At one point or another, most civilizations desire to quarry stone for a variety of reasons. Fortunately this is a relatively simple endeavor for exploiting the common materials. Despite this simplicity, there are still a number of steps which must be taken for stone deposits to be extracted, cut and shaped for use in construction. The specific game requirements for operating a quarry will be dealt with on this page.

People

The first thing that is required is that you have the right people for the job. Working a quarry requires two separate types of professionals. The first are Quarry Workers and the second are Stone Cutters. Quarry workers do the grunt work in the quarry itself of separating large chunks of rock from the deposit and moving them from where they rest to where they are worked. From here the Stone Cutters take over and shape the large chunks of rock into the stone masonry that is used in building. All things being equal, you need as many Quarry Workers as Stone Cutters.

Tools

Extracting and cutting stone require special tools. Both the quality and quantity of these tools will effect the over all yield of a quarry. All Quarry Workers must have a set of "Quarry Tools". All Stone Cutters must have a set of "Stone Cutting Tools". These tool sets are rated using the terms Basic, Adequate and Excellent. The number of tool sets available limits the number of workers at any given time. The quality of the tools effects efficiency. Also note that tools tend to break and wear. As time progresses, the rating of tools will occasionally drop. This effects efficiency if workers are not kept well tooled. Tool sets used buy multiple shifts of workers do more work and wear MUCH faster.

Site Preparation

Before serious quarrying can be done, the site most be prepared. This is the actual building of a quarry site. Fortunately it doesn't really require any building material. What it does require is a lot of labor clearing lots of plants, dirt soil, clay and sand to expose enough of a deposit to quarry it. It also includes the building of earthen ramps that allow the quarry's product to be more easily removed from the pit it is cut from. Doing all of this site preparation can be done with 300 man days of labor. Unlike other labor at a quarry that can only be done by skilled Quarry Workers and Stone Cutters, this stage can be worked on by any person so long as the over all task is supervised by at least 1 Quarry Worker.

Producing Rough Stone

Rough stone is the stone that comes right from the ground and has yet to be cut into masonry bricks. The amount of rough stone that comes from a quarry is a function of how many Quarry Workers, there profession Rank, the quality of "Quarry Tools" they are using and the type of stone there extracting. The Following tables can be used to calculate yield.

Work done in a quarry will be represented in QWUs, or Quarry Work Units. A simple formula below will tabulate how many QWUs have been done, and how much Rough Stone being extracted results. Figures given below are for a single Quarry Worker working a single 8 hour day.

Cutting Rough Stone into Masonry Brick

Turning Rough Stone into Masonry Brick is both very time consuming and more difficult that it appears. It is a task that can only be done by professional Stone Cutters. How much stone can be worked into more useful Masonry Brick is dependent upon how many stone cutters are working, the quality of their tools, their rank as Stone Cutters and the type of stone being worked. The tables below will indicate the formulas for how much stone can be shaped how quickly.

Work done shaping stone will be represented in SCUs, or Stone Cutting Units. A simple formula below will tabulate how many SCUs have been done, and how much Rough Stone is converted to Masonry Brick. Figures given below are for a single Stone Cutter working a single 8 hour day.

Many times a quarry supervisor will want gravel rather than masonry stone brick. There are to ways of obtaining gravel from a quarry pit; active and passive. Passive gravel collecting means to simply collect and gather the gravel that naturally results from quarrying out stone. In this way, 1 unit of gravel is produced for every 10 QWUs devoted to removing stone. In the case of actively producing gravel, quarry workers drop any pretense of also removing brick shaped stone pieces and simply crush rock into rubble. This produces no brick.. but a lot of gravel fast. At this rate a unit of gravel is produced for each QWU devoted towards it.

Common Questions

Q: If my quantity of tool sets is limited can I have multiple shifts working handing off tools?

A: Sure. A day is 8 hours, you can have 3 shifts. Though tools will wear faster.

Q: What is the formula for tools decreasing in rating?

A: Right now I'm assuming they go down a rating every 6 months of 1 shift a day usage. 2 shifts a day means they drop every 3 months, 3 shifts further reduces it to 2 months before wear. Basic tools don't lower in rating, they break.