Decided I wanted a run that forced me to scale up instead of just “winging it” because hey after a few research steps I will be able to make it better anyway.

Thought to play “marathon mode”, which is vanilla except research cost is multiplied by 4, but ended up going for a multiplier of 100 instead.

To give an example of what this means: Researching solar panels costs 25000 red and green science.

I found this to be an interesting challenge! I not only have to build large and optimized builds with low-tier tech. I also need to be extremely careful with managing biter evolution and pollution. Just red ammo is locked behind several thousand science packs, and I have expanded to 8 ore patches and my perimeter is just tightly packed turrets, because I have not let myself afford researching walls yet.