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[Fleeting Frames]

No world-gen creature runs around with adamantine weapons, armor, cloth, gems or thread, nobody trades it, and only time it is randomly generated for a material is currently in tomes.

Yet somehow, this material nobody knows expect in myth has absurd trade & room value compared to even diamonds, while often almost as wondrous forgotten beast silk gets the minimum - same as cave spider silk products.

Sure, for the unaware the first is much more likely to end in fort's destruction, and it does have much longer production chain and cost. At the most charitable, blue breastplate's 10 jobs does help equalize with steel's 4, with lower material value per wafer/bar.

So! Why would traders give so much for something mythical, unheard of?

a) It was mentioned in creation myths, and they are worshippers.
b) They have interest for archaeology and the unknown.

Thus the suggestion:

Have adamantine and forgotten beast trade/bookkeeping value be dependent on civilization's VANDALISM ethic.
Have adamantine get additional multiplier for how intensely that civilization leader worships their deity(ies).

As a side benefit, it would make two different worldgens more different from each other, even on same biome.

[Putnam]

So! Why would traders give so much for something mythical, unheard of?

It can be clearly seen that it does not give to any force and is stronger than any other material while having a unique appearance besides, so it's not much surprise.

[vjmdhzgr]

Dwarves can have preferences for adamantine though, and when you first find an adamantine vein the message "Raw adamantine! Praise the miners!"  Both of which suggest that dwarves know of its existence. Also as Putnam's said its material properties are so extreme that they'd be easy to observe and for the merchants to realize how useful it is. So I think adamantine's cost should stay as it is.

I do think it should be mentioned in creation myths though. It is presumably the thing sealing the HFS away, which is typically something that'd get mentioned in a creation myth.

[Button]

I think adamantine is fine where it is - a bronze age trader wouldn't find steel weaponry any less valuable just because he'd never heard of it before.

I do agree that FBs and titans should have their material values upgraded, though.

[Fleeting Frames]

Eh, I doubt I'd be able to tell that copper sword is worse than steel one by looking, let alone exactly how big is the difference and how much would be a fair price due increased production costs. I would know steel is better if I knew about steel and copper, though (and if I knew of alive and dead forgotten beasts, I'd be able to guess how useful their products are).

Even with exact material and size values, finding behaviour for DF bolts VS armor required thousands of tests - and now that they've been revamped, I once again don't know the chance of a bolt killing a given armored target other than "pretty low". Granted, I may not be mediaeval trader....

Still, even if non-smith traders have weapon masters with them, being not likely to shatter when dropping on the floor is irrelevant to the value of gems, such as cut adamantine versus diamond ( 4,17 - 6,25 times difference), which is why I think the value of it is not due it's material values, but belief that it is (much like diamond VS prase or relic VS duplicate).

Which is why a static value seems like it should be merely a placeholder. Maybe come active world trading, but even by then the initial values should be decided somehow before demand and supply alters them - thus the initial suggestion, to model desire at least partially.