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[Samten]

Hi everybody.

I was trying to do a little research in DF 50.11 about how mason (carpenter, metalsmithing) skill influences Building quality. The results were … a bit strange :-) So any comments will be appreciated.

First of all, workshops (except furnaces) do not have quality. Track stops do not have it either (it was kind of disappointment for me). These buildings have a flag “nil” in “design” field (you may check it using gm-editor (DFhack).
So MOST OF THE TIME any available dwarf can build them regardless of material (even if you create custom Mason, Carpenter and Blacksmith labors and set it to “Nobody does it”). Which kind of make sense since workshops do not have quality. However, there is at least one exception - Carpenter workshop built of WOOD. It still doesn’t have quality, but if you forbid the carpenter labor, nobody would build this workshop. There may be other exceptions.
Also, as far as I could find, NO experience will be granted for building any workshops.

At other hand, Bridges, Trade Depots, Furnaces, Archery targets and Supports do have the quality rating! And building them actually grants experience in relative skill (Masonry, Carpentry or Metalsmithing (skill associated with Blacksmiths, NOT Metal crafters). As far as I could find, no experience will be granted to your Metalcrafting skill if you build a bridge from metal (metal bars or metal blocks, doesn't matter) - instead experience will be granted to your Blacksmith’s Metalsmithing skill.

For Masonry and Carpentry it is possible to set a custom labor in order to restrict the construction of “Quality” buildings (bridges, furnaces and so on, made of boulders, stone blocks and wooden logs) only to qualified dwarfs. This way you will get higher quality building and at the same time train the relative skill of the selected dwarf. The bad part comes with blacksmiths: I was unable to restrict building construction from metal (bars or metal blocks) using custom labors - any available dwarf will do this job. But, any way, the metalsmithing skill will be increased. However, it is a bit tricky to train one selected dwarf in Metalsmithing skill this way.

Experience granted is quite small.
- 6 points for 1-3 tile bridge, 13 points for 4-tile bridge (I guess, after that, the increase is linear and depends on number of blocks used to construct a bridge);
- 6 points for Furnaces
- 7 points for Trade depot.
- only 2 points for Archery targets or Supports (making them not very attractive for training the relative skill).

[Saiko Kila]

The Blacksmith skill is known internally as FORGE_FURNITURE (so it is intended for all "big" metal things, unlike metalcrafting), you can train it on a dwarf by assigning the dwarf to a workshop which builds furniture, like metal statues. Unfortunately in v50 it is possible to assign only one dwarf to a workshop, so each one needs its own forge, but you can train a couple of them this way. Which gave me idea what to do with all that hundreds of goblinite copper bars...

[Samten]

The Blacksmith skill is known internally as FORGE_FURNITURE (so it is intended for all "big" metal things, unlike metalcrafting), you can train it on a dwarf by assigning the dwarf to a workshop which builds furniture, like metal statues. Unfortunately in v50 it is possible to assign only one dwarf to a workshop, so each one needs its own forge, but you can train a couple of them this way. Which gave me idea what to do with all that hundreds of goblinite copper bars...

Yes, it is much better to train metalsmithing (blacksmith skill) and carpentry, using workshops. This way you can get better “quality” buildings (from metal and wood), made by those specialists. But unfortunately no such luck for mason skill. The only way to train this skill is to make above mentioned “quality” buildings from stone. May be 1-tile bridges are the good choice…

[Blue_Dwarf]

To train mason skill, use guilds.

Wells also have quality levels btw.

[Saiko Kila]

Yes, it is much better to train metalsmithing (blacksmith skill) and carpentry, using workshops. This way you can get better “quality” buildings (from metal and wood), made by those specialists. But unfortunately no such luck for mason skill. The only way to train this skill is to make above mentioned “quality” buildings from stone. May be 1-tile bridges are the good choice…

I've noticed when v50 came out, that Masons got the short end of the stick. Previously they were a prestigious occupation, always in demand, and some starting dwarves always got some Mason levels (if player knew what is good for them). It was expected to give a head start, and that they will become Legendary in time. Now, I will still give Mason to some of the starting dwarves, but with expectation that they won't progress much beyond the starting level. Maybe I will give them even more levels because of it.

Compare Masons to Carpenters. Carpenters are still useful and respected, even though I don't make bridges and other constructions out of wood. But they produce many useful items. Masons?
- Trade depot: one in the life of the fortress, max two if I don't have enough time to make the final trade depot underground before the first caravan
- Well: four, usually next to each other, so built at about the same time
- Forges: there's many of them, but a fixed amount after a time, and they don't have quality AFAIK
- Bridges: the only one with quality which could matter which is also built in a quantity, I use lots of bridges, and there's always room for more. But... that doesn't matter too much actually, because most of these bridges are not for looking at anyway, used as hidden passage controls and liquid/items/monsters destroyers.

Still, masons must be used or given by game more often than blacksmiths, because I have one mason lev.10, one lev.6, two lev.4 (including one of my starters) and to lev.1 (all rusty or very rusty), compared to one lev.3 blacksmith (and no more). But they are not near as useful as carpenters, that's for sure, and they training seem to count less. For comparison, carpenter levels in my fortress: Lev.20 (max level, starting dwarf, artefact creator), lev.15, lev.9 (starting dwarf), lev.4 (starting dwarf, but also a starting miner), two lev.3 (including starting dwarf), lev.2 (starting dwarf), and six lev.1.