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[AustralianWinter]

So, my weaponsmith was taken by a fey mood and made a pig iron spear. I can't seem to find the material values of pig iron on the wiki. Have any of you had experiences with this sort of thing? Is it a useable weapon, or should I put it somewhere else?

[Twangykid]

Random guess, I'd say it might be the same as iron. Cbf checking raws.

[Trif]

Surprisingly, it's quite different.
Pig iron has lower values on impact yield and impact fracture (which makes it a worse blunt weapon material) and lower values on shear yield and shear fracture (worse in edged combat), but is less elastic than iron, which is apparently better for blunt and edged weapons. The density of iron and pig iron is identical.
Judging by those values, I'd say pig iron is somewhere in between copper and bronze as a material. Considering that your spear is an artifact, it should perform better than the average iron spear. I would use it as a weapon.

[jellsprout]

Pig iron is better than iron but worse than steel according to the results in this thread: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=90560
However, the method used there is a bit inaccurate, so take the results with a grain of salt.

[Graknorke]

Saying it's between copper and bronze is somewhat useless, seeing as iron is too.
From what I remember about the raws, it should be a little bit worse, but there's some variables in there I don't understand.

Still, as an artifact it has a to-hit bonus so it'll be overall better.

[Blizzlord]

Since when was bronze superior to iron? Isn't the material progression copper<bronze<iron<steel?

[Urist Da Vinci]

Since when was bronze superior to iron? Isn't the material progression copper<bronze<iron<steel?

Based only on "Shear Yield", the property that determines what can cut what (similar to moh's scale of hardness), and is useful for edged weapons penetrating armor:

Code: [Select]

Material Shear Yield

Steel 430000
Bronze 172000
Iron 155000
Silver 100000
Copper 70000


[ObeseHelmet]

So does that mean that bronze spears and swords are superior to iron ones?

My mind just exploded.

[Graknorke]

It makes sense from a gameplay point too, seeing as how bronze is technically harder to make. What with requiring more materials for alloys.

[AustralianWinter]

It's a moot point for me, anyway. My fortress was flooded due to an engineering error. Still, very interesting.

[byrnsey]

So does that mean that bronze spears and swords are superior to iron ones?

My mind just exploded.

I think it means bronze spears and swords are superior to iron armor.  I can't recall, but I feel like there's a belief that Iron cuts bronze better than bronze cuts bronze, but I dunno if that's real or not.  If it isn't then yea, bronze is better.

[jellsprout]

In the beginning iron was better than bronze. Then at the release of .31 the material values got updated and bronze became better than iron. However, some versions later the values were updated again and if I remember correctly iron is better than bronze again. The difference is negligible, though. In most tests I can find bronze and iron have pretty much equal results.

[Blizzlord]

Then maybe someone should update the material progression table on the wikis article on weapons. Players who have not done testing might be misinformed...

[i2amroy]

Actually this isn't that different from the real world. If they are at the same "level" of forging then bronze weapons actually are better then basic iron weapons for most purposes. The real reason that the world shifted from iron to bronze long ago was not because iron weapons were better to bronze ones, but rather that a infrastructure collapse caused a shortage of tin, stopping bronze from being made in significant amounts and forcing metal smiths to find alternatives to bronze. Iron in its natural state is actually barely harder then bronze, and other attributes make it so that unless you forge it into steel it is really worthless for most tool purposes. By the time that tin supplies had broadened out a bit and made mass production of bronze possible the world had discovered better methods of forging iron into various alloys, which are better for their specific purposes then bronze would be.

So to put it short, in their "basic" states bronze is better then iron. It's just that iron can be forged easier then bronze, and it forms a variety of alloys (such as various steels) that are better then bronze.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Thanks for the info, i2amroy. Knowing is half the cliche, after all.