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[bombzero]

So in the more recent versions of DF you can cut stones at the jeweler's.
1. Are these actually useful?
2. Does the gem's value reflect the stone used?
3. or are they just crappy stuff to make for training gem cutters/setters?

4. in the case of them taking the stones value, are there any ores/rocks that are good to use as suedo-gems?

[Thelogman]

The resulting "gem" value does reflect the value of the ore or stone used to make it.

I've heard stories of early fortresses paying for caravans of goods using cut native gold.

[Gizogin]

I remember reading a thread about using gem-cut stones to make gem windows.

[smakemupagus]

i've been using cut marble windows so that they can keep an eye on all the vampires eating their neighbors

[bombzero]

i've been using cut marble windows so that they can keep an eye on all the vampires eating their neighbors

........ wow. i dont. what... gotta love bugs emergent features

[Malarauko]

Incredibly thin panels of marble that are translucent. Whats so strange about that?

[bombzero]

ah ok, so are marble gems valuable?

[Sphalerite]

Incredibly thin panels of marble that are translucent. Whats so strange about that?

That Dwarves can make sheets of marble that are thin enough to let light through, yet strong enough to hold back the pressure at the bottom of the ocean.

[telamon]

Stone gems are analogous to actual cut gems in terms of what you can do with them; ie a stone cut gem and a cut gemstone can serve the exact same purposes. The problem is that a lot of gems will be worth more than the vast majority of stones - silver ores and above are worth 10x material multiplier but then like 50% of all gems are 20x or higher. Meanwhile those ores have other uses as metals, and can be quite difficult to find. As a result, probably only stone gems being cut from unsmelted ore will be close in value to the typical gemstone (native gold at 30x, most gems are at 20x until you get into the rarer ones that often only appear as gem-clusters-within-a-gem-cluster). To be fair, a lot of the shallow-depth gems you find are only worth 2x to 10x material value, where as some of the high-value ores can be found very shallow (found native gold at like z -2 because I was digging under a mountain).

So I would say that for most stones, they're only useful as training material for your jewelers (and granted they're great for that, because what fortress isn't overflowing with cheap stone). For example, a marble gem would be worth very little - good if you have piles of throwaway marble, but eh. Not really worth the effort as a major industry imo since the value is so low. For the valuable ores, they can compare to the typical cut valuable gemstone, but you then have to ask yourself whether or not you'd rather smelt them into metals and use them for higher-value furniture or weapons. (Cut gem has 5x material multiplier, vast majority of furniture has at least 10x and also has quality multiplier. however most furniture consumes 3 bars, I think? also consider that a large cut gem, ie a cut gem converted into a finished good, also has 10x multiplier and also has quality.) If you are planning to make a lot of stone gems, obviously the more valuable the stone, the better - you could make cut gems out of raw candy stone if you wanted, but you have to consider whether or not you could have more use out of the candy wafers. Typically silver or gold ores, or better, will be of enough value to be worth the trouble. (Sadly iron ore is worth less than silver ore, and you cannot make gems out of metal bars, so no kickass steel gems for our dwarves. steel btw is worth as much as gold 8D)

references
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Gem
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Material_value

EDIT: girlinhat got me; i completely forgot about studding. I've actually never used it facepalm =P there's a good way to do decorations with metal instead of with gems (because otherwise, the only way to leverage metals and ores for decorating would be to turn em into gems and encrust away). Studding with gold bars would be worth the same as studding with a cut gem made of native gold since they're both 30x. same for aluminum and platinum, ores and bars are both worth 40x iirc. however many lesser metals are worth more than their respective ores (iron for example, all its ores are 8x but bars of iron are 10x. and you can convert the iron into !!STEEL!! which is 30x, the same amount as gold but without being anywhere near as difficult to find) so there you have it.

[rampagingfrodo]

Gem Material Value versus Stone Material Value can be researched on the wiki.

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Item_value#Material_multipliers

Gold, Aluminum, and Platinum are good substitutes for diamonds if you don't feel like drudging around in all that gabbro. However, only adamantine is more valuable than colored diamonds and star rubies and sapphires.

[Girlinhat]

I got ninja'd but basically yeah.  Gems have a value modifier, and so do stones.  Obsidian, marble, etc is valuable and cut stones are valuable.  Ores are particularly valuable as well, though if you smelt it to metal it's usually more valuable to stud with with instead of gem encrusting.

In the end though, what you've got is a lot of common gem options, and you can encrust items with common stones that would otherwise be cluttering the field.  If you've got an obsidian generator it's also a source of infinite, fairly valuable encrustables, although stones hardly compare to proper diamonds and emeralds it's still cheap and easy.

Also good for annoying moods!

[Malarauko]

Incredibly thin panels of marble that are translucent. Whats so strange about that?

That Dwarves can make sheets of marble that are thin enough to let light through, yet strong enough to hold back the pressure at the bottom of the ocean.

Hey thats dwarven craftsmanship.

[tahujdt]

I think I'm going to take 2 random migrants, drop them in  pit with food and stone, and make them cut and encrust furniture until both are legendary

[saltmummy626]

most of your standard stones usually only come out at around 15 or 25 urists. platinum ore comes out at 200 urists. you are better off smelting the ore, but it can be fun for decorating goods when you are short on gems.

[wierd]

Results of cutting stones at a jewlers:

90+% == stone cabochon
>5% == stone craft
>5% == large stone gem

Only really useful if you can't start the glass industry, or have ceramic industry.

If you have glass industry with magma, make green glass gems, and encrust stone crafts. You can produce individual crafts worth over 500 urist.

If you have magma ceramic industry, make ceramic crafts, and encrust with cabochons. Again, you can get reasonably expensive trade goods, but not as good as stone base with green glass gem.

Best is either obsidian base or ceramic base, with glass gems. Those are both infinite item genrators without scarcity.

However, if you have an overabundance of stone, the benefit of stone cabochons is that they make use of bins, so you can put a whole lot more of them in a whole lot smaller space. You can encrust crap, like wooden bolts you intend to use for hunting, or training weapons, to train up jewelers, and make the ammo your dwarves use look more bling.

One of the benefits of cabochons is that, like gems, the same item can be encrusted many times with different kinds of cabochon. That large fireclay pot can be encrusted with gabbro, microcline, orthoclase, basalt, and puddingstone, all at the same time, and because each pass is multiplicitive, even though the multipliers are low, you can end up with a radically valuable item.

(Eg, 10* stone pot, x 2* stone, x5* stone, x2* stone, x5* stone ends up at 1000*, with only 24* of input materials. If those are all just "hanging rings", "spikes," etc, then you come in with an x50* gemstone, to put the image on, you now have a 50,000* stone pot. Empty, not counting the skill level bonuses applied.)

You can easily add over 2 million net worth just by encrusting all your barrels with cabochons.