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[GRead]

Given I've recently become a Decoration nut, I find myself really longing for the ability to decorate objects with stone at the craftsdwarf's workshop.
It would work just like decorate with shell, bone, encrust with gems, etc. etc. but would use non-economic rock instead.
It occurred to me when the dwarven caravan sold me a suit of platemail that menaced with spikes of conglomerate. If they get to decorate with rock, why can't I?
Don't think there would be a balance problem either; for simple generation of wealth crafts\toys would still be superior, as you get 1 decoration vs. 3 crafts\toys. As decoration is all about boosting the value of specific items it could also give additional utility to all those random stones out there that are identical but for their colour.

[Torak]

Yes but decoration isnt supposed to be that easy, stone decorations (along with wood) were never added because of balance reasons, Im assuming, because stone and wood are so very easy to get, and decorations are such an improvement to an item's value, that you could get enough value to get anything you want in years with only a few season's worth of stone decorating.

[GRead]

maybe it's just because I've taken a liking to ocean maps but I have runestones in my viking fort with something like 15 decorations, all of them done in various types of bone. I'm not sure if I quite see the difference in value between decorating and making crafts though. I.E., said runestone is worth something like 700, vs. its original value of 300. given the skill of the bonecarver I think making crafts out of said bones would yield more than 400? unless, of course, I am misunderstanding the way decorations add value.
Granted, stone is bloody everywhere, but then you're still considering turning it into a decoration vs. turning it into crafts, and you're still stuck with 1 decoration per kind of stone.
also also, I learned in that fort that the real road to wealth and buying out caravans is having a good cook and making lavish meals. wow those things are worth so much vs. the cost of their components.

[penguinofhonor]

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[veryinky]

I was really disappointed I couldn't decorate my oak beds with maple.

A marble table with an image made out of obsidian would be nice.

[numerobis]

I don't understand the balance issue that Torak raises.  Except for bolts, decorations don't seem unbalanced at the moment.  And if one stone ($3) turns into one decoration ($10) that's less extra money than one stone into three mugs ($30).

[DJ]

I wouldn't care if decorations added just the value of raw stone. They'd be great for packing a lot of stone into little weight, so more of it can get carried away by caravans.

[Dame de la Licorne]

Sorry for the necromancy, but since I had exactly the same idea, I didn't want to start a new thread.

Yes but decoration isnt supposed to be that easy, stone decorations (along with wood) were never added because of balance reasons, Im assuming, because stone and wood are so very easy to get, and decorations are such an improvement to an item's value, that you could get enough value to get anything you want in years with only a few season's worth of stone decorating.

I don't believe that this balance issue would cause many problems, since we can already decorate anything we like with bone, which is nearly as easy to get, even if the only sources are goblins and kobolds.  If a given fort also makes a habit of raising animals, the source of bones and the number of items that could be decorated with bones increases greatly.  Granted, you would have access to a lot more stone than bone, but balancing it out would be fairly easy, I think.  If the added stone only adds the stone base value (3$) to the decorated item, it wouldn't artificially raise the value too high, unless the item was decorated with every single different stone.  Having every goblin siege drop $30,000+ worth of goods is far more unbalanced than allowing stone and wood decorations, imo.

[Warlord255]

A compromise; allow masons, stoneworkers or gemcutters (whichever is best suite) to cut fancy stones (Obsidian, Cinnabar, Cobaltite, Marble, Alabaster... list could be quite long.) into gems for gem setting.

[Tigershark13]

hm.... that could be cool, but it could just be something that adds an insignificant amount of value to the piece, I mean the only possible balance problem would be with experience, but for that you can just put crafts on repeat

[Rysith]

A compromise; allow masons, stoneworkers or gemcutters (whichever is best suite) to cut fancy stones (Obsidian, Cinnabar, Cobaltite, Marble, Alabaster... list could be quite long.) into gems for gem setting.

You can already do that fairly easily: Since cut small gems don't have quality levels, you can define obsidian gems in the raws (with no environment, so they don't show up) and a reaction to take an obsidian stone and produce some number of small obsidian gems in the smelter.

[Dame de la Licorne]

A compromise; allow masons, stoneworkers or gemcutters (whichever is best suite) to cut fancy stones (Obsidian, Cinnabar, Cobaltite, Marble, Alabaster... list could be quite long.) into gems for gem setting.

Nice.  If you look at modern jewelry, not all of the "gemstones" are gems, they can be highly polished and finished bits of rock.  So if we gave the task to gemcutters, it would make them somewhat more useful, while at the same time using up some of the excess stone.  And with the extra work, the standard bonus from decorating [insert favorite item here] with [insert favorite stone here] would make more sense.

[SomGuye]

Good God yes!
A use for Gem cutters other than cannon fodder and miners!

[Hyndis]

Imported items and artifacts can already have wood or stone decorations, yet we cannot produce them ourselves in our own forts.

It would be nice to be able to make everything menace with spikes of obsidian. 

[Silverionmox]

A compromise; allow masons, stoneworkers or gemcutters (whichever is best suite) to cut fancy stones (Obsidian, Cinnabar, Cobaltite, Marble, Alabaster... list could be quite long.) into gems for gem setting.

Yes! Let's merge the stone layer, mineral and gem raws, they're all minerals with overlapping qualities anyway. That would be more flexible too.

A decorations raw wouldn't be crazy either, in which to mod everything from description to price. It's not like the prices of the game stuff are balanced now anyway, so we'd better let not weigh these concerns too heavily on the discussion.