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[biomatter]

So, the King has arrived unexpectedly early in my fort, must've been that blasted early adamantine (I swear I didn't use the Trade Depot trick). Well, I guess he's not that early, I have pretty much every operation covered with high quality workers. But I'm having trouble getting his rooms up to the Royal level. Any tips? Here's the layout of the room, if it helps:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

    +
   +++
  +++++
 +++++++
++++X+++D
 +++++++
  +++++
   +++
    +
where X is the object that designates the room,
and D is the door (rotated based on axis of entry)
I have four of these arranged in a meta-diamond

I've already smoothed and engraved every square inch of all the rooms, and I tried to get it so they all got an equal amount of engravings, but it wasn't enough (and I'm not just going to carve out more space). So, what are some dense and uber-quality objects I can put in his rooms? I don't have any artifact furniture (they all asked for turtle shells I didn't have), and I'm not going to wait for four. The King has already tantrumed and given one of my Seven a brown upper spinal injury, which sucks, but I've managed to get him from becoming miserable again.

Also, to avoid a "ladder" of text, I'm going to hide my related questions. Please take a look, but I've already asked my main point, so if you can answer that I will be grateful.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Uh, how do I get turtle shells? I've lost three people to a lack of them, but I HAVE turtles, which annoys me to no end. I've fished the turtles, they become raw turtle, I've tried preparing them or cooking them raw, but no dice. I just have no clue how to keep the shell off the turtle. I suspect if I had a dead turtle that was in my refuse pile, caught by a cat perhaps, it would leave a shell, but my cats aren't catching any.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I've noticed you can build gem windows out of three gems; is the value of the window just the combined value of the gems used? Since they can't be moved, I can't remove it or it'll just fragment into its constituents, and they don't show up on the stocks screen. Are they any good in the first place?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Statues act as walls when it comes to defining a room, I've noticed. At one point, I had slowly filled one of the King's rooms until it had a couple layers of them, when I noticed that many of the blue X's that define a room were dark. How does this affect the value of the room? I guess I know dark X's add value to the room without defining it, per se, but what about multiple layers of them? Let's say you had a core sample of Engraved Wall + Statue/Engraved Floor + Statue/Engraved Floor + Engraved Floor. Do the last wall's engravings still count? Or the engravings under the last statue, or the statue itself for that matter? I'm not sure how the game handles multiple walls, I guess.

I get the feeling I had another question, but it has slipped my mind... Anyways, this is a start, and hopefully pretty close to the end of my understanding of room quality. Any and all comments on the subject are welcome. Thanks.

[Cheeetar]

To get turtle shells, a prepared turtle must be eaten. Forbid all foods but prepared turtles and you'll have shells soon. To spruce up room quality, don't add layers of statues, as they block the walls behind them. Instead, make statues which don't block anything. It might also help to have a better engraver, because -engravings- don't do much.

[biomatter]

Worry not; most of my engravings are of the top three levels. Regarding the turtle shells and prepared food: is there a better way to find those in a fort? My food stockpiles are huge; finding the turtles in their barrels could be quite a chore.

Um, and that statues thing you said is very related to my last question. I know it doesn't make sense to have multiple layers of walls as normally the ones in the back would be cut off, but I designated my room before I put the statues down, so multiple layers of inaccessible "walls" are technically part of the room as dark blue X's. What does this mean for my room value?

[E-mouse]

You can locate turtles more easily via the Stocks menu. (z->something) You can forbid the rest of your food there, too. I think?
Like bones, shells have been known to vanish between seasons, though I don't know the conditions: a shells-only refuse stockpile underground is probably your safest bet.

Multiple layers of statues do seem to increase room value (if my 4x5 plain-rock statues+rock chair/table legendary dining halls are any indication), but I've read that blocking a room wall with a statue will remove the engraving's value from the room value. How much this matters depends on whether the statue improves room value more, and statues apparently do not have this "blocking off" effect on other statues.
Also, consider covering the king's "access shaft" to the stuff he actually uses in the room with semi-expensive furniture that doesn't block access, like chests/bags and cabinets. I'm not sure if these will help more than the engravings, but exceptional material or quality might make it worth covering the floor engraving.

[Refar]

You can select individual items from the stocks screen (z).
Might require a good Bookkeeper. (If you dont got a good bookkeeper, make you one - give him a small office and require high precision, won't take long till he reached the required precision (and turned legendary in process)).

Note - make sure your turtles are not cooked.
Lobster work as well.

PS.: I think bone only vanish outdoor. Indoor stockpiles should be safe.

If you can't / don't want to make his rooms bigger you will have to up the quiality (value) of the furniture.
A Artifact bed can do wonders... But can really be anything you got... Mechanisms (traps/levers)... Furniture... - if you got a artifact floodgate, stick it in there... (Just arrange tastefully - tho this is for your eye, not for his ). Build a Forge in there if you got a Golden Anvil  ...

Could also try use ridiculously expensive materials for these statues (and the rest of the furniture)...

[biomatter]

The stocks menu does not help when it comes to locating prepared food. It lists it all as just that, "prepared food".
One person has said to cook the turtles, while another advises against. What is it?

I think I'm going to just forge statues out of silver... what skill does that use? I hope it's metalcrafting, 'cause that's all I have... Though that anvil idea is good, those things seem to be worth a LOT.

Oh, and I have a wonderful bookkeeper on the highest setting, and already had piles for bones/skulls/shells. I really think I'm starting to get this game.... Before this King, I had never had a dwarf dip below "happy" before, disregarding the mentally deranged.

I love this game.

[Refar]

Actually, the Stocks Listing can be very specific, and a good way to locate stuff - even prepared meals. This is why i had mentioned a good bookkeeper.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The whole point here however is:
You don't look for "Prepared Food", you look for Turtles. (These will be listed under "Fish")
You won't get any Shells from eating prepared (cooked) food. (Nor from Cooking it).
You must eat a prepared (like in Processed at Fischery) but not cooked Turtle, to get a shell.

@ Silver Statues - I think it's metalcrafting if you forge it.
You can also use un-smelted metal - these Native Gold or Silver Nugets - it will be masonry then.
(I think using Nugets makes more sense - you will need 3 Gold Bars for one Metal Statue, But you can make 3 if you use the unsmelted Nuggets...)

[Doppel]

Statues are surely worth a lot. A masterful Iron statue is worth 3000, thus if you have plenty of magnetite and a legendary (i think its blacksmith?) then you'll be set. (i do think that engravings behind statues still count towards the value of the room if you designated it to be a room before actually placing the statues.)
As said before, you need to first have a raw turtle (or lobster).
If it rots (prepared at the fishery or not) then you'll have a shell.
If it gets eating then you get a shell.
If you cook it (with a kitchen) then you get no shell.
If you leave shells lying outdoors for too long then they will vanish.
Normally, if i can fish for turtles, then i have huge stockpiles full of shells in no time and enough to last a 100 artifacts easily. (just make sure to put this "shell stockpile", or expensive bones/skulls for that matter, indoors)

[Tcei]

Another thing you can try to boost value is to encrust/stud items in the room with gems,bone,shell,metal, this will help add to the item's value and thus the room's value.

[niaba]

That room is TINY. I'd make it at least twice the size, probably thrice.

[E-mouse]

Oh, that's right.

Do NOT cook turtles. Prepared meals don't leave bone or shell.

[Random832]

The stocks menu does not help when it comes to locating prepared food. It lists it all as just that, "prepared food".
One person has said to cook the turtles, while another advises against. What is it?

Don't _cook_ the turtles - but you have to _clean_ them for the dwarves to eat them. Build a fishery.

[Derakon]

Gems often have impressive values and can be used to add value to any kind of furniture. You can turn a crappy 10-dwarfbuck bed into a blinged-out nest with plenty of gems of different types, increasing its value by several orders of magnitude.

[Rockphed]

Bones aren't worth much in decorations, but adding bone decorations can't hurt either.

[Skanky]

@ Silver Statues - I think it's metalcrafting if you forge it.
You can also use un-smelted metal - these Native Gold or Silver Nugets - it will be masonry then.
(I think using Nugets makes more sense - you will need 3 Gold Bars for one Metal Statue, But you can make 3 if you use the unsmelted Nuggets...)

I agree. Using the ore to make a statue is much better as you use 1/3 of the material, no fuel, and your mason's skill level is likely to be much higher than your metalcrafter's skill. The trick, of course, is to get your mason to make statues out of that ore while stopping any other masons using the ore to make furniture or blocks.