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v50.14 · v0.47.05

This article is about the current version of DF.
Note that some content may still need to be updated.

Topics (also Tech or Innovations) are part of knowledge.

There are around 300 innovations that can be discovered. Many of them have requirements, and many do not, so it's kind of a tech forest/grassland rather than a tree. Notably missing are innovations related to practical labors in the game (which will be added later in development).

Several innovations require innovations from other branches, and since all knowledge is individually tracked, that implies some investigators will need to be at least well-read if not skilled in various topics (there aren't currently joint research projects). There are some old and new mechanisms in place to ensure this happens.

There are 9 "branches" of the knowledge system.

Astronomy

"The theory that the sun moves around the world"
"The relationship between the lunar and solar year"
"The rise of the sun according to the season"
"The path of the moon"
"The rise of the moon according to the season"
"The relationship between the moon and the tides"
"The creation of star charts"
"The theory that the world moves around the sun"
"methods of empirical observation in astronomy"

Chemistry

Engineering

"The construction and use of the pulley"
"The construction and use of the lever"
"The construction and use of the windlass"

Differential gears are a difficult innovation and a prerequisite for pointing chariots and astrariums.

Geography

The geography innovations include several related to cartography.

History

Innovations for historians are, in part, writing forms like biography, and then any historian that reads a biography can start writing them as well. Innovations include comparative biographies describing multiple people, and matters of sourcing, etc.

Historians can start to understand how cultural differences and state bias affects source reliability and think a bit about social forces.

Mathematics

Medical science

Medical innovations include dedicated hospitals with specialized wards, staffing, medical labs and treatment for many illnesses.

"Mineral remedies"

Natural science

Toady on natural science innovations:

And so on through the other seven branches - there are innovations in naturalist writings, for example, and then they can investigate specific critters with those in mind when they get down to work observing foraging behavior or performing dissections.

Naturalists can build a theory of rainbows using water-filled spheres and a camera obscura, and they can calculate the height of the atmosphere based on atmospheric refraction using the law of refraction (though it tries not to get into the actual shape of the world, since that might vary).

"The forces that govern wind patterns"
"The classification of creatures by their physical features"
"The way that creatures are suited to the climates in which they live"
"The migratory patterns of creatures"
"The classification of ores"
"The origin of rainfall through evaporation and condensation"
"A world-wide cycle involving precipitation, oceans, rivers and other forms of water"
"A precise description of buoyancy and water displacement"

Philosophy

The specific view that a philosopher takes on, say, the nature of beauty or methods of education will depend on their individual/cultural values, where they apply, and a philosopher that encounters a philosophy book on beauty can then provide their own take (having acquired the innovation).

Toady on philosophy innovations:

For fields like philosophy, I've tried not to make judgments about which ideas are "right" or anything like that, but rather which subjects can be thought about at all.

"The worthlessness of peace"
"The value of knowledge"
"The nature of truth"

Unknown/unsorted

"Economic policy, its forms and recommendations"
"The diseases of creatures"