Why do I gain mass from refining ores?

[Allmybase411]

Something I noticed while flying around in space (shortly before "using" an asteroid to significantly reduce my velocity) I noticed my mass was increasing as my refinery, which did have 4 yield modules on it, chugged through some ore. Now, I may not be much of a stickler for realism in a game with a very realistic physics engine, when Lord Clang allows it, but I would think that conservation of mass would be a no-brainer. At the very least, shouldn't my mass be constant?

As for the ship, I CTD'ed as it seems Lord Clang was pleased with my offering, resulting in my game reverted to a previous auto-save that allowed my ship to start braking rather than breaking.

[DrEarlInsanity]

ore is a lighter diluted form, ingots are the more condensed form, and parts are the most dense.

[Allmybase411]

but that is density, density is mass over volume. MASS over volume. If that ore is a lighter diluted form, then the only thing that would change is volume, not mass. The ore in question was cobalt, and some stone but even then... I mean maybe it is an update thing.

[Daynen Drakeson]

Refining ore should always REDUCE mass because no ore gives 100% yield, except stone with multiple yield modules. It's actually impossible to gain mass from refining. You do gain mass from producing components, however, so if you're using assemblers during the trip that could be the case.

[Allmybase411]

"should" always reduce mass. Well thank for the answers.

[Wygos]

Best answer would be :
KeenSoftware house..... random not working things is their thing. Probably a bug or simply a thing nobody cares about like entire game.

[Loki McNeil]

Originally posted by DrEarlInsanity:

ore is a lighter diluted form, ingots are the more condensed form, and parts are the most dense.

While this would create an imbalance in the ship when the ingots were moved from one hold to another (heavier) while in gravity of a planet. The overall mass of the ship should go down as energy is consumed and turned to heat and radiated into the planets atmo or space. Further fuel consumption would reduce the mass as well.

[Lussian]

Also their refinement is not capped out at 100% 1:1 refinement at the moment.
Scrap Metal, Iron and Silicon will return more than their own value in weight/mass with 4 yield modules.

[Burstar]

to answer the title question: because KSH made an engineering branded game while ignoring any advice given by scientists or engineers.

[valrawk]

yeeeaaa... While it's true that even if you managed to refine Every last bit of metal in a ton of ore, you'd still have crapton of stone left.
In real life refining, that stone is boiled out or draught out of the slag, but in space I'm guessing it's turned into gas like any other impurities and expelled into space..
So Yes, the refining process Should most definitely reduce the mass of your ship by a considerable amount.
Guess KSH overlooked that. :P

[seronis]

Originally posted by Lussian:

Also their refinement is not capped out at 100% 1:1 refinement at the moment.
Scrap Metal, Iron and Silicon will return more than their own value in weight/mass with 4 yield modules.

Are you sure? In the past even 10000000000% modded 'yield modules' would be capped at 100% ore conversion to ingots. The game checked that you didnt get free mass. I havent rechecked this in a loooooong time but this doesnt seem like the type of code that can ACCIDENTALLY break.

[Lussian]

I've checked it back and forth, I also figured this wasn't something that would suddenly break, but those 3 minerals go over 100% refinement. Since I knew this was a thing back in the days... when I used to make dedicated Iron and Silicon refineries since more than 2 yields was overkill for those :O

[RoofCat]

Originally posted by Lussian:

I've checked it back and forth, I also figured this wasn't something that would suddenly break, but those 3 minerals go over 100% refinement. Since I knew this was a thing back in the days... when I used to make dedicated Iron and Silicon refineries since more than 2 yields was overkill for those :O

I can confirm this one. Iron creates 1400kg ingot from 1000kg ore with 200% efficiency using 4 yield modules. Silicon exactly the same. Scrap metal would create 1600kg metal from 1000kg scrap. While stone is nowhere close with 185.2kg total left after refining. All other ores should have less too. The ugly thing about Silicon - ingots already require more volume than silicon ore. Now with 40% extra that also adds roughly +50% room problem worth consideration.
Cobalt will give you 600kg from 1000kg ore at 200% efficiency.

[Topminator]

i'll necro this thread because this issue is still there... but is there a mod that fixes this without changing the recipes? i would like to play the game without breaking laws made by lavoisier... thanks in advance!

[Stanley]

Originally posted by DrEarlInsanity:

ore is a lighter diluted form, ingots are the more condensed form, and parts are the most dense.

Whaaaaa? You can't create mass from nothing. Mass stays the same, its the volume that changes

[Topminator]

Originally posted by Stanley:

Originally posted by DrEarlInsanity:

ore is a lighter diluted form, ingots are the more condensed form, and parts are the most dense.

Whaaaaa? You can't create mass from nothing. Mass stays the same, its the volume that changes

i'm pretty sure that's just a troll... or that he's talking about volume instead of mass