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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]

People who voted for physics: what are you expecting to hear about?

I'm concerned that a vote with such ambiguous topics is a recipe for disappointment, since the actual discussion will (presumably) focus on a few narrow applications of each science.

Things that are or would be actually useful in game. =)

Like... will there be a statics model such as for ceilings or the famous sky fortress that's hanging from one floor tile?

Also: things that the player can actually do in game.
Like hydraulics. That's something new that the player could create from simple parts.
Only 1-3 new parts to code. Limitless possibilities without any need to provide "finished machines" like new traps.

Steampunk is
a) too high-tech to fit well with the setting and
b) which is even more important - can not be used very well to give the player "new legos". Any steampunkish tech like golem-powersuits would effectively be magic because modeling construction rules for complicated machinery like that would be insane.

That makes a lot of sense to me.  Add steam, electricity (primative), kinetics (newton's 3 laws, etc), and explosives and there should be plenty for trap designers to play with.

[tfaal]

Why did medicine score so low? 5.1%... That's less than astronomy. In a game where you can't even look up!

[Christes]

It's also almost as low as math - and that really has no reason to be on the list at all

[shadow_archmagi]

DWARF MATH:

WHERE X=CURRENT NUMBER OF HAMMERS AND Y=IDEAL NUMBER OF HAMMERS, Y IS ALWAYS GREATER THAN X

[G-Flex]

That makes a lot of sense to me.  Add steam, electricity (primative), kinetics (newton's 3 laws, etc), and explosives and there should be plenty for trap designers to play with.

Well, electricity is fairly primitive in a medieval setting, in the sense that it doesn't actually exist at all.

[Nivim]

 I'm fairly sure electricity existed before science; all you really need is closed pots, fruit juice, some conductor, and an eccentric person. Viola, "it zaps you when you touch it, magic!"

[abculatter_2]

DWARF MATH:

WHERE X=CURRENT AMOUNT OF MAGMA AND Y=IDEAL AMOUNT OF MAGMA, Y IS ALWAYS GREATER THAN X

Fixed that for you.

[nenjin]

Argh, all you soft science fans, get in there and vote for them!

Do it for Skinner. Do it for Chomsky. Do it for Pavlov. Do it for that guy who ran all the electro shock social experiments, and gave us the joy that is informed consent in research!

[scribbler]

That makes a lot of sense to me.  Add steam, electricity (primative), kinetics (newton's 3 laws, etc), and explosives and there should be plenty for trap designers to play with.

Well, electricity is fairly primitive in a medieval setting, in the sense that it doesn't actually exist at all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthian_Battery

[atomfullerene]

Well, I think biology ought to get some screen time, since when you total up the votes for its subdisciplines (ecology, zoology, genetics, and botany are branches of biology) it has 23% of the vote

[G-Flex]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthian_Battery

The "Baghdad Battery" is mostly a hoax in that it simply can't produce current without modification, and even then, provides such low current that it's effectively useless. There's no good evidence anybody did any electroplating back then, and it simply couldn't have produced enough voltage to be felt by the human body. Again, that's after modifying it, which is necessary for it to produce any current.

It's a hermetically-sealed container bearing a very strong resemblance to similar containers used for long-term storage of scrolls.

Remember, just because something could have done something to an extremely limited degree after you alter the design, doesn't necessitate that it was actually used for that purpose. If that were true, you could make a lot of false claims about a lot of things.

[scribbler]

Nice summary of selected bits of the article with a little pseudo-logic to support your pre-existing belief.
Electricity is part of the universe and mankind has told stories of taming lightning for as far back as we have records and likely farther. Personally I doubt it would be implemented and wouldn't vote for it, but the physical modeling of the game seems to be about the parts that did exist and what we can do with them. The possibility that on experiencing a slight current someone could have looked for a use is far more interesting than anything else.
I believe it was Archemides who got sufficiently close to calculus that he only lacked algebra to make the leap. Hero of Alexandria made complex machinery and played with steam. Egyptians built giant d4s and the ancient celts (or their precursors) built a giant stone tourist attraction.
It's a world we live in where so many chances could have made our lives so different and our hopes and dreams and even our games exist in that area, both in support of and because of. If people want to speculate and compare and wonder... well, smarter people than you have investigated and written on the Baghdad Battery and smarter people than you have said the dream is more important than the fictions we create and call knowledge.

[Hummingbird]

Argh, all you soft science fans, get in there and vote for them!

Do it for Skinner. Do it for Chomsky. Do it for Pavlov. Do it for that guy who ran all the electro shock social experiments, and gave us the joy that is informed consent in research!

I voted for both linguistics and Psych/Sociology. At least the latter made it on.

[Retro]

Wicked, the top three were the three I voted for :D

[eerr]

DWARF MATH:

WHERE X=CURRENT NUMBER OF HAMMERS AND Y=IDEAL NUMBER OF HAMMERS, Y IS ALWAYS GREATER THAN X

LOGICAL CONCLUSION

Y-X = MORE HAMMERS ALWAYS BETTER.