Ore Smelters and Iron Bar Purity
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 4:01 amCouple of things before I get to the point:
1. I decided to put this post in "Bugs" category only because I personally enjoy the challenge and hate "easy mode" games. I expect most would consider this a welcome feature. Moderators, please move this thread at your discretion
2. Credit goes to Sevenless for his invaluable guide without which this discovery would not have been possible.
It appears that the purity of produced Iron Bar depends only on the purity of components in the last load and the purity of "leftovers" from the previous load is ignored.
I came upon this accidentally. I was smelting metal without regard for purity for a week or so now, and then finally decided to make myself a new set of dowsing rods and look for higher purity mine. After smelting 25 pieces of ore I got a bar on a first try (meaning I had at least 0.5 bar leftover from previous smelt, and the purity of that bar was the same as the ore purity). My next 25 pieces of ore produced dross only, as expected, and the third 25 ore load produced another bar of the same purity as the first one, validating my initial observation.
I think the smelter behavior should be such that the produced bar purity averages that of the current load and leftovers from the previous load.
Until (if ever) the current behavior is corrected, the optimum 3-load smelting cycle for production of both high (ore), and low (component average) purity Iron Bars would be:
Load 1: 17 ore + 8 lime = 1.7 bar (produce 1, 0.7 leftover)
Load 2: 15 ore + 10 lime = 1.8 bar + 0.7 bar leftover (produce 2, 0.5 leftover)
Load 3: 25 ore = 0.5 bar + 0.5 bar leftover (produce 1 - high purity, 0 leftover)
Overall production for the 3-load cycle:
57 ore + 18 lime = 3 low purity bars + 1 high purity bar + 29 low purity dross + 24 high purity dross
The first two loads can be done in any order. The goal is to produce 0.5 bar leftover and then smelt all ore for a complete bar thus "converting" purity of the leftover from a more productive smelt to the ore purity in the resulting bar.
I will be testing this 3-load cycle production over the next few days once I make a new smelter which I know is free from leftovers. I expect these predicted results to be confirmed given that so far I have not seen any evidence that disputes the formulae posted by Sevenless
1. I decided to put this post in "Bugs" category only because I personally enjoy the challenge and hate "easy mode" games. I expect most would consider this a welcome feature. Moderators, please move this thread at your discretion
2. Credit goes to Sevenless for his invaluable guide without which this discovery would not have been possible.
It appears that the purity of produced Iron Bar depends only on the purity of components in the last load and the purity of "leftovers" from the previous load is ignored.
I came upon this accidentally. I was smelting metal without regard for purity for a week or so now, and then finally decided to make myself a new set of dowsing rods and look for higher purity mine. After smelting 25 pieces of ore I got a bar on a first try (meaning I had at least 0.5 bar leftover from previous smelt, and the purity of that bar was the same as the ore purity). My next 25 pieces of ore produced dross only, as expected, and the third 25 ore load produced another bar of the same purity as the first one, validating my initial observation.
I think the smelter behavior should be such that the produced bar purity averages that of the current load and leftovers from the previous load.
Until (if ever) the current behavior is corrected, the optimum 3-load smelting cycle for production of both high (ore), and low (component average) purity Iron Bars would be:
Load 1: 17 ore + 8 lime = 1.7 bar (produce 1, 0.7 leftover)
Load 2: 15 ore + 10 lime = 1.8 bar + 0.7 bar leftover (produce 2, 0.5 leftover)
Load 3: 25 ore = 0.5 bar + 0.5 bar leftover (produce 1 - high purity, 0 leftover)
Overall production for the 3-load cycle:
57 ore + 18 lime = 3 low purity bars + 1 high purity bar + 29 low purity dross + 24 high purity dross
The first two loads can be done in any order. The goal is to produce 0.5 bar leftover and then smelt all ore for a complete bar thus "converting" purity of the leftover from a more productive smelt to the ore purity in the resulting bar.
I will be testing this 3-load cycle production over the next few days once I make a new smelter which I know is free from leftovers. I expect these predicted results to be confirmed given that so far I have not seen any evidence that disputes the formulae posted by Sevenless