Thoughts on future tech

[AcetheSuperVillain]

I tried Rimsenal and GlitterTech for the first time lately, and they are cool, but left me feeling a bit ... empty.  They both feel very gamey to me, just using a lot of resources to get a better resource (like mixing more steel into plasteel) when I usually think of future tech as making life easier, or making new materials out of previously useless substances, or making an expensive factory that makes cheap items.  So, I don't know if I want to start modding myself yet, but I thought I'd brainstorm some ideas and see what people think. 

Plastic - That hip 20th century futuristic material that makes so many things in life so easy.  I'm kinda surprised it doesn't exist in vanilla RimWorld.  I personally imagine that future spaceships and killer robots will be made out of new types of plastics, not metal.  One exciting new plastic innovation is bio-plastic, made from biodiesel, which in RimWorld would be Chemfuel.  Nylon and Polyester fabrics are a form of plastic as well.  Plastic trash is also famous for being nearly invulnerable to the forces of nature, which is a bummer for real world conservation, but would be very useful in RimWorld.  Extending this trait are new Self-healing or self-repairing polymers, which are modeled after biological processes.  Plastic Composite materials incorporate a mix of plastics, combined with other materials like wood, steel, carbon fiber or graphene (perhaps the true identity of Plasteel).  Conductive and even superconductive plastics are on the horizon, combined with plastic fabrics may result in electrical clothing.  Reactive polymers (mechanophore?) are being invented which can change physical properties when stress, chemical changes or electricity is applied to them, allowing a material that can change from flexible to hard depending on the situation. 

Carbon - That good ol' fashioned molecule which comes in so many useful allotropes.  Graphene, a nanoscale material said to be super strong and have wonderous electrical properties.  Carbon Fiber, a strong but lightweight structural material.  Synthetic diamonds, giving anyone the strength of the hardest material in the world. 

Tungsten - Something of a wonder-metal, it is as hard as diamond, as dense as gold and doesn't melt until it reaches 6000 degrees F (3400 C).  In real life, it is used for bullets when depleted uranium won't do, and the filaments in lightbulbs. 

Aramid Fiber - (Kevlar, but that's a brand name)  Contrary to what RimWorld might have you believe, it is not grown from bright red mushrooms.  I would have to look up more about how they are made, wikipedia says: "Kevlar is synthesized in solution from the monomers 1,4-phenylene-diamine (para-phenylenediamine) and terephthaloyl chloride in a condensation reaction yielding hydrochloric acid as a byproduct. " so that's a start. 

Nanocellulose - These are forms of cellulose with particularly interesting nanoscale construction.  I think I've heard that they might be as strong as steel, but 1/8 the weight, but others say it is more similar to aluminum or kevlar. 

Amorphous Metal - Metals which are coerced into an amorphous molecular structure instead of a crystalline molecular structure, which gives them additional strength (also perhaps the true identity of Plasteel). 


Thoughts about Plasteel:  So first of all, it bothers me that GlitterTech's formula for Plasteel is a reduction of steel.  Conservation of matter, if you're putting in 10 units of steel and getting 5 units back, then that should mean that the Plasteel is twice as dense as Steel, which it clearly isn't because Plasteel is lighter than Steel.  If Amorphous Steel is Plasteel, then it should be a 1-to-1 conversion from steel to plasteel, because you are just heating your steel to realign the molecules, you just need a special furnace that can go from hot to cold very very quickly.  My original theory was that Plasteel is not steel at all, but a type of plastic that acts like steel (only sharper and lighter), maybe a graphene-composite plastic, and it's sharp because of a molecular sharp edge.  It could also be a little-of-everything, graphene-amorphous metal-composite polymer.  But if Plasteel is a material like that, then it's definitely a material not found in nature, and definitely shouldn't be showing up in the ground (unless the implication is that ships have been crashing on this Rim World for thousands of years or something).  But if building a spaceship requires plasteel, then ship chunks should render plasteel when deconstructed. 

[Albion]

The thing is that Rimworld is not a perfect future sim but a fun game with futuristic stuff. You can basically take plasteel as a catch-all for materials like nano tubes and stuff.
Creating it from steel is just the easiest way for a Modder (I do it too in my Sparkling Worlds mod which is a more balanced version of glittertech). The alternative would be to include a new resource for the player to get which is just annoying and actually makes it even more difficult. On the other hand if you would do a 1 on 1 conversion or even cheaper one you could simply buy steel from traders, turn it into plasteel and get infinite silver because plasteel is worth way more. If you want something op like that, go for it but it breaks the balance of the game.
Regarding mineable plasteel: ever wondered why you can mine compacted machinery? Civilizations have risen and fallen on this rimworld and what you mine are the remains that survived for a few hundred/thousand years.

One final note: in my opinion Glittertech is a very imbalanced mod. I would suggest to you to try my Sparkling Worlds mod. It also allows you to create advanced vanilla items and materials but way easier (although some are more expensive). It also includes a lot of new events that make the game more interesting.