Negative Mass Driver numbers

[Geezer (OP)]

Can anyone tell me what the negative mass driver numbers mean in the attached?

[lipton]

That the colony is sending Minerals away via a Mass Driver.

[Geezer (OP)]

Thanks, so negative numbers mean it's sending stuff to Earth.  But it's only sending 1 Sorium?!  Also, the total doesn't add up.

[lipton]

With the total I guess it is a rounding problem.
I believe the Mass Driver row shows only the tonnage send in the last 5 Days.  And you only produce 270 tons per year.

[Geezer (OP)]

I can't really make sense of the numbers but since the stockpile is 0 for all of them, I "assume" it's all getting thrown at Earth.

[Pedroig]

IIRC, a mass drive can send a maximum of 5,000 tons per year.  Why 5,000?  Probably because it is a nice even number.  However it is a horrible number to subdivide into "tics".

12 30 day ticks  is 416.667 tons per tick.
73 5 day ticks is 68.493 tons per tick.
365 1 day ticks is 13.699 tons per tick.

The annual "throw weight" of a mass driver should be 4380 tons per year (or multiple thereof):

12 30 day ticks is 365 tons per tick.
73 5 day ticks is 60 tons per tick.
365 1 day ticks is 12 tons per tick.

[lipton]

If you don't want the Mass Driver to send everything to Earth, you can define a Reserve Level for a Mineral by double-clicking on said Mineral in the mining tab.

[Hazard]

Also, mass drivers function on the construction time scale, so they send minerals every 5 days, with some extra margin in case the phases run long.

[Geezer (OP)]

I changed the construction cycle to one day for this game.