Short note from Command. After the slower refine pass, solid ladders still felt wrong on live worlds - lots of raw gone, little solid T1 left, and a fat liquid pile next door. I dug into the rates and fixed the sync between solid mills and phase baths.
What I found
- Solid yield sat around 25% at level 1 (capped at 50%), so most of every batch vanished even when the cycle looked busy.
- Cycles were still short versus liquid mills, so raw pig iron burned fast for little refined return.
- Liquid phase baths ran about four times faster than one solid refinery could feed - solid T1 never stockpiled, liquid T1 did.
What changed
- Solid pair ladder at building level 1: about 70% yield - 2 units in become 1.4 of the next tier - on a cycle of about six minutes (was about two minutes at 25% / 0.5 out).
- Higher solid refinery levels still improve yield and speed, toward roughly 80% at high levels. The old 50% hard cap is gone.
- Liquid phase bath and solid phase press cycles are about four times slower (tier-1 bath about three-plus minutes, was under a minute). Conversion yield stays near 90%.
- Liquid, gas, and plasma refinement ladders are unchanged. Gas and plasma phase hops are unchanged.
What you should feel
Less raw waste on the solid climb, room for solid T1 to sit for a T2 ladder or the bath, and a calmer path into liquid alloy. The alloy recipe itself is unchanged - still deliberate. Full rules and FAQ: /docs/refinement-phases. Short bullets land on /release-log.
Sebastian "Degola" Lagemann