Hi! This by far is one of the most unique planet mods I've played (its top 3, other 2 and Linox and Maraxis for reference out of 10 or so). Learning it has been fun and boomy.

For the active plates, is the freshness paused while crafting or is it not? This is 2.1. I'm assuming not, but its not easy enough for me to see,

Thanks, I'm glad you're enjoying it!

It depends on which recipe you're referring to. Creating activated plates from stable plates always crafts at full freshness. For recipes like the science pack, that take in an active plate and spit it back out again, freshness does not pause while crafting; the active plates will keep spoiling while the recipe is crafting. If an active plate spoils during crafting, the recipe will complete normally, and an unstable plate will be returned instead of an active one (the unstable plate will always be 100% fresh).

An easy way to test how the game engine handles these cases is to set up a circuit condition to disable the machine partway through crafting; then wait different amounts of time before reenabling the machine to see what the outcome is.

Let me know if you have any other thoughts or feedback on the planet!

The only thing I could suggest would be a more interesting way, different way to make steam, like a barrel of water used in the pressure forge crushed to make steam with a chance at hydrogen/oxygen/steel plate. Otherwise the hydrogen loop is interesting as is.