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[Jackrabbit]

How much does it matter if my bolts are not made of adamantine but copper whilst my crossbows are the opposite. Surely its the bow that does the damage?

[Henrietta]

Well you aren't really throwing the bow at someone, and I guess the design of a copper crossbow would be identical to an adamantine one. Wood might even make the best bows, irl, who knows.

[Samyotix]

Not sure if I remember this 100% right, but:

The quality of the crossbow affects accuracy,
The material of the crossbow determines its damage in melee (Hammer skill),
The material of the bolt determines ranged damage.

[ZeroGravitas]

Well you aren't really throwing the bow at someone, and I guess the design of a copper crossbow would be identical to an adamantine one. Wood might even make the best bows, irl, who knows.

IRL, it would depend on the tensile strength of the material being bent, both in terms of damage and rate of fire.

An arbalest, IRL, was a steel crossbow. It's difficult to cock without the aid of a windlass, which maybe takes 30 seconds or more. It can then fire a bolt 500 meters or more.

On the other and, a wooden crossbow would be able to fire more quickly (since you could cock it by hand) but wouldn't shoot nearly as far.

None of this matters  in-game. Bolt material and quality is the only thing that affects ranged damage.

[Hyndis]

Crossbow material and quality only effects melee damage. Bolt material and quality effects ranged damage.

[LegacyCWAL]

tl;dr version:

Copper crossbows are fine.  Adamantine crossbows are a waste of adamantine.  Copper bolts kinda suck, but work.  Adamantine bolts will slaughter anything they hit.

[Veroule]

Copper bolts are a waster of copper.  They do the same damage as wood.  I always just use wood bolts in my fortresses.  Once my wood crafters union is running with legendaries the quality modifier provides plenty enough damage.

The only good reason to use copper bolts is training a weaponsmith.  I find they are better trained by making serrated disks for weapons traps.

[LegacyCWAL]

Copper has a 66% damage multiplier, while wood is only 50%.

[LegoLord]

tl;dr version:

Copper crossbows are fine.  Adamantine crossbows are a waste of adamantine.  Copper bolts kinda suck, but work.  Adamantine bolts will slaughter anything they hit.

But what about when your marksdwarves run out of ammo and charge stupidly at their foes to bash them with crossbows?  Then it might be a good idea to have those adamantine xbows.

And I am positive that quality affects accuracy.  Everything else . . . 

[ZeroGravitas]

Crossbow material and quality only effects melee damage. Bolt material and quality effects ranged damage.

AFFECTS

NOT EFFECTS

[Osmosis Jones]

Crossbow material and quality only effects melee damage. Bolt material and quality effects ranged damage.

AFFECTS

NOT EFFECTS

Hehehehehehe

[LegacyCWAL]

tl;dr version:

Copper crossbows are fine.  Adamantine crossbows are a waste of adamantine.  Copper bolts kinda suck, but work.  Adamantine bolts will slaughter anything they hit.

But what about when your marksdwarves run out of ammo and charge stupidly at their foes to bash them with crossbows?  Then it might be a good idea to have those adamantine xbows.

And I am positive that quality affects accuracy.  Everything else . . . 

If they're charging, then they're in trouble anyways.  Instead of wasting adamantine on something that'll only be used once or twice, tops, you're better off using that adamantine on something useful.  Something like, say, equipping the melee troops who will have to bail them out no matter what the xbows are made of.

[Wolfius]

Copper bolts are a waster of copper.  They do the same damage as wood.  I always just use wood bolts in my fortresses.  Once my wood crafters union is running with legendaries the quality modifier provides plenty enough damage.

The only good reason to use copper bolts is training a weaponsmith.  I find they are better trained by making serrated disks for weapons traps.

Not only is copper's damage modifier 32% greater than wood(66% for copper, 50% for generic. 66/50=1.32, copper = 1.32*wood, to be clear what I mean), but metal bolts aren't used for practice. Thus, you can insure your dwarves always have a full stack of metal bolts in their quivers, and your metal bolt supplies will never be depleted by training.

If they're charging, then they're in trouble anyways.  Instead of wasting adamantine on something that'll only be used once or twice, tops, you're better off using that adamantine on something useful.  Something like, say, equipping the melee troops who will have to bail them out no matter what the xbows are made of.

Unless you've cross-trained your legendary marksdwarves to be legendary hammerdwarves, and maybe legendary wrestlers and armour users too.

[MuonDecay]

Copper is really dang heavy, though.

You're better off with wooden crossbows if you can get them made with the same quality level. Faster-moving dwarves fetch ammo quicker.

[Hyndis]

Train them up to legendary wrestling, shields, and hammers in addition to crossbows. They will have no trouble whatsoever carrying around copper bolts.

I personally like using whatever cheap metal I have most of for bolts. I'll keep around 2,000 metal bolts in stock, and then I'll simply turn every bone into bone bolts, along with nearly all wood as well, assuming that barrels and bins aren't an issue. They'll churn through staggering numbers of bone and wood bolts for practice, but thats okay. No matter how many practice bolts they fire at the ranges, they will still have an ample supply of warshots in storage, so they will never run completely out of ammo at the practice range.