cricket wrote:thedugan wrote:We need a name for the Empire. Is it primarily Human-analogs? (since it's explicitly NOT future-earth)
We can refer to them as Human without explicitly identifying it as "our" galaxy (a la Star Wars, Foundation, etc.)
As far as a name goes, part of me wants to just call it "The Empire", as in, there really wouldn't be any OTHER Empires... at least none worth mentioning.
Works until someone comes up with something better....
cricket wrote:What technology is extant?
I'm not sure I want to get into tech-specifics -- relying instead on Clarke's Third Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Obviously, there is some variation in levels of technological development, but I'd rather focus on capabilities, rather than technologies -- i.e. this particular race is able to teleport from here to there, while that race isn't able to; but HOW they teleport can remain a mystery.
I think that also fits in with a heterogeneous Imperial setting, in which many races may obtain capabilities due to contact with other races but not really understand the tech behind those capabilities.
I don't want detailed technological explanations, just -
- who has FTL? What's the basic technique? Jump? Warp? Gates?
- How pervasive are Robots? AI? Are they used as household servants, or limited to military applications?
- Nanotech? Trek-Style Fabricators?
- Transporters/Teleporters?
There's more, but these things WILL change the lifestyles of the general populace. If nanotech-using factories and medicine is available, then you're going to have something like "The Culture"....not a bad thing, but it's hard to write something until these (and other boudaries) are set...
cricket wrote:One thing that probably should be defined, however, is interstellar travel/communication. Different races are unlikely to have different methods of achieving that particular magic trick...
Perhaps not, but perhaps the military has a faster (but not real efficient) way to punch through the void.
Perhaps Merchants use jump gates, and larger military ships are independently jump-capable (yeah, incidentally - like in Babylon 5).
Perhaps Military ships are able to execute jumps more rapidly, or able to jump farther.
Perhaps Merchants use gates, and the military uses something like Warp?