Something I really hope to see.

[IonutRO]

Progress Levels.

The galaxy is bound to be full of societies operating at different levels of development, not just at the same level as Absalom station, so it would make sense to include stats for "lower tech" equipment, such as opioid painkillers, fungal antibiotics, AM radios, and fossil fuels.

And I'm using modern technologies as examples because without knowing how advanced Absalom tech is, I can't give examples of sci-fi tech that would be more primitive than theirs, and not just because I'm hoping Starfinder will support Urban Fantasy. <w>

[Wei Ji the Learner]

Working with that, some sort of implementation of TL (such as in GURPS, Traveller, etc)

Also, tech that doesn't have the 'timeworn' feature unless it's been given the sort of abuse an AK-47 would cry at ^2.

[Torbyne]

Agreed, a Tech Level system also works great to balance power, if standard weapons and gear are evenly matched than you will need to find alien powers and artifacts or prototype military tech to out-gun your enemies. Or if the story isnt about being Doomguy than higher level techs can be locked away in your campaign.

[Abraham spalding]

Also: Society and area based tech levels.

If we have (as examples)
Psitech
Magitech
Biotech
Nanotech
Gavitech
Fusion tech
computer tech

Then a society might have:
Psitech 0
Magitech 3 (standard spell casting)
Biotech 5
Nanotech 2
Gavitech 4
computer tech 5

and so on.

That's something I really liked about alternity.

[Richard Redmane]

Technology Levels are probably a given if not for the Core Book then a hardcover expansion down the line. I also like Abraham's idea of diversifying tech progression somewhat to represent worlds that are very good at certain types of technology but I worry about it getting too spread out.

[IonutRO]

Richard Redmane wrote:

Technology Levels are probably a given if not for the Core Book then a hardcover expansion down the line. I also like Abraham's idea of diversifying tech progression somewhat to represent worlds that are very good at certain types of technology but I worry about it getting too spread out.

I remember seeing a system like that somewhere else, but I'm not quite sure where. I think it might've been a 4X video game.

[Abraham spalding]

Well the Civilization series uses something of the idea (as does most RTS and 4X games honestly) with tech trees.

Which might be an idea too.

Maybe each class has a "tech limit" based on how difficult the class is. Then each character gets to select some form of technology they learn about over their career.

So a wizard might get two tech types, a fighter four and the rogue would have six.

The wizard picks biology and gravity, the fighter picks fusion, super materials biology and cybertech, while the rogue goes for... Stuff ran out of ideas.

But basically it is kind of like skills for technology levels for characters.

Because seriously no one is going to know everything.

[Torbyne]

Something to keep in mind is that technology is designed for ease of use, especially things like weapons and utility items. If a device wants to compete it needs as little training as possible to function. Make tech uses, something like the technologist feat, a given for any character raised in an advanced society and them if the story starts with characters outside high tech societies they can pick it up as a story point after being exposed to tech for so long. Programing or design could still be dependent on high skill levels but just using technology designed by a core race should be a given. This is also one of the biggest selling points for technology over magic.

I don't want to see too many branches of technology in a core book either. Maybe pure tech resembling hard science, magic-tech based of arcane power and functions and bio-tech similar to dominion of the black fleshwarping. Introduce more in future products but don't swamp the core book with it just yet.

[Abraham spalding]

Yeah I am not talking about basic use stuff (weapons, armor, and such) but the crafting, modification or usage of high end stuff.

[IonutRO]

I don't mean tech trees, but rather a rating system where how advanced a civilization/race was wasn't counted by single number, and rather by different values in different fields of science.

For example:

Human:

Engineering 4
Agriculture 3
Civics 5
Military 5
Medicine 3
Economy 4

Vulcans:

Engineering 6
Agriculture 4
Civics 8
Military 7
Medicine 8
Economy 10

[Abraham spalding]

Again that's what alternity did. I was talking about applying the same concept to characters through their classes too, as a means of helping with balance and to prevent a specific phenomenon I've seen in scifi games before (people wanting to build tech all the time and custom craft items).

[Torbyne]

Can you elaborate on that any further? it sounds like the problem is more with item creation than tech levels or classes. Unless it is a class that has item creation as a central class ability. i would like to see item creation removed from specific classes and just be a feat or skill used when you have access to a lab.

[Richard Redmane]

Torbyne wrote:

Can you elaborate on that any further? it sounds like the problem is more with item creation than tech levels or classes. Unless it is a class that has item creation as a central class ability. i would like to see item creation removed from specific classes and just be a feat or skill used when you have access to a lab.

I have to agree, in my experience, unless we're talking about that XP penalty/XP crafting reserve used by a couple WotC classes (I never was a fan of that idea,) the problems with crafting rules have always been with the players or the GM, never the system.

If it's a problem of giving the players too much time during the times on the ship between planets, well then there are always chores that need to be done or else the ship becomes broken, unsightly, or whatnot. You can always just say they need to spend X amount of hours per day taking care of that and X amount sleeping, leaving them to manage the rest as they will. If it's a problem of the players trying to take their time to craft objects ahead of time, force them to deal with things that require a degree of urgency.

Regardless, I would not turn crafting into a huge tech tree. Tech trees are for strategy games, they should only be used in an RPG to describe "why players should be impressed with civilization Z." Making it overly complicated does not prevent it from being abused, it merely punishes players who wish to enjoy it without abusing it. At the most I would use something like Darwin's World, making a couple crafting feats to represent the specialized knowledge needed to manufacture incredibly complicated high-end items like power armor and leave it at that.

[Abraham spalding]

Yeah not a huge tech tree.

You would have the tech type (genericish, like fusion, dark matter, anti matter, cyberbetics, super materials, etc) and your "rank" in that tech type.

Each item has a tech type and level (or two or three tech types with levels) if you have that tech type (you would only need one of the list types)and are that rank or higher you can build the item.

example:
Nanite hypogun (medical 5, biological 6, nanio tech 5)

If you have one of the list skills you are good.

Crafting feats could work too.

[IonutRO]

Abraham spalding wrote:

Again that's what alternity did. I was talking about applying the same concept to characters through their classes too, as a means of helping with balance and to prevent a specific phenomenon I've seen in scifi games before (people wanting to build tech all the time and custom craft items).

Didn't even notice your line about Alternity. Derp.