Tales of Known Space

[DavidG]

And don't forget to make those fusion drives a weapon too. Very usefull for frying overconfident Kzinti with psychics aboard.

[JonSh]

Hmm...ok, so let's see where we are....

Outsiders and Starseeds: not a clue....

Propulsion: various fusion drives, and some gravity polarizing drives (Kzin get them early). Kzin and maybe others get multiple propulsion types per hull. Unlucky in wars but incredible warriors.

Hulls(Ships): 4 GP hull standards, some experimental hulls and some unique hulls per species....And I guess you could have some interesting hull mods, ie opacity to certain frequency lasers or something

Weapons: Com Lasers, fusion cannon based on drives. since com lasers also represent strategic advantages, maybe an attack bonus based on comlasers?

Fighters and drones: I don't think there is a carrier in this universe, but I can easily see them as planetary defense...well, maybe....

Interesting structures: A ringworld could be very difficult to make...but I'm willing to bet that the Massive Space Dock in the Ultimate Mod is a Builder/Pak artifact.

Puppeteers: we assume the puppeteers have left on the great migration away from the core explosion. The Puppeteers become an incredibly advanced, defensive neutral. Attack them and die by the numbers:

Humans: lucky (ala teela brown and the pop lottery), diplomatic (ala louis wu), cunning (ala beowulf shaeffer and gil the arm), any other thoughts?

Thrintun: very weak and technologically poor, but incredibly powerful intel attacks for tech theft and unit insurrection (might need a planet insurrection). Is it possible to have unit insurrections during combat? Non GP hulls.

Tnuctipun: very weak but technologically very advanced, only species that can develop helmet technology that creates humongous intel defense against Thrint. Non GP hulls.

Kdatlyno: neutral warrior empire, with special sonic capabilities technology tree. maybe they start off subjugated to the Kzin?

Pak: (heh) Incredible troops and combat advantages, high tech ability, no diplomacy at all, only expands after meeting another empire, very slow expansion. Does not use GP hulls, starts off with weaker fusion drives. prolly a unique technology tree with lots of gravity weapons. strong tendency to large fleets of smaller ships.

Bandersnatch: might be difficult.

Trinocs: All I remember is that they are incredibly xenophobic and racist.

anyway, these are just some thoughs (Laffing, I expect I have a lot of gray matter out there right now thinking about this one )

:Jon

[DirectorTsaarx]

Originally posted by JonSh:
Humans: lucky (ala teela brown and the pop lottery), diplomatic (ala louis wu), cunning (ala beowulf shaeffer and gil the arm), any other thoughts?

Psychic? (Plateau eyes, Gil's "arm" & other agents' powers)

Originally posted by JonSh:
Bandersnatch: might be difficult.

Especially since they're not supposed to be a space-faring race. Could make them a neutral, maybe.

Originally posted by JonSh:
Trinocs: All I remember is that they are incredibly xenophobic and racist.

And strong. There was a joke in one of the books:

Q: How many Trinocs does it take to paint a house?
A: Three. One to hold the paintbrush and two to shake the house up and down...

[oleg]

It is possible to make super-large antiship drone that can not be fit into any ship and can be stored on ringworld only. It will have insane damage resistance and mega-ton warhead. Any anymy ship foolish enough to enter the system with ring-world shall be destroyed.

[disabled]

If I recall right Niven penned an early draft for one episode for TNG on Star Trek and dropped his cat people in, after many revisision and such the episode had changed, but the race remained.

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by oleg:
It is possible to make super-large antiship drone that can not be fit into any ship and can be stored on ringworld only. It will have insane damage resistance and mega-ton warhead. Any anymy ship foolish enough to enter the system with ring-world shall be destroyed.

Yes, that would certainly be moddable.

[Ragnarok]

Originally posted by Grandpakim:
The killer would be modding the Puppeteers.

Total cowards but incredibly advanced. You would have to give them a high tech start and frankly that would not be enough to equal their real power. Make them a neutral and put them in an unconnected system.

One way you could make the Puppeteers uber powerful and still only be a neutral is to put them in a unconnected system as you said, but then make 2 or 3 of their planets Sphereworlds, or just one even. This would make them extreamly tough to beat once and if you get into their system.