Engraving

!!UNKNOWN!!  · xTATTEREDx  · +FINE+  · *SUPERIOR*  · ≡EXCEPTIONAL≡  · ☼MASTERWORK☼

v50.14 · v0.47.05 This article is about the current version of DF. Note that some content may still need to be updated. More Info · V

A dwarf eating cheese

The process of engraving smoothed walls and floors increases their value further, and gives them a quality level. Engravings made with a quality of -Well-crafted- and higher will usually be in reference to previous events. Unlike furniture, engravings won't give passing dwarves happy thoughts. You can examine the contents of an engraving by clicking on it.

Any natural or constructed tiles composed of non-[SOIL] material can be smoothed and then engraved, even slade and the materials that exist in geological layers only as a result of a glitch. Engraved ice is called 'Sculpted Ice'.

Process

You can only engrave non-soil floors and walls, however natural and constructed walls/floors can both be engraved. The material the tile is composed of has no effect on the process of engraving, so a constructed wood/glass wall can be engraved in the same way as a natural stone wall. Once the area has been smoothed with v-m (not necessary for constructions), you may designate it to be engraved using v-g. The dwarf must have the Stone Detailing work detail active.

Once a tile is designated the theme or content of the engraving can be selected by first clicking on the designated tile and then clicking the "specify image" button. This must be done before the game is unpaused. If no selection is made, then the contents of the engraving is left to the choice of the engraver performing the job.

Engravings are directional--only the side the engraving dwarf stood on will receive the engraving value bonus. There is no way to engrave more than one side of a single wall tile.

Using only highly-skilled engravers will result in high-quality engravings, and therefore higher room and fortress value. However, since the

Toggling

Settings exist in the game for enabling and disabling the display of engravings, but this currently does not work, either by manually designating an engraving as hidden or by changing the in game/init setting. See previous version for how this used to work.

Removal

Floor engravings of unsatisfactory quality and/or content (e.g. carvings of elephants mauling dwarves) can be removed by v designating the carving of minecart tracks over them. The tracks can then be removed by smoothing the stone, which results in fresh, smooth stone tiles ready for another attempt at engraving.

Previously, constructing then removing walls/floors on top of engraved floors would reset a tile completely back to the natural stone, however this doesn't appear to work anymore. Thankfully, you're not out of luck -- just carve minecart tracks over the engraving, and you're as good as new.

There are bugs with engravings on constructed floors that make it tricky to remove them -- simply removing the constructed floor and building it back will result in the engraving reappearing, albeit without any description text. Weird! To remove an engraving from constructed floor located on stone, first deconstruct the floor, then smooth the floor; this will cause the engraving to magically reappear, meaning it is now safe to put new constructed flooring over it. As an alternative to smoothing, you can also carve minecart tracks. To remove an engraving from constructed floor located on soil, first deconstruct the floor, then build a wall, then cut arrow slits into the wall, then destroy the wall, and then rebuild your constructed floor. Both methods will reset your floor to a fresh state, allowing you to start anew.

Floor engravings can also be removed from natural walls by allowing magma to flow over them, which reverts the tiles to their smooth form.

Wall engravings can only be removed by removing the wall - mining in the case of natural walls, or removing a constructed wall using m-x.

Removing a masterwork engraving using any method except construction removal will cause a message and an unhappy thought in the artist who engraved it, as will mining a natural wall with a masterpiece on it. However, removing engraved natural walls/floors will remove the engraving without triggering the negative thought.

Effects on room value

Dwarves never actually look at engravings - they simply take their perceived value into account when evaluating the value of a particular room.

For example, if a picture in a dwarf's bedroom has a "value" of 100☼, then it will make said bedroom worth 100☼ more. If the dwarf likes whatever the picture is depicting, they might decide that it's worth, say, 150☼ to them (and consider the room to be more valuable than another dwarf would). If the dwarf dislikes the picture, though, they might decide that it's worth only 10☼ and subsequently complain that their room is substandard (if they happen to be a noble).

The effect on room value in cases of temples and guildhalls is its material value multiplied by its quality grade value multiplier.^[Verify]

Bugs

While the quality rating of engravings on ice walls is shown properly, the quality of engravings on ice floors is not shown when looking at a tile with k, only when hitting enter to inspect the engraving. This gives the false impression that engraved ice floors have no quality levels. In addition, the engravings are described as "engraved on the wall" instead of "on the floor".^[Verify]

Engraving of a Maya civilization.