Most the time spent in the early game is spent crafting machines like burner mining drills, power poles, steam engines, assemblers, etc. i think reducing these prices wouldnt make the game easier much, but significantly speed up the burner phase and pre-mall phase. Only real concern with this is later in the game less resources would be going to mall items, which slightly reduces things needed but its a pretty small amount so it should be fine.
My choices for the prices (with notes) (feel free to pick and choose the ones you agree with)
1 wood + 2 copper cable = 2 small electric pole > 1 wood + 4 copper cable = 4 small electric pole (less time spent gathering wood)
5 iron plate + 10 pipe = 2 underground pipe > 10 plates 5 pipe + 2 underground pipe (less crafting time for pipe assembler, which can be a trap for newer players at mall building if they only have 1)
8 iron plate + 5 transport belt = 2 underground belt > 6 iron plate + 1 transport belt = 1 underground belt (half craft time), (recipe can be doubled again in startup setting mod config), (i really love it when im left with an odd number of underground belts after a biter destroys an underground belt but not the one it was linked) (less craft time for the belts when making undergrounds)
4 iron plate 4 green circuit 4 transport belt = splitter > 7 iron plate 4 green circuit 2 transport belt = splitter (less craft time for belts)
2 copper plate 2 steel plate 4 iron stick = medium electric pole > 4 copper wire 2 steel plate = medium electric pole (copper plates feel really out of place considering small poles use cable just fine and nobody has any issues with it but then medium power pole doesnt get that?????) (iron sticks removed from recipe to complexity of a mall item and instead copper wire is used instead for the intermediate, also helps keep balance of copper vs iron usage.)
5 copper plate 5 steel plate 8 iron stick = big electric pole > 10 copper wire 5 steel plate = big electric pole (copper plates feel really out of place considering small poles use cable just fine and nobody has any issues with it but then large power pole doesnt get that?????) (iron sticks removed from recipe to complexity of a mall item and instead copper wire is used instead for the intermediate, also helps keep balance of copper vs iron usage.)
9 iron plate 5 iron gear wheel 3 electronic circuit = assembling machine 1 > 16 iron plate 2 iron gear wheel 1 electronic circuit = assembling machine 1 (assembling machines are never a concern for resource costs, but take forever to craft due to all the intermediates.) (will make it easier to automate more science early game)
10 iron plate 5 iron gear wheel 3 electronic circuit = electric mining drill > 18 iron plate 2 iron gear wheel 1 electronic circuit = electric mining drill (just another "not many resources spent on it (well actually yeah it is a bit of a resource sink but i compensated with increased raw iron plate demand), but super long to craft")
10 iron plate 8 iron gear wheel 5 pipe = steam engine > 25 iron plate 2 iron gear wheel 2 pipe = steam engine (wayyyyy too much time to spend crafting steam engines in the early game before you can get any kind of automation)
3 iron plate 3 iron gear wheel 1 furnace = burner mining drill > 3 iron plate 3 iron gear wheel 1 furnace = burner mining drill but at 0.5s recipe time instead of 2s (should be obvious, cant get a mall early game and 2s is a crap ton of time to be waiting around early game)
10 iron plate 5 iron gear wheel 5 electronic circuit = radar > 18 iron plate 1 iron gear wheel 5 electronic circuit = radar (where are gears used in the radar????? spinning motion? only needs 1 if its for spinning)
20 iron plate 10 copper plate 10 iron gear wheel 8 painfully long seconds of waiting = gun turret > 20 iron plate 10 copper plate 10 iron gear wheel 0.5 not so painfully long seconds of waiting = gun turret (8s is too much to spend early game just trying to defend your crappy burner mining drill stone setup, even more so in rampant or hive mind)
that's all i can think of, i really wish there was a simple way to make belts and inserters cheaper without making green science cheaper, makes up like 50% of the crafting time pre-mall.
