[MOD 0.17.x] Modular Armor Revamp

[Ranakastrasz]

Modular Armor Revamp

Description:

• Alters all modular armor equipment, adds multiple new generators, extra tiers of existing modules, and higher tier armor.

Details:

• Factorio Version: 0.17
• Released: August 15th 2015
• License: MIT License
• Tags: Modular Armor
  

Download


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Modular-Armor_17.1.0.zip

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This mod tweaks and rebalances pretty much everything connected to modular armor.

Simple changes
-All armor is fabricated used the previous tier of armor. WARNING- Remove All modules before upgrading to a higher armor tier. Any modules in the armor when upgrading are lost.

Quick Summery
-Adds new types of generator equipment that use fuel or take power from your electric network.
-Fusion reactor is renamed Fission Reactor, and uses Nuclear Fuel.
-Adds lower or higher tiers of some equipment

Generators

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-Solar (Adjusted)
    As Vanilla, but larger and more powerful. 3x the size, 7.5x the power
    Produces 75kW(525kW), takes up 3x1 space. 25kW(17.5kW)/tile.
    Power Rating of 2.5(Day) or 1.75(Averaged)
    Condition: sunlight - no player control; 70% averaged up-time
    Just as efficient than Burners during the day, less efficient averaged out.

-Solar Mk2 (New)
    Larger version, more efficient. 
    Can transfer 300kW(210kW), takes up 5x2 space. 30kW(21kW)/tile
    Condition: sunlight - no player control; 70% averaged up-time
    Power Rating of 3.0(Day) or 2.1(Averaged)
    More efficient than Burners during the day. Less efficient averaged out.

-Semi-Conducting Conduit (New) -- Disabled, Probably forever.

    Transfers power from your energy network. Reduced effectiveness when shield takes damage.
    Can transfer 40kW (4kW), takes up 1x1 space. 40kW/tile (4kW/tile)
    Power Rating of 4.0 (0.4 with shield damage)
    Condition: must be near Pole grid/in base. When a shield takes damage, transfer rate drops to 10% for 5 seconds.
    Powerful and space efficient, but doesn't work outside of a power field, and has reduced effect in combat.
    This is because the power production is done outside of the armor.
    [color=#FF0000]Nonfunctional in Non-player Grids[/color]


-Super-Conducting Conduit (New) -- Disabled, Probably forever.
    Transfers large amounts of power from your energy network. Reduced effectiveness when shield takes damage.
    Can transfer 720kW(72kW), takes up 3x3 space. 80kW/tile(8kW)
    Power Rating of 8.0 (0.8 with shield damage)
    Condition: must be near Pole grid/in base.  When a shield takes damage, transfer rate drops to 10% for 5 seconds.
    Massively and space efficient, but doesn't work outside of a power field, and has reduced effect in combat.
    This is because the power production is done outside of the armor.
    [color=#FF0000]Nonfunctional in Non-player Grids[/color]

-Burner (New)
    Basic fuel-powered generator. Uses engines, steel, and advanced circuits to fabricate.
    Produces 100kW, takes up 2x2 space. 25kW/tile
    Power Rating of 2.5
    Condition: fuel - is under player control
    Consumes Chemical fuel to Run.
	Miniaturization  results in only 10% efficient, consuming solid fuel (25 MW) in 25 seconds instead of 4 minutes.
	Fuel is easily available by cutting down trees, but logs only last 4 seconds each.
	
    
-Fission (Fusion) (Adjusted)
    Advanced fuel-powered generator. Produces 0.96MW of power, or 960kW using Reactor Fuel
    Produces 960kW, takes up 4x4 spaces. 60kW/tile. (Up from 750 and 46.875/tile)
	Power Rating of 6
    Condition: must have Esoteric fuel - somewhat expensive, but under player control.
    Produces more power than any other generator
    Uses several shield generators in it's construction for the containment field, resulting in a very steep price.
	Only 5% efficiency, due to lack of bulky supporting infrastructure.
	Nuclear Fuel with a 8GW only provide 400 mW, lasting just under 7 minutes, instead of the 2 hours and 30 minutes it would otherwise be. 


-Conduits are intended for cheap and easy in-base usage. High efficiency, but only works in base. Limited utility when outside. Batteries generally required to supplement. Alternatively, drag power lines behind you.

-Solar Panels are good for combat or utility. No fuel requirement results in zero operating costs, and significant production, but they shut down at night and have the lowest sustained production.

-Generators are intended for combat. Fuel requirement makes it more costly to use, but the higher generation rate makes it good for fighting. The fuel is generally rather cheap and easy to obtain.

-Fusion reactors are dedicated to fighting. Massive power output away from base, but costs expensive fuel to run. Hence, using it at all times is inadvisable, unless you are willing to burn a lot of uranium.

Batteries

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-Mk1
	1x1, 10MJ capacity.
	10 MJ/tile
-Mk2
	2x1, 50MJ capacity.
	25 MJ/tile
-Mk3
	2x2, 200MJ capacity.
	50 MJ/tile
-Mk4
	4x2, 800MJ capacity.
	100.0 MJ/tile
	

Utilities

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-Basic Actuator Equipment (New)
    Lower tier exoskeleton equipment.
    25kW for 5% speed boost.  1x2
    Cheaper and earlier available.
    More energy efficient, but less space efficient.
    Easier to fit in lower tier armor.
    Uses normal engines and advanced circuits.
	
-Advanced Actuator Equipment (Renamed Exoskeleton Equipment)
    200kW for 30% speed boost, 2x4, Same as Vanilla.
    Uses Basic Actuator Equipment.
    
	

Shields

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-Basic shield generator (New)
    5 Capacity, uses 10kj/shield point.
    Cheap, 1x1, high efficiency, tiny capacity, slow recharge.
	Not very strong, even in large numbers. 10 are required to match a vanilla Mk1, and that doesn't add up to much protection.
    is built from Electrostatic shield generators, as well as a speed module.
-Shield Generator (Adjusted)
    Same as current shield generator
    Uses 10 basic shields, red circuits, steel, and some superconducting coil to produce.
-Shield Generator Mk2 (Adjusted)
    Similar to old one, all stats scaled up ~2.25.
	3x3 in size as well, which is also 2.25x larger.
    Requires a T3 speed module.
	Harder to fit, but much more impressive.
	

Armor

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-Heavy (Adjusted)
	Requires Light armor, 10 less steel.
	
-Modular (Adjusted)
	Requires Heavy Armor instead of steel
-Power Armor (Adjusted)
	Requires Modular Armor instead of steel
	Requires 10 speed modules.
-Power Armor Mk2 (Adjusted)
	Requires Power Armor instead of steel
	Requires 10 Mk2 Modules instead of 5 Mk3
	Requires 50 Engine Units
	
-Power Armor Mk3 (New)
	-Higher Tier Armor.
	Easily an Order of Magnitude more expensive, in exchange for
		44% more capacity. Well worth the price however.
		
	-Tech
		500x
			Science 1 - 1x
			Science 2 - 1x
			Science 3 - 2x
			Military  - 3x
			High Tech - 5x
	-Costs
		Requires Power Armor Mk2
		Effeciency, Speed, and Productivity Modules-3 x20
		200 Electric Engine Units.
		200 Processing Units.
		200 low-density-structure
	
	-Resistances
		Physical (12,45%)
		Acid (12,45%)
		Fire (85%)
		Explosion (25,55%)
	
	-Storage
		12x12 Capacity
		+40 Inventory Slots

-Power Armor Mk4 (New)
	-Maximum Tier Armor.
		More expensive still, even requiring Rocket Science.
		56% more capacity, Overall about double that of Mk2.
	-Tech
		x1000
			Science 1 - 2x
			Science 2 - 3x
			Science 3 - 5x
			Military  - 5x
			High Tech - 5x
			Space     - 5x
	-Costs
		Power Armor Mk3
		Effeciency, Speed, and Productivity Modules-3 x100
		500 Electric Engine Units.
		1000 Processing Units.
		1000 low-density-structure.
	
	-Resistances
		Physical (15,50%)
		Acid (15,50%)
		Fire (90%)
		Explosion (30,60%)
	-Storage
		15x15 Capacity.
		+50 Inventory Slots.

Pictures

Pictures

Credits

Charging Module Icon
Battery Icons
Burner Generator Icon
Artist: Arch666Angel

TODO

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To Do
-Allow Script to run on all grids, not just players.
-Method to discharge energy into network
-Better energy distribution // No longer applicable due to burner generator implementation in vanilla.
-Integrate auto-update for other mods. / Appears to work.

Settings
Allow power Coef for Burner and Nuclear generations - change the 10% 5% to whatever%
Shield Power Share - Lets shields charge faster at all times when taking damage, but costs the power immediately.
Enable Size-shifting - Boring Vanilla sizes or interesting revamped sizes.
Mini-equipment - Enables/Disables T0 shield and leg pieces
Shield Decay - Forces shield upkeep
Fusion Reactor - Fission reactor, uses nuclear fuel, RTG generator, uses nuclear fuel in construction only.
Conduit Coef.
Alien Fuel - If alien artifacts added back in by a mod, let use to make alien fuel (maybe merged with nuclear fuel too)
Roboport Storage -- Cuts roboport storage down to a more reasonable, less power-eating insanity level. 

CHANGLOG

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17.1.0: 8/19: Updated for Factorio 0.17, Disabled conduits again.
16.1.3: 5/19: Fixed Crash when player has no avatar.
16.1.2: 4/02: Fixed Crash when equipping non-modular armor
16.1.1: 3/18: Added Conduits back in
16.1.0: 12/20: Updated for Factorio 0.16
15.1.2: Removed Low-density Structure Cost.
15.1.1: Fixed Migration script
15.1.0: Fixed Processing Unit Cost
15.0.1: Updated for Factorio 0.15
           Fusion reactor is now Fission Reactor
           Burner generator and Fission Reactor use Burner Genertor Equipment Logic, use Chemical and Nuclear Fuel.
           Conduits Disabled temperarally.
           Removed Alien Fuel.
           Updated Tech
           Updated Some recipes. Alien Science changed to Military, occasionally High tech, and for Mk4 Armor, Space Science.
           PowerScale removed. Now a 1:1 ratio. However, Burner Generators are only 10% efficient, and Fission reactors are 5% efficient.
14.1.1: Updated for Factorio 0.14
0.2.8: Added Generator cutoff threshhold.
0.2.7: Adjusted prices. Fixed Fuel Coef, Fixed T2 shield name.
0.2.6: Fixed Gameloop crash. Again. And loading issue. Again. Probably successful this time.
          Power Conduit Shield Interference added.
0.2.4: Fixed Gameloop crash
0.2.3: Power Conduit migration Fixed.
0.2.2: Power Conduit Equipment Split into Semi-conductor Conduit Equipment and Super-Conductor Conduit Equipment.
          Tried to Fix Migration scripts.. Again. (Tech research for pre-existing games)
          Dummy Pole and Solar Panel removed. Workaround Workaround was found.
          Burner Generator price increased.
          Electrostatic shield price increased.
          Armor recipes adjusted for assembler compatibility.
0.2.1: Added inventory size bonus to Mk3 and Mk4 Armor.
0.2.0: 0.13.0 Release
          added fire resist to mk3 and mk4 Armor.
          Increased battery capacity to compare to vanilla.
          Cut Global power multiplier from 100x to 10x, due to vanilla's new 10x multiplier.
0.1.8: Added new graphics from Arch666Angel for Burner Generator
          Altered prices again.
          Reduces Productivity module requirements.
          Re-buffed Conduit 400kW -> 600 kW.
          REMOVED SUEPRCONDUCTING COIL
0.1.7: Significant price and tech rebalance.
          New Sprites for Conduit and Batteries.
          Updated Icons and tech images.
0.1.5: Fusion reactor 10MW -> 9.6 MW
          Conduit 800kW -> 400 kW
          Solar Panel Mk2 Sprite Fixed.
0.1.4: Superconductor Coil stacks to 500 instead of 200
          Alien Fuel stacks to 200 isntead of 50
          Rocket fuel can be crafted into Alien Fuel more efficiently. It cannot be burned directly.
0.1.3: Updated Tech Icons
          Updated Solar Equipment Icons
          Updated Techtree
          Altered Actuator Prices.
          Altered Power Armor Prices
          Added rocket fuel as a weak but valid Fusion Fuel.
          Doubled Global power multiplier from 50x to 100x.
          -Various Script Alterations
0.1.2: Laser upgrades
Solar Migration Fix
Prefusion Compatability fix
0.1.0: Bob's Mod Removed
          Slight Solar Buff
0.0.22: Bob's Mod Compatability Prototype.
           Added Solar panels back in
           Removed shield pulse SFX
0.0.21: Added Config options
0.0.20: Removed Solar panels
            Burner Generator to T3
            Re-enabled Shield autobalance
            Added Shield animation
0.0.19: Updated for 0.12.18
0.0.18: Updated for 0.12.11
0.0.17: Added mk3 and Mk4 Powered Armor
0.0.16: Fixed Actuator equipment icons.
            Fixed orders for all items and techs.
            Renamed shields from basic, Mk1, and Mk2 to Mk1, Mk2, Mk3
            Fixed prerequisites for Mk1 Shield, Fusion Reactor, Advanced Actuator, 
0.0.15: Conduits properly stack past 12 now.
0.0.14: Superconducting Cable stack size 50->200
            Personal Roboport power values are no longer increased 50x like other modules.
            Used table insert instead of overwrite for existing technology.
0.0.12:Buffed Solar panels, Nerfed Conduit. 
0.0.11:Hopefully fixed migration issue.
0.0.10:Added experimental mod integration. Other mods that add equipment should also be scaled.
          Reduced cost of producing Alien fuel again.
0.0.9: Removed built in Conduit from modular armor.
          Increased cost of producing Alien Fuel
          Fixed Night Vision goggle's scale.
          Increased conduit transfer rate.
          Removed Fusion reactor free power generation
          Removed Battery requirement for fuel threshhold.
          Enabled Depleted Fuel Indicator.
0.0.8: Removed experimental shield autobalance.
          Increased fuel threshholds from 90% and 50% to 99% and 98%.
          Fixed icons and localization, probably.
0.0.7: Fixed migration script, allowing crafting of alien fuel and superconductor in existing games.
          Increased conduit transfer rate from 150 to 250
0.0.6: Added shield autobalance, albiet not an ideal one.
       Fixed crash when character is invalid.
       Added localization for all dummies, incase they show up.
0.0.5: Increased values an additional 5x. This ensures that energy costs are somewhat comparable with higher tier machines. 
       Added upgraded Batteries, and increased battery power.
0.0.4: Replaced Accumulator dummy with Laser turret dummy. Can get power from accumulators now.
       Added Power pole and Solar panel dummies, which should entirely remove lightning bolt animation
       Dummy units get removed if you remove the armor, the character is invalid, or you have old armor
       Fixed fatal error when you equip armor with no grid.
0.0.3: Hopefully fixed power outage warning.

[Darloth]

Thanks, looks good. Trying this today.

[Darloth]

So... how do I get the flashing alert that I'm outside of a power network to go away?

Maybe if I were using a conduit in my modular armor, this would be semi-useful, but since I'm not (roboport, solars, batteries, all vanilla), and I don't have a powernet nearly everywhere yet, this is quite annoying.

I get that there's a phantom entity under the player model to provide connection to the net for some reason, but please, if it's outside the power network for a while, get rid of it or hide the alert.

It also doesn't go away even if I take the modular armor OFF

[Darloth]

Possibly something to do with not having a conduit installed, because I didn't have the research for it.

I added a permanent electric-pole-dummy entity (had to set its collision_mask to the ghost layer to stop it blocking me) which also seems to mean I now draw from the network all the time... but this not needing a conduit is a small price to pay for not always having a blinking disconnected icon on my character!

Thanks for the frequent lua comments by the way, they made fixing this a lot easier.

[Adil]

Wait a minute, why would dummy accumulator be even placed on player if the latter shouldn't interact with electric network at the moment?

[Ranakastrasz]

Ugh. That issue is still there?
I've tried a lot of things, but it shows up intermittently. My tests don't have it showing up, but apparently there are factors than I am unaware of.

Going to go with the solar+power pole workaround.

Hopefully that fixed it. I can't be certain that it will correctly manage existing games, but It should work for new games fine.
Will try to figure out how to detect if you are in a power network with no power flow, or alternate methods of getting power from the network.

---
As a side note, all modular armor has a small transfer rate even without conduits.
When the game first detects you put modular armor on, it creates the dummy, which follows you around. If I were able to detect power networks with another method, and ideally take power from them via code instead of accumulator, I would.

[Darloth]

Would it be possible to create a phantom pole as well (so you're always connected) but then set the flow rate of the dummy accumulator to 0 both in and out unless you have a conduit?

This would get rid of the alert (the dummy accumulator is always connected to a dummy pole with 0.1 power reach), prevent you charging or discharging without a conduit, and I think if the max flow was set dynamically, it would also remove the issue where whenever I -do- connect to my full powernet, it messes up the production/consumption stats because apparently my armour can provide all its power in a single instant

Other than these minor issues, I'm really enjoying this mod. First, having modular armor that feels worthwhile is great. Secondly, being actually IN my power network is very nice - I ran a mining drill off my batteries, that was fun.

I'm also looking forward to actually useful autolasers (I almost modded that damage up myself, so I'm glad you did it) and the other options just make sense.

Only further issue I have is that because it works on specific items, now all of the bobs mod 'upgrades' are actually downgrades.

[Ranakastrasz]

Would it be possible to create a phantom pole as well (so you're always connected) but then set the flow rate of the dummy accumulator to 0 both in and out unless you have a conduit?

Well, I did that, as well as adding a dummy solar panel in the new attempted fix. I can't know if it works. For whatever reason, my game stopped showing the lightning bolts when I screwed with the selection size, but apperently that didn't actually solve the problem.

This would get rid of the alert (the dummy accumulator is always connected to a dummy pole with 0.1 power reach), prevent you charging or discharging without a conduit, and I think if the max flow was set dynamically, it would also remove the issue where whenever I -do- connect to my full powernet, it messes up the production/consumption stats because apparently my armour can provide all its power in a single instant :)Other than these minor issues, I'm really enjoying this mod. First, having modular armor that feels worthwhile is great. Secondly, being actually IN my power network is very nice - I ran a mining drill off my batteries, that was fun.

I considered this as an idea, but didn't plan to do it.
Wait what? The armor isn't supposed to be able to provide energy. At all. Its only supposed to consume. I have no idea how that happened. I set the output rate to zero....
Also, if it were intended, I have no idea how i would do it. The dummy accumulator has a truely rediculious amount of energy, and I expect it would actually act as an infinite source. Maybe... I don't actually know.
This is why they don't consume energy at night, I just know it........

I'm also looking forward to actually useful autolasers (I almost modded that damage up myself, so I'm glad you did it) and the other options just make sense.

Yep. That was the general idea.

Only further issue I have is that because it works on specific items, now all of the bobs mod 'upgrades' are actually downgrades.

Was planning to try to run a script that alters all equipment and increase values 10x for all of them.
Note that shields or other consumers are 10x more efficient, and generators 10x less efficient. Heh

Wait a minute, why would dummy accumulator be even placed on player if the latter shouldn't interact with electric network at the moment?

Mainly because, as a former Warcraft 3 modder, I am extremely reluctant to create and destroy units when not needed. In warcraft 3, that was a rather expensive operation.
Also, the basic modular armor itself has some transfer rate as well, even without conduits.

the Feedback is appreciated.
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Figured out what causes the easy discharge. I commented out the output limiter to see if it made it act like a consumer. It didn't, and let it output at infinite rate.

[Darloth]

According to the power network, the accumulator has a capacity of 5 mJ, but can provide all of that in a single instance.

Oh by the way, you have an incompatibility with the Command Control mod - your code complains of a nil reference for character because of that other mod reassigning it whenever you try and switch to a radar to view.

I think you can probably get away with just temporarily turning off all the modular armor code if the character object is nil, nobody is going to notice stuff not happening when they're off viewing a radar.

[Ranakastrasz]

According to the power network, the accumulator has a capacity of 5 mJ, but can provide all of that in a single instance.

Oh by the way, you have an incompatibility with the Command Control mod - your code complains of a nil reference for character because of that other mod reassigning it whenever you try and switch to a radar to view.

I think you can probably get away with just temporarily turning off all the modular armor code if the character object is nil, nobody is going to notice stuff not happening when they're off viewing a radar.

Ah, That might also fix a possible issue with dead characters which I forgot about.

[tomcat]

crashed to main menu with this error upon crafting iron armour

Error while running the event handler: __Modular Armor__/control.lua:246: Given item does not contain a grid.

[Ranakastrasz]

crashed to main menu with this error upon crafting iron armour

Error while running the event handler: __Modular Armor__/control.lua:246: Given item does not contain a grid.

Turns out 0.12 added a bunch of validation functions, and made attempts to use stuff without checking validation first causes errors. Will be fixed in next version.
Thank you for the report

---
I just realized that Laser turret is almost ideal for energy consumption. It has a battery of adjustable size, and doesn't actually have to decay. The weapon is easy to disable, give it zero range, limit break energy cost, and cripple the attack function.
---
Figured out solutions to at least some of the problems.

Should have all of the problems fixed. I cannot be 100% certain however.

[Peter34]

This looks like a super nice mod.

Right now I'm just "shopping" around looking for good mods, since I don't intend to play (at least not seriously) until alpha 13 comes out, but this one looks good, and I hope you'll continue to update it.

One thing, though: It seems as if you haven't done anything with Batteries. Does that mean that you're happy with the amount of energy that vanilla a12 Batteries MkI and MkII can store?

Back in a11, I asked a modder to make a mot, that ended up as PreFusion, which gave a 50% boost to Modular Solar Panels, and a large boost to MkI Batteries and a medium boost to MkII, because I was deeply unhappy with the energy geneation/storage ability prior to the invention of fusion. And it's my understanding that in a12, they simply increased the power geneation and energy storage of all Modular Armor modules proportionally, thus not removing the need for PreFusion or something like it (although PreFusion hasn't been updated for a12).

Is it your opinion that your mod improves things so that there's no need to boost Battery energy storage?

It might well do so. The part that annoyed me about vanilla a11 (and will still annoy me in vanilla a12, unless I'm mistaken) is using a Modular Armor with ExoSkeleton to be able to move around faster inside my own base, getting from place to place. Doing that, using Solar and Batteries (even MkII Batteries) I'd run out of energy super fast, even with jus 1 ExoSkeleton.

Your mod adds the ability to recharge from nearby Power Poles, and that might radically improve this aspect of the game, so that energy storage is only a genuine concern when venturing outside one's base, or travelling between different bases not along a Power Pole line.

[Ranakastrasz]

This looks like a super nice mod.

Right now I'm just "shopping" around looking for good mods, since I don't intend to play (at least not seriously) until alpha 13 comes out, but this one looks good, and I hope you'll continue to update it.

I do that alot too. Generally the fun part is when you realize that some of them are incompatible later.

One thing, though: It seems as if you haven't done anything with Batteries. Does that mean that you're happy with the amount of energy that vanilla a12 Batteries MkI and MkII can store?

Back in a11, I asked a modder to make a mot, that ended up as PreFusion, which gave a 50% boost to Modular Solar Panels, and a large boost to MkI Batteries and a medium boost to MkII, because I was deeply unhappy with the energy geneation/storage ability prior to the invention of fusion. And it's my understanding that in a12, they simply increased the power geneation and energy storage of all Modular Armor modules proportionally, thus not removing the need for PreFusion or something like it (although PreFusion hasn't been updated for a12).

Is it your opinion that your mod improves things so that there's no need to boost Battery energy storage?

Mostly I haven't gotten around to it. I was a bit more concerned with getting the conduits and power plants working, and when I redid solar panels I adjusted their power up. Most likely I got the +50% power level from the same place you did.
Batteries, if not actually worthless, aren't really the most impressive modules ever. I've seen several scifi games where you had a choice between modules to increase generation and capacity, and in almost all cases, Generation was always better. Mainly because capacity, unless required for instant usage (shield needs enough energy to totally block the attack, or attack requires you to expend xx power to use) is far less useful. If you have 100 capacity and 5 generation, vs 50 capacity and 10 generation, the first one's only advantage is that if you need, say, 50 energy each second for as long as you can manage, you have a little over two seconds instead of a little over one second. It lets you fake higher generation rates. However, once you run out of steam, capacity is worthless. Good for alpha strikes, bad for everything else.
/Rant
Anyhow, I am probably going to increase battery capacity 5-10x, and probably add a 2x2 or 2x4 sized one as well. Haven't decided yet. There were several things that tripped me up.
One was that I didn't have a 2x2 battery model, and using paint.net to put two of them side by side, while technically function, doesn't look good. I couldn't find a good sprite online, unlike the conduit. Which is probably the worst of all possible reasons, but it still tripped me up. Also, I wanted the t2 battery to be larger, but I didn't want to jump to 2x4 immediately. So its a bit tricky.

It might well do so. The part that annoyed me about vanilla a11 (and will still annoy me in vanilla a12, unless I'm mistaken) is using a Modular Armor with ExoSkeleton to be able to move around faster inside my own base, getting from place to place. Doing that, using Solar and Batteries (even MkII Batteries) I'd run out of energy super fast, even with jus 1 ExoSkeleton.

Same thing. In vanilla, if you had basic modular armor, a single speed boost module takes up 8 of the 25 slots, leaving you with 17. That is enough for 170 generation, daytime only, which isn't sufficient to power them. With a battery in there, it can get some uptime, but not alot.

Your mod adds the ability to recharge from nearby Power Poles, and that might radically improve this aspect of the game, so that energy storage is only a genuine concern when venturing outside one's base, or travelling between different bases not along a Power Pole line.

This mod, at least partly, was to solve that kind of issue, yes.
First, that at the start, you generally could get night vision (sacrificing most of your space) and a few shields (with really, really slow recharge times) and some batteries, powered by really pathetic solar panels. Once you got larger armor, and a single fusion reactor, solar panels were all entirely worthless, and you could generally power everything (except enough lasers to do something useful)

The smaller speed boost module was setup to be generally easier to use in aspects,except that it is less space efficient. I wanted to be able to get a speed boost earlier.

Conduits just because, well the power already exists, and, even if it is really a graphical simplification, beam power from electric poles directly into machines, so it seemed reasonable.
Also, I thought back on the HALO books I read a while back, where the original powered armor prototypes used power cords before they actually installed the on-board nuclear reactors.

Fusion reactor requiring fuel was to ensure that you didn't just build a fusion reactor and consider that to be enough. You would want to make sure you could afford the fuel for the massive power output as well.

After that, I realized that part of the issue was also that, with two generators, one that was kinda t1, and the other like t3, there was no middle ground. So I thought of a few options.
I was going to go with Conduit, Engine, Solar, then fusion, going from 1x1 to 2x2 to 3x3 to 4x4.
I decided not to alter the basic solar panels, and instead made them much cheaper and added a second level.

Also, I wanted to have higher tier stuff to be larger than lower tier stuff in general, so that upgrading wasn't just, take it out, put the higher tier one in. Make the little minigame a bit more difficult.

Shields, well, I had a bunch of rather crazy ideas, but I dropped them. I was going to have multiple tiers, as well as seperating them into capaciter and charger, but decided it wasn't really a good idea to have 6 different types of shields, 3 types of conduits, two engines, 3 solar panels, etc, etc, etc.
----
I suppose that got away from me.-

[AlexTheNotsogreat]

What is this "superconducting coil" stuff that I can't craft?

[Ranakastrasz]

You unlock it after aliwn tech research. Uses copper and alien artifacts.

[AlexTheNotsogreat]

You unlock it after aliwn tech research. Uses copper and alien artifacts.

Ok, but does it only work on new saves. Because I have it researched, but it isn't showing up in the crafting.

[Ranakastrasz]

You unlock it after aliwn tech research. Uses copper and alien artifacts.

Ok, but does it only work on new saves. Because I have it researched, but it isn't showing up in the crafting.

Possible. Will need to look into that.
Edit:
Yes, The problem is that I misunderstood Migration scripts. You apparently need to have a custom one for any technology unlocks as well.

[AlexTheNotsogreat]

Alright, hopefully you get that fixed soon

[tomcat]

a few ideas for your perusing:

personal crafting machine, boosts the players crafting speed when installed, and consumes power while they are crafting,
power arm, boosts manual mining speed and consumes an amount of power per mined object
personal gun defence, adds a small shoulder mounted gun turret, a ammo consuming alternative to the personal laser turret with the same (dis)advantages as the gun turret, much lower powerusage (just to autoaim the gun), but lower range and is affected by physical defence, a lower-tier alternative to the personal laser, (2wx1h?), have it mirror the dps of the pistol?

also an more farfetched idea that im not sure is possible is a "railgun power transfer unit" along with activating and making work the already in code railgun weapon, since railguns use inert ammo and electrical power, have the "power transfer unit" consume suit power every time the railgun is fired, along with its ammunition.