[MOD 0.17.x] Modular Armor Revamp

[Peter34]

I've never been a fan of the "Tetris" mini-game of trying to fit weirdly shaped stuff in, like very wide or very tall modules. Switching to mostly square aspects would reduce some frustration, and would change the focus from module shape to how much module space each armour has.

I don't think it's much of a problem with the 7x7 and larger armours, but yes the 5x5 one can be tricky to work with. Switching to 4x6 would be good.

[Peter34]

Having played a lot more, no, I can say that I'm not a fan of the odd-numbered aspect suits. The vanilla 5x5 and 7x7 are annoying, as is the 15x15 added by this mod. Many modules, both vanilla and Revamp ones, are size 2x2 or 2x4, and so much of the space of the 25, 49 and 225 tile suits is difficult to utilize, confined to 1x1 and 1x2 Batteries.

I'd genuinely prefer it if they were re-done to 4x6, 6x8 and 14x16. There's a differnece between difficult challenge and and a frustrating hassle, and playing Tetris is not a challenge.

One thing I still miss is the special Intermediate items one had to make using Alien Artifacts, in order to craft the higher-tier modules, such as the special Fuel (Artifacts+Solid Fuel) and the Superconducting Wires. That was a fun gameplay complication that wasn't a hassle. But of course it's reliant upon Alien Artifacts, which are no longer in the vanilla game.

[Ranakastrasz]

Alright. I made a standalone armor size revamp mod, and am considered how much of this mod I am just going to throw out in general.
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/modular-armor-resize

The whole thing is just overly complicated, and most of the stuff it was intended to resolve is now either vanilla, or no longer a problem.
We no longer have no power solution before fusion, but adding a burner generator as a middle option is a good idea.
Battery storage, I am pretty sure they boosted that at one point, so I doubt it is still needed.
With the armor shape change, and the power production increase, we don't need mini legs.
Mini shields, again, were there as space fillers and an earlier shield. Since you can fit 2x2 modules in easily, I doubt it matters.

The armor is going to be 4x6, 6x8, 10x10, 10x12, and 12x12. So its all about 2x2 modules.
Solar panels are going to be 2x2.
Generator will be either 2x4 or 4x4, and have corresponding huger inventory size, so reloading isn't as annoying.

I want to remove shield changes, battery changes, conduits entirely.
Should I remove Actuator? You should be able to fit normal legs in much easier after this, AND power them.

Should I just ignore the Belt immunity equipment? I hate that thing. Not the function, but the fact it isn't just a UI toggle or something. (Will see if I can do anything there, actually)

Going to keep the reduced roboport energy capacity, and might reduce their range a bit, for user friendliness.

Should I divide all dimensions by 2, so all equipment is 1x1 instead of 2x2, and armor is 2x3, 3x4, 5x5, 5x6, and 6x6? No real functional change, but would be cleaner.

[Peter34]

I like the 2x2 chunks, in part because I suspect that they enable a better graphics resolution. If you think the grids and module sizes by a factor of 2, everything might end up looking pixilated.

Also, you seem to be implying that the largest grid will be 12x12. Why no 15x15? I mean, 15 is an odd number, but then change it to 14x16. Being able to have a huge module grid has a nice "end game" feel to it.

I agree about removing the 1x2 Exoskeletons. They're not really needed if you change all grid sizes to even numbers, and 5% speed per module is not much.

But why not have your standalone armor size revamp mod also affect your other mod, if it is active? As a stopgap solution until you can find the time to re-balance this mod?

[Ranakastrasz]

Huh. Graphics is the last think I was thinking about.
Mainly it was just that if everything is 2x2, and the grid is a multiple of 2x2, cutting both to multiples of 1x1 would have no effect, except that you could no longer place stuff in odd positions, wasting time fixing it.
But yea, I'll drop that.

Largest grid being 12x12. You are correct, it was 12x12 and 15x15, I think, before. Given vanilla is 10x10, I suppose that doesn't actually need nerfed. Its more that, as the grid gets bigger, adding size makes it get bigger faster. Also, a large factor of my making it massive was to reduce the difficulty of placing the correspondingly massive equipment pieces.

The standone one, Yea, probably will do that.

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The other thing is, still, that I have no interest in maintaining this mod, fixing Conduits, generators, rebalancing it, etc, etc. Mainly because I don't need it anymore, and partly because unless I just remove conduits, I really need to redo the entire script from scratch. I needed it originally because...
solar panels sucked
I hated the 5x5 and 7x7 grids having so much wasted space
lack of ability to store enough power in the armor
exo legs being too big and power consuming to use until Power armor Mk2.
Modular armor using blue circuits and it being easier to just wait a few minutes longer to use Power armor mk1

Since then, Solar Panels have been buffed for 3x power.
I have a much simpler mod that adjusts the size of the grids for 2x2 equipment sizes. So you can fit more useful modules into modular armor, and power armor mk1.
Batteries got buffed back in v0.13, according to the wiki. 20x capacity.
With solar buff, you don't need 20 out of the remaining 17 slots to power exolegs in modular armor. You need 7 of them, leaving 10 slots left over. Or 10 plus batteries for nighttime operation. And it gets better with power armor. So mini-legs aren't needed.
Modular armor only uses red circuits now, all all the basic components don't need blue circuits or blue science.

The weird grid size was why I went with so many weird module shapes, added lower tier shields. Legs were that and the inability to power the big ones.
Conduits were because people kept suggesting some way to transfer power from the network to armor. Burner used to literally burn coal from your inventory. That it is now part of the modding API is awesome....
Power armor Mk3 and Mk4 was purely that I wanted more raw power. And yea, I decided, I'm not nerfing that. 12x12, and 14x16 are fine.

So, basically, aside from a handful of tiny tweaks, the problems I made this mod to address are either fixed in vanilla, or fixed by that tiny mod I made yesterday, plus probably one of a dozen personal armor size increases.
I want to just strip this down to the fundamentals, but the vast majority of the mod would be torn out and thrown away, and I don't really know what I should keep.

[Peter34]

I would personally prefer that you keep everything, except perhaps the 1x2 Exoskeletons. I like this mod as it is.

[jchardin64]

Hi, any chance of updating this to v1.0?

[Ranakastrasz]

I have no intent to further update this mod. Almost all of the things this mod was made to address have been implemented. I will update Modular Armor Rescale, as it addresses the only real issue I see remaining.

-Solar-Nuclear Gap. Gap went from 112/750 to 336/720, which isn't as unreasonable. The huge charge time for minimal combat time, inability to use legs, and difficulty in charging personal roboports was a pain. Now, that problem is pretty much gone. I wouldn't object to an intermediary option, but it isn't something I feel I need.
-Alternate Power Sources. Conduit and Burners. Also having Nuclear be a burner, in effect. Burner equipment interface is part of vanilla now. The gap is small enough I don't feel the need to fill it anymore. Conduits require a lot of scripting that I have no idea how to spread to other entities, namely spidertrons.
-Power Scale. When Personal Roboports were added, they rescaled it, incidentally, exactly the same 1,000x modifier I used, even if it took a few patches.
-Equipment Shapes. This was mostly because of how the weird 5x5 and 7x7 reacted poorly with most equipment being 2x2, with some 2x4 and 4x4 thrown in, and a few 1x1. The 1x2, 3x3, etc, were largely on a whim, honestly, and just made it harder to use. Also because of power constraints, having smaller 1x1 and 1x2 items would both fit in those weirdly shaped grids and use less power, allowing solar or w.e. to feed them til lategame. This is why I DO plan on maintaining a seperate mod, Modular Armor Resize, to make armor 4x6, and 6x8, so as to let stuff fit sanely.
-Batteries. This was largely to buffer the alternate power sources, and to go with equipment shape.
-Tiny Legs, Minishields. Used less power, and 1x1 and 1x2 space.
-Laser Defense. Cutting it to a 2x2 isn't needed anymore on account of that being vanilla. Also it scales with Energy Weapon Upgrades in vanilla now, so again, no need.
-Armor Conversion. More a psychological hangup. The cost of the "wasted" armor is tiny, but I also hate making Iron and Wood chests, and wooden power poles, no matter how much their costs are pretty much a rounding error by late game.
-Armor Tiers. The T3 and T4 armor, extremely expensive and higher capacity and durability. We have spidertrons. You can also have your own armor while riding inside with lasers. Plus have several following you around. And it is obscenely durable, fast, goes semi-over water and walks over buildings, remote control, etc etc. It does everything my higher tier armors did, plus a bunch of other stuff.