It's a humble science, dedicated to architecture and wealth.
I wanted to find out the value of engravings, smoothed walls and constructions. Patricularly, the main question was "Should I engrave the Palace or use gold bars instead (in terms of value, of course)".
So, I had a conglomerate (value 1) mountain with some marble (value 2), lignite (value 1) and platinum (value 40). I also used bronze (value 5), gold (value 40) and adamantine (value 300).
Results
Conglomerate
Smooth floor = 3
Smooth wall = 4
Marble
Smooth floor = 3
Smooth wall = 4
Lignite
Smooth floor = 6
Smooth wall = 8
Native Platinum
Smooth floor = 6
Smooth wall = 8
Engravings
All materials, floor and walls:
Detailed = 10
-Detailed- = 20
+Detailed+ = 30
*Detailed* = 40
≡Detailed≡ = 50
☼Detailed☼ = 120
Construction
Conglomerate, marble, adamantine or Armok-knows-what-else floor will always cost 6, wall 14.
Conclusions
- Dug rock will not count as architecture
- Material matters in smoothing only, and value is weird - lignite and platinum have the same
- Only quality matters in detailing, but, say, gold engraving will cost more because of a smoothed gold wall
- Good engraving in gold will cost insignificantly more than the same engraving in crap stone
- Constructed floor and walls cost more than the smoothed ones
- Adamantine-paved room will be cheaper than the same room with crappiest engravings in sandstone
- There is no sense in a gold-paved palace