As per this reply and following responses, there was the question brought up about how density affects chainmail armor's effectiveness in protecting against blunt force attacks.
Well, I did some arena testing, and here are my findings:
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It was originally stated that addy chainmail was the worst protection against blunt force attacks, compared to other metals, due to density. To determine the effect, I ran eighteen 5 vs 5 hammerdwarf matches, where one side would always have adamantine mail shirts 'n pants, while the other side was either copper-, bronze-, or iron-clad. I did the testing in 3 phases - Phase 1 which did six rounds with addy vs bronze, since bronze was a median of density in armor. I then tested copper, then iron.
Testing Phase 1 - Addy vs Bronze Addy won 5 matches, bronze won 1. It was pretty obvious that the bronzers were dying a lot faster than the addy dwarves were. The addy dwarves won with minimal injuries.
Testing Phase 2 - Addy vs Copper Copper 4, addy 2. I was slightly surprised, but then again - it fit the hypothesis perfectly. The denser copper pulled an advantage over adamantine in the competition.
Testing Phase 3 - Addy vs Iron Iron 3, Addy 3. The results were nearly even, with both sides winning 3 matches with similar injuries. I was expecting iron to do poorest, perhaps with no victories, since it was the lightest of the three typical metals.
As brought up by OcelotTango, he asked if a even denser metal, (silver) would be even better, so I tried:
Testing Phase 4 - Addy vs Platinum Platinum 3, Addy 3. Now the results are getting confusing... the densest bar metal in game preformed as well as iron... hrm...
Results: Results were slightly odd - after the first 2 tests I figured that the denser copper did better, the lighter bronze did worse, I expected iron to be the absolute worst because it was lighter than iron - but it turns out that the orders of density are different than the orders of effectiveness, but the theory had some proof in that the densest did the best, but alas, the lightest did not do the worse.
After the platinum test, I discovered that density might not be the factor in these tests, since platinum is denser than copper but did worse. The key is to try to find a property that orders
copper > iron,addy,platinum > bronze.
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Detailed Notes:I took detailed test notes while experimenting, so if you want to read a dry and boring and not-proofread test log
Arena Testing - Influence of density of material for protection with chainmail armor against blunt attacks.
Testing Strategy:
6 test chambers. In each chamber, 5 hammerdwarves with silver war hammers and adamantine mail shirt and chain leggings, vs. 5 hammerdwarves with silver war hammers and test material mail shirt and chain leggings. Will test adamantine vs. all armor materials.
Testing Phase 1:
I'm using bronze as a base material, it's a good median of weight, compared to copper and iron.
Adamantine Vs. Bronze
Test Chamber 1: Admantine won - only one dwarf left alive with a broken arm.
Test Chamber 2: Adamantine won - 2 dwarves alive, one with severe, near-death injuries and the other non-injured
Test Chamber 3: Adamantine won - 2 dwarves alive, both non-injured
Test Chamber 4: Bronze won - 4 dwarves alive, all non-injured save a single broken foot.
Test Chamber 5: Adamantine won - 4 dwarves alive, no injuries
Test Chamber 6: Adamantine won - 5 dwarves alive, no injuries
Notes & Results: Adamantine seemed to have won, but am now thinking that perhaps the wins are not because of density, but because the heavy mail armor reduces the speed of the non-adamantine dwarves.
Testing Phase 2:
Adamantine Vs. Copper
Test Chamber 1: Copper won - all 5 dwarves alive, 2 with a few broken limbs but not major.
Test Chamber 2: Copper won - 4 dwarves alive, no notable injuries.
Test Chamber 3: Copper won - 3 dwarves alive, no injuries
Test Chamber 4: Adamantine won - 3 dwarves alive, no injuries
Test Chamber 5: Adamantine won - 3 dwarves alive, no injuries
Test Chamber 6: Copper won - 2 dwarves alive, no notable injuries
Notes & Results: Well, that completely blew my last theory. The copper won, although less definitevely than CCvsBronze, copper still seemed to have the upper hand. It seems that the denser, softer copper seemed to cushion blunt attacks better than the lighter bronze.
Testing Phase 3:
Adamantine Vs. Iron
Test Chamber 1: Iron won - 2 dwarves alive, no injuries
Test Chamber 2: Adamantine won - 1 heroic dwarf alive, no injuries
Test chamber 3: Iron won - 4 dwarves alive, minor injuries
Test Chamber 4: Adamantine won - 2 dwarves alive, no injuries
Test chamber 5: Adamantine won - 1 even more heroic dwarf alive, very severe injuries, but he'll recover... eventually
Test Chamber 6: Iron won - 3 dwarves alive, 2 uninjured and one with severe injuries.
RESULTS:
When comparing defensive qualities of different material mail shirts against blunt force injuries, it seems that the dense copper was more protective than CC, while bronze absolutely sucked against CC, and iron and CC were a fair match.
Strange results, since it breaks the order of density. The original query was that denser mails protected better, but although the order of density is copper > bronze > iron > adamantine, the armor order was copper > iron&cc > bronze.
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Topic: Chainmail Material Blunt Force Protection Variance !!Science!! - {Spoilers} (Read 7150 times)