• platline quest descriptions need an update; some were written before RTM alloy
• platline quest cleanups
• rebalance tungsten

Bumping version from 0.3.x to 0.4.x as there will be some major midgame progression changes. Expect 0.5.x to have naquadah + outer solar system changes. For 0.4.x, the changes are:

• bring tungsten forward into the moon, accessible via a single-use machine called the Lunar Surface Drill
• the mudpit and planetary core drill are going to be re-designed to be more substantial structures and utilize more ABS alloys
• a new space-mining focused chapter will plot out this progression, with the alpha-olefin mud for mars & venus still present in that chapter

The Lunar Surface Drill (LSD) is introduced as stopgap source of tungsten. Like other ore drills, it will consume some kind of lubricant. The LSD will require a drill head to run, which will have a percentage chance of being consumed. Different material heads will have different consumption rates. Some non-tungsten moon related things (lunar sand or lunar stone, maybe titanium) will also be yielded.

For gating purposes, the LSD will require a significant amount of Titanium, meaning that it opens up some time after the player establishes mining operations on the moon (either a GT miner, or just goes mining themselves). Timing wise, it should be accessible sometime in mid-EV, as tungsten unlocks EV energy & dynamo hatches as well as RTM coils, so it should not require a lot of EV infrastructure to be set up.. to time it right, it might dip into the platline a bit.

The Planetary Core Drill (PCD) will have its moon recipes modified to yield tungsten bearing ores in small amounts (maybe just crushed and at a low percentage). Because it can be automated to run constantlly, this will probably be enough for some players; tungsten will not be a forcing function to get to the terrestrial planets; instead, it will be gas collection and nether star mining.

Some of my original notes/brainstorming on changing the balance of HV & EV by bringing tungsten forward a bit are at the bottom, just for a history of the thought process.

It turns out that the mudpit and the planetary core drill also require tungsten indirectly: the ABS is needed for the watertight blocks in the mudpit, and a tungsten gear is required for the Advanced Miner III that goes into the planetary core drill. These aspects are not expected to change through the re-deisgn.

The gap between entering HV and being able to generate EV power feels like it's too big. The rocket generator and the multiblock generators all require tungsten, which means in addition to the normal gtm content between HV and EV there is

• the gcyr moon content
• part of the platline (you need platinum)
• part of the monazite chain which has a couple EV steps (you need uranium)
• the gcyr mars/venus chem lines..

I could cut out the mars/venus bit by putting some tungsten on the moon (eg. in the core drill, so "late moon"), and leave venus/mars to gate nether stars, which would make it a late-IV/assline req

currently you get naquadah on mars/venus via core drill (so late mars would gate LuV), though the intention was to move that into the outer solar system.. there aren't too many hard material gates after naquadah, but it might make sense to make the outer system "worth it" for end-game as LuV feels a bit early

tbh i think this makes sense, as HV/EV feel bloated w/ basically all of the inner solar system and almost all of the currently added chem chains (the lanthanides/plat sorta cross over into IV and there is the naq line ofc)