Best 'Non Cheating' Mods ?

[RLS0812]

What are some of the mods you like to use that do not 'cheat' the system ( much ) ?
I like:
Electric Furnaces ( higher tier furnaces )
Factorissimo ( build factories inside of buildings )
Warehousing ( larger storage options )
Waterfill ( great for decorative water features )

[pat]

Personally, I think that anything that changes the vanilla game is a cheat. That said, who cares? I use many mods that people would consider cheats. Many of Bob's mods like the very configurable inserters and ultra fast belts improve the game for me. I also like the upgrade planner, although the way it allows you to upgrade equipment on the other side of the world seems very god mode to me.

[Nickjet45]

All of bobs and angels mods
Cargoships
Airplanes
Helicopter
Helmoth
Clock
Void chests
Bigger bags
Etc.

[Rhym]

Try out Raven mod, it's an airplane mod that feels natural to the game. It is a mid/end game technology that allows to build an airplane that feels good having it. It is slower than a train but close to it. It has three flight stages:
1) Acceleration - before takeoff the Raven will crash into obstacles and has a low turning speed like a real airplane.
2) Flight - accelerate and avoid all obstacles to gain altitude. At this stage, the Raven has better maneuverability than during takeoff and landing.
3) Landing - Slow down until the aircraft land after which it will again crash into obstacles in its way.
+You will have to build take off/landing strips.

Try it out. Train maps will feel more interesting. And this mod will definitely not make you feel like cheating, there’s a chance that after a while of using it you will ask yourself why this mod is not in core game.

[brian_va]

warehouses has become a staple, electric trains as well. tiny start to skip some of the early grind (600+ hours, i know how to do the early game) squeak through because of oil and pipes, long reach for obvious reasons. FARL, larger inventory, RSO, water well and upgrade planner round out the essential list.

[Overeagerdragon]

When it comes to "cheaty" mods I think there's plenty out there that can be used without it being cheaty if you use them right. After all factorissimo can be used in a cheaty fashion as well by building a refining rig inside the factory and then simply moving it from mining site to mining site. Having said that; these are my personal favs

Angel+Bob+Pyanodons+Yuoki.
All of these make the game more complex but also add multiple tiers of furnaces, mining drills, assembly plants, powergenerators, (either fossil, solar or even quantum mechanical).

Quality of Life research
This mod allows you to research anything pertaining to your character; from (hand)crafting speed, to reach, to inventory size. The research requirement ramps up quickly so it's not cheaty or unbalanced although if you truly go deep into the tree you will end up with a character that might feel a bit unbalanced but the same can be said for any of the bigger core-mods.

Bio-Industries. This mod holds a special place in my heart...it allows you to terraform and/or plant trees & purification gardens. It balanced out by VERY long production times (I think 40 wood will take you 400 seconds to build) and the impact of the buildings itself being quite small. So you either end up building it as a supplement or building vast fields of the stuff if you truly want to mass produce. (I know Bob's mod has it's own version these days but I thought that one was rather cheaty. I used it in the past and you basically build 8 greenhouses and you'll have more wood than you ever know what to do with. The production times are much faster too....it felt a bit cheaty for a non-renewable resource such as wood).