What is "BZ"?

BZ is two letters that were unique enough on the Factorio mod portal to not collide with other mod collections. You can pronounce it B's, as in Brevven's, or BEE-ZEE. Yes, the Very BZ mod pack's name is a bit of a groan-inducing pun. To learn more about the full collection of mods, see the forum thread.

Why not bauxite, etc?

Basically, I'm trying to match the level of realism to the vanilla factorio level, with just a nudge towards more realistic.

What about other realism concerns, like historical accuracy?

Personally, I view vanilla factorio less as a re-creation of tech history, and more as a disaster response, leading to the recovery of recently-understood technologies by an individual from a very technologically advanced society. This is a bit of a different approach from, say, Industrial Revolution 2, which does indeed take that historical perspective.

But aluminum in a stone furnace?

I totally understand the hesitance around these types of realism. I've sort of had to balance between realism and gameplay frequently.

I suppose, specifically for things like aluminum, one way to imagine it is that the engineer is able to collect very small quantities of various metal oxides and such to create thermite-like reactions for smelting. Or, perhaps the "coal" on this planet is able to create a superhot reactions itself due to geology and ancient biology. Maybe the atmosphere contributes to it.

I spell this metal "Aluminium"

There is now a helper mod for this. See also

Why is X used in this recipe?

I try to stick to the vanilla factorio spirit, with a slight edge towards more realistic. For this mod:

• Aluminum plate: structures that don't need strength of steel, items that benefit from lighter weight (belts, inserters), etc
• Aluminum cable is used for electrical purposes, especially early game, (while copper remains in all electronics)
• ACSR cable is used for power lines and such, except for small poles
• Alumina is used as a hard material (eg. armor, glass, etc) , refractory, and intermediate
• Spark plugs are used in engines and as a flame igniter in some places
• 6061 aluminum alloy is used in vehicles and a few other places
• 2219 aluminum alloy is used for aerospace recipes, including low density structures.

I want to turn off the smelting byproduct

Now you can, through a mod startup setting.

A stacked recipe isn't showing up from Deadlock Stacked Recipes.

Use this bridge mod

I wish a recipe was not changed.

There is now a "Bypass recipes" setting. You can decide which recipes you want this (or each) mod to bypass modifications for. It requires a comma-separated list of internal recipe names. Eg.:

transport-belt, underground-belt

You must use the "internal" recipe-name. If you're not sure how to find it, the easiest way is to use debug mode (F5) and mouse over the recipe in your handcrafting window. Find the recipe-name in the debug properties.

Detailed list of changes (incomplete)

Vanilla

• Most pre-electronics recipes, replaces copper or green circuits
• All power pole recipes, replaces copper
• Tier 1 belt items, some inserters
• Early armors use alumina
• Sulfur requires alumina
• Replaces iron plates in several structures
• Engine units and flamethrowers use spark plugs
• Rocket silo uses multiple ingredients

Krastorio 2

• Most pre-electronics recipes, replaces copper.
• Glass (low percentage alumina)
• Vehicle equipment
• More structures, etc

Note: With realistic weapons, Krastorio 2 and Aluminum will be more challenging in the early game.

Space Exploration & AAI

• Most pre-electronics recipes.
• Glass (low percentage alumina)
• More structures
• Some data

Other

• Tons of ground and air vehicles. (Will continue to add support for more)
• Some modded inserters