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Author Topic: Best use for adamantine?  (Read 13175 times)

dralloss

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Best use for adamantine?
« on: February 27, 2010, 04:22:52 am »

I just found my first bits of the stuff and have smelted it into wafers. Now, what to do with it? Would I be better served making weapons with it? Or Armor?
I'm going to guess there's not enough to outfit my whole army with both.

Edit: Oh, how many adamantine strands do I get from one adamantine ore?
       How many wafers from one strand?
« Last Edit: February 27, 2010, 04:32:41 am by dralloss »
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bhamv

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Re: Best use for adamantine?
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2010, 04:40:00 am »

I generally prioritize armor over weapons.  Regular steel or obsidian weapons will slice up enemies quite nicely, adamantine armor will be much more helpful for protecting your dwarves from enemy archers etc.
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dralloss

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Re: Best use for adamantine?
« Reply #2 on: February 27, 2010, 04:48:51 am »

So would you recommend shield first priority? Chest armor after that?
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Grimlocke

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Re: Best use for adamantine?
« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2010, 06:11:02 am »

I would recommend a weapon and shield. Chainmail and a helmet for your better soldiers if you have some metal to spare.

Make sure your guys have some good skill at shield using and the shield alone will give them pretty decent protection (tested this in adventurer mode, legendary shield users with a superior quality adamantine shield are nigh invincible as long as they can use their shield). Add a weapon and it only costs 7 wafers, or 8 if your using axes or maces.

Or you could make buckers that cost only 2 wafers instead of 4. Just note they also have only half the block chance. All depends on how many good soldiers you have. Also make sure they all have at least some sort of armour to wear, even if its just iron.

With that you should be able to take on your fun stuff. Any more would probably overkill them pretty badly, which isnt much fun. Unless you modded your clowns like I did... well I think I overdid it on my last attempt. The ringmaster alone just razed my entire fortress in few minutes ;D
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I make Grimlocke's History & Realism Mods. Its got poleaxes, sturdy joints and bloomeries. Now compatible with DF Revised!

Dude_Jebawe

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Re: Best use for adamantine?
« Reply #4 on: February 27, 2010, 06:48:11 am »

Well, in the hands of a champion a steel axe lops off limbs with every swing, right? So what would you gain from using adamantine axes, even if they're technically better? Nothing. Armour, on the other hand, can always be improved.
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ungulateman

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Re: Best use for adamantine?
« Reply #5 on: February 27, 2010, 06:55:46 am »

Yeah, armour, than a shield, then maybe ammo / weapons / siege ammo. And of course raw adamantine is good for statues and stuff.
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Re: Best use for adamantine?
« Reply #6 on: February 27, 2010, 08:52:40 am »

I would say shield.  At some point an arrow will just walk up and mangle your dorf's brain, helmet or not.  Shield is the best protection against that.  Chain and helms are good ideas too, really everything is although plate is expensive and caps are inefficient. 

Weapons are unnecessary in vanilla, read Headshoots and ask HolisticDetective.  There just isn't anything that can stand up to multi-legendary steel weapon users.  If there was then weapons would be the first thing I make out of clownite.     
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armadilloHD

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Re: Best use for adamantine?
« Reply #7 on: February 27, 2010, 09:50:40 am »

Last I heard, adamantine armor lets dwarves walk through magma.  Adamantine two handed axes lop off heads but so do obsidian shortswords.
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Grimlocke

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Re: Best use for adamantine?
« Reply #8 on: February 27, 2010, 10:02:53 am »

Last I heard, adamantine armor lets dwarves walk through magma.  Adamantine two handed axes lop off heads but so do obsidian shortswords.
There is the matter of likelyness ;)

Still I rarely train myself multi-legendaries, I find them a bit game breaking. You just dont even need the adamantine at all if you have a few of those. Plus I like both sides of a battle to sustain some loss. Keeps it interesting.

Also I wouldnt try to verify the walking-through-magma thing with dwarves that are very valuable to you, hehehe. I think adamantine armour might do something to delay the heat due to its realy high spec_heat, but if your dwarf stays in it too long hes just gonna die. Or if his socks catch on fire hes gonna die and possibly explode your booze stock!
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I make Grimlocke's History & Realism Mods. Its got poleaxes, sturdy joints and bloomeries. Now compatible with DF Revised!

Karnewarrior

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Re: Best use for adamantine?
« Reply #9 on: February 27, 2010, 10:52:09 am »

adamantine lets dwarves jump through magma.
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Skid

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Re: Best use for adamantine?
« Reply #10 on: February 27, 2010, 11:56:08 am »

As far as I know, material does not have a great deal of effect on shield effectiveness.  If it did, basic adamantine shields would have a 100% block rate. (20% shield block times 5 adamantine material effect) You'd probably be better off using the adamantine for helms, gauntlets, boots, etc.

And keep a few bars directly next to your forges in case your metalsmith goes moody.
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MC Dirty

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Re: Best use for adamantine?
« Reply #11 on: February 27, 2010, 12:14:12 pm »

As far as I know, material does not have a great deal of effect on shield effectiveness.  If it did, basic adamantine shields would have a 100% block rate. (20% shield block times 5 adamantine material effect).
It doesn't make sense to calculate it this way. Maybe it's 0.2 (basic shield block)*1.2 (increase block chance by 20 %)^4 (Adamantine material effect - 1)
Thus, a metal with 1 "material effect" would have a 20 % block chance and a basic adamantine shield would approximately have a 41.5 % chance to block. Doesn't sound too good, so it's probably completely different. I just wanted to show that it would also make sense to include the material properties in the shield calculation.
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