By startup I mean that the unexpected error message pops up before I even get to see the factorio logo or the loading progress bar, at all.
Rolling back to 2.0.67 is enough to fix the problem, after searching the forum and trying to force enable opengl in there and updating back to .69 the game also ...

Wait are those... laser turrets in the middle of the base on gleba? Among a number of launch sites aka the location that would probably be very important to defend and as such - likely far away from the defensive perimiter?
ss_01fc7bc3f9a2024a15be6165ab4de1081cff57ce.jpg
Now mind you, none of the ...

That did the trick, looks like everything works this way, thx.

1.1.108 and 1.1.109 the issue persists, don't see any changes in log file either.
Reverting to 1.1.87 isn't enough to fix it apparently, 1.0.0 works and I also know I've been playing on 1.1 for months without issues so I'd assume the problem appeared somewhere between those points.

Screenshot 2024-06-08 at 17.45.37.png

Haven't played in a couple weeks so can't be 100% certain about exact timeframe but at least I can't recall this ever happening in the past.
Don't recall changing any audio related settings. No other issues with audio in any other apps.
As an expiriment I ...

I just changed it to sodium-processing-2 so its in-line with the recent update to tech tree. Its in /mods/Clowns-Processing_1.3.21/prototypes/technology-updates.lua, line 35. I had to do a bunch of different fixes yesterday but I think this was all it took for this conflict specifically.

yep, found the line a quick local edit seems to have temporarily resolved the conflict tho its probably better to wait until they do a proper update. thx!

After downloading all latest updates I now can't load the game with all the AB mods and get this:
Screenshot 2023-12-23 at 16.50.06.png
on startup.
Simply disabling madclown and reskins doesn't seem to change much aside from adding petrochem to the list
Screenshot 2023-12-23 at 17.10.40.png ...