Culture/Idirian War

[Shrykull]

Well, also I thought it doesn't take fictional energy sources into account. There's no fuel we know of that you could use for a reactor, like the death star's that would generate that much energy.

Perhaps the whole section on examples of Type 1, 2 and 3 civilizations should be taken out, because the only one we know of is our Type 0 civ, we don't know of any real life beyond type 0 ones.

I read about the mining thing, mining stars in Hyperspace, MK's book, I don't know how it's accomplished though

[Big Orange]

Yes. At that stage, the Homomdans were supposedly more advanced and powerful than the Culture. At the "present" the Culture appears to have progressed - at some point, also, some Homomdan warships defected to the Culture, which might explain the overtaking. One such convertcraft is mentioned in Excession.

The classification of Homomdan warships is Main Battle Unit, with some MBUs designated as 'Empire' class - in the war they perhaps notably better than all Culture ships of the day either through faster FTL or more refined effectors, although most Culture then were not dedicated military vessels anyway and the conflict itself inevitably encouraged Culture technological development to keep the edge over the Idirans and catch up with the Homomdans. Not to escalate the conflict the relationship between the Homomdans and Culture was cordial at the height of hostilities. I wish the upcoming Matter would shed more light on the Homomdans themselves and what their society is like.

And what would the Homomdans or Culture need with dyson spheres when they already have boundless living space with Culture Orbitals (or Homomdan equivalents) and gigantic ships the size of asteroids? The Homomdan and Culture can safely be classified as Type III civilizations but they have no need to encase suns (the Idiran Empire was perhaps a high-end Type II civilization; they could tactically engage the Homomdans and Culture but on a strategic level they stood no chance).