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Everyone is creating all kinds of great new mods to make everything bigger and better down at the end of the tech tree, so I went a different route...

What if it was harder to build up to electricity? What if the burner equipment wasn't almost automatically obsolete?

This is just an early prototype/demo at this stage, so it doesn't do a heck of a lot apart from slowing down the early game a bit. I welcome new ideas (and help, because I'm not the greatest at lua, and my graphics skills leave much to be desired as well ) for expanding it further.

There are three new techs you'll need to research:
1) Metal working - required for even turning iron into plates, unlocks a special research furnace (red science packs only) which is used to research the next two techs
2) Steam power - required for burner stuff and steam engines, unlocks a burner assembling machine (cost: 5 red science packs)
3) Electricity - once you get to here, you're pretty much at the start point for a regular game of Factorio (cost: 50 red science packs, thereby encouraging you to automate with burner power)

Metal working needs to be easy to get, so just collect iron + copper ore = 10 ore, and it will be researched automatically for you. It's like the time required to study the alien metals before you are able to work with them effectively.

If you like, you can actually start researching some of the normal techs once you get metal working. The research furnace only accepts red science packs, but you can easily get some automation going using the new burner assembling machine to make them for you

I recommend using this with DyTech for the stone gears (which I've incorporated) and the wooden axe. Reygan's mod also has a stone axe in it which fits in well (not sure where that came from originally, but if you have the original mod, it should work too).

The other thing I did was make existing techs depend on the new early techs before you can research them, and recipes unlock only when you can actually build them. For instance, the iron axe now requires metal working. So far, this applies to the following mods too:
- DyTech (pre-modular version, because modular version is still missing a bunch of stuff)
- F-Mod
- TreeFarm
- Reygan's assembly mod
- Bob's Plates
- Floors
- Belt Switchers

I run a butt-load of mods, and haven't encountered any weirdness yet, but let me know if you do.

Still working on balancing tech costs. It's probably too fast or too slow for some people right now.

Also, another thing you can try if you want an even slower start is to remove the starting furnace, burner miner and iron plates from the player in data\base\scenarios\freeplay\control.lua. (At least that's how I play )

Current version is 0.0.2 and can be downloaded here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B07U8U ... ENabUFUdFk

Changelog:
0.0.1
- Initial Release
0.0.2
- Toolbelt now requires Electricity (for unlocked green science packs)
- Research furnace now only takes red science packs, and not plates, etc. Steam power now costs 5 red science packs. Electricity now costs 50.

Epic work!

My only thoughts are;

-Power Suppliers
--Wooden Windmill (Can't rotate.)
----Stone Windmill (Can rotate.)
--Water Wheel

-Power Users
--Auger

Thanks!

Updated to 0.0.2.

Wind/wood/water power is an interesting idea... Maybe a windmill / water wheel could generate a very limited amount of electricity which could then only power nearby devices, like the offshore pump or a simple mining tool, but they would be unable to be attached to the main electrical network.

Madd_Mugsy wrote:Thanks!
Updated to 0.0.2.
Wind/wood/water power is an interesting idea... Maybe a windmill / water wheel could generate a very limited amount of electricity which could then only power nearby devices, like the offshore pump or a simple mining tool, but they would be unable to be attached to the main electrical network.

I was thinking more along the lines of a very basic mechanical power system. Could even have a hand crank that the player can stand near to supply some power to mechanical devices.

(The main problem I see with Burner stuff is that ALL of it should function like a boiler. Coal & water go in. Mechanical/Rotational/Torque comes out. Powers very basic machines directly next to power supplier.)

I don't know if mechanical power is possible though... I think there's only electric and fuel power in the game.

I was thinking of low output electricity, with no connections for poles, but the windmill (for instance) would provide a blue grid on its own (if that's even possible), which could then power low-electric-required items (ie: auger). However, this would mean that these items would be usable in a normal electric grid as well, which doesn't make much sense.

Madd_Mugsy wrote:I don't know if mechanical power is possible though... I think there's only electric and fuel power in the game.

I was thinking of low output electricity, with no connections for poles, but the windmill (for instance) would provide a blue grid on its own (if that's even possible), which could then power low-electric-required items (ie: auger). However, this would mean that these items would be usable in a normal electric grid as well, which doesn't make much sense.

Which sounds pretty much like what I said. But here's how we streamline that issue. They output mechanical energy, so also add a simple electric generator, and now all that torque they're making can be turned into electricity.