I had a look at that save game and everything seems to be correct and as expected. One of the reasons why the ore to plate recipes were disabled is because they weren't actually an efficiency upgrade.Danjen wrote: ↑Tue Sep 20, 2022 12:35 amThe early game production chain used to be:Iron ore can't be smelted directly
Saphirite Ore => Crushed Saphirite => Iron Ore => Iron Plates
But it looks like that's been changed. This is pretty significant for me, since I often play marathon games with 5x researach. With these settings, it takes about 2-3 hours to research Mechanical Refining for the Ore Sorter, after which point I would go for the molten casting stuff (requires steel).
Directly smelting crushed ore:
100 crushed saphirite > 66.6 iron plate
Sorting then directly smelting ore (recipes now disabled):
100 crushed saphirite > 37.5 iron plate + 18.76 copper plate (56.26 total plates) + 25 slag
Sorting then metallurgy:
100 crushed saphirite > 50 iron plate + 25 copper plate (75 total) + 25 slag
Next version of Angel's, Blast Furnace, Induction Furnace, and Casting Machine will no longer require steel. So you will be able to get efficiency upgrades sooner!