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[cog disso]

Why do people build things out of blocks instead of just raw stone?

I make scores of green glass blocks and build ludicrous structures out of them, as is my whimsy. I like to pave with them.

[Arekis]

Helmssinged has just hit it's 10th year anniversary! 

The population is up to a 16, though the labor force remains at 11.  The desolate fort is in the terrifying plains and is the last bastion of the great dwarven civilization in this world.  Between the frequent ambushes (up to 6 at a time) and the skeletal beasts roaming the plains and caverns, each life is precious.  The elves visit in the spring and bring with them some booze and berries as well as more ambushes.  So far we've been able to provide safe passage for the traders and take potshots at the passing goblin groups.

The fort has been relatively free of tragedies.  One child fell to an ambush and a legendary axedwarf got his head crushed by a skeletal elephant.  Two marksdwarves got shot up by an elite goblin marksman, but luckily were patched up with no critical injuries.  The cat lady's pets are both gone, one eaten by skeletal warthogs and another passing away of old age.  Without the cats, the rats and lizards have established a stronghold inside the food stockpiles.  A forgotten beast in one of the caverns has contaminated the entire water supply with its goop before we could stop him.  Had to dig deeper to get a clean source of water.

The gates of the outer perimeter are holding so far and the meager fort is deemed not worthy of goblin sieges.  Once they decide to bring trolls and approach in numbers, we'll see how long the fort's gates, traps, and the 4 dwarf military will hold.

[fivex]

In Silverspirits, I just found some spoilermetal by breaching the 3rd cavern layer. I got the message twice for some reason(Do you get it once for every vein you discover? Or only the first one?)
It is fairly useless, as the only civilizations that can access me are the dwarves and kobolds(Which I only just realised), so I have no need for military.
There is also very few trees, even in the caverns.
I have also opened my dam on the river temporarily to flood an area near the surface so that underground trees can grow there

[Gutanoth]

however, you never know when the next forgotten beast is going to arrive to mess you up. plus you can never have too much adamantine. Plus you seem to be in a prime spot to breach Fun. _{how many euphomisms are there for the various HFS?}

[Ullallulloo]

   Oilrasped has been defeated by a goblin siege. I had them held outside okay, waiting them out. Then, another two squads came in through the water tunnel I had coming in from a river. I had a grate and a floodgate, but trolls made short work of those since it wasn't hooked up to the river yet. D:

[Beardless]

Why do people build things out of blocks instead of just raw stone?

I always end up with a ton of masons making blocks on repeat, so it doesn't slow me down at all. At first I'll use raw stone (or wood, ash, charcoal, etc.), but once the fort is established, I decide whether to use rough stone or blocks according to the aesthetics of the situation. (Yes, I am aware that half the time you can only tell by 'k'ing over the construction and the other half you can't tell at all. I can still see it in my head though.)

[FlamingCow]

Why do people build things out of blocks instead of just raw stone?

I make things out of blocks because, if I'm going to have a wall that can't be destroyed, it's going to be a real wall. Blocks, a few layers thick and embedded into a cliff face at either end (if possible). Sometimes even dug into the ground one layer.

[Internet Kraken]

It's the 10 year anniversary of Townbrush. It's at this point I looked over Townbrush to see how it's progressed, only to see that it hasn't. Townbrush is still in a state of decay. So I've decided to initiate a major clean up program across all aspects of the fort so it is optimized for when migrants finally arrive. I've ordered all excess animals to be butchered, ordered the construction of more coffins to empty the graveyard, and have assigned my woodcarpetner to carry all the logs to the stockpile.

Of course this clean up program extends beyond the basics due to Townbrush's "special" situation. I had to face the fact that cripples are merely slowing down Townbrush progress. In this dire time it is necessary for all Dwarves to be working as hard as possible, and feeding useless cripples is taking away from that. Townbrush has two permanent invalids, one suffering from spine damage and the other missing both legs. Until they starve to death, food will not be distributed to the wounded. I'm also trying to drain water out of the vital areas of the caverns that are still flooded. Current goal is to divert the water in the adamantine mines out into the caverns, where it will eventually drain away (or create a new lake, and then drain away). Then I'm going to try establishing a stable pier in the magma sea, for a variety of reasons, one of them being the creation of a magma lake near the surface. That's a long term goal though.

And what better way to celebrate 10 years of misery than with a Forgotten Beast. Though I was confused when this Forgotten Beast showed up, since he is almost identical to another beast still residing in the fort. Same color, same tile, and their descriptions are quite similar;



It's almost like they are twins or something, only one is tall and thin while the other is huge and fat. Vesh has actually been in the fortress for about a year now. He spawned in some hole isolated from the rest of the caverns. He could fly up and access the rest of the caverns that way, but for some reason he hasn't done that. I guess he's just to fat and lazy to bother. Liruk on the other hand is very active, using the flooded caverns as his own personal swimming pool. So maybe they're just the cast of some unimaginative forgotten beast sitcom that tried to pair a tall, athletic beast with a lazy fat one.

EDIT: Lurik infiltrated the fort through an incredibly convoluted path involving the flooded tunnels and caverns. Due to his method of entrance the military couldn't catch him, and he made his way to the surface before being cornered. However, he killed a war octopre and, more importantly, our legendary engraver. I'm disappointed about her loss, but I guess it was better than losing a dwarf who preformed a vital job. Upon being cornered, Lurik was struck down by a single steel bolt.

EDIT 2: "Some Migrants have arrived, despite the danger."

Finally, some migrants. But what does it mean by "despite the danger"? I mean, I get the obvious danger associated with Townbrush, but I didn't know the game actually took that into account with migrants. I guess that explains why migrants are so rare. Though with all the deaths from Ogres, Darnen, Goblins, Forgotten Beasts, and zombie whales I'm surprised I didn't get this message before. I guess it took the great flood to make everyone in the Mountainhome realize Townbrush is a complete disaster.

And yet we're still a county.

[Gnauga]

Reaaaaaaaaaaaly now. I've never run into one. he shall have to be put on display. *goes to make some nice metal cages*

I almost want to mod it to make it tameable. then make a War Bronze Colossus

Make sure you try that out somewhere far outside your main fort. Just saying, it might not go as planned.

[Beeskee]

You can remove constructions with d-n

[Fat-Mans-Revenge]

Just started Lancesack today.  Playing with everything as it is in the released version, no extras, and a random gen world.  It's my first DF2010 fortress, and the first that I'm going to chronicle the trials and exploits of.  I haven't read any DF2010 wiki articles yet, and seeing as my last fortress in the previous version lasted as long as it did (My longest ever, ended by an unfortunate incident involving a hydra, two cats, and a very tight knit military that had taken a liking to the two cats), I think I'll just wing it until I am completely destroyed. 

It's been an interesting first couple of seasons for the up and coming fortress; spawned into a wilderness surrounding (Is it just me, or is an evil surrounding significantly harder to find in this release?), so nothing totally crazy as far as wild opposition to my presence is concerned, a few wolf packs wandering around, but nothing a couple dorfs can't scare away.  It's a temperate zone, with an unfortunately long winter it seems.  A small brook passing through the southeast corner dictates where I'm going to base the entrance of my fortress. Fortunately, there is a very nice place to put a courtyard between the cliffside entrance and the brook, as well as a nice large patch of grassland where I can find easy farming ground under.

Got a nice group of 7 migrants right near the beginning of summer, helped with setting up the fortress, but certainly hurt as far as food/liquor stocks are concerned.  At first I figured it wouldn't be a problem, seeing as I already had the areas chosen to be my farm plots dug out, and enough supply to allow time for the plump helmets to grow.  Oh, how wrong I was.  From what I gather, I have to flood my future farm fields before I'm able to plant anything there.  This is a a major change from the previous version of DF that I most certainly wasn't expecting.  Unfortunately, my autumn had arrived before I realized this would be a problem, and my brook has frozen over, preventing me from performing a mass flood of my fields.  An emergency shrub gathering team was dispatched, hoping that the homeland dwarves would soon come to the rescue.  Since I was able to butcher the animals that were with my group, I was able to have enough food until the dwarven caravan arrived in late Autumn. Drink, on the other hand, was a much more tricky subject.  Barely staying at the 2-3 drink range as my conscript brewer was frantically trying to find and ferment the plants necessary to keep alcohol in ready supply, my fortress was now in desperate need of help from the mountainhomes.  The bad quickly turned into worse as the "Migrants have arrived" message appeared.  That little bit of extra stock in alcohol supply that I was just barely able to manage would quickly vanish under the thirst of 2 new parched mouths.

It wasn't until the end of Autumn,  after the deep freeze, and at the point when I had 14/16 dwarves starting to be very irritated by the lack of even basic water, that the caravan finally showed up. It didn't take long for the trade of every drop of alcohol available on the wagon to be negotiated, to much rejoicing among the dwarves.  There is now alcohol to last another long winter.

With winter upon the stout people, and another caravan not expected until spring, there is still wonder as to how long the current supplies will last, and if the ice will thaw or the elves will be able to save them from their dehydrated state.

Spring is here! The brook should be beginning to thaw soon, which means that farming can finally commence.  It can't thaw too soon though, seeing as with the arrival of spring, a whole new wave of 22 migrants have come to witness the advantages of famine for their own.  Now sitting at 38 dwarves, and only about 120 total food to feed them. It's going to be an interesting problem until the elves decide to show their elongated faces.

[Valguris]

Why do people build things out of blocks instead of just raw stone?

I'm doing it for a challenge.
And uh, oh... for realizm? I just can't imagine that walls made of rough stone are waterproof to stop water flow, nor they are solid enough to build high towers or unpenetrable forticications.
Yea, the only thing I'm not using blocks yet are some workshops.
And metal blocks seem to cost exactly same as metal bars. At least silver's do.

We've got an uninvited guest in Furnacewild:

Really? Gaunt? Poor, little, forgotten forgotten beast.
If it can't fly, it's sealed off, but i'll make sure and construct some upstairs on top of up/downstair. Using blocks.

[Haspen]

Also, making blocks from raw stone gives experience to the mason. Which is good.

And stone blocks have higher value multiplier than raw stone (5 instead of 3 I think?), which is good too.

Thus: Stone Blocks >> Raw Stone

[Virodhi]

Also, blocks can be stored in bins, which is a boon in and of itself.

Trying to come to terms with the fact that I chose the civ for this particular fort solely because I'm hoping for engravings of that one hapless schmuck of a dwarf who got fed to beasts by an elf. Motivational posters, DF style.

[Internet Kraken]

Also, making blocks from raw stone gives experience to the mason. Which is good.

And stone blocks have higher value multiplier than raw stone (5 instead of 3 I think?), which is good too.

Thus: Stone Blocks >> Raw Stone

The production of stone blocks, however, wastes a massive amount of time and requires multiple masons shops churning out stone blocks. Plus, if you want to make a wall out of another color you have to put int the order for stone blocks far in advance. Value multipliers really don't matter with walls, since they're not going to be the main contributor to Fortress wealth.

Raw stone is simply more efficient. Maybe when you have a massive fort bursting with Dwarves you can spare a few to produce stone blocks, but you don't always have that luxury.