What happens
If ammo magazines remain in one turret until they are fully consumed, the consumption statistics look normal.
However, if inserters continuously move partially used magazines between turrets, the reported ammo consumption can become dramatically lower even though the turrets are still firing normally.
In my test, the statistics reported roughly 98% less ammo consumption, while the actual combat performance remained essentially unchanged.
Test setup
I compared two otherwise equivalent space platforms:
- same route
- same speed
- same mass and shape
- same number and placement of turrets
- same ammunition
- long benchmark runs at x64 game speed to reduce asteroid-spawn variance
The only relevant difference was that one setup continuously moved ammo magazines between turrets using inserters.
The asteroid kill statistics were essentially the same between both setups, but the reported ammo consumption was almost completely missing in the setup that moved partially used magazines around.
Suspected cause
It looks like a magazine may only be added to the consumption statistics when it becomes completely empty.
When partially used magazines are moved and then merged/rearranged in another inventory, their remaining-ammo state can apparently be combined without an individual magazine ever reaching the state that registers it as "consumed".
For example, conceptually:
- one magazine fires all 10 rounds -> 1 magazine is recorded as consumed
- two magazines each fire 5 rounds
- they are then moved/merged into one full magazine
- 10 rounds were actually fired, but possibly no magazine is recorded as consumed
This is only my interpretation of the behavior; the internal implementation may of course be different.
Expected behavior
Ammo consumption statistics should represent the amount of ammunition actually consumed, regardless of whether partially used magazines are moved or merged between inventories.
Actual behavior
Moving partially used magazines between inventories can cause most of the actual ammunition consumption to disappear from the statistics.
Reproducible for me in:
- 2.1.14
- 2.0.77
- Screenshot 2026-08-17 at 16.26.26.png (736.92 KiB) Viewed 134 times
- Screenshot 2026-08-17 at 16.25.16.png (811.96 KiB) Viewed 134 times
