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[Blackburn]

I have a guess as to why adamantine makes better weapons when it logically shouldn't.

Adamantine is magic!

[h3lblad3]

Out of curiousity, even if it doesn't deal large amounts of damage as a weapon, can it block attacks better than all else due to natural hardness of the material?

I mean, otherwise what's the point of going for it?
Statues that are worth a lot?  Meh, not worth the hassle.

[Rimbecano]

I think adamantium would still be better than steel.  Mostly because I think you'd be able to swing it faster if it's lighter.  And it's slightly harder(steel is pretty hard though) so slightly more force is transferred.  Unfortunately, I know just enough about physics to know force is related to both speed and weight, but not enough to remember exactly how.  Plus, figuring that out sounds like homework.

You'd be able to swing it faster, but there's a certain maximum performance to your muscles. How fast you can swing your arm with no load is the limit, and I'm not sure an adamantine weapon of reasonable size* would add enough load, seeing as (solid) adamantine has about the density of cork (liquid adamantine has about the density of aluminum, so just like ice floats on water, solid adamantine should float on liquid adamantine. Solid adamantine floats on water (or would in RL), and liquid adamantine sinks (aided by the fact that it would boil away the water, increasing the density difference further)).

*You could make it have a really, really long handle, it which case it would have a large moment of inertia, which would allow you to do some serious walloping with it, but it might be a bit awkward to handle ("Say what? The hammerdwarves are demanding another three Z levels for the height of the ceiling in the main hall?")

Where adamantine would be really useful in a hammer is as plating, and for the handle. Use a lead hammer head, plate it in adamantine for hardness and stick it on a lightweight adamantine shaft (you want as much weight in the head and as little in the handle as possible).

[GenericOverusedName]

Well, I was grossly oversimplifying it, of course. Things like elasticity and hardness will have some effect as well.

Still, I'd much rather have a lead hammer and adamantine armor than an adamantine hammer and lead armor.

[Rakeela]

Still, I'd much rather have a lead hammer and adamantine armor than an adamantine hammer and lead armor.

Well said.

[Aquillion]

Also, dwarves wouldn't waste adamantine on a solid adamantine hammer.  They'd put something heavy in the head, but make the rest out of adamantine.  This gives you the best of both worlds:  A hammer that can be swung very hard without risk of damaging it, which still hits very hard when it connects.

[Huggz]

Mass*Accelaration? So something going at a constant speed of 100mph will do less damage than something going 10mph but increasing speed by 10m/s per second?

[ZeroGravitas]

Mass*Accelaration? So something going at a constant speed of 100mph will do less damage than something going 10mph but increasing speed by 10m/s per second?

facepalm

Start here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acceleration

report back when you're done

or i could just give you the short version:

In one dimension, i.e. a line, acceleration is the rate at which something speeds up or slows down. However, as a vector quantity, acceleration is also the rate at which direction changes.

[Fetus4188]

People need to move away from the D&D idea that adamantium is a +10 material or whatever.  It's not like that in DF anymore, what it is now is an extremely strong and extremely lightweight metal.  This makes it very good for armor and poor for most weapons (which require a little momentum to be dangerous), however it *should* be great for things like spears and thrusting swords, though I don't know if that's actually the case right now.

Weapons that use a slashing motion (some swords, axes, hammers, mauls, etc) do their damage by building up momentum through their swing, which is then transmitted to the target.  Heavier weapons are always going to be more damaging when they connect.  However, I think the current system downplays the importance of balanced weight in regards to accuracy and how tired it should make the wielder.  A lead maul would indeed be a completely devastating weapon, however the windup should be so long that it's easily dodged, and when an attack misses the attacked must expend the same amount of energy slowing down the weapon for another attack as he did in attempting to land it, so he'll be tiring quite as quickly.

As mentioned above, ideal weapons would probably be an alloy of adamantium and lead or steel (or adamantium with inlayed weights) to harness the hardness of adamantium and its ability to hold an edge / resistance to deformation and then using the other metals to reach an ideal weight balance.

[Karlito]

Mass*Accelaration? So something going at a constant speed of 100mph will do less damage than something going 10mph but increasing speed by 10m/s per second?

facepalm

Start here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acceleration

report back when you're done

or i could just give you the short version:

In one dimension, i.e. a line, acceleration is the rate at which something speeds up or slows down. However, as a vector quantity, acceleration is also the rate at which direction changes.

Actually, (as Fetus just mentioned) momentum (mass*velocity) would be what you need to look at to figure out "damage", not force.

[Tomb332]

From what I have seen in arena mode now adamantium does fare badly for war hammers, and I got the best results with a platinum hammer as it weights even more than steel. Second best is a gold hammer.

[Blackburn]

So the best hammers are also the most blingin' hammers.

Dwarf Fortress, you're amazing. And pimpin'.

[Opirian]

People need to move away from the D&D idea that adamantium is a +10 material or whatever.  It's not like that in DF anymore, what it is now is an extremely strong and extremely lightweight metal.  This makes it very good for armor and poor for most weapons (which require a little momentum to be dangerous), however it *should* be great for things like spears and thrusting swords, though I don't know if that's actually the case right now.

I was just pointing out that in DnD: silver + undead = no undead, adamantium wasn't even in my thinking.

[Blackburn]

On the topic of evil-banishing metals, how could cold iron be worked into this game?

Just out of curiosity.

[Sensei]

I made all my gems [SHARP] in 40d. Maybe here I can also make them extremely deadly!