Some storybuilding help

[Aranfan]

Okay, No magic energy maker (this isn't Cthulhutech). And as for the FTL, I'm thinking that while all the technologically advanced species have STL physics down pretty well, humans got lucky and their guesses were right (read as: Least wrong) when it came to the possibility/application of FTL.


Edit: Also, while none of the local species other than humanity have FTL, the Galaxy is a big place and the parts that the various powers near humanity have mapped out isn't all that big comparatively.

[speaker-to-trolls]

Something else to consider, your humans are not going to want anyone else to get their hands on this fantastic ace in the hole they've got. Think about how they may try to stop other pwople from developing their own magic warp engine.

[The Romulan Republic]

Something else to consider, your humans are not going to want anyone else to get their hands on this fantastic ace in the hole they've got. Think about how they may try to stop other pwople from developing their own magic warp engine.

What are some ways they could try to keep this tech secret? Their's the obvious counter-espionage issues, but how do they keep the other guys from developing it themselves? Maybe try to impose a non-proliferation treaty, like how America supports nuclear non-proliferation? Or engage in economic warfair, undermining other state's economies somehow to keep them to poor to develope this tech? Though if they're already K3, that probably won't be doable.

[speaker-to-trolls]

Something else to consider, your humans are not going to want anyone else to get their hands on this fantastic ace in the hole they've got. Think about how they may try to stop other pwople from developing their own magic warp engine.

What are some ways they could try to keep this tech secret? Their's the obvious counter-espionage issues, but how do they keep the other guys from developing it themselves? Maybe try to impose a non-proliferation treaty, like how America supports nuclear non-proliferation? Or engage in economic warfair, undermining other state's economies somehow to keep them to poor to develope this tech? Though if they're already K3, that probably won't be doable.

I was just posing the question, in truth I don't really know how the humans could conceivably keep a lid on their technology. Obviously they'd have to reveal as little of it as possible to the aliens they did business with, it would be absolutely imperative none of their clients were allowed to get their pseudopods on a working warp drive. Like you said there's espionage and counter espionage; "Strange that the Sarumans warp drive was destroyed like that while in drydock, wasn't it?"
"I wouldn't know, ambassador"
"It looked almost as if some terrorist had placed precision charges on all the most delicate circuitry, the ships engineer told be the rest of the ship was unharmed but the warp drive is now utterly inoperable. Odd, wouldn't you say?"
"O, yes, very odd..."
But that's a lot of espionage for a relatively small species to run against an unknown number of HUEG empires. The non-proliferation treaty you talked about would have to be backed up by something, and the only things I can think of are A)cutting off trade, effectiveness is determined by multiple economic factors. B)Threatening to completely open the market to one other slow nation which has the prospective warp engineers worried. Depends on the relationships between the slow nations and whether they consider one another to be threats (invasion might be impractical, but other people can certainly cut off your opportunities for colonisation).

[Formless]

One idea on how the humans can keep their monopoly on their FTL: it was mentioned that the civilizations humanity is between are at odds with each other, so perhaps the humans can simply advertise a TOS style Prime Directive, i.e. whatever technology we give you, we have to keep a parity of power, so your enemies will be using the same technology. Therefor, the type two civs will at least make sure any attempt to get the technology will be under the table, in the interest of not causing an escalation in their conflicts. Under the table in this case means keeping it a secret not only from their enemies, but also from the humans. That is the simplicity of the TOS style Prime Directive; although humanity would be screwed if they lost their monopoly on FTL, so is everyone else because they now can finally preform xenocidal warfare that lasts all of ten minutes. In for a penny, in for a pound. No one tries to take the technology from the humans because they know what spiteful and destructive retaliation would soon follow.

[Samuel]

Not really Formless, these are level 2 civilizations- they have expanded beyond planets and have a ton of orbitals.

[Formless]

Not really Formless, these are level 2 civilizations- they have expanded beyond planets and have a ton of orbitals.

The idea is still the same, regardless of if the civilization is on a planet: FTL lets you blitzkreig the enemy side with enormous, overwhelming force, and even if it is not an assured kill-all, it will do enough harm as to be potentially threatening, even to a type two civilization. After all, both civilizations at work are type two.

Hell, even if you do not have the convenience of attacking a critical planet, you could always throw a planet* into their star and destabilize the whole star system with the resulting solar storms and eruptions. And that is assuming that they have not discovered more efficient ways of fucking with stars. They are type two civs, after all; messing around with stars is their specialty.



* If you doubt that this can be done, I remember one story where an alien force does this to Earth, dropping Jupiter into the sun to make the sun more volatile and better for stellar lifting. There is also one idea where you stick an engine into a gas giant, and it works like a double ended candle, fusing hydrogen both to support itself in the planets atmosphere, and to propel the planetary system forward. It would be an engineering hurdle worthy of a type two civilization, I think! Maybe even of a successful type one. It certainly is the most impressive "slow boat" starship I ever heard of! It was originally an idea for colonization, since the gas giant you are using for massive fuel loads has enough gravity to drag along a massive colonization effort on its moons and in orbit. I originally saw this idea in Shlock Mercenary (can't find the strip, though-- stupid archive system!), although of course it was actually a recycled idea and Howard Taylor had reference to where he first saw it. Man that comic gets its scaling right!

[Sky Captain]

Best thing for humans to do would be to keep away from any Type 2 civilization and expand to uninhabited star systems. They really don`t want to lose their only advantage - an FTL drive. It may only take few observations of warp drive equipped ship for Type 2 civilization to sooner or later reverse engineer it. Even knowledge that FTL can be done may be huge stimulus to develop it.

[Aranfan]

Best thing for humans to do would be to keep away from any Type 2 civilization and expand to uninhabited star systems. They really don`t want to lose their only advantage - an FTL drive. It may only take few observations of warp drive equipped ship for Type 2 civilization to sooner or later reverse engineer it. Even knowledge that FTL can be done may be huge stimulus to develop it.

Ah, but it would be suspicious if humans suddenly went incommunicado all of a sudden. Hmm, that actually gives me an idea.