[MOD 0.18.X] Paradox Tech (Early Alpha)

[FactorioParadox]

Paradox Tech

Download: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/ParadoxTech

Description:
Paradox Tech is a mod that aims to add new technologies, production chains, etc. to Factorio without completely overhauling the vanilla experience. At the moment, it doesn't offer much, but much more is planned down the line.

Features:
- Arc Furnace and Casting Machines: Melt your ores down then cast them into plates or ingots to increase ore yield.
- Electrolysis: Make oxygen and hydrogen from water and use Oxygen to purify molten metal.
- Fluid Void: For all your useless (at the moment) Hydrogen.
- Programmer art: Some people view it as a feature.
- A new science pack!
- Oxygen is now required for solid fuel.

Planned (but not guaranteed):
- Uses for Hydrogen (maybe fusion)
- Maybe a new tier of circuits.
- Gold
- Coal refining and coke production.
- Natural gas processing.
- Maybe a dedicated building for refining molten metal.

So while there isn't much here at the moment, I would appreciate any feedback you can give me on what I have so far.

Edit: You may want to use the creative mode mod to check stuff out.

[FactorioParadox]

Version 0.2.0 is out now with some minor changes:



Changelog:

Arc Furnace:
- Did graphics and sound pass.

Clean Coal:
- New technology allows you to unlock a recipe for cleaning coal.
- Clean coal gives double the energy of regular coal and emits less pollution.
- Cleaning coal also gives you a small amount of sulfuric acid as a byproduct.

Steel Production:
- Molten iron can now be refined into molten steel using the chem plant.
- 100 molten iron yields 60 molten steel

Misc:
- The Metallurgy technology and science pack now have improved icons.

[FactorioParadox]

Version 0.3.0 is out!

0.3.0:

Factorio Version:
- Updated to 0.18

Slag Slurry:
- Byproduct of refining molten metal.
- Can be reprocessed to produce more molten metal after unlocking the respective tech.
- Reprocessing slag slurry will have a byproduct in a future update.

Recipes:
- Smelting ores to molten metal in the arc furnaces now takes 60 ore and makes 900 molten metal.
- Casting machines now take 1 second to cast; chem plants now take 1 second to refine molten metal.

Technology:
- Removed Metallurgy science pack.
- Re balanced costs and research time for Metallurgy-related technologies.

Graphics:
- Slight touch ups for Arc Furnace and Casting Machine.
- Electrolysis recipe/tech now has an icon.
- Molten metals now have custom icons.

Fixes:
- Steel Ingots can now be smelted into steel plates.
- The vanilla iron plate recipe is no longer overridden.

[FactorioParadox]

So I want to talk a little bit about my plans and stuff for Paradox Tech

Metallurgy/Advanced Metal Processing:

Currently, advanced metal ore processing works by melting down Ores in an Arc Furnace, giving you impure versions of their respective molten metal. This metal is then purified in a chem plant with oxygen gas to obtain pure metal and slag, the later of which can then be processed into more molten metal. I would like to expand this to be unique for each ore by adding unique byproducts to reprocessing their slag and another step between casting and smelting ingots in a vanilla furnace that's also unique for each ore. I would also like to create a dedicated building for refining the impure molten metals, but that might not happen.

Ores and other Raw/Natural Materials:

In the vanilla game, you have copper, iron, and stone ore and coal ore as a power source and for a few recipes where thematically appropriate. Later on, you gain access to oil wells and Uranium ore, both of which differentiate themselves from the four starter ores by having interesting processing chains. All of these serve a role in vanilla that makes sense and they don't exist for the sake of it.

Currently, the only planned ore is gold ore. While I have worked out a processing chain involving mining gold with mercury and then separating the amalgam in a chem plant or something, the problem is justifying its existence. While I had planned on using it for a fourth tier of circuits, that's all I've come up with so far and am open to suggestions. As for other ores, we'll have to see.

Oil Processing and Petrochemical stuff:

I would like to expand on oil processing somewhat by adding a few new crude oil derivatives. Vanilla oil processing would be left alone and all new products would be derived from light oil, heavy oil, or petroleum, and natural gas and stuff would also be present. Just like with ores, the problem is finding good uses for these new oil products that's not too complex.

Intermediates and Progression:

One of the things I'd like to do is find new uses for lesser-used intermediates such as plastic by adding new production chains that use those products, but I haven't planned those out yet. There are also a few materials I'd like to add as intermediates (graphene is one that comes to mind).

One of the main ideas behind this mod is that vanilla progression isn't altered too much to lower the barrier to entry. I mainly want to focus on changing the late game and raising the requirements to launch the rocket. However, I don't want to add super long production chains that necessitate 30 specialized buildings (hence why electrolysis is done in the chem plant) or that make you take 5 hours just to automate red science. Basically, change enough that it's a new experience but not too much that you have to learn everything over again.

Please let me know what you think about this; this thread is for feedback after all.

[FactorioParadox]

Just released 0.2.1 which brings the recipe overwrite fix from 0.3.0 to the 1.17 version.