Factorio Forums

TL;DR

Balance/progression suggestion: remove cryogenic science pack from legendary quality technology research, such that the top quality is unlocked before Aquilo, but after all other planets together. That is, I want to argue that https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Legendary ... quirements belongs to vanilla.

Why

There's a bit of a positive and negative reasoning here.

The negative reasoning is that I am one of those checkbox-motivated players, who feel compelled to reach the victory screen, but then just don't feel motivated to engage in post-game. So, by the time I get my Aquilo base going, the victory screen is just within reach, and I go for that, and then don't really have motivation to explore quality. Moving quality earlier fixes that, as you can engage the mechanic calmly, without victory screen dangling in front of your nose as a distraction.

This negative reasoning of course applies only to people similar to me, but the positive reasoning case also feels very strong. Moving quality to that specific point (after _all_ inner planets, before Aquilo) just makes sense strategically. At that point, you have foundry, EM plant, and all modules, so you are well-equipped to overhaul the factory with quality (you are missing cryo plant and fusion, but those are more local adjustments). You are also all-set for quality solar inner-planet shuttles.

Your next stop, Aquilo, is arguably the planet where quality benefits you the most: quality robots/roboports to overcome increased power drain, quality production to use limited space more efficiently, and the heat pipe mechanics which again encourages you to do more with less. Finally, the cryogenic plant accepts a lot of modules, so it's fun to start producing quality cryo plants in the bootstrapping stage. You even need recyclers for ice already!

But you also don't _have_ to engage quality, so there's a bit of a strategy --- we get a new interesting unlock point, where the three inner planets are more that the sum of their parts. While before you only have one next step, you now are at a crossroads: you can either go to Aquilo, or overhaul your base with quality, mirroring the rest of the game where, generally, you have more than one next step available.

Having typed this, it now feels very odd that legendary quality needs cryo --- the opposite feels just so more natural