproducts)
Recipes are overall made slightly more complex and use significantly more biological intermediates
Electronic circuits are made with circuit boards instead of iron, smelting produces slag which can be crushed, steel is made with carbon, oil is cracked with ethanol, etc
Glass can be made from sand potash and lime and is used in many recipes including circuit boards
Pistons are a new iron intermediate, added to rebalance overall copper/iron/stone consumption
Production and inner planet science packs are tweaked and made slightly more complex
Oil can be made from seeds using new biodiesel recipe unlocked on Gleba
Boompuffs can be farmed on Gleba and can be used to produce grenades, explosives and napalm
Rocket parts are produced outside of the rocket silo using planet specific recipes. Different planets require more or less rocket fuel based on its gravity and also require a somewhat unique shielding material including steel on Nauvis and tungsten carbide on Vulcanus.
Radioactive tissue is dropped by biter spawners and can be propagated in biochambers by feeding it u-235 and bioflux. The tissue can be used to produce...
A new nuclear military science pack required for nukes, uranium ammo, portable reactors, biolabs, etc
A new military assembler used to produce ammo, turrets with 50% base productivity
Poison gas which can be crafted into capsules, landmines, machine gun rounds and mortar bombs. Damage can be increased by a new infinite technology
Hardened tissue which can be processed into more uranium than the amount required to produce the tissue, effectively turning bioflux (and iron ore) into uranium
Biolabs which now also consume u-235 as fuel instead of electricity
Clone bodies
Clones can be produced with quality and stored in tanks
Stored clones must be fed suspension fluid to stay alive and can be used to respawn at via new respawn menu
Getting into a tank immediately respawns the engineer and fills the tank
Quality clone bodies give the engineer increased health and movement/crafting/mining speed
Space science production is moved to a new moon of Nauvis, Wit. It's cratered surface is covered in asteroid ore, copper sulfate crystals, glass shards and helium
Travel to Wit on a space platform supplied entirely from Nauvis
Produce helium power cells, a new intermediate used in laser turrets, robotics facilities and more
Craft new robotics facility building (50% base productivity on inserters, bots, equipment, etc) which is required to produce space science and asteroid collectors
Adds advanced solar panels crafted with helium power cells and superconductors
Adds promethium ore which can first be found on Wit and Fulgora to craft promethium science packs. The science packs then unlock the shattered planet and other late game tech.
Return to Wit post Aquilo to produce interstellar science packs and unlock late game tech including the warp drive. The warp drive allows moving platforms to teleport to their destination and are basically required to reach late game space locations in a timely manner.
Interstellar science is produced with trained AI cores from Moshine
A new planet Balack is added post Aquilo with very strong armored biters, worms, stomper pentapods and wrigglers. The surface has a new scrap and pumpable fluid which can be used to produce basic items. Discovering the planet unlocks the biofabricator which can only be placed at spawn and has massive pollution output/energy demands. The biofabricator is required to produce
Radiation shielding from lds, tungsten carbide, carbon fiber and promethium chunks. This is required to produce almost everything on Balack including a tank mk2, mech armor mk2, ~~nuclear powered bots~~ (returning eventually) and promethium belts (90 items/sec)
AI control modules, built using all 4 tier 3 modules, quantum processors and radioactive tissue. Provide large speed buff at the cost of quality/productivity/energy consumption/pollution debuffs. These modules can be temporarily activated in multiple ways producing modules which give massive quality or productivity buffs
Warp drive parts which must be sent to space to craft warp drives on the platform where they are built
A new surface in the engineers home system, the Dyson sphere construction station. The surface has an input port to deposit construction materials and an output machine to collect credits paid in return. The credits can be spent in new market buildings
The market is one way to obtain energy link cores which are used to craft interstellar energy links which provide free power from the Dyson sphere to any surface they are placed on. only 1 per surface, energy produced scales with quality
Super credits can be purchased in the market and recycled into quality credits to buy quality items from the market
Credits can also be earned by sending a space platform to the distant solar system space location. In universe, the platform is meant to establish a new independent colony which will send resources back to the construction platform. As a result the platform is deleted from you game once it reaches the distant system, it must contain a suspend clone (to do the colonizing) and cannot be ridden by an active player. Achieving this is the new end of the game although it may be continued after as usual
The pack also has recomended/required dependencies on many standalone content mods that fill gaps in the main BM mods including Crushing Industry, AAI loaders, Thruster upgrades, etc

Future Plans

Bugfixes
Balance tweaks including extra settings so players can customize the balance for their preferences
Explanations in the form of item/recipe/tech descriptions, tips, menu screens
Compatibility with content mods including planets like Maraxis and Cerys
Graphics upgrades including berry bush, circuit board, scrapyard, recipe icons, the Bio fabricator and more
Code cleanup
Additional content submods including better robots, a Gleba moon, an enemy on wit, demolisher spawners on Vulcanus and Orbital ion cannon

If you want to help with anything, particularly with graphics or additional localizations, please let me know I would appreciate it.

Credit

Inspiration and concepts of a plan from AAI Industry + Krastorio 2. Specifically DoshDoshington's playthrough and critique on Youtube.