Bay 12 Games Forum

Thank you for such interesting and extensive research!
Recently I created a thread about blunt artifact weapons made of non weapon-grade metals and was given a link here.
I tried to make few tests on arena, but I did not use dfhack and I lack any programming skills to make such extensive testing.
It is not hard to predict that bladed wepon made of tin will be almost useless compared even to copper, but what about whips, maces, warhammers of highest craftdwarship? Is it possible to create artifact weapons using dfhack? Platinum and pig iron, for example, in theory could be better than silver.
Are you interested in making more research in this direction?

Acide from that, I think that masterwork weapon should be not only be more sturdy, but should have better handling characteristics, be more handy, have better balance compared to no quality specimen, if we imply that handle length and
head weight and shape are the same between different quality weapons. That should translate at least to better control (read - accuracy), and, maybe, effort needed to swing a weapon - read attacks per second and (or) how much more tired operator becomes after each swing.
If we imply that different quality weapons have different parts (longer or shorter handle, heavier or lighter head, different shape of the head), then damage and armour penetration could differ to some extent.
At least, that is in real world.

Thanks for answering, but, as you can see, I understand how armour and weapons work generally, wiki gives enough info for that. Also I understand that skills are more important in actual fights compared to high quality gear.

What I want to find out is how non weapon grade  artifact blunt weapons work against steel armour compared to steel and silver masterwork counterparts. It is stated many times that platinum blunt weapons are the best due to high density of the metal, but nothing more. Is it still true in current version?
Tons of options are possible and no information whatsoever, except some formulas, I to be honest, did not understand.

Another question is about artifact bronze and iron weapons. They are one step lower compared to steel in their usual form, but, maybe, being artifact quality covers that step?

In the end the question is - are those fancy weapons good enough to be in the hands of my legendary dorfs, or they are better as mere display items in my weaponsmith guild? Role-playing aside, ofc.