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Bundle: 558
Archive-Message-Number: 7015
From: [-- REDACTED --]
Date: Sun, 20 Mar 94 15:12:00 BST
Subject: Re: TNE vs MT/CT round 2 1/2

 
 In Archive-Message-Number 7009, [-- REDACTED --] (Ron
 Dawson) writes:
 >
 >I'm not sure I follow how having high technology everywhere is
 >consistent.  If we look at the real world we live in, it certainly is
 >not consistent.  It is not consistent even within a single nation.
 
     It's *deliberately* consistent.  My created area is far outside the
(still thriving, mind) Third Imperium, and they do things a little bit
differently.  For example, how do you start a colony?  Do you dump a
bunch of people and some supplies on a planet and more-or-less leave the
new colonists to fend for themselves (Third Imperium model), or do you
send in a crew of professional construction and infrastructure engineers
who build everything that is needed for colonization in advance
(automated production facilities, housing, amenities, etc.) so that the
colonists can just move from their old world to their new one and pick
up their lives where they left off (my model).  Basically, the people in
my world *work* at making their technology as uniform and consistent as
possible from world to world.  That way, you can go from world to world
within the area and *depend* on being able to get expert and correct
repairs for your starship, no matter what port you come to (like, even
before the colonists arrive, there's at *least* a B class starport in
place, waiting for their landing).  You don't *ever* have to get your
hands dirty with low tech.
 
 >The Imperium always struck me as permitting a lot of variety within
 >its borders, so technology would vary from world to world, and
 >possibly philosophies towards technology could vary as well.
 
     The Imperium did--I don't.  Which is why the New Era background is
a giant step backward from my viewpoint.  The general trend of
technology should be *up*, not catastrophically down.  Not to mention
the fact that the development and advance of technology should have the
semiconductor technology that the Cymbeline chips (and, presumably,
their Deyo descendants) far enough behind in technical history that
current Imperial technology should be utterly immune to any invasion of
that type.  In other words, the Virus should be impossible--another of
the reasons it'll never get anywhere near my game.
 
 >If we look at our real world,
 
     Um, well, I'm an escapist.  I game to get *away* from the real
world, to one that I think infinitely superior.  Why would I want to add
depressing realism?
 
 >I favor greater diversity as it seems to be more plausible given the
 >nature of the Imperium and known space.
 
     Mmm.  Unfortunately, where I come from, diversity is A Bad Thing.
Certainly something to be avoided.  I prefer a world that is placid and
predictable.  Easier on the cardiac stress level.  Of course, when a
curve is thrown, trouble-shooting becomes necessary.
 
- --
     Brent Woods
 
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