Late-game backpack customization.

[MajorMoth]

It would be cool if you could use Astronium or some late-game resource to make extensions to your backpack. For example, add a craftable item that can be activated to open up a maybe purple projection from it where you could store extra utility like your hoverboard/oxygen/qtrtgs. Or make a station where you can upgrade your suit in some ways. I.E. adding dampeners to your suit so you take reduced fall damage, adding a shield that could protect you from explosives/flora, adding better headlights, maybe a scanner so you could find resource veins more easily or switching out your built-in printer for a larger one. I thought of this mainly because of the new hoverboard and how you need 2 inventory slots to make space for it, and a qt rtg.

[Dekrosna]

for some of these things I agree fully with mostly for the fact that my typical layout is

Shoulder 1 - light
shoulder 2 - Jumpjet/jetpack
slot 1 - RTG
slot 2 - RTG
slot 3 - O2 tank
slot 4- Battery
slot 5 - hoverboard
slots 6-8 - empty
terra slots 1-3 drill mod 3, boost mod, wide mod

This usually leaves you with only THREE slots remaining for collecting resources... (inb4: Just use a tractor/rover/large rover with resource canisters etc) .... to which I have this to say... while I enjoy building out a full blown mobile base and find it quite fun... having only 3 inventory slots remaining is kinda trash... granted I know that in my set up I can toss the battery and be 'just fine' and also toss the o2 tank for the portable oxygenator but that would leave me with only 4 empty slots. which is useless when you need to gather certain resources rather fast... and don't even suggest the auto extractor for that... that thing is slower than pouring thick syrup at producing resources... granted it produces a TON of resources without damaging the terrain but still

[MajorMoth]

I usually keep 6-8 slots open, but when I'm crafting up something really complex it's very annoying to have only 6 slots. It's just very clunky, and you don't have space for anything, and you have to fly around holding stuff... it's bad. It doesn't bother me much during expeditions tho. I have my rover to hold all of my extra gadgets like terrain tool mods or my hoverboard + rtg, extra fuel etc. Having backpack extensions like that, or the suit mods, would add a lot to the progression. You could obtain those by completing missions, kinda like with the vehicles.

[Mr. Fibble]

Exo chips should have been used as a currency of sorts for incremental upgrades to the backpack (O2/Power bar) and tool (better efficiency) rather than being shoehorned into existing buildables.

The backpack has always been pretty woeful and really needs a secondary layer for the upgrades that clog it up.

[Dekrosna]

mid to late game backpack improvements... definite yes and honestly if the devs wanted to they could just as easily set it up like with the hoverboard and VTOL on how to unlock those upgrades.