It's a vanilla build; I've only used one "trick" once and it's a very simple one (the thing about building a vent on the side of a hab before deleting the hab in order to put something in the middle of thr grid).
I like the idea that the ship is powered by the squid's electric energy, with the pipes acting both as a powerline and a feeding-machine that keeps the squid healthy. There's also a console inside to check on its vital signs.
I've spent a few hours processing industrial waste with my colossus today, and though I do enjoy it, I feel like it's not very rewarding. I mean, yes, you get some nanites, but not a lot, and it's far less efficient than farming glass or even hopping from one pirate station to another (I don't like the pirate station tech pack thing because it feels like cheating so I usually never do it to maintain a feeling of progression). I do enjoy doing it, but it is still quite redundant, and I don't see any reason to do it once you've unlocked all the colossus parts. I wish there was a random pool of rewards for the game to pick from, such as nanites, commercial goods, upgrades etc. Instead of getting like 30 nanites for each item, there could be a system with a "cash-in" button, and once you're done processing the waste, you'd click on it and get paid, and the value of your payment would depend on the amount of waste processed. To go even further, there could be a small group of npcs belonging to some "planet cleaning" guild, exactly like the guilds in space stations, and you'd increase your standing by cleaning up the planet.
Perhaps I'm going a bit too far, I don't know. Right now, I feel like doing it "for fun" is the only real motivation (especially if you don't care about nanites), and while it IS fun, it becomes a bit boring after some time, and adding a bit of depth to the activity would be a great addition.
What do you think? Perhaps I'm missing something and there's actually more to do?
Edit: I have found a mod that gives a percentage to get a B/A/S class environment protection based the type of hazard of the waste processed, and it also gives some additional matter, making it much more worth it. It's easy to find on Nexusmods by typing 'waste' in the search bar