v0.34 Talk:Weapon

Material densities

What is the material densities for leather armour? Is it better to use a birch breastplate or a leather? What is 'elasticity'? This value does not exist in raws. Is it the Strain At Yeild divided by 10^3?

First sentence

The first sentence right now is too tautological: "A manufactured weapon is a manufactured weapon." Perhaps, instead: "A manufactured weapon is a tool [weapon] shaped or forged by humanoids for attacking." Or, "Weapon refers to manufactured weapons..."
Or even keep most of what it was before: "A weapon is one of two things: a manufactured weapon used by a dwarf or other humanoid, or a natural weapon like a fist, horn, web shot, or syndrome-causing breath attack. The distinction is worth noting - this page is mostly about manufactured weapons, and natural weapons HAVE their own, separate page."

Hopefully my new version of the first sentence is a little more informative and a little less circular. Remember that this wiki actively encourages editing, though, and that you would be free to fix things like this on your own. Calite 18:36, 27 May 2012 (UTC)

Weapon Size !!REVISION NEEDED!!

Some !!SCIENCE!! needs to be done on the weapon size section. The forum post @http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=101379.msg3029579#msg3029579 says that his number came from the 49 COMBINATIONS. The tokens page points out at

BODY_APPEARANCE_MODIFIER
APP_MOD_DESC_RANGE
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=60554.msg1766793#msg1766793

Imply that some sort of standard deviation/probability bell curve is what is at work at what a dwarf's end size can be. Sutremaine Notes partway through his post that he got his numbers from the raw combination of 49 possibilities. Sizik notes at http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=60554.msg1766793#msg1766793 that probability distribution DOES influence what the results will be instead of the ~2% that Sutremaine & the wiki suggest.

Like how a creatures attributes are weighted instead of each combination having an equal combination. My personal experiences with trying to get pikedwarves has reflected the piss poor odds of getting a +105% & 100%+ combination. NOT the 34.7% chance that the wiki's page implies.

Someone with experience in probabilities needs to rework the math and update the table's false values to accurate values. Also, the means by which to identify a dwarf with a larger creature size should be added to the size section. A Gigantic dwarf sticks out but everything below that is unknown leading to just hurling dwarves into a no uniform+pike squad until you find those that can equip.

Yeah, it looks to me like the original designer just misunderstood what the numbers mean -- seems to think that there's a 1/7 possibility of a 75% modifier, a 1/7 of a 95% modifier, etc. In fact, there's a 1/6 chance of getting between 75 and 95, a 1/6 chance of getting between 95 and 98, etc. So for instance, the actual fraction of (uninjured) dwarves who can't wield a battle axe is (35/864)*(17 ln(34/27) - 7/2) ≈ 0.017. I'll work out the other values this evening. --Zzedar (talk) 18:48, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

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Bronze is better than iron as a both a blunt and edged weapon material given it statistics (greater mass and greater shear yield). This concords with the historical fact that iron replaced bronze not because it was superior, but because it was more common.

On the nature of picks

I removed this note from the article:

• Whereas most weapons have a straightforward slash or stab attack difference, picks work differently. Picks do "tearing" damage, the same type done with a creature with sharp fangs latches on and shakes their prey around, which is why they have a tendency to sever nerves and open arteries, but not sever limbs as much as an axe.

I see nothing in the raws to substantiate this information. I find it more likely that a pick's reduced contact area compared to axes and swords limits severed appendages, while increased contact area and decreased penetration compared to spears causes increased damage to near-surface features (nerves, etc.). None of this is linked to "tearing" damage, which is presumably handled by an entirely different system. Loci 19:18, 21 March 2013 (UTC)