Talk:Mykarian Empire/@comment-4799917-20140111023015/@comment-3155949-20140115034653

I didn't mean to imply that an extragalactic colony would grant exceptional wealth, because you're right. They're made of the same stuff that local star systems are made of, too. But that doesn't mean it would be an unprofitable measure. Strategically, it can help secure a gateway to new colonies if a local area is contested or otherwise unfavorable. Of course, that argument might not hold water due to the fact that a race capable of extragalactic travel might be able to just find a better location within the same galaxy.

As for 22 home systems (and I use the term "home system" loosely, because this also includes restricted military territory and border regions), that can be explained by saying that the exponential increase in the rate of technological progress slows to a crawl or stops entirely at a certain point. The idea is that at least in the region of the Karalian Empire, Greewnater, and the EIT, their most efficient method of travel is a jump gate system requiring connections to be built on either end of a system. That requires many years of construction and inter-system travel without the aid of jump gates, and the time required for suitably developing a newly-colonized system as well as the expenses that must be recouped justify the slow pace of colonization.

Obviously, there are some differences in everyone's perception of how these technologies and societies would function, mostly on account of the fact that there is a distinct lack of hard, empirical data to go off of. There's no question that aircraft carriers require some sort of escort to be effectively deployed, but in future sci-fi universes, there is no consensus. Currently, my view is that carriers in space will still require a degree of protection to operate safely and efficiently, but Chris Roberts' vision regarding carriers in space in the game Starlancer is that carriers would be well-armed vessels capable of operating independently and conducting their own operations, the prime examples from that game being the Reliant, Yamato, and Ramases.