Hello. So I noticed that the research you get during tier 1 research (only requiring the red packs) for copper is not very good. The issue is that the casting unit creates copper plates so slowly using the grade 2 copper.

I used helmod to see what input copper (efficiency) and total power would be required to make 15 plates per second.

Using the advanced foundry with hot air recipe, you need 14.2 megawatts and 80 copper ore per second.

Using the "new and improved" recipes you get with copper ore processing 01, it would take 52.2 megawatts of energy! And it still uses 62.5 copper ore per second. Which is an improvement, but this setup would take 90 casting units, 50 jaw crushers, etc.

Maybe this is all on purpose, and you're not supposed to get better copper plates until you get to science level 2. But I think it's a bit misleading when a research for more advanced processing gives you a process that, in most cases, is way worse, slower per building, and only a slight efficiency boost.

Thank you for reading.