As it is now, mechs are great for space encounters (and mine asteroids). Only. And not as good as it can be for this... Making the mech spend fuel (Liquid Erchius Fuel is practically free and uselles in the game, you can buy with pixels for a price exceptionally low and only is hard to obtain in the first minutes in game) and separating the "energy" from the "how damage your mech is" status is crucial for earthly business. I say this after some time using the highest energy body with two Beam Drill Mech Arm to clear some space to build a base. You mine some, teleport to the ship, beam down, go to the spot (in that tiny absurd low speed grade 5 legs - like 25-35% of the energy is already down at this point), mine a bit more (the beam drill takes an absurd time to mine magmarock and can't mine background blocks, so not so much work is done), low energy start buzzing... you need to go to the surface, beam to the ship, beam down, go to the spot... and again... and again... and again... (...) At least make some machinery to "fuel/repair" the mech while is on ground. Or something to call the mech to your base. Or mech parts upgrades. Or that vault upgrade available to mech parts. Or new pieces up to 10 energy/speed. As it is now is just painful to use them on the ground - and even underwater they don't act like something heavy (some parts to work better in fluids and some adjustments is needed in this area too). The point is, don't leave as it is now - because it works not at its best only in the mini game called "space" inside the game.
Try http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=951958262 , or if that's not your style maybe http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=948508782 .
If you need a mod to make a feature in a game enjoyable its something that need some sort of upgrade, right? I don't like to depend on people to update things after the game suffers a major change. I play the game as it is (unless is made by Bethesda - then mods first, game last... xP), and like to keep my saves clean and bug free. So you know, I made this post after dig at least 15000 magmarocks using the mech... If no changes is planned then the best mod is one to remove the "deploy mech" to planets, because is a joke. Space is not the only content available to explore using mechs (space are not even a real environment to explore, are just a handful of random encounters) - there are ground, underground and fluid environments (mechs fail badly in all three). As I see mechs are planned as "end-game" feature but they are scaled as early-mid game, with some serious (SERIOUS) end-game grinding to make useless parts. Really, took me 40 schematics to get the Beam Drill Mech Arm (as the last "high", so was 39 repeated) and several more attempts to get the parts to make two. After a hundred space encounters you expect to have something good (that flying sauce from Terraria good) right? You get something way worst that your matter manipulator... Its not proper to say what I was thinking about it in that moment because this is a "family-friendly" site - and I'll probably get banned for life...
Just notice something even more annoying exploring underground: the mech does not give/have any light. You can have a useless horn, but can't have a single LED to be able to see underground...
Yes I think theres much more they could do: After removing of old techs, why nto allow players in planetary orbit to "deploy to orbit" so we can use the mechs on the planets asteroid layer? The only way atm to reach this is with a stupid dirt column. Deployong mechs directly there would give that currently dead area some use. Also, lights are indeed needed.
It'd be simple to have all enemies have a possible energy drop that only has a chance if they're killed by mech weaponry. Like how hunting weapons get more meat.
