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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steampunkette" data-source="post: 8294102" data-attributes="member: 6796468">Yeah, we'd have to agree on Blade Geometry, Width, Depth, Taper, Striking Surface... I actually did a bunch of quickie calculations and came up with a sword having about 10psi of force (9.88, but rounding for ease) and the flintlock pistol coming out to around 90psi.But once you're over about 8psi you can get through most of the body's tissues, and the rest of the psi are essentially wasted. Part of why a sword won't cut through a human body all the way on most swings (drag) and a ball will blast right through (higher psi to drag ratio)But then you have to get into the use of lateral friction as a cutting force with a sword while a bullet doesn't have that and... it's just way too much calculation.In the end I'm just gonna stick with the Crossbowguns.As to the reason... It's just always bugged me that guns are presented in high fantasy as far more lethal than swords and axes, when at most they're comparably lethal but have secondary benefits. Having them do more damage in game terms just didn't sit right with me.[USER=6788736]@Flamestrike[/USER]A flintlock barrel is about 7/16ths of an inch in diameter. Translating that into millimeters you get 10.9. I was able to find their weight by looking into British Flintlock Pistol Balls coming in at 34 to the pound and translating that to Kilograms to get 0.013kg. The only muzzle velocity of a period firearm loaded in the appropriate manner I could find was 414m/s for a period flintlock musket. Much larger than your average pistol and probably with significantly more powder.... These were the measurements I used in my calculations.5.6 Newtons of Force, 90psi.So if we use a Kinetic Energy calculator based on Mass and Velocity (weighing in at 0.013kg and going 414m/s) we arrive at 1,114 Joules.Using the 1.5kg weight of a sword and the 21.4m/s speed of a baseball bat, we wind up with 343 Joules. So roughly 1/4 the overall force.However since we know that the psi is significantly higher for the ball, it's going to impart less of it's overall force to the target, and still have enough force to enter and pass through a second target. Meanwhile the sword is going to impart -all- of it's overall force to the target as the blade comes to a stop.That ball is going to use up a little more than 1/3rd of it's force passing through a target, so let's call it 2/5ths and say it'll go through two men and wound a third. That means it's going to impart about 445J onto the first target, 445j on the second target and 222J on the third target.But if you're only going to hit one target, that's a whole lot of wasted kinetic energy... And the difference between the sword's larger surface area for striking and the pistol's greater force is... 102 Joules of Force.Nice.</blockquote>

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