[Space] 'Space Opera' Setting

[thtraveller]

Originally Posted by Frost

I have just started working again on an idea I have had kicking around for a few years in various forms and thought that I would run the outline past the hive mind to see if you guys can spot any flaws or possible improvements.

Space opera often means that people haven't changed whilst technology has, whereas hard science often means people have changed with the technology - often markedly as with Transhuman Space or Orion's Arm.

The basic idea is to create a 'space opera' setting in the vein of Alistair Reynolds etc by using a small number of relatively closely spaced worlds connected by fast STL ships and without any other form of super science.

Warp ships that can do 0.5C or more is technically super science.

History
The human race acquired an interstellar capability in the later part of the twenty first century, expanding over the course of the next hundred and twenty years to the point where settlements existed within most of the more appealing solar systems within about thirteen light years of earth. By the height of the colonial boom more than a dozen large independent settlements had been established on five more or less habitable worlds.

What was the imperative that drove the colonial expansion? A wealthy Earth, private individuals, existential angst, external factors, something else?

Only a few years after the peak of settlement activity the whole edifice came crashing down as earth found its political and economic establishment paralysed by economic collapse and subsequently global warfare. With the breakdown of the preceding golden age interstellar flight stalled and the settlements found themselves isolated for almost a century.

That is quite a radical and prolonged economic hit to Earth - which is presumably far and away the most populous world. That is unparalleled by a mere depression or even any previous world war. Is the implication global nuclear war?

Is the implication also that starship production and maintenance was centered on Earth? High maintenance drives implies that the engineers were on the ships not the planets. So why would communications between the colonies stop? Why did the ships stop? Also is there no interstellar radio/laser comms?

Also did advances in intelligence augmentation and/or AI fail to deliver improvements and mitigate any breakdown?

Or was the economic collapse somehow brought about by the expansion or intelligence augmentation/AI?

By the time that engineers on (a now somewhat depopulated and impoverished) earth and the closer settled worlds re-established communications in the late twenty third century the colonies had had become established and distinct cultures. In many respects although still relatively limited the larger settlements spared the destruction of the collapse by their remoteness had already begun to eclipse earth as technological, cultural and even economic centres a trend that has continued into the present day (2465).

It seems reasonable that the brightest and best, or alternately that surviving/adaptable types, would be colonists. Though it is possible that some just went low tech. New worlds should be relatively benign on the disease and predator front (as they are extremely unlikely to have native life that are human compatible).

Scope
Human settlement is currently confined to a handful of worlds within less than thirteen light years of Earth. Initially this was determined by the limitations of early interstellar propulsion and settlement technology. Later the extreme difficulty of operating new settlement projects with post collapse population and resource bases had much the same effect although with the upsurge in shipping over the past three to four decades this seems likely to change rapidly.

Resources of space are abundant and easy to get to with fast interstellar capable drives, in both mineral and energy terms, so is the implication that the collapse cut off space which then contributed to the collapse? That seems like an easily reversible fix. So why is it a prolonged problem?

Although for most people the Waste is an unsettling reminder of how hostile the Galaxy is to humanity it still commands a degree of fascination being home in the imagination at least to hidden colonies, alien artefacts and other somewhat unlikely wonders.

Alien artefacts? Do you mean technology or just natural things from alien worlds? Relics of a collapsed alien civilisation might lead to existential angst - which should be good for the space program.