Several Questions about the Number of Colors for Construction and their Application

[Rick]

Before the wall of text hits, I wanted to say I am very excited by the artwork you showed today, and I am extremely excited by the statement "The last bit we need to update is the buildings."

1. Will certain materials be grouped together as the same color for simplicity just like in the f2p Dwarf Fortress game? (i.e. Andesite, Basalt, Chromite, Claystone, Diorite, Gabbro, Graphite, Hornblende, Ilmenite, Jet, Mica, Pyrolusite, Rhyolite, Shale, and Slate all being Dark Gray in appearance.)
   
   
2. If not, will there be a specific color for ever possible construction material?
   
   • 71 types of wood (including "normal" and "wagon")
     
   • 12 non-economic stones (Shale, Granite, Gneiss, etc.)
     
   • 13 economic stones (Marble, Obsidian, etc.)
     
   • 40 "other" stones (Stones found within deposits of other stones. i.e. "Periclase" veins are sometimes found in Marble layers.)
     
   • 17 ores (Native metals and minerals like Galena)
     
   • 25 types of metal (pure and alloys)
     
   • 3 types of glass (green, clear, crystal)
     
   • 3 types of ceramic bricks (earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain)
     
   • 6 bars (Ash, Charcoal, Coke, Pearlash, Potash, and Soap)
     
   • 190 total colors for constructed materials?
   
   
3. If every material gets its own color, will all 65 types of boulders have different colors to distinguish them from their brick counter parts? (eco, non-eco, and "other" stone)
   
   
4. Will there be variations in the final product beyond just color?
   
   • I know that roads made with boulders are given the "rough" modifier, while roads made with cut stone are not. Will that "rough" modifier be applied visually?
     
   • Will there be a visual difference between the materials I use in the construction (i.e. Wood, Stone, Ore, and Brick) or will they all follow the same design and just palette swap?
   
   
5. Will objects like wheelbarrows and minecarts also have varying color palettes, or will this super cool feature be limited to construction?

Bonus Round:
Will you finally be implementing Pearls, coral, and Amber into the game?

Edit: Emphasizing my excitement.

Edit 2: They answered my questions on the Bay 12 Forum! Many thanks to clinodev for posting it there for me!

"It uses the solid state colors from the raws. Each raw color is mapped to a palette. So several stone/wood products look the same, but there's some variety. Boulder and brick workshops etc. of the same material look the same. Some furniture and constructed floors etc. show different tiles entirely between wood/stone/metal/glass, but that's also not universal. Many items (but not all) use the raw color of the material and the associated palette. There are a few variations in products, but it's not common.

There's room to improve this of course, but it takes time to draw, and we haven't supported stuff we haven't drawn generally, since that also takes time.

No plans to add those materials for the release. No idea when anything is happening there."

[clinodev]

PM sent.

[Voliol]

Dunno what Clino's comment means, but the colors are "linked to the color descriptors in the raws". For wood/metal these descriptors in the raws already exist, and tell us the 61 different wood types that are currently "brown" will be divided into 27 different color groups using this system (source: DF Wiki). Stones seem to lack this specificity though, so if they don't change anything all "dark grey" stones will be the same.