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[mndfreeze]

I'm trying to find info on how effective glass weapon traps are compared to their normal metal bretheren.  I can't seem to find much on the wiki and I don't really understand the numbers in the raws and such to compare them myself.  Does anyone know or is there a past post someone can reference?  I've searched the forum a few different ways with various strings and can't pull what I need either.

I pretty much exclusively use serrated blades and spiked balls, 5 of each per weapon trap.  I'm starting a new fortress and am playing around with glass as a primary building source which is why I ask.  However if glass is so terrible for this purpose that copper or iron is better then I don't really want to waste the time on it.

Thanks!

[pisskop]

I'm trying to find info on how effective glass weapon traps are compared to their normal metal bretheren.  I can't seem to find much on the wiki and I don't really understand the numbers in the raws and such to compare them myself.  Does anyone know or is there a past post someone can reference?  I've searched the forum a few different ways with various strings and can't pull what I need either.

I pretty much exclusively use serrated blades and spiked balls, 5 of each per weapon trap.  I'm starting a new fortress and am playing around with glass as a primary building source which is why I ask.  However if glass is so terrible for this purpose that copper or iron is better then I don't really want to waste the time on it.

Thanks!

Glass is cheap, inexhaustible, and quantity overrides quality, especially when you get master glassmakers.

I approve of their use.  Copper would also work, but I would use copper for furniture or training weapon/armoorsmiths to make high quality gear.

[Ysyua]

I have seen some horrifying things happen to a giant after it passed out on 5 glass axe blades.

[mndfreeze]

Alright I guess I'll try em out.  I guess as long as I dont get hit by some creature made of steel I should be fine.  Seems goblins and what not only ever wear a piece or two of iron armor at most anyway.  Just usually for me I have traps lining my entrance hallway as a second layer, not a first layer, in case something gets passed my guards, or somehow wipes my guards out which does happen on occasion (Im looking at you crazy web spitting beast, asshat).

So it is important enough that they not completely fail because their material is to weak or something.  I do have a small layer of cage traps after them just in case, but if they somehow get past all that, its right into the heart of my fortress and mass !FUN!...

[Lielac]

Back before caravans started using wagons again, I'd make 4-wide, 30-deep entrance corridors carpeted with glass serrated discs. 10 to a trap, too. Nothing got past them short of trap-avoiders, but they were a pain in the ass to complete. Nowadays I just use a 30+ long set of retracting bridges, with pressure plates in the middle that open the bridges and send whatever triggered the plates to a gloriously nasty fall. Into lava, if I "coincidentally" triggered the cleaning stage at the same time. Oh, and there's a failsafe lever in the dining room and well-protected detector-fowl up front to deal with trap-avoid sneakers.

[NullForceOmega]

Glass serrated discs are so damn effective it's nearly obscene. for extra enjoyment leave the top of your trap hall open to air and then, when gobbos come to die, sit your camera on the 2nd z level and watch the bodyparts fly.

[utunnels]

But I think they will stop if their captain is cut down?

[NullForceOmega]

tether an animal (owned) within LOS, they'll chew themselves to pieces in short order.

[Bouchart]

I'd prefer copper, since it's generally abundant and constantly refilling sand bags is a bit of a hassle.  In the newer versions there's this nasty tendency for all of my bags to be filled with all sorts of seeds.

[Itnetlolor]

Glass serrated discs are so damn effective it's nearly obscene. for extra enjoyment leave the top of your trap hall open to air and then, when gobbos come to die, sit your camera on the 2nd z level and watch the bodyparts fly.

Just as well, have your dogs (or any other sufficient creature) chained just behind those serrated disks, so just in case they make their way past it, they can get knocked back into, or dodge into the same traps again. It'll feed them while at it. Pre-sliced meat. Just make sure to set the traps and dogs up in a staggered formation, that way, no trap is *safe*.

[vjmdhzgr]

From what I had read weapon traps get jammed if a corpse lands on them. Is that still a problem? If it is then all these nice weapon traps are kind of pointless. Glass notably has a higher max sharpness than all standard metals at 15,000 while the metals have 10,000. Adamantine is still 100,000 though so it's nothing compared to that. Glass' stats are quite good as well being about as good or slightly better than iron, except in torsion and shear where it is far, far worse. Shear is used in cutting so that additional maximum sharpness might not be enough to help.

[Arx]

They can get jammed, yes. That's the glory of glass, though - one trap per goblin! It's only ever been an issue for me once, because I was trying to feed a whole siege including trolls through six traps.

[Urist Da Vinci]

From what I had read weapon traps get jammed if a corpse lands on them. Is that still a problem? If it is then all these nice weapon traps are kind of pointless. Glass notably has a higher max sharpness than all standard metals at 15,000 while the metals have 10,000. Adamantine is still 100,000 though so it's nothing compared to that. Glass' stats are quite good as well being about as good or slightly better than iron, except in torsion and shear where it is far, far worse. Shear is used in cutting so that additional maximum sharpness might not be enough to help.

Due to the shear values, iron is about 6x more effective at cutting muscle than glass in DF. Adamantine is about 1000x more effective than glass at cutting muscle. Both of these numbers include the effects of the different sharpness.

Glass weapons will do well against flesh/leather, but will be much less effective against bone or any metal armor.

The relative SHEAR values of the weapon material and armor material is a better way to compare things. IIRC most flesh is 10,000 except for muscle which is 20,000 (I don't have the game in front of me right now).

[Itnetlolor]

Generally a good rule of thumb I use per-trap is the low-caliber AP + hi-caliber DD 1-2 Combo (inspired by my favorite 30-cal AP and 70-cal DD combo I use in Crimson Skies. Even heavy aircraft don't last long against that.); or more in this case, thin-shredder heavy-haymaker combo (5x really sharp disks working with 5x really heavy spiked balls (Heavier materials preferred, metal or dense wood. Featherwood would be training equipment.)). Basically, it'll rend the top layers off as best as possible, leaving the remainder (usually bone or somesuch) to be pulverized.

I've heard some rather satisfying *SPLAT!* noises (kudos to Soundsense) when I was about to get robbed blindly by some raccoons or thieves.

[mardouille]

I can't tell much about Glass discs, however I have cleansed everything the HFS have been throwing me with about 10 tiles of menacing glass spikes on repeat mode linked to a lever. They have not jammed either and I feel they are overpowered because of that, and the fact they are free once you gain access to magma.