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[Sugardust]

Howdy. Got a question regarding the glasses wearing know-it-alls. I'm looking to create a new world and thinking about delving into having a few dedicated scholars if it's possible. I've read the knowledge and topics pages on the Dwarf Fortress wiki, but I'm still not sure how exactly they work practically in-game.

I'm looking to create a custom world for this and in the advanced world generation options is a setting that controls whether or not all history is known before-hand, I assume for legends mode. I was thinking maybe it has a function in-game? IE: If all history isn't known before-hand, could a dwarf scholar who studies history topics potentially "discover" historical events? Same goes for other scholars, can a dwarf scholar in my fortress who is adept at studying astronomy make actual discoveries in this field that would actually progress the knowledge of the world? How would that work if that's the case? I'm thinking he would maybe record his findings on scrolls/books and I would be able to make copies and export them during trades, throwing that knowledge out into the world.

Thanks guys, any explanation is appreciated.

[delphonso]

So, the history unrevealed setting is an interesting thing. It makes Legends mode basically empty - but all the stuff exosts in the world somewhere. Looking at engravings or talking to people will reveal those events/characters in Legends mode. It's very fun for an archaeologist adventurer character.

Your scholars have a pool of knowledge that they can write about which could be those unrevealed events. Looking at the book should reveal them.

Knowledge and discoveries are made in world gen and are recorded in Legends: "Urist Doctorsurgeon developed the method of lancing". I have no idea if that has any real effect at this time. I also don't know if fortress scholars can make such discoveries as they're pretty rare in Legends mode, so possibly very rare in Fortress mode.

A bit of additional advice, be careful of who you choose as a scholar. Some of the more practical dwarves hate theorizing and will get bad thoughts from thinking all day.

[PatrikLundell]

None of the research has any practical application in the game currently, apart from some knowledge being prerequisites for further knowledge along that path.

Fortress scholars can make original discoveries as well as independent ones, apart from learning stuff already discovered.

In addition to research they can also write about other things, such as history.

They can write one or more books about a subject they've learnt. It should be possible to copy those books and sell the copies (I've never done it as I can't be bothered with copying books).

As far as I've seen, the best method to get research going is to accept petitions from visiting scholars, as they tend to have some knowledge already.

However, the time to do research is very random, so it may take many years for them to actually make a breakthrough (and that is assuming they're actually spending their time researching rather than drinking and praying).