Extended Vanilla: Refining

Short description of this mod(pack): =======

This mod implements multiple new methods, structures and crafting chains to refine your mined (quality) ores (and some other intermediate items) in order to augment the complessive final yield. Each tier of refining needs to be unlocked with their relative technology, and you can further upgrade these recipes with modules as you progress through the game. As already mentioned, the same reasoning obviously works with quality ores, which can refined in the same ways. (I suggest you to check the quality section on this modpage.)

Furnace (Alternative smelting):

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+ Obtain a plate from an ore, obtained with advanced material processing No extra yield, but now this technology introduces the Crusher, a machine that won't allow you to boost your ore production at first, but will allow you to speed up the normal vanilla process. If you want to see some setups for each stage of the game you can find them in the gallery.

Ore Crusher: (From 2.0x to 2.75x)

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+ Now that you've researched the Base ore processing, you can obtain double the plates from the same amount of ores. Obviously you need to smelt the dust into plates.

Enrichment Chamber: (From 3x to 3.5x)

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+ With the power of electrolysis, you can further refine your ores. Ores are processed into ore clumps that can be cracked into dust with crushers.

Purification Chamber: (From 4x to 4.75x)

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+ Purification chambers are really complex machines that use sulphuric acid to melt down ores into chunks. The chunks can be then processed into clumps and then smashed into dust.

Amounts and ratios in each recipe step can be adjusted via settings. ======= + You can decide to obtain 1.2345 iron/copper dust from a 3-step refining process. + Or you can crank everything up to 10x every step and break everything.

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Coal processing chains: ======= + Coal processing doesn't revolve around a simple boost to final yields. + The approach here revolves more around fuel quality (MJ/item) and steel processing.

More efficient fuels:

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+ Raw coal can be refined through the game in coal coke, coal dust, clumps and chunks, gaining more and more MJ of fuel value with each recipe. For instance, coal chunks have better stats than solid fuel if you compare them. + Furthermore, coal chunks can replace solid fuel in the production of rocket fuel. (A production chain of 4-5 passages is needed, yes, but in the end you always obtain more MJ of fuel than what you consume in the craftings.)

More and faster steel:

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+ Vanilla steel production remains untouched, but now you can unlock faster and better methods to produce steel, using enriched coal. + Enriched coal has no fuel stats, but it can be produced with each coal intermediate, with the philosophy "the better fuel, the more enriched coal", and allows you to make steel more than two times faster and with even less iron. + The overall cost in terms of space occupied (and machines required) is significantly lower. Also, steel production setups can be united with iron refining ones. In the endgame, this allows you to produce a steel plate with HALF iron ore (productivity modules can further boost everything). (Amounts and ratios can be adjusted via settings.)

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Stone processing: ======= + You can smash down stone into gravel, and then into fine sand, with increased yields. + Gravel and fine sand can then be processed into stone bricks, rails, landfills and concrete, that require less resources to craft and are faster to make. (Amounts and ratios can be adjusted via settings.) (You can find some examples in the gallery.)

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Late game production of a megabase: (yield depends on machines, modules and quality)

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+ Crushers and Enrichment chambers have two upgrades, while the purification chambers have one. The Mk2 tiers are obtained by researching the Advanced and Elite ore processing, while Mk3 tiers are dedicated to late-game enthusiasts and are obtainable after space science. (Or after Gleba, Vulcanus and Fulgora have been conquered.) + Mk2 and Mk3 machines have 2 and 4 module slots, process 1.67 and 2 times faster, and have a base production boost of 5% and 10%. This will save up a lot of space in the designs and at the same time boost your production.

Working with quality to make things skyrocket:

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+ If you then plan to play around with quality, well things can really go nuclear. + Some recipes allow you to produce some intermediate items on spaceships and planets where normally it'd be pretty nasty to do so.