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[Ringwraith]

Hello!  I've been doing a little modding over the years, mostly just visual stuff.  I've adjusted the color palette to be a bit more natural, and I've set new colors for most of the metal, stone, and wood.  IMHO, it looks much better: there are yellow beds made from ash or pine, dark brown beds from chestnut, mahogany, or maple, and pinkish beds made from cedar or acacia; granite and copper are now copper-colored; ice looks like ice rather than antifreeze, etc.

The problem is metals.  Based on the pictures I can find online, many are similar shades of light gray.  If any of you work with a variety of metals in real life, in a chemistry lab or factory perhaps, I would really appreciate the benefit of your experience!

For bars in a stockpile, only the foreground color of BASIC_COLOR is used, so all of these metals look the same (as I've tweaked them, not necessarily in the base game):

• Bismuth
• Fine pewter
• Lay pewter
• Nickel
• Pig iron
• Tin
• Trifle pewter

Are any of these materially darker than the others, IRL?  If so, I'll move them to the dark gray bucket, alongside lead and wrought iron.  If any of these metals are noticeably bluish or brownish, I could use colors 3, 6, or 11.  My assumption is that bars will usually be relatively fresh, and tools will be polished most of the time, so the colors should reflect minimal tarnish or patina.  Doors and such can use the background color in BUILD_COLOR to have a cool undertone (7, 3) or warm undertone (7, 6); a bronze statue with a patina looks great with (6, 2): brownish with some green.

Here are the adjusted colors I'm using:

• 0 - Black - still 0, 0, 0
• 1 - Dark blue - 32, 64, 128 (slightly more tonal than before)
• 2 - Dark green - 64, 128, 32 (slightly more of a pine green)
• 3 - Dark cyan - 128, 160, 176 (slate blue, almost a cool gray)
• 4 - Dark red - 128, 64, 0 (chestnut brown); now used for darker woods
• 5 - Dark magenta - 112, 0, 192 (royal purple); used for black bronze
• 6 - Brown - 160, 128, 96 (a beigey-taupey kind of brown, lighter and cooler than #4); used for bronze and bismuth bronze, and for most types of wood
• 7 - Light gray - 160, 160, 160 (a bit darker than before)
• 8 - Dark gray - 96, 96, 96 (a bit darker than before); used for lead and iron
• 9 - Light blue - 64, 128, 255 (now somewhere between cadet blue and sky blue rather than brilliant blue)
• 10 - Light green - 96, 224, 64 (grass green)
• 11 - Light cyan - 192, 240, 255 (ice blue; a bit more blue than steel); used for billon, steel, and zinc
• 12 - Light red - 255, 64, 0 (slightly more tonal)
• 13 - Light magenta - 255, 160, 128 (now copper-colored; pinky-orange); used for copper and rose gold, cedar, and acacia wood
• 14 - Yellow - 255, 224, 64 (gold); used for brass, electrum, and gold; also pine and ash wood
• 15 - White - still 255, 255, 255; used for aluminum, nickel silver, platinum, silver, and sterling silver

I'm happy to share the files if anyone is interested.

Thank you!

[TomiTapio]

Just stumbled upon gorgeous photos of metal crystals.
https://imgur.com/gallery/ps7mv

I deleted bismuth in OldGenesis, and added White Bronze (CuNi, seawater resistant).

[NordicNooob]

Just doing some simple lookups, looking at images of these kinds of funky metals.

Bismuth is a rather boring gray. It could be considered light or dark, but I would personally use a darker gray for it.

Nickel, likewise, is basically the same color, albeit a bit darker.

Pig iron is a bit lighter, and, since it's used in steelmaking, doesn't really ever get polished. I imagine it'd be a pretty safe light gray if polished, and even with a rough surface it's quick light in color.

Tin ranges in color, but the tin objects I've been seeing are all of a light color.

The pewters are a bit tricker; wikipedia just lists them all under one article and doesn't really distinguish, and other sites don't note much about the looks. However, cross-referencing uses. A "fine metal" of mostly tin and a small amount of copper is noted as having been used in tableware, so I can only assume that the almost white colored dish on the wikipedia article is made from fine pewter. Also noted is a "trifling metal" that's used in hollowware, so I can likewise assume that wikipedia's jug (as well as the others I've seen" are of trifle pewter. Which leaves lay pewter, which is only noted to not have been used in things that come into contact with food. I've also been seeing a very dark shade of pewter (almost black; it could pass as cast iron if it were rougher), which might match well with lay pewter of tin and lead; I can only assume it's our missing type of pewter.

tl;dr
Bismuth: Dark gray
Nickel: Dark gray
Pig Iron: Light gray
Tin: Light gray
Fine Pewter: White
Lay Pewter: Black
Trifle Pewter: Dark gray

[Ringwraith]

Thank you, that's perfect!

[High tyrol]

Are you planning on uploading your mod at any point? It seems interesting.