Dual Planet Proposal

[west gyro]

at first, the player has to get their bearing on "Aether", get the specific recources, set up a new building (some polarity/conversion plant) and find a dormant anchor which needs some planet specific fluid to function (to make sure the player understands the basics). then it could work either like on Maraxis, direct transition (via sub to trench), or like a rocket, with a little bubble cutscene to go there

the anchors could have small persistent shields for the player to regen, maybe even get some basic handfed stuff going and always keep charge for at least a trip back so you couldn't deadlock a 100+h run

once traveled, a tech could trigger and the player could unlock their own dimensional anchors to send stuff in and out

It's main challenge would be first of all, the crafting and conversion of light/dark items to get a desired ratio, while finding a way to be space efficient on the flip side. What said, i am very unaware of factorio's scripting's eventual limitations so yeah...

[cobalt arch]

I guess you are also not a 3D artist? 🙃

How about light and dark side exist because they are very close to the sun but have little atmosphere. So on the sun side it's always day, hot and there are sun storms and on the dark side it's always night and everything freezes and therefore needs heating provided from the hot side through mentioned anchor (I would make it a portal).

[west gyro]

i'm able to do basic spriting and make some custom textures for existing meshes, couldn't get the hang of blender on myself though

[west gyro]

it's a great idea, but wouldn't it feel more like a weird mix of Vulcanus and Aquilo then instead of having it's own gimmick? (i may have spent a bit to long thinking about this 😂 )

the way i imagined it, the dark side exists in a hostile void (call it corrosive nebula or smth) that is essential for the Dimensional science pack to be crafted (like a surface condition). This way a player would have to face the gimmick of 1.: actually shielding the place and either being space efficient or producing enough Charge fluid on Ather to run a big amount of shields (also all of a sudden quality becomes more important for the hp increase) and 2.: to get the conversions right

the conversions could be made from the void residue (for intents and purposes basic fluid, offshore-able anywhere in the void) with either a light or dark and catalyst item, that spits out the other polarity of said item and the opposite fluid

lets say it goes something like this (science being the fluids, inserters the items and the artifact the catalyst that has a 90% chance of being reusable): + + =+

[cobalt arch]

Yeah, maybe.