40d Talk:Block

Actually the values are off. the base value of wood is 1. But a piece of wood has a value multiplier of 3. And a block a multiplier of 5. Should I add this, this might confuse newbies. --Soyweiser 10:02, 5 November 2007 (EST)

Raw value, shape modifier, resultant value? I think people can cope with that. --Matryx 10:21, 5 November 2007 (EST)

Quote:

but the difference is purely in the value

My observations suggest that when marking economic stone as green, dwarves can build of it, but blocks are still ignored. Hellzon or irc said blocks can only be used to build buildings, wells and pumps. So that would make the above statement false. --Mizipzor 12:47, 9 November 2007 (EST)

You can build walls and buildings out of blocks and stone (some buildings require blocks) but I don't think you can craft blocks. --Penguinofhonor 15:19, 15 December 2007 (EST)

Quote:

This doesn't apply to blocks made out of metals.

Why is that? in my experience it's working just fine (golden blocks worth 150, copper blocks worth 10... just as they should)--Dorten 00:26, 4 February 2008 (EST)

Naming

Does "block" ever occur in the singular in Dwarf Fortress? I think block should redirect to blocks, rather than vice versa. --JT 13:31, 8 November 2007 (EST)

Seconded. You make rock blocks, metal blocks, wooden blocks and glass blocks. A bunch of blocks, a pile of blocks, you name it yourself. The game always call one unit of them as "blocks"--Dorten 00:26, 4 February 2008 (EST)

Rule N says that it should be called "Block," and is there really any actual problem with it? Not doing it, on the other hand, could confuse wiki-newbies. --Savok 10:26, 4 February 2008 (EST)

Construction

Does making a construction out of blocks instead of raw stone allow the construction to go faster? (I'm thinking along the lines that it's easier to work with bricks and mortar than raw stone and mortar) Fephisto 22:39, 26 March 2008 (EDT)

i dont know, it should, you would think, but mabey the time makeing the blosk is greater than the time saved?

As far as I can tell from experimentation, making constructions with blocks rather than raw stone simply increases the value of the architecture (which pleases dwarves and attracts immigrants). It is far slower, due to the additional time required to carve the blocks. Iituem 11:43, 29 July 2008 (GMT)

Well, yeah, it's slower that way - the question is, is it faster if you already have blocks? (i.e. have your mason turning out blocks while you've not yet thought of what constructions to have built; will it be faster to turn those into a construction?) Random832 14:04, 14 October 2008 (EDT)

Well, since blocks can be stored in bins you can save a whole lot of hauling time when building with them. I don't think it speeds up the actual build though.--Bilkinson 16:36, 14 October 2008 (EDT)

I'll second that, I've been building quite a castle (about 120x120 at the max size) and am 2k blocks in so far. Switching replacing stone from block appears to have no effect on the speed of construction, although masonry (I *think*) appears to make it go faster. The hauling time is nothing to sneeze at though, having them drag the blocks to a central distribution area really speeds up the work.--Gotthard 22:05, 14 October 2008 (EDT)

Testing seems to indicate that construction speed is independent of the material being used - a wall takes the same amount of time to build whether it's made from rough stone or stone blocks. Further testing would need to be done to see if the same applies for wood logs/wooden blocks or metal bars/blocks, but in all likelihood there won't be any difference. --Quietust 18:16, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Ice blocks

Is it possible to make ice blocks? --locolan 02:28, 15 June 2008 (EDT)

I don't think so, any more than it's possible to create ice statues or furniture from ice. Only stone, metal, and glass can be turned into blocks, and water, even frozen water, is none of the above. -Fuzzy 08:13, 19 November 2008 (EST)

Ice is treated as a stone when mined. --GreyMaria 16:45, 26 November 2008 (EST)

If you forbid all normal stone and make orders at the mason's shop, your mason cancels them claiming he 'needs access to non-economic stone'. So Ice can not be used to make blocks. --Squirrelloid 18:44, 26 November 2008 (EST)

Ice isn't in the raws as a stone type. If it were, it'd have to show up in stone layers, instead of places where it actually made sense, which could cause problems if it melted. Being inaccessible in the raws basically amounts to being unable to make anything out of it, even if it's treated as a stone otherwise. Ice also shows up as a 'glob' if it melts and refreezes, or if it forms from freezing water carried in a bucket or waterskin, so it's treated like other such materials there, too. You can't melt ice into metal bars, though, so it's totally useless in that state, again.--Navian 18:58, 26 November 2008 (EST)

Parry

I don't have the wiki know-how, but perhaps someone should add one of those little things at the top giving people the link to parrying and shields page, just fpr the sake of newbies--- Mr.Dwarf

Blocks -> Stone

Yes, I did just accidentally cause a small lava flood onto my block pile, why do you ask? Anyway, some curious notes:

1) It is possible to achieve this with a wooden bin, but don't count on it. You'll have to apply enough heat to melt the blocks without the bin being totally destroyed - Seeing as I just lost ~40 bins of blocks and only have 1 wooden bin which managed to achieve this, I wouldn't count on it.

2) molten stone, and hardened stone that was formerly molten, have no value when looked at with 'k'. I am not sure if one can craft or build with them.

3) It is unclear whether a dwarf can pick up the undamaged metal bin with molten stone in it - do metal objects have a heat parameter? If you can, is it possible to trade molten stone to traders - will they light on fire when you do so?

--Squirrelloid 01:59, 20 November 2008 (EST)

Quite an interesting discovery. To answer #2, why don't you plunk down a mason's shop nearby and see if the stone gets used?--Maximus 02:36, 20 November 2008 (EST)

A bit of an old comment, but for #2, the cooled stone isn't actually a stone, but is a glob of stone which would, if it were merely on the floor, be removed from existence by a dwarf with the Cleaning labor. --Quietust 04:34, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Weight

I think it should be mentioned that blocks are considerably heavier than stone.--CrazyMcfobo 01:39, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

Figure out the ratio and edit it in! It should(?) be a constant.--Albedo 07:03, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

Are you sure you aren't thinking of metal bars? Most stone weighs 801Γ per stone, whereas blocks weigh 667Γ per block. Platinum nuggets weigh 6420Γ, whereas native platinum blocks weigh 5350Γ. So raw stone seems to weigh 20% more than blocks. More specifically, comparing the weights with the multipliers listed under Armor tells us that stone has a base weight of 300 and blocks have a base weight of 250. However, metal bars have a base weight of 200. This means that stone blocks are lighter than stone, but metal blocks are heavier than metal. --LaVacaMorada 06:30, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

smelting from blocks?

I bought some blocks of iron-bearing ores from a caravan thinking I would be able to make iron from them, but I can't see a way to smelt them. Is this possible? Hv 01:30, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

Nope - stone blocks are only useful as building materials (or being requested by moody dwarves - it's always a good idea to keep a few native platinum blocks around). --Quietust 01:41, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

This needs to be on the wiki. If you're a new user without metal when a caravan comes, you spend a lot of money. Then a lot of time trying to find this on the wiki. 68.32.193.245Chezzo

If somebody's new to Dwarf Fortress, they're not likely to be playing a version as old as 0.28.181.40d... --Quietust 20:45, 15 December 2012 (UTC)