I never keep my word do I? I'm supposed to give all of you a nice big update with full functionality but no, I am still trying to sort out item-trigger crashing with expwnent, who is being totally awesome. I'm also play-testing and collecting/fixing bugs/fixes. So far, it has been mostly typos in stuff, but there are still some things I am considering. Comments, feedback and suggestions welcome.
First, the Hydroponics Farm requires both a power and water talisman, two very rare resources, yet gives a pitiful yield of synth-reeds in return. Here, I can think of two ways to fix this, the first is to give a guaranteed base yield of 5 or so plants, then have additional yields with progressively lower chances. The second is to allow the Hydroponics Farm to support all crops, including aboveground ones, allowing you to plant underground for a high cost. Alternatively, the Hydroponics Farm can be made to require spark batteries instead of a power talisman.
Secondly, power talismans are required for a lot of buildings yet are extremely rare. So I am suggesting that there be a reaction to produce at something like the MAS Talisman Forge. Although in-crunch it would make sense to not require reverse-engineering since it is rare enough already, but in-fluff it will not make any sense whatsoever. In this case though, crunch wins fluff. I'm thinking of a reaction requiring a U4 gem/prismatic hologem and a couple of spark batteries.
And one last thing, shouldn't aluminium be less valuable than vanilla? This is a post-industrial society which had easy ways to smelt bauxite.