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[menesvural]

Hello everyone!

I am new to dwarf fortress and my question is how does armor user skill and strenght affect encumbrance? (I know that more armor user skill or strenght is better but I want to know how EXACTLY they affect it ; for example which armor is ok to wear at which skill level).How can i know if my dwarf is encumbered and how does this affect combat?

I searched wiki and forums, cannot find anything about weights of stuff (how much steel breast plate etc. weighs) or how much can average dwarf carry.I found some old info that says average weight limit is 2000 and an ultra mighty dwarf can carry up to 7000.It also says that adequate armor user skill (3) reduces equipment weight by 3/16 and every level after that reduces it by 1/16 up to 16/16 at Legendary (15).This is v0.28.181.40d version wiki page so i don't know if it's still true considering combat system changed a lot since then.

As for attack speed most recent version of wiki says that "Attack speed has been overhauled for DF2014. Research is impending."

Old wiki page on weights link : http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/40d:Speed 
New wiki page on attack speed link : http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Combat

Thank you for your answers.

[anewaname]

I searched wiki and forums, cannot find anything about weights of stuff (how much steel breast plate etc. weighs)...

Here is wiki info on how to item weight is determined. All of the metals used to craft armor have a density of 7.85 to 9.00 gram/cm³ (except candy), so you can look at any dwarf-sized breastplate you have and it will be close the the weight of a steel breastplate (calculate the exact amount by dividing by the material density and multiplying by steel's density). I cannot help with the other answers you seek; I start training with lighter armors (leather, etc) because that is usually what is available soonest.

[Ulfarr]

 

I am new to dwarf fortress and my question is how does armor user skill and strenght affect encumbrance? (I know that more armor user skill or strenght is better but I want to know how EXACTLY they affect it ; for example which armor is ok to wear at which skill level).How can i know if my dwarf is encumbered and how does this affect combat?

I 'm afraid I can't give you exact answers to these questions, however I can suggest you a (sort of) rule of thump based on my experience. I've found that when I gave full, metal, armor suits to (very) weak dwarves with no armor skill, they will virtually halt their training (too encumbered or too tired to spar effectively). Limiting their equipment to just a helm, a mail shirt, gauntlets, a pair of boots (all made of metal) and a cloak had been enough to get them going again while providing (in theory) full body coverage. Assuming encumbrance affect sparring in the same way as actual combat, I'm guessing that (without factoring in martial trance)  giving these dwarves too much armor early on is practically a death sentence.

Also, (again based on sparring observations) it seems that encumbrance is less of an issue either for (very) strong dwarves with 0-3 in armor user or for average to strong dwarves with 3-5 in armor user, so I would assume these would be the minimum limits before you can issue them full metal armor suits.

Of course you can always supplement the above basic equipment suggestion (bold) with breastplate and greaves made of leather/bone for added protection without adding too much weight.

[menesvural]

First of all thank you for your answers.

When i select dwarves for my military i use dwarf therapist to choose dwarves with at least above average strenght.I start with all metal helm gauntlet chainmail breastplate boots leggings and metal weapons + shields.They all start with 0 armor user skill.I never saw a problem with their training.After a year their armor user is about 4 and weapon skills are about 8-10 i dont know if this is slower than it should be.Now that all of my dwarves are mighty and armor user 4 ; I don't know if i should change leggings with greaves (if they can handle it) or i should change metal shields with wooden (if they are still training slow even without greaves).

It would be easy if there is a DFhack command to see if they are encumbered and how much extra weight they are carrying / can carry.

[Ulfarr]

Your training results seem to be just fine. When I spoke of "halting"their training I meant that a weak dwarf with full armor would still be at 0-1 at armor user by the time an above average strength one would reach ~4. Limiting the equipment of the weak ones, during the first 1-2 years, has been enough to counter this.

Wooden shields are just as effective at blocking as metal ones yet lighter, greaves are supposed to better than leggings for protection against blunt weapons.

 I believe you can safely give them full metal armor, with them being mighty and all. Just keep in mind that even at above legendary armor user, even with best attribute scores, all dwarves would eventually exhaust themselves if they end up in prolonged fights (too many enemies).

edit: fixed some typos