Print

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

[ykcud]

Hiya! I am a newbie to DF (just over a week into the game) and surprise, surprise; my first topic on the forum is requesting help. Like many newbies there is many features overwhelming me within the vast game of DF. Over all however I am enjoying the game.

Currently I am experimenting with adventure mode. I created a world with the most treacherous of options. LOTS of savagery, and LOTS of forgotten beasts. I gathered many would be adventures to my aid and traveled to the most savage of areas I could find. Fun then ensued. But now my character has found a weapon shop. I thought it was a good time to replace my starting sword with something better . . . then the confusion happened. MANY swords to chose from. No way to my knowledge to figure out which of these is better or worse. Is a silver longsword better than a steel longsword? Is bismuth bronze as good as bronze? I was just a bit overwhlmed to say the least. I did not want to sell my current weapon and end up with something worse for. I also thought what of armor?

I looked online for a list of which types of swords are better. All I could rely find is lists of materials these weapons could be made out of. They may list density, but would that mean its better than something that ways less? I would imagine that a blunt weapon such as a hammer or mace would be better if it is heavier, but then what would be the purpose of making it out of a higher grade of metal? I of course know the basics, such as bronze would be better than copper. But where would the aforementioned silver lie? What about "fine" crafted items and other grades?

So, anyone happen to know where I could find a list or similar page detailing which is better or worse? It would rely help me on my adventures.

[§k]

Steel sword is usually better than silver sword. The best weapon could be iron whip, or silver warhammer, or steel/iron pick if you are not strong.

[Bumber]

Scroll to the very bottom of this page: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Metal#Weapon_and_armor_quality
Check the table.

[ykcud]

Well thats some info on material, but what obsidian? How about wood and quality of the weapon in question as well as type of sword like scimitar?

[ScegfOd]

Scroll to the very bottom of this page: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Metal#Weapon_and_armor_quality
Check the table.

like he said, scroll to the bottom.
there is a big table at below the one that pops up when you click the link. a big very helpful table that has everything you want to know.
Unless you don't know what edged (all kinds of swords and axes) or blunt (all kinds of hammers) means...

[Kishmond]

I wouldn't really recommend using hammers at all. All of my military is equipped with silver warhammers because that's the only weaponable metal I have. It takes them a while to kill things, especially big things like forgotten beasts.

[greycat]

Hammers are good for a coup de grace against an unconscious opponent with a large, heavily armored head.  Like war elephants with steel helms in the Fortress Defense mod, after you've crippled them with crossbow bolts or whatever.

In vanilla, basically nothing exists that would ever prefer hammers, except possibly undead in a reanimating biome where you don't want to split them into smaller, reanimating undead by lopping off body parts.  And even then, crossbow bolts are vastly superior.

[BlackFlyme]

Well thats some info on material, but what obsidian? How about wood and quality of the weapon in question as well as type of sword like scimitar?

Obsidian is poor. Without modding, it is not very suitable as an edged weapon material.

Wood is not very good either. Bone has better values, but I would still not recommend any of these three materials except against unarmoured, unclothed opponents.

Quality affects the weapon's to-hit chance, according to the wiki. You may want to go for material over quality, however.

Scimitars are basically short swords with a different name. The only difference being that the contact area of the pommel bash attack is smaller.

[PDF urist master]

I personally think crossbows are by far the best weapons, though some may disagree. defensively, you can shoot from behind fortifications, which makes you functionally immune to melee. offensively, its ranged ability allows you to attack and slow down fleeing opponents. The only problem is that it kills extremely slowly, making it more useful as a support weapon.

One thing I should mention is that maces are worse than morningstars, which is a foreign weapon that also uses the macedwarf skill. morningstars deal edged damage with the same contact area as a warhammer. Even though it's edged, its low contact area makes it surprisingly good at penetrating armor, which is one of the mace's major strengths. Morningstars also do more damage in general, they can pierce internal organs while maces can only bruise them. I'd say the only downside is they are foreign, meaning you probably won't see a high quality morningstar any time soon.

[kingubu]

Obsidian, yeesh.  I just had a nightmare flashback of trying to make a no smelting fort.

Goblin invasions against my legendary swordwarfs with 100 pages of:

Poorly armed jackass with a stone sword strikes the head of the goblin incapacitated by laughter.
The shot is deflected by iron helmet!

Over and over and over and over.

[ykcud]

Thank you all for the info. This is very useful and I now feel comfortable enough to continue my adventure. As for my fortress, that is a topic for another time.

[JAFANZ]

Speaking of Obsidian, & Crossbows...

Is it just me or is weird that dwarves don't have Stonebows & Slings? (I mean sure, Obsidian wouldn't be the ideal ammo, but at least it's plentiful).

[samanato]

Speaking of Obsidian, & Crossbows...

Is it just me or is weird that dwarves don't have Stonebows & Slings? (I mean sure, Obsidian wouldn't be the ideal ammo, but at least it's plentiful).

I suppose, you could mod in stone ammo, though then you have a problem of them being stuck in the craftsman's shop forever, because there's no proper stockpile for it. Lead ammo is workable though, and as an advantage, is heavier than silver.

Slings could be moddable as a new ranged weapon too, which you'd make at the craftsman's with a cloth or similar. Throwing itself is hilariously OP, but I'm not sure, how the skill would work linked to an actual weapon.