Mod advice: Best expansion on enemies/weapons that isn't too difficult?

[Locane]

I'm just starting to learn more about Factorio's automation pieces - the blueprints, and the modding, and I'd like to have a more expanded experience vs. the aliens.

Side note, I've been looking for a good persistent crafting / building game that has a serious enemy component (Fortnite is great but isn't too deep automation / crafting wise). A game where there's an objective; perhaps land on the planet, survive, overcome the hostile aliens, and kill the queen, then escape. Subnautica almost scratched it, but there isn't much combat to that.

So I'm looking for an experience in Factorio where the aliens are more than just "biter" and "spitter" but that aren't ridiculously hard either - I don't want aliens tunneling under my walls or blowing up my solar array because they self-detonate or the like - I like to play Factorio (and all games like it) "firmcore" - whereby I don't want death to delete my save but I really REALLY want to avoid it.

TL;DR: Recommendations for adding enemies and/or weapons to the game that expand it without being unforgiving?

[quinor]

Curious, have you tried Creeper World 3? There is no crafting component (yet) but there is RTS/building and it might solve your craving in some way.

[Koub]

on the off-topic subject Games like Factorio, there's a whole topic here : viewtopic.php?f=27&t=7874. I guess you might find your content in there (or you can contribute if you wish ^^).
Can't help for the mods (because I play mostly vanilla), maybe using the search function on the mod portal can help :
https://mods.factorio.com/query/enemies?version=0.16
https://mods.factorio.com/query/biters?version=0.16

[HurkWurk]

Curious, have you tried Creeper World 3? There is no crafting component (yet) but there is RTS/building and it might solve your craving in some way.

I'll second this. its a game i play a ton, and it meets that requirement. while there is no crafting, there is a minor tech tree that matters a ton.

[Sarai]

I recently tried a combo of Bob's Biters and Rampant. I started in an island, so it wasn't terribly difficult to clear he few nests newr me early on. But when I had to expand to the mainland, carving out a little area proves very difficult. Then, once I assume evolution had maxed, nothing I could do would keep back the absolutely *massive* hordes coming at me! Of note, I didn't have artillery set up and I was trying a raining bullets run.

In short, use one or the other but not both, unless you really want a challenge.