I was thinking that it would be more interesting if manufacturing required the use of a refined form of various ores instead of their current raw form. These refined ores could be crafted using regular or premium ore. Though using regular ore would require greater quantities. Further, the refining efficiency could be increased the higher your Mining license is.

+1, and perhaps refining ore would provide a way to increase the profitability of mining through refined ores significantly increased value.

This idea has some good potential if implemented properly. I assume this would be a mission. Getting only one unit of refined ore each time would be quite tedious, so would it be something like 100 units per mission? Crafting really could use an overhaul where it's not mission based and has it's own tab instead. That way you could refine any quantity you want.

Would it be a one-to-one ratio of ore to refined (excluding modifiers)? Would there be other items needed in the manufacturing besides ore?

I'd assume this would only be available at mining stations. It could be interesting to make the ores available to be refined different at each station, as in xith can be refined in Verasi and helio refined in Helios.

I'd be okay with this if refined ore could then be sold at higher profits (than raw material) at different stations. It would make mining more complex on top of making miners richer.

I think it's a good idea too. Maybe smaller quantities of refined ore could be used for building a cappie instead of tons premium ore?

That is the general idea, mrGarvin. I was looking at a few different manufacturing missions and it dawned on me that the large quantities of ore necessary is likely due to loss during the refining process.

I don't think it should ever be a 1:1 ratio, even with modifiers. There will almost always be impurities in the raw ore that need to be accounted for. Part of my initial thought process was something like 25 premium:1 refined base.

If it were possible to use regular ore as well to make refined ore, I would recommend at least 5 - 10x increase in base ore. It needs to be expensive enough using regular ore to make it worthwhile to mine premium.

As for whether other items would be needed for basic refining, I don't think they should be. However, as an extension to the refining idea, perhaps at some point we could be able to make alloys as well.

I think starting at a 10:1 ratio for premium (twice for regular, excluding rare ores) and changing to 9:1 at mining 5, 8:1 at mining 10, etc. might be a good idea, + modifiers. If the mission allowed you to set how much refined ore you wanted and then proceeded to deduct the required amount from your cargo and inventory, a lot of time and issues could be saved.

EDIT: just saw your post for 25:1 ratios; I think that'd be a bit too much. an XC load of premium for only 8 units of refined?

+1 to OP, it's definetely very good idea!

+1

The ability to refine also should be obtained in a mission tree available after say basic miner 1.
Great ideas from the the other posters as well. I really like this idea.

+1 OP

-1. Think about it. This negates the neccescity to take large quantities of ores (think XCs) past grey space. Instead of a few xcs, you would bring one atlas that is nearly impossible to catch... and no risk involved.

However, if we could restrict this procces to greyspace, that would be another story; but I cant think of a way to do this RP wise.

The ore still needs to be mined and hauled in for refining. Not all good mining spots are next to stations.

Besides, why would you only bring an atlas? You'd still bring a moth, and thereby reduce the total number of trips.

You may not realize just how much ore is needed for a capship. Chew on this number: 45760 cu. That is how much total ore is needed. And that is the new number now that the devs have reduced it a little. Used to be 58261. Though this isn't taking into account the Verasi option, and I have not personally verified the integrity of my data.

Refined ore could be cool. Even better if it results in a big profit over just mining and selling the ore. Could be a way to make mining more interesting. :)

The big profit potential should be in it's saleability to players for manufacturing. I accept that there is currently a dearth of manufacturing missions, but it doesn't hurt to think towards the future.

You all know I'm not a miner. But - well... this sounds great. I might still not touch the space disco flashlights, but it sounds like a valuable game improvement, especially in combination with the new cappie construction item list.
Nice.

The current ores need to be renamed as well to raw,refined and purified

Crafted ore should be premium or purified......