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[Ilmoran]

I think it would be pretty awesome to have moods able to produce engraving artifacts: as in, dwarf claims a a section of hallway 5 tiles wide and 10 tiles long (and if you have a room with multiple z levels, having him engrave walls on upper z levels would be awesome), and goes to town on it for a few weeks to produce a massive engraving.

[Chthonic]

. . . requesting materials, so you get an artifact carved hallway/room inlaid with ivory and precious stones?

[Silverionmox]

...Inlaid with rope reed cloth and cath leather, most likely :p But it's a good idea. I'd like to see mosaics as well, artifact and regular.

[Starver]

...Inlaid with rope reed cloth and cath leather, most likely :p But it's a good idea. I'd like to see mosaics as well, artifact and regular.

And the different types of strange mood could give different styles of engravings.  Fell and/or macabre engraving moods start to give imitations of the HFS engraving patterns (the former still necessitating some 'material' from which to carve/adorn the 'still life' subject of the engravings), with others being more palatable and (at least) Fey moods giving something truly celebratory.

That leads to the nature of the engravings having an effect on the dwarfs passing through the area.  There's a tendency to not step on Moodily Engraved floors that mean something to any passing character, and traveller's personal moods that pass over/by engravings can be swayed (in either direction, by various amounts) by the appropriate racial Ethics/Reactions, personal preferences and other factors of admiration/disgust for the subject and sentiment expressed thereupon...

Imagine getting a particularly trader-friendly or enemy-repulsive segment in a suitable spot to be able to re-route your trader access through that segment of corridor.  Frexample, a Goblin thief having to walk through a corridor adorned with carvings of heroic dwarfs killing various other goblins.  (Could discourage or outrage them.)  And maybe chances of 'accidental' vandalism of the engravings.

[Honalululand]

What worries me is the idea of a dwarf just claiming a section of rock. He might end up engraving where I wanted to fortify, below a cavein trap, in an obsidian farm, or simply 'in the way'. The idea of moody engravings makes sense, but I'm not exactly sure how you could make it work. I suppose you could restrict this to only smooth walls, but I know that I tend to smooth everything in my fort as an exercise for my engravers and I tend to smooth roads on rock before paving them, so even that's less than ideal, at least from my standpoint.

[Ilmoran]

that's less than ideal, at least from my standpoint.

That's why it would fit so well in Dwarf Fortress! 

[PsyberianHusky]

I take your idea and take it up a notch saying Dwarves should take entire rooms and decorate them while in a mood, or work themselves to death trying.

[Neowulf]

Really like the whole rooms idea.

[Pilsu]

Personally I'd just designate a square for him to use. Larger engravings might have their place but they're not implemented right now.

Some other surfaces might be acceptable for a portion of the moods as well, such as a large masterful stone table or throne. A lesser happy thought would be granted to the carver of the original piece of furniture.

[Jake]

On a semi-related note, I'd like to see the subject matter of an engraving or statue have an effect on the thought it produces in anyone who sees it, and conversely the mood of the engraver should affect their choice of subject. Seeing a masterwork engraving of a tentacle demon committing depraved acts upon someone, for example, should really not brighten a dwarf's day unless he happens to like that sort of thing.

[Neonivek]

Well as Toady once suggested having Stone Tablets where Engravings could be created to later be used could help this suggestion along.

Especially seeing the extremely random nature of both artifacts and engravings.

[Starver]

Especially seeing the extremely random nature of both artifacts and engravings.

To those who want to designate where a "Moody Engraving" occurs, it's in reference to the way that (with certain caveats) you can't dictate the nature of the way the mood goes that I think that  you should (if you'll forgive the phrase) "take the rough with the smooth" when it comes to hypothetical claiming of corridor space for mood-induced engraving.

Or, as also mentioned, confine it to creating 'facia slabs', able to be be hung on walls wherever one might wish at a later date.  Whether or not non-mood slabs are also added to the game.


Which reminds me, I might as well tell a tale.  Largely irrelevant to this discussion, but I'm bursting to say something so...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

A Gem Cutter went on a fey mood last night on my first V3 fortress[1] and apparently used just one raw gem (should have checked the 'T' on the workshop to make sure) to create a Spesspartine (or whatever jewel it was) Throne With Spikes Of Spesspartine as the artefact.

Is this a rebalancing away from "cloth hammers with spikes of spiders silk, bands of leather, images of a itself in pig tail cloth adorned with more images of itself on pig tail cloth, etc, etc", or have I just produced my most minimalist artefact purely by chance?



[1] Which I may not want to continue with, my best-laid plans did not take into account the 'new' farming method requiring mud, pooled water evaporated too quickly for me to make an underground cistern[2] and while I can survive on outside plants[3] and I've managed to get both summer and autumn waves of immigrants[4], I severely neglected the booze for the first couple of seasons and just had my expedition leader (also bookkeeper and every other non-military appointed role except Emergency Medical Hologram^W^W^Wchief medical guy[5]) die of thirst due to be being too busy to drink the batch of booze I finally made in Early autumn.  Which I understand from other messages gives rather a killer bug, as far as nobles is concerned.

[2] No aquifer found yet, and can't even remember if I 'ordered' one in the Finder, or where in the landscape it might have been indicated to exist if it did so...

[3] I embarked high in the mountains and may have forgone caravans (if the pre-embark screens were right) due to inaccessibility.  Maybe I'll play it on until the end of winter to make sure, regardless of other issues.

[4] Interesting.  Best individual skill I got was a level 13 (my own notation: dabbling is zero, professional is 9, forget what 13 is) gem cutter in the autumn wave.  But it was the level 10 gem cutter from summer who went legendary through the mood...

[5] For whom I chose a founding dwarf with just the right attributes to give medical skills to, prior to embark.  Highly resistant to disease himself, very quick to heal, and (in lieu of a "cold hands" attribute) absolutely no empathy at all.