OCP gets less out of a stone when you swallow it?

[Spezieh]

Hi i wondered, why i get so less minerals when i swallow a whole big Chunk with the OCP.

So after i swallowed one and it got crushed by my Rosatom MPU inside my ship i see something around 2000-3000kg processed ore with 63% efficency. Even the m² amount of water inside my hold seemed to be too less for a whole chunk.

So afterward i destroyed some stones with my Pulse Laser and counted the ore and i see 20000-40000k unrefined ore flying around.

I thought the stones will just be broken down in my hold like when i shoot them but dont have to collect them one by one. But it seems you are wasting almost the whole stone by doing so.
Sometimes im not getting one piece of an ore that my scanner told me is almost half of the rock.

Anybody recognized something similar? Or is it just "my feeling"?

[desrtfox071]

I have noticed this as well, though it is also "just a feeling", but I don't think the big rocks have the ore allocate until it is broken into small chunks, and as a result, I also feel you lose ore if you don't break the roids into small chunks before processing.

Personally, I think this is a bit of a shame because the OCP should be able to swallow whole roids in my opinion and still get the full ore out of them.

[SirusTheMadDJ]

I don't think I need to explain the concept of percentages to people, but the processor does list some funny numbers next to it that I think should answer your question...

You're not getting "the full amount" because you're losing some. Your "feeling" likely is stemming from a misunderstanding how the processors work, and what those percentages mean.

Other than that, check the stats of your Geologist, and keep in mind it's estimations.

Also, may want to keep an eye on how much of your "stone" is actually ice....

[zantanzuken]

just so you know, pretty much all the numbers are an estimation, and almost all of them are based off the skill of your crew geologist.

[Spezieh]

I know these. My geologist is as high as he can get.
And i know that you loose minerals by processing them.

What i experience is that i have 2 similar chunks next to each other with almost equal estimations of iron with round about 30 m³ Fe.
When i swallow one full i end up with something like 5 m³ in my belly and if i shoot it into chunks first im getting something line 20m³ after hauling the pieces in.
After processing its the same ratio.

Not a slightly difference but really significant ones. Often enough i swallow a rock with estimated 4 types of minerals and get only one. Even if the final amounts are wrong. There should be less waste by eating them than by shooting them.

[Dr Whom]

My 2 cents here:

Target the rock for a while, I've found that the first second or two (or if I just hover my cursor over a rock) it will give quite a few minerals and their values. However, after clicking on it and waiting for the geologist to make a more accurate assessment things like Be which were first spotted disappear altogether after a more thorough scan...

[zantanzuken]

something else it could be: the game may process the 'consuming' of rocks whole to be breaking it apart via 'impact', as if you hit it with your ship to break it apart... which would normally be the least efficient way to get ore out of it considering you'd lose most of the material as dust in space, but its all in your cargo hold so shouldn't make a difference on that front.

that said, the ocp feels more like a 'quantity over quality' type ship to me anyway, and the sheer amount you pull in via swallowing a whole rock over taking the time to shoot them apart is why i use it more than anything.... i suppose if you wanted a more leveled approach you could replace the manipulator arms with the drone hauler and a microwave laser, then just sit there blasting in a direction for the haulers to pull into you.

[Spezieh]

Thanks. That impact theory sounds plausible.
But i wont fit some drones on it. For drone mining i have my Titan. With the side opening on the OCP normal mining even with the drones is horrible. Was just fun to eat the whole rocks :D