Thirdfain wrote:Here's a little question to put on the table. I was wondering how long people think that there's been interstellar commerce going on in the Cluster, and how much information I would have about the Gaians just from conversation with the handful of traders and explorers, independent and otherwise, who would have found my nation.
And for that matter, what nationality would these traders be? USS, maybe? Or Avalonian? Any trading powers in particular think that they would have at least casual contact with the other players in the game before the thread started?
Well, here's what I was thinking.
I'd imagine it would have been going on for some time, exactly how long would be impossible to determine as no one's doing any record keeping. All traders would be totally unregulated. As to nationality, I don't think trade is something that until now would have been managed at the national level. You'd probably encounter lots of stations or other small settlements not belonging to a particular nation. Mostly people bartering for basic neccessities and then not actually with the larger nations but rather the odd traveler or explorer. Kind of like firefly in a sense.
Bering this in mind, some nations may have had limited contact with each other through private back channels but not continuous communication or trade. They'd possibly know of the existence of the other nations but have not actively approached them for a variety reasons; deeming it unneccessary, xenophobia and isolationism, internal political complications, safety concerns, technical difficulties, bad memories from past wars, the list goes on.
It is also still possible for nations to not know very much at all about each other, also for a variety of reasons: travelers uncomfortable visiting, being outside the unnoficial channels of the interstellar community, explorers putting little notes on maps saying "system where Bob exploded after encountering ships of * type", established no fly zones, take your pick.
As for what we all know about each other, I'd expect that some of us would have people running intelligence through the privateer community, gathing bits of information where possible. Others would probably consider such activities a waste of time on the lesser peoples.