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[Valdrax]

So, we've had dwarven preferences for quite a while now, but there's scant info on how they work.  Some matter for mandates.  Some figure into engravings.  Some affect item quality.  But which?  Let's find out!

Please help figure out how preferences work by posting examples of production mandates and engravings you've seen in DF2012.

Info on quality boosts would be helpful as well but aren't as important to most players.  When it's reasonably complete, I plan on adding the table below to the Wiki, so any other miscellaneous input would also be helpful.

Spoiler: Preferences Table (work in progress) (click to show/hide)

Element	Frequency	Mandate	Engrave	Quality+	Notes
Stone	=1	?	N	Y	Can include earthenware, stoneware, glazes, and gypsum powder.
Metal	=1	Y	N	Y	Smelting bars can satisfy these mandates.
Gem	=1	?	N	Y	Can be glass instead of a gemstone.  It is possible to get a gem and a glass type as well, and I'm not sure how to classify that.  "Gems" means cut gems and is not a material.
Wood	0-1	?	N	Y
Textile: Cloth	0-1	?	N	Y	Plant & metal cloths.  Textile types are in no particular order.
Textile: Leather	0-1	?	N	Y	(See animal caveats.)
Textile: Silk	0-1	?	N	Y
Textile: Wool	0-1	?	N	Y	Doesn't seem to ever include troll wool.
Parts: Bones	0-1	?	N	?	Skulls don't seem to be included. (See animal caveats.)
Parts: Horn/Hoof	0-1	?	N	?	(See animal caveats.)
Parts: Ivory/Teeth	0-1	?	N	?	(See animal caveats.)
Parts: Shells	0-1	?	N	?	(See animal caveats.)
Misc. Natural	0-1	N	N	N/A	Odd things like gizzard stones or amber that can't be used to make anything.  Mixed in with the textiles & animal parts.
Items and furniture	0+	Y	Y	Y	I don't know if you can get a mandate for something your particular civ can't produce but that other dwarf civs can.
Deco: Colors	0+	N	N	?	Rarely matches the 4 standard dyes.  Hard to test effect on textile industry.
Deco: Shapes	0+	N	Y	?
Deco: Ornament	0+	N?	N	Y?	Menacing spikes, studs, etc.  Not sure if "rings" can fall here.
Deco: Jewel cuts?	0+	?	N	Y?	I've seen cabochons several times, but I'm not sure which cabochon cut(s) this refers to, and I've yet to see a gem-exclusive cut.
Favored wildlife	0+	N	Y	?	Can include vermin hated by others as well as animal men, giant animals, and plants.  Gives a trait they like best about them.
Favored food	0-5?	N	N	?	Gives happiness if eating food that includes it. (See animal caveats.)
Favored drink	=1	N	N	?	Gives happiness if drinking it.  (Milk is a food, not a drink.)
Detested vermin	=1	N	Y	?
(IgnoreJustPaddingTable)

Notes:

As best I can figure out, preferences have the following pattern:  stone, metal, gem, wood, assorted textiles & animal products, assorted goods & decorations, favorite wildlife, assorted food & drink, hated vermin.  So, here's an attempt at a table to sort all this out. 

Animal caveats:  There are now so many animals in the game that you are unlikely to encounter any given animal a dwarf prefers other than domestic animals, making these preferences worthless.  Worse, preferences ignore the size or global availability of an animal.  You will often see preferences for vermin parts that can't be obtained through butchering.  Your only hope (in the case of leathers and food) is to trade for it.  For other parts, you're out of luck.  There is also a bug that allows some dwarves to like impossible items like bird teeth.

Stone:  There was a bug in 0.31.01-0.31.12 that caused nobles to treat slade and metal ores as metals and request goods made from them.  That was fixed, and AFAIK, stone material-based mandates don't happen anymore.  Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Valdrax]

Okay, so maybe the post was a bit TL;DR without putting the table into a spoiler block.  Let me try this again with more emphasis on what I'm asking for.

[Loud Whispers]

I think it just got pushed down by new threads and no one saw it :d

[olopi]

I had some engravings of gems before, but maybe that's something different

[Valdrax]

Do you remember if they were specific gems or cuts?

[Nyxalinth]

Do you remember if they were specific gems or cuts?

I've been fighting a well-known earth syndrome called the common cold, so I haven't played lately.  I do recall the last time I played that I did have an engraving of cushion cut and some square cut stones.  Don't recall the type, though.

[olopi]

It sais Radiant cut gems.. , one says table cut gem..., rose cut gems..., and so on

[Valdrax]

Sweetness!  Do you know if the dwarf who engraved them has any of those in his preferences or any sort of favoritism towards one cut or another?

[olopi]

I can't check but i don't think because i all engravings are from diffrent dwarfs

[Kofthefens]

I once got a demand for a lead bed. I also once got a mandate for large gems, though I think that one may have been in the previous version. Good work.

[Valdrax]

I once got a demand for a lead bed.

In 0.34?  Is your game modded to allow lead beds to be created?

I also once got a mandate for large gems, though I think that one may have been in the previous version. Good work.

I think I got one of those in 0.31 too, but Toady said something about fixing mandates in some unspecified way to make them more reasonable.  That's why I'm trying to gather info on just 0.34.  (Thanks, btw.)

[Kofthefens]

I once got a demand for a lead bed.

In 0.34?  Is your game modded to allow lead beds to be created?

No, vanilla DF. I did have lots of lead onsite, if that helps. I think it was 0.34.02 or 0.34.03, but it was definitely 0.34

[Mitchewawa]

Huh, I didn't know dwarfs had bone preferences.

"Likes left 3rd floating rib for its particular existence."

[Valdrax]

No, more like "giant porcupine bone" or "flying fish bone."
I don't know if they'll make mandates based on it, though.  That's one reason I'm trying to get more info.

[Mitchewawa]

Mandates seem to completely dodge specific animals/stone material (ox leather, granite), but every other specific (earthenwares, cloth, glass and metals) are mandate-able.

You know, unless I'm proven wrong. I think I once saw someone [MANDATE] cardinal leather but that could just be me remembering it wrong.