Points 3 and 4 clear up a lot things, and I agree with what those statements say.
There is no mention of other metals in the process... I believe you may be confusing Ultrachrome with Cortosis which, as an alloy, is made up of various other elements and materials.
Wookiepedia puts it within the compound category if you look at the bottom or within the Compound category, which is what I were I was getting my statement from. That and it makes sense to me as a Materials Engineer. Which is why when I started RPing here, I RPed making the metal like that literally within my first RP. For example, I believe within "Since when is the Military for Diplomacy", it was explained the metals needed to make Ultrachrome were mined on Titan (Kashan's moon).
And in general, most metals people use in real-life simply aren't mined as ores and then shaped into whatever object you want.
For example, people generally don't mine steel.
Instead, it is primarily composed of iron with carbon along with a few other elements such as a manganese and tungsten depending on the exact gauge and type of steel. Of course, these elements must be processed together into the correct amounts to make the steel. Too much carbon, the steel is weak. Too much iron, and it's too brittle. The ways which it can be processed combined with the order of its processing, the possible impurities within the said elements, make it rather complex to make. Yet I doubt that here in North America and Europe we would be hardpressed to go to country where steel isn't abundantly used, despite the metal's rariety in nature.
Durasteel is similarly made, being composed of carvanium, lommite, meleenium, neutronium, and zersium (Wookiepedia). The new material now is "...capable of withstanding blistering heat, frigid cold, and monumental physical stress, even when very thin" (Wookiepedia). And this is an exceptionally common material.
You have taken an obscure canon material and made it readily available to your people which, according to the old rules is a no-no.
Yes, this is taken out of context, mainly because I think this part is important, and not for any reason for the debate on Ultrachrome. From what I've heard, the old rules are still in effect where the newer rules do not conflict. One could argue that this case falls under common sense (although our's disagree). But how exactly is a newer member like myself suppose to follow these rules when they're not listed anywhere? Or when another staff member, (in this case Titus), says that he does not have a problem with people finding a material that no-one else has used and exploiting it? It gets rather complicated when there's nothing for me to check and go on...
Interesting Point. But we also know in canon that Cortosis was used as starship armor (Darth Bane) during the war with the Sith and that it was also expensive and valuable to mine.
Darth Bane: Path to Destruction, Page 1: Impervious to both heat and energy, cortosis was prized in the construction of armor and shielding by both commercial and military interests, especiall with the galaxy at war. Highly resistant to blaster bolts, cortosis alloys supposedly could withstand even the blade of a lightsaber. Unfortunately, the very properties that made it so valuable also made it extremely difficult to mine.
I've seen references to its use on personal armor, never on starships (probably because it was brittle). But in any case, if we're basing the rariety or cost of a material based on its properties (which does make sense to an extent), we should take a look at dura-armor. Dura-armor is "an industrial-strength material that could absorb and re-direct blaster energy. Composed of neutronium, lommite and zersium molecules set in a certain matrix, dura-armor was used in the plating of combat droids and in the production of solid shielding (CUSWE)."
Notice a few things, notably that it has some of the properties of Ultrachrome, like absorbing and redirecting energy, but actually uses common elements (in fact, ones used to make durasteel). This is because of its matrix.
I have been suggesting that Ultrachrome derives its properties from it's structure, not from its elements.
Of course, I never intended for Ultrachrome to be the uber metal of doom which stops every attack made on it. It was always, and still is, intended to be a cultural flavoring which physically shows the differences between the previously isolated Kashan and the rest of the galaxy.
