The first Nichrome recipe is an outlier in terms of efficiency

[Zentay]

I want to produce 25 complex circuits per minute. In terms of tech progression, I'm at green science. I've noticed that to meet the demand for chromium, I would have to mine and process a LOT more chromium ore than for any of the other metals.

To illustrate this: just to meet the 338 chromium plates per minute demand for 25 complex circuits per minute I would need 55 buildings and process 2000 chromium ore per minute. I contrast, with 15 buildings and 600 nickel ore I can produce 472 nickel plates per minute (more than enough to meet the demand).

The best way to produce chromium at this stage is by selecting the chromium byproduct recipe while making rare-earth concentrates which is another indicator that something isn't right.

This high demand for chromium during complex circuits production is mainly driven by Toroidal Inductors requiring Ferrite, which requires Nichrome which requires Chromium. With 25 complex circuits per minute, 73% of the chromium used goes towards making Nichrome.

The problem appears to be mainly the Nichrome recipe being so inefficient. At this stage, the only way to make Nichrome is with 8 chromium plates (as well as other ingredients). There is a more efficient Nichrome recipe which uses molten chromium instead.

Let's compare the Nichrome from plates against Nichrome from molten chromium. With the least efficient of molten chromium recipes (at tier 3), I need 238 chromium ore for 100 Nichrome. At tier 2, instead I need 3300 chromium ore.

Is this an oversight or are we just meant to delay mass production of red circuits until tier 3 chromium processing?

[AndrewSkier]

That is very common with PY. To get to the first stage of production, it's very inefficient. That forces you to do first level of research at slow pace, then research what's required to transition to something more efficient. Once you get to molten chromium & nickel, nichrome is easy to get, but that will take a while to get to.