Dustline

Alpha. A lunar surface buried in dust, for the base game. Sweep it up, sell it, and build from the proceeds.

The starting surface is replaced by a bounded 2048 x 2048 Moon of dust, craters and rock: no ore, trees, cliffs or enemies. Dust is the only resource. This is the first piece of a larger experimental "Realm" project for the hacktorio server.

Start a new game with it. It rebuilds the starting surface as chunks are generated, so don't add it to an existing save.

What it does so far

Brush. Every player starts with one. Hold it in your hand (Alt+B or the shortcut bar) and walk: it sweeps the dust around you into your backpack as lunar dust. Swept ground becomes clean regolith, so each patch pays once.
Three kinds of dust. Thin dust gives 1 kg a tile, ordinary dust 3 kg and deep dust 8 kg. Deep dust fills the craters; the rim is bare rock. Thicker dust slows you down.
Depot. Craftable for 20 lunar dust. It buys lunar dust and its products inside it at half price.
Mass driver pad. A silo that fires 1,000 kg of dust or products to Earth at full price: dust 1, fines 1, sand 3, moonstone 7 and glass 8 credits each. It fires on its own once full, and each launch uses one launch container (5 iron plates and 2 lunar glass).
Processing. The sifter splits 5 dust into 2 lunar sand and 3 fines. Sand smelts into lunar glass in any furnace. Researching magnetic separation unlocks a machine that picks iron ore, copper ore, stone or coal out of fines, so the vanilla tech tree works from there; sintering fuses sand and fines into moonstone.
Earth supplies. The top bar's button opens a catalogue of what the Moon can't make yet: solar panels, poles, plates, circuits, belts, inserters, chests, assemblers, furnaces, coal and labs. The team's credits pay, the buyer's backpack receives, and chat hears about it.
Progress. The top bar shows the team's credits and how much of the Moon has been swept.

Machines and vehicles that sweep for you come in later releases.

Credits

Inspired by the game Moon Sweepers. MIT licence.