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[Crifmer]

I have a quick question regarding building materials...

Is there any sort of "real" benefit to using rock blocks for construction, rather than just stone?  For walls, for instance.  I mean besides value.  I think using rock blocks increases the value of the construction/room itself, thereby increasing the happy thoughts for dwarfs, but is there any other benefit than that?

[Urist Imiknorris]

Blocks can be carried around in bins. Other than that and the small value increase, there is no point.

[Victuz]

There is point if you want to build walls worth a crap. If they are made from stone they will have less value than those made out of blocks (and that's a thing since you can't engrave them)

[gtmattz]

Building out of hewn blocks does give a slightly higher architectural value, however I, personally, like to use rough stone here and there for aesthetic purposes.  Sometimes a rough rock construction just feels right.

[Crifmer]

Thanks, guys.

So then, other than giving my mason(s) some xp, there's really no point to making rock blocks other than for buildings that explicitly need rock blocks...

Good to know.

[Leonidas]

So then, other than giving my mason(s) some xp, there's really no point to making rock blocks other than for buildings that explicitly need rock blocks...

Not quite.  Your original question was about contruction.  In DF "construction" is very different from "building."

There's very little reason to construct constructions out of rock blocks, except imaginary snob value.  But there's at least one very good reason to build buildings out of blocks.

You may eventually find it useful to forbid certain types of stone from the stocks screen.  If you ever do that, you will also inadvertently forbid all the workshops that are made from those stones.  Then your production stops in those workshops, and you don't know why.  For that reason, I use only rock blocks in building my buildings.

[Krall]

I believe blocks stack, or they can be stacked by putting them in bins. If you have a ton of stone lying everywhere, being able to stack them is a real bonus and saves a lot of space.

Oh, also rock blocks weigh less than rough stone, so trade caravans can carry more of them, meaning you can sell more of them to trade caravans.

[Corambis]

I have my masons making stone blocks pretty much non-stop, mostly to help clear out the rough stone left by my miners, and it's also an easy way to get your masons experience.  I can then designate stockpiles for the stone, where it can be stored in bins.  Since this results in a huge buildup of blocks eventually, I pretty much use blocks exclusively to build constructions, just to use them up.  Eventually, I'll be building outside walls and towers up higher, just to keep using up these blocks, and keep my dwarves busy, instead of idling.  The downside, at least in the more recent versions of DF, is that it raises the value of your fortress enough so that you get more immigrants.  Or that may just be part of the migration bugs.

[Crifmer]

You may eventually find it useful to forbid certain types of stone from the stocks screen.  If you ever do that, you will also inadvertently forbid all the workshops that are made from those stones.  Then your production stops in those workshops, and you don't know why.  For that reason, I use only rock blocks in building my buildings.

Ooooooo... that's good to know, too.  I don't know if I'd ever do this (honestly, I'm not sure it would ever have occured to me without someone mentioning it), but I could see myself making this sort of mistake and not knowing what happened.

As for the stacking issue, I'm a big fan of quantum stockpiling, so that doesn't quite matter to me, but it might.

Now, selling the rock blocks.... that's not a bad idea....

Thanks for all the info, guys.  I've still got a lot to learn about the intricacies of DF.

[Quietust]

You may eventually find it useful to forbid certain types of stone from the stocks screen.  If you ever do that, you will also inadvertently forbid all the workshops that are made from those stones.  Then your production stops in those workshops, and you don't know why.  For that reason, I use only rock blocks in building my buildings.

Trouble is, I also occasionally forbid certain types of stone blocks (for possibly the same reason), and for this reason I typically make it a point to eventually construct all of my workshops from either glass (preferably clear, since it looks nicer) or metal blocks (rather than bars, so I can look at Z-Stocks and get an accurate count of how many bars I have left of each type).

[Seriyu]

As a question that goes along with this, can you smelt ore rock blocks, make tables/chairs etc out of normal stone? And so on?

[Jacob/Lee]

Blocks are more or less useless for anything but construction, as they cannot be used to make things.

[Seriyu]

Hmm, okay. Thanks.

[proxn_punkd]

Blocks are more or less useless for anything but construction, as they cannot be used to make things.

Except the almighty screw pump.

[Jacob/Lee]

Blocks are more or less useless for anything but construction, as they cannot be used to make things.

Except the almighty screw pump.

And a well, but that isn't the point.