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[Intelligent Shade of Blue]

I have found a few iron weapons being carried by humans, but not many. Even dwarven adventurers seem to begin with bronze or bismuth bronze weapons.

[Askot Bokbondeler]

The best iron doesn't have to be steel. also where is the evidence that bronze is better than iron? i've as far as i was aware basic iron holds an edge far longer than equivalent bronze. maybe even the best bronze.

lies!! the advantage of iron is that it can be sharpened by grinding where bronze must be reforged, and iron is much cheaper because it is readily available everywhere, where tin was very rare in antiquity. also, iron is ductile, unless it has considerable carbon content, and if it has considerable carbon content it is considered steel

[Intelligent Shade of Blue]

Yep this is pretty much true. Bronze required both tin and copper ore, which usually don't naturally near each other, so any disruption in trade = no new weapons atm. So wrought iron took over even though it was technically not as durable (but not really by all that much, it held an edge well so it got the job done).

edit: By durable, I refer to bronze being generally harder than iron, but advancement in forging techniques improved iron quality to comparable or slightly above bronze. But, being softer means having an edge is harder to maintain (obsidian, frex is really brittle being basically volcanic glass, but can produce very sharp blades... As training dwarves sometimes discover). Since such maintenance issues & levels of iron quality aren't currently in the game, bronze is currently plain better than plain old iron.

[100killer9]

I started a Kobold adventurer and started with iron and steel.

[Arrkhal]

lies!! the advantage of iron is that it can be sharpened by grinding where bronze must be reforged

That's almost definitely not true.  I have no idea what moron put that in wikipedia, but it seriously needs a citation.

Especially since bronze is not "forged" like iron is.  Bronze tools were cast to shape, then cold-forged/peened to work-harden areas that needed to be harder than the rest (like a cutting edge).

Bronze is reasonably homogenous, and thus would be easily resharpened by grinding, though it was historically peened to sharpen it, then recast when the metal fatigued too much.  Probably because bronze was too valuable to grind any off.

Wrought iron has strands of glass slag all through it, which would be exposed by grinding, resulting in an inferior edge.  Most iron tools were also traditionally resharpened by cold forging.  Look up how to sharpen a modern reproduction iron scythe.  Do you grind it?  No!  You put it on an anvil and tap the edge with a hammer until it's sharp again.

Good quality bronze is stronger than iron in pretty much every property, will take a finer edge, and will also hold that edge longer.  The only disadvantage is that bronze is a little bit less elastic than iron, which is what allowed iron to be used in larger weapons.

High-carbon steel, on the other hand, is far superior to bronze, much moreso than bronze is superior to iron.

I eventually decided that the "iron" in 3D DF must have been a very poor steel, rather than a true wrought iron.  Because wrought iron is not stronger than good bronze.

[ungulateman]

I started a Kobold adventurer and started with iron and steel.

So they finally stole something they could use!

[yaklin]

not sure if this is conclusive evidence between bronze bismuth bronze and iron but i had several adventurers some with bismuth bronze some with normal bronze and others with iron. the iron adventurers always killed the goblins faster they also all had the same type of weapon axes

[Akigagak]

That's probably because Iron is heavier the either bronzes, and weight has a bigger effect on weapon damage now. Gold weapons, for example, are better than Iron ones in and equal fight, and Adamantine arrows/bolts can't even puncture skin, while lead ones go though breastplates.

[Garthor]

That's probably because Iron is heavier the either bronzes, and weight has a bigger effect on weapon damage now. Gold weapons, for example, are better than Iron ones in and equal fight, and Adamantine arrows/bolts can't even puncture skin, while lead ones go though breastplates.

Actually, iron is lighter than bronze.  And bronze is lighter than copper.  And steel is lighter than iron.  The other statistics, namely IMPACT_YIELD, IMPACT_FRACTURE, IMPACT_ELASTICITY, and the similar SHEAR_* must be the ones that have an effect.  IMPACT relates to blunt weapons, and SHEAR to edged ones.

There's also a MAX_EDGE property, which probably has an effect but is the same for most weaponable materials, except for adamantium which has an obscenely higher value.

As for adamantine bolts and such, the issue is that there is a physical limit on the velocity of launched projectiles.  Because they are incredibly light, they hit up against this limit and so are artificially reduced in effectiveness.  Blowguns have a higher limit and so adamantine blowgun darts are actually not that bad.

[Acanthus117]

I just modded in Wrought Iron to be better than bronze, and Poof! I stopped getting bronze shite.

[Akigagak]

Doesn't that mean that it automatically chooses the best material available?

Nice.

[Acanthus117]

Yessuh.

[Foamy]

But then why not steel?

[yaklin]

Doesn't that mean that it automatically chooses the best material available?

I don't think the game gives the best because I have gotten bronze, bismuth bronze, and iron in separate games

[Foamy]

i've just been playing around in the arena and a swordsman with steel will shred a swordsman with bronze and bronze to iron. i understand that but whenever you use the same gear for both they can never break the armour. shouldn't the better metal just have a higher chance of penetrating? At the moment a bronze sword has 0 chance of penetrating bronze armour and a steel sword has 100% chance of penetrating. is it possible to fix this?