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[xordae]

After having outfit my military with high quality all-candy gear, I observed more injuries than usual. I dug through combat logs and some old forum posts and came to the conclusion that candy being so light, it really does jack to protect against the weight of weapons. Yes, everything gets deflected, but wearing cork armor means that the impact of these weapons creates way more damage to the body underneath compared to heavier shaped armor, such as steel.

I did a couple of arena tests to confirm this:

First 1v1 test:
Silver Warhammers for each, as well as highest level Armor, Weapon, Discipline, Fighter skills.
Dwarf one, in full candy armor, died 14 times.
Dwarf two, in full steel armor, died 6 times.

Second 1v1 test:
Iron Short Swords for each, as well as highest level Armor, Weapon, Discipline, Fighter skills.
Dwarf one, in full candy armor, died the first 10 times.
Dwarf two, in full steel armor, after having won 10 times, was declared a clear and early winner.

Worthy to note is that at low skill levels, the test result was inverted:

Second 1v1 test, repeat:
Iron Short Swords for each, as well as 'skilled' Armor, Weapon, Discipline, Fighter skills.
Dwarf two, in full steel armor, died the first 10 times.
Dwarf one, in full candy armor, managed a flawless victory.

Also note that I left shields out, as well as the skills governing shields, dodging and the various unarmed techniques.
It is possible that the dodging skill benefits from less armor weight. Maybe I'll append this.

My reasoning and conclusion:
In both tests, I saw a fair number of deaths by strangulation. This means the dwarves dealt blunt damage to each other until one was down, then the other finished the job. In the first test, we see Dwarf two scoring some kills. Silver warhammers are heavy enough that no armor is impervious and steel won't fully protect you, but it did better than candy.
In the second test, I gave the dwarves iron short swords to simulate the kind of combat scenario you see a lot in sieges. Gobbos bring copper and iron gear. The swords weren't able to get through either armor, but the weight of the weapon dealt sufficient blunt damage to the dwarf in candy gear, while the steel gear was heavy enough that it didn't result in any appreciable damage.
The third test highlights the importance of armor weight and exhaustion in relation to armor skill.

This means that yes, candy armor is overrated and may even be 100% inferior to steel for all combat cases. Except for particularly bad luck with a FB composed of weapons-grade metal, the enemies don't have steel or candy. For an end-game militia with high-grade steel gear, sieges usually result in injuries when the dwarves get overwhelmed, surprised, blunt damage'd or by the odd chance of bad luck with non-blunt weapons. FB and other beasts trouble the dwarves mostly through syndromes and special attacks. As soon as you reach steel tier defense, basically getting your armor penetrated becomes a non-issue. Only in armor weight and dwarf speed does candy show a clear benefit.

TL;DR: Keep your steel armor on. Consider candy mail shirts to save some weight and leave it at that. Consider candy armor also for recruits and low-skill militia. The better your dwarves' armor skill is, the less you gain from using adamantine over steel. Steel has more well-rounded material characteristics because weight matters for protection vs. force injuries.

[PatrikLundell]

I thought it was known that candy was essentially useless against blunt attacks. It can also be noted that necro sieges can show up with steel...

[xordae]

I'll cite a small but important piece from the wiki:

"If the test is passed, attack momentum is decreased by some 5% and the layer is considered punctured/severed, and the process continues to the next layer, including working through layers of the defender's body. If the test is failed, the attack becomes blunt for this layer."

All attacks are blunt attacks!
Candy [...] is essentially useless!
Well, oversimplified, but you get the idea.

Interesting point on the sieges, I haven't had one of those before.

[Leonidas]

Would this also apply to divine metal?

[Red Diamond]

So the idea is that we have candy weapons, preferably spears but not candy armour.  Except what happens when you pitch someone with candy spears against steel armour?

[Capntastic]

Modelling materials specifically means that there isn't one perfect metal to make everything out of.

[ArrowheadArcher]

I'll cite a small but important piece from the wiki:

"If the test is passed, attack momentum is decreased by some 5% and the layer is considered punctured/severed, and the process continues to the next layer, including working through layers of the defender's body. If the test is failed, the attack becomes blunt for this layer."

All attacks are blunt attacks!
Candy [...] is essentially useless!
Well, oversimplified, but you get the idea.

Interesting point on the sieges, I haven't had one of those before.

All attacks are converted to blunt attacks if they fail to penetrate the armor. Candy is still the best in terms of slashing, but with blunt, in general, is pretty OP, so that's not much of point. And that's why you don't wear only metal armor. You also wear your clothes underneath to protect against that. 

Also from the wiki:

Armor made of adamantine provides unmatched protection against slashing and piercing attacks, but blunt attacks and ranged weapons have high armor penetration capacity, so a full kit of adamantine armor is nonetheless not a recipe for combat invulnerability.

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Adamantine

Toady generally goes for simulation rather than just arcady balance. I think you're also just incorrect here. From testing, candy has an impact yield, and impact fracture of 5000 kPa and an impact elasticity 0. Unless the calculations have changed, then candy is still the best, but it won't make you invincible, which is the point.

[Bumber]

From testing, candy has an impact yield, and impact fracture of 5000 kPa and an impact elasticity 0. Unless the calculations have changed, then candy is still the best, but it won't make you invincible, which is the point.

Does this take into account the transfer of force to joints, added in 0.43.04?

[therahedwig]

I am pretty sure that above whatever grade armour you give your dwarves, their ability to dodge is the most important defence. Mind, you still need to make sure they wear some armour and have armour user trained, but other than that people do fuss too much about materials.

[ArrowheadArcher]

From testing, candy has an impact yield, and impact fracture of 5000 kPa and an impact elasticity 0. Unless the calculations have changed, then candy is still the best, but it won't make you invincible, which is the point.

Does this take into account the transfer of force to joints, added in 0.43.04?

I don't know if it does. The !SCIENCE! is from 2010 at least.

[Sizik]

This makes me wonder, is armor modeled like a sandwich or like a burrito? In other words, consider a scenario where a dwarf in candy armor is lying on the ground and is crushed by a boulder from above. If the armor forms a cylindrical shell around the dwarf, then the impact force should pass through the armor to the ground, leaving the dwarf inside relatively undamaged; if it's like a series of flat layers, then the dwarf should be crushed underneath the armor.

[recon1o6]

I wouldn't say overrated but as ever with dwarf fortress, players operate on a mixture of out of date and misunderstood info

Case in point, not many people are aware of the failed attack=blunt. The pulping mechanic was introduced so the giant sponge for example would die to something other than cave in.

Adamantine armour can be useful against weaker enemies and bludgeoning, this is why the "best" armour so to speak is dependant on your dwarves' armour skills, and what piece

You want adamantine for your soft armour, so cloaks, breastplates and chausses. Lower skilled dwarves you want masterwork steel. High skill dwarves platinum with layered adamantine on certain parts as platinum is even stronger at the cost of being stupidly heavy if you mod in platinum equipment or get strange moods
Weapon wise you want adamantine axes, steel spears, platinum hammers and a dragonfire resistant shield.

[xordae]

It seems to me that the ideal loadout for all decently skilled dwarves goes like this:

Adamantine Mail Shirt
Steel Everything Else
Leather Cloak, Hood, Robe (I'm more of a minimalist, again Adamantine is no good here vs. bludgeon and force)

Adamantine Axe, Sword or Spear
Steel or Silver Hammer or Mace
Bone or Steel Crossbow
Wooden or Steel Shield (if they can handle the extra weight)

Yes, I can confirm that force damage to joints happens a lot with Adamantine gear. We already know it's like wearing stuff made of paper, but with recent versions that has become an actual downside due to these better physics simulations.

recon1o6: I would say it's the other way around. Adamantine for lower-skilled dwarves as they profit a lot from the lighter weight. Masterwork Steel for higher-skilled dwarves as their Armor skill will exceed the weight penalty and they'll be way better protected against bludgeoning and weapon force. That's what my tests showed, anyway. I haven't determined the cutoff point where one becomes better than the other but would guess it'd be somewhere in the late middle around level 8-12.

therahedwig: Probably. Dodging and Shield are massively important. I left those out and even discouraged wrestling moves because I didn't want to muddle the results. I was simply after armor material properties, and the results were pretty telling. It's possible that Adamantine gear proves an upside when Dodging is taken into account, but afaik armor weight does not influence this; only how fast dwarves can walk/run.

Leonidas: I don't think so. Divine Metal has different properties. I can't find it in the RAWs, but I'm pretty sure it is an in-between of Adamantine and Steel. Its weight should be proportional to how well it does vs. blunt and force.

[Bumber]

Divine Metal has different properties. I can't find it in the RAWs, but I'm pretty sure it is an in-between of Adamantine and Steel. Its weight should be proportional to how well it does vs. blunt and force.

https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Divine_metal

It has a density of 1000, compared to candy's 200 and steel's 7850.

[xordae]

Cheers Bumber. Ok, so that's still very lightweight. It's not going to be better vs. blunt and force by any appreciable amount.