2 example blue circuit builds for comparison:
- https://katiska.dy.fi/n/temp/factorio/blueprints/production/blue-circuits.png
- https://katiska.dy.fi/n/temp/factorio/screenshots/beacon-rebalance/blue-circuits.png

similar build in vanilla:
- 128 prod modules
- 68 beacons (30 MW)
- 136 speed modules

build with beacon rebalance:
- 128 prod modules
- 1 mk3 beacon (20 MW)
- 20 speed modules

I really like how beacon placement rules allow more interesting builds than columns and boxes of vanilla beacons.
But with vanilla module balance, wide area beacons are too powerfull and cheap.

Maybe correct solution would be to have fewer module slots and require more expensive higher level modules for same effect (e.g. max 8 modules with T5 speed modules (+120%, cost: 16 T3), Or alternatively have dedicated wide area beacon modules and modify normal modules to have only 10% effect in wide area beacon instead of 50%. (Long Range Speed module could cost for example 5 x T3 modules, and would work in wide area beacons without additional penalties )

Yes. They are powerful and relatively inexpensive (compared to the SE beacons I balanced them off of). I do feel that the mk3 beacons might be too cheap, but they already cost about 17x the raw resources that a mk1 beacon takes to build (2k iron and 3k copper for mk3 vs mk1's 110 iron and 135 copper). I might increase the power draw of the beacons to better match vanilla, though.

As for the possibility of beacons using different modules, I'll give that a... maybe. I'll look into if it's possible to restrict what modules can be placed into beacons. Might end up as an addon mod, though.

Thank you for your feedback on the mod. Also, that's one nice blue circuit build that perfectly showcases why I made this mod.

Yeah, it's hard to balance beacon costs, since it's not really the beacon itself but the modules that are resource intensive :)

I think wide area beacons with dedicated expensive wide area modules could be a balanced solution (as an addon or another config variable). Of course that prevents you from using cheap t1 modules in your beacons while you are scaling up (unless you have tiered modules, 'Wide area {speed, efficiency} module {1..3}')

If it's possible to limit module types per beacon type, I can help with some balancing and numbers if you want.

Anyway, it's a nice mod :)