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[Art]

I have read that silver was the best bolt material in v.34, but understand that physics have changed. Considering this, does any know what the best bolt material is now? Input and explanation is appreciated.

[Girlinhat]

Your results may vary, but I found "whatever I've got" to be the best, in whatever version.  what have you got most plentifully, because remember these are one-use.  I usually go for bone, simply because of the amount of bones I end up with and the ease of production.  Wood is also decent, after you've got magma smelters.  Since things like material amount have been fixed and weapons and armor take a reasonable amount of metal, and metal drops relatively less from the ground, then I don't produce metal bolts.  I've got better things to do with metal.  There's armor, there's weapons, there's statues...  Metal has uses, bone has less uses, let's throw bones at our enemies, instead of things that can be turned into battle axes.

[Tacomagic]

I tend to use bone, wood, and goblinite the most.  Long ago, I modded stone bolts into the game and those actually worked decent, but I haven't done that in a while.

[Baffler]

I usually use copper, or silver if I have gold. Other than that, it's mostly bones left over from ranching.

[khearn]

I usually set up a job in my weaponsmith's forge to create copper bolts (assuming I have abundant copper), using dfhack's workflow to keep a constant supply of a few hundred or so, depending on how many marksdwarves I have. This works nicely to give my weaponsmith plenty of practice.

I also usually do similar with my bonecrafter, just to get rid of the pile of bones.

   Keith

[Art]

I appreciate all of the suggestions, but I meant what material grants the most killing power.

[Telgin]

I think steel and adamantine are the top contenders now.  Steel armor can deflect any equal or lesser material now with a very high probability if I recall.  I'm not sure about iron armor, but I suspect that it's the same story.

[Art]

So silver's density no longer outweighs steel's sharpness?

[Girlinhat]

So silver's density no longer outweighs steel's sharpness?

Crossbow bolts were being registered as blunt damage, which made weight the only issue.  I believe they now do appropriate damage values, which makes them cut/pierce if the material is sharp enough, and that literally changes everything.  Previously bolts had no value for sharpness, so steel bolts were just 'the weight of steel' but now that they follow piercing damage types, they get 'the weight of steel as well as the edge steel holds'.

[StagnantSoul]

I find steel bolts are better than adamantine. I tested it out in arena, on iron armor, steel wins, steel armor, steel wins, copper armor, adamantine. No armor, adamantine by far. So I guess pop some adamantine bolts in for your hunters. 

[Saiko Kila]

I appreciate all of the suggestions, but I meant what material grants the most killing power.

Against whom?

[slothen]

be careful with wood bolts.  We all know wood has crap for sharpness values, and its density varies greatly.  in v34 I noticed huge differences between wood and bone.  Metal is good though.  Stacks of 25, and any non-candy metal will weigh a lot, doing significant damage.

Metal bolts are especially good against the undead, at least back when they had a hitpoint system.  undead move slow, so no missed shots. and each shot would do enough damage to kill, rather than against goblins where it would seem they'd get pin-cushioned and yet never bleed out.

[Art]

I appreciate all of the suggestions, but I meant what material grants the most killing power.

Against whom?

Mainly goblin siegers, but I was asking in general. If there are nuances I would be happy to know them.


Let me ask it another way. How would you order these, without considering supply.

Iron
Steel
Copper
Silver
Bronze

 And why. Or this something that nobody knows the SCIENCE behind at this time?

[Girlinhat]

It's rather the same as weapon materials now.  "Get x type weapon to beat similar level of armor."

[Deus Asmoth]

Adamantine bolts remain poor against armoured foes, from what I've seen, but steel now outclasses silver. I haven't done any !!science!! on it, though.