So that '3' number in prepare:recover translates into 1 dwarf mode tick?
No, changing two handed weapons like the maul to have twice the time, by changing 3:3 to 6:6, results in attacks still taking 1 tick to process in fort time.
I swear I remember reading somewhere about the exact measurements of fort time in comparison to adventure time (heh). Can't remember the specifics but I think it was brought up during a discussion about weaponizing werebeasts and lunar cycles in fort mode.How much a tick in time is worth against the yearly dwarven calendar depends on the game mode, as time in fortress mode is much more heavily accelerated than it is in adventurer mode. Fortress mode counts 1200 ticks per day and 403200 per year, while adventurer mode counts 86400 ticks to a day and therefore 29030400 ticks per year. According to these rates, each tick is equivalent to a real-world second in adventurer mode, but 1.2 minutes in fortress mode, making adventurers 72 times faster than your dwarves tick-for-tick. This is intended behavior, as the pacing in fortress mode is much, much faster than when adventuring.
So, if the tag is based around adventurer time, a typical weapon like a warhammer would take 3 seconds irl to attack and recover, and in adventure mode it'd take 3 ticks each, while in fort mode all attacks would be completed in a tick. Either way, what matters is probably which weapon is faster. If an attacker has a sword that takes 3 units of time to attack and 3 to recover, while the defender has a huge axe that takes 6 units to attack and recover, the sword has more potential to inflict damage or interrupt the opponent's attack.
This is all hypothetical, since I haven't tested this extensively outside of "fort mode all weapons attack in one tick."