Brought to you by the power of mad science and non-existent safety protocols, Maraxsis Biolab Augmentation allows you to upgrade your biolabs' quality with increasingly large quantities of omega-3 fatty acids along with various other doodads. Because omega-3s are essential for brain health and biolabs are basically brains ... or something like that.

This mod is meant to add a logistical, spoilage, and quality challenge that fits Maraxsis' theme of quality improvement. Any horror undertones are purely aesthetic for now. (Because I don't know how to script a mutated biolab uprising - yet.)

How?

Craft normal quality biolabs on Nauvis as you normally would. Then, ship them to the trenches of Maraxsis to upgrade them up each step of the quality ladder, with increasingly demanding recipes. Finally, return them to Nauvis and let them do your research for you.

Difficulty, Options, and Features

Your task is not an easy one (but this is configurable).

Spoilage

Biolab items (not the building entity) will spoil if you don't place them down soon enough. The timer is generous by default, but you need to ship them across space (and back) and upgrade them through up to 4 time-consuming recipes before the spoilage timer runs out.

Danger

If a biolab does spoil, the biters that were consumed in the lab's creation will reconstitute themselves, and escape with a thirst for vengeance and destruction. Moreover, any upgrades to the quality of the biolab will transfer to the biters it unleashes! Use caution, and move quickly.

The existence, timing, and result of biolab spoilage is configurable in the mod settings, if you wish to make this mod easier or more difficult.

Changes to SA and Maraxsis

You no longer need to master Aquilo before starting omega-3 production - this mod adds a less efficient recipe unlocked alongside Hydraulic Science, while the default post-Aquilo recipe is unchanged.

By default, biolabs above normal quality cannot be crafted using the standard Space Age recipe. This means you must use this mod's quality upgrade recipe chain. (This can be disabled if you wish in the mod settings).

K2SO Compatibility

If Krastorio 2 Spaced Out is installed, this mod will add K2 items to various upgrade steps. Additionally, there is a setting (enabled by default), to require legendary biolabs to craft Krastorio 2's endgame singularity lab.

Attempted Modded Quality Support (Experimental - Use with Caution)

This mod attempts to adapt to the addition, change, or removal of quality tiers. Rather than detect specific mods, it does its best to iterate over the quality "chain" beginning with normal quality. Recipes for higher quality tiers are procedurally generated and will not be nearly as exciting as the default tiers however.

Notes and Future Plans

I started this during a bout of fixation on Maraxsis and the possible balance and uses of Fish Oil / Omega-3 in that mod, and it just evolved in odd directions from there. I am thinking about additional modded planet compatibility if it fits the themes (for example : Moshine and Panglia). Balancing is probably still a work in progress.