View Single Post
Old 10-28-2011, 06:47 PM   #31
DouglasCole
Doctor of GURPS Ballistics
 
DouglasCole's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Lakeville, MN
Default Re: Max Damage on Bows?

Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
Well, part of that is because the cost of steel per pound falls sharply between TL3 and TL5, thanks to the shift in metallurgical techniques. But also, I was looking not at cost as the limiting factor, but at weight.
My point was that if one is looking for a relative value of energy storage density (energy per unit weight), my cost table was derived by normalizing energy storage density times a constant that made a reference "normal" bow cost exactly the same as the bow in the Basic Set. So for comparison, looking at my cost numbers is looking at how much energy a given bow staff can store given constant weight. Fiberglass and carbon fiber, as examples, are monstrously efficient at it. Steels? Not so much. Horn and sinew, surprisingly so, and really good for bow due to their surprising values of max strain.

Of course, all of that is in the article, either explicitly or in the equations.
__________________
My blog:Gaming Ballistic, LLC
My Store: Gaming Ballistic on Shopify
My Patreon: Gaming Ballistic on Patreon
DouglasCole is offline   Reply With Quote