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[cbpye]

so, we've got an alloy of equal parts Copper and Zinc, and an alloy of equal parts Copper and Silver.  The value of Copper is 2, of Zinc is 2, and of Silver is 10.  The value of Brass (Copper+Zinc) is 7.  The value of Billon (Copper+Silver) is 6.

... how does this work?  I can see 2+10=12, 12/2=6.  But how is the value of brass, an alloy which should be valued at 2 by that same reasoning, valued at 7?

[thijser]

some alloys are worth more then the seperate ingredients.

[Rafal99]

Brass is just better alloy to produce if you need value, no reason for all of them to be the same.

[Psieye]

It's because Brass has more useful material properties in RL than Billon. Hence, the final product that is brass should be more expensive than the sum of its parts. Just like steel!

[Hokan]

Is there any use for billion? I personally would rather make things out of silver.

[strongrudder]

Is there any use for billion? I personally would rather make things out of silver.

I have a noble that keeps demanding billon items. Other than that, probably not.

[Rafal99]

Is there any use for billion? I personally would rather make things out of silver.

I have a noble that keeps demanding billon items. Other than that, probably not.

Like with most other alloys the only uses are satisfing mandates, satisfing dwarf material preferences, satisfing player material preferences (I must make nickel silver tower! ), or if you want stuff to be made from specific color (rose gold and black bronze are useful for that).

[Lord Shonus]

It's also used to stretch your silver supplies if you happen to have a shortage. This is mostly irrelevant at the moment because materials are so very common.

[Ubiq]

I tend to use billon fairly often since I wind up with so much tetrahedrite on my embark sites and it's a fairly cost effective way to make some fairly nice furniture while saving more useful metals for other things.

It also seemed like a lot of nobles really liked it in 40d for whatever reason so I got in the habit of using it a lot anyway.