Quote:
Originally Posted by JimMorrison
Unfortunately, it seems that at a certain point, it really becomes age specific. As a general rule, EA should be early-mid bronze age, MA should be late bronze - early iron, and LA would be late iron age.
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Hmmm... My observation is that there is a lot of iron armor in EA. When I went through Edi's DB looking for monsters which equip bronze armors, they seemed to be a minority even within EA. Hence, my temptation to place EA at late bronze and early iron.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JimMorrison
Of course this opens up all kinds of cans of worms relating to the perpetuity of many units between 2 or even 3 ages, but is the degree of detail that would be required to show the range of difference in actual perfomance from early bronze, to late iron - with a high degree of similarity in armor value where the 2 overlap in the middle.
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If we follow your notion that early bronze factors into EA, and that the entire spectrum of both bronze and iron ages need to be considered, then Dom 3 really doesn't provide enough different armors (or perhaps even a wide enough mundane armor protection scale: 0 to 20) to model this.
The periods classifications which I had assumed were:
- EA: Late Bronze - Early Iron
- MA: Middle Iron (mostly iron and some early steel)
- LA: Late Iron (iron and decent steel)
These seem to fit the historical models from which the nations and units come - at least in my mind.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JimMorrison
Quote:
Originally Posted by analytic_kernel
I'm having trouble agreeing with this. Unless I'm misreading the source you provided earlier, the smelting process to use poorer ores was more involved, but I don't see any direct indication that the quality of the resulting bronze decreased significantly. Yes, the iron content may have been higher, but which way does that affect the bronze hardness and by how much?
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Well perhaps not significantly. But it seems to me that the reliability of acquiring good bronze, when it was available, likely declined somewhat, which made sponge iron, and other somewhat poorly performing forms of iron worth using. |
I don't think anyone in this thread disputes that. But, I have read nothing to indicate that poorer bronze started being used alongside or against the poor iron. Hence the contention that bronze in EA may well be superior to iron in EA.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JimMorrison
I guess it's just that from what I'm finding, good early iron age materials were better than bronze, but that most early iron was not "good", and likely actually inferior to the best bronze available. So whatever the reason, "good" bronze became scarce enough, that people were often willing to settle for "poor" iron, even before "good" iron was commonly available.
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That is an interesting thought and could well be the case. And, I think you then agree that it is fair to compare good bronze to poor iron within the same period.