Suggestion: PoB ore refineries

[jammi]

It'd be nice to be able to see PoBs integrated further into the economy, or at least to be able to diversify into more roles than equipment factory or storage. One method by which this can be done is the introduction of refineries to convert ore commodities into some form of "premium" goods. Given the existence of regular commodities as refined goods, this doesn't make a great deal of sense, but then neither does the current ore system in general so lets just ignore that inconvenient fact.

Righto, on to the meat of the matter. Each ore gains it's very own refinery module. So there wouldn't be a singular "refinery" that processed everything and anything, oh no sir! Instead, you would have to customise your station to the goods you wish to refine and sacrifice module slots for that choice. So Cobalt Refineries, Gold Refineries, Platinum Refineries. You get the picture.

A refinery will take 1 catalyst commodity (see below) and 2 units of ore. Over a to-be-decided time frame, this produces 1 unit of Premium commodity and 2 units of 'by-product' (conservation of mass). For this hypothetical example, our unit of ore is worth 10k - the produced premium version would be worth 17.5k. "What? What lunatic would sacrifice 2.5k of profit for going through the hassle of merging 2 units of ore?" Let me elaborate, hypothetical question-asker!

Looking at things from a macro level, you are indeed taking a slight hit. $2.5k has just evaporated. However, there are some side effects which potentially make this a valuable investment nonetheless. Firstly, true buy and sell differences could be set up for the first time ever. Currently, reselling for a profit requires an enormous amount of micromanagement by tinkering with price and min/max settings on a daily basis.

With two commodities, this is no longer the case. For bases being run as actual businesses, as opposed to depots for the owner's traders, this would be a godsend. Secondly, if a trader is looking to do one run and then log off, premium is far more attractive than ore. For one run, they don't care about that lost $2.5k. All they care about is the fact that they're making an extra $7.5k per unit for that particular run.

Now then, there are two factors I mentioned that I haven't looked into yet. 'Catalysts' and the ominous 'by-products'. I didn't go into catalysts above because there are two potential options on the table, both having pros and cons; Industrial Hardware or a new PoB commodity based on Mining Machinery.

Industrial Hardware is interesting because it is already used for many PoB modules and pieces of equipment. Adding a persistent use for it through refining would make managing your stocks far more important than before. There are also sell points for it placed in all of the Houses, making access fairly centralised. Despite this, many of these sale points are a long distance from actual mining fields, inconveniencing depots which want to refine goods on-site. Certain areas would be vastly disadvantaged against others - for example, refining Aluminium in Munich would be leagues better than attempting the same in Omega 7.

The alternative would be to use a new PoB commodity based on Mining Machinery (Industrial Miners?). This is useful because it allows for the commodities to be locally placed in a manner that doesn't discriminate against certain fields in each House, without affecting existing balance for IHs. Prices for stock MMs are also already set for NPC mining stations, which would act as a neat pricing guide for PoB owners. Ideally they would be placed at the current 'prime' selling points for MMs, which are generally located in House capital systems. There are obviously pros and cons to both options, so feel free to vote on which you feel is better in the poll.

Now, I also mentioned industrial by-products. This part will potentially be contentious, but as I mentioned, conservation of mass is a thing - goods don't evaporate into thin air. For every premium commodity refined, 2 waste commodities also appear. There would be a waste commodity that is specific to each type of ore, and these waste products would be purchased by solely ALG's Wuppertal Refinery at a rate that works out around 200c/s if calculated from the mining site. Now, ain't nobody got time for that crap. But something special could happen through the magics of FLHook wizardry when you mount an ALG ID: that price suddenly rises to a rate of around 600c/s, again if calculated from the mining site.

This is important because some of your evaporated profit is currently sitting in those waste units. Most people would have no use for this commodity and would simply delete it from their stock as it accumulated (yes, you're that monster the Gaians are always complaining about). However! Rope in some ALG transports to ship it for you, and you suddenly have a new revenue source for your base that your refining has conveniently generated for you, in addition to the stuff you actually want. ALG now has a new activity and exclusive ore: they get it not by mining, but by taking waste away from actual industrial bases.

So, what do you guys think? Pros, cons, discuss. Also, cheers to cAast for the ideas about Mining Machinery and other general troubleshooting.

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[Techpriest]

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[TheProphet]

I think this is a pretty solid idea. I would definitely like to see Toxic Waste having both RP and practical purposes. More work for what's supposed to be one of the key corporations in Sirius does not seem like a bad thing!

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[SpaceTime]

Refineries have been suggested since PoBs came out. They are always a big yes from me, if they are well-implemented.

[Karst]

I can't be bothered to read all this (now) because Jamie explained it to me anyway, but I think it's the best take on the oft-suggested concept of factories/refineries.

Needs a lot of balance finetuning obviously but a firm +1 from me, even though he typo'd my name.

Also vote mining machinery.

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[Alestone]

Sort of a continuation of this thread's later posts

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Alestone Enterprises

The Power To Get You There!

[Highland Laddie]

Should probably take more than 1 commodity. Ore refining is quite a complex process.

[jammi]

Should probably take more than 1 commodity. Ore refining is quite a complex process.

More commodities would then either render the entire endeavour unviable, or force premium products to be priced so high as to be insane. Over a certain value, it'll just become more trouble than it's worth to add them.

[Blodo]

Start making up some infocard ideas for the refinery commodities I'd say. POB refineries will come at some point (hopefully soon), this idea looks totally solid from my point of view to start with.

[Alley]

I already have this fully programmed with the module. I finished it about two years ago.

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Alley was right.