40d:Engraving

Engraving encompasses both smoothing stone and engraving it. Both jobs are accessed from the [d]esignations menu, and require the Stone Detailing labor to be turned on.

A wall that has already been smoothed can be engraved on. Engravings increase dwarf happiness and provide a record of the history of your fort. Fortifications and constructed walls and floors cannot be engraved on.

Smoothed and engraved walls raise the value of a room, dependent on the material type of the wall or floor, and the quality of the engraving. The value of smooth and engraved walls is considered "Architecture" under the "Fortress Wealth" table.

A masterful engraving that is destroyed or defaced (magma and goblins do the job nicely, though magma will only destroy floor engravings) may cause the engraver to tantrum.

Engraving a wall

1. Press d to open the designate menu.
2. Press e to select "Engrave Stone".
3. Move the cursor to a position on or near a wall and press enter.
4. The spot you marked changes to a blinking green "+" indicating where the area you wish to engrave extends from.
5. Move the cursor to any position, across the area you wish to engrave and press enter again.
6. The wall tiles in the area you defined should blink with a light blue regular pattern.
7. Wait for a dwarf to engrave the stone on the walls.

Engravings

Engravers are inspired by the history of your fort and will use them in the engraving. Like when your axedwarf bravely held a crucial part of the fort and slew some goblins, your engravers can make a picture of it.

Engravings can be viewed by pressing k, moving the cursor over the engraved area, using the + or - keys to move down to the engraving and pressing enter. Adventurers are also able to view these by revisiting your old fortress (use l to look around, then a over an engraving you want to look at), and will see a much more detailed description of the engraved happening. The art and the story behind the engraving will show up in the legends mode.

Quality

Quality affects what is inscribed on the engravings done. Normal-quality engravings will never have the history of your fortress on them, and are usually about random things in the world. Engravings that are done with a quality of well-crafted and up will often be about bits of historical information about your fortress' past.

Toggle Engravings

Some players may not like the fact that engravings replace walls and floors with pictures on a gray background, making it difficult to differentiate walls from floors. Or that the dwarf made an ugly picture. You can toggle between the visible engraving and a fancy looking floor or wall in the designations menu.

1. Press d to open the designate menu.
2. Press v to select "Toggle Engravings".
3. Move the cursor to a position on or near an engraving and press enter.
4. Move the cursor to any position, across the area of engravings you wish to toggle and press enter again.

Pressing k and enter on the engraving still gives the story behind it, toggling the engravings are purely cosmetic and won't affect the gameplay.

The init file also contains a line that can apply this to all engravings.

[ENGRAVINGS_START_OBSCURED:NO/YES]

"NO" would by default show the engraving as it is, and "YES" will automatically cover them up with generic floor/wall tiles.