Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[cochramd]

So here I am, sitting my fortress with Armok-knows how many pieces of pigtail cloth and a medium-sized yak herd. I figure I might as well get started on making the non-metal components of my military's armor, but then it crosses my mind: out of leather, plant cloth, yarn and silk, which actually provides the best protection when made into normal clothing and furthermore if leather is superior then which fabric provides the most protection as socks? It would probably do me well to trade for whichever materials provide the greatest protection.

Edit: Recent thought: Does adding decorations of any sort affect the ability of armor or clothing to deflect blows?

[PatrikLundell]

Decorations add only to value (and possibly to weight) of items, but not to any protection or offensive (for weapons) value. Ordinary clothing provides minimal protection regardless of kind, so it's probably not worth it to pursue the least bad kind. You'd likely get a better protection value (although still minimal) from a full set of any kind than the best (non artifact) partial set. Cover on hands and feet protects against nasty substances (when collecting and hauling FB corpses, for instance).
I'd go for the highest value stuff (typically via a GCS silk farm) if possible, since I think it makes the dorfs slightly happier (and the poor buggers need any encouragement they can get, while suffering by the hands of their inept masters). Before I get a silk farm I just go for volume production to keep them clad (using a full set of 10 items [socks/gloves/shoes counting as 1 each for production purposes] every 2 years means a 200 dorf fortress needs to produce 1000 items a year).

[Delioth]

Notably decorations don't add weight. Just to clarify. - If they did, putting platinum/lead studs on your weapons would make them slightly more effective- extra weight will always make them hit harder.

[Bouchart]

Decorations are for value only.

Armor made from leather isn't very effective versus anything other than minor wildlife so you could ignore it for the most part.  Shields can be made from leather though and the effectiveness of a shield doesn't depend on material type.  Cloaks can't be made out of metal, and military dwarves should each have a leather cloak in order to deflect minor attacks to the ears.  Everyone should have their hands and feet covered to protect against syndromes.  Any material will do for that.

[PatrikLundell]

Generally, the lighter a shield is the better, since it lowers the carrying weight. The exception is when it's used for bashing, which ought to be an emergency situation. If possible, I equip all my militia with masterworks featherwood shields.

And thanks for the clarification, Delioth.

[Goatmaan]

For my military they get leather backpacks,cloaks,hoods, and a mix leather waterskin/metal(any) flasks. Metal everything else.
for everyone else I only make leather shoes/gloves.
I try to cover every (cloth/yarn) item and let them choose what they want, no idea if it helps with happy thoughts or if leather shoes last longer than cloth (probably not).
Buy leather from mountainhome. They can bring ALOT, if ypu want.
 
   Goatmaan

[Atarlost]

Candyfloss clothes wear out so material probably has no impact. 

[Linkxsc]

For soft protection, your best bet is silks as they are the lightest iirc. Pig tail cloth is pretty heavy by comparison

[escondida]

Candyfloss clothes wear out so material probably has no impact.

Incidentally, there is a dfhack tweak that fixes that bug (and yes, it is officially a bug).