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[penco]

Since oils are being added to the game, why not oil-based paints, too?

At a crafter's shop, there's the option to make paint by mixing oil with pigment (and maybe lead for realism). Pigment is made at a workshop by grinding certain colored stones into a powder and placing it in a bag.

After the paint is made, the player can designate a non-soil wall or floor to be painted a certain color, as long as the appropriate paint is available.


The purpose is to allow players the option of controlling the color of their fort. This is already possible by micromanaging colored stone constructions, but this is very tedious and time-consuming. The paint would be just for aesthetic purposes and would add little to no value to the room.

Players making megaprojects or just players who are very anal would really enjoy the ability to color-coordinate things.

[Uristocrat]

Sounds good to me!  Maybe they could even clean the walls when they paint them (because, right now, it's hard to get them to clean walls....)

That said, people will definitely micromanage things anyhow, but it's still a good idea.

[Neowulf]

You got my vote.

[penco]

For realism, lead could be added to the list of ingredients to make the paint. This would have the added benefit of making lead useful for something besides just heavy bins and barrels.

[NW_Kohaku]

Technically, you probably want plants, mostly, as the color sources.

Also, oil painting only really got big past the Rennaisance.  Egg tempura painting, frescos, and mosaics would probably be better ideas for general artworks.

Before Max_White comes in, remember that you can already do things like create blue stones that aren't in nature in the raws, and set up custom reactions to create a blue-painted block in some sort of custom workshop, and then construct those blue-painted blocks as your floors and walls. 

[penco]

The pigments of oil paints actually come mostly from minerals.

I guess tempera paint would be an option since there will apparently be eggs and such in the next update (right?).

Perhaps the paint could also be used as a substitute for engravings on surfaces not made of stone.

----

As for modding it yourself, the option you gave for modding would be as much or more of a hassle than just micromanaging colored stones the way it currently exists.

[Neowulf]

Urist McFaberge withdraws from society...

[Artzbacher]

Nice suggestion.

I'd like this:

1. Rough floors/walls cannot be painted
2. Engraving a painted wall results in the paint being removed.

[NW_Kohaku]

The pigments of oil paints actually come mostly from minerals.

In the Middle Ages and Ancient World, you didn't find all your colors in mineral form: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigment#History

Plants were used to make indigo, since the only mineral blue would be things like lapis lazuli, which was absurdly expensive to import from places like Afghanistan, and you had red dyes as an extract of insects.  For the most part, mineral dyes were coming from iron oxides, which were some variant of red, orange, or brown. 

Frescos, by the way, are pigments applied to the plaster, and allowed to set onto the wall you are putting the fresco into.  (Think Sistine Chapel)

Egg Tempera is pigment in watered-down egg yolk.  (Think Birth of Venus)  The positives of tempera are its very bright colors (important since they had crappy dyes), and its fast drying rate.  Tempera's downside was the inability to mix colors on the surface of the painting. 

Oil paint was very rare until just after the technological cutoff date of about 1400.  The slow drying process of oil paints were seen as a negative, compared to the quicker-drying tempera.  They also tended to crack and peel with most ancient recepies. 

[Max White]

This is the kind of idea that I will support, however, also say that there are other ideas that should be implmented first... So were we to ever see this in game it may be twenty years from now. Still, best of luck!

[NW_Kohaku]

I don't know, I think sometimes, the easy stuff gets to jump ahead in line, just because the opportunity cost is fairly small.  That's why we're getting bees next release, but army arc has to wait until caravan arc is over, and it's coming in tiny bits and pieces.

Adding in reactions, expanding already existing functions like designating engraving, these aren't things that would really tax Toady too much as a programmer, and would give him something to throw out as a new thing to the people who are impatient for new things while he goes back and does something more complicated like bug squashing or adding in the background coding for some of the arcs with the rest of his time.

[Lex Talionias]

well i like the idea of any kinda painting as long as i can get my fortress to finally be all the one color. seriously, why are there no nice solid slabs of stone for me to carve my home out in? always one color then then the next with 3 rainbow ore veins running through it and gem sparkles just coz 'tortured construct' isn't fabulous enough yet!

[Durin Stronginthearm]

I support this. Even having whitewash would be a start.

[penco]

Regardless of whether oil paints are slightly anachronistic, what use is there currently for oil? Practically none. I guess eggs are in the same boat, though, so either would be good. Still, I would not call oil paints any more anachronistic than pig iron or the incredibly intricate mechanical devices dwarves can currently create.

While I understand your point regarding plants as pigments, considering there are so many diversely colored gems and rocks already anyway, it would be more uniform and only slightly less realistic to have all mineral-based pigments.

Plant pigments are already used in dyes, and they should stay in that niche for balance reasons.

[NW_Kohaku]

Dyes are pigments.  The same plants that make indigo dyes are what make indigo pigments.  It's just that, instead of putting the pigments into oil or egg or plaster, you put the pigments into an "aqueous solution" instead.  (The crushed mushrooms used for indigo dye are a powder, but it is applied as a liquid in a bucket at the dyer's workshop.)

What kind of solution is used in DF is anybody's guess.  It would be something that is acidic or basic in nature, however, so perhaps small quantities of heavily diluted lye could be used, or ammonia for that matter.  Toady's industrial model thus far has been to make objects only take one unit of something, based upon whatever is the "most important" substance in the object.  (Picks are solid metal, no wooden handle, barrels are all wood, no metal banding, etc.)

Incidentally, searching a bit came up with this:  http://users.frii.com/sos/