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[SilasG]

Hey guys, I've just started getting into DF and had some questions.

Stone blocks - can they still be used by CraftsDwarves to make stone crafts? Similarly, can stone blocks also be used to make furniture/doors and the like?

Blocks would seem to be a great way to multiply your supply of stone (or whatever substance) while also allowing you to store them in bins but if they are only good for building workshops/walls/etc then their utility loses a lot of value for me.

I brought no grazing animals with me, just chickens and turkeys (well and dogs). I was counting on the Kitchen to make egg biscuits and whatever meat we could scrounge and am just growing plump helmets to brew and pig tails for my clothing industry. I was told the turkeys can produce leather where the chickens cannot. My question is how big of a population could just this sustain? I also have cave wheat and other seeds from embarkation I brought with me but I haven't bothered to plant them yet.

[TheHossofMoss]

Unfortunately no! 

They are used for making floors, walls, fortifications, and things of that nature.

[Pirate Santa]

If you "Prepare Carefully" you can choose the gender of the animals you bring with you.
I like to bring 6 dogs, 3 of each gender, and pasture them all together.
Give it a year or two and you should be swimming in beautiful, supple puppy leather and delicious puppy steaks.

[SilasG]

haha puppy steaks. Well, I did bring breeding dogs plus chickens and turkeys. The turkeys supposedly give leather as well as eggs (and meat of course). The chickens and turkeys, if you pin a couple in a locked room with nestboxes, can multiply your supply of such animals with a quickness.

[Skuggen]

I think block walls are also harder to climb than walls built from stone. But yeah, I generally only make a few blocks if I want to build something that requires it.

[utunnels]

Or build an above ground fortress.

[Skuggen]

Yeah, large construction projects will tend to go much faster using blocks.

[aiseant]

Why would anyone wants to "multiply" their supply of stones ...

Blocks seem to be lighter than raw stone, so carrying them around is easier and construction are faster indeed.

I'm using an insane amounts of blocks for an insane above ground project, and I think using raw stones would kill me. The FPS is a problem, though.

[NESgamer190]

As mentioned before, stone blocks sadly are only for constructions and workshops (and screw pumps), but the big perk to stone block making as opposed to other block making is that it isn't a 1 to 1 ratio (one stone to four stone blocks seems quite a fair utility in my honest opinion, given I am a tad prone to developing something of a castle wall defense style to keep the goblins out and my archer dwarves (hopefully) in.)

If all else fails, and you wind up with a supply of unwanted stone blocks, perhaps trade 'em off, or make a megaproject using them.

If only we can use stone blocks to melt them into pure, unadulterated magma...  or even use them for catapults...

[SilasG]

@aiseant not stones really but you can make blocks from wood as well. I think multiplying your supply of wood would be beneficial on a low wood map but hey I'm just a noob here. In any case block utility has lost a lot of value for me now as I wanted to have my carpenters/masons/stone-woodcrafters use blocks instead of ore/logs and thats a impossible now, I suppose.

[Klisz]

@aiseant not stones really but you can make blocks from wood as well. I think multiplying your supply of wood would be beneficial on a low wood map but hey I'm just a noob here.

Wood doesn't multiply when turned into blocks - one log, one block.

[Sanctume]

Back in the days, miners need to "proc" while mining a stone to produce "stone" for building. 
From what I've read, this was changed so that 1 of every 4 stone tiles mined produced a "stone" for building; and with this, introduced creation of 4 "Stone Blocks" from 1 "Stone."

Also, hauling stones without wheelbarrow slows down a dwarf; whereas hauling stone blocks are faster. 

And then add that walls constructed from "stone blocks" are "harder but not impossible" to climb; while walls constructed from "stone" are climbable.  Smoothed natural stones are "not climbable."

Wood logs can be turned into "wood block" at a 1:1 ration.  Same for 1 metal bar = 1 metal block.

[NESgamer190]

Back in the days, miners need to "proc" while mining a stone to produce "stone" for building. 
From what I've read, this was changed so that 1 of every 4 stone tiles mined produced a "stone" for building; and with this, introduced creation of 4 "Stone Blocks" from 1 "Stone."

Also, hauling stones without wheelbarrow slows down a dwarf; whereas hauling stone blocks are faster. 

And then add that walls constructed from "stone blocks" are "harder but not impossible" to climb; while walls constructed from "stone" are climbable.  Smoothed natural stones are "not climbable."

Wood logs can be turned into "wood block" at a 1:1 ration.  Same for 1 metal bar = 1 metal block.

I also believe clay blocks go from one clay sample to one clay block, regardless of clay type, and the same for sand.  (Again, if that changed, let me know.)

[TheFlame52]

No sand blocks, but glass blocks are 1:1 I think.

[TruePikachu]

Only stone blocks have the 4:1 ratio. This was set up to balance the miners (I believe for the hauling+minecart update (0.34.08???)). It used to be that miner skill would affect if you would get stone or gems from a dug out tile, but Toady changed it so that drops have constant probabilities; I believe 25% for stone and ore, and 100% for gems. Stone hauling (without wheelbarrows) was also made very slow at the same time, encouraging the use of blocks for constructions instead of boulders, so the block ratio was increased to yield no change when using legendary miners.