Hammer + Coal -> Coal Dust, New Nano-Production

tl;dr suggestions are in white

Single-Use batteries just don't get the love they deserve. They aren't used in any cool recipes, and more, by the time you can make them you already have RE-Batteries unless you have been powering your macerator with redstone! Coal dust should be made by hand, with a hammer on coal. It can still be made in a Macerator, but not in the Extruder since rolling out coal makes no sense. This way, some people might actually use Single-Use batteries before making a generator. By the way, each Single-Use Battery is good for 1200 EU. Redstone dust is good for 800 EU, and a RE-Battery can hold 10000 EU. Crafting Single-Use Batteries is still the same:

= x5, x8 if Hydrated Coal Dust (Pretend the Gold Dust is Redstone Dust and the RE Battery is Single-Use Batteries)

The obvious problem here is that suddenly it is much easier to make Carbon Nanotubes for Rotors or Nanosuits. I propose a reworking of the Nanotube production line, which is a little bit odd to begin with. Here is how you make Nano-stuff right now:

• Macerate Coal/Coal Blocks to get Coal Dust
• Shapelessly craft 4 Coal Dust to get Raw Carbon Fibre
• Shapelessly craft 2 Raw Carbon Fibres to get Raw Carbon Mesh
• Compress Raw Carbon Mesh to get Carbon Plate
• Craft whatever with the Raw Carbon Meshes or Carbon Plates

I advance this replacement production line:

• Compressed Coal Ball + Thermal Centrifuge -> Raw Carbon Fibre; note that each Raw Carbon Fibre now holds 8 Coal (Compressed Coal Ball = 8 Coal Dust + 1 Flint in Compressor)
• Raw Carbon Fibre (x1) + Metal Former (Rolling) -> Raw Carbon Mesh
• Compress Raw Carbon Mesh to get Carbon Plate

The recipes make more sense to me this way. You get the fibre by centrifuging the impurities from coal which you have already compressed a little to make stronger, with a Flint core as the catalyst (this leaves nanotubes, aka. fibre). You roll the fibre up into a mesh, then compress that mesh with over 9000 Gibbl, and get the Carbon Plate.

The unfortunate side effect is that Nanotechnology becomes significantly more expensive, as it now is not possible to make nanotubes from macerated coal by hand. The total cost of one is 8 Coal, 1 Flint and 24853 1/3 EU (29120 EU if you want it automatic, since no compressing Coal to Coal Blocks) :

• 4800 EU to macerate each coal individually, but I assume the player macerates coal blocks. 600 EU + 1 Coal Block in Macerator gives 9 Coal Dust, so 8 Coal Dust therefore costs 533 1/3 EU. Note that you cannot compress coal into coal blocks (why not???), so that must be done by hand/another mod or you will have to use the 4800 EU.
• 600 EU to compress the Coal Ball
• The Centrifuge is tricky. Assuming it is already warm enough, I observe ~48EU/t for about ~22 seconds. This gives approximately 21120 EU for the one required operation. Warming or idling a Centrifuge costs 1 EU/t.
• 2000 EU to roll out a Raw Carbon Mesh
• 600 EU to compress the Carbon Mesh

For comparison, the current Carbon Nanoplate costs 8 coal and 5400 EU or 1133 1/3 EU using Coal Blocks:

• The same 4800 EU or 533 1/3 EU with Coal Blocks.
• 600 EU to compress the Carbon Mesh

I assume when this mechanic was implemented Coal Blocks weren't a thing, so that partially justifies the increase in cost but possibly not enough for the change between 5400 EU and 24853.33 EU, more than a 4.5fold increase in power consumption. Fully automatic processing justifies the increase from 24853.33 EU to 29120 EU in my opinion. For reference, 24853.33 EU is the equivalent of about 31 redstone dust, 20.7 Single-Use Batteries, or 2.4853 RE-Batteries. 5400 EU is equivalent to 6.75 redstone dust, or 0.675 RE-Batteries.

Thoughts?

Aaaah! I forgot about Solar Panels and the Tech Loop! I haven't used Solar Panels myself, so that is why I forgot about them... doh. Although, the only reason I don't use them is because they pale in comparison to nuclear/kinetic power... I don't see why anyone would use them except to power a water pump (you could use watermills, but you would need so much space to power a pump it is even more useless).

About the tech loop. This one is difficult, here's a few (distinct) ideas:

• The Thermal Centrifuge's recipe is changed. Iron is replaced with Refined Iron, the Advanced Machine Casing is replaced with an Ore Washing Plant. Maybe the motor should be changed too, unsure.
• The Thermal Centrifuge loses its advanced machine casing, and instead requires a block of Refined Iron.
• You get the first Raw Carbon Fibres by lasering Blocks of Coal on Super-Heat mode.
• You get the first Raw Carbon Fibres by lasering Blocks of Coal on Super-Heat mode, but this only has a chance of dropping Fibres.

Mine_Sasha, what about a Coal Ball being a compressed Coal Block? Macerating a Coal Block and Compressing a Coal Block both cost 600 EU.

I have a couple of questions for you, Chocohead. 1) Do you think Composite Armour is a good mediator between Metal/Vanilla armour and Nanosuits? Composite Armor lasts longer, for one. I found myself progressing through armour from Leather to Bronze to Bronze/Composite to Diamond/Composite to Nanosuit, or, on my other world, straight from Bronze/Composite to Nanosuit. 2) Don't you have lots of diamonds, anyways? Diamonds are usually not a problem for me as one of the first things I did at my base is to make a Diamond factory.

Also, my Thermal Centrifuges aren't too slow so long as you give them an Inverted Redstone Upgrade (or if you care about energy, a redstone signal) to keep them running. It costs 1EU/T to keep them hot. If you still think Nanosuits should be easier to make and not harder, I trust your expertise. Are you more in favor of status-quo or do you have something else in mind? I think Composite Armour is the answer.

It looks like the new Charging Batteries/Crystals can accomplish a similar goal to the Combo Armor mod.