Cargo Bay Ore Processing

[Nokta]

So... uhm... i feel pretty stupid but... i don't understand how the ore processing works.

I bought the first cargo expansion with 40% conversion efficiency.

It turns water into fuel.

It turns minerals into... processed minerals and storage them into an extra 7k storage space compartment?

How's that useful, except extra fuel?

With the standard hold I managed a 100k run by selling the entiery of the cargo hold.

With the new hold i manage 70k - 80k and it takes longer. Feels like it's not selling the processed ore or it's worth less?

Am I missing something?

[aY227]

You have 7k for each mineral. And on top of that you can turn off MPU and take whole cargo of unprocessed chunks.

Also first MPU is pretty bad.

E: Also stations will only buy processed ore, and they pay x2

[Tamren]

Basically what you're missing is that processed mineral storage is separate from your volumetric cargo bay. Lets say your starter ship can hold 100 square meters of cargo. You go out and scoop up asteroids until your cargo bay is full, which gives you about 100 square meters of ice and minerals, minutes the wasted space from air gaps in the cargo bay.

Now you go out again but you install a basic MPU. You process the asteroids you gather at a 60% loss. The remaining ice goes into your fuel tank, the remaining minerals go into your processed material storage. The starter ship can carry 7 metric tons of EACH mineral type which increases your effective cargo space. So now instead of "a cargo bay" worth of asteroids, you can also bring back up to 7 tons of each processed mineral. This improves your profit per trip out to the asteroids because flying out there and back costs money and time.

The first MPU is pretty bad statwise but I still found it to be a huge leap in profitability because I went from making 100-150k per full cargo bay to bringing back 300k or more. It wont take long for me to be able to afford a new ship at this rate.

[Nokta]

Originally posted by aY227:

you can turn off MPU and take whole cargo of unprocessed chunks.

This was the missing piece of the puzze! Now it makes a whole lot more sense :D

Thank you!

[kekkomartin]

Originally posted by Tamren:

Basically what you're missing is that processed mineral storage is separate from your volumetric cargo bay. Lets say your starter ship can hold 100 square meters of cargo. You go out and scoop up asteroids until your cargo bay is full, which gives you about 100 square meters of ice and minerals, minutes the wasted space from air gaps in the cargo bay.

Now you go out again but you install a basic MPU. You process the asteroids you gather at a 60% loss. The remaining ice goes into your fuel tank, the remaining minerals go into your processed material storage. The starter ship can carry 7 metric tons of EACH mineral type which increases your effective cargo space. So now instead of "a cargo bay" worth of asteroids, you can also bring back up to 7 tons of each processed mineral. This improves your profit per trip out to the asteroids because flying out there and back costs money and time.

The first MPU is pretty bad statwise but I still found it to be a huge leap in profitability because I went from making 100-150k per full cargo bay to bringing back 300k or more. It wont take long for me to be able to afford a new ship at this rate.

This just isn't happening for me. IDK what I'm doing wrong, but I can't seem to reclaim remass fast enough to keep the tank full. I have a slow drain until about 3k delta-v at which point I return to base. The most I've ever brought in was 160k.

[Malc]

I find that you need to upgrade to the 29kg of remass tank. at least for the starter ship. it should give you enough to be able to mine a little more

[kekkomartin]

I'm not in the starter ship. I'm in a ....cothon-212. I think. And it wasn't until I posted this that my KSP experience kicked in and told me "reduce your propellant usage". So I bought the "Agile" thrusters, which more than doubled my delta-v and left the MPU keep up beter. I had 170k in the bay when I pulled in a life pod. and went back to the station

[Tamren]

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[FreedomFighter]

Originally posted by kekkomartin:

This just isn't happening for me. IDK what I'm doing wrong, but I can't seem to reclaim remass fast enough to keep the tank full. I have a slow drain until about 3k delta-v at which point I return to base. The most I've ever brought in was 160k.

Your turbine is too powerful maybe? Turbines do consume propellant passively no matter what. If you are on Military Turbine then that might be the case. I skip Military Turbine and install Aux Powerplant instead due to this.

[Malc]

Originally posted by kekkomartin:

I'm not in the starter ship. I'm in a ....cothon-212. I think. And it wasn't until I posted this that my KSP experience kicked in and told me "reduce your propellant usage". So I bought the "Agile" thrusters, which more than doubled my delta-v and left the MPU keep up beter. I had 170k in the bay when I pulled in a life pod. and went back to the station

Not to bash the cothon, but it doesn't have the best turning thruster placement either. I am pretty sure the in game description says the same thing. It has a large cargo hold, but because of the thruster layout it isn't the easiest to drive. I tried it and found that I had a hard time slowing it down without flipping the ship around. (I was also relatively broke so I wasn't running drones) and it doesn't have a high stress point for anything like a manipulator arm. it feels like it is meant to coast through the rings mining asteroids and then using drones to pull the ores in. If you are just coasting at like 6m/s then you wont use much propelant either.

[kekkomartin]

I bought the thing because it was fairly damaged and I have a good mechanic. Been looking for a new bird. lol I'm running the aux power supply too. I didn't think of a lower turbine.

[Malc]

if you need more power, you also need to up your reactor. I find 12 rods handles most everything except for the top end components

[kekkomartin]

power isn't my issue. Delta-V is. And I think the thing defaults to 12 rods. in the base model.

[FreedomFighter]

Originally posted by kekkomartin:

I bought the thing because it was fairly damaged and I have a good mechanic. Been looking for a new bird. lol I'm running the aux power supply too. I didn't think of a lower turbine.

Eagle is quite a good upgrade from the default ship. It has 2 main drives along with lower dry mass. You give up on the high stress hardpoint tho.

[GrimJester]

if you get the vulture of the eagle it has a high stress but losses the drones

[thekins]

ive come to the conclusion that the MPU's are basically worthless
same as you
Yes a FULL load of XYZ ore all nice and melted up is worth (more) but it takes triple or more time to make what you would get with a regular old baffled hold

I can dive and within 10 minutes make around 150k ish give or take
I can dive with the exact same ship and 30 mins later im around the same mark BUT im leaving behind 3 different types of ores cuz im "full" on V or PT or something

it feels like a playstyle thing
if you wanna make money jump in grab literally anything over 4k and just sell it
if you wanna play the game refine the ore and make significantly less for 3x the effort its a little backwards in my eyes