Natives

[dmm]

Once discovered, natives might advance much more quickly than they would otherwise progress if left undisturbed. That is a dominant theme in many sci-fi sagas. For instance, how many StarTrek episodes mention the "prime directive?"

Remember, in SEIV there are supposed to be scads of independent traders roaming the galaxy. The unscrupulous ones would be willing to trade technology for a green Orion slave girl.

Plus, empires would have their own reasons for "helping" the "natives." I think a good example would be native populations on Earth who encountered European empires. It didn't take the Plains Indians (e.g., Lakota Sioux) very long to incorporate metal knives, horses, and rifles into their culture.

[Windborne]

It's hard to imagine a stone age culture STAYING stone age for long after my ships enter the system, for one thing it would be in my best interest to give them a gift of, for example, mining technology so they could trade with me. And if I ever planned on conquering them I'd want to make sure that:

(A) They had something built on the planet I could use
(B) they were somehow defended against my rival human players, ground troops and one of MY space stations in the air at the least. lol

Which brings up a point I had not thought about, how much of my technology should a level 1 culture be able to understand? There should certainly be limits or we'll all simply raise the natives up to full player status in a few turns.

I suggest that we limit them to level one of anything they couldn't research themselves, and block their ability to gain certain techs at all, things like steller manipulation for example.

[dmm]

quote:

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Originally posted by Windborne:
how much of my technology should a level 1 culture be able to understand? There should certainly be limits or we'll all simply raise the natives up to full player status in a few turns

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In Asimov's first Foundation novel, the planets surrounding the Foundation are still using Imperial technology but haven't a clue as to how it works. Later, the Foundation introduces more technology, but in the guise of a religion, with the hierarchy of course all being unbelieving Foundationers. (That's Asimov the Agnostic for you!)

Anyway, my point is that low-tech populations can be taught to use very high-tech stuff. (Like, 4-year-olds who can operate PCs and camcorders [and shoot guns].) Really, if you think about it, how much science and technology does the average American, European, Japanese, etc. properly understand? Heck, I'm a physicist and one of the world's smartest people and I don't understand most of it!

[dmm]

I forgot to say that maybe primitives shouldn't be allowed to research anything, even after being given lots of tech.

But maybe not. Who's to say that primitives wouldn't be quick studies? They might even be inherently smarter than tech-reliant races. Do you really think you're smarter than Isaac Newton, just because you've got better tech?

But some races might react strongly against tech, because of religious or cultural reasons. What if you run the risk of "infecting" your own society with a "Back to the Forests" movement or a pacifict movement? Maybe contacting primitives should have some big risks attached! What other risks might there be?

[Windborne]

One risk might be the evolution of the "Pirate races" talked about in a previous post, with their own ai, the natives take your ships, and modify their own tech to learn boarding, suddenly they are attacking your fleets and planets, co-opting them into their own little parasite-empire, entirely reliant on pillage from higher races bacause they are unable to build their own ships or even really repair yours!

[Nitram Draw]

One trait or consequence of meeting a native race might be disease. Maybe there should be an increased chance of plague for both the native and the explorer.

[Lupusman]

Wasn't there a Star Trek episode like that? Where there was a race that would force others into giving them higher technologies by, for one thing, hold Jordi hostage, but didn't really understand how to repair od produce it themselves.