Glebas research tree is gated behind the Ag tower, which is a trigger unlock requiring mining of iron stromatolite.

My starting island/hex doesn't have those, resulting in an immediate softlock (Gleba as first planet, no Mech Armour).
There are also no copper stromatolites.

I realised that I don't have enough coins to do anything on Gleba except suffer. I'll stay on Nauvis for a little longer, so no hurry with a fix.

I ran into something similar on Vulcanus and Fulgora - it wasn't strictly softlocked, I realized I had to bring coins with me. At least in Fulgora's case, it's very open and the quests give you plenty of free hexagons to expand early on (and the die by electricity quest is accessible with no items). And at least on the foreign planets, the trade values are much higher so gathering coins isn't so bad - once you get going.

edit: Lazy Looter gives free hex claims on Nauvis only. Forget the rest of this message :)

Looked at the quests again. Lazy Looter would give a bunch of free hex claims.

I do have a dungeon prepared to unlock that quest immediately. That might get me all the stromatolites.
Imho progression shouldn't rely on that though.

I also peeked into Vulcanus and Fulgora.

Vulcanus generated the first acid geysir multiple hexes away. That is the same softlock as on Gleba.
(Technically worse, because Gleba in theory allows you to mine several thousand stone to landfill your way to stromatolites.)

Fulgora faces no such issue. Oil oceans are walkable and a Fulgoran vault ruin should appear somewhere.
Might be nice to have it spawn somewhat close though.

Glebas research tree is gated behind the Ag tower, which is a trigger unlock requiring mining of iron stromatolite.

My starting island/hex doesn't have those, resulting in an immediate softlock (Gleba as first planet, no Mech Armour).
There are also no copper stromatolites.

I realised that I don't have enough coins to do anything on Gleba except suffer. I'll stay on Nauvis for a little longer, so no hurry with a fix.

The intention was that if you don't bring coins, your fastest way forward is to mine the starter stone to landfill to the closest hexes containing stromatolites. You're not forced to mine it by hand (burner tech works fine, or you can send some solar panels down from your spaceship), so it shouldn't take too long, and you can place landfill with one tile of spacing between each to go twice as far. I can look into spawning some stromatolites in the starter hex, though. It would at least be a huge QoL, saving time more than anything.

I have changed the Gleba spawn hex to include two rows of stromatolites, one for each type. Coming in 1.5.3.

Reason I made this thread is that in Space Age, the inner planets have everything the engineer needs to get back into space without any imports. Modded of course doesn't have to work that way. Thanks for adding the stromatolites.

Any chance Vulcanus gets a similar treatment? It's not as straighforward in this case, adding a sulfuric acid geysir is not enough. The planet is basically unuseable until unlocking Foundries.

Can you maybe add a text to the quests of "travel to planet XYZ" that engineers should bring materials/coins?

I think it's better if I make them more self-sufficient like normal Space Age, rather than to strongly encourage bringing coins. I'll find a way to make Vulcanus a bit less grindy at the start if no coins are brought. My current idea that I'm leaning towards is to add a quest which can be completed in the spawn hex to give a handful of free claims, allowing you to get to some sulfuric acid geysers and get some space for building and picking up tungsten ore. I did already add a quest to give 2-3 free claims or something, but I can add another so that it's much less likely you get stuck in a long grind even after getting the free claims. Also, it's probably worth getting the Lazy Looter quest's reward (a spidertron) for easy mobility on Vulcanus, allowing endless collection of tungsten, as well as powering remote, unclaimed sulfuric acid geysers (you'd have to manually deliver calcite for remote steam power until the hex is claimed). But again, it shouldn't force you to complete some quest on Nauvis (and to bring the spidertron with you) just to have that much extra flexibility in starting out on Vulcanus. So, new quest coming in 1.5.3 to make Vulcanus less grindy.

Can the spidertron cross the lava border? If so, neat. Could add a hint to the Lazy Looter quest text to help people who are capable of reading ;)

I stepped on all inner planets by now, but only in a forked save to peek ahead. My knowledge of how to get started is limited.
I do agree that a grindy part is not desireable. I don't think anyone is happy about handmining after unlocking bots. Quick reminder that this entire thread runs on the assumption of no imports.

For Vulcanus, a single acid geysir on the starter hex should be enough to cover power and the trigger tech. (How much power consumption can you fit on one hex?). This way, engineers cannot screw themselves by claiming too many hexes before realising they need acid.

A bunch of rocks would give enough tungsten for a few Foundries. One of the appealing things to me is the limited scope when starting out with a single hex. With tungsten via rocks, we would relive this again on V.

I think this is also better from a game design perspective: Right now we're given the starter hex, and immediately have to get more because it isn't enough to build a working factory.
Alternatively, we get what we need for a crude factory, and can expand if we want more.

PS: I'm more or less ready to leave for Gleba. Almost waiting for 1.5.6 (and hoping that the changes apply, Gleba has not yet been generated on the main save) - no hurry though, currently busy with IRL and still need to prep platforms.

1.5.6-1.5.7 are released. 1.5.6 introduced a terrible bug that didn't show up in my testing, and 1.5.7 solely exists to fix it. Your Gleba will be generated with the stromatolites :)

Thank you very much.
I realised I didn't read messages here carefully enough, stromatolites have been added in 1.5.3, which is what I was waiting for.