For those that are wondering what's holding the collection back, this is the culprit; for what started as a simple reorganisation patch for the building categories and research, has now become a full blown mod in itself with new items, crafting stations, and factions. I'm opening it up to a discussion because I'd like to know what others may think about the changes and if the work is worth it.

So far I have mostly completed the following tasks:

• Cleaned and consolidated the building categories and groups - now there's some misc items and whatnot in the shift-f12 menu but I'm not sure about there necessity or the instability of messing with these just yet so I'm leaving them for now.
  
  
• Streamlined the research - this will need an update once I get the "gunpowder/crackle-dust" faction fleshed out.
  
  
• Balance the damages and economy - this is nowhere near complete, all I've really added so far is a "Water Break" building under TRAINING, where you can sit to actually drink from water in you inventory, it only restores 110% health but it also reduces your hunger rate to 90%; so it's not totally useless but subject to change.So yea I feel it fair enough to play with and closer to vanilla than UWE that's for sure. I'm open to adding a more hardcore based bleeding rate, but I wish there were a way to craft lower quality bandages (among other things) from old clothes; but alas we'll have to wait for Kenshi 2 on that.
  
  
• Clear the environment of all conflicting, messy and resource-heavy debris - this is the real challenge. I've since cleared most of the "mineable" tree-nodes that were added by IW, leaving only the fallen ones. I found that not only were they not all able to be "cut" (which didn't really make sense, and proved tedious to complete/correct), they apparently blocked the entrance to some (modded?) buildings and lastly and most importantly with the added interactions and collisions really made my machine struggle in the forests. I've also removed most of the saltpetre resources, leaving only a rare few in the biomes that seemed to make the most geological sense: I.e. where the Leviathans roam, assuming that they're the remnants of their gigantic turds and/or where there could have been ancient "nitraries" built and abandoned by the previous empire/s.

Now here's some projects that are less finished/polished, of which I'd like some feedback on if y'all think it's worth the effort.

• Create woodlot sites/buildings (to make up for the previous nuking of the tree nodes) of various sizes for the harvesting of wood (based on Simple Resource Gatherings primitive stone mines) that are themed toward each tree type that will also scale with water efficiency (if only there were a built in tree efficiency!). Now I've made the resource nodes actually require the appropriate supplies (however clunky the solution is, it's healthier thinking than just clicking once and pulling a pick from your ...): just a water jug for now (though I'd prefer some simple sack or box, but I can't figure/find out a better alternative to just copying and altering the building materials item atm) and then whatever metal weapons that can be thrown into the crate err:"BF_Item_Furnace" to turn them into the tools/supplies needed to extract the resources.
  
  
• Create a more niche based and realistic building material economy that expands upon the monumental Forgotten Buildings mod.
  
  
  • Lumber: I've changed the default building material to require 1.5 raw stone and .5 lumber, for now. Though that may get changed and overridden by the stone processors to either the default or with an addition of some hemp pulp from this mods slurry machine. So I may just add lumber to some buildings construction instead of the materials directly.
    
    
  • Adobe: Raw mud/clay (and straw perhaps if I can find more that look like they maybe made from it) from Primitive Techs - Mud and Clay huts, that can be placed without creating a town and attracting raids. If I find larger ones that should require straw then I may add the raiding back in.
    
    
  • Ruins: can be "uncovered" with the addition of some raw stone and lumber, with the smallest shacks of these also not attracting raids and to be more place-able near the existing ruined towns.
    
    
  • Iron Blooms: this is more for early game crafting stations, and players that don't want to attract raiders just yet (maybe?). Though it is now the first (and cheapest) step one can take into iron refining, it is not totally necessary as you can skip right into plate making if you have the researching ability and aren't afraid of being raided. They are made in the Bloomery from SRG and can be further refined into plates and crude armour (from Great Frontiers' station) and weapons at the Forge from IW (w/ model borrowed from Rusted Junk Smithy), though this building really should attract raids I think because of the excessive noise and added smoke.
    
    
  • Scrap Iron: this is found by mining those rusty junk piles and tech wrecks, so far it's just used to make the improvised backpack and quivers at this mods Crafting Junk Pile. I'd like to add some kind of (neo-?)primitive fire lance (sort of like the "pikes" and energy weapons from Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun) and or an even worse junk bow/ammo that could perhaps be crafted from this stuff as well.

That's all, for now. I look forward to hearing your feedback and any recommendations.