How do you explain it?

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Technology is the end result of any intelligent race being put in a difficult situation and surviving.

[AngleWyrm]

Glyn said:
The theory that “races will develop technology at a similar rate” implies that for any two races to be at the same tech level that would have had to have started at about the same time in the past. Another lose end that needs explaining.

Interstellar contact. The prime directive (Don't help anyone) is irrelevant, people will learn from each other anyway. Diplomats, Pirates, and other tradesmen will spread the technology around.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Not just TNG pulled that off, look at Enterprise; they start out with - of all things - missiles while the other races have particle beam weapons, much faster warp drives, large empires, very large ships..... The Vulcans even have tractor beams as opposed to Enterprises (of all possible things..... geez.....) grapple cannon. Romulans already used cloaking devices and advanced minefields, etc.

I think it is too much of a coincidence, too; I think it'd be better if, like in SEIII, you'll be able to select your starting techs in SEV.

[dogscoff]

I really hope SEV's modding options are flexible enough to allow us to mod in pre-space or early-space "primitives" that advanced players can either "uplift" or exploit.

There was a long thread about it a few years back, and even a prototype mod (primitive proportions mod IIRC- and great fun it was too.)

Can't be arsed to find the thread myself, but I believe a forum search for "yub yub" should locate it fairly accurately.

[Jestak]

Greetings,

Purely scientifically, you all forgot something very important: Our dear friend Albert Einstein discovered it more than 80 years ago and it was spoken out by someone I can't remember his name.

Time flows at different pace for each system because those systems go to a different speed (i.e.: Relativity theory). In theory, a system in a galaxy moving 10 times faster than our galacy will flow 10 times slower than us (A vehicle moving at speed of light will see the people around it frozen.)

So, Sol III (us) could see 2000 years pass by while planet X in another galazy could see 1 million years pass during that same Sol III 2000 years.

It makes all those silly sci-fi movie and television show quite archaic. . Of course, Star Trek universe is all in the same Galaxy, so the time is almost all the same. But what about the galaxies at the edge of the universe that travel 2000 times faster than our galaxy? One year here is 2000 years there. Imagine the progress of the last 100 years (wireless, nuclear, etc) here are nothing compared to the progress an identical society could make in 200,000 years.

Thank you

[Blueentity]

Yes, Science Fiction is fiction, something that not true. Those of us who are steeped in it may forget that from time to time, but every SF story requires some suspension of disbelief. That doesn’t have to take away from the tale, if the rest of the story is told well. At first, “warp”, “teleporters” and “communicators” were used by Roddenbery merely to keep the story line going. Even if warp is technically impossible (or too expensive in real energy to ever use), the ability to move around quickly is an ancient story-telling device. Magic carpet anyone?

As far as game balance, some games work well when everyone starts from ground zero; other games work when differing research and traits exist. What I enjoyed about the Civ 3 traits was that they could be toggled on or off depending on my mood, which was normally off. When I want to play an "underdog" scenario in SEIV I can, but don't have to every time. I hope the same option exists in SEV.

[Randallw]

The whole point of the transporters was that it was not possible to make the effects for landing the Enterprise, so yes it was a story device. Then they went and had a story where Sulu nearly freezes to death because the transporters wouldn't work. They couldn't use a shuttle because no one on the writing staff had thought of one

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Jestak, what you're saying is right, but I think you made one mistake - you exaggerated the time distortion immensely. If, for example, I move at 5kph, and a bus passes me at 50kph, would time in the bus be moving 10 times faster? OK, I agree with you, if another galaxy rotates 10x faster than ours, they will experience a time distortion discrepancy (err..... OK, sure, right) but not so big as what you described.

[Jestak]

Greetings,

You are right about the time distortion. I was just giving an example, but chose it badly.

Regarding a previous post about energy, I think it was one MIT or CALTECH graduate who calculated that to move the Enterprise (In TNG) at speed of light - 1% for 1 minutes, it would take all the energy of the earth sun burning for about one full month. So it is not impossible in theory.

One scientist classified civilizations in 3 categories:
- Category 1 civilization will harness all the energy of the planet. That means mainly: solar, wind, fosil, all mechanic energies that I can't name, nuclear, lava, tectonic energies.
- Category 2 civilization will harness all the energy a solar system will produce. That means category one plus harnessing the sun energy and taping directly into it and the planet gravitational movements energy.
- Category 3 civilization will harness all the energy of the galaxy. It is category 1,2 and a whole bunch of energy types that I don't understand at all...hehe

Currently, we are not even at level 1. We are at level zero.

Thank you

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Somebody added a "Type 4" to that list, a civilization which can utilize the energy of multiple galaxies. In theory, true lightspeed travel or FTL travel would only be efficient energy-wise for a Type 4 civilization.