So, outside of starter ores, it seems it's a while before accessing the other patches around the map.

The only open path seems to be through automation > ore processing. There's already a number of weird things here. One is that in the same main branch there's a vanilla "steel processing", but it only returns an iron chest.

I guess it's intended, but "ore processing", as the intended path, unlocks a "jaw crusher" which requires steel. But also one process unlocked to use the low grade ores also requires the jaw crusher. Other ore processing recipes unlocked require main ores like hematite, not low grade ores. So all of these are ALSO offlimits until much later.

So I guess the only usable recipes here are malachite to copper concentrate, which is useless because it has exact same returns of the simpler recipe. And 4 crushed hematite to 3 iron concentrate, in this case offering slightly better yields?

Yep, you're right. I went through the actual progression after reading this and there are a few things here that aren't behaving as intended.

Outside the starter outcrops, the idea is that identified ore deposits come later through geological surveying and mine development. That's intentional. What isn't intentional is Ore Processing showing you a pile of recipes that you either can't use yet or that lead into later machinery.

The vanilla Steel Processing technology showing up in the main progression is also a leftover. RIC has its own steel route through Coking → Blast Furnace → RIC Steel Processing, so the vanilla node sitting there effectively just unlocking an iron chest is noise and needs cleaning up.

The Jaw Crusher is definitely unlocked too early. Ore Processing unlocks it, but the recipe needs steel, and RIC steel doesn't become available until several technologies later. So there's no reason for the Jaw Crusher to be presented as part of that first Ore Processing step.

There's another issue behind that as well: the low-grade mechanised ROM recipes currently require primary crushing and produce a "primary crushed" material, but that material doesn't get its next processing stage until the later Concentrator Plants branch. So even once you eventually build the Jaw Crusher, that early recipe chain is partly a dead end. That's not intended.

And your yield observation is correct too.

For the starter material:

• Direct hematite route: 4 crushed ore effectively gives 2 iron plates.
• Dry hematite concentration: 4 crushed hematite → 3 concentrate, which then gives 3 iron plates. So that is a genuine 50% yield improvement.

But malachite is currently:

• Direct route: 4 crushed malachite → 2 copper plates.
• Dry concentration: 4 crushed malachite → 2 concentrate → 2 copper plates.

So the malachite processing route is effectively doing extra work for no yield improvement. That's a balance mistake.

I'm going to straighten this out in the next update so the early progression is much clearer:

• Ore Processing will be a real upgrade for the starter low-grade ores.
• The basic crusher/sorter route will be usable immediately without steel.
• Mechanised low-grade processing will actually improve on hand processing.
• Malachite concentration will get a worthwhile yield improvement like hematite.
• The Jaw Crusher will move to the point where steel is actually available.
• Primary/secondary crushing for developed ore deposits will be moved to the mining stage where those deposits can actually be exploited.
• The stray vanilla Steel Processing branch will be cleaned out of the active RIC progression.

So no, you're not overlooking some intended use for those recipes. You've hit another section where the tech unlocks, machine requirements and ore-processing stages have drifted out of sync.

Thanks for digging into it this closely — this is exactly the sort of progression feedback that helps find problems which aren't obvious from simply checking whether the mod loads.

Not the OP, but I've been trying to play this (managed to always get time only when you changed something in early progression so restarted over and over, I also decided to play with 5x research cost because that gives me time to expand) and I have a few questions:

1) The manual coal sorting recipe gives 3 coal from 5 low grade ore, the crusher one gives 4 coal from 10 ore so it's worse. I assume that's not intended?
2) The stockpiles look the same, take the same ingredients... why do they differ in storage size? There's no point, other than I guess role play, in making any other than the 96 size stockpile as opposed to the 80 size or the measly 64 size one. I guess if they only took particular types of items it would make sense, but they don't and I don't even know if you can do that.

...3)... this one is mean but I just can't... why do you make mods if you can't be bothered to play them? So many issues reported are things you would catch if you just run them for fifteen to thirty minutes checking research trees and recipes in Factoriopedia, much less actually play them. I mean some of your mods just didn't load at all for a while and someone needed to tell you it's broken before you got it fixed.
You already abandoned Stellar Foundry and it doesn't even work! The silo doesn't make the rocket parts so unlocking it is the end game. The Factorio 2.0 version works(-ish, had to change sprite size number in a file) but is stuck on Muluna because you can't get oxygen because thruster fuel is disabled and barreling recipes do not exist either, so I can't even bring some.
Half of your mods are copies of other people's ideas anyway. I mean Maritime Industry is Freight Forwarding writ large. Only worse, because what's the point of survey stations if I need like 50 of them to do anything because they're just radars with bigger radius? They're not even faster, much less the specially coded scanners from FF that were super quick and only scanned ocean tiles. So I wait forever for them to scan or get in the boat and do it myself.
Deep Core I'll kinda give you, but Diggy is a thing, Subsurface exists and Subterranio you actually have compat for in RIC. Which... why did you even change the name to Industrial Alchemy if you're gonna use the old name for all communication anyway? I was so confused reading the changelog for a while.
Planet Crafter is an actual game you just took concept and names from. And Nullius is a big terraform pack anyway and was updated, like, last month. At least Freight Forwarding is 2 years old, that's I guess enough to try for a successor but come on, you can't even do the oil right! I have to find land oil to get ocean oil rigs? Sure, it can happen but RNG here is gonna be bonkers ridiculous! I literally tried just rolling world seeds until I spotted oil on some near island in the preview and that took a half hour or so...

Thanks for digging into it this closely — this is exactly the sort of progression feedback that helps find problems which aren't obvious from simply checking whether the mod loads.

Why are you talking like that?! Seriously, nobody is making you do this, why are you talking like playing this game with the mods you are (ostensibly) making is an obnoxious chore?

Is this game and community just a convenient place for you to play around with generative algorithms?
Like, one of your other mods straight up says ChatGPT as co-author. I'm assuming everything is generated at this point. And, judging by bugs/balance issues/weird design decisions, unverified slop. Because apparently, you can't be bothered to test the mods you say you make but expect detailed error reports from us, the players trying to have fun. Something's wrong here.
You're clearly not having fun because basic playtesting is a chore to you. You're not playing your own mods, you keep making more new ones or keep jumping between existing mods in a constant untested update stream...
Even your answers sound like you use ChatGPT to make/edit them. Or like you can't write in anything but corpo-speak (or is it prompt-speak?).
Seriously, after all these bug reports where you only answer with one word, suddenly, this overly detailed essay. And the changelog with these strange word choices. Contracts? Audits? What's the point of a changelog if you need a license to get what it means?

I'm not even sorry, I know it's a nasty rant but... just... what's the point?

A few minor leftovers.

"Real ore processing" uses green science, so it should depend on it on the tech tree.

There are some icons inconsistencies that could help understanding if fixed. Usually, the icon of a recipe depends on the output. Stuff like crushed hematite to iron concentrate should have the iron in the icon. And again, the iron plate has the correct icon (from iron concentrate), but the copper plate has the copper concentrate as the icon, rather than the plate.

I also initially set a research multiplier, but I figured that with hardcoded starter ore patches (so finite resources) and the fact they are small means you could essentially lock yourself out of the progression for no reason. There's not much to expand in the early game, so the research multiplier seems more like a bad idea than a different game style.

Also, wouldn't make more sense that the big things like ore sorters actually use electricity rather than coal?