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Material Compression (1.2.1) (Formerly Component Compression)

Attention!!!: This used to be the place where I put a big wall of words telling you important things about the mod. Now that wall of words is at the bottom! Pretty! You don't have to go read it, but I really recommend it.

Welcome to Material Compression, (MaCo) A tiered technology mod to rule them all! In an effort to simplify and optimize the original intent of this mod's predecessor, Component Compression, I have made significant changes to the progression system that will simplify both the end user experience and the ease of maintenance on my end. Ultimately, this isn't much different from any other tiered tech mod, other than the fact that I have included as many blocks as I can. The list is extensive:

Light and heavy cube armor
All varieties of batteries
All varieties of cargo containers
The special assemblers which drive the mod
Ship tools, including Ore Detectors
Reactors and hydrogen engines
Gyroscopes
All varieties of thrusters
Jump drives
Oxygen Generators (Now called Electrolyzers. See below.)
Assemblers and refineries
Oxygen farm
All varieties of Solar panels and wind turbines
All varieties of storage tanks including oxygen
Special simplified armor blocks

As you can see I've attempted to add as much functionality as I can to a very simple mod. There's too much to put here, so I'll give the basics.

Unlike many other tiered mods I've seen, MaCo uses what I call an Inefficiency Multiplier. This causes each tier to consume more resources proportionately than the last. This forces players to think carefully about what tier they are using, instead of instantly jumping to the highest tier which is usually too cheap for the applied benefits.

The Inefficiency Multiplier for this mod is 2. Tier 0, or vanilla, blocks require the usual amount of components to make. Tier 1 blocks, the first tier in this mod, requires 8 times the resources. It only yields 4 times the results however. I'll quickly list the effectiveness and cost of each tier:

X4 is 4 times better, but costs 8 times the resources.
X16 is 16 times better, but costs 64 times the resources.
X64 is 64 times better, but costs 512 times the resources.
X256 is 256 times better, but costs 4096 times the resources.

The cost gets progressively steeper the higher into the tiers you go. But the benefits may out way the costs. a single X64 thruster may have the power to move entire capital ships, but it can be safely tucked away behind many layers of armor.

I've blasted you with enough words for now. If you have any questions about how to get started, reference the guide below, or feel free to ask any questions not answered by the guide. I'll do my best to answer them.

Check out my other stuff here!!!


WARNING: This mod is intended for use only with the default assembler efficiency, which is x3. A ModAdjustorV2 addon to adjust values for realistic assembler efficiency can be found here, and the one for x10 can be found here here. The mod will work correctly without these addons, but changing assembler efficiency without them will alter the intended balance of the mod dramatically, and is not recommended.

WARNING: This mod makes a change to batteries. The original batteries have been renamed to Integrated Batteries," and a new identical set of batteries called "Modular Batteries" have also been added. The original renamed batteries behave like usual, starting with 30% charge and the power cells turning to scrap when ground down. The new "Modular Batteries" behave like the batteries from the old days. They start with no charge, but you get all the power cells back when grinding. The tiered batteries are based on these, otherwise you'd lose huge amounts of resources when you go to grind them down.

WARNING: This mod makes a change to O2/H2 Generators. They have been renamed to the more appropriate and accurate title of "Electrolyzer." Do what you will with this since you can freely rename blocks in game.

WARNING: This mod makes extensive use of vanilla assets, including some from paid DLCs. This is done with permission, as I have maintained the coded tags which prevent players from using them without owning the required DLC. This mod does not, and will not "Unlock" Paid DLC content. Any requests to do so will be ignored.