I also have independently been studying this phenomenon for several weeks, and my tests have yielded similar results. I am glad to see that I'm not the only person crazy enough to undertake such a project, and also applaud Zivilin's results.
In addition to confirming Zivilin's results, I think I may have a few additional insights. First of all, maybe Zivilin has already stated this and I missed it, but I have found that plate armor is
completely ineffective against all metal bolts (other than candy vs. candy). For the following tests, 864 dwarves wearing breastplates, helms, greaves, 2 gauntlets and 2 low boots were placed 2 tiles away from crossbow wielding dwarves (directly behind fortifications). In my tests the targets are in a large open area, and can dodge [Edit - I added platinum bolts on 9/11/2012]:
| ammo | armor | hits | kills | hits/kill | hits/fall | hits/KO | %through | %deflected | %serious | %bruised |
| adamantine | adamantine | 76957.00 | 605.00 | 78.81+/-2.27 | 15.81+/-0.53 | 16.36+/-0.52 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| bismuth_bronze | adamantine | 12648.00 | 864.00 | 16.35+/-0.51 | 1.72+/-0.03 | 2.95+/-0.10 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| bronze | adamantine | 12850.00 | 864.00 | 16.53+/-0.49 | 1.77+/-0.04 | 2.93+/-0.10 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| copper | adamantine | 12722.00 | 864.00 | 16.30+/-0.49 | 1.74+/-0.03 | 2.69+/-0.10 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| silver | adamantine | 12409.00 | 864.00 | 16.02+/-0.49 | 1.72+/-0.03 | 2.79+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| steel | adamantine | 13065.00 | 864.00 | 16.83+/-0.49 | 1.75+/-0.03 | 2.91+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| platinum | adamantine | 10963.00 | 864.00 | 14.08+/-0.44 | 1.68+/-0.03 | 2.20+/-0.05 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| adamantine | bismuth_bronze | 14775.00 | 864.00 | 19.15+/-0.55 | 1.81+/-0.04 | 4.07+/-0.16 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| bismuth_bronze | bismuth_bronze | 12428.00 | 864.00 | 16.14+/-0.48 | 1.78+/-0.04 | 2.94+/-0.10 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| bronze | bismuth_bronze | 12617.00 | 864.00 | 16.22+/-0.46 | 1.78+/-0.03 | 3.06+/-0.12 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| copper | bismuth_bronze | 12970.00 | 864.00 | 16.68+/-0.49 | 1.68+/-0.03 | 2.87+/-0.11 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| iron | bismuth_bronze | 13129.00 | 864.00 | 16.94+/-0.50 | 1.75+/-0.04 | 2.90+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| silver | bismuth_bronze | 12199.00 | 864.00 | 15.60+/-0.46 | 1.72+/-0.03 | 2.68+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| steel | bismuth_bronze | 12831.00 | 864.00 | 16.54+/-0.51 | 1.83+/-0.04 | 2.98+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| platinum | bismuth_bronze | 11185.00 | 864.00 | 14.47+/-0.45 | 1.72+/-0.03 | 2.30+/-0.06 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| adamantine | bronze | 14798.00 | 864.00 | 19.08+/-0.56 | 1.87+/-0.04 | 4.10+/-0.17 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| bismuth_bronze | bronze | 12450.00 | 864.00 | 16.02+/-0.48 | 1.73+/-0.03 | 2.95+/-0.10 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| bronze | bronze | 13947.00 | 864.00 | 17.97+/-0.52 | 1.76+/-0.04 | 2.91+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| copper | bronze | 12768.00 | 864.00 | 16.45+/-0.49 | 1.65+/-0.03 | 2.72+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| iron | bronze | 13412.00 | 864.00 | 17.24+/-0.52 | 1.72+/-0.03 | 3.01+/-0.10 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| silver | bronze | 12364.00 | 864.00 | 15.97+/-0.47 | 1.72+/-0.03 | 2.66+/-0.08 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| steel | bronze | 12995.00 | 864.00 | 16.79+/-0.51 | 1.81+/-0.04 | 3.02+/-0.10 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| platinum | bronze | 10702.00 | 864.00 | 13.81+/-0.44 | 1.61+/-0.03 | 2.18+/-0.06 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| adamantine | copper | 14110.00 | 864.00 | 18.14+/-0.53 | 1.88+/-0.04 | 4.15+/-0.17 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| bismuth_bronze | copper | 12978.00 | 864.00 | 16.71+/-0.49 | 1.73+/-0.03 | 2.74+/-0.08 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| bronze | copper | 13189.00 | 864.00 | 16.96+/-0.53 | 1.72+/-0.03 | 2.87+/-0.10 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| copper | copper | 12900.00 | 864.00 | 16.60+/-0.51 | 1.74+/-0.03 | 2.75+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| iron | copper | 13020.00 | 864.00 | 16.74+/-0.50 | 1.74+/-0.04 | 2.98+/-0.11 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| silver | copper | 12276.00 | 864.00 | 15.85+/-0.50 | 1.71+/-0.03 | 2.76+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| steel | copper | 12874.00 | 864.00 | 16.62+/-0.49 | 1.76+/-0.03 | 3.03+/-0.10 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| platinum | copper | 11123.00 | 864.00 | 14.30+/-0.44 | 1.63+/-0.03 | 2.23+/-0.06 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| adamantine | iron | 14527.00 | 864.00 | 18.67+/-0.54 | 1.88+/-0.04 | 4.38+/-0.19 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| bismuth_bronze | iron | 13079.00 | 864.00 | 16.79+/-0.50 | 1.80+/-0.04 | 2.90+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| bronze | iron | 13266.00 | 864.00 | 17.09+/-0.50 | 1.70+/-0.03 | 2.76+/-0.08 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| copper | iron | 12752.00 | 864.00 | 16.34+/-0.48 | 1.70+/-0.03 | 2.89+/-0.10 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| iron | iron | 12649.00 | 864.00 | 16.30+/-0.50 | 1.76+/-0.04 | 2.85+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| silver | iron | 12416.00 | 864.00 | 15.98+/-0.49 | 1.76+/-0.03 | 2.73+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| steel | iron | 12826.00 | 864.00 | 16.59+/-0.51 | 1.69+/-0.03 | 2.74+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| platinum | iron | 11520.00 | 864.00 | 14.86+/-0.43 | 1.71+/-0.03 | 2.26+/-0.06 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| adamantine | silver | 14627.00 | 864.00 | 18.86+/-0.55 | 1.78+/-0.04 | 4.16+/-0.17 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| bronze | silver | 13122.00 | 864.00 | 17.00+/-0.52 | 1.74+/-0.03 | 2.78+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| copper | silver | 12403.00 | 864.00 | 15.98+/-0.49 | 1.83+/-0.04 | 2.87+/-0.08 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| iron | silver | 12950.00 | 864.00 | 16.63+/-0.49 | 1.72+/-0.04 | 2.89+/-0.10 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| silver | silver | 11962.00 | 864.00 | 15.47+/-0.45 | 1.75+/-0.03 | 2.67+/-0.07 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| steel | silver | 13039.00 | 864.00 | 16.81+/-0.50 | 1.68+/-0.03 | 3.14+/-0.12 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| platinum | silver | 11267.00 | 864.00 | 14.52+/-0.46 | 1.66+/-0.03 | 2.22+/-0.06 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| adamantine | steel | 15000.00 | 864.00 | 19.29+/-0.57 | 1.83+/-0.04 | 3.97+/-0.16 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| bismuth_bronze | steel | 12640.00 | 864.00 | 16.32+/-0.48 | 1.79+/-0.04 | 2.78+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| bronze | steel | 12863.00 | 864.00 | 16.59+/-0.50 | 1.74+/-0.03 | 2.81+/-0.08 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| copper | steel | 12445.00 | 864.00 | 16.04+/-0.48 | 1.76+/-0.03 | 2.75+/-0.08 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| iron | steel | 13292.00 | 864.00 | 17.21+/-0.50 | 1.76+/-0.04 | 2.86+/-0.08 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| silver | steel | 12248.00 | 864.00 | 15.84+/-0.48 | 1.70+/-0.03 | 2.69+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| steel | steel | 13141.00 | 864.00 | 16.97+/-0.54 | 1.74+/-0.03 | 2.90+/-0.10 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| platinum | steel | 11294.00 | 864.00 | 14.53+/-0.44 | 1.62+/-0.03 | 2.18+/-0.05 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| adamantine | naked | 0.00 | 864.00 | 19.02+/-0.55 | 1.82+/-0.04 | 4.03+/-0.17 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| bismuth_bronze | naked | 0.00 | 864.00 | 16.91+/-0.50 | 1.75+/-0.03 | 2.90+/-0.10 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| bronze | naked | 0.00 | 864.00 | 16.12+/-0.45 | 1.73+/-0.03 | 3.18+/-0.11 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| copper | naked | 0.00 | 864.00 | 16.86+/-0.47 | 1.72+/-0.03 | 2.90+/-0.10 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| iron | naked | 0.00 | 864.00 | 15.83+/-0.48 | 1.76+/-0.03 | 3.28+/-0.12 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| silver | naked | 0.00 | 864.00 | 15.78+/-0.48 | 1.68+/-0.03 | 2.66+/-0.09 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| steel | naked | 0.00 | 864.00 | 16.99+/-0.49 | 1.74+/-0.03 | 3.11+/-0.11 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| platinum | naked | 0.00 | 864.00 | 14.42+/-0.45 | 1.65+/-0.03 | 2.25+/-0.06 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
*note that iron vs. candy and bismuth bronze vs. silver are missing because the DF macro failed to run properly (sometimes a keypress or two is not recognized, at least running Linux). I can fill those in later if anyone cares.
The first two columns list the metals used for ammunition and armors (if it matters the crossbows are made from the same metal as the ammunition). All dwarves were great archers/marksdwarves and grand master armor users (with no other skills). The third column ("hits") is the number of hits
against armor, not counting hits to unarmored parts of the body and "kills" are the total number of dwarves killed.
I wrote a perl script which analyzes gamelog.txt and records separately for each dwarf the number of hits before he is killed ("hits/kill"), first falls over ("hits/fall"), or first falls unconcious ("hits/KO"). Because I counted these separately for each dwarf, I can calculate the error as the standard deviation over all dwarves divided by the square root of the number of dwarves killed/fallen/KO'd. This will skew the results too low for cases when not all dwarves are killed etc, as it only counts the number of shots needed for those that are killed, and those that survive would presumably take longer, but this is only an issue for candy vs. candy.
The "%through" and "%deflected" are the percentages of hits against armor which went through or were deflected. Note that in candy vs. candy the dwarves are still sometimes killed due to hits against unarmored body parts (neck, upper arms, etc), even through the bolts are always deflected. Finally, to give an idea if the armor was slowing down bolts significantly without deflecting them, I counted up the fraction of hits against armor which causes chipped, fractured or shattered bones or any tears (%serious) compared with the fraction causing only bruises (%non-serious). 100% of the time (again except candy vs. candy) wounds resulted in serious injury. I will try to perform analysis more similar to Zivilin's on my data, but I literally had everything ready to post on my own and saw, oh dear, somebody else scooped me
. So I am just posting what I have for now.
Now to the main point: I also ran tests with all metals against unarmored targets, and found
no significant difference in the number of shots required to kill or incapacitate armored or unarmored dwarves. At first glance this appears to contradict Zivilin's results, not that I did
not include chainmail for this test. I had previously run tests with a chainmail shirt added to a breastplate, greaves, helm, gloves, and low boots for armored dwarves, with the following results [Edit - I added platinum bolts on 9/11/2012]:
| ammo | armor | hits | kills | hits/kill | hits/fall | hits/KO | %through | %deflected | %serious | %bruised |
| adamantine | adamantine | 86095.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.10 | 0.90 | 0.01 | 0.09 |
| bismuth_bronze | adamantine | 19495.00 | 864.00 | 22.60+/-0.73 | 1.73+/-0.04 | 2.86+/-0.10 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| bronze | adamantine | 18845.00 | 864.00 | 21.84+/-0.74 | 1.86+/-0.04 | 3.29+/-0.11 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| copper | adamantine | 19698.00 | 864.00 | 22.83+/-0.70 | 1.83+/-0.04 | 3.03+/-0.10 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| iron | adamantine | 19297.00 | 864.00 | 22.37+/-0.73 | 1.79+/-0.04 | 3.10+/-0.11 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| silver | adamantine | 19282.00 | 864.00 | 22.36+/-0.76 | 1.77+/-0.04 | 2.76+/-0.08 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| steel | adamantine | 19156.00 | 864.00 | 22.20+/-0.68 | 1.84+/-0.04 | 3.00+/-0.10 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.71 | 0.29 |
| platinum | adamantine | 18686.00 | 864.00 | 21.68+/-0.71 | 1.67+/-0.03 | 2.25+/-0.06 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| adamantine | bismuth_bronze | 15991.00 | 864.00 | 18.57+/-0.54 | 1.85+/-0.04 | 4.30+/-0.18 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| bismuth_bronze | bismuth_bronze | 18850.00 | 864.00 | 21.86+/-0.73 | 1.86+/-0.04 | 3.08+/-0.10 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| bronze | bismuth_bronze | 19085.00 | 864.00 | 22.13+/-0.73 | 1.83+/-0.04 | 3.12+/-0.10 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| copper | bismuth_bronze | 20100.00 | 864.00 | 23.31+/-0.76 | 1.86+/-0.04 | 2.97+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| iron | bismuth_bronze | 20506.00 | 864.00 | 23.79+/-0.81 | 1.83+/-0.04 | 3.08+/-0.11 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| silver | bismuth_bronze | 19226.00 | 864.00 | 22.30+/-0.76 | 1.75+/-0.04 | 2.83+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| steel | bismuth_bronze | 14463.00 | 864.00 | 16.77+/-0.48 | 1.80+/-0.04 | 3.10+/-0.11 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| platinum | bismuth_bronze | 17400.00 | 864.00 | 20.19+/-0.70 | 1.72+/-0.03 | 2.40+/-0.06 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| adamantine | bronze | 15933.00 | 864.00 | 18.48+/-0.53 | 1.80+/-0.04 | 3.92+/-0.17 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| bismuth_bronze | bronze | 18525.00 | 864.00 | 21.48+/-0.71 | 1.84+/-0.04 | 3.10+/-0.10 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| bronze | bronze | 19568.00 | 864.00 | 22.68+/-0.71 | 1.79+/-0.04 | 2.92+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| copper | bronze | 19532.00 | 864.00 | 22.64+/-0.77 | 1.77+/-0.04 | 2.83+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| iron | bronze | 19736.00 | 864.00 | 22.88+/-0.74 | 1.76+/-0.04 | 3.14+/-0.10 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| silver | bronze | 18966.00 | 864.00 | 21.99+/-0.75 | 1.77+/-0.04 | 2.79+/-0.08 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| steel | bronze | 14587.00 | 864.00 | 16.93+/-0.49 | 1.74+/-0.04 | 2.93+/-0.11 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| platinum | bronze | 18277.00 | 864.00 | 21.19+/-0.78 | 1.78+/-0.04 | 2.40+/-0.06 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.69 | 0.31 |
| adamantine | copper | 16533.00 | 864.00 | 19.18+/-0.55 | 1.84+/-0.04 | 4.24+/-0.18 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| bismuth_bronze | copper | 13571.00 | 864.00 | 15.73+/-0.48 | 1.75+/-0.03 | 2.96+/-0.11 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| bronze | copper | 13700.00 | 864.00 | 15.88+/-0.49 | 1.75+/-0.04 | 3.01+/-0.11 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| copper | copper | 18682.00 | 864.00 | 21.67+/-0.70 | 1.76+/-0.04 | 2.89+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.71 | 0.29 |
| iron | copper | 14110.00 | 864.00 | 16.36+/-0.49 | 1.74+/-0.03 | 2.94+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| silver | copper | 18732.00 | 864.00 | 21.71+/-0.74 | 1.81+/-0.04 | 2.85+/-0.08 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| steel | copper | 14695.00 | 864.00 | 17.05+/-0.54 | 1.75+/-0.03 | 3.11+/-0.13 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| platinum | copper | 17327.00 | 864.00 | 20.09+/-0.69 | 1.70+/-0.03 | 2.31+/-0.06 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.69 | 0.31 |
| adamantine | iron | 15703.00 | 864.00 | 18.22+/-0.53 | 1.78+/-0.04 | 3.99+/-0.17 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| bismuth_bronze | iron | 19535.00 | 864.00 | 22.65+/-0.75 | 1.77+/-0.04 | 2.99+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| bronze | iron | 18343.00 | 864.00 | 21.27+/-0.71 | 1.72+/-0.04 | 2.95+/-0.10 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| copper | iron | 19495.00 | 864.00 | 22.62+/-0.79 | 1.75+/-0.04 | 2.92+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| iron | iron | 18962.00 | 864.00 | 21.99+/-0.72 | 1.80+/-0.04 | 3.05+/-0.11 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| silver | iron | 18437.00 | 864.00 | 21.37+/-0.69 | 1.73+/-0.04 | 2.71+/-0.08 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.69 | 0.31 |
| steel | iron | 14243.00 | 864.00 | 16.53+/-0.49 | 1.74+/-0.03 | 2.85+/-0.10 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| platinum | iron | 17496.00 | 864.00 | 20.28+/-0.69 | 1.71+/-0.03 | 2.29+/-0.06 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| adamantine | silver | 17064.00 | 864.00 | 19.79+/-0.56 | 1.84+/-0.04 | 3.86+/-0.15 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| bismuth_bronze | silver | 14090.00 | 864.00 | 16.33+/-0.49 | 1.73+/-0.03 | 2.86+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| bronze | silver | 14923.00 | 864.00 | 17.32+/-0.52 | 1.71+/-0.04 | 2.74+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| copper | silver | 19526.00 | 864.00 | 22.64+/-0.73 | 1.84+/-0.04 | 3.21+/-0.11 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.71 | 0.29 |
| iron | silver | 14363.00 | 864.00 | 16.66+/-0.51 | 1.75+/-0.03 | 2.82+/-0.08 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| silver | silver | 15424.00 | 864.00 | 17.88+/-0.56 | 1.77+/-0.04 | 3.01+/-0.11 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.77 | 0.23 |
| steel | silver | 14747.00 | 864.00 | 17.10+/-0.49 | 1.75+/-0.03 | 2.80+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| platinum | silver | 13338.00 | 864.00 | 15.47+/-0.48 | 1.67+/-0.03 | 2.21+/-0.06 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.97 | 0.03 |
| adamantine | steel | 16236.00 | 864.00 | 18.84+/-0.55 | 1.88+/-0.04 | 3.83+/-0.16 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.00 |
| bismuth_bronze | steel | 18994.00 | 864.00 | 22.02+/-0.73 | 1.82+/-0.04 | 2.97+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.71 | 0.29 |
| bronze | steel | 19372.00 | 864.00 | 22.48+/-0.74 | 1.83+/-0.04 | 3.07+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| copper | steel | 19211.00 | 864.00 | 22.27+/-0.74 | 1.82+/-0.04 | 2.96+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| iron | steel | 19669.00 | 864.00 | 22.79+/-0.80 | 1.78+/-0.04 | 3.03+/-0.10 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| silver | steel | 19361.00 | 864.00 | 22.44+/-0.77 | 1.74+/-0.04 | 2.74+/-0.08 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.71 | 0.29 |
| steel | steel | 19104.00 | 864.00 | 22.14+/-0.69 | 1.84+/-0.04 | 3.02+/-0.10 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| platinum | steel | 16091.00 | 864.00 | 18.66+/-0.61 | 1.68+/-0.03 | 2.47+/-0.09 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.70 | 0.30 |
| adamantine | naked | 0.00 | 864.00 | 18.84+/-0.56 | 1.85+/-0.04 | 4.14+/-0.17 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| bismuth_bronze | naked | 0.00 | 864.00 | 17.05+/-0.51 | 1.76+/-0.04 | 2.89+/-0.09 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| bronze | naked | 0.00 | 864.00 | 16.59+/-0.51 | 1.73+/-0.03 | 2.92+/-0.09 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| copper | naked | 0.00 | 864.00 | 16.46+/-0.50 | 1.69+/-0.03 | 2.74+/-0.09 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| iron | naked | 0.00 | 864.00 | 15.76+/-0.46 | 1.78+/-0.04 | 3.06+/-0.11 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| silver | naked | 0.00 | 864.00 | 16.04+/-0.50 | 1.75+/-0.04 | 2.67+/-0.08 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| steel | naked | 0.00 | 864.00 | 16.37+/-0.50 | 1.76+/-0.04 | 3.07+/-0.10 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| platinum | naked | 0.00 | 864.00 | 14.42+/-0.45 | 1.65+/-0.03 | 2.25+/-0.06 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
Here, we see results similar to Zivilin's. If the armor material is equal to or better than the bolt material (with candy>steel>iron=bronze=b.bronze>copper>silver), then there is a modest but significant increase the the survival of the targets. More strikingly, there is a 30% chance (except for candy vs. candy and silver vs. silver) that the target receives only bruises from the hit. With candy vs. candy things are more complicated, as the plate armor also deflects 100% of hits to protected areas, and I'm not sure why there is a difference with silver vs. silver.
Furthermore, I ran a test of steel vs. steel with dwarves wearing
only a mail shirt and pants, and found that the rate of nonserious wounds increased to 37%. Wearing 3 chainmail shirts did not further reduce serious wounds. I will run a full test of dwarves in only chainmail overnight tonight.
I did run a test of dwarves with mail shirts, breastplate, helm, greaves, gauntlets and low boots (same as above) at a starting distance of 20 tiles from the shooters, but found no significant differences. I can post the complete results if anyone really wants to see.
Bottom line - plate armor does
nothing against bolts, and chainmail provides modest protection against them. This is quite the opposite of what I would have expected.
I have also been pursuing adjusting the force of crossbows such that a more reasonable number of deflections occurs. I found no difference in deflections or survival at Force=100 (standard Force=1000), and 90% deflection off equal or better metals (as define above) for Force=10. For Force=42, there is 20-30% deflection off of steel, with heavier metals deflecting less, and 90% deflection off of candy, and no deflection off other metals. In all cases where there was no deflection, even with Force=10, the survival rate did not change significantly. For all these tests dwarves were wearing a full suit of armor with chainmail, as above. Given that deflections max out at 90%, and the remaining 10% is the area covered by chainmail but not plate, I suspect that the all deflections are coming from plate armor and not chain mail, but I need to verify this. I will post further results in this area soon. I am hoping to find an optimum crossbow force that allows a reasonable fraction (but not 100%) of crossbow bolts to deflect off of superior armor.
I may also investigate decreasing the mass of DF bolts somewhat. By comparing the masses of other DF weapons and armor to masses of real world objects, I estimate that one DF bolt/arrow weighs about 500 grams. The largest weight I've found for a bolt/arrow online is ~100g. I think the excess weight of bolts is a well known problem, so I don't think it's worth discussing here, other than as a possible parameter to tune to achieve more realistic projectile behavior.
Edit: I have posted the scripts etc. used for this testing to
DFFD. If anyone really wants to see all the logs, I can post that too, but its over 30 MB.
Author
Topic: Dwarven Research: A Comparison Study on the Effectiveness of Bolts vs Armors (Read 178310 times)