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[tryrar]

So, in terms of damage, whats the order of weapons materials for say, a hammer? I know silver is best, but where does steel rank? Copper? Bronze? And what about edged and piercing weapons? What rank does material hold there?

[krenshala]

Higher density means more effective blunt (bashing) weapon.

[Seriyu]

Copper isn't terrible for blunt weapons, usually makes for a decent cheap warhammer on embark for my soldier.

[Girlinhat]

Blunt weapons depend on density, which is listed in a sortable list on the wiki.  For edged weapons, it's roughly silver - copper - iron - (bismuth)bronze - steel - addy.  For protection, it's roughly copper - (bismuth)bronze - iron - steel -  addy.  There's still some debate on iron vs bronze, but the general consensus is "bronze is better, but more difficult to make because it takes two metals".

[Necro910]

Blunt weapons depend on density, which is listed in a sortable list on the wiki.  For edged weapons, it's roughly silver - copper - iron - (bismuth)bronze - steel - addy.  For protection, it's roughly copper - (bismuth)bronze - iron - steel -  addy.  There's still some debate on iron vs bronze, but the general consensus is "bronze is better, but more difficult to make because it takes two metals".

Here's how we got that conclusion:

In dwarf fortress, more complicated=better. Complicated=Dwarfy, so therefor dwarfy=better.

[tryrar]

...soo, according to the nmetals list on the wiki, bronze is actually better than steel for blunt weapons?! new should have just bit the bullet and dug for silver....

Deti: My next question now is after a dwarf gets attached to a weapon is it possible at all to get them to switch to a better one?

[Necro910]

...soo, according to the nmetals list on the wiki, bronze is actually better than steel for blunt weapons?! new should have just bit the bullet and dug for silver....

Deti: My next question now is after a dwarf gets attached to a weapon is it possible at all to get them to switch to a better one?

Magma.

[Girlinhat]

Change their uniform, that usually works for me.  When they have no uniform, they take off their old uniform, so I periodically have my soldiers swap to nothing and back to a real uniform, so they refresh their inventory.

Dwarves naturally pick up the most expensive weapon available.  If given a choice of individual melee, they might choose a sword, and will pick up a copper sword.  If a bronze sword is made, it's more expensive and they'll grab it.  If a silver sword is made, they'll drop the bronze and get the silver, even though it's a poor blade.  When a dwarf grows attached to a weapon, they're reluctant to change, and thus may hold onto the copper sword even when bronze is available.  There seems to be a certain threshold, a dwarf attached to his sword will drop a -copper short sword- in favor of an ☼adamantine short sword☼ but the exact limit is unclear and may depend on the unique dwarf.  Their attachment for a weapon is apparently forgotten when uniforms are tinkered with.

[NecroRebel]

If dwarves are assigned a weapon that they absolutely cannot match their attached weapon with, they'll drop their attached weapon and pick up a new one. So, if you upgrade from, say, bronze axes to steel ones and tell your squad to equip steel axes with exact uniform matches, they'll upgrade. Attachments are only really a problem to get around if you want them to upgrade to a higher-quality weapon of the same type and material.

If you do happen to want them to upgrade to a higher-quality item of the same type and material, what you need to do is mark the attached weapon for dumping and have a garbage dump zone. A civilian will come along, take the weapon, and dump it as normal. The soldier will then pick up the most valuable available item that fits their uniform, which will presumably be the highest-quality one. Therefore, attachments are only really a problem to get around if they've given a name to a weapon you want them to swap off of, since you can't dump named items.

If you happen to want to switch off a named weapon, clear the soldier's uniform entirely and set them to exact matches. They should, eventually, drop the named weapon. Now, forbid the named weapon and reassign the uniform. They'll gear up again, except without choosing the named weapon since it's forbidden.

[Darkmere]

There is a caveat to the above wisdom, however. Depending on how well you keep up with melting down goblin gear, there can be pieces of junk floating around your stockpiles that a uniform wipe doesn't handle properly. I had two small squads, 3 and 4 soldiers. I wanted to transfer two vets to squad 3 and leave one vet with new recruits to train up while the other two vets worked on a mid-skilled migrant.

Simple enough? Well, swapping squads on the vets and adding recruits at the same time made the two transferred vets throw all their gear into the stockpile (addy chains and battleaxes included) and picked up... iron and copper. I tried to re-equip the uniform and they all put on 2 socks and 1 boot each. It was madness. Kicking the new recruits back to civilian status freed up the proper gear for the veterans, so don't do anything like that unless you've got plenty of time for the massive reshuffle.

Also, I was able to make a guy drop his -Iron Spear- for an =Adamantine Spear= by manual assignment. you can get around the lack of weapon browsing in the list by pausing the game, going to all the other soldiers, forbidding their weapons, then manually selecting, then reclaiming all the other weapons and unpausing. Tedious, but it works.