Greetings!

As mentioned in this week’s Road To Fanfest Dev Blog, there are upcoming changes to material compression, giving an improved team-mining experience. New in-space compression modules will be added to the Rorqual, Orca, and Porpoise, which also add the ability to compress Gas and Moon Ores for the first time. This post will expand on the outline in the dev blog, giving you a lot more details, and enable us to gather your feedback.

Here is an overview of the coming changes:

A new, streamlined, fleet-based mechanic for in-space material compression. The Rorqual, Orca, and Porpoise are getting new “Shipboard Compression Technology” support modules, allowing nearby fleet-mates to compress materials directly from their own cargo bays. With the right modules and skills, remote compression will be possible at ranges exceeding 200km.
Moon Ore and Gas will now be compressible. Along with Asteroid Ore and Ice, all of these harvested materials will now be easier to compress on-site using these new modules. As long as you are within range of a ship that is running an appropriate compression module, you can instantly compress your yield as soon as it arrives in your cargo bay.
- These compression modules require an active Industrial Core module to operate. The Porpoise is therefore getting a new Medium Industrial Core module as it takes its place alongside its bigger siblings out in the belts.
The capacity of jet-cans will be doubled (to 55,000 m³) to make it easier for high-volume miners and haulers to work together more efficiently.
Simplifying the quantity ratios between uncompressed and compress material - Compression quantities are now always 1:1 across all types. So 1 unit of Veldspar gets compressed to 1 unit of Compressed Veldspar. Both items will have exactly the same refining requirements and outputs, but the compressed version will obviously occupy a reduced volume in the cargo bay. This makes it easier to evaluate and compare prices and logistics, for example when dealing with the market or contracts.
Compression is always loss-less. Refining and Gas Decompression is lossy, with efficiency being improved based on skill and location.
- For Asteroid Ore, Moon Ore and Ice, there is no additional loss going through the compression+refining route compared to refining the raw materials directly.
- Gas compression is loss-less, but gas decompression is lossy. Using compressed gas will lead to a slight loss due to inefficiencies. It will be possible to minimise (but never eliminate) these inefficiency losses via skills and by decompressing gas at an appropriate Refinery structure.

For a more detailed breakdown of all these improvements, please continue reading below.

These changes will show up later today on the Singularity test server, for further evaluation. We look forward to hearing your feedback.

Details

Please note that all numbers are not yet final, and still subject to change. What shows up on Singularity may not represent the final version.

Fleet-wide compression via Shipboard Compression Technology modules

The core of the change is “Fleet-wide Compression” - that is, allowing all members of a mining fleet to compress their materials themselves. This will be enabled via Shipboard Compression Technology modules fitted to a Industrial Command ship (Rorqual/Orca/Porpoise). These modules unlock the ability to compress materials whilst in space, for both the command ship itself as well as any fleet-mates within the vicinity. When compression is unlocked this way, any ship can select a compressible material in their own hold and instantly convert it to a compressed variant.

The compression modules require an active Industrial Core module to operate. There are no additional requirements on the other ships/characters, other than that they are in the same fleet and within range of the Industrial Command Ship. Compression modules themselves don’t consume any fuel when they cycle (only capacitor).

A ship cannot perform compression whilst it is warping, cloaked or an an invulnerable state (such as whilst tethered).

New compression modules come in Medium, Large and XL sizes - one per ship for each of the compressible groups:

	Basic Asteroid Ore	Ice	Gas	Mercoxit Ore	Moon Ore
Rorqual	Capital Asteroid Ore Compressor I	Capital Ice Compressor I	Capital Gas Compressor I	Capital Mercoxit Compressor I	Capital Moon Ore Compressor I
Orca	Large Asteroid Ore Compressor I	Large Ice Compressor I	Large Gas Compressor I	Large Mercoxit Compressor I	Large Moon Ore Compressor I
Porpoise	Medium Asteroid Ore Compressor I	-	Medium Gas Compressor I	-	-

Along with the new compression modules, there will be three new associated skills:

Shipboard Compression Technology - Required for Medium/Large compression modules (unlocks one module type per level)
Capital Shipboard Compression Technology - Required for Capital compression modules (unlocks one module type per level)
Fleet Compression Logistics - Increase range of compression modules (+10% per level)

The upper limit on compression ranges has been balanced to be similar to those of command bursts:

	Compressor Size	Base Range (km)	Fleet Compression Logistics at Level 5 (km)
Rorqual	XL	144	216
Orca	Large	83	125
Porpoise	Medium	44	66

New compressed materials

The quantity ratio between raw and compressed types is changing, so that compression is always 1 raw unit to 1 compressed unit. This will make it easier to judge relative factors such as volume and price when dealing with compressed materials. The volume ratio between raw and compressed types now becomes easier to understand, and will use the following pattern:

Resource	Quantity Compression Ratio	Volume Compression Ratio
Asteroid ore	1:1	100:1
Moon ore	1:1	100:1
Ice	1:1	10:1
Gas	1:1	10:1

We will be adding new compressed types for all asteroid ore, ice, moon ore and gas. For asteroid ore, ice, and moon ore, these new types will refine in the same way as the uncompressed types, with the same portion size requirements.

Compressing Asteriod/Moon Ore and Ice is always a loss-less process - a compressed portion of these types will always refine to the exact same output as the equivalent uncompressed portion. (Compressing gas, however, will incur some losses due to inefficiencies - see below for details)

The existing (old) compressed asteroid/ice types will be renamed, and will continue to exist in inventory stockpiles. They will continue to be refinable exactly as they are now. However there will no longer be any way to generate new instances of these old types. We will monitor stockpiles of these retired types, and implement an automatic conversion process at some future time to migrate any remaining items.

Gas compression/decompression

Gas is unique compared to ice/ore in that it does not have an equivalent to the “Refine” step in the chain from harvest to manufacturing. Compressed gas cannot be used directly for manufacturing. Therefore, for compressed gas only, we are adding a new Gas Decompression action which will convert the compressed gas back to its raw uncompressed form. This decompression action will be lossy, in an analogous way to how refining always has some losses due to inefficiencies.

The Refinery structures will be gaining a new gas decompression efficiency bonus. There will also be a new skill Gas Decompression Efficiency, which will further increase the efficiency. However as it will never be possible to get 100% gas decompression efficiency, choosing to compress gas will trade off easier transportation logistics against decreased material yield.

Gas decompression can be performed at any Upwell structure fitted with a Standup Reprocessing Facility service module. The best efficiency is at a Refinery structure. Note that stations cannot decompress gas.

Base gas decompression efficiency	80%
Athanor Gas Decompression Bonus	+4%
Tatara Gas Decompression Bonus	+10%
Gas Decompression Efficiency skill bonus (at level 5)	+5%
Max Gas Decompression Efficiency (Tatara + level 5 skill)	95%

Porpoise - New “Medium Industrial Core” module and some stats changes

The new Medium Industrial Core module for the Porpoise will be available in Tech1 and Tech2 variants.

It behaves in much the same way as the existing Large/Capital variants - It will lock the ship in place, whilst granting benefits to drone mining and to command burst strength/range. See Reference section for full details

To complement its new Medium Industrial Core module, the Porpoise is getting a new fuel bay (4,800 m³)

The Porpoise hull is losing its role bonus to mining drone ore yield, and its Industrial Command Ship bonus to drone ice-mining cycle time is being halved from 10% per level to 5% per level. Instead, bonuses will be coming from the Medium Industrial Core itself

Orca - Increased Fuel bay capacity

The Orca’s fuel bay capacity is increasing from 5.000 m³ to 6,400 m³. This is to allow it to make better use of its Industrial Core in support of compression modules.

Jet-can capacity doubled

Some mining ships are, when optimally fit, able to mine with very high yields. So high in fact that continually jettisoning new cargo containers for their output can become a bottle-neck. Therefore to lessen this pressure we are doubling the capacity of the “jet-can” Cargo Container from its current 27,500 m³ up to 55,000 m³.

Structure compression

Structures will continue to be able to compress Asteroid Ore and Ice (provided they have an online Standup Reprocessing Facility service module). They will not be able to compress Gas or Moon Ore - such compression can only be done in space, using the new compression modules.

POS Compression Array retirement

With these changes we are another step along the plan to retire Player Owned Starbases, by disabling the POS Compression Array. This item will no longer provide any compression function. The few instances remaining in space can be unanchored and reprocessed back into base materials.

References

New Skills

Industrial Reconfiguration (existing skill)

SP Multiplier: 4x
Skill book cost: 20,000,000
Level 1:
- Medium Industrial Core I
- Large Industrial Core I (existing module)
- Shipboard Compression Technology
Level 4:
- Medium Industrial Core II
Level 5:
- Large Industrial Core II (existing module)

Shipboard Compression Technology

SP Multiplier: 3x
Skill book cost: 150,000,000
Pre-requisites:
- Industrial Reconfiguration I
Level 1:
- Medium Asteroid Ore Compressor I
- Large Asteroid Ore Compressor I
Level 2:
- Large Ice Compressor I
Level 3:
- Medium Gas Compressor I
- Large Gas Compressor I
Level 4:
- Large Mercoxit Compressor I
- Capital Shipboard Compression Technology
Level 5:
- Large Moon Ore Compressor I

Capital Shipboard Compression Technology

SP Multiplier: 3x
Skill book cost: 150,000,000
Pre-requisites:
- Capital Industrial Reconfiguration I
- Shipboard Compression Technology IV
Level 1:
- Capital Asteroid Ore Compressor I
Level 2:
- Capital Ice Compressor I
Level 3:
- Capital Gas Compressor I
Level 4:
- Capital Mercoxit Compressor I
Level 5:
- Capital Moon Ore Compressor I

Gas Decompression Efficiency

SP Multiplier: 2x
Skill book cost: 75,000,000
Pre-requisites:
- Shipboard Compression Technology III
+1% Gas Decompression Efficiency per level

Fleet Compression Logistics

SP Multiplier: 4x
Skill book cost: 300,000,000
Pre-requisites:
- Mining Director III
+10% Compression Range per level

Medium Industrial Core

These new Industrial Cores can only be fitted to the Porpoise.

	Medium Industrial Core T1	Medium Industrial Core T2
CPU	30	50
Power	50	80
Max Velocity	-100%	-100%
Drone Damage	24%	30%
Drone HP	24%	30%
Drone Maximum Velocity Bonus	5%	10%
Drone Ore Mining Yield Bonus	20%	50%
Drone Ice Harvesting Speed Bonus	-18%	-35%
Mining Foreman Burst Strength Bonus	5%	7.5%
Command and Mining Foreman Burst Range Bonus	45%	60%
Remote Repair Impedance Bonus	-100%	-100%
Shield Booster Duration Bonus	-15%	-15%
Sensor Dampener Resistance Bonus	-75%	-80%
Remote Assistance Impedance Bonus	-80%	-80%
Shield Booster Amount Bonus	10%	15%
ECM Resistance	100%	100%
Activation Duration	1.25 Minutes	1.25 Minutes
Consumption Quantity	125	250

[2022] Details on forthcoming improvements to compression mechanics