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Biology

142 (4.4%)

Astronomy

197 (6.2%)

Geology

266 (8.3%)

Medicine

163 (5.1%)

Physics

497 (15.6%)

Chemistry

366 (11.5%)

Zoology

84 (2.6%)

Botany

120 (3.8%)

Podiatry

10 (0.3%)

Psychology & Sociology

326 (10.2%)

Meteorology

87 (2.7%)

Pogonology

123 (3.8%)

Geography

105 (3.3%)

Ecology

119 (3.7%)

Genetics

298 (9.3%)

Mathematics

158 (4.9%)

Linguistics

134 (4.2%)

Total Members Voted: 1121

Voting closed: March 01, 2010, 08:44:55 pm

[tigrex]

I selected geology, physics and linguistics.

Given the level of simulation that occurs for rock formations in DF it would interest me to know how it stacks up against real life.  Taken to its logical extreme, DF could one day be used as a form of spelunking simulator, with the added bonus of batmen lying in wait.  I want to know how far this level of simulation will go, and how it will be modelled.

Physics are useful to any DF player, and the world seems more realistic when various laws of physics can be applied to achieve a specific effect that the game does not reference explicitely - such as drowning traps.  I'm interested in how many more physics effects will be placed into the current system.  Will steam exist, for example?  If it did, would it have temperature and pressure?  Could, say, a modified water wheel design be spun by the force of pressurised steam, by dint of it following physical laws?  Will towers ever have a chance to collapse if poorly designed?  Will items under a drawbridge get partially crushed, holding the bridge halfway up? 

Finally, linguistics in DF are nothing short of brilliant.  I love the way the game forms words and titles, and translates them on the fly.  There are so many questions relating to the future of this field inDF.  For example, putting asid ethe matter of implementation, does writing as a concept exist in DF?  Could a random language generator exist?  Can languages evolve, or slang?  Will different species ever borrow words from one another?  Are normal languages and kobold gibberish entirely different in implementation, or is there some overlap in how the game makes use of different languages?  Can a creature be known by different names?

Oh, should biology be chosen, I'm very curious as to how fantasy creatures are made to coexist in the games engine with normal creatures.  Like, for example, the upcoming hydra test.  How will a hydra work, apart from just calling it 'magic'?  Would, the undead, especially skeletons,  have anything in common with living enemies?  For example, since they're already dead, how can they be killed?  How do their life processes work, and how would they be halted?

[Fanghorn]

Astronomy
Genetics
Linguistics

Spacefaring Dwarfs need to know how to comunicate with Alien Dwarfs before they can breed with them.

[stummel]

Astronomy
Physics
Genetics

[Fist_Of_Armok]

Biology
Botany
Genetics

I want my horrific cat/dwarf/mushroom hybrids!

...Well, not really. But more plants, and more varied plants, would be nice. Ditto moss, and moss having a purpose-animal fodder!

[smjjames]

Decided to change my votes around a bit.

Genetics: Now that we have actual genetic traits (eye color among them) and this bieng one of my favorite subjects. I haven't read up on how the genetics works in general or what stuff are genetic traits (besides the expected) ingame, but theres alot of potential here.

Geology: I know DF is heavy with geology already, but this could be about the future of it, like what uses some of the non-metal ores and rocks could be used for.

Psychology/Sociology: Not my preferred subject, but since we (the players) know very little about the effects of the various traits. Some of them are already known to affect what social skills can be developed, but most of them have no known effect or the effect is subtle and hard to distinguish. There was a test done recently on the artistic and imaginative (sometimes called creative) trait and the correlation between them is pretty subtle or something. I've noticed when training up soldiers that oftentimes, those with a low excellence trait in the 10's or 20's really lag behind. Its much harder to see what effect it has on civillians because with soldiers, you can make them start training at the same time. While I know that there is some variation on the speed, but any large variation (barring not catching sparring injuries quickly) is noticeable. I think I've seen one or two other traits have an effect, but its hard to tell. Anyways, now that things are going to be more in depth and we have one or two new traits, one wonders about the interactions of the other stuff.

[Arthemax]

I'm currenty studying geology, so that's a no-brainer. Then geography, cause it's so closely linked to geology and physics - just because I can.

And GEOLOGY... hey, that's dwarfs for you! They kinda dig rock! There seems to be some room for improvement, especially considering current unability of veins and clusters to span over Z-coordinate, and pure randomness in distribution of layers.

Not kinda. They totally dig rock.
I also agree with the rest of your post. Diamonds, for example are brought to the upper crust through volcanic pipes, and would normally be found in a small area, but through several C-levels. If you bring plate tectonics into it you could have veins and deposits that have been tilted, basically running in any direction (though mostly in the same direction when in close proximity to eachother)
It would be really awesome to 'see' the entire mountain as a whole and coherent geological space. 

[atomfullerene]

yeah, I'd love to see semi-accurate geology in DF (semi-accurate so you can get cool fantasy geology too, along with salt domes and coal seams and whatnot)  Actually, I'd like the ability to toggle fantasy settings on and off

[smjjames]

yeah, I'd love to see semi-accurate geology in DF (semi-accurate so you can get cool fantasy geology too, along with salt domes and coal seams and whatnot)  Actually, I'd like the ability to toggle fantasy settings on and off

Define fantasy geology....

[Christes]

That most likely involves Adamantine.

[madjoe5]

yeah, I'd love to see semi-accurate geology in DF (semi-accurate so you can get cool fantasy geology too, along with salt domes and coal seams and whatnot)  Actually, I'd like the ability to toggle fantasy settings on and off

Define fantasy geology....

I think its simply something geological that won't occur on earth, particularly interesting or magnificent things. For example, think of Hoth from Star Wars. The entire planet can't really be a mountainous icelands, or like Tatooine (desserts).

[smjjames]

yeah, I'd love to see semi-accurate geology in DF (semi-accurate so you can get cool fantasy geology too, along with salt domes and coal seams and whatnot)  Actually, I'd like the ability to toggle fantasy settings on and off

Define fantasy geology....

I think its simply something geological that won't occur on earth, particularly interesting or magnificent things. For example, think of Hoth from Star Wars. The entire planet can't really be a mountainous icelands, or like Tatooine (desserts).

Actually, a planet can still be an iceball with or without bieng mountaneous, there was the Snowball Earth period early in the planets history and theres plenty of icy moons in the outer solar system. Going in the same vein, a planet (or moon for that matter) can't be completely covered in forest. Much of it, sure, but theres still going to be other biomes. Even if it were mostly forest, its not going to be all coniferous forest.

[Mel_Vixen]

Do you mean Pandora or Kashyyk? All coniferous forest could work if said conifers have huge diversity.

[smjjames]

Do you mean Pandora or Kashyyk? All coniferous forest could work if said conifers have huge diversity.

I was referring to Endor. I don't know that much about the forests of Pandora and Kashyyk.

[Rowanas]

Did no-one else notice that he said that Tatooine was entirely made of dessert?

Mm... delicious planets. I'm tempted to do a candyland mod based on that "squeamish DF" thread and this, where the entire world is made of sweets and the HFS is toffee. Shame I can't have warm chocolate for the magma.

[Benvoli0]

I'm torn between voting for those sciences that would most likely develop in small societies and those best for complex game development.

I like the idea of knowledge transfer and what will come from it. Science could also be realistic in that the teaching of wrong information could spread, or that science can develop 'backwards'.