Ore processing chain

[Aerolfos]

Rough idea for iron processing, with multiple ways to go about it, and some tiering: (No numbers are final.)

1. Iron ore in furnace. Vanilla. 1 ore = 1 iron.
2. Iron ore in smeltery. 1 ore = 1 iron ~~but there is now a secondary output (Was it nickel? Whatever we decided on). If 1 ingot is 144 mb, then maybe 50% chance of 72 mb of the secondary output? That's half an ingot. 1 ore = 1 iron + 0.25 secondary.~~ Smeltery does not need secondary output. 1:1. Basically tier 2.
3. Crush the ore first. You then get 2 "dirty iron dust/grit/whatever" and 50% chance of 1 "crushed iron residue" (names not final). The dirty iron dust is directly smeltable wherever for 1:1 iron ingot. The residue is smeltable for 1:1 secondary ingot (just so that it isn't sitting around all game, willing to change that). Total of 1 ore = 2 iron + 0.5 residue. Tier 3.
4. Only clean dust works like current dust, for crafting in addition to making ingots. 2 dirty dust =craft= 1 clean dust. Inefficient, use if you need dust early game for whatever reason. The proper way is to "wash" the dust in an acid bath. Unsure which machine fits, something that you can put some acid into and combine with the dust, consuming both. Probably several options, so you can pick your favourite mod's stuff to work with. That gives 1 dirty dust =bath= 1 clean dust + 10% chance of extra clean dust + 75% chance of 1 residue This is tier 4, and 1 ore = 2.2 iron + 2 residue

This should be the last tier. Rest are sidegrades, and process the residue somehow.

5. Smelt directly if you want the secondary: 1 ore = 2.2 iron + 2 secondary
6. If you want some secondary, but don't want to focus on it: 2 residue combined in a fitting machine (unsure which) with maybe another "processing chemical" makes 1 clean iron dust and one clean secondary dust. Maybe this should just be another acid bath tbh. 1 ore = 3.2 iron + 1 secondary
7. You only want iron: Make direct reduced iron. Alloy furnace of residue + coal and some machine that combines a hydrocarbon gas (both Immersive Petroleum and Buildcraft should have something), heat and the residue. Several options in different mods is fine. 1 residue = 1 direct reduced iron. 1 clean dust = 1 DRI + 10% chance of extra DRI. This is just incentive to consolidate the production. The DRI goes in an Arc Furnace. Add coal coke to get steel instead of iron. Total: 1 ore = 4.42 iron/steel

Did this with iron specifically in mind as an example, but going over it, this probably works for all the primary metals. If there's more than one secondary output, make say 1 secondary = 30% chance, the other 20% chance so both secondaries add up to the correct % of a single secondary.

[TheDeviantCrafter]

The smeltery can't handle RNG. I'd prefer if all of the results were in increments of one ingot as well so you don't end up with small amounts of random fluids. I think the smeltery can be one ingot with no extra secondary ingredients.

It can already make Tinkers' parts, gears and alloys. It doesn't need to be an ore processor as well. Plus Tinkers' adds a multiblock lava-powered furnace that everyone forgets about.

[Aerolfos]

Too bad. But yeah, that is a good point, and enough to make it a pseudo-tier 2 anyway.

[TheDeviantCrafter]

As far as obvious ore processing options, we have:

• Furnace

• Smeltery

• Quartz grindstone

• ImE multiblock crusher

• ImE multiblock arc furnace

• Integrated Dynamics squeezer

• Botania mana pool conversion

• Factory Tech drill grinder

• Magneticraft crushing table

• Magneticraft multiblock grinder

• Pyrothium/Petrothium (both disabled in the config)

[Aerolfos]

• Furnace, smeltery and arc furnace are covered.
• Unsure about quartz grindstone (it's too cheap compared to the other ones I think). Same with the crushing table.
• Crusher, drill grinder, multiblock grinder are covered.
• I have no idea what the squeezer is like.
• Mana pool is something different, unsure.
• Disabled. Crafting with those is boring and I'd advise removing the recipes if they were enabled.

[TheDeviantCrafter]

The quartz grindstone and crushing table are cheap, but they're manual. The grindstone also prevents fake players from working with it. I don't see any reason to nerf them, but we shouldn't require them either.

Using petrothium, cryothium, aerothium and pyrothium in the ore processing chain would be nice though. We could find a way for them to make thematic sense, and they require exotic materials.

The reason I suggested the mana pool is because currently it's mostly doing it's own thing. I'd like to give people the option of using Botania tools in processing chains without requiring it.

[Yarden-zamir]

The Sieve / Sluice box will only give one return of the processed metal but will generally output more by-product

[Yarden-zamir]

Ok, so how do we integrate botania into this? Using mana pools will be problematic because they are instant and they don't have by-product. An idea is to require A LOT of mana for it and then it will be an end game ore processing solution that's instant but only doubles the ores. It will give dust so you still have to smelt it, or you can put the dust into the mana pool again or use another botania tool for that.

[TheDeviantCrafter]

I think we should do just the opposite. Botania alchemy generally involves during one thing into an equivalent but different thing. It generally feels more like trading than crushing or smelting.

I'd use it to transmute primary metals into secondary outputs. This means they would have the highest output of secondary ingredients, but completely nullifiers the primary ingredient.

I agree with the significant mana requirement. Mass producing mana isn't hard when combining tech and magic, even with our fairly balanced mods.

[Yarden-zamir]

Yea that's smart, will do that

[Yarden-zamir]

The ore processing diagram page contains

• [x] Iron
• [x] Copper
• [x] Tin
• [x] Gold
• [ ] ~Aluminum~
• [ ] Nickel
• [x] Quartz
• [x] Coal I'm not including the gems, quartz and coal are an exception because I needed them for something else. After I add all of those I want to rush the first Implementation of the diagram into the game.