I've only just learnt to use it, I've put a lot of factories on the ground, and with this update you've made it impossible for me to update and expand my factories on the ground.

Because of the sacrifice of beacons, it really doesn't feel necessary to limit just space use.

besides the subject matter

and fluids will need barrels.

Can't use fluids directly, a note that I think should be changed to require lots and lots of barrels

i "had to" limit it to space since the players on my newest playthrough used them very early on to make stuff from raw ingredients so the bus was effectively nonexistent and no intermediates exisited in the real world which significantly got in the way of meaningful progress on nauvis.

i guess i could add a startup option to re-enable ground based factories.

and as for fluids, its basically a technical limitation.

Regarding fluids, there is this mod logistic-tanks(https://mods.factorio.com/mod/logistic-tanks)
It's supposed to convert fluids into items for transport, and then back into fluids.
Is it possible to consider linking with this mod or referencing it to change it, the barrels are really in high demand.

i currently see no easy solution for the fluid problem

id also like to remind anyone that this mod wasn't designed to completely replace every setup, e.g. if you do oil processing in here you'll need an unhealthy quantity of barrels for in and output so such setups are still preferable to build yourself, this mod was built with annoying space exploration science ratios in mind

In the early stages, ground planning is easy with your mod. Mid to late game, with the beacons perfected I still have to re-plan the base.
Thanks for the hard work and thanks for the answers!

you're welcome, I've noticed you likely joined the discord too so feel free to discuss it further there 🙂