What does science_pack_drain_multiplier do?

[Holy-Fire]

I looked at quality.lua in the quality mod, and it defines a science_pack_drain_multiplier for each quality level.

Is this what makes quality science packs have more science capacity? One would think so, but then the value for legendary, for example, should be 1/6, rather than 95/100.

Is this an additional reduction to drain on top of the increased durability? But then what is a mere +5% increase good for?

[boskid]

Its about lab quality and rate it consumes items.

[Holy-Fire]

Its about lab quality and rate it consumes items.

Ok, cool. Is this disabled in vanilla? Because it's not documented in-game or in the wiki.

[eugenekay]

Is this what makes quality science packs have more science capacity? One would think so, but then the value for legendary, for example, should be 1/6, rather than 95/100.

Yes, but the Numbers are the other way around from what you expect. Look at all of the Quality levels next to each other:

• Normal is not listed - 100/100 = 100%
• Uncommon - 99/100 = 200%
• Rare - 98/100 = 300%
• Epic - 97/100 = 400%
• Legendary - 95/100 = 600%

This corresponds with the "Science Capacity" values in Factoriopedia:

Screenshot 2025-03-17 143712.png (69.41 KiB) Viewed 816 times

Note: Quality's Tier system intentionally has a gap between Epic and Legendary. Entity Health (for example) goes up by +30%, +60%, +90%, and then +150%.


I hope this helps!

[Holy-Fire]

Is this what makes quality science packs have more science capacity? One would think so, but then the value for legendary, for example, should be 1/6, rather than 95/100.

Yes, but the Numbers are the other way around from what you expect. Look at all of the Quality levels next to each other:

• Normal is not listed - 100/100 = 100%
• Uncommon - 99/100 = 200%
• Rare - 98/100 = 300%
• Epic - 97/100 = 400%
• Legendary - 95/100 = 600%

This corresponds with the "Science Capacity" values in Factoriopedia:

This is at odds with what boskid said, that this value is about lab quality rather than pack quality.

Also, while it's clear to me that you can do a linear transformation that will get from 100/100 to 100%, from 95/100 to 600% and so on, it seems kind of weird that the game will do such a transformation, instead of just listing the values plainly as 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 - or perhaps 1/1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/6.

[eugenekay]

This is at odds with what boskid said, that this value is about lab quality rather than pack quality.

Also, while it's clear to me that you can do a linear transformation that will get from 100/100 to 100%, from 95/100 to 600% and so on, it seems kind of weird that the game will do such a transformation, instead of just listing the values plainly as 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 - or perhaps 1/1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/6.

I’m guessing that there has been at least one Refactor / Rename of the internals behind this implementation. It seems like it might have originally been a property of the Lab, but now it is a property of the Science Packs themselves? Maybe to properly account for spoilage with Agricultural packs…. Anyway, this is the variable name that seems to “do the thing”.

You can test how this Value affects Science Packs by editing it yourself and restarting the game - changes will be immediately visible in Factoriopedia. You can also try the Quality Plus mod which adds additional levels that have this property changed - and it works just fine.

[boskid]

• Normal is not listed - 100/100 = 100%
• Uncommon - 99/100 = 200%
• Rare - 98/100 = 300%
• Epic - 97/100 = 400%
• Legendary - 95/100 = 600%

Whatever this is, it compares apples with elephants. Lab quality effect is based on quality of lab and affects how much science must be consumed to research 1 unit of technology. It has nothing to do with quality of science packs which affects how much science a single item had.

[eugenekay]

Whatever this is, it compares apples with elephants. Lab quality effect is based on quality of lab and affects how much science must be consumed to research 1 unit of technology. It has nothing to do with quality of science packs which affects how much science a single item had.

“The best way to get right information on the internet, is to post wrong information”

I can’t figure out what in-game Statistic is being modified then - it is not the “Lab Speed”, nor the “Science Pack Drain”. My previous tests seemed to show that a Legendary Lab holding 1 Legendary Pack’s 600% was drained to 500%, when researching “1 Unit” of science…. Time to double check the math.

To ask a possibly-dumb question, where is the 200-600% effect coming from then? It is not obvious from the Prototypes, if it’s not this.

[Holy-Fire]

I can’t figure out what in-game Statistic is being modified then - it is not the “Lab Speed”, nor the “Science Pack Drain”. My previous tests seemed to show that a Legendary Lab holding 1 Legendary Pack’s 600% was drained to 500%, when researching “1 Unit” of science…. Time to double check the math.

As is evident from the fact that I started this thread, I don't have all the answers. Your test seems to have the expected result; but I don't think it comes from the stat we're discussing. This can be tested easily by changing it directly - either to have the same value for all qualities, or wildly differing values. My guess is that this will not change anything. (Because the feature mentioned by boskid isn't documented anywhere I could find, leading me to think it is not active in vanilla).

To ask a possibly-dumb question, where is the 200-600% effect coming from then? It is not obvious from the Prototypes, if it’s not this.

I don't know, but I'm guessing it's from the same thing that causes quality repair packs to have higher durability. (But not, for example, ammo).
Maybe both science packs and repair packs have some sort of "pack" flag that makes their durability scale with quality?

[computeraddict]

Whatever this is, it compares apples with elephants. Lab quality effect is based on quality of lab and affects how much science must be consumed to research 1 unit of technology. It has nothing to do with quality of science packs which affects how much science a single item had.

“The best way to get right information on the internet, is to post wrong information”

I can’t figure out what in-game Statistic is being modified then - it is not the “Lab Speed”, nor the “Science Pack Drain”. My previous tests seemed to show that a Legendary Lab holding 1 Legendary Pack’s 600% was drained to 500%, when researching “1 Unit” of science…. Time to double check the math.

To ask a possibly-dumb question, where is the 200-600% effect coming from then? It is not obvious from the Prototypes, if it’s not this.

Normal labs have no drain quality effect. Biolabs do, I think?