ISRU efficiency question

[Tyko]

Does the "efficiency" benefits of having an engineer present improve the ratio of input ore to output fuel or does the efficiency only affect the speed of the conversion process? 

 

UseSpecialistBonus = true
        SpecialistEfficiencyFactor = 0.2
        SpecialistBonusBase = 0.05
        UseSpecialistHeatBonus = true
        SpecialistHeatFactor = 0.1
        ExperienceEffect = ConverterSkill
        EfficiencyBonus = 1

[regex]

Speed only, IIRC.

[suicidejunkie]

Has that changed since 1.0.5?

Only the drills are influenced by the Engineers here, while the convert-o-trons never change (although they do choke from lack of input ore, which can be alleviated by an engineer helping the drills)

[something]

I thought to have seen conversion efficiencies of 105% of the converter, when having an engineer on board. Can't control that right now, though.

[regex]

Ah yeah, my mistake, I didn't read the question fully. Drill speed is affected, not converter speed. Conversion ratio wouldn't be affected at all because the conversion conserves mass.

Edited July 25, 2017 by regex

[Tyko]

Similar question for drills - On asteroids you have limited ore. Does an engineer improve how much ore you get from an asteroid or only how fast it extracts it?

[Streetwind]

12 hours ago, Tyko said:

Similar question for drills - On asteroids you have limited ore. Does an engineer improve how much ore you get from an asteroid or only how fast it extracts it?

Only extraction speed. Even without an engineer, neither drills nor converters lose anything. They are always exactly 100% efficient. Just the speed varies.

EDIT: well, this applies to the large converter, anyway. The small one wastes massive amounts of ore. (But again, having an engineer or not changes nothing about that.)

Edited July 26, 2017 by Streetwind

[Cpt Kerbalkrunch]

19 hours ago, Tyko said:

Similar question for drills - On asteroids you have limited ore. Does an engineer improve how much ore you get from an asteroid or only how fast it extracts it?

It's probably common knowledge but, when drilling asteroids, the ore continues to be depleted even if there's nowhere to put it. For that reason, it's best to shut down the drills the moment your ore tanks are full. Then restart the drills after it's all been converted.

21 hours ago, regex said:

Ah yeah, my mistake, I didn't read the question fully. Drill speed is affected, not converter speed. Conversion ratio wouldn't be affected at all because the conversion conserves mass.

I attempted an LKO refueling station (something I don't normally do), by bringing ore from Minmus. The game description says engineers only affect drill speed, not converter speed. For that reason, the station was bare-bones. No Kerbals on board to save mass (and money). And then it literally took a year of gametime to convert to fuel. This could of been heat, I guess, but I always put thermal control systems on refueling stations. Pretty sure this one had them too, but I can't swear to it. This was back in 1.2.2. What I know for sure is that, as soon as I put an engineer on board, it immediately went back to normal conversion time (about a day or so). It was a pretty dramatic difference.

[Tyko]

11 minutes ago, Cpt Kerbalkrunch said:

It's probably common knowledge but, when drilling asteroids, the ore continues to be depleted even if there's nowhere to put it. For that reason, it's best to shut down the drills the moment your ore tanks are full. Then restart the drills after it's all been converted.

I think this has been fixed in 1.2.2. You can also lock your ore tanks while the drill heat up to prevent losses from drill running below optimal temp.

11 minutes ago, Cpt Kerbalkrunch said:

I attempted an LKO refueling station (something I don't normally do), by bringing ore from Minmus. The game description says engineers only affect drill speed, not converter speed. For that reason, the station was bare-bones. No Kerbals on board to save mass (and money). And then it literally took a year of gametime to convert to fuel. This could of been heat, I guess, but I always put thermal control systems on refueling stations. Pretty sure this one had them too, but I can't swear to it. This was back in 1.2.2. What I know for sure is that, as soon as I put an engineer on board, it immediately went back to normal conversion time (about a day or so). It was a pretty dramatic difference.

1.2.2 had a problem with heat on drills when drilling asteroids. This may have been what you ran into. I haven't tried drilling in 1.3 yet. I hope they fixed it.