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[FlyingScissorKick]

I'm a novice player of DF (and figure I will be for several months). I got a simple question so no worries.

I didn't realize that you could make wooden blocks out of any type of wood. The same with metals. Are these blocks you create used in regular constructions like beds, chairs, etc, etc or are they used in more specific constructions?

So could I consolidate all my wood into blocks to free up space and put it in bins? or would I just have a bunch of useless wooden blocks and no wood to contruct furniture out of?

[Crnobog]

I had to fire up DF to check that because I honestly couldn't remember if it was even possible to make blocks out of wood and metal. Turns out it is, they're completely useless except for maybe making smooth metal/wood walls and probably workshops too. In short, don't make them.

[Duke 2.0]

 http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Blocks

 The Wiki is like the Bible, except with instant gratification.

[FlyingScissorKick]

hmm. I remember reading that in the wiki before but somehow didn't take the meaning away from the page. Maybe I was half asleep when I was reading it.

Thanks for the quick replies!

[Kinoko_Otoko]

I apologize for resurrecting a dead topic, but since it appears to be answering my question I wanted to check something.

Am I to understand that:

A. rough stones and logs are used to make anything that can be made from stone or wood, but cannot be stacked in bins, and must therefore each take 1 world space to be stored...

B. blocks can be stacked in bins, but cannot be used to make anything other than constructions and buildings?

I just started playing, and I've been turning all my stone into blocks for the sake of actually being able to store it (and I already turned all the extra wood I started with into blocks). I assumed that the primary purpose of making blocks was for storage in bins, but the apparent reality makes them worse than useless in my game.

This is a horrible gameplay element, so my question then becomes: Is there a simple way to mod it so that blocks are roughly equivalent in terms of crafting to their rough counterparts?

Alternatively, since I can see this being an obvious point of confusion to other newbies, does someone want to explain what the expected/normal course of action is concerning the overabundance of stone?

[XSI]

You are right in your understanding of blocks.

There just is too much stone for normal forts to deal with, but some of the older players learned to like their blocks. For getting rid of regular stone, you can dump it into magma, a chasm, or atom-smash it(Put it under a raised drawbridge, then close the bridge). The easiest and most profitable way to get rid of it is to put the creation of stone crafts/mugs/anything on repeat.


A wall made out of regular stone, wood, or metal bars will be a rough wall, and takes some time for a mason to build.

A block wall is a smooth wall, is more valuable to dwarves(value of 3 for rough, 5 for smoothe), and a block wall builds a lot faster. A lot of megaprojects need a lot of blocks. For the OCD people making forts, blocks are a must have.

[Reese]

blocks are less versatile than raw materials, but...  they are worth more for room value and fortress wealth, as mentioned above...

AND

there are certain buildings that require the use of a block, such as screw pumps

to be quite honest, any fort growing at all and not built above ground or in soil layers will end up up to its arse in loose stone, and making blocks is a fast way to skill up your masons, too.

[Kinoko_Otoko]

Thank you for the swift replies. I realized I already had a solution on hand, and just restarted my current game (I have a save copied at the point of embarkation). My fortress is in the middle of my region, but since I had mostly loam to the east (for quick digging), I made a long, 3-wide, zigzagging tunnel to a crescent-shaped depression on the edge of the map, where my tunnel opens up... After demolishing the 'ramps' comprising the edge of the depression (where it naturally continues uphill) I ended up with a single, sealed off path for the trade caravan to take, forcing them to appear at that spot.

More relevant to this topic, since most of my tunnel was just one Z-level under the surface of a loamy plateau, I ended up with a large area of stone-free tunnel, much larger than the rest of my early-game fortress. It should suffice for the time being.

I still think blocks should be available for craft construction, though, or at least more clearly defined... As a novice player, their quality level for use in outdoor constructions never occurred to me; I simply understood that they stacked and assumed that was their main purpose.

[Quietust]

A wall made out of regular stone, wood, or metal bars [...] takes some time for a mason to build.

A block wall [...] builds a lot faster.

Are you absolutely certain about that?

[Derakon]

The easiest way to deal with large amounts of stone in your fortress is simply to ignore it all. It's a bit ugly, yes, but your dwarves don't care (so long as the stone isn't blocking a doorway or floodgate, of course). If the appearance really bothers you, you can hide it (d-b-h, or just hit 'h' while k-looking at the items in a tile).

[darkflagrance]

The easiest way to deal with large amounts of stone in your fortress is simply to ignore it all. It's a bit ugly, yes, but your dwarves don't care (so long as the stone isn't blocking a doorway or floodgate, of course). If the appearance really bothers you, you can hide it (d-b-h, or just hit 'h' while k-looking at the items in a tile).

But doesn't that create lag?

[XSI]

A wall made out of regular stone, wood, or metal bars [...] takes some time for a mason to build.

A block wall [...] builds a lot faster.

Are you absolutely certain about that?

There is no such thing as a 100% certainty here, with mason skill and attributes factoring in(And maybe even personality), but my findings from the time spend making things are that my untrained masons and trained masons worked at roughly the same speed per section of wall using blocks.(Not counting the time they had to carry the block to the wall)
With rough stone the untrained masons took a bit more time, but it seemed like the trained masons made the wall at the same speed as with blocks.

The biggest profit(Of time) would be to just make a small stockpile for just the blocks you want near the construction area, someone will just bring a bin of it there for the work. You can't do that with the rough stones unless you make a lot bigger stockpile and have more dwarves to use for it.

And for the question of what to do with stone: Another way to get rid of the stone laying around is to quantum stockpile it, it will still be there, but it will all be in the same location and not littering the floor.(And it will be where you want it to be, like right next to the masons and stonecrafters)

[Tcei]

An alternative to storing all your rock is to make a quantum stock pile, set up a garbage zone from the "i" menu, then tell your dwarves to dump (d>b>d) all that stone, this works well for any other item too, cept for food, which will rot. Depending on your forts population you may want to designate small areas at a time to keep your fort moving at a steady pace.

[Kinoko_Otoko]

I hate to quantum stockpile, because I expect that to be removed in the future (it's obviously broken in terms of balance).

I had another idea actually. Of course the long stretch of 3-wide corridor I always make for the caravan works nicely, but it occurred to me: Why not stack them? Literally, stack them? The first time I started a game I had my dwarves haulign the stone outside my newly-dug fort, but they keep having to go farther and farther... unless I go up!

I checked this morning when I got up, and it turns out according tot he wiki that stone walls can always be reclaimed for the stone they were made from. Why not start your fort as a hole directly into the ground, and have your dwarves haul the stone outside and build walls, starting with an 11/11 square. Have them keep filling up the inside with more walls, leaving only a single wide corridor for hauling goods from your wagon if necessary. Eventually you can just build a staircase or ramp to the next level and start building from the outside in again. You could theoretically keep doing this forever...

[DaPatman]

You could theoretically keep doing this forever...

No you couldn't. There's a limit to how far up you can build.

A solid cube of rock blocks sounds like an interesting megaproject idea, though, provided you make it as large as possible.