Just cracked this mod open for the first time and it seems quite solid for an absolutely brand new release, I especially commend some of the visuals and especially the soundtrack. All in all I consider this a rising star that deserves attention but obviously still needs some work like the reuse of fulgora scrap textures and vulcanus decoratives is absolutely understandable but a bit jarring especially being on ashy ice makes the environmental storytelling a little jumbled. I really like the combat theming and I'll always go for some robotic enemies I just worry about the difficult of them since you're getting to this place post aquilo we have just about literally all the military tech in the game and probably several damage upgrades so it's a bit of a shrug combat-wise because while they certainly aren't enough alone and need support flamethrower turrets mostly trivialize the combat here and the oceans are literally made out of heavy oil and ice which with a little electricity is literally light oil or the best fuel for flamethrower turrets not to mention tesla turrets having increased effectiveness like on pentapods. So it's not like bad I really respect some of the enemies here present some interesting potential challenges but you're post aquilo and combat wise there's not much like genuinely new here strategically. There's still a lot of room for creative designs in the factorio combat space, before even considering new weapons and the like I've always loved the idea of a planet that made it actually a reasonable and not totally overkill solution to use railguns as base defense, or nukes in rocket turrets. As for the production chains I really respect it, but it is mostly another take on fulgora scrap recycling but not a bad one and I like the unusual case of automating destroyer capsules. But doing an ammoniacal solution separation kind of recipe on your ocean to get heavy oil and ice does just feel like you took the ice from fulgora's scrap recipe and dumped it in the ocean. But I do find the idea of mining depleted uranium fuel cells to be a legitimately novel and worthwhile exploration especially since it produces purely depleted uranium which again could be cool for using uranium rounds since they're easy to make here but kinda unnecessary. But having only depleted uranium and having to import enriched uranium to kickstart Kovarex, well points out the straight up deus ex machina that Kovarex is, but that's like actually quite cool and I respect it, but the scale needed for producing the nuclear bombs we need, a pretty neat production chain, well could be problematic since the 'ore' patches seem quite small but frequent. I also really like the necessity of lubricant inserters it really changes up a lot of standard designs in a way I like, not the biggest switch up ever but I respect it, and though I appreciate its absence not having almost any mechanics related to the cold despite being a half frozen moon of aquilo is odd even with its atmosphere. The spoiling of the science pack feels rather arbitrary but seeing hundreds of destroyers popping out of my chests when I got overzealous with production without handling interplanetary logistics first was rather hilarious. But mostly I really like it and especially for the first/second version ever it's a solid start. Mostly I'd say consider what experience you're going for, like the qualities on the scrap feels arbitrary and just kinda there to say okay but what if, which sure you can, but does it meaningful affect the mod for the better and how does this fit in with the rest of the planets, if it's the goal then go for it make this a planet built around and for quality, otherwise it's just a nuisance, like not allowing the placement of cryo plants, that's just irksome. But the biggest thing I look askance at in this mod is the rewards for completion which I fully understand probably aren't fleshed out yet but I can only give feedback on what I have. And for that we have combat robot productivity, a little useful for this planet but utterly worthless otherwise. Combinators productivity which is utterly pointless. Factory robot productivity which hey I won't say no to. Follower robot count which we had in the base game and is still pointless. Follower robot lifetime is similarly lackluster. Then kovarex productivity which is actually really useful I respect this. Transport belt capacity is an easy tech to throw on a planet for not much internal reason but is desirable and worthwhile. Then we get to the two actually new techs, I'm not counting lubricant inserters since they serve little point on other planets, personal tesla defense, cool but like just why? We are post aquilo this is so beyond pointless and not like incredibly better than personal laser defense, it's not really solving a problem and could reasonably be lumped with tesla turrets and teesla guns on fulgora. Then personal roboport mk 3, I mean I like it and I'm not saying no but it's not that impactful, a normal personal roboport is a nice amenity especially before you can set up a true bot grid, but mk 2 is a bit of an excessive like sure why not, this is just a bit of a shrug to me like not bad but not terribly impactful on how playing the game feels. A big hole it feels like this moon currently has is the lack of a central unique mechanic/building it feels like fulgora scrap recycling with a little aquilo ammoniacal solution separation with kovarex from nauvis and a science pack that spoils like glebas fairly arbitrarily, so currently it feels like there could be a bit of deeper look into what unique thing do you want this planet to do, you've got lubricant inserters which is a neat start and you can have a medley of other planets, but you also need your own identity. Part of it is lacking it's own building, I always like having something to automate and ship out other than just science and some more unique items and recipes or production chains grounds the mod as a more real fleshed out place rather than a surface you pop down to with endgame equipment grab the science in a couple hours and leave, post aquilo planets are especially susceptible to this, it also kinda doesn't distinguish itself as a moon in any way especially with having cerys as an optional dependency and there's little impact aquilo has on it other than in theming and looks on the star map, so just having some machine to do something unique or do an old thing better I dunno like a better oil recipe using a catalyst or lean into the nuclear and do a compat with Plutonium Energy or Buggis Nuclear bots or something. I hope this didn't come across as too negative I am well aware this literally came out today and I genuinely think you've got a rough cut gem here, some polishing and I think there's potential for a diamond here.
