Print

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

[Spiderking50]

So i can't find any metal anywhere, which is strange because i embarked on a volcano. BUT! Ya know what is in abundance on volcanoes? Obsidian! And i was wondering on their effectiveness, my military dwarf (yes, only one for now) is using two and they seem to be acting as blunt weapons, bruising more than anything. Has anyone done any !!SCIENCE!! regarding these mysterious weapons?

[Loud Whispers]

Worse than copper, better than wood. Consider it a militia weapon, not a big candy toy

[Flying Dice]

Aren't they still broken?

[Girlinhat]

They're great on unarmored foes.  Will rend wildlife apart, and works rather well on goblins.  Goblins may wear a breastplate, but the rest of them is open for slashing.  More importantly, a set of obsidian short swords will suffice to take on an ambush, at which point you'll have copper whips and silver daggers and other goblinite.  If nothing else, make obsidian swords and sell them to the first caravan to buy metal.

[Spiderking50]

Thats what i've been doing. Making exceptional obsidian swords for sale and use in a weapon trap hallway.

[Zsword]

If you have access to sand you should consider making Glass Disks for your weapon traps instead.

[Urist Da Vinci]

http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=5346

I reported this a few weeks ago. The issue dates back to the start of 31.xx.

[Adrian]

Obsidian is among the sharpest materials in the (Real Life) world.
A shard of obsidian which has been sharpened properly is actually sharper than a steel surgical scalpel.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

(incidentally, obsidian is volcanic glass, not a stone.)

IMO, the sharpness of obsidian weapons should be second only to adamantine.
Although, being a glass, obsidian weapons should also be muchmuchmuch more fragile.

EDIT (2 seconds after posting): typos, typos EVERYWHERE

[Girlinhat]

Weapons don't degrade yet.  Probably during the army arc it's going to be updated for equipment decay, and hopefully repair as well.  When weapons do start to decay, expect to see obsidian swords cleaving through steel breastplates - exactly once.  Well, slight exaggeration, but yeah, obsidian swords if properly defined will cause a helluva lot of damage, but not consistently.  Luckily both obsidian and wood is renewable, so in the army arc I suspect you'll end up sending ~5 swords per soldier plus a steel blade, assuming we get to send pack animals with supplies.

[krenshala]

Obsidian is among the sharpest materials in the (Real Life) world.
A shard of obsidian which has been sharpened properly is actually sharper than a steel surgical scalpel.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

(incidentally, obsidian is volcanic glass, not a stone.)

The nice thing about an obsidian scalpel is that it is self sharpening -- as pieces flake off during use the newly exposed edge has the sharpness of the original.

IMO, the sharpness of obsidian weapons should be second only to adamantine.
Although, being a glass, obsidian weapons should also be muchmuchmuch more fragile.

I could see it being sharper than adamantine, but much more fragile.

[Girlinhat]

I don't think you understand the severity of adamantine.  It's a material such that it will actually float in water, and is sharp enough that you could rub your hand against a smooth plate and come back bloody.  The material properties are so far beyond anything real that it's obscene.

[Adrian]

The nice thing about an obsidian scalpel is that it is self sharpening -- as pieces flake off during use the newly exposed edge has the sharpness of the original.

Might be, but steel doesn't leave flakes of super-sharp obsidian in your guts.

I could see it being sharper than adamantine ..

I read a thread somewhere, discussing the physical properties of adamantine. Basically the consensus became that adamantine edges are a single molecule thick.
Which made me wonder: 'Would an adamantine whip be the same as a monofilament wire?'

[Urist Da Vinci]

I read a thread somewhere, discussing the physical properties of adamantine. Basically the consensus became that adamantine edges are a single molecule thick.
Which made me wonder: 'Would an adamantine whip be the same as a monofilament wire?'

Fun adamantine facts post:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=89241.msg2456668#msg2456668

TLDR; An adamantine whip would have to be made of micro-chain-links, because solid adamantine is perfectly rigid, so it couldn't be bent.

If you dropped an adamantine axe, it could wedge itself blade-first into the stone floor.

[Frogwarrior]

Of course, it's so light that it would not be able to attain enough energy from falling to provide the energy necessary to seriously deform the rock, so if the blade has any thickness it will need to get that force from something other than the mere impetus of gravity....

[Lemunde]

With the new version I've been using obsidian to make gems and encrusting them in marble crafts, which is about as high a value as you can get using only stone materials. I made a few obsidian swords and ended up giving them away to a caravan. Didn't get a chance to test them out on anything but I think I might try a fortress in the future that uses them combined with some bone or leather armor.