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[GavJ]

ceramic hammers are actually quite viable as tools, but I do not know how well that would translate to combat worthiness.

I'm quite confident that a brick strapped to a handle would be an effective weapon. Especially solid clay ceramic instead of actual bricks (usually mixed with star and stuff and much more brittle than pure clay).

A diamond sword, made without the local laser cutting machine, is unrealistic, but a steel sword, made with bare hands on an anvil is fine?

A forge building is a whole setup with tools and stuff, not just an anvil.

You seem to be heavily stuck on the idea that Dwarf Fortress should be a second Earth

No, I'm just answering your thread, dude. You asedk if stone, gem, ceramic weapons would be good mod additions.

Stone hammers are realistic, satisfying, flavorful, and of all the options, also the most realistic that you might actually ever use them. They sound fun and cool as an idea to me.

Gem swords are not only fairly useless by comparison (if you have hordes of gems you probably have proper weapons materials anyway) but due to their utter outlandishness they also feel ridiculous and break the mood and make me think of, like, runescape or something. Not a great association.

[Putnam]

Code: [Select]

[INORGANIC:DIAMOND_LY]
[USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:STONE_TEMPLATE]
[TILE:15][IS_GEM:light yellow diamond:STP:OVERWRITE_SOLID][DISPLAY_COLOR:7:7:1][MATERIAL_VALUE:30]
[SPEC_HEAT:409]
[IGNITE_POINT:11440]
[MELTING_POINT:NONE]
[BOILING_POINT:16708]
[MOLAR_MASS:1201]
[IMPACT_YIELD:210000000]
[IMPACT_FRACTURE:420000000]
[IMPACT_STRAIN_AT_YIELD:47404]
[COMPRESSIVE_YIELD:210000000]
[COMPRESSIVE_FRACTURE:420000000]
[COMPRESSIVE_STRAIN_AT_YIELD:47404] bulk modulus 443 GPa
[TENSILE_YIELD:60000000]
[TENSILE_FRACTURE:120000000]
[TENSILE_STRAIN_AT_YIELD:4918] young's modulus 1220 GPa
[TORSION_YIELD:60000000]
[TORSION_FRACTURE:120000000]
[TORSION_STRAIN_AT_YIELD:4918]
[SHEAR_YIELD:60000000]
[SHEAR_FRACTURE:120000000]
[SHEAR_STRAIN_AT_YIELD:12552] shear modulus 478 GPa
[BENDING_YIELD:60000000]
[BENDING_FRACTURE:120000000]
[BENDING_STRAIN_AT_YIELD:12552]
[ENVIRONMENT_SPEC:KIMBERLITE:CLUSTER_SMALL:100]
[SOLID_DENSITY:3520]
[STATE_COLOR:ALL_SOLID:CREAM]
I decided to get Diamond's actual properties and, uh.

It's actually stronger than Adamantine by an order of magnitude. It said that the tensile strength was "60 GPa"; Adamantine is 5 GPa. What.

Adamantine also has 5000000/0 young's, bulk and shear modulus, though, so that's a bit different.

[GavJ]

A diamond sword would actually probably be quite poor as a weapon, now that you bring up comparing them.

Tensile strength not being particularly offensive, that's not helping much. The shear and things are probably where you'd run into issues i.e. your sword snapping in half.

Although I do recall reading about some kind of weird black diamond with inclusions that make it all around actually strong, not just hard. I don't remember the specific name.

[Putnam]

Those are just stress-strain values. The sword snapping would be counted under BENDING_FRACTURE, which is at 120 GPa there (Adamantine is 5 GPa).

Yeah, these values are wonky. I got them from:

Wikipedia's article on Diamond's material properties
Wikipedia's article on Young's modulus (includes diamond, as do the other two)
Wikipedia's article on Shear modulus
Wikipedia's article on Bulk Modulus

[GavJ]

Well okay I'm not 100% sure which exact number it would be amongst the engineering variables.

But diamonds hit with hammers will definitely shatter into a million little pieces with very little effort. You can (and people have!) even chip a diamond by stepping on it or letting it fall at an unlucky angle from your finger to a concrete floor or something.

Swinging a diamond sword at somebody would have very similar results to swinging a window pane at somebody. Maybe slightly better or worse, I don't know, but you definitely aren't winning the fight unless you finish it with that first hit.

[StagnantSoul]

Yeah, metal armour would probably snap a diamond sword. Do weapons even break though? I've never seen it happen. But I was referencing to the fact that most of the time, when I see you, it's you shooting down an idea because it's not exactly like the real life. I've been thinking of making an almost Aztec like civilization, using stone weapons, but I'm not too sure how well they'd perform against a normal fort. Probably pretty poorly, but better than kobolds. This post was mostly to see if people liked the idea.

[Putnam]

Weapons don't get damaged at all.

[Meph]

Just a word about the "gem weapons would be bad": I have gem weapons for years in my mod, and they are pretty good. Edged gem axes/swords are so good, I dont even make replacements made of metal for them.

You can also give elves better woods

[Kumil]

Examples of stone swords : http://www.swordsofkorea.com/swords200.htm

[Jake]

Ceramic, no. It shatters from a stern look if it's thin enough to be sharp, and those are mostly very modern ceramics anyway. Old world ceramics would nearly always be lower quality (silt impurities for instance) and need to be tempered with grog or shells or similar which makes any kind of edge totally impossible, and simply aren't composed of the same exotic materials.

Ceramic musket balls might be possible though. They're on my to-do list for BPFA.

[Kumil]

Example of a gem sword : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere_%28weapon%29
Gem axe head : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jadeite#mediaviewer/File:Hache_222.1_Global_fond.jpg

I think that settles it.

[Orange Wizard]

Example of a gem sword : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere_%28weapon%29
Gem axe head : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jadeite#mediaviewer/File:Hache_222.1_Global_fond.jpg

I think that settles it.

Those aren't gemstone, so much, though. Greenstone is geologically a crystal, but so's granite. It's also not hard to find lumps of the stuff big enough to make weapons. Diamonds? Not so much.
Granted, this is DF we're talking about, so common sense need not apply.

[Meph]

Like butchering a kitten and making a full leather armor from it? ^^

[Orange Wizard]

And boots from its bones.

[Putnam]

Or an entire floodgate, for that matter.