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[Chimpanzee]

Hello there. I've been into Fortress Mode for a while and now it's the first winter in my current fort.
A few month ago, three different metalsmiths arrived in the migration wave. One of them had a secretive mood in late autumn and has created Imsalgikut Gemur Lorbam, a billon cap. The problem is, the only metals I have easy access to are copper and billon, because the only ore on my map is tetrahedrite. I've made a quick search and found that billon is slightly better than copper for military purposes, but not as good as bronze or iron. But hey, it's an artifact, it should be more effective than even masterwork headwear. But it's a cap, and that probably means it provides less defense than a helm, and I can make helms out of copper, but normally not billon.

What do you think? Should I make use of the artifact cap? Or should I make the amount of masterpiece copper helms that will fit the number of heads in my military?

And another related question: The artifact cap's description says it "menaces with spikes of billon". Does it mean anything besides adding to the flavor of the description? Does the spike decoration have any effect on combat? Maybe in futures version such a cap would look intimidating and change the reaction of anyone looking at its wearer?

[Azated]

A cap is basically a bowl with a strap on it. I'd go with copper helms instead.

Also, the description is purely aesthetic. You could have spikes of dragon bone on a steel shield and all you'd get is a cool image of the weight your dwarves are carrying into every engagement.

[Sir Scarf]

The spikes do nothing but look awesome. In fact, if you take an adventurer there, he can wear a helmet on top of the cap.

As for its military value, it works 3 times as well as a basic billon cap (if one was possible), while a masterwork cap works twice as well. Helms work better than caps, but not too much in my limited experience. (The actual mechanics aren't totally understood at this point in time.) I'd use it on your Captain of the Guard, nobles like shiny stuff. 

[Garath]

The spikes do nothing but look awesome. In fact, if you take an adventurer there, he can wear a helmet on top of the cap.

As for its military value, it works 3 times as well as a basic billon cap (if one was possible), while a masterwork cap works twice as well. Helms work better than caps, but not too much in my limited experience. (The actual mechanics aren't totally understood at this point in time.) I'd use it on your Captain of the Guard, nobles like shiny stuff. 

caps and helmets are both (S)haped now and can't be worn together even in adventure mode, right?

Mybe someone who knows more about how coverage works in armor can explain more on how little is understood about it

[i2amroy]

A note here about quality, and that is while quality affects how well armor is at intercepting an attack (so the attack is affected by the armor at all), material determines what, if any, effect the armor has on the blow. So while a artifact helm may be able to intercept several times more attacks then a normal helm, if the artifact is made of something like bone then it will be practically worthless since even the attacks that it intercepts will simply punch right through it due to being a better material. In general with armor, weapons, and shields then as long as:

Code: [Select]

material(your equipment) > material(their equipment)
then
quality>material. Elsewise material>quality.So against a goblin wearing iron armor a steel weapon will always outperform the same weapon made of copper. This is because while the steel weapon will penetrate the iron armor, the copper one will "glance away" and not hurt the goblin. Now take the same goblin wearing copper armor. If you attack it with a steel sword and an iron sword, both of them will penetrate the armor, and at this point quality becomes much more important then material as it helps the weapon hit more easily and deal more damage when it hits.

There are two small exceptions to the rule above though.
1)In shields/bucklers quality always beats material because a shield block is equivalent to a dodge. As such a wooden shield will block dragon fire just as well as an adamantine one will.
2)Adamantine bends the quality>material rule just slightly for edged weapons due to having [MAX_EDGE:100000] instead of [MAX_EDGE:10000] this lets it be somehow "sharper" then swords or edged weapons made of a lesser material, and as such a sword of adamantine will perform better then a sword of steel of the same quality against copper armor. This is different then the iron/steel example, where quality is a much more important factor.

Maybe someone who knows more about how coverage works in armor can explain more on how little is understood about it

Coverage works as a sort of "block fail chance" that you can build into armor. Basically when a body part is hit the game looks at quality of the armor to help determine whether or not the armor intercepts the blow (though the chance of armor failing to intercept a blow is very low, even with normal quality armor). If the armor does intercept the blow then the game looks at the [COVERAGE:%] value of the armor and rolls an RNG. Because the default [COVERAGE:%] value is 100, for most armor this roll does absolutely nothing and the game simply goes on to determining how well the armor blocked the blow. If the piece of armor had only [COVERAGE:50] though, then that would mean that 50% of the time that the armor would normally intercept a blow, it fails to do so. You can sort of imagine it as the, well, 'coverage' of a piece of armor. So while a t-shirt might have [COVERAGE:100], meaning that every blow to your torso is intercepted and padded (excluding the critical hits where they manage to stab you up the arm whole or something), a swimsuit might only have [COVERAGE:15], meaning that only 15% of the hits to your torso are intercepted and padded. As such [COVERAGE:%] tends to be the main factor in most pieces of armor at how well it is at intercepting attacks, with the quality more dealing with how often your enemy gets a critical hit that ignores the armor completely.

Two mini walls of text, but those are the best explanations that I've got.

[chailingchen]

 I'd go with copper helms instead.

[Togre]

i2amroy--thanks for an explanation that has really helped me understand (and plan) my armor production and assignment.

Cheetah--Personally, I'd assign the artifact, either to an individual pimped out in all the wearable/wieldable artifacts I had, or to a noble (captain of guard, hammerer, etc.) who I never plan to expose to combat.  The previous posters will let you know if that's a good idea.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Can't you wear a cap under a helm?

[Chimpanzee]

Thank you for your helpful and informative replies.

Can't you wear a cap under a helm?

In fact, if you take an adventurer there, he can wear a helmet on top of the cap.

I think you can't wear both a helm and a cap at once. I tried it with a billon cap and a copper helm in a quick arena test. I could only wear one of them at once.

I consider giving the cap to one of my future squad leaders or my champion when they get a title, because they deserve to wear such a legendary hat of the best quality craftsdwarfship!
Until then, the cap will sit in the artifact stockpile, buried in a heap of stone earrings and bone amulets.