Factorio Forums

How do the yields on infitie ores work? Suppose I use a normal electric drill (I don't play with further mods to give me access to other drills), then it appears to me that the yield seems somehow not related to the output of the drill, i.e.:
Whenever the progress bar on the drill finishes, it outputs one ore. This seems to be the same regardless whether it is on a 100% yield tile or a 300% yield tile.

So, I have three questions:
a) How does the yield affect the output of a drill? Will the progress bar be faster on higher yields? Will it output more than one ore on higher yields? (I wasn't able to observe any of these effects)
b) How will the yield deteriorate over time? In my config, I have . What does that mean? Will every infinite ore tile deteriorate to 20% yield over time? If so, how fast will that happen? (as fast as for oil?)
c) What happens when I change the config in the meantime? E.g., if I have already played with the ores but then change . Will all ores <200% yield be instantly upped to 200% or will this not have any influence on fields that already have a lower yield than that.

Thanks in advance for clarifications!

There is a more lengthy explanation somewhere in the development thread, but to make it short:
The miner adds up all ore tiles it is placed upon, but only mines one tile at a time at random. So forget the value the miner is showing for infinites.
For percentages above 100% the miner will produce one ore each cycles, if it drops below 100% the output becomes a probability. So increasing yield through richness (=higher starting yield) gives you a longer period where the miner produces one ore per cycles.

The setting you are referencing too is handling how low the yield drops, e.g. setting it to 100% will result in the infinite ores never dropping below 100%. Setting it higher has no effect and also will be ignored: