Ambrosia Software Web Board: Boring Cythera Experiments - Ambrosia Software Web Board

In my opening post, I talking a little bit about my experiments with training in attack versus training in sword, and their effects on killing ratlizards. I concluded that Attack raises your accuracy a lot more than than Sword does, and is therefore superior. But, I didn't pay attention at all to how much damage was done.

So I did another experiment, this time instead of killing ratlizards, I was attacking Scylla-Hector. I did two tests. Both times were at the beginning of the game, when I was a lowly Level 1 wizard using a short sword.

The first time, I had an Attack skill of 0 and a Sword skill of 15. I attacked him 50 times. I missed him 40 times, and hit him 10 times. The times I hit him, Hector's HP was reduced by the following amounts: 9, 0, 0, 0, 0, 3, 13, 0, 2, & 0. He wasn't much worse for the wear.

The second time, I had an Attack skill of 15, and a Sword skill of 0. I attacked him 55 times (should have been 50 again, but I'm terrible at keeping count). I missed him 15 times, and hit him 40 times. The times I hit him, I did 0 damage 21 times. The other times, I did the following amounts of damage: 11, 10, 10, 2, 4, 5, 14, 3, 11, 5, 3, 1, 7, 4, 8, 7, 5, 6, & 12. I had to heal him twice during this experiment to prevent his premature death.

My conclusion is that I still don't know if training in Attack or training in Sword will make you more likely to deal more damage per hit. It doesn't seem to make much difference. But you're still obviously better off with Attack than Sword, since you'll hit way more often. I think that what weapon you use (and how sharp it is) probably has more effect on the damage per hit than what you've trained in, but I might or might not get around to repeating the experiment with a different sword/weapon.

BreadWorldMercy453, on 14 July 2015 - 05:59 PM, said:

Attack also has the benefit of applying to combat in general while Sword is somewhat more limited. Out of curiosity, have you experimented much with Attack and its effects with different weapons?

I haven't. Maybe someday...

So, has someday arrived yet ?

Nope! ^_^ Maybe someday around the time Wizzy posts a chronicle?

So, you're saying it would take a sign of the apocalypse for the experiment to occur?

BreadWorldMercy453, on 17 October 2014 - 01:46 PM, said:

I experimented with lockpicking some more after Bryce fixed Aethon's skill, and I learned that your chances of success in picking a lock depend on your reflex level. Aethon's chances of success in picking a lock also depend on your reflex level (his own reflex level doesn't matter). So I did several experiments in which I tried to pick a lock twenty times in a row.

When my reflex was at 0, I successfully picked the lock 0 times, failed to pick it (without destroying the lockpick) 3 times, and destroyed 17 lockpicks..

When my reflex was at 16, I successfully picked the lock 0 times, failed to pick it (without destroying the lockpick) 16 times, and destroyed 14 lockpicks.

When my reflex was at 25, I successfully picked the lock 0 times, failed to pick it (without destroying the lockpick) 9 times, and destroyed 11 lockpicks.

When my reflex was at 50, I successfully picked the lock 9 times, failed to pick it (without destroying the lockpick) 6 times, and destroyed 5 lockpicks.

When my reflex was at 100, I successfully picked the lock 17 times, failed to pick it (without destroying the lockpick) 3 times, and didn't destroy any lockpicks.

When my reflex was at 255, I successfully picked the lock 16 times, failed to pick it (without destroying the lockpick) 4 times, and didn't destroy any lockpicks.


Aethon had similar success rates depending on my reflex level, but he never failed to pick a lock without destroying it. So when my level was low, he was destroying the lockpick every time, and when my level was high, he was successfully picking the lock every time.

Without cheating, lockpicking would be pretty impractical. The player's starting reflex level is between 16 and 19 (depending on the archtype chosen), and it costs four training points to raise it one level. If I'm doing my math right, the absolute highest it would be possible to raise your reflex to would be 35, and that's if you didn't train in -anything- else (thus is would be impossible to win the game). So I stand by my original conclusion of using magic or brute force when you need to get past a lock without the key ^_^

BreadWorldMercy453, on 31 March 2016 - 06:32 PM, said:

That sounds like a bit of a bug to me.

BreadWorldMercy453, on 31 March 2016 - 06:32 PM, said:

Indeed, it sounds more practical (and entertaining).

Alas, this might be the end of my boring Cythera experiments, I seem to have destroyed yet another computer :(

BreadWorldMercy453, on 21 May 2016 - 01:42 PM, said:

What seems to be the trouble?

By the way, sorry for not working on bugfixes; been super busy lately with work and the 3D printer thing.

I'm sorry, I don't know what I did to it :( It's not completely destroyed, but Basilisk doesn't work anymore.

BreadWorldMercy453, on 25 May 2016 - 05:02 PM, said:

Does it give an error message or anything?

No, it goes through the Mac OS starting up screen, then instead of going to the desktop I just get a grey background and a white rectangle that looks like the "welcome to Macintosh" box, except it's blank and flashy, and it stays that way forever until the whole program crashes :(

BreadWorldMercy453, on 25 May 2016 - 09:15 PM, said:

Maybe it's just the emulated Mac that's messed up. I've had Basilisk hose the HD from time to time, and I think there was a backup of the mac HD image somewhere accordingly. If not, drop me an email and I can forward you a copy of mine. Hopefully that will put it right. Good luck!

Oy I meant to reply to this like two months ago, and at some point forgot that I never replied to it @_@ Anyway, I tried running Basilisk and telling it to boot off the "backup copy of Macintosh HD" but that had the same result :\ I don't know if I did it wrong, or if it's a different problem.

Update: I was doing it wrong :x Wizzy offered to look at it when he visited last month, I got distracted for a few seconds, and when I turned back to Wizzy he was like "well, I fixed Basilisk" @_@ The skillz, yo! :o
I haven't done any more boring Cythera experiments yet, but it's only a matter of time...

Well, I'm back to experimenting with haggling ^_^

Some notes about haggling:
It is possible to haggle with many of the merchants in Cythera, whether or not you have acquired the Haggling skill from Neoptolemus. If a certain merchant sells multiple different items, the prices for all of his items will be changed together. For example, if you haggled Atreus's obsidian price from 15 down to 10, the diamond price will also have decreased from 75 to 50. Price changes are permanent unless you continue to haggle - if you leave and come back, the price will still be what it was when you left.

Each time you attempt to haggle, there are three possible outcomes: The prices may go down, they may stay the same, or the merchant may get offended and raise the prices. I believe that knowing the Haggling skill slightly raises the chance of the prices decreasing, and probably does not affect the chance of the merchant getting offended. Each merchant seems to have a minimum set of prices, where you can continue to attempt to haggle, but no matter how many times you try, the prices won't come down any more (though you could still potentially offend the merchant). If the merchant gets offended, he will raise the prices to more than they were when you started the conversation. If your goal is to lower the price of an object from the starting price to the minimum price, then depending on what you're trying to buy, that might be extremely unlikely to pull off in a single conversation. I advise you to end and re-start the conversation when the merchant lowers the prices, so that if you happen to offend him, the raised price won't be quite as high. Saving and reverting the game makes this process even easier.

It is not difficult to haggle merchants down to their minimum prices even without learning Haggling, though it may take multiple conversations. The only exceptions are haggling Meleager's bodyguard fee, and haggling the required donation to join the Ratcatcher's Guild, both of which are impossible to do without the Haggling skill. However, each of those cases are only a matter of 15 oboloi.

I wanted to see how much knowing Haggling would decrease the amount of effort needed to decrease a merchant's prices to the minimum, so I experimented on Hypsenor. His prices are pretty high to begin with, so he seemed a decent choice. By closing & reopening the conversation every 3 haggles, and reverting the game when I offended him, I counted how many haggle-attempts it took to take him from his start price to his minimum price. Without the Haggling skill, it took an average of 10.2 haggle attempts, and with the Haggling skill it took an average of 7.6 haggle attempts.

Merchants do not seem to have a maximum price. If you continually offend them, they will continually raise their prices. I've gotten the price of Eteocles' bombs up to over 1000 oboloi (over 4x the starting price) and counting. I would imagine the maximum price is 32767, and perhaps if you offended him again after that, the price would warp around to 0. However, I couldn't figure out how to hack a merchant's prices with Pandora's Box, and I'm too lazy to offend Eteocles up that high, so this is just speculation.

Also note that many prices cannot be haggled at all. For example, the prices of rooms at inns, meals, or drinks can never be haggled, and some merchants (such as the farmers) cannot be haggled either. I've made a list of all the merchants and their goods/prices below:

Meleager: 
	•	Bodyguard services (start 50, min 35)

Pelops:
	•	Flax (7, no haggling)
Alcmena:
	•	Cheese (4, no haggling)

Ake:
	•	Blue Cloth (12, no haggling)
	•	Red Cloth (12, no haggling)
	•	Green Cloth (12, no haggling)
Crito:
	•	Settling Aethon’s tab (20, no haggling)
	•	Drink (1 obol per person in the party, no haggling)
	•	Meal (4 oboloi per person in the party, no haggling)
	•	Room (6 oboloi per person in the party, no haggling)
	•	Game of Dice (1 obol per round, no haggling, with a possibility of winning 1-5 oboloi)
	•	Cheese (start 8, min 5)
	•	Bread (start 5, min 3)
	•	Fish (start 5, min 3)
	•	Ribs (start 14, min 9)
Hebe:
	•	Will buy flax (10 oboloi per bale, no haggling)
Milcom:
	•	Sword (start 77, min 45)
	•	Metal Breast Plate (start 85, min 50)
	•	Full Helm (start 29, min 17)
	•	Full Shield (start 46, min 27)
	•	Smith’s Friend Potion (start 85, min 50)
Tlepolemus:
	•	Fish (start 5, min 4)

Parium:
	•	Settling Aethon’s tab (25, no haggling)
	•	Drink (1 obol per person in the party, no haggling)
	•	Meal (5 oboloi per person in the party, no haggling)
	•	Room (7 oboloi per person in the party, no haggling)
	•	Game of Dice (1 obol per round, no haggling, with a possibility of winning 1-5 oboloi)
	•	Cheese (start 8, min 5)
	•	Bread (start 5, min 3)
	•	Fish (start 5, min 3)
	•	Ribs (start 14, min 9)
Eumelus:
	•	Donation (any amount)

Alastor:
	•	Sling (start 15, min 10)
	•	Cuirass (start 60, min 40)
	•	Leather Helm (start 11, min 7)
Antenor:
	•	House (10000, no haggling)
Apis:
	•	Drink (1 obol per person in the party, no haggling)
	•	Meal (3 oboloi per person in the party, no haggling)
	•	Room (5 oboloi per person in the party, no haggling)
	•	Game of Dice (1 obol per round, no haggling, with a possibility of winning 1-5 oboloi)
	•	Cheese (start 8, min 5)
	•	Bread (start 5, min 3)
	•	Fish (start 5, min 3)
	•	Ribs (start 14, min 9)
Dares:
	•	Drink (1 obol per person in the party, no haggling)
	•	Meal (5 oboloi per person in the party, no haggling)
	•	Cheese (start 9, min 5)
	•	Bread (start 6, min 3)
	•	Fish (start 6, min 3)
	•	Ribs (start 17, min 9)
Diomede:
	•	Drink (1 obol per person in the party, no haggling)
	•	Meal (5 oboloi per person in the party, no haggling)
	•	Cheese (start 9, min 5)
	•	Bread (start 6, min 3)
	•	Fish (start 6, min 3)
	•	Ribs (start 17, min 9)
Eteocles:
	•	Guild Membership (start 50, min 35)
	•	Lock Pick (start 9, min 7)
	•	Boots (start 12, min 10)
	•	Torch (start 5, min 4)
	•	Shovel (start 18, min 15)
	•	Bomb (start 240, min 200)
Hypsenor: 
	•	Cloak (start 48, min 30)
	•	Cape (start 32, min 20)
Ilus (fruit seller):
	•	Grapes (start 3, min 2)
	•	Pomegranate (start 2, min 1)
Laomedon (meat seller):
	•	Meat Skewers (start 5, min 3)
	•	Sausages (start 5, min 3)
	•	Roast (start 9, min 6)
	•	Ribs (start 13, min 9)
Oeneus:
	•	Bow (start 45, min 30)
	•	Arrows (12) (start 6, min 4)
Periphas:
	•	Bread (start 5, min 3)
Theano:
	•	Cheese (start 9, min 6)
Thoas:
	•	Dagger (start 20, min 10)
	•	Axe (start 90, min 45)
	•	Short Sword (start 70, min 35)
	•	Buckler (start 34, min 17)
	•	Light Shield (start 46, min 23)
	•	Helmet (start 28, min 14)

Areithous:
	•	Drinks (1 obol per person in the party, no haggling)
	•	Skewer (start 5, nin 3)
	•	Haunch (start 10, min 6)
	•	Ribs (start 15, min 9)
	•	Steak (start 13, min 8)
Atreus:
	•	Obsidian (start 15, min 10. He will also buy obsidian starting at 3, max 5)
	•	Ruby (start 45, min 30. He will also buy rubies starting at 10, max 15)
	•	Diamond (start 75, min 50. He will also buy diamonds starting at 17, max 25)
Ennomus: 
	•	Donation (any amount)
	•	Key to the Tyrant’s Tomb (donation of 40 or greater)

Helen:
	•	Meal (6 oboloi x number of people in the party, no haggling)
	•	Drink (1 obol x number of people in the party, no haggling)
Paris: 
	•	Torch (start 10, min 6)
	•	Sandals (start 5, min 3)
	•	Cloak (start 8, min 5)
	•	Sack (start 7, min 4)

Nice work on the haggling analysis and the listing of prices (which should be added to Wizard's reference material if it isn't there). It is interesting that the prices can be worked down to the same level even without the skill.

BreadWorldMercy453, on 30 May 2017 - 03:04 PM, said:

On occasion, Wizard can be useful (just not so much if it involves posting in anything).

It looks like perhaps each character has a minimum fraction that's common across all the goods they accept. Many characters seem to go down to ⌊⅔𝑥⌋, but others have different fractions. There are several that accept lower prices: Milcom’s are about ⌊0.59𝑥⌋ and Thoas accepts ⌊½𝑥⌋. Meanwhile, Eteocles won’t take less than ⌊⅚𝑥⌋.

I did another experiment with the Attack and Sword skills, trying to see if either of them increases the amount of damage done per attack. They don't seem to. Using a short sword, I hit Hector 25 times without any training, 25 times when I had been fully trained in Attack, 25 times when I'd been fully trained in Sword, and 25 times when I was fully trained in both. The total amount of damage to his HP was 187, 195, 175, and 196, respectively. I haven't experimented enough to be sure, but it doesn't look like either of those skills will increase the amount of damage per hit. In previous experiments, I concluded that Attack raises your accuracy, and Sword does not. At this point, I think either Sword is glitched and doesn't do anything at all, or it does something that I haven't thought to test.


Next, I wanted to compare the damage done by different weapons. Similar to the last experiment, I hit Hector 25 times with each available weapon, and recorded the results. I tried to keep everything constant except for the weapon. I had a Body of 10, Reflex of 18, and Mind of 10. I was trained to 5 in attack, and had a bunch of other skills unrelated to combat. I was equipped with an odd helm, a cloak, the LandKing amulet, a pouch, Omen's ring, and a pair of sandals. Hector had a Body of 10, Reflex of 10, and Mind of 10, and HP of 255. He was equipped with an odd helm, a metal breastplate, and a light shield. Here are the weapons I tested, in order from least to most total damage:

Rolling Pin:
I hit Hector 25 times and missed him 11 times. The hits were a range of 0-2 damage each (mostly 0). The total damage to Hector's HP was 7.

Purple Staff:
I hit Hector 25 times and missed him 12 times. The hits were a range of 0-3 damage each (mostly 0). The total damage to Hector's HP was 10.

Barehand:
I hit Hector 25 times and missed him 15 times. The hits were a range of 0-3 damage each. The total damage to Hector's HP was 14.

Dagger (unimproved):
I hit Hector 25 times and missed him 12 times. The hits were a range of 0-4 damage each. The total damage to Hector's HP was 22.

Sling Stones:
I hit Hector 25 times and missed him 8 times. The hits were a range of 0-5 damage each. The total damage to Hector's HP was 31.

Club:
I hit Hector 25 times and missed him 11 times. The hits were a range of 0-6 damage each. The total damage to Hector's HP was 49.

Decorative Axe:
I hit Hector 25 times and missed him 7 times. The hits were a range of 0-8 damage each. The total damage to Hector's HP was 58.

Arrows:
I hit Hector 25 times and missed him 18 times. The hits were a range of 0-8 damage each. The total damage to Hector's HP was 74.

Spear:
I hit Hector 25 times and missed him 13 times. The hits were a range of 0-9 damage each. The total damage to Hector's HP was 75.

Magic Arrows:
I hit Hector 25 times and missed him 15 times. The hits were a range of 0-9 damage each. The total damage to Hector's HP was 86.

Miner's Pick:
I hit Hector 25 times and missed him 11 times. The hits were a range of 0-10 damage each. The total damage to Hector's HP was 93.

Gauntlets:
I hit Hector 25 times and missed him 11 times. The hits were a range of 0-14 damage each. The total damage to Hector's HP was 116.

Mace:
I hit Hector 25 times and missed him 10 times. The hits were a range of 0-13 damage each. The total damage to Hector's HP was 117.

Dagger (legendary improvement):
I hit Hector 25 times and missed him 6 times. The hits were a range of 0-12 damage each. The total damage to Hector's HP was 125.

Short Sword (unimproved):
I hit Hector 25 times and missed him 11 times. The hits were a range of 0-12 damage each. The total damage to Hector's HP was 125.

Longsword (unimproved):
I hit Hector 25 times and missed him 9 times. The hits were a range of 0-18 damage each. The total damage to Hector's HP was 196.

Axe:
I hit Hector 25 times and missed him 13 times. The hits were a range of 0-20 damage each. The total damage to Hector's HP was 246.

Longsword (legendary improvement):
I hit Hector 25 times and missed him 2 times. The hits were a range of 3-24 damage each. The total damage to Hector's HP was 291.

Short Sword (legendary improvement):
I hit Hector 25 times and missed him 6 times. The hits were a range of 2-20 damage each. The total damage to Hector's HP was 308.

Mystic Spear:
I hit Hector 25 times and missed him 10 times. The hits were a range of 0-32 damage each. The total damage to Hector's HP was 506.

Sword of Heroes:
I hit Hector 25 times and missed him 5 times. The hits were a range of 7-36 damage each. The total damage to Hector's HP was 522.


Because I had Meleager handy, I decided to repeat the Barehand and Gauntlet experiments after training (to Complete Mastery) in the Barehand skill. The results were improved. I intend to do more experiments with specific weapons and their corresponding skills, but considering that training in Barehand clearly increased the amount of damage done without a weapon, whereas training in Sword brought no noticeable difference to the amount of damage done with a short-sword, I’m inclined to think that the Sword skill is broken.

I may also experiment with different enhancements of swords/daggers - so far I’ve tested only the unimproved versions and the maximums that Eioneus can enhance them. Through hacking, it’s also possible to enhance your sword beyond Eioneus’ ability, making an extremely overpowered sword.

The other weapon that I did not test out is the cleaver. Although it is listed both on Slayer's Guide and on Wizzy's items page as a weapon, I do not remember ever using it as a weapon, and indeed I do not seem to be able to wield it. Am I doing something wrong?

Also, something cool that I learned while experimenting with weapons, is that daggers and spears can be used on adjacent tiles without throwing them. That probably sounds really obvious, but I don't think I've ever tried it before. In this way, a dagger or spear can be used in close-range combat the same as any sword or blunt weapon, without risk of losing it. One could also use the Mystic Spear, which according to my data is actually comparable to the Sword of Heroes, this way ^_^

Edit: One more thing that I found interesting, is that the magic arrows didn't do significantly more damage than the regular arrows. I assume then, that the main benefit of magic arrows over regular arrows is that they would be able to hit demons. Maybe I'll test that out too...

This post has been edited by BreadWorldMercy453: 10 June 2017 - 03:17 PM

A little more experimentation (it's not fun being Hector). The Barehand skill seems effective at increasing damage and accuracy in barehand combat (I'm less sure about the gauntlets), and the Missiles skill is effective at increasing the damage and accuracy when using sling stones, arrows, or magic arrows (did not test it with throwing spears or daggers). However, the Sword, Mace, and Axe skills seem completely useless.

Today I experimented with experience points. As we know, the player gains experience points by killing things and by completing certain tasks. I wanted to see how many experience points we get for what. Here's my list of tasks that will get you experience, and how much they give (assuming I didn't miss any, which I might have):

• Learning to make bread: 10.
  
• Asking Alaric about Chrysothemis: 25.
  
• Taking kesh from Aeneas: 10.
  
• Learning to fish: 10.
  
• Returning Stentor his net: 5.
  
• Delivering flour to Apis: 10.
  
• Returning Sapphire books to Selinus: 25 each. (Note: This is not only for legitimate Sapphire books - you can use the container trick to turn in as many Sapphire copies as you want, and will receive 25 experience points for each one. This could be a lucrative way to earn experience, however I would caution you that I recall corrupting my save file once in the past by turning in lot of fake Sapphire books.)
  
• Returning Ariadne to Philinus: 50.
  
• Learning how to spin & weave: 10.
  
• Returning Thersites his ring: 15.
  
• Telling Sacas about the kesh you’ve seen on Aeneas: 10.
  
• Picking up the Crolna under Catamarca: 50.
  
• Talking to Halos about the kidnapping: 20. (Note: You can do this as many times as you'd like, and receive 20 experience points each time. This could be another lucrative experience-points venture.)
  
• Taking the kesh from the ruffian encampment: 40.
  
• Getting Timon’s Crolna shard: 50.
  
• Combining the first two Crolna shards: 25.
  
• Using the Crolna on pedestal in the Headwater ruins: 25.
  
• Talking to Sabinate for the first time: 50.
  
• Joining the Ratcatcher’s Guild: 50.
  
• Hearing Amphidamas’ version of Atymnius’ story: 10.
  
• Offering a homemade flatbread to Jinrai: 50.
  
• Taking Dryas to Berossus so he can tell him about the murder: 100.
  
• Telling Thuria about Jhiaxus: 20.
  
• Delivering a harpy egg to Pheres: 20.
  
• Picking up the Crolna shard in Maayti: 50.
  
• Making kesh for the first time: 100.
  
• Telling Sacas about the kesh lab: 100.
  
• Giving the Timeflux book to Charax: 20.
  
• Giving the deep-sea kelp to Charax: 10.
  
• Purifying the Crolna: 50.

I recall a while pack when I played through Cythera without combat, I got up to level 5. These tasks I listed add up to 1195 experience points, which I think is enough to get to level 5 (800-something, right?)

Of course, most of us get most of our experience points by killing things. This is a lot harder to measure, because how many exp points you get for killing, say, a ruffian seems to be random. I'm doing a bit of experimentation to see if I can find a range of experience for each monster class, but I don't know if I'll finish because it's kinda tedious. In the experiments I've done so far, I used a special hack-strength-one-hit-KO sword, and in doing that, I've discovered how the game measures the enhancement of a sword. It is as follows (in real numbers, because Pandora's Box doesn't use Hexadecimals):
Unimproved: 0
Minor Improvement: 256
Some Improvement: 512
Improvement: 768
Major Improvement: 1024
Very Major Improvement: 1280
Legendary Improvement: 1536
I don't think I've ever bothered to see what the numbers were before, so this will be helpful to me if I ever want to hack my sword's enhancement again. The benefit of hacking is that you can get a much more enhanced sword than Eioneus can make for you. Figuring it'd be a good idea for my enhancement level to be divisible by 256, I chose 32512. This was successful as a good one-hit-KO sword that did not corrupt my game ^_^

This post has been edited by BreadWorldMercy453: 26 January 2018 - 04:25 PM

I still can't be bothered to try to figure out how much experience you can get from killing things. I can tell from the bit of experimenting that I've done that even tough monsters have a chance of only giving you a few experience points. It might be something along the lines of a tiny crab giving up to 5 exp points, whereas a harpy could give you up to 99 exp points. I also think that OHKO-ing an opponent is not the best way to get experience.

Anyway, I'm also wondering about what magic spells simply don't work. It seems to me that Detect Concealment, Rune of Warding, Detect Rune, Mass Confusion, Tremor, and Charm are all worthless. Has anyone gotten any of those spells to work before? Also Dispel Rune seems to work only on Rune of Blocking, and if Resist Blows does anything, it's not very impressive...

BreadWorldMercy453, on 26 January 2018 - 04:24 PM, said:

That's interesting. I would have thought the enhancement would have a cap. What results does a legendary improvement get in comparison?

BreadWorldMercy453, on 19 February 2018 - 12:44 PM, said:

I seem to recall that Detect Concealment could be used for finding secret doors and such, but I might be misremembering.

Today I experimented with bashing open locked doors. For my experiment, I used a metal door in the Cademia castle. My character in the save-file had been jacked up through hacking and had ridiculously high stats, but I'm not sure if that matters. I'll list the weapons I tried and the average number of hits it took me to bash open the locked door:
Short sword (unimproved): 7.8
Short sword (legendary improvement): 12.7
Longsword (unimproved): 8.1
Longsword (legendary improvement): 6.6
Sword of Heroes: 3.7
Magical staff: 2.5
Dagger (unimproved): 25.8
Dagger (legendary improvement): 27.5
Club: 2.2
Mace: 1.3
Axe: 8.4
Decorative axe: 23.4
Rolling pin: 1.8
Barehanded/no weapon: 6.5
Gauntlets: 1.2
Spear: I gave up after well over 100 tries.
Mystic spear: 14.1
Miner's pick: I gave up after over 100 tries.
I could not attack the locked door with sling stones or arrows, it told me there was nothing to attack.

None of these weapons destroyed the metal door except for the gauntlets, which destroyed the door instead of bashing it open in 2/10 of the experiments.

Conclusions:
To quickly bash open a door, use a blunt object (club, mace, staff, rolling pin, or gauntlets).
Magically enhancing a sword or dagger does not make it more effective against locked doors.
Do not bother trying to bash open a locked door with a spear or a miner's pick.
If you don't want to destroy the door, don't use the gauntlets.