40d Talk:Stone detailing

Calling the process tedious and adding opinion really violates the whole idea behind a wiki voice and wiki style. Just my .02 since you asked for more than one opinion in your comment when you reverted Maximus's edit. (Executive Summary: Maximus had the right idea.) --Vanan 02:42, 24 November 2007 (EST)

I agree, the columns should be neutral. I for one find Stone Detailing useful. --Jackard 04:40, 24 November 2007 (EST)

I suppose it could be called "time-consuming", rather than "tedious", which may preserve the original intent while seeming more neutral. And it does seem time-consuming at lower skill levels, whether it's useful or not. (I know my just-immigrated Engraver's been smoothing the same 10x15 area for roughly a year.) Haven't built up a legendary Engraver yet, so I don't know how much faster it'll eventually get. The "one dwarf in 20 should have Engraving" recommendation does seem like it might be a little high to me, but then again, I guess I don't prioritize stone detailing the way some other players must. --Brent Not Broken 09:33, 24 November 2007 (EST)

I reworded the one in 20 sentence to "Some players assign about one dwarf in 20 to this labor." but it still seems out of place to me. Everyone plays the game differently, they can figure out their own needs for it. I for one just assign all my incoming immigrants, and all my peasants to it. --Turgid Bolk 14:04, 24 November 2007 (EST)

"Some players assign about one dwarf in 20 to this labor." - well, with what result? do those players engrave everything? everything important? what is important? i reworded a bit, but some detailed example(s) would really be helpful. --Koltom 01:21, 10 February 2008 (EST)

As a 'detailed' example (hah!), I smooth absolutely everything, and then engrave areas that add to room value and happiness (dining rooms, bedrooms, etc.), and I never have more than one engraver. Once you get up to around Professional or Great levels of engraver skill, hundreds of tiles can be smoothed or engraved in a single season, even factoring food/drink breaks. So I don't think one dwarf in twenty is necessary, I don't think more than one dwarf period is necessary. Since constructions can't be smoothed or detailed, forts relying on external construction have even less need for a lot of engravers. Smoothing and engraving does add to room value and aesthetic appeal of a fort though, I often design my rooms in order to be attractive when engraved. Mzbundifund 05:31, 10 February 2008 (CST)

In the few games that I've played, I tend to start smoothing everything once I get up and running, mostly for aesthetic reasons, but also because it's a simple way to increase value, happiness, and give my dwarves experience. I'm only rounding the halfway mark of my third year, and have two legendary engravers and three others with at least adept or expert. This not only means I get a lot of master engravings in my noble's quarters and dining room, but also that it's a great drafting pool for the military, since they all have decent attributes by that point, even the ones that haven't been around for all that long. --Mikaka 00:58, 7 April 2008 (EDT)

I find stone detailing to be a good way to get rid of excess idlers who would clutter meeting areas/wander outside into goblins (Ancienttraded is dysfunctional), and I have around 60 of 75 dwarves on it. I've engraved entire huge areas (More or less all of the hollowed out area on level 15, and the noble's quarters and the normal quarters, (Ancienttraded, again, has some problems with sanity). It also records history, which is very useful for those who wanna record their fortress's story but not actually write anything out. Erathoniel 00:34, 18 October 2008 (EDT)