05 Less building, more decorating

Three polities, three different histories, three cultures and ideals. A little bit daunting so let's take it one step at a time and start by defining what makes them different. If you remember from the map, we have three colours: Blue (top left), Purple (bottom left) and Gold (top right). Let's break them down...

Blue

Tech levels: 9, 7, 4, 4, 2, 2
Ports: A, B, B, C, D, E
Ship potential: TL 9 - Access to A-D engines

100 tons: Jump-2 -4 -6
200 tons: Jump-1 -2 -3 -4
400 tons: Jump-1 -2
600 tons: Jump-1

Purple

Tech levels: 9, 8, 7, 5, 3
Ports: A, A, A, C, D
Ship potential: TL 9 - Access to A-D engines

100 tons: Jump-2 -4 -6
200 tons: Jump-1 -2 -3 -4
400 tons: Jump-1 -2
600 tons: Jump-1

Gold

Tech levels: 11, 10, 5, 5, 3
Ports: A, B, B, B, C
Ship potential: TL 10 - Access to A-H engines

As above (TL9), and...
200 tons: Jump-5 -6
400 tons: Jump-3 -4
600 tons: Jump-2
800 tons: Jump-1 -2

This is an exciting revelation. The largest ships that will be encountered are 800 tons from the Golds and because they're limited to Jump-2 they could well be kept local. There's plenty of room for 100/200/400 and 600 ton ships to lurk and fill in whatever gaps. Lots of possibility for trade and more importantly, a Navy. There's an overarching idea of conflict so combat and war is pretty important. My initial worries about it being tricky to travel across the wider void is now gone, as that's perfectly okay with smaller ships. This also opens up the value for trade.

Large capital ships of the thousands of tons, aren't really possible. As such, combat with small ships or stand-offs may be more fitting. Fleet layouts could consist of fighters and support vessels. Something that can be detailed at a later date.

Because of the mix of tech levels, how they interact together is worth considering. The higher tech planets dealing with the ships and Ports, using the lower tech population for soldiers, boarding parties and guards. For one of the empires this could actually be an interesting theme. The blues maybe?  They do have a number of lower tech worlds that could all be manipulated.

At the moment I haven't thought about the use of High Ports (a port facility in orbit instead of on the planet surface). In essence a large space station. I might scatter them over the most advanced worlds as the Port would have to be type A (or B at a push). Even then it may just be the Gold empire.

I wasn't at all happy with the Government choices I had rolled, so I instead went to the long list of types and had a read, seeing if anything popped out at me. These are the ideas I ended up with:

Blue - Capital world will have a Company/Corporation government. I instantly thought of Starship Troopers and Wayland-Yutani. "Doing my part!" and "Do you want to know more?". Using lower tech worlds as fodder, under the disguise of a victorious campaign and successful propaganda. All in the name of The Company.

Purple - Capital world will have a Feudal Technocracy. Relationships are based on technical activities which are mutually beneficial. This helps support the larger quantity of higher tech Starports, and we could then look at more advanced ships also.

Gold - Representative Democracy. Performed by elected representatives. Focused on high tech, keeping to themselves and involving their lower tech worlds in the voting process. Thinking of the Federation from Star Trek.







Each world will of course be individual, these are just the ways of the "Empire Capital" and some overarching policy.
What do you all think of this process? It's a bit of a whirlpool of thoughts. Next post I'll be putting some of this in a more solid form and we can focus on building the Empires in more detail.