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Old 06-17-2009, 06:56 PM   #1
Pragmatic
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Default [Spaceships] In-game reason for limiting superscience

Just something I've considered, in musing over Uplift, Old Man's War, and Babylon 5/Stargate SG-1/Stargate Atlantis.

Most of what's in the various Spaceships books is available. But the higher tech and super-science stuff is only made by a few Elder Race(s). Only they fully understand how to make it and (more importantly) how to maintain and repair it.

As such, like the Terragens in Uplift, a decision has to be made. Buy the expensive stuff that no-one knows how to fix (except by hiring alien technicians...), or build the cheap stuff that is easily repaired and replaced.

So, for instance, artificial gravity is available. But it's much cheaper to just create spin gravity, and any graduate from an engineering school knows how to fix THAT.
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Old 06-18-2009, 04:43 AM   #2
vicky_molokh
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Default Re: [Spaceships] In-game reason for limiting superscience

Hire reverse-engineers and spies? ;)
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Old 06-18-2009, 09:23 AM   #3
Pragmatic
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Default Re: [Spaceships] In-game reason for limiting superscience

Elder race-levels of science are a notch above mainline species' understanding. Our brightest minds can barely grasp ways of making weak copies, and at fantastically expensive construction costs.

Think "Plains Indians capture Superfortress bomber and attempt to reverse-engineer." No basis for understanding. There's the tech-level penalty, plus it violates all known laws of physics--because they don't know how to exploit some "loopholes" in the laws...
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