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[Bitharne]

Something i've been wondering a long while, and can't seem to find any notable reference for it...but what is one of the more efficient ways to train up your mason? Blocks seem to give terribly low skill gains, and I kind of don't want to make furniture and whatnot until I have a higher skill level to more consistently make mastercraft, etc.

Perhaps make furniture and trade off the crappy stuff would be best? Kind of a pain to micro that though :\

[i2amroy]

I believe creating blocks and furniture both give the same amount of experience, which is 30 per task performed (of course you get 4 blocks per job so you will get more items at the end making blocks then furniture). Basically the best way I've found is just to mass produce all of the furniture for your lower peasantry rooms with only 2-3 dwarves and then by the time you get to the higher quality rooms they are on higher levels. Not much else to do other then that sadly.

[jcnorris00]

Constructing buildings that require architecture (e.g. supports, paved roads, and bridges) gives XP.  Once you get a fair number of blocks, you can build a room full of supports out of them.  That'll train both architecture and masonry.  You could also train up your carpenter or blacksmith with the same technique by using logs or metal bars instead of blocks.  I generally don't do this because it's quite a bit of micromanaging, and I've switched to using glass furniture instead of stone or metal, so there's not much need to train masonry or blacksmithing.  But it's a way to train up those skills without consuming any resources.

[Dwarfler]

Funny that you would ask that - I usually find masons to be one of the professions that gets to legendary in the first year or two without me consciously having to try.  I like to keep my dwarves happy, and that means having that legendary dining room (tables/chairs/statues), decorating with lots of statues in commonly traveled areas, furniture in bedrooms, plenty of doors, that kind of thing.  If you need more jobs for your mason, get a big tomb ready with plenty of coffins, you'll need 'em eventually anyway.  Build an enclosed farm plot outdoors, wall off a section of your cavern, etc.  That's plenty of jobs making blocks, then again building the walls/floors.  Just be sure you make a block stockpile next to the job site so your mason doesn't waste time hauling/walking.  If you run out of things like that, just have him build a big floor and then put all the kids to work deconstructing it.  Rinse, lather, repeat.

[Bitharne]

I figured, it just seemed like Mason's level slower than just about anything out there. Stonecrafters are the just the opposite (I still love my stone crafts, haven't got the hang of getting magma power before I get annoyed with huge migrant waves or whatnot).

Building walls and floors seems to give next to no experience too, which is a pain

[weenog]

Of course the stonecrafter is going to level much faster than the mason if the stonecrafter is sitting in the workshop cranking out items endlessly, while the mason is getting work only intermittently, and that with a lot of running around in between.

Start with a dining room that has at least one table+throne pair for every four dwarves in the fortress, and at least one coffer, cabinet, door or hatch cover, and coffin for every dwarf in the fortress.  You'll also need a defensive wall outside, with roof, and double entrance paths to steer invaders through your traps and traders safely to the depot.  After that, and sealing away the surface crop farm plots if you opt to have them, then maybe look into whether the mason needs any special grinding.

Alternatively, make everyone who you don't see an immediate and pressing need for into a mason.  Fisherdwarf? Mason. Cheesemaker? Mason. Thresher? You I like, but I don't have my clothing industry ready to use you yet... Mason.  Crank out a bunch of blocks and build a mighty defensive wall at least.  You'll have a lot of dabbling or novice-ish masons running around, and when a strange mood hits there's a good chance you get a legendary mason out of the deal.  Afterward you either disable the mason labor on the masons that suck, or build an extra mason workshop, profile it to only allow the legend to work there, and order all of your future stone furniture through it.

[krenshala]

I figured, it just seemed like Mason's level slower than just about anything out there. Stonecrafters are the just the opposite (I still love my stone crafts, haven't got the hang of getting magma power before I get annoyed with huge migrant waves or whatnot).

Building walls and floors seems to give next to no experience too, which is a pain

Are you using the same mason to both make the blocks and build the walls/workshops?  If you are, he should reach at least Professional by the end of the first year.

[Replica]

If you build above ground cities, walls and skyscrapers you'll get several legendary masons and carpenters in a couple of years.

If you don't, well, furniture building may be the way to go, everyone likes furniture right?

[Loud Whispers]

If you build above ground cities, walls and skyscrapers you'll get several legendary masons and carpenters in a couple of years.

If you build sufficiently large structures, you can get 80 or so legendary masons in half a decade. Fun fun fun.

[Mimodo]

If you build above ground cities, walls and skyscrapers you'll get several legendary masons and carpenters in a couple of years.

If you build sufficiently large structures, you can get 80 or so legendary masons in half a decade. Fun fun fun.

I go through about 2 legendary miners a season, does that count?

[Triaxx2]

Frankly I start churning out doors and blocks as quickly as possible. That gets the masons up and rolling and by the time I need high quality statues, and to start churning out the blocks for pumpstacks.

[Quietust]

If you build above ground cities, walls and skyscrapers you'll get several legendary masons and carpenters in a couple of years.

If you build sufficiently large structures, you can get 80 or so legendary masons in half a decade. Fun fun fun.

Just to clarify for the benefit of others, this would only give experience for actually making the blocks - building constructions grants zero experience.

[Bitharne]

Just to clarify for the benefit of others, this would only give experience for actually making the blocks - building constructions grants zero experience.

I figured that this was the case.

Essentially I didn't want my Mason to make anything "useful" until he was master, grand master, or legendary and it would take a REDICULOUS number of blocks to get there, so I guess i'll have to bite that bullet or deal with non-masterwork stone furniture

[Triaxx2]

One of the reasons I use doors is that early on you'll want them for your workshops so you can lock in dwarves with strange moods you can't fulfill, and for bedrooms, because it adds a bit of value to them and makes your peons happier. Plus doors are fairly light weight and can be traded on caravans if you're upgrading, instead of just sitting in stock piles doing nothing. Or needing to get atom smashed.

[toomanysecrets]

I have mason trainees work with a stone type that I don't even want to use....ever. I tell 'em to make floodgates and hatches and grates so that I don't end up with low quality furniture.and I have always felt that they skilled up faster this way than making blocks but I never did any science on it. Once I have too many floodgates I just atom smash 'em.