Disclaimer

Thanks for trying the mod!  You probably are right regarding aluminum bronze.  From a gameplay perspective we just felt that if it was weaker than iron there wouldn't be any reason to consider making it.  I do think that (though I don't actually know much about this!) with other additives aluminum bronze is somewhat comparable to iron, so my weak argument is that like in other areas of the game we're allowing the earliest (and worst) way to make something to magically produce a better version.  I would be interested in the mod you're describing!

One thing we could do is try and adjust the recipe to more closely match real life?  There's no way to add iron to alloys since it can't be melted in a crucible, but we could add nickel and zinc.

Yeah I understand. An alloy that can only be reached end game but can only be weaker than steel becomes something worthless except to show off how much free time you have in a server.

Also, I had misremembered my research. Aluminum bronze is stronger than aluminum 7075, but it is not lightweight. If you want both lightweight and strength, then you choose the more expensive 7075 (or 6061), and these two are far beyond what is friendly to a medieval roleplay server.

So, basically, aluminum bronze can be as strong as iron/steel, but the armor will still slow you down. As for making the composition more realistic, just include zinc. Nickel is not a main component for strength.

here is another fact: realistically the steel you make in the game would be realistically weak, and so the aluminum bronze that you have made will outperform the steel from the cementation furnace. The game makes you skip a process where you repeatedly flatten and fold blister steel over and over, otherwise only the surface of has carbon while the inside is still iron. Then even after folding, the steel is still weak as some parts have too much carbon and other spots have too little. 

And to add on, aluminum bronze has a density of around 7.4 grams per cm^3. For reference, iron has a density of 7.5 g. The 7075 that I mentioned has a density of under 3 grams per. The movement speed on the aluminum bronze armor would have to be nerfed to keep the realism, but on the other hand you can go along with the logic I presented by having aluminum bronze be as stronger than vanilla steel. It fits for a gameplay model (more complicated process -> stronger material), but I can't assure you that you can convince the community to believe that vanilla cementaiton furnace steel is weaker than an aluminum alloy.

Thank you so much!  The recycling is so obvious I'm not sure how we didn't think of it. O_O

I'm not too sure how I feel about adding things like aluminum foil?  Part of the idea behind the mod was to try and imagine aluminum in the time period of the game (that's why we worked so hard to avoid adding electrolysis), and something about aluminum foil just doesn't feel at home to me in the setting.  We were thinking about making an "extras" mod with some other ideas we had that didn't really fit, maybe it would work better there?

I like the idea of adding cookware though!  It would be pretty hard to obtain, so part of me feels like it should be worth the effort in some way, but it would also just be cool to have aluminum bowls :]

I also looked into the alum making process and it wouldn't be too hard to add!  We'd just need to add a couple more powders (so many powders in this mod...).  I do wonder if there would be any point to it though.  Alum can already be found naturally, and I feel like getting it that way is a lot less work than going through the entire aluminum process.

I also have absolutely no clue how to go about mod compatibility...  Even getting the game to register our aluminum metal was really difficult, and I'm not sure how we would be able to substitute it for someone else's.

I agree on the aluminum foil now that I think about it. It only became widely used in the first place because the process for making aluminum got much, much cheaper. And you could achieve the same result (wrapping your food) with paper if you really wanted to. An extras mod would be great for the oddball ideas though.

The way I think about it, you need to give the player a reason to engage with the mod. With cookware there's only downsides because of how hard it is to make, so not many at all will. I can see the social aspect though, Napolean served his honored guests with aluminum plates, and the less favored ones with gold plates to show his wealth.

Maybe in terms of pots, it would cook food a % faster than others? Thus saving fuel and time, since aluminum is great at dispersing heat. For bowls, they would get hot faster and stay hot longer, decreasing spoil time and perhaps even providing a "hot meal" buff, which could lower the rate your satiety runs out or something else. (and yeah food right of the oven is hot too and would realistically provide you with that same buff, but it needs to be that way to give a reason for the player to want these bowls, giving the buff to other things would just make it redundant)

Both could be a good option, giving the player the option of producing it should they ever need large amounts, and it being able to be found in the world. This gives the player the choice, and directly adds game progression, as when you enter a more advanced age you wouldn't have to scour the area for alum.

I'm not really sure either. My best guess at this point would be for someone to make a cross compatibility patch, renaming boric alchemy's aluminum to aluminum alloy or something so they are distinct and separate (I know its not an alloy it just needs any different name).

Thanks for playing our mod, and thanks for the suggestions!

Our origional goal was for aluminum to basically be bragging rights, and a "I only made this because I could make this" kinda thing, but we're looking at giving it some actual use, either here if it fits, or in an "extras" mod if we feel it's a bit too much.

This mod may try to keep aluminum a tiny bit useless for any real practical reason, since around this time period the only use we could find was Napolean using it for some dishware, and people below them got gold dishware instead.

But going down your list, here's what I think of these and what we could do for them

• Recycling: I don't see why not. Sure you can recycle your tools and armor infintely, but they kinda suck anyway and the armor is a pain to make. It probably won't extend to things like lanterns though. Maybe it will be slightly lossy to balance it?
• Grill: Might go better in an "extras" mod, in reality iron or steel would probably be better for a grill.
• Alum: We can absolute add making alum to the mod, but all the uses you have for it would probably go better into a dedicated mod for alum (They're good ideas though!)
• Aluminum foil: I like it in theory, but I'm not sure how well it would fit in game since VS doesn't have anything that sticks to pots or ovens in it. I can look into seeing how to make food cooked with it give extra satiety, but no promises. If it can be done, it'll probably be in the extras mod.
• Thermite: I'll admit, I forgot thermite existed. You could probably just scrape a gear with a knife to get some rust, craft it with the poweder, and tada! For uses, maybe some form of ultra-hot but short lived fuel source? Maybe even some sort if incendiary grenade?
• Cookwear/Utensils: I do like the idea of an aluminum pot, bowl, or jug. Maybe the pot could have a larger capacity, or it doesn't get dirty when cooking something dirty in it? Wherever these end up (this mod or the extras mod) the aluminum foil, the grill, and the keg would probably end up there too, since they all feel related.
• Beer Keg: Maybe it could work as a different type of barrel? I was thinking like a smaller barrel that makes items in it last even longer than a normal barrel. Probably for the extras mod though
• Window frames: I don't see why not. I might make it use a rod instead of an ingot though.
• Mirror: Also probably not, since I know rendering a reflection of anything can get VERY expensive VERY quickly.
• Animal cages: Prooooobably not? Mostly because then we would need a dedicated model of the cage for each animal that could go in it.
• Printing block: Also probably no, since you can already copy books and parchments in-game.
• Canned goods compatability: I'll try to do this as soon as I can, it mostly depends on how their mod is set up and if we can tap into it. The alum part for pickling would probably go better into the alum mod I mentioned earlier.
• Metal cooking pots compatability: Same thing, will try to do this soon if I can!
• Boric Alchemy compatability: Also same thing, I'll look into compatability as soon as I can! Absolute worst case scenario I can let you craft one into the other or something.

(Note I've never made a compatability anything so I'm not sure how to do those yet!)

Hey thank you for getting back to me so fast! I'm really excited to see what happens. I had some ideas about aluminum cookware specifically in another comment in case you missed it.

Thank you guys so much for your hard work. Are you in contact with the mod developers on the discord? I'm sure they could help point you in the right direction if you don't know how to do something

I also support adding aluminum bronze in some form! It could be a sidegrade to iron or meteoric iron, apparently it's quite strong.

Our current plan is to have it have higher mining speed than meteoric iron with the same mining tier, but lower durability than normal iron.