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[deathc4]

I was thinking that if you built a wall out of stone blocks you should be able to engrave them. But if you deconstruct them you get the stone back, not the block. This would give people a little more incentive to build rock blocks and plus it just makes more sense that you are able to engrave stone walls.

[Ravenplucker]

I agree, since most of my fortresses are above ground I sometimes have trouble raising the value of rooms and such.

[Impaler[WrG]]

Only about the millionth time that's been suggested, its also #17 on the Eternal Suggestions Voting list which is at the top of the page, please do some searching before you start a thread.

[Amalgam]

Pretty sure it was discussed before. The kind of blocks used in constructing walls are too small and leave far too many seams to be a viable surface for engraving. Unless I'm mistaken engravings have traditionally always been done on items or natural walls (egyptians for example), or any panels of stone large enough for a decent engraving. Most architectural art was done in the form of tapestries, murals, mosaics and stained glass. I might be missing a few, but I think those would make some flavorful above-ground replacements for engravings. Statues are getting some action in the next version too.

Though, there could be an exception to this. I imagine stone flooring would use fairly large panels which might be suitable for engraving, and who's to say you couldn't apply some panels to walls too? Perhaps there could be a "panel wall" designation that lets you prepare walls for engraving at the cost of an additional block. Though I think I might be getting a little too deep into this.

[SSBR]

Unless I'm mistaken engravings have traditionally always been done on items or natural walls (egyptians for example)

Egyptians engraved their stone blocks. They engraved pretty much everything. For example, the interior of their tombs were engraved-- and while many of these tombs were constructed out of natural tomb, there are the pyramids to consider.

You might be thinking of the smaller-sized bricks we use in modern construction, but blocks can be quite large, and relatively free of seams (not to mention the seams can be integrated into the art, as barriers etc.)

[deathc4]

Only about the millionth time that's been suggested, its also #17 on the Eternal Suggestions Voting list which is at the top of the page, please do some searching before you start a thread.

Sorry, did a search and didn't seem to come up with anything.

[Impaler[WrG]]

The kind of blocks used in constructing walls are too small and leave far too many seams to be a viable surface for engraving. Unless I'm mistaken engravings have traditionally always been done on items or natural walls (egyptians for example), or any panels of stone large enough for a decent engraving.

They most certainly did do engravings in blocks, the seams are not at all an issue, no more then the lines on notebook paper prevent you from drawing a pencil sketch on it, it might not look as nice that's all.  If were talking about mud-dried bricks or perhaps even clay bricks then you'd have an argument that these surfaces just can't be engraved do to their extreme crumbliness but a Stone block is just as engravable as a wall of the same rock.

[Dakk]

Even if it has been discussed a bajillion times before:

Walls contructed out of rough stones shound't engravable  for obvious reasons, but I don't see why block walls shound't be engravable. I mean, the egyptians did it (unless you think their huge temples were carved out of colossal slabs of rock they somehow found laying around in the desert), the greeks most certainly did it, so did the romans. In fact, I think engraved contructed walls are far more common then engraved living stone walls. There would be restrictions regarding material and stuff of course.

Walls made of metal should be quite a bit harder to engrave, and wooden walls should be engravable, but would lose the engraving after enough time has passed (something around 10 years if the wall's outside, far more if its inside), etc.

[Amalgam]

Huh. I hadn't thought about larger blocks, I've always imagined them being roughly cinderblock-sized. If the blocks were as big as the ones in pyramids you could definitely engrave some things without worrying about seams. I'm still not sure how engravings would look if done on blocks, but it's surely doable.

Perhaps there could be a sort of surface quality modifier determined by the quality of the blocks and the skill of the builder? Or we can just change "blocks" to "block" and call it good, heh he.

@Dakk: Hmm... I'm just going to take your word for it I guess

[qoonpooka]

Huh. I hadn't thought about larger blocks, I've always imagined them being roughly cinderblock-sized. If the blocks were as big as the ones in pyramids you could definitely engrave some things without worrying about seams. I'm still not sure how engravings would look if done on blocks, but it's surely doable.

Yeah, the data we have here are confusing.

On the one hand, a single dwarf can carry a single block without any significant loss of speed, and the blocks weigh less than some armor you can make.

On the other hand, you can build a dwarf-sized section of wall out of just one.

The latter suggests engravability, the former suggests this is a bug.

[Shurhaian]

Though the relative weight is an issue, doesn't a single unit show up as "blocks"? This suggests that what you really have is a significant number of squared-off blocks.

The ease of carrying them may be an oversight, and might get remedied once better hauling is implemented; as it is, blocks are so often used in quantity that making them hard to haul under the current system would be punishing. The difference in value between them and rough stone wouldn't justify the extra effort in making blocks, if they were just as hard to haul - not least because a bin of blocks might as well be a platinum statue at that point, and that's if made from a reasonably "light" stone. A bin of platinum blocks would take a year just to move from point A to point B, for points not all THAT far apart.

[alfie275]

How about if the blocks could be engraved at a workshop? If you do it at workshop you can tell them what things to engrave from a list of events and subjects but if you engrave straight onto a wall you can't.

[Hyndis]

You already can engrave built walls, but it does require exploiting a bug. Unfortunately the bug is too clunky to really use well.

Also structures are routinely engraved that are built out of constructed blocks. Egyptian monuments are the best example of this of course. Greeks and Romans also did this. Even modern day stone structures tend to be heavily engraved.

So its not that engraving constructed block walls and floors is unrealistic, its just not in the game yet for some reason. Likely its just because it needs to wait in line, with the other eleventy billion important things that also need to be put into the game.

Toady is just one man, after all.

[Dakk]

Egyptian.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Roman

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Greek

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

http://www.travelswithsheila.com/mini-templeofconcord%20(2).jpg

Greek example is sorta ambigous, but I'm pretty sure they did it too.

[Amalgam]

Egyptian.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Roman

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Greek

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

http://www.travelswithsheila.com/mini-templeofconcord%20(2).jpg

Greek example is sorta ambigous, but I'm pretty sure they did it too.

*wishes this forum has a thumbs-up emote >.>*

Yeah, that doesn't look too bad, a historical example helps a lot. Still, I can't speak for the ancient egyptian engravers but if I had to do a commission for someone on a surface like that my brain would probably hemorrhage. That's just my OCD talking though