When considering introducing any new technology, be it spacecraft, hardware, genetics, or whatever, you must keep in mind that the game is built upon a foundation of real science extrapolated into the 25th century.
If it has no basis in scientific fact, it doesn't belong. The same goes for any new discovery that might break what is already established in the game. That may seem a bit narrow minded, but the idea is to enhance the game we already enjoy, not create a new one. If you want to add anti-gravity because scientists made a tiny frog float in lab, sorry. There is no anti-gravity in the game and so that's that.
Here are some things that, while they're really swell, do not and shall not exist in XXVc:
Artificial Gravity
Psionics
FTL Drives (in whatever form they may take)
Extrasolar Life (aka Aliens)
Time Travel
Gennies that break the "Square-Cube Law"
Gennies with brains considerably smaller than humans', that are as smart (or smarter) than humans. In other words, no rats teaching each other sign language or cats beating humans at chess
Blasters, light sabers, or other "magic" weapons
Teleportation
Ship's scanners that can reveal what is inside another space craft. More on this later.
Free-floating holograms! My personal pet peeve. This includes "flashlight" holograms like Cortana from the Halo video game series.
That's all I can think of for now. Feel free to throw in if you have anything in mind.
This is a very nice list, Oculus. :)
ReplyDeleteFarther than I would have thought.
Also, the ability to manipulate stuff through computers and datalinks should be handled very carefully. I still think that one of the retro aspects of the setting is that it always takes a human or gennie to pull the lever.