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[Fossaman]

Besides which, any player implemented mods will most likely need updating every time save compatibility is broken. Given the amount of work left in the game, I doubt that the save format will remain the same for the rest of development. Toady has the ability to hard code this stuff.

There's already a lighting arc planned, where Toady mentions planning the ability to track light based on RGB values. This would fit in well with colored glass in shades other than green or clear.

(Incidentally, people saying 'but you could mod this!' is one of my pet peeves in game design forums. Yes, you probably could, but it's a fun feature that a person who doesn't know about or can't figure out mods would miss out on. If it adds to the game in a way the developer likes, it should be packaged with the vanilla version of the game.)

[Footkerchief]

Having the pane of a window made from a single ruby or an emerald, let alone from a diamond, just seems silly to me (sorry, but it does), and it takes away from the value rare and precious gems should have.

To be fair, the game is ambiguous about how many gemstones are in a "cut sapphires" item or whatever -- even a single item is referred to in the plural.  But yeah, it's silly.

[alway]

Having the pane of a window made from a single ruby or an emerald, let alone from a diamond, just seems silly to me (sorry, but it does), and it takes away from the value rare and precious gems should have.

Dwarves are small, they don't need big tall windows to get a good view of... Well, a wall in most cases.

[BigFatDwarf]

But they do need a spectacular, colored view of the brand new *television.
Just thought of a funny dwarven ad they'd make:
Gem televisions: Show them elves in a new light! And right in your bedroom!
Availible in exchange for 300 shitty microcline crafts today!

Spoiler: *television (click to show/hide)

a window, showing a combination of treehuggers + magma/carped river

But gems aren't that rare and expensive at all. Even the most rare variant is kinda worthless. Plus they ship tons of the ''rare'' ones from Mountainhomes.

[LegoLord]

But gems aren't that rare and expensive at all. Even the most rare variant is kinda worthless. Plus they ship tons of the ''rare'' ones from Mountainhomes.

That doesn't mean that gems, in real life, are like that.

[BigFatDwarf]

But gems aren't that rare and expensive at all. Even the most rare variant is kinda worthless. Plus they ship tons of the ''rare'' ones from Mountainhomes.

That doesn't mean that gems, in real life, are like that.

Ironically, it is, in a way. Gems are just a lot of hype. They're rare and worthless, but hype made them expensive.

My sister has a emerald ring. And guess what? Nothing special.

Only reason people buy gems is because they have hype. and hype made them valuable, in a way. But basically, they're ugly and worthless.

[LegoLord]

You're kidding, right?  It's the rarity that makes them valuable.  And people think they're pretty, and some, at least, have a range of uses (diamonds).  There is every reason for gems to be valuable.

Why is anything expensive?  Why are there so many useful things that aren't expensive? 

The most useful things are so useful because they are inexpensive.  Look at PVC pipes, for example.  They're dirt cheap, but dead useful.

Then you have gold.  That didn't have any use other than jewelry for ages; now, we use it for oxidation protection (plating) and conductors.  In other words, very little other than jewelry.

[Fossaman]

Diamonds actually are a great deal more common than we are led to believe. The DeBeers diamond cartel controls the supply of diamonds to approximately match the demand, based on the number of marriages in the U.S. each year or some such.

The real value of diamonds comes in the cutting process. It takes a long time to learn to cut diamonds (and other hard stones, like ruby and emerald), and a long time to actually do the cutting, even if you're a legendary gem cutter.

Some gem types are a lot rarer than others; emeralds, rubies, and sapphires are a lot less common than diamonds are. It's only diamond's artificially inflated value that makes them compare, pricewise.

[Hungry]

diamonds are quite .....simple....

[alway]

Diamond = squished coal.

[BigFatDwarf]

Diamond = squished coal.

Not quite so simple. Coal is in fact a Carbonhydrogen, while Diamond is pure Carbon. Big diffrence.

[LegoLord]

Hydrocarbon is the term for hydrogen-carbon based substances, by the way.  They are the simplest organic compounds. 

There's even a big difference between diamond and graphite.  Not sure how to put it down here, but I'll try:

Code: (graphite) [Select]

     .
   C---C
 ./. . .\.
 C       C
 .\. . ./.
   C---C
     .It's basically a ring.  Those little dots are un-bonded electrons (I'm about 90% sure about those on the inside of the ring).  This makes graphite fairly weak, and is why it works for pencils; the rings of graphite basically slip right off.

Diamond is a little trickier.  Picture this.  You have a carbon atom, and off it com four other carbon atoms, each of those four making equal angles with the one in the center (a tetrahedral shape).  Then imagine each of those carbon atoms being the center of their own tetrahedral carbon formation.  Diamond is that repeated over and over again.  You get a giant crystal lattice of the kind you normally get with ionic compounds.

[Mel_Vixen]

Selenite (the german might know the term "Marienglas") in its purest forms was indeed used for windows of shrines, reliquies, and sometimes important churches because it had a uniform thickness and contained no airbubles like many middleaged Glas variants.

Anyway the topic was fun with chemicals. I would like to see two things:

1) etching with acid.
2) Porcelain

[alway]

I want to see chemical explosions/burns.
*drops a vial into main entrance way*
BAM!!
*all orcs run away screaming as their flesh melts from the chemicals*

[G-Flex]

Hydrocarbon is the term for hydrogen-carbon based substances, by the way.  They are the simplest organic compounds. 

There's even a big difference between diamond and graphite.  Not sure how to put it down here, but I'll try:

Code: (graphite) [Select]

     .
   C---C
 ./. . .\.
 C       C
 .\. . ./.
   C---C
     .It's basically a ring.  Those little dots are un-bonded electrons (I'm about 90% sure about those on the inside of the ring).  This makes graphite fairly weak, and is why it works for pencils; the rings of graphite basically slip right off.

Diamond is a little trickier.  Picture this.  You have a carbon atom, and off it com four other carbon atoms, each of those four making equal angles with the one in the center (a tetrahedral shape).  Then imagine each of those carbon atoms being the center of their own tetrahedral carbon formation.  Diamond is that repeated over and over again.  You get a giant crystal lattice of the kind you normally get with ionic compounds.

Graphite doesn't involve any unbonded electrons. The reason it's weak is because it's arranged in a 2D lattice, stacked in sheets that are easy to slide off each other and break. (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Graphite-sheet-3D-balls.png ) This makes it pretty soft.

Granted, each carbon atom in a graphite lattice is only directly bonded to three others instead of four, but all the electrons ARE bonded (there are double bonds involved).

Diamond is hard because it's a large three-dimensional structure. It's still surprisingly easy to shatter, though.

Also, pretty much anything will form a crystal, not just ionic compounds. Technically, graphite is also a crystalline structure, and pretty much any gem you can think of is covalent, not ionically bonded.