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[VerdantSF]

Other than precious, precious adamantine, what's the best thing for weapons and armor? Steel?

[Proteus]

If I got it right  it would be steel or bronze for sharp weapons
and bronze for blunt weapons

[VerdantSF]

Ah, thanks!  I didn't realize in this version that bronze is stronger than iron.  Is there any sort of in-game menu screen with this sort of info, or is it from player testing via arena?

[LucasUP]

Yeah this is still very vauge for me too.
I hear Adamantite is useless for weapons because its so light, but I guess its still the best for armor? Someone should figure out some solid numbers/comparisons, unless I just haven't seen them.

[smjjames]

So its back to the Bronze Age for DF?

[NecroRebel]

The Weapon Research thread has, appropriately enough, community research on weapons and armor. It does appear that bronze is better than iron in more-or-less every way, though steel is superior to bronze. Adamantine is still the best weapon material for sharp and pointy stuff, but not for blunt weapons; it can be up to 10x as sharp as the other materials, thus it makes superb blades, but is almost weightless, thus it makes bad hammers.

Adamantine is still the best for armor, followed by steel, though, again, bronze is better than iron.

Some people, who have apparently done research on the topic, claim that historically in the real world bronze was consistently superior to iron since its invention, but that tin (necessary to produce bronze) was much rarer than iron, so people basically used bronze whenever possible and only fell back to iron when the tin ran out. So, the new material tiers seem to be more realistic.

[Corona688]

I wonder how well silver hammers would work now.  It's nearly as heavy as lead.

[Corona688]

Some people, who have apparently done research on the topic, claim that historically in the real world bronze was consistently superior to iron since its invention, but that tin (necessary to produce bronze) was much rarer than iron, so people basically used bronze whenever possible and only fell back to iron when the tin ran out. So, the new material tiers seem to be more realistic.

Bronze is also trickier than steel in some ways (though of course easier in others).  Bronze doesn't sharpen right after forging, it's sharpened through a process during forging that modern man isn't quite sure of anymore.  Whereas steel can be sharpened anytime but is harder to make the metal at all.

[VerdantSF]

I'm looking through that thread at the moment (thanks!), but what's the best material for hammers that can be made without a strange mood?  On a sidenote, I've been reading up on bronze.  Fascinating stuff.  I always assumed that iron was stronger.  Learn something new everyday!

[NecroRebel]

I'm looking through that thread at the moment (thanks!), but what's the best material for hammers that can be made without a strange mood?

From the data in the first post of Weapons Research, looks to be silver.

[VerdantSF]

Lol, thanks.  I immediately jumped to later posts.

[Daenyth]

I wonder how well silver hammers would work now.  It's nearly as heavy as lead.

Urist McMaxwell cancels jailtime: Clang clang!

[Paul]

Yea, silver is best for hammers. But they just don't compare to a good steel battleaxe.

Steel battleaxes are like blenders. Bits and pieces fly everywhere.

[HammerHand]

I wonder how well silver hammers would work now.  It's nearly as heavy as lead.

Urist McMaxwell cancels jailtime: Clang clang!

Ah, good.  I was hoping someone would make a joke along those lines.

[Marconius]

http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Metal

Check the tables there, it's really quite interesting!

Apparently the best blunt weapons are made of silver, which is the most dense weapon-grade material. Copper comes in second, bronze is lower.

As for cutting weapons, steel seems to have the best "shear yield" and "shield fracture" -but- it has the worst "sheer elasticity" of all weapons (this probably means steel is very rigid), bringing bronze weapons close, if not above steel! Adamantine is the best, of course.