Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Alastar]

I like the justification myself, but it requires a LOT of wankery. Dwarves supposedly smelt it and melt it down, unless they just claim that to keep everyone else in the dark. If it's not completely amorphous - which we know it isn't - I'm not sure we can give it a (much!) finer edge than obsidian without taking advantage of physics while it's in the shower. 'Doesn't flex or deform before it snaps' also makes the concept of it having fibres that can be worked very problematic, and clothes made out of such a material would be rather impractical.



But justification aside... toying around with material entries more extreme than the standard metals but less so than adamantine have extremely interesting effects.

For example, my downgraded adamantine (codenamed 'clownite'; same impact strength, density of aluminium, a few properties of tungsten, very sharp but still believable edge) has some very interesting properties. It makes good blunt weapons against naked flesh or against itself because it's hard and tough, but against softer armour a denser material is better. Makes perfect sense - against hard armour some of the force will be absorbed if the weapon is soft, if the armour is equally soft this will happen anyway and a bigger impact from a heavier weapon will matter more. I don't know if the possibility of armour being pushed into tissue is simulated yet.
Buffed-up obsidian (material values cribbed from various igneous stones rather than the marble it uses by default, increased edge because when steel is 10k and 100k goes as the maximum imaginable, I believe obsidian should rank higher) is very very deadly against unarmored opponents but not tough enough to defeat even low-quality armour.

In short, the combat/material system is sheer brilliance, and I'd prefer fictional materials that show it off.

[nbonaparte]

The non-newtonian adamantine idea would explain how adamantine clothing is good armor. When hit with something like a weapon, it hardens.

[truckman1]

could Adamantine be similar to carbon nanotubes?

[Baughn]

Not entirely. The properties of adamantine match up with diamondoid in general, but not plain nanotubes. You could possibly make something similar with a nanofactory, though the high melting point is right out.

[Virex]

The idea of adamantine being moldable at high temperatures is not quite impossible, if we assume adamantine to naturally be in a very hard phase with a high melting point. However, heating the ademantine to it's annealing temperature and keeping it there for an extended period of time (say, several hours) will slowly cause it to revert into a softer phase, which can be cold-worked. This phase tends to form fibers due to it's high anisotropy, hence the wafers. The annealing temperature is not high, but even at temperatures close to the melting point of the normal phase it takes several hours before the strands lose their hardness and become workable. At that point they can easily be woven into wafers or clothes using prongs. The final step is the cooling stage. Cooling fast will cause it to change into a very hard and durable form, which is most usefull for breast plates and weapons. Cooling it slowly (again over the course of several ours) will result in a more flexible strand, ideal for clothes.

[Mel_Vixen]

Not entirely. The properties of adamantine match up with diamondoid in general, but not plain nanotubes. You could possibly make something similar with a nanofactory, though the high melting point is right out.

Unless its some kind of thermic supercoductor (like⁴He at very low temperatures) with a high thermal diffusivity or its specific heat is rediculus high or even both at once.

[DG]

No-ones linked the alchemists workshop as a necessity to forging adamantine? Alchemist workshops need more love.

[NW_Kohaku]

Weren't alchemist workshops completely removed in .31?

[thijser]

Yes in .31 alchemy workshops no longer exist. But this is still a suggestion tread so we could suggest it to be put back in.

[Baughn]

Or just mod them back in, now that we can make custom workshops

[VoidPointer]

A few things.

First, who says that adamantine has to be a molecular material? It could easily be some sort of exotic matter. Neutronium comes to mind, though of course it's not stable at STP. The strands could easily be (bundles of?) strings of subatomic particles, which would allow for almost arbitrarily sharp edges.

I do really like the non-newtonian model. It even meshes with current production trees: Strand extraction, which provides us with the base (flexible, malleable) thread, requires no fuel and happens at a craftsdorf's workshop. It can then be woven into fabric. The low-temperature, low-pressure environment of a loom allows it to retain its flexibility. Forging it into wafers begins the re-hardening process that forging it into armor finishes. Ideally, if this paradigm were officially accepted, "melting" adamantine armor would involve strand extraction rather than a smelter, starting the process over again. The hardening process in this case would be more of a tight interweaving of the strands - they never "melt" per se, but high energy states encourage them to tangle together, forming an inflexible "shell".

Also, I LOVE the idea of a dwarf having to be drunk to be relaxed enough to work the material. 

Adamantine whips could be something very like a monofilament whip. This would be extremely powerful, but equally dangerous to any bystanders.

EDIT: Also, seconding the idea of more unnatural materials to show off the system. "The Gods made Heavy Metal, and they saw that it was good..."

[NW_Kohaku]

OK, at this point, we're pretty much just talking about adamantine as if it was made from the stuff lightsabers are made of in Star Wars - the blade grows or weakens to a flicker (like when Obi Wan was fighting Vader) or solidifies for completely arbitrary reasons.

I guess now it's actually a cold plasma material that dwarves control through accidental telepathy simply by being Armok's Chosen People, and which they make into weapons only because of thoughts for "MORE DAKKA" or some such noise, and would be able to turn into gattling guns and spaceships by mistake if only they knew what those were.

[Mel_Vixen]

... strand extraction. Ummm did somebody actually think of the fact that dwarves melt the material in which the adamantine is embeded and not the adamantine itself?

edit: grammar - i am tired excuse

[nbonaparte]

on that note, steel wool burns. strands of adamantine might increase the surface area enough to melt it down.

[thijser]

Burning and melting are completly diffrend things. Burning is all about oxhygen-heat-fuel while melting is all about tempreture.