# Industry and progression

## The industrial promise

SUBSTELLAR should let the player build an industry they can understand by walking through it. Raw material arrives at one end, recognizable machinery changes it, pipes and cables carry specific services, and finished parts leave through a visible loading point. A mill beside a river, a steel workshop in Underreach, a carefully enclosed chemical plant, and a lunar service yard should each be places with a purpose and a character. The reward is seeing a landscape become more workable through things the player has learned and built.

The requested inspiration is the physical presence of Immersive Engineering with the functional breadth associated with Mekanism. The author-maintained Immersive Engineering description emphasizes suspended power cables, large animated processing machines, and several recognizable generation methods. The official Mekanism wiki documents progressively specialized ore processing, chemical inputs, machine configuration, and distinct systems for materials, energy, and transport. Those references support a direction with substantial machinery and interconnected production. SUBSTELLAR's proposed stages, recipes, failure rules, materials, and pacing below are its own design. The complete game remains standalone-first.

Reference basis: Immersive Engineering, author's project description, https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/immersive-engineering ; Mekanism, official Ore Processing documentation, https://wiki.aidancbrady.com/wiki/Ore_Processing ; Mekanism, official Machine Configuration documentation, https://wiki.aidancbrady.com/wiki/Machine_Configuration . These references establish the inspirations, not a commitment to reproduce either mod's numerical systems or assets.

Industrial breadth means useful options across mining, sorting, smelting, alloys, fabrication, chemicals, gases, liquids, heat, electricity, storage, transport, control, cultivation, habitats, vehicles, and advanced science. It also means that a specialist builder can spend a long time improving these systems. The principal adventure must remain achievable with a sensible selected set. A player who wants the first Moon expedition should not have to complete every process branch, maximize ore recovery, build a reactor, or replace the entire workshop with its final form.

## Three kinds of progression

The five journey families describe the adventure's expanding horizon: First Descent, Pale Horizon, Red Frontier, Outer Worlds, and Beyond Sol. The industrial bands introduced here describe what a workshop can accomplish. Rocket Tiers 1, 2, and 3 describe the confirmed spacecraft design families. These are related systems with different purposes. A third industrial band is not automatically a Tier 3 rocket, and the six established spacecraft capability classes do not require six disposable launch vehicles.

The confirmed Tier 1 concepts establish an attainable early engineering character. Their common-material vocabulary includes iron, copper, glass, stone, redstone, and honeycomb, with named fabrication and assembly stations. Their example ingredient treatments guide identity without freezing final numerical recipes. Tier 1's essential parts and Earth preparation services must fit that level. Titanium, Heartglass, Core completion, advanced chemical refining, lunar materials, and nuclear power are not first-flight prerequisites.

This clarifies the earlier Earth-to-space arc. Earth continues to provide the knowledge, manufacturing, people, and preparation behind space exploration, while a practical Tier 1 expedition can become possible before the player has exhausted the seven Earth realms. The Core remains a major deep-Earth achievement and a source of later specialist capability. Deep exploration and early lunar exploration can strengthen one another. The journal must show the actual requirements of a mission instead of treating the broad chapter order as a hidden lock on every recipe.

Industrial bands are readable milestones, not mandatory research screens. Some capabilities arrive together, some can be approached through different sources, and established groups can divide the work. Each band needs an early useful result, a reason to return to the world, an infrastructure improvement, and a clear path onward.

| Band | Workshop capability | First satisfying result | Relationship to exploration |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| IP00 — Campcraft | Familiar hand tools, repairs, light, ordinary smelting, field records | A prepared descent and a dependable way home | Overworld and approachable Shallows routes |
| IP01 — Mechanical workshop | Timber work, ceramics, simple fittings, useful motion, water handling | A working mill, pump, hoist, or repaired workshop | Old Valley and repeated local journeys |
| IP02 — Powered workshop | Modest electricity, charging, repeatable parts, basic control | A tool or service powered by a workshop the player built | Surface industry and more capable field work |
| IP03 — Tier 1 flight preparation | Confirmed fabrication and assembly stations, basic sealed equipment, prepared travel supplies | A commissioned Tier 1 expedition with a protected return | First orbital or lunar mission supported by its actual craft configuration |
| IP04 — Regional industry | Steel production, bulk handling, concentration, reliable local automation | A repeatable supply order and a working regional connection | Deepwilds, Underreach, Abyss, and developed home regions |
| IP05 — Deep thermal and chemical work | Better alloys, refined lightweight stock, managed heat, specialized chemistry | A longer difficult expedition or a new material process | Mantle, Core, demanding Earth sites, and optional factory specialization |
| IP06 — Lunar industry | Dust service, local ceramics, optical products, small habitat production | A useful lunar refit and a stronger second expedition | Moon surface regions and all three lunar underground layers |
| IP07 — Frontier industry | Mobile service, durable frames, compact processing, longer logistics | A self-sufficient field operation and a developed Frontier Yard | Mars; Ceres is an optional industrial branch |
| IP08 — Outer-world systems | Pressure, extreme cold, specialized materials, larger energy and research options | A supported expedition into a distinctly different environment | Europa, Titan, Pluto, with optional Io specialization |
| IP09 — Interstellar science | Mature independent services, precision navigation, bounded advanced field work | A prepared Afterlight voyage and later local investigations | Cairn and Morrow, with an independent return capability |

The table shows a useful order for explanation. It does not require IP04 and IP05 before IP06, or every IP08 option before Pluto. A mission's capability card names its actual dependencies. An industrial diagram should make the Tier 1 branch and the continuing deep-Earth branch visible at the same time.

## IP00 — Campcraft and the first practical questions

The opening preserves ordinary Minecraft competence. The player gathers wood, stone, food, fuel, iron, and copper; uses familiar tools; and gains the first expedition lamp, markers, repair supplies, and field record. A geological hammer makes preserving a specimen a deliberate choice. Rope and anchors create a visible relationship between reaching a ledge and being able to return from it.

The first workshop work is small enough to support the opening's pace. Repairing the guesthouse, supplying the crossing, and learning the quarry remain Old Valley's authored story. Basic parts can be made at an ordinary work surface or a modest repair bench. A player should not need a powered fabrication hall to replace a handle, shape a bracket, or make the first route marker.

The milestone is preparedness: the player can leave with a purpose, solve a short route, and return with something useful. Gathering should teach where materials live. Early examples of important feedstocks must be available without requiring the machine that later processes their richer deposits. A handmade base and an authored settlement are both valid places to organize these supplies.

## IP01 — Mechanical work becomes a place

The mechanical workshop introduces reliable motion and material handling. Timber framing, rope, ordinary metal fittings, ceramic vessels, and a suitable source of motion support a grain mill, simple pump, saw bench, or cargo hoist. A river location can favor a waterwheel. Another site can use wind or a small fueled source. The required opening cannot depend on a rare ideal river arrangement or a specific wind condition generated on one seed.

The grain mill retains its established purpose: grain becomes meal or staple food. An ore crusher is a separate industrial function with its own working parts and material path. This distinction lets the settlement feel coherent and prevents one generic machine from standing for every form of production.

The player learns placement, intake, output, and a stop condition through a machine whose action is visible. A hoist needs known landings. A pump needs an intake and a supported destination. Work continues while its managed region is active, and the installation pauses coherently when its participants leave. The reward is doing a known job more conveniently and seeing a useful structure in the world.

## IP02 — The first powered workshop

The first electrical supply uses accessible copper, iron, redstone, simple insulation, and familiar construction materials. It must be buildable before electrically refined aluminum, high-duty alloys, or advanced electronics. A small generator, a clear connection, a modest buffer, and one working machine are enough to teach the system.

The first power choices should have distinct character. A workshop beside water can convert existing mechanical motion into electricity. A compact fueled generator is reliable where geography is inconvenient. Wind is useful at a suitable exposed site. Each has a clear installation cost and operating limit. The first milestone should not require balancing an entire town grid.

Charging a field cell, powering a work light, or completing a batch of repeatable fittings gives electricity an immediate purpose. The player sees a gauge rise, a cable connect, and a machine respond. A breaker protects the installation when demand exceeds its supported supply. The useful question is whether the workshop can complete the chosen order while maintaining its important services. Hidden universal penalties and unexplained power disappearance would obscure that lesson.

## IP03 — A complete early Tier 1 space branch

The Part Fabrication Table and Rocket Assembly Station provide the center of this branch. Their confirmed names, visual forms, labeled parts, and purpose belong to the attached asset register. The machinery catalogue below maps their functions into the industrial system without redesigning their appearance or adding an unrelated factory gate.

The fabrication table turns the confirmed accessible ingredients and prepared ordinary parts into the rocket's recognized components. The assembly station accepts those components in a visible sequence. The player also establishes the small support services needed for the chosen mission: reliable charging, supported fuel preparation, breathing-supply refill, equipment inspection, navigation, and an appropriate launch and recovery site. These may begin as compact benches and service modules. Their later industrial versions increase convenience or capacity.

Tier 1 is balanced through the total project and the expedition it enables: a finite collection of recognizable parts, a limited cargo and service envelope, a meaningful preparation journey, and a clear return plan. It does not need artificial scarcity in every screw. Assembly creates an achievement the player can walk around and inspect. Surviving and learning on the first lunar trip creates the next achievement.

The default first lunar landing carries a dependable airlocked cabin, an Earth-made EQ25 starter shelter kit, usable protection, repair supplies, navigation, and all essential return allocations. The cabin remains a retreat while the compact starter refuge is commissioned before the first committed descent; a larger permanent outpost is a later choice. An optional short orbital rehearsal uses its own supported manifest and does not require a lunar shelter kit. Local manufacturing is a later reward. A player can return with a small sample and an important observation without building a complete lunar refinery.

## IP04 — Regional industry and the removal of repeated work

Regional industry develops because the player has found reasons to produce and move more material. A substantial deposit, a Deepwilds cultivation house, a three-landing supply route, or a growing workshop provides that reason. The player can make controlled steel, install bulk material handling, improve ore recovery, and authorize bounded orders.

A useful regional factory is a series of places: receiving floor, preparation machine, hot work, finishing bench, and storage. It does not have to contain every machine. A nickel works and a textile-and-seal workshop can specialize and exchange finished goods through an established route. A solo player can operate a compact combined workshop with slower batches.

The first major automation reward is an order such as “prepare the supplies for this established expedition” or “keep a modest reserve of these replacement parts.” The order exposes inputs, protected allocations, intended output, and its stop condition. It saves sorting and repetitive crafting the player has already learned. Exploration still matters because it finds better routes, new material uses, distinctive deposits, and places worth improving.

## IP05 — Thermal and chemical specialization

This band supports players who want substantial engineering and expeditions that need it. The workshop can refine lightweight stock, produce higher-duty alloys, manage useful heat, and operate selected chemical processes. Visible reaction vessels, heat exchangers, lined ducts, service platforms, and observation windows give the plant a physical identity.

The first visit to a hot margin uses accessible ceramics, cloth, established metalwork, and a serviceable cooling supply. Thermal salt and other Mantle discoveries improve later systems. The first equipment that reaches a deposit must not require that deposit's finished high-performance product. The same rule applies to crystal instruments, deep alloy machinery, and Core investigation.

Advanced chemistry creates choices about feedstock, recovery, compactness, and material properties. It is not a compulsory chain inserted into every early recipe after the player has already learned it. A good basic fitting remains producible through the older process. A chemical line earns its place when it recovers a useful secondary material, supports a specialist composite, or reduces the resupply burden of a demanding operation.

## IP06 — Lunar refits and a second kind of workshop

Lunar industry begins with service. Dust enters the fiction through protected transfer points, visible seals, and an understandable cleaning or inspection action. The arrival craft remains the first dependable room. The Lunar Shelter Controller adds a larger refuge and gradually introduces a workshop, storage, and a sheltered gallery enclosure.

Regolith Ceramic production uses collected material and equipment whose essential components arrived from Earth. Lunar Glass Filament processing adds distinctive optics and light guidance. These products improve the next habitat, instrument, or refit. They do not become retroactive prerequisites for the first rocket, first airlock, or initial breathing reserve.

The lunar workshop can remain modest. Bringing a first sample home for analysis is a valid path. A later local kiln, sample station, and refill service reward repeated visits without recreating every Earth production branch. The Earthrise Rim, Shadow Basin, Regolith Hollows, Basalt Galleries, and Glassfall Vaults give each improvement a field purpose. Better route lighting matters because the player has experienced the crossing it improves.

## IP07 — Mars and the independent frontier

Mars emphasizes repairability, mobile work, weather preparation, and operating farther from a comfortable central workshop. The Frontier Yard grows from a service pad and shelter into a rover bay, gantry, weather mast, greenhouse, and supply depot. Its machinery should be reachable from a clear cargo lane and organized so a returning crew can unload samples and service equipment without crossing an active processing floor.

Ferric Lattice improves serviceable frames and machinery after the first landing. Brine Catalyst supports compact processes and habitat loops after the player has found, understood, and prepared it. The arriving expedition uses previously available structural and chemical alternatives. The Rootstone investigation rewards connected observations and instruments, not a demand to manufacture a machine from the inaccessible chamber's only ingredient.

A mobile workshop can repair defined equipment, prepare ordinary field consumables from carried inputs, and examine a sample at a useful first level. Heavy production still benefits from an established yard. Ceres adds optional deposit logistics and compact resource handling. It can improve convenience and specialization without becoming an unannounced toll booth between Mars and the main outer-world route.

## IP08 and IP09 — Breadth at the far frontier

Outer-world industry separates functions that Earth combines. Europa needs reliable pressure service and a supported aquatic expedition. Titan rewards seals, materials suited to its fiction, visibility-aware instrumentation, and bounded local flight. Pluto emphasizes insulation, reserves, optics, and precise observation. Io offers an optional heat-industry branch. The player chooses a destination loadout and plant configuration that answers a recognizable problem.

Larger generation systems, advanced storage, precision material treatment, specialist suit modules, and more capable order networks belong here as planned breadth. Reactor and high-energy research branches can provide ambitious engineering goals. They are optional choices with defined costs, operating envelopes, and site needs. The main expedition cannot quietly depend on finishing every one.

Interstellar capability combines already reachable material families, mature conventional services, Pluto navigation evidence, and a bounded fictional transit assembly. Cairn's materials improve later local investigation; they are not required to manufacture the first independent shelter or first route home. Morrow expands cultivation and living materials inside controlled habitats. Advanced industry therefore opens new relationships with a world instead of turning all worlds into interchangeable feedstock bins.

# Machinery and industrial systems

## A shared physical language

A machine must communicate its process, its working scale, and the places where a player interacts. A crusher has an intake, crushing action, collection area, and service access. A compressor has a drive, a vessel, a pressure indication, and a distinguishable fill connection. A fabrication table has visible tools and component holders. These identities should survive at ordinary Minecraft viewing distance and with baseline lighting.

The common industrial palette grows from timber, masonry, iron, copper, practical ceramic insulation, glass inspection points, and painted or marked service housings. Later machinery adds better seals, protected joints, modular cartridges, and more demanding process chambers. It can become sophisticated while retaining readable construction. The supplied Tier 1 space artwork governs the appearance of those particular objects.

Large machines use authored multiblock assemblies where their footprint creates a useful activity: a receiving lane, a work platform, room for a vehicle, a material path, or a service aisle. A larger footprint should not exist merely to make crafting inconvenient. Small benches and compact field machines remain valuable. A machine's first useful version can be compact; expansion can add a second work position, a larger vessel, an attached buffer, or a parallel line.

Exact block dimensions, port counts, throughput, and clearance measurements are design backlog until their models and interactions are proved. Approved labels on reference art remain recorded as reference evidence. Conflicting concept-sheet measurements must be reconciled before they become placement rules. Every build preview eventually needs to show actual occupied blocks, active movement areas, entrances, and required service space.

## Installation families and machine identities

TEC01 through TEC14 remain the installation catalogue. The IND-M references below identify proposed functions within those installations. They do not replace the existing IDs or require every function to become a separate inventory block. A combined station can perform closely related work if its model, interface, and recipe access remain clear. Distinct physical processes should not disappear into a universal machine.

The catalogue includes the complete intended functional breadth. “Early” means a candidate for the practical Earth and Tier 1 path. “Regional” means later Earth or established-outpost specialization. “Frontier” means destination-dependent expansion. “Advanced backlog” means a named longer-term system whose gameplay purpose is defined here, with detailed design and production still to follow. None of these labels claims implementation.

## Benches, metalwork, textiles, and cultivation

| Ref. and installation | Machine or function | Inputs, outputs, and player interaction | Gate, cost, and tradeoff |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| IND-M01 / TEC01 | Carpenter and repair bench | Familiar stock, handles, fasteners, and damaged ordinary equipment become structural parts or repaired tools. Work happens on an open bench with racks and a returned-item position. | Early. Low setup cost and broad ordinary utility; manual batches remain practical. Repair consumes relevant replacement material rather than another whole tool. |
| IND-M02 / TEC01 and TEC13 | Part Fabrication Table | The confirmed Tier 1 station produces its labeled components from accessible ingredients and ordinary prepared parts. Component positions and the finished-part display follow the supplied concepts. | Early Tier 1. The first recipe set stays short and legible. Powered attachments can accelerate repeated orders without changing the station's identity or making advanced alloys a hidden prerequisite. |
| IND-M03 / TEC01 | Timber mill | Logs or accepted timber become prepared boards and structural stock, with a separate recoverable offcut output. A visible feed table leads past the cutting action to a collection rack. | Mechanical or powered workshop. Better bulk handling costs space and motion. Hand preparation remains available for small orders; offcuts have bounded fuel or building uses. |
| IND-M04 / TEC03 | Forming press and rolling stand | Ordinary or refined metal stock becomes plates, brackets, beams, and selected shaped parts using reusable patterns. Feed and output lanes show which stock is being worked. | Regional capacity upgrade, with simple shaping available earlier. Wider or faster production requires more power and workspace. Patterns organize useful shapes instead of creating a unique mold for every trivial item. |
| IND-M05 / TEC03 | Drawing and precision bench | Prepared stock becomes wire, rods, couplings, and service components. The player selects a known form, mounts a reusable tool, and collects a bounded batch. | Basic versions support early copper fittings. Precision tooling later unlocks specialist tolerances as game categories. It improves relevant components rather than multiplying every item's power. |
| IND-M06 / TEC03 | Carbon retort | Suitable renewable carbon feedstock becomes consistent furnace carbon and a limited useful residue. A charge door, heat source, cooled output, and recoverable byproduct store explain its cycle. | Optional early-to-regional efficiency. Ordinary charcoal and supported substitutes keep the first steel route accessible. Residue handling cannot become a compulsory nuisance for a small workshop. |
| IND-M07 / TEC03 | Alloy hearth | Copper, tin, and approved metal combinations become recognizable basic alloys. The hearth shows charge, heat, and a finished stock position. | Early. Fuel and a small batch limit provide a simple first route. Bronze is useful for fittings without replacing all iron equipment. Alternative common-material Tier 1 parts remain possible where the confirmed design requires them. |
| IND-M08 / TEC03 | Controlled steel furnace | Iron and a supported carbon supply pass through a visible controlled batch to structural steel, with a bounded slag output. Loading and hot-work access remain distinct. | Regional industry; useful earlier where a project justifies it. The first furnace uses accessible refractory construction and fuel. Electrical blowers and improved heat recovery are upgrades, not prerequisites for the first steel. |
| IND-M09 / TEC02 | Kiln and ceramic forming station | Ceramic clay and selected additives become vessels, insulation, furnace parts, or supported panels. Green pieces, a firing chamber, and cooling shelves expose the stages. | Early. Simple recipes use common clay and fuel. Technical, lunar, and specialized recipes extend the same family. A larger kiln improves batch capacity while asking for a larger site and heat supply. |
| IND-M10 / TEC02 and TEC04 | Panel and laminate table | Prepared panels, cloth, resin or an approved early seal material, and fittings become composites and enclosed service parts. Layers and joins remain visible during assembly. | Early simple enclosures; regional specialist composites. Property choices trade lightness, repairability, insulation, or protection. A panel should not acquire every beneficial property merely because its recipe is longer. |
| IND-M11 / TEC04 | Loom and textile station | Gathered or cultivated fiber becomes cloth, straps, rope treatments, and insulation. The station shows raw bundles, active weaving, and finished rolls. | Early. Safe fringe sources and ordinary substitutes support the first use. Powered production increases repeat capacity. The essential supply chain never requires killing rare wildlife. |
| IND-M12 / TEC04 and TEC12 | Seal and filter bench | Appropriate cloth, sealing material, fittings, and service stock become replaceable filters, gaskets, patches, and simple sealed equipment parts. Used components are inspected at a clear work surface. | Early Tier 1 support. Honeycomb appears in the supplied example material lists and can fit the game's basic seal vocabulary. Later resin or polymer variants improve particular duties; this is fictional crafting, not a claim of real aerospace suitability. |
| IND-M13 / TEC05 | Managed cultivation beds | A known sample, suitable substrate, and one or two readable conditions produce renewable food, fiber, resin, or biolume material. Bed markers and visible growth show the current condition. | Early fringe cultivation through later planetary specializations. Initial samples unlock propagation. Managed plots have finite output and local boundaries, protecting the value of natural environments and preventing unlimited accidental spread. |
| IND-M14 / TEC05 and TEC08 | Biological extractor and fermenter | Approved renewable biomass becomes a bounded useful extract, industrial feedstock, or supported fuel precursor. A vessel, feed basket, culture record, and collection point make the process visible. | Regional optional branch. It offers a use for sustained cultivation and excess produce. The complete fuel chain must pay its land, power, and feedstock costs; self-feeding production cannot generate unlimited resources. |

## Water, ore, chemical, and material processing

| Ref. and installation | Machine or function | Inputs, outputs, and player interaction | Gate, cost, and tradeoff |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| IND-M15 / TEC06 | Pump installation | A visible intake moves an identified liquid to an authorized destination through a readable pipe route. The portable version remains EQ18; a permanent installation adds capacity and mounting. | Early through regional. It solves a bounded water or transfer problem. Previewed limits, head category, and receiving capacity prevent silently draining a whole lake or filling a protected settlement. |
| IND-M16 / TEC06 | Water treatment station | Collected or supplied water passes through replaceable treatment media to the process-water or habitat-water category the recipe requires. The dirty-input and clean-output points differ in shape and label. | Early compact service, regional recovery upgrades. A first lunar loadout can carry prepared supplies. Treatment adds specific utility without introducing a universal drinking-water chore into ordinary Minecraft survival. |
| IND-M17 / TEC06 | Reservoir and manifold | Accepted fluid batches enter labeled tanks and leave through configured valves. A sight gauge, material icon, fill connector, and drain destination remain visible. | Early containers; regional shared systems. Storage buys time and convenience but occupies space. Incompatible batches are rejected with an explanation instead of silently deleting or transforming their contents. |
| IND-M18 / TEC08 | Crusher | Ore-bearing material becomes a prepared feedstock or aggregate. Material descends through a guarded visible crushing action toward a collection bin. | Regional bulk process, with direct ordinary smelting retained. Crushing enables selected recovery routes and construction products. It consumes power, wears a serviceable working component during use, and needs real output capacity. |
| IND-M19 / TEC08 | Washing and classification table | Crushed material and process water become separated usable fractions plus a recoverable residue. Moving screens, channels, and labeled discharge points explain the separation. | Regional specialization. It can improve recovery from suitable deposits or reduce later process load. Water use and residue capacity create a site decision; unsuitable ores do not receive an automatic benefit. |
| IND-M20 / TEC08 | Concentration separator | A material-specific prepared feedstock becomes a richer concentrate and a bounded secondary fraction. A magnetic-looking, density, or other authored process module expresses the recipe's physical identity. | Regional. Module choice depends on material family. The machine improves selected feedstocks and does not detect every valuable block in the world or multiply finished ingots. |
| IND-M21 / TEC08 | Electrical materials cell | Prepared alumina feedstock and supported consumables become lightweight metal stock using established electricity. Separate charge, process, and finished-material zones show the transformation. | Regional specialization. Its first frame, electrodes, and insulation use previously reachable materials. It cannot require its own finished aluminum product. Lightweight stock improves selected cargo and equipment choices without gating the confirmed common-material Tier 1 hull. |
| IND-M22 / TEC03 and TEC08 | High-duty alloy and treatment furnace | Prepared metals and selected additives become reinforced alloy or titanium frame stock through controlled thermal work. A treatment recipe can change an existing component's appropriate duty category. | Deep industry. Nickel and titaniferous sources support distinct uses. Heat, power, and refractory service create costs. Higher-duty parts improve specific loads and environments rather than invalidating every earlier frame. |
| IND-M23 / TEC08 | Reaction vessel | Supported solid, liquid, or gas inputs become a specified reagent, composite precursor, or treated material. The vessel shows recipe identity, contents, service connections, and a bounded process state. | Regional chemistry. A small set of reusable reaction patterns carries the system. Mixed recipes do not run without deliberate selection, adequate output storage, and a valid compatible vessel configuration. |
| IND-M24 / TEC08 | Evaporation and crystallization works | Saline or mineral-bearing feedstock becomes a concentrated process supply and useful separated material. Broad surfaces or enclosed chambers match the selected heat and climate method. | Regional, with frontier variants. Sun-assisted or local-heat operation trades site suitability for lower supplied energy. Powered enclosure offers reliability and compactness. Ordinary rock salt retains a simpler route into relevant recipes. |
| IND-M25 / TEC08 | Electrolytic separator | Supported liquid feedstocks become defined process-gas or chemical outputs. Separate collection paths and clear gauges teach that one input can create more than one useful stream. | Regional chemistry. Every required output needs space or an explicit supported handling choice. The complete separation-and-generation loop must consume net energy; the first breathing refill service need not require this advanced plant. |
| IND-M26 / TEC08 and TEC12 | Gas conditioning and compressor | Accepted process gas becomes a dry, compressed, or otherwise supported service batch for an appropriate vessel. Drive, intake, filter, storage, and fill connection remain recognizable. | Early service form for mission supplies; regional plant form for bulk work. Greater storage density trades energy, vessel cost, and service needs. The player sees a simple duty category rather than many overlapping real-world pressure calculations. |
| IND-M27 / TEC08 | Phase-conditioning unit | A supported material changes between the game's useful liquid and gas storage forms through a powered thermal process. Both physical connections and the current direction are visible. | Regional-to-frontier. Compact storage or a particular recipe justifies the conversion. Heating and cooling need a sink or source. Reversing the process cannot create free energy or duplicate material. |
| IND-M28 / TEC08 | Chemical washing and recovery train | Selected concentrate, a known reagent, and process water produce a purified material plus a recoverable spent stream. Separate vessels make treatment and recovery readable. | Advanced regional option. Improved yield or purity costs plant space, energy, and reagent handling. A simpler direct process remains viable for ordinary projects. Residue recovery reduces costs within a finite material budget. |
| IND-M29 / TEC08 and TEC09 | Crystal and optical growth chamber | Prepared mineral stock and controlled conditions produce a defined optical or instrument component. A protected growth space and inspection window provide a distinctive action. | Deep and frontier specialization. Natural quartz and basic glass provide the first instruments. The chamber adds reliability or special properties for later optics, including lunar and distant-world products. |
| IND-M30 / TEC08 | Polymer and composite works | Approved Earth or planetary feedstocks become seal stock, insulating products, membranes, and supported composite parts. Reaction, forming, and curing appear as a short readable sequence. | Regional-to-frontier. Earth products cover initial needs; Titan and other discoveries offer specific improvements. The plant creates material choices rather than a universal plastic required for every unrelated object. |
| IND-M31 / TEC08 | Scrap and residue reclaimer | Supported scrap, offcuts, and selected spent materials return a stated recoverable fraction or a useful construction product. Inspection distinguishes reusable components from material for processing. | Regional. It rewards thoughtful layouts and upgrades. It never returns more total material than the originating chain supplied, preserves component identity where appropriate, and excludes protected specimens and mission reserves. |

## Energy, distribution, and expedition services

| Ref. and installation | Machine or function | Inputs, outputs, and player interaction | Gate, cost, and tradeoff |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| IND-M32 / TEC07 | Workshop dynamo and source assemblies | An authored waterwheel, wind source, or small fueled drive provides modest electricity through a visible dynamo and connector. Motion makes generation easy to recognize. | Early. A compact fueled option guarantees a geography-independent starting route. Renewable site choices exchange ongoing feedstock needs for placement requirements, variable output, or a larger footprint. |
| IND-M33 / TEC07 | Boiler, engine, and condenser plant | Fuel or a supported heat source drives a closed, readable steam-power game process. Water connection, boiler, moving engine or turbine, and return condenser remain separate visible roles. | Regional. Better sustained output costs space, heat management, and service capacity. A compact early generator remains useful for intermittent work and field locations. The condenser reduces supply burden without creating free inputs. |
| IND-M34 / TEC07 | Liquid or gas fuel engine | An accepted prepared fuel becomes electricity and a bounded heat or exhaust output. A tank, engine, cooling service, and shutoff explain operation. | Regional optional generation. Convenient sustained power pays for its whole upstream fuel chain. Renewable biological and other approved sources are evaluated as complete systems, including their cultivation and processing demand. |
| IND-M35 / TEC07 | Solar array and controller | A suitable exposed array provides power according to the world's supported lighting rules. A controller and storage connection show what is available now and what is reserved. | Early or regional where its actual recipe permits; useful planetary option. Area, shading or authored local conditions, and storage need balance its convenience. It cannot be a universal solution in dark underground sites. |
| IND-M36 / TEC07 and TEC08 | Thermal recovery module | An existing hot process or approved environmental installation supplies useful heat to another service or contributes bounded electricity. A visible exchanger separates the source from the receiving loop. | Regional through optional Io specialization. It recovers part of energy already being supplied or accesses a defined site resource. A device cannot power itself indefinitely by recapturing its own waste heat. |
| IND-M37 / TEC07 | Stationary power bank | Electrical input charges modular storage that later supplies a defined capacity and discharge rate. Cell housings, a charge gauge, and isolation points communicate scale. | Early small buffers; regional banks. Capacity supports interruptions and expeditions. Output rate limits how many heavy processes run together. Stored energy remains stable during an absent region's parked state. |
| IND-M38 / TEC07 | Switchboard and distribution station | Sources connect to labeled service branches with breakers, priority assignments, and supported cable or bus connections. The player can trace a selected machine back to its supply. | Early simple switch, regional distribution. Higher-duty branches require appropriate conductors and housings. Overload stops a readable branch safely by default; it does not invisibly remove energy or destroy an ordinary home. |
| IND-M39 / TEC07 | Field-cell charging rack | Available electricity charges reusable field cells and EQ19 field batteries through recognizable slots. A reserved expedition tray distinguishes packed supplies from general stock. | Early and Tier 1 support. Charging takes active-region work and an appropriate power supply. Routine automation cannot consume the cells already assigned to an expedition or an emergency service. |
| IND-M40 / TEC12 | Oxygen Generator — compact air-supply preparation (T1-M05) | A defined Earth atmosphere or water-processing input supports the game's breathing-supply product. The player supplies power and service materials and collects a prepared batch. This is the confirmed Oxygen Generator in REF15; the preparation-bench wording describes its function, not a separate required machine. | Early Tier 1. It is deliberately accessible without a large chemical plant. The route is a game abstraction with explicit inputs; local environments must be compatible before an outpost can reproduce the same service. |
| IND-M41 / TEC12 | Breathing-supply refill rack | Prepared SUPPLY02 fills the existing EQ24 vessels through the confirmed compatible fittings. Gauge, cylinder state, and occupied fill positions are visible. | Early Tier 1. Refill replaces repeated manufacture of whole tanks. Reserve protection separates mission, refuge, and ordinary stock. Larger racks improve group preparation without altering the underlying supply family. |
| IND-M42 / TEC12 | Seal and enclosure test cabinet | A supported suit component, small vessel, or assembled service module enters a bounded inspection cycle and leaves with a clear usable or repair-needed state. | Early Tier 1 support. Inspection consumes modest power and relevant service material where required. It reveals defined faults; it should not demand random repeated trials or surprise hidden certification statistics. |
| IND-M43 / TEC12 | Habitat utility module | An occupied supported habitat receives breathable service, power priority, and environmental status from a readable combined utility installation. Stored reserves and active demand are easy to inspect. | Tier 1 refuge onward. A larger or more independent habitat needs more capacity and cargo investment. Parked managed habitats retain their saved safe state; their services do not consume supplies through an absence penalty. |
| IND-M44 / TEC12 | Thermal service unit | Power, a reusable cooling or heating loop, and suitable support material maintain the game's defined thermal equipment or room duty. Radiator-like or exchanger surfaces show its relationship to the surroundings. | Basic thermal preparation through planetary specializations. Duration, compactness, and active power demand create meaningful alternatives. Mantle resources improve capability after a first accessible equipment version exists. |
| IND-M45 / TEC08 and TEC14 | Fuel Refinery — propellant preparation (T1-M03) | Accessible Earth feedstocks and established power produce SUPPLY01 through the supported Tier 1 process. Prepared supply moves into labeled transport or launch storage. This is the confirmed Fuel Refinery in REF15; the preparation-service wording describes its function, not a second starter processor. | Early Tier 1 service; regional bulk plant later. The final recipe must fit the confirmed early engineering branch. Travel allocations remain distinct from general workshop fuel, and the first return supply is manufactured before departure. |

## Vehicles, instruments, handling, and control

| Ref. and installation | Machine or function | Inputs, outputs, and player interaction | Gate, cost, and tradeoff |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| IND-M46 / TEC13 | Rocket Assembly Station | The confirmed station receives labeled Tier 1 components and completes a recognized craft through visible authored assembly. Part positions, access, and presentation follow the supplied art. | Early Tier 1. Its controller exposes the actual required parts and useful next action. Later industrial improvements can assist handling without rewriting its accepted design or turning each assembly into a maximum-tier factory project. |
| IND-M47 / TEC13 | Component service and test stand | A known propulsion, electrical, control, or structural module receives a bounded game inspection or repair. The stand shows the module's identity and the service being performed. | Tier 1 simple servicing, later specialist variants. The goal is understandable readiness and repair. No real engine-test procedure or elaborate engineering certification simulation is implied. |
| IND-M48 / TEC14 | Launch service and recovery connections | A supported craft connects to appropriate power, fuel, preparation, cargo, and recovery services through visible attachment points and the confirmed launch-site objects. | Tier 1. Readiness depends on the actual vehicle and route. Ground services disconnect through a clear launch state and preserve remaining stock. Recovery returns cargo and repair work to a useful place at home. |
| IND-M49 / TEC12 and TEC13 | Suit and equipment service dock | Worn or carried equipment connects to compatible refill, charging, repair, and cleaning services. The dock presents the destination loadout and individual items that need attention. | Early Tier 1 through frontier. It consolidates familiar preparation after the player learns each need. Its benefit is convenience; it does not provide supplies or repairs from nothing. |
| IND-M50 / TEC09 | Survey and optical bench | Recorded observations, samples, basic optics, and housings become maps, survey assemblies, and calibrated instruments. The bench connects a physical specimen with the route or question it informs. | Early field records; later optical and resonant specialization. Data unlocks a relevant method once. Production still uses actual material, and a player's basic return map stays readable during specialist instrument interference. |
| IND-M51 / TEC08 and TEC09 | Sample laboratory | A preserved mineral, fluid, or biological sample becomes a useful identification, processing option, or cultivation record. Containers and environmental needs stay attached to the sample's identity. | Regional and planetary. Portable analysis gives a first result; an established lab supports deeper work. Essential discoveries can be recovered or repeated without relying on one destructible specimen. |
| IND-M52 / TEC07 and TEC09 | Sensor and control cabinet | Simple sensors, redstone-compatible control functions, and explicit rules operate known equipment. A panel can show “reserve full,” “receiver unavailable,” or the reason an order is waiting. | Early switches; regional automation. A small vocabulary of conditions supports useful factories before advanced logic. It follows ownership and regional activity rules and cannot keep an absent factory secretly running. |
| IND-M53 / TEC10 | Hoist and lift installation | An authored landing pair, frame, drive, and cargo attachment move players or reserved loads through a known route. EQ08 remains the cargo winch family used by this installation. | Mechanical through regional. Load category, supported path, and landing capacity are visible. A hand or simple powered version teaches the route; later service improves reliability and capacity. |
| IND-M54 / TEC11 | Conveyor and loading bay | Identified goods move between nearby authorized buffers through visible belts, chutes, loaders, or container connections. Filters and arrows describe the intended destination. | Regional. Local transport trades building space and power for convenience. Backpressure stops feeding when an output is full. The system never drops valuables into the world merely because a receiving slot became occupied. |
| IND-M55 / TEC11 | Stockroom and order desk | Existing categorized storage supports a searchable inventory view, reserved project supplies, and bounded production orders. Physical racks and containers retain their place in the settlement. | Regional. The first form can use ordinary labeled storage. Later indexing reduces sorting effort; it does not create infinite capacity, duplicate stock, or grant access to another player's private containers. |
| IND-M56 / TEC11 | Freight dispatch and receiving service | Already-produced authorized goods are reserved, dispatched along an established link, and received through a finite arrival process. The destination shows cargo, progress, and the reason for waiting. | Regional through space network. Its route and capacity must exist. Receiving-region activity can advance delivery while the source is absent. Dispatch never starts fresh remote production or requires both endpoints occupied together. |
| IND-M57 / EQ05 and TEC08 | Bounded excavation assembly | A surveyed, previewed working area yields actual accessible material through a visible drill, support frame, and collection point. Its service system and excavation exclusions are inspectable. | Regional specialist option. Power, heads, workspace, and deposit limits balance throughput. It stops at unexpected hazards, protected content, exclusions, or full output. It does not silently mine every valuable block through unknown terrain. |
| IND-M58 / TEC13 | Frontier vehicle service bay | SUP01 rovers, SUP02 cargo crawlers, SUP03 ice submersibles, or SUP04 supported atmospheric craft receive their relevant charging, repair, pressure, cargo, and instrument service. | Frontier by vehicle family. Each bay uses a shared workshop language with destination-specific equipment. The first arrival carries what is necessary before locally improved products become available. |
| IND-M59 / TEC01, TEC03, and TEC08 | Parallel production line | Known processes gain additional working positions, buffers, and shared handling. More than one batch can be produced within a visibly larger or more capable installation. | Regional-to-advanced capacity option. Parallel work pays approximately for the extra machines and supply demand it replaces. It does not multiply output merely by applying a universal “factory” upgrade to one small block. |

## Advanced systems with explicit scope

The following systems preserve the desired long-term breadth without making them first-flight requirements. Their visual status in this edition is detailed artwork — backlog. Their mechanics are design directions whose exact recipes, tuning, and supported construction configurations remain to be developed through playable prototypes.

| Ref. and installation | Planned system | Purpose and process identity | Dependencies and limits |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| IND-M60 / TEC08 | Shielded materials laboratory | A dedicated enclosure prepares, contains, recovers, and accounts for the fictional specialized materials used by a reactor or radiological research branch. Separate service and storage positions make custody visible. | Advanced backlog. Any added natural feedstock needs an explicit generation and material-catalogue decision. It cannot be silently inserted into MAT01–19 or become an unnoticed requirement for the main campaign. |
| IND-M61 / TEC07 | Shielded fission power plant | A large optional installation links a contained core, heat transfer, power generation, service access, and managed spent-material storage. Its attraction is sustained industrial output and the achievement of a complete working site. | Advanced backlog. The entire fuel and spent-material path must be playable before commissioning. Automatic controlled shutdown, stable parking, readable local consequences, and a recoverable cleanup project govern the default experience. |
| IND-M62 / TEC07 | Fusion research plant | A later optional high-duty project combines fuel preparation, startup energy, a recognizable central apparatus, thermal service, and substantial distribution. It supports demanding science or a player-built industrial ambition. | Advanced backlog. Inputs and startup costs remain explicit, and the complete preparation chain is balanced together. It is not required to launch Tier 1, visit the Moon, or keep an ordinary habitat alive. |
| IND-M63 / TEC08 | Precision field apparatus | A large fictional processing installation prepares a narrowly defined advanced field component or transit consumable. Coil-like frames, service chambers, and visible material custody give the operation a physical identity. | Advanced backlog. This fills the intended high-energy material-processing role. It cannot manufacture arbitrary ore, produce net free power, or turn one extraordinary substance into an answer to every game system. |
| IND-M64 / TEC09 and TEC13 | Navigation and transit assembly | Mature instruments, previously reachable components, and calibrated route evidence support the bounded Interstellar capability. The player can inspect the observation, assembly, and service relationships. | Beyond Sol. Pluto evidence and pre-Afterlight materials support the first voyage. Cairn and Morrow products improve later investigation. The assembly follows defined routes and preserves an independent return plan. |
| IND-M65 / TEC11 and TEC14 | Advanced route terminal | A late terminal coordinates approved travel or cargo conveniences between already surveyed, secured, and appropriately serviced destinations. It shows what service actually exists at each end. | Advanced backlog. It does not discover a destination, create its shelter, bypass first-landing preparation, or move arbitrary structures. Any instantaneous-transfer variant requires its own bounded design decision and preserves meaningful craft roles. |
| IND-M66 / TEC12 and TEC13 | Modular powered equipment dock | A service station prepares compatible movement, work, sensing, shielding, or environmental modules for the existing equipment families. Worn devices keep recognizable attachment points and service needs. | Frontier and advanced. Limited meaningful module choices trade charge, space, handling, and protection. A universal suit does not erase every terrain problem. Powered digging remains controlled, and flight requires a supported local context. |

The nuclear and high-energy systems above are optional proposed SUBSTELLAR systems. Mekanism's official fission documentation provides an example of linked fuel, cooling, power, and spent-material services: https://wiki.aidancbrady.com/wiki/Fission_Reactor . SUBSTELLAR's bounded failure, protected habitats, and absence rules are independent product decisions and take precedence in this plan.

## Reading a machine without studying a menu

Each machine presents a primary state on the object: ready, working, waiting for a named input, output full, service needed, manually stopped, or region parked. Motion and sound support that state. They must not be the only way to understand it. A quiet-accessibility option preserves visible indicators, and reduced particles keep dense workshops readable.

Every connection uses shape, direction, and a symbol in addition to color. Items have trays, chutes, belts, or recognizable container links. Liquids have a pipe or hose with a clear intake and outlet. Gases use a distinct sealed connection. Electricity uses cable anchors and protected connectors. Heat uses lined service pipes, exchangers, or an appropriate contact assembly. A small local convention is more useful than a separate connector language for every destination.

An inspection view answers five questions: what is being made, what is available, what is missing, where output goes, and what will stop the work. A detailed view can add process rates, energy use, installed modules, ownership, and history. First-use guidance should point to the physical part that needs attention. “No compatible cylinder at the refill position” is more useful than an unexplained generic error.

The standard configuration tool can reuse an existing suitable field or workshop tool identity rather than creating another permanent carried item. It shows editable ports and the destination of a selected connection in the world. Placement previews identify invalid orientations before the player supplies a construction stage. Simple supported layouts should work without advanced configuration.

## Service, wear, and failure

Ordinary machines should not need frequent random repairs. Service is most useful when connected to work the player understands: a drill head after substantial excavation, a filter after processing a defined quantity, or seals after an active dusty expedition. The machine shows the affected part and the remaining useful service category well before it stops. Supplies used for routine service become renewable or straightforward to replenish.

Normal shortages stop safely. A full tank blocks the process that would fill it. An empty fuel store leaves the generator idle. A missing receiver retains the finished goods. An overload trips a visible branch. Dangerous specialist operations can have authored local hazards and deliberate operating decisions, but those must be introduced with counterplay and recovery. They cannot secretly endanger an unrelated home or absent participant.

The meaningful cost of a poor layout is usually reduced throughput, extra travel, awkward servicing, or a stopped order. This gives a builder reasons to improve the plant. Large-scale irreversible punishment would instead discourage the experimentation that makes machinery interesting. Optional challenge settings can be considered later, after the default readable and recoverable behavior works.

# Production chains, balance, and machine progression

## Recipes as a connected economy

A recipe should tell a short story about what changes. Clay becomes a ceramic part. Metal stock becomes a shaped component. Cloth and a seal material become a serviceable enclosure. A selected ore-bearing feedstock can yield a better concentrate through a specific process. The complete catalogue must explain where each input first becomes available and what new decision its output enables.

Each first-use chain has a short accessible route. Later branches can improve quantity, compactness, efficiency, or special properties. These benefits need distinct meanings. More output per deposit, more output per active minute, less energy per part, smaller footprint, easier service, and better environmental performance are different advantages. One upgrade should not automatically maximize all of them.

Process recipes use a small number of shared intermediate families. Stock, wire, plates, basic fittings, sealed assemblies, optical assemblies, and relevant service supplies can recur across machines. A named component deserves a distinct inventory identity when players recognize or configure it, when it is used meaningfully in multiple contexts, or when its role matters to assembly. Tiny fasteners can be represented within a parts bundle instead of creating dozens of uninteresting crafting steps.

## Chain A — The first useful electrical workshop

The player establishes a repair bench, gathers ordinary metal and insulation supplies, and prepares basic conductors and fittings through an accessible route. A small source assembly drives a workshop dynamo or provides the same supported modest electrical service. A visible connection leads to a small buffer and a field-cell charging rack.

The first charged cell powers a work light, field instrument, or portable pump. This result is immediately useful on an expedition. Completing it teaches production, storage, and consumption through a handful of objects. A later switchboard allows two branches and priorities. A larger source supports longer work. The earlier source can remain at a remote pump, service a cottage workshop, or act as a backup.

The dependency audit is simple: no aluminum in the first aluminum-capable workshop supply; no advanced cell material required to charge the first basic cell; no machine-produced specialist wire required to build the first hand-operated drawing fixture. The first supported recipe path must be recorded beside each later efficient version.

## Chain B — Common-material Tier 1 construction

The Tier 1 part list begins with the user's confirmed labeled components and their approved visual relationships. Accessible iron, copper, glass, stone, redstone, honeycomb, and other explicitly supported ordinary inputs are gathered or prepared. The Part Fabrication Table turns them into the recognized parts. The Rocket Assembly Station accepts the actual delivered components and advances through its authored build sequence.

Services are prepared alongside the vehicle: charging, the supported propellant process, breathing-supply refill, a compatible sealed suit, working-cabin and packed-starter-shelter readiness for the default first lunar mission, navigation, and a return allocation. Early service modules use approachable game processes. Their construction must not quietly depend on a titanium frame, Heartglass lens, deep chemical reagent, or a sample from the destination.

The player sees two parallel readiness lists: vehicle assembly and expedition preparation. Assembly completes a rocket; preparation makes the chosen trip practical. The launch display combines them into a concise destination-specific result. The craft can remain parked and useful while the player explores Earth, adjusts cargo, or improves a route. Repeated departures use saved loadouts and refill orders instead of replaying the first fabrication lesson.

## Chain C — A regional metalworks with meaningful alternatives

Ordinary direct smelting remains the small-workshop route for suitable familiar inputs. A regional installation adds crushing, selected separation, and a controlled furnace. Its benefit can be better use of an actual deposit, recovery of a secondary material, or more convenient sustained production. Steel and shaped structural stock then support lifts, transport, machinery, and free-built architecture.

The player can stop at a useful intermediate arrangement. A quarry producing ordinary stone and metal does not need a complete chemical plant. A richer nickel deposit may justify concentration. A large aluminum project may justify electrical refining. A specialist material may require a narrow treatment process. The decision depends on the project and source material rather than a universal instruction to pass every ore through the longest available chain.

Advanced recovery operates within a defined material budget. Raw items, processed fractions, compacted blocks, and reclaimed scrap must be accounted for consistently. Repacking, fortune-like extraction behavior, salvaging, and reprocessing cannot repeatedly collect the same yield bonus. A secondary output must represent a supported fraction of a feedstock, not a chance to create an infinite byproduct loop.

## Chain D — Seals, air, and habitat service

The early seal and filter bench produces the game's first serviceable components from accessible cloth, fittings, and approved sealing inputs. A compact Earth preparation bench makes breathing supply through its defined game process. The refill rack charges compatible vessels, while a test cabinet or appropriate station action identifies an incomplete or damaged supported assembly.

At the destination, protected supplies serve the cabin, suit, and first refuge. The habitat utility module gives essential occupants priority. Ordinary production cannot consume the final reserve because a factory order happens to use the same stored resource. The player can deliberately revise a reservation with its consequence displayed, but automatic orders cannot make that choice for them.

Later outposts can add compatible local production, water recovery, larger storage, and improved filters. Each step reduces carried supply or extends supported work at a cost in modules, energy, and service material. It does not erase all preparation at once. A local atmosphere-processing route only works where the game's destination specification supports it; arrival never assumes that an unfamiliar atmosphere is usable.

## Chain E — A chemical line worth building

A chemical workshop begins with a specific product worth making, such as a selected composite, a treatment for a difficult material, or a useful recovery stream. The player can inspect its complete process before committing to the site. The initial plant uses a limited number of inputs and intermediate categories, with a compatible container or destination for each output.

For example, a supported saline feedstock enters concentration, feeds a defined separation process, and contributes a reagent to a treatment vessel. A recovery stage can return some useful process material. The product improves a particular industrial duty. This is a game-process pattern; exact substances, numerical ratios, and operating values belong to later balancing and content validation.

The default interface can group this connected line as a production order while keeping each machine inspectable. The player chooses batch size and stop condition once. A blocked byproduct store points to that store. A shutdown preserves in-process material at a supported checkpoint. Adding recovery is an investment with a visible payback in recurring supplies, not a compulsory puzzle that makes every simple metal part take an hour of supervision.

## Chain F — From a lunar sample to a better home

The first lunar expedition returns with a preserved regolith or glass-related sample and observations from a named place. An Earth or lunar laboratory identifies a useful process. Regolith Ceramic becomes an improved habitat panel or thermal component. Lunar Glass Filament becomes a better light-guidance or survey assembly. The player can place the resulting improvement where they understand its value.

A later lunar production site imports the essential machinery, uses local accepted feedstocks, and makes a limited set of relevant products. It can supply its own next extension or send already-produced goods through a commissioned freight route. It does not need to copy the entire Earth factory. Local specialization gives the Moon an economic identity while preserving reasons to visit the Shallows workshop or Deepwilds cultivation house.

The same structure continues on Mars. Previously available frames support the first arrival. Local Ferric Lattice supports repairable refits after discovery; Brine Catalyst improves selected compact processing. Planetary resources first reward the trip the player has completed and then help prepare a new one.

## Power as a set of visible decisions

Power should have one understandable common electrical accounting system within SUBSTELLAR, with physical distribution requirements appropriate to the installation. The player can understand a small generator and a large plant using the same core concepts: available supply, stored reserve, present demand, supported delivery rate, and priority. Higher-duty equipment can need a better branch or installation without introducing a new unrelated energy currency at every stage.

Generation methods need different good uses. Small fueled generation suits temporary and intermittent work. Water or wind can support a stable home where the site suits it. Solar arrays favor suitable exposed surfaces and need an appropriate reserve strategy. Large thermal and fuel plants support sustained industrial demand. Optional reactors answer late large-scale ambitions. Compact field power makes expedition choices possible without replacing settled infrastructure.

Storage has both capacity and a supported output category. A small field cell can run a field device without being a magic adapter for an entire refinery. A large bank can supply a brief peak or bridge a generation pause. The interface should show when a proposed process exceeds delivery capacity even if stored energy is plentiful.

Distribution offers a few clear circuit duties and service branches. Exact voltage simulation is unnecessary unless it produces a specific enjoyable activity. A protected light-and-habitat branch, a workshop branch, and a heavy-process branch already create useful decisions. An inspection tool should highlight which source and breaker serve the selected machine.

Essential services receive explicit priority. Optional manufacturing slows or pauses before an occupied refuge loses its operating allocation. The player can schedule heavy work while other loads are low, add a buffer, choose a slower efficient process, or install a better source. These are practical engineering choices that the scene and interface can both explain.

## Fluids, gases, and heat without unreadable complexity

Liquids and gases retain distinct storage and connection identities. A filled vessel is a specific batch with a type, quantity, and permitted use. The system should not surprise the player by mixing incompatible materials through a visually identical connection. An empty line, a blocked receiver, and an incorrect material each need a different readable state.

First-use connections work through clear ports and short visible routes. A later manifold makes a larger plant easier to organize. It can allocate a known supply to several compatible processes with priorities, but it does not conceal where the material originates. Colored markings help the scene; symbols, names, and direction arrows carry the same information for players who cannot distinguish the colors.

Heat is useful where it gives a process or place identity. A kiln, thermal treatment, heat exchanger, and cold-world service system can share understandable hot, operating, cooling, and safe-service categories. A bounded installation can model its heat needs without simulating temperature through every block of a player-built mountain.

Material conversions must conserve the game's accounting across storage forms. Filling and emptying a cylinder, freezing and thawing a supported material, or converting a gas to a liquid cannot create extra supply. Energy conversion loops have a net cost after all inputs are counted. A recovery process can reduce recurring demand and still leave a reason to maintain the source.

## Automation that gives time back

The first automation tools are simple: accept a particular input, send a particular output, stop at a target reserve, protect a chosen allocation, and pause on a clear condition. The player can build a useful workshop with those rules. More elaborate condition groups, sequencing, and scheduled local orders can follow when their benefit is clear.

Orders have a source, recipe, quantity or reserve target, output destination, permission scope, and stop condition. An order desk can prepare a loadout or project bundle from authorized stores. It reports the actual bottleneck instead of hiding it behind a generic progress bar. A player can inspect a part and see the shortest currently available path to make it.

Large factories grow through throughput and specialization. Parallel machines, better handling, improved layout, and sensible buffers increase capacity. Upgrades should specify their consequence: faster working rate with higher demand, lower consumption with slower throughput, a larger supported batch, better yield for a selected feedstock, or fewer service interruptions. A universal module that improves every measure weakens both the early machine and the choice to expand.

Remote visibility is distinct from remote activity. A terminal can show recorded inventories, reservations, route status, and the last known state of an outpost where the player has permission. That does not authorize its absent factory to process new goods. Region boundaries, dimension boundaries, eligibility, and the established pause rules remain authoritative.

## Regional pause and coherent custody

Managed production pauses when its eligible participants leave the defined region. Machines, their supported local transport, storage reservations, heat states, biological processing, and service consumption must enter a coherent saved condition together. They resume from that condition when the region becomes active. A player should not return to a different factory outcome calculated from wall-clock absence.

A paused machine retains its committed inputs and supported partial result. It cannot restart a batch by charging the same inputs again or award the output twice. Uncommitted queued stock remains identifiable and recoverable according to the order's rules. In-progress material is a real recorded resource state rather than a progress bar detached from inventory.

Local production and established freight have different permissions. Freight reserves goods that already exist. Its finite receiving process can advance when the destination is active, even if the source is parked. That movement does not operate the source machine, start its next batch, or consume an absent habitat's reserve. Both endpoints need not have simultaneous occupants.

Ordinary Minecraft systems outside the managed system retain their normal behavior. The industrial design must not imply that every furnace, crop, mob, redstone contraption, or unrelated chunk follows SUBSTELLAR's regional pause. Supported integrations need explicit boundaries. A visible region status helps the player understand which authored services will pause when they leave.

## Fairness, pacing, and the role of maintenance

The initial machine investment should feel substantial enough to be remembered and small enough to reach a useful result. Later upgrades should remove an existing inconvenience or open an understandable capability. Creating a problem solely so that the next mandatory machine can remove it is weak progression.

Balance should be evaluated around complete player outcomes: the first prepared descent, first useful powered tool, first Tier 1 round trip, first automatic supply order, first difficult deep expedition, first local lunar improvement, and first independent Mars operation. A recipe can look inexpensive in isolation while the whole chain demands excessive repeated gathering. The complete chain, including service inputs and transport, is the unit of review.

Ordinary renewable supplies should become convenient as the player establishes them. Rare discoveries can remain exciting through specimens, new methods, unique decorative forms, and specialized applications. Requiring the same rare material for every replacement filter, lamp, and routine bracket would turn exploration into an errand.

Manual alternatives remain useful for small quantities, field repair, and first production. They may be slower or consume more common material, but their cost should not become punitive. They create resilience when power is temporarily unavailable and let players who prefer exploration cooperate with dedicated industrial builders.

Cooperative progress should reward different contributions. One player can survey a deposit, another can build the route, another can fabricate parts, and another can prepare the expedition. Shared knowledge and completed infrastructure remain available under group rules. Each person can retain their own discovery history without having to rebuild a parallel factory to participate.

## Reconciliation with the existing catalogues

| Existing catalogue | Relationship to the expansion |
| --- | --- |
| MAT01–MAT09 | Tin, nickel, alumina clay, titaniferous ore, graphite, quartz, sulfur, salt, and ceramic clay enter specific fittings, structural, electrical, chemical, optical, and thermal routes. They are not nine successive mining permissions. |
| MAT10–MAT12 and MAT17–MAT19 | Resin, fiber, shellstone, loam, ironbark fiber, and biolume retain cultivation, textile, composite, decorative, and living-light roles. Renewable essential uses have safe first sources or accessible substitutes. |
| MAT13–MAT16 | Lens crystal, resonant quartz, Heartglass, and thermal salt provide specialized instruments or environmental improvements. They do not gate the confirmed early Tier 1 branch. |
| Ten processed-product families | Bronze fittings, steel, sealed cloth, technical ceramics, lightweight plates, reinforced alloy, titanium stock, optical assemblies, resonant components, and Heartglass assemblies remain the main vocabulary. Added forms should reuse these identities where possible. |
| EQ01–EQ05 and EQ32 | Hand tools and controlled excavation retain useful identities. Powered tools and IND-M57 add working options with visible charge, service, and excavation limits. |
| EQ06–EQ10 and EQ31 | Ropes, harness, winch, crossing, carrying frame, and cart connect to supported hoists, loading bays, and transport. Installation upgrades do not create duplicate equipment families without a new role. |
| EQ11–EQ19 and EQ30 | Light, markers, survey, journal, sampling, cultivation, pump, battery, and resonance connect to charging, laboratory, mapping, and field-service functions. |
| EQ20–EQ29 | Filters, thermal and sealed equipment, shields, breathing supply, refuge, communications, repair, aquatic, and radiation modules are serviced by the appropriate workshop. A late suit combines selected compatible functions within limits. |
| TEC01–TEC14 | These remain recognizable places and installation families. IND-M01–IND-M66 supply the detailed functions from which their actual implementations can be designed. |
| SUPPLY01–SUPPLY03 | Propellant, breathing refill, and charged cells retain one shared identity across manufacture, storage, preparation, and use. Their first supported sources are on Earth. |
| PM01–PM18 | Planetary materials produce destination-specific improvements after arrival. Common uses allow supported substitutes; unique properties justify narrower specialist requirements. |
| SUP01–SUP04 | Rover, cargo crawler, ice submersible, and atmospheric survey skiff use relevant service bays. They remain support vehicles, separate from the three rocket tiers and the six spacecraft capability classes. |

Existing decorative and biological uses are preserved even where they do not feed a major machine. No optional reactor input, special industrial gas, or new ore acquires an approved MAT or PM identifier through implication. A genuinely new natural resource needs its own generation, recognition, use, substitute, and illustration entry before it is integrated.

## Coverage and the next design slices

The current overview should show the complete industrial journey, the early Tier 1 branch, representative machine families, and the relationship between home workshops and destination services. The confirmed Tier 1 artwork supplies the appearance of its named machines, components, equipment, and rocket. Accurate process and progression graphics should use drawn labels and links to the writing.

Detailed artwork remains a named backlog for each other machine family: full installation, working process, intake and output, accessible service positions, relevant item scale, and useful variants. A coherent family board can cover related parts. An overview image does not imply that every individual machine or material has received a finished concept.

Before extracting implementation work, each chosen machine needs a small concrete brief: player outcome, first accessible recipe path, inputs and outputs, physical interaction, supported placement, readable states, ownership, regional pause, recovery, service needs, and the visual references it must preserve. Numerical rates and capacities should follow a playable process. A prototype must demonstrate a real input becoming the intended output, a useful field or construction result, and correct behavior when its receiver fills or its region pauses.

The first industrial implementation slice should be selected after the required generation and construction foundations are dependable. A compact path through a bench, ordinary parts, a useful power service, and one expedition outcome can prove the language. The complete common-material Tier 1 branch can then be developed as its own coherent slice, with all required support services and a genuine round trip. Deeper ore recovery, elaborate chemical plants, destination specializations, large reactors, and advanced transit remain explicitly mapped later work.

Success is a workshop that makes the player want to build another room, improve a route, prepare a new expedition, or bring a discovery home. The machine catalogue is large because the world offers many kinds of work. Its progression should let each of those kinds become understandable, useful, and worth returning to.