kyli wrote:Or just stumble across a more peaceful race(s) that are powerful enough to stop you.... like maybe the Confederatation.

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Nah, because the Confederation isn't exactly peaceful. If left alone, they would still try to take each others star systems. Only both the visible and obvious threat of invasion from another galaxy as well as the handholding and nose-leading of Karinne openly and Kimdori behind the scenes made it possible for a political entity they call the Confederation to come into existence.
After it is over the real questions will finally come up. Will the trade agreements, gate travel arangements and interdictor deployments be able to hold the Confederation as a real political entity together? How many races will remain, how many will see more advantages in leaving?
But back to your comment, kyli. For the bad guys to just stumble upon a more peaceful race will be boring. Natural selection also prefers the more aggressiv species above the peaceful ones. Archeological sciences tell us that the most peaceful species that developed only survived because they had so many offspring that loosing most before they grew to adulthood did not matter. And you just had to be bigger than everybody else, so nobody was stupid enough to attack you when healthy and young. Well, you could also be faster than whatever hunted you to survive.
Humanity was neither of that, we were instead aggressiv and intelligent. Although we developed out of treedwellers that ate fruits, when we came down from the trees we also started to eat meat. Anything big enough was hunted by humans. And if it hunted us back? Well, then that was what we killed whenever we saw it. Most large hunters are endangered species. Most big meat animals are also either domesticated or reduced by large numbers. We are even so aggressive that we hunt and kill others of our own kind not of our group. Territorial animals are satisfied with running unpopular visitors out of their territory, end of story. We are so aggressive, we have become one of the biggest reasons for a mass extinction event on Earth. Going into space will probably be a question of survival sooner or later.
Belgarion213 wrote:Though the Karines being contacted by somebody akin to the Star Trek federation (who don't make contact with people till they pass the Warp Barrier) could be interesting.
Although I liked watching most episodes of Star Trek, whatever flavour, I never thought it realistic for a society without money to exist. Without monetary compensation much of what motivates people is gone. I can understand scientists, even today they are often motivated by respect, fame and naturally curiosity. I can understand explorers. But who goes out in unarmed freighters to sit around waiting until you arrive and knowing that there are pirates that kill freighter crews. And let's not get started with how convenient it is that all races around you are at most on your technology level, but never more advanced - despite all the old vanished civilizations that left godlike artifacts behind.
So, although quite a nice piece of entertainment, a United Federation of Planets can't exist as depicted.
What does a signature tell us about a person that has a signature significantly longer than the text he posted in his last post?