Dwarf Fortress > DF Modding

Mega-metal, is it worth the effort?

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Zorbeltuss:
So I've recently felt the will to carry on with my 0.31(?) project of alchemical creation of metal, more specifically Iridium with knowledge and crafts to be had in 14th century europe (excluding the knowledge of platinum) and the alloying of Iridium with Platinum to my placeholder name "Steel of Urist", an alloy which has strength comparable with high grade modern steels but a much higher density.
Now I know it shouldn't be easy to make this metal and it isn't, it is quite much of a mega project to make a single batch of two bars, (minimum of 54 steps, 11 bars of platinum, 20 brimstone, 12 salpeter 22 bars of coke or charcoal with access to magma more without) and if I set dangerous material emissions to 2% roughly 1 dwarf dead.

-First question, would anyone be willing to go through that trouble, I am but it is a lot of work and for my own amusement it feels a bit much.
-Second question, 2% seems rather low actually but since so much nasty substances will be included I wonder if it is high, low or just right.
-Third Question, what would you put for a value on Urist McAlchemist or Urist McSmelters life, because if that that will be included in the final value of the end products.

I also have a fourth and totally unrelated question, can you make a creature have a liquid tissue layer without it pouring off them and causing hemorrhaging?


/Zorbeltuss

smakemupagus:
From a balance feedback point of view; In a game with only iron clad invaders, I don't think it's worth so much, because normal steel blades already cleave iron well enough. 

If you have invaders wearing steel or better then it's a whole different ball game, that puts much more of a premium on advanced metals for your blades.  (Your process sounds considerably more difficult than just going and mining some adamant, though!)

Zorbeltuss:
I have plans for other materials for invaders but that is not nearly as far gone, anyway, if my mod works with other mods then so much better :)

Material comparisons will have to wait

/Zorbeltuss

GavJ:
No... this is worse than existing materials.

Density is only helpful for bludgeon weapons, and those don't need strength and we already have dense metals. And strength and edge holding isn't any better than steel if it's as strong as steel, BUT the density (which isn't helpful for those weapons) only makes it heavier and slows them down.

So it's probably equal/less effective in either role. And yet costs hundreds of times more.

Seems like a more useful equation for a wonder material is lightweight and strong, which is adamantine.

daisha:
The high density metal wondermetal certainly has a military use according to reason, not only bludgeons but also arrows and bolts benefit from density.  But bolts are currently so powerful that copper rips through anything (unless that's been changed in .40, I have been playing masterwork mod), so the juice certainly wouldn't be with the squeeze.  Unless you had invaders armored in new wonderalloys, perhaps you could find values for all those materials properties that would actually make bolt resistant armors.  Still, I imagine if finding material property values to keep the cheapest metal bolt from going through the strongest metal armor more than 90% of the time were a simple task, it would already be in the game, so it might be challenging to make it count.

Still, you should possibly focus first on an effective armoring alloy to make a new superweapon alloy worth having.

Here's (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=116151.0) a dwarven science post on how vanilla materials match up bolts vs. armor, there are some similar posts around the forum for other weapon types and even investigating the relative benefit of different armor pieces around, if you search.

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