The scale of my sci-fi universe: Sngle solar system, or galaxy?

Well I have been workin on a sci-fi verse, and I have multiple ideas from 'the internet in space' (forums are interstellar nations, their grudges with each other are based off internet grudges, etc - e.g. the chanese federation (*chan sites) and the neurodiversity league (Aspies, ADHD, etc) have issues with each other and fought massive wars in antiquity, Google & Yahoo & Facebook are core worlds, etc.

I had another universe that took place in the single Sol System humanity lives in now, similar to Cowboy Bebop you could say (the FTL is NOT the FLT in Cowboy Bebop, I have free range hyperdrives not 'jump gates'). Or, the Sol system & some nearby systems. I might fuse both unis together and have one story take place thousands/millions of years before the other universe happens.

But my point is this, is it better to have a relatively small science fiction verse scale - or to have a macro space opera scale, for reasons of canon/continuity, logic, accurate fleet sizes, superweapon scale, etc.

Choose for yourself.

I'm not sure, but one question that will determine this is....is the travel in this 'verse driven by the ships themselves? Or do they use gates, or vortexes, or wormholes?

This yields different sets of tension. Ships that are self-propelled can run out of fuel, or an enemy can cut off the supply of whatever they use for fuel.

Wormholes, vortexes, slits in the space-time continuum might be unpredictable or dangerous to journey through.

If wormholes (or whatever your plot-device-of-choice is) are predictable they also tie interstellar travel to very fixed routes, and mean that defending a system is easier since enemies have to enter in known places. They also don't have to be that quick — travel through them may not be instantaneous.

>>Choose for yourself.

Cirno, you lazy fairy xD

Also whoaaaa fast responses.

EDIT: regarding the FTL, I will have FTL like that in Star Wars. no jump gates, ships have independent hyperdrives & backup ones if need be. They can jump anywhere but safety restrictions prevent it from happening within 6 planetary diameters from a planet (weeee ripping off Star Wars)

edited 12th Nov '10 12:16:08 PM by BalloonFleet

I'd be tempted to use the plot to figure it out. Does it make more sense to have the characters visit Mars, or Alpha Centauri? Mars is going to be either an utterly barren desert with unbreathable air, or humans must have had time to change that. Other solar systems might have just about anything.

I think it might be fun to write a story where humans are left the solar system for the first time only recently, so 90-99% of travel is within the solar system, and only maybe 1% is interstellar.

Personally, I ducked all of this by giving humanity a minimal role in my universe (they're essentially a historical species who passed on a mass of information about themselves - we don't know exactly what happened to them), which basically means hypothesising not how big humanity can get, but how big any civilisation can get. If FTL is possible, then it depends on how much FTL you can get.

I personally can't see why entire galactic superclusters can't be colonised - we are, after all, talking about something that physics currently claims to be impossible anyway.

It just strikes me as odd how there always seems to be a one-galaxy limit to any civilisation, although that might be because I haven't read enough Space Opera.

Well, the single galaxy thing might be a slight aversion of Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: Once you've conquered one entire galaxy, what possible project requires more resources then what you already have available? Dyson Spheres only require a solar system or two.

edited 13th Nov '10 7:52:57 AM by Yej

"Well, the single galaxy thing might be a slight aversion of Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense Of Scale: Once you've conquered one entire galaxy, what possible project requires more resources then what you already have available?"

The thing is, this assumes need, and if you're the sort of society that's taken over a whole galaxy, then there's probably no strict need for anything - given the difficulties of space trade and so forth, such a society would probably be post-scarcity, or something close to it. At that point, it comes down to want, and I can't imagine a society that has the curiousity to expand across a whole galaxy and then decides to just stop there.

Anyway, this is turning dangerously in the direction of a debate.

^^ let the debate happen

^^ Once you've got post-scarcity, there's no need to go beyond a single planet. You might stop at a single galaxy simply because going to another one requires astronomically more effort.

I never got back to this. OK, there's scientific curiosity, but there's also politics. If another civilisation spans a galaxy, then your civilisation spanning a whole supercluster, with all the technology that implies, grants you hegemon status, i.e. the upper hand in any war, negotiation etc.

To go the lazy route and use a Star Trek example: it's almost certainly better in terms of self-interest to be the Federation than the Bajorans.

Isn't a universe... a universe?

"Isn't a universe... a universe?"

...maybe.

You know that interstellar war is mostly massively impractical, right?

edited 22nd Nov '10 2:42:23 PM by Yej

I like smaller scale over what a galaxy-spanning empire would entail, so limiting it to a single system would keep it from getting too large to manage.

Crap, we can hardly run a single planet right. There'll be plenty of dramatic stuff even if you're in just one star system. the martian colonies want to do their own thing now that they can grow their own hydroponic food, the Saturn HE3 roducing colony decides that they want to charge more for fusion fuel, Earth thinking it's lal uppity and stuff (cradle of civilization and earth-centric pride maybe), and perhaps the Asteroid folks decided to just up and quit shipping out ore and kept it for themselves.

Add to teh fact that perhaps a Chinese-ran HE3 facility orbiting Saturn might get bown up for some odd reason,a dn how the comflict between the Russians nad the Chinese on earth might spread to the entire system, and you have a bona fide political thriller here.

edited 22nd Nov '10 4:46:25 PM by pvtnum11

^ More than a single system allows for greater if not unlimited creativity. We don't for example know if there are habitable planets around say Cygnus or Epsilon Eridani.

edited 22nd Nov '10 4:54:53 PM by MajorTom

Well, there's always Firefly... Gobs of stuff to work with there - like, a tale of the Unification War would make an awesome mini-series.

I'd like to play with what was said in Writing Excuses.

If you're writing an epic, your plot should be greater than life, and if your plot is greater than life, a huge setting is not a bad idea.

Now, if your story is about people overcoming personal problems, personal discoveries, and over all a smaller scale of conflict. I recommend using the smaller setting.

edited 22nd Nov '10 9:47:07 PM by Faramir

"You know that interstellar war is mostly massively impractical, right?"

Yeah, for you and your lack of IJD and SYE technology and your giant chicken jokes and your Conway Twitty...

But yeah, you'd have to be up to a 2 on the Kardashev Scale at minimum. Probably more a 2.5.

Generally, I would agree with Yej, just using a single solar system makes it easier to avoid Scifi Writers Have No Sense Of Scale and I personally hate this trope. It depends on your style of course, but in any case,stay the hell away from the term "universe" Also, why don't you take a third option and just use a cluster of stars?

edited 24th Nov '10 6:27:24 AM by eX

^ Third option is good. A cluster of stars would make a good setting, as well. Fractions of lightyears apart, so even SLT drives can deal with it (or merely light-speed) but it has sufficient size so you can tell larger stories.

I think a star cluster in the near vicinity of Sol would be appropiate, since you can use Slower-than-Light ships.

The Keyword is compresion: Think about it. In Mass Effect for exemple the story takes place in the milky way galaxy with 400 BILLION Stars however you can visit about a Hundred, and there is usally only one planet interesting enough to be visit, usally one specific. Spot. this is definitly an outgrowth of Sci-fi writers have no sense of Scale.

In worldbuilding dont build single locations on single planets. built multiple locations on multiple planets on one solar system.

Go for what you picture in your head. Can you 'visually' depict a wormhole or faster than light travel in a way that benefits the story? Or are conversations and drama on a more realistic transport the more feasible angle?