Floor values

[captainamaziiing]

Without running a bunch of tests I'm hoping you folks happen to know the answer already. I want to maximize the value of my floors. Obviously rough floors are not as good as smooth. The questions start when I engrave the floor, or put down various surfaces.
If I'm going to pave it anyhow, is there an advantage to smoothing first? What is worth more, an engraved floor or a paved floor? Is a cheap paved floor like limestone an improvement over an engraved floor?
Thanks in advance.

[Jorn Stones]

I don't have numbers on anything,
but if you aquire gold nuggets, and tetrahedrite ore, you can make Electrum bars on the cheap and build a lot of floors with it, which you then engrave with a legendary engraver. Huge value from those and the materials are quite common.
The best floor value would be making them from platinum/aluminium/native plat/aluminium blocks, assuming you don't want to pave your floors with candy. but that is much harder to get.
Since constructed floors/walls can be engraved now, there is little reason why you shouldn't do so. those engravings seem to stick around even if you demolish the floor, or build a wall on it. (building a wall on an engraved floor also gets rid of the directional engraving so any room that has that wall as part of it gets the value increase)

Turning rocks into blocks and using the blocks for floors is also much better than the rough rock floors, especially with stones like marble/obsidian which are already more expensive then normal rocks.

I have yet to experiment with paved roads, dunno how they'll work with floors.

[db48x]

There was a big thread on Reddit yesterday: https://www.reddit.com/r/dwarffortress/comments/zzqlfu/steam_version_room_value_calculations_demystified/

[Xcorps]

Engraving dramatically improves the value of a room.

You can see this in temples. Just lay out a temple in a rough carved out room. Check the value. Smooth everything and check the value. Engrave everything and check the value. Add furniture and check the value.

You'll want to train up your engravers. You want a couple at professional or above, both for increase chance at masterwork and for speed. You can engrave any blocks in this version, so you can make a 10x1 wood wall, engrave it, deconstruct it, make it again.

If you destroy a masterwork engraving, it causes a bad thought to the dwarf that created it. Placing construction over the engraving will destroy it. Mining out an engraving will destroy it. Place your constructions and do your digging before you engrave.

[Pok]

the training in engraving is better if u engrave a floor and then over-carve it with minetracks -> and also smooth it again. so u can train your smoothers also and doend not need to construct anything. both will work, i prefer carvings :)