New Setting Ideas
Jul 24, 2014 12:01:34 GMT -7
Post by Roger on Jul 24, 2014 12:01:34 GMT -7
This is a continuation from the open discussion about the site. The idea is that instead of sticking with Firely that we could create our own unique universe that still retains the same "feel" of Firefly. Thus, the types of characters, ships, missions, threads, etc. would all be very similar, but the setting would be custom tailored. The hope here is to make the site more interesting and inviting to both current members and potential new members. One need not be a fan of firefly to RP in a site that is original, and those who are tired of RPing firefly for a decade can write in a similar yet unique setting. It also allows us to "fix" the things we didn't like about the Firefly setting or to answer the questions that went unanswered about the 'Verse so that we have the ideal writing environment.
What follows is what Onas, Jules, and I had been talking about for a while. It will hopefully give a better idea of what I'm talking about and help start the discussion for what people like and don't like. Then, once we get a good framework, we can decide if this alternate setting is what we really want.
Leaving Earth
From present day (2014) to about 150 years into the future (2160s) humanity picks up space travel again primarily through the private sector. Over the course of this century and a half humanity spreads across the solar system. The moon is heavily colonized including the construction of numerous "towers", bridges between the moon and Earth. Mankind has set foot on just about every terrestrial planet and moon in the solar system. Any place that's worth a damn also has some sort of settlement on it ranging from a tiny research station on Mercury to large industrial operations on Mars, the moons of Jupiter, and various asteroids in the belt (i.e. the area from Mars to Jupiter is the heart of our colonization).
The bottom line is that space travel is developed over time and we're becoming experts at it and have plenty of ships. It's still a far cry from the time of our RP where space travel is EVERYTHING but it's not like we suddenly we needed to be space travelers so we just flipped a switch and all become astronauts. Most people still live on Earth but many live in space and we're well beyond the novelty of a NASA launch being a big deal.
Now we're past the 2150s. Suddenly there is a great catastrophe. The exact nature of this is still undecided but the general ideas we had included the moon being messed up. Earth's equilibrium is thrown off balance causing all kinds of trouble and eventually giant tsunamis and shit will be the least of our worries as the moon pulls a Majora's Mask and crashes into the Earth or something.
Now, our 22nd century humans are space travelers but in total little more than one million people actually live in space. Sure we have the technology to get people off Earth but where do we put them? Mars can't support billions of people because most notably, we DO NOT have terraforming technology at this time. Those colonies we do have are all "bases" completely sealed and pressurized for human habitation.
So after the initial "oh shit" moment, we begin evacuating people from Earth to get them out of the disaster zone. We also begin producing the ark ships (which are more like giant space stations than ships) for a trip out of the Sol system to the nearby Xerses system where there is an Earth-like planet. However, shortly into this project two things happen. First, the Ark construction on Earth itself is practically destroyed as natural disasters impede the efforts and even destroy certain construction sites. Thus the construction of the ships is left to the colonies in space. Second, it occurs to the political leaders that even if we had Earth helping (which we don't any more) then we would never be able to build enough ships to get everyone to Xerses. If we keep trying to save people then humanity itself will not survive. The order is given and the refugee ships stop making their constant trips to recover people from Earth and shelter them on the colonies.
With about 1 million non-Earthers and about 15 million Earth refugees, the Ark fleet leaves the solar system in 2173. Earth, messed up as it is, has yet to be completely destroyed and the great catastrophe does not happen for another ten or so years. 68 years later in 2241 the fleet arrives at Xerses. Over the course of the next few decades several stragglers arrive on ships built on Earth after they realized they were being abandoned. Maybe this includes a few hundred thousand more (bitter) survivors.
The whole idea behind this is:
1) It makes more sense as a gradual progression of technology and space travel. Also, it's cooler than what Firefly gives us.
2) We have a truly terrible disaster that is pretty much not our fault. The story of Earth becomes more tragic and it also unifies the species. It is also less of a social commentary on the excess of humanity.
3) The story of Earth is also one of shame because we left so many people behind. We have a very pragmatic approach to saving the species and also a more realistic one as well.
Terraforming and the new Verse
As previously mentioned, Xerses is indeed Earth-like with an atmosphere, plants, water, etc. However, it is also an alien world with slightly different vegetation and animals (which we can use in the story to spice things up if we want from pets to food). But we did of course bring two of every animal and plant on our Arks so traditional Earth stuff also exists (and is often preferred) in the future (but there can still be some occasionally places that are really alien when compared to Earth). After about 100 years (2340s) we develop terraforming technology and begin to expand out from Xerses first into the other planets of the system and then into the six nearby systems of the cluster (insert Onas's video chat using his hands to describe the layout of the cluster lol).
Fastforward another 500 years since terraforming (600 since arriving at Xerses) to the year 2842, the date of our story. Humanity now stretches across seven systems, about 60 terraformed planets, tons of moons, etc. Total population is now about 300 billion. Human space looks something like this:
The two circles on the right are the "Core" or whatever we call them, the older colonies that are more populous and advanced. The four on the Left are the "Rim" with some being more Rim than others where they are more recently colonized, more sparsely populated, and less advanced. In the middle, that tiny circle, is Persephone's small system, the Gateway between the two.
Now Persephone (yes, same name as a similar planet in Firefly, sue us) is literally the Border. It is not legally part of the Core yet it is of incredibly strategic military as well as economic value due to its location. Thus the Core exerts a huge influence over the planet. Core troops are likely to intervene unannounced when they like and Core ships frequently stop traders to check for smugglers and levy taxes. Persephone has its own cops and politicians but they are corrupt both bowing to the influence of the Core and acting largely as a puppet of their interests and also looking the other way when it comes to criminals. In short, Persephone is the funnel through which most trade flows. It is also a world of corruption and although there is Core influence the Core isn't technically "the law" there.
The "Alliance" and other politics
The "central planets", "Core worlds", "Alliance" type worlds tend to be more unified. With rare exceptions each planet has its own government (possibly a coalition of several sub-planet governments but that coalition still governs in the name of the entire planet). The majority of these planets then are joined in a sort of EU/NATO type pact that is both a military and economic alliance with the working title of the Xerses Accord. So in that sense they ARE an "Alliance" but they do not have unified military forces or governments or anything. It's more of a common interest type thing. "Oh, it's a Blahblahblah cruiser coming to board us. They're part of the Accord!"
Meanwhile the outer colonies are a clusterfuck. Some have one government that rules the whole thing. Some places have several governments and sometimes they form coalitions, sometimes they dislike the government on the other side of the planet, and sometimes they even constantly fight those assholes over there. Some planets are owned by individual persons or families. Other colonies are owned by companies. It all really depends on how it was founded (which varies from place to place) and what has happened in the years since.
Some colonies are established by governments. Or maybe they were only established with the help of a government. More recently, most colonies are independent business ventures where you borrow or acquire tons of money to terraform and then you go out and do it. There is no real "space law" about who has jurisdiction and how strong claims can be. This is a cause for frequent conflict with older colonies claiming interests in newer ones or new colonists trying to settle on some other uncolonized part of a planet. People are greedy. They want land, resources, and tax revenue.
The idea is that there is one outlyer (or possibly more) in the Core that is not part of their alliance. This is basically the terraforming planet. Thier main industry is terraforming and all that goes along with it and business has been good for 500 years. It's incredibly wealthy on its own and there is basically no other game in town so they don't really need to be team players with the rest of the Core. They are also the people behind the uniformity of planet names (or the attempt at it) and also the cause of the great war.
Planet names
Firefly was all over the place with patterns some places but overall seemingly no rhyme or reason to the system, and when there were patterns it was all the worse when it was broken. There are seven systems so each would have a theme with the overall theme of them all being Greek based (open to discussion). System 1 is historical persons like Xerses, Theseus, etc. Systems 2 and 3 are major Greek pantheon (Persephone, Tyche). System 4 is minor Greek pantheon (e.g. Deimos). Etc.
If you have a cool name that doesn't fit the pattern then that could possibly be a moon (which would hopefully follow some pattern with the other moons of that planet at least), a notable asteroid, or a colloquial name for a planet. Again, the idea is that the unnamed terraforming planet is basically in charge of naming places and they have their system. However, some people hate the system from the start or over time a name changes. So, on all the official records it's called "Zeus" but the local government and people call it "Sunrise" which is of course completely different.
The War
Fifteen years ago, the tension between the terraforming planet and Space NATO AKA the Xerses Accord broke out into full blown war. Instead of a curbstomp, the Accord was surprised when the vast majority of the outer worlds joined the war on the side of the terraforming planet. Soon, a locally focused conflict became cluster-wide. Not only were there tons more people evening the balance but the economic flow of resources to the Core was also cut, an unforeseen circumstance of the conflict. It soon becomes clear that the Core is going to lose the war, but before the balance really swings in their favor, the terraforming planet makes peace because currently they're being bombed to hell no matter how great the colonials are doing on the fringe. The war ends after four years in a status quo ante bellum treaty.
Since then pretty much nothing has changed except the Core worlds are bitter they didn't get what they want. Now more than ever they try and bully the Rim, partly because they want to because they're mean/greedy, partly because they want to squeeze them to pay for the war, and partly because those assholes made them lose the last war. However, the Rim worlds are so disjointed that nothing but a full fledged war like the last one will convince them to unify and actually stand up to Space NATO since they have their own petty disputes and hate each other about as much as they hate them damn fancy Accord people.
Notably, in this Universe the Accord doesn't want to rule everybody. All they want is to be dominant and make money. The aim of the war was a way for them to knock down a rival, disarm the Rim, and impose favorable trade rights. This is kind of what the Alliance did in Firefly except here, they weren't fools enough to actually try and accept responsibility for these people and become an occupation and humanitarian force. To most, the Accord forces are distant and they are not being crushed under the heal of their rule but rather they have their own local politics to deal with. The Accord is the bully that exerts unlawful authority to benefit themselves and they don't pretend to be doing things for the good of all humanity.
Technology
Robots and Such
We don't have them. Sure, robotics technology exists but it's more of a novelty to have a robot i.e. one that actually walks around and isn't just an arm on a conveyor belt that builds cars. There certainly are no sentient robots with true AI like the Cylons or Geth. We might have AI technology or perhaps merely VI technology but that is limited to the ship computer being really smart like EDI in Mass Effect (2 not 3) or Cortana in Halo.
We are however really advanced in medicine and such. A robot arm like Sam Grady had is possible as are other implants and such. Such technology is typically very expensive and it requires that human element to work which sets it apart from being robots. We also have nanite technology that can work for good (fighting cancer or whatever) and for awesome (throwing a cloud of nanites that devour a human being). But again, this tech is not terribly common but is terribly expensive.
Hover Cars and Such
They're stupid and we don't want them in our world. Our explanation is kind of similar to robots. We have developed the technology and maybe back in the 2300s it was cool but it turned out to be a stupid fad. The wheel was one of the greatest inventions ever made and frankly does not need to be replaced. Hover technology is expensive to buy and expensive to run (i.e. burns fuel faster), prone to breaking, requires tons of maintenance, etc. while a car is much more durable and is just about as good. Space ships and maybe even airplanes have developed more over time, but cars are pretty much the same. So, in your standard city you will see cars and flying shuttles but not the in between of the hovercraft.
Weapons
We also don't want lasers and again, the reasoning is much the same. Projectile weapons are still king. Sure, there have been advances over time but you're still spitting small bits of metal out of your gun. Lasers are expensive, fragile, etc. and offer little benefit over an advanced mass driver (a future gun). Maybe you'll find a guy with a laser every once in a while. You'll laugh and then shoot him with your gun, take his expensive toy, and pawn it. It's like showing up to a fight with a crossbow. Yeah it can kill you, has some advantages over a gun, etc. but in the end a gun is still probably a better choice.
Space Travel
Until I hear otherwise, we're keeping the system I explained for space travel here on the 'Verse. Atmospheric flight is powered by jet engines which just burn tons of fuel and make fire and shit. Space flight is powered by your pulse engine which is pretty much a controlled nuclear detonation. This is all made possible by gravity manipulation which:
1) Gives you artificial gravity to walk around and stuff.
2) Balances competing gravity (e.g. you enter a planet's atmosphere or pass too close to another ship which has its own gravity being generated on board) so you don't die from forces pulling you apart.
3) Makes sure the ship doesn't break apart from moving at such high rates of speed and shit.
4) Shields you against space radiation and the like so you don't die.
5) Directs the small nuclear pulses in a direction that pushes your ship forward instead of blowing the ship up in a nuclear blast.
Our general speed of travel is 2/15th the speed of light which is really damn fast but it's not instant travel. Jumping from planet to moon might take a minute. Going to a nearby planet might take a few hours. Travelling across a system might take a few days. Travelling all the way across known space might take a month or so (to be determined once we actually make a map with distances).
Communications are faster than ships but also are not instantaneous. Messages get sent to nearby comm stations where they are tight-beamed and fired on beams of light to another relay across the stars. Thus they travel as the speed of light (minus some for the interpretation and transmission by the system). This means that there is lag (sometimes significant lag) between communications.
That's what I have so far. Feel free to discuss the above topics or to bring up new ones.
What follows is what Onas, Jules, and I had been talking about for a while. It will hopefully give a better idea of what I'm talking about and help start the discussion for what people like and don't like. Then, once we get a good framework, we can decide if this alternate setting is what we really want.
Leaving Earth
From present day (2014) to about 150 years into the future (2160s) humanity picks up space travel again primarily through the private sector. Over the course of this century and a half humanity spreads across the solar system. The moon is heavily colonized including the construction of numerous "towers", bridges between the moon and Earth. Mankind has set foot on just about every terrestrial planet and moon in the solar system. Any place that's worth a damn also has some sort of settlement on it ranging from a tiny research station on Mercury to large industrial operations on Mars, the moons of Jupiter, and various asteroids in the belt (i.e. the area from Mars to Jupiter is the heart of our colonization).
The bottom line is that space travel is developed over time and we're becoming experts at it and have plenty of ships. It's still a far cry from the time of our RP where space travel is EVERYTHING but it's not like we suddenly we needed to be space travelers so we just flipped a switch and all become astronauts. Most people still live on Earth but many live in space and we're well beyond the novelty of a NASA launch being a big deal.
Now we're past the 2150s. Suddenly there is a great catastrophe. The exact nature of this is still undecided but the general ideas we had included the moon being messed up. Earth's equilibrium is thrown off balance causing all kinds of trouble and eventually giant tsunamis and shit will be the least of our worries as the moon pulls a Majora's Mask and crashes into the Earth or something.
Now, our 22nd century humans are space travelers but in total little more than one million people actually live in space. Sure we have the technology to get people off Earth but where do we put them? Mars can't support billions of people because most notably, we DO NOT have terraforming technology at this time. Those colonies we do have are all "bases" completely sealed and pressurized for human habitation.
So after the initial "oh shit" moment, we begin evacuating people from Earth to get them out of the disaster zone. We also begin producing the ark ships (which are more like giant space stations than ships) for a trip out of the Sol system to the nearby Xerses system where there is an Earth-like planet. However, shortly into this project two things happen. First, the Ark construction on Earth itself is practically destroyed as natural disasters impede the efforts and even destroy certain construction sites. Thus the construction of the ships is left to the colonies in space. Second, it occurs to the political leaders that even if we had Earth helping (which we don't any more) then we would never be able to build enough ships to get everyone to Xerses. If we keep trying to save people then humanity itself will not survive. The order is given and the refugee ships stop making their constant trips to recover people from Earth and shelter them on the colonies.
With about 1 million non-Earthers and about 15 million Earth refugees, the Ark fleet leaves the solar system in 2173. Earth, messed up as it is, has yet to be completely destroyed and the great catastrophe does not happen for another ten or so years. 68 years later in 2241 the fleet arrives at Xerses. Over the course of the next few decades several stragglers arrive on ships built on Earth after they realized they were being abandoned. Maybe this includes a few hundred thousand more (bitter) survivors.
The whole idea behind this is:
1) It makes more sense as a gradual progression of technology and space travel. Also, it's cooler than what Firefly gives us.
2) We have a truly terrible disaster that is pretty much not our fault. The story of Earth becomes more tragic and it also unifies the species. It is also less of a social commentary on the excess of humanity.
3) The story of Earth is also one of shame because we left so many people behind. We have a very pragmatic approach to saving the species and also a more realistic one as well.
Terraforming and the new Verse
As previously mentioned, Xerses is indeed Earth-like with an atmosphere, plants, water, etc. However, it is also an alien world with slightly different vegetation and animals (which we can use in the story to spice things up if we want from pets to food). But we did of course bring two of every animal and plant on our Arks so traditional Earth stuff also exists (and is often preferred) in the future (but there can still be some occasionally places that are really alien when compared to Earth). After about 100 years (2340s) we develop terraforming technology and begin to expand out from Xerses first into the other planets of the system and then into the six nearby systems of the cluster (insert Onas's video chat using his hands to describe the layout of the cluster lol).
Fastforward another 500 years since terraforming (600 since arriving at Xerses) to the year 2842, the date of our story. Humanity now stretches across seven systems, about 60 terraformed planets, tons of moons, etc. Total population is now about 300 billion. Human space looks something like this:
The two circles on the right are the "Core" or whatever we call them, the older colonies that are more populous and advanced. The four on the Left are the "Rim" with some being more Rim than others where they are more recently colonized, more sparsely populated, and less advanced. In the middle, that tiny circle, is Persephone's small system, the Gateway between the two.
Now Persephone (yes, same name as a similar planet in Firefly, sue us) is literally the Border. It is not legally part of the Core yet it is of incredibly strategic military as well as economic value due to its location. Thus the Core exerts a huge influence over the planet. Core troops are likely to intervene unannounced when they like and Core ships frequently stop traders to check for smugglers and levy taxes. Persephone has its own cops and politicians but they are corrupt both bowing to the influence of the Core and acting largely as a puppet of their interests and also looking the other way when it comes to criminals. In short, Persephone is the funnel through which most trade flows. It is also a world of corruption and although there is Core influence the Core isn't technically "the law" there.
The "Alliance" and other politics
The "central planets", "Core worlds", "Alliance" type worlds tend to be more unified. With rare exceptions each planet has its own government (possibly a coalition of several sub-planet governments but that coalition still governs in the name of the entire planet). The majority of these planets then are joined in a sort of EU/NATO type pact that is both a military and economic alliance with the working title of the Xerses Accord. So in that sense they ARE an "Alliance" but they do not have unified military forces or governments or anything. It's more of a common interest type thing. "Oh, it's a Blahblahblah cruiser coming to board us. They're part of the Accord!"
Meanwhile the outer colonies are a clusterfuck. Some have one government that rules the whole thing. Some places have several governments and sometimes they form coalitions, sometimes they dislike the government on the other side of the planet, and sometimes they even constantly fight those assholes over there. Some planets are owned by individual persons or families. Other colonies are owned by companies. It all really depends on how it was founded (which varies from place to place) and what has happened in the years since.
Some colonies are established by governments. Or maybe they were only established with the help of a government. More recently, most colonies are independent business ventures where you borrow or acquire tons of money to terraform and then you go out and do it. There is no real "space law" about who has jurisdiction and how strong claims can be. This is a cause for frequent conflict with older colonies claiming interests in newer ones or new colonists trying to settle on some other uncolonized part of a planet. People are greedy. They want land, resources, and tax revenue.
The idea is that there is one outlyer (or possibly more) in the Core that is not part of their alliance. This is basically the terraforming planet. Thier main industry is terraforming and all that goes along with it and business has been good for 500 years. It's incredibly wealthy on its own and there is basically no other game in town so they don't really need to be team players with the rest of the Core. They are also the people behind the uniformity of planet names (or the attempt at it) and also the cause of the great war.
Planet names
Firefly was all over the place with patterns some places but overall seemingly no rhyme or reason to the system, and when there were patterns it was all the worse when it was broken. There are seven systems so each would have a theme with the overall theme of them all being Greek based (open to discussion). System 1 is historical persons like Xerses, Theseus, etc. Systems 2 and 3 are major Greek pantheon (Persephone, Tyche). System 4 is minor Greek pantheon (e.g. Deimos). Etc.
If you have a cool name that doesn't fit the pattern then that could possibly be a moon (which would hopefully follow some pattern with the other moons of that planet at least), a notable asteroid, or a colloquial name for a planet. Again, the idea is that the unnamed terraforming planet is basically in charge of naming places and they have their system. However, some people hate the system from the start or over time a name changes. So, on all the official records it's called "Zeus" but the local government and people call it "Sunrise" which is of course completely different.
The War
Fifteen years ago, the tension between the terraforming planet and Space NATO AKA the Xerses Accord broke out into full blown war. Instead of a curbstomp, the Accord was surprised when the vast majority of the outer worlds joined the war on the side of the terraforming planet. Soon, a locally focused conflict became cluster-wide. Not only were there tons more people evening the balance but the economic flow of resources to the Core was also cut, an unforeseen circumstance of the conflict. It soon becomes clear that the Core is going to lose the war, but before the balance really swings in their favor, the terraforming planet makes peace because currently they're being bombed to hell no matter how great the colonials are doing on the fringe. The war ends after four years in a status quo ante bellum treaty.
Since then pretty much nothing has changed except the Core worlds are bitter they didn't get what they want. Now more than ever they try and bully the Rim, partly because they want to because they're mean/greedy, partly because they want to squeeze them to pay for the war, and partly because those assholes made them lose the last war. However, the Rim worlds are so disjointed that nothing but a full fledged war like the last one will convince them to unify and actually stand up to Space NATO since they have their own petty disputes and hate each other about as much as they hate them damn fancy Accord people.
Notably, in this Universe the Accord doesn't want to rule everybody. All they want is to be dominant and make money. The aim of the war was a way for them to knock down a rival, disarm the Rim, and impose favorable trade rights. This is kind of what the Alliance did in Firefly except here, they weren't fools enough to actually try and accept responsibility for these people and become an occupation and humanitarian force. To most, the Accord forces are distant and they are not being crushed under the heal of their rule but rather they have their own local politics to deal with. The Accord is the bully that exerts unlawful authority to benefit themselves and they don't pretend to be doing things for the good of all humanity.
Technology
Robots and Such
We don't have them. Sure, robotics technology exists but it's more of a novelty to have a robot i.e. one that actually walks around and isn't just an arm on a conveyor belt that builds cars. There certainly are no sentient robots with true AI like the Cylons or Geth. We might have AI technology or perhaps merely VI technology but that is limited to the ship computer being really smart like EDI in Mass Effect (2 not 3) or Cortana in Halo.
We are however really advanced in medicine and such. A robot arm like Sam Grady had is possible as are other implants and such. Such technology is typically very expensive and it requires that human element to work which sets it apart from being robots. We also have nanite technology that can work for good (fighting cancer or whatever) and for awesome (throwing a cloud of nanites that devour a human being). But again, this tech is not terribly common but is terribly expensive.
Hover Cars and Such
They're stupid and we don't want them in our world. Our explanation is kind of similar to robots. We have developed the technology and maybe back in the 2300s it was cool but it turned out to be a stupid fad. The wheel was one of the greatest inventions ever made and frankly does not need to be replaced. Hover technology is expensive to buy and expensive to run (i.e. burns fuel faster), prone to breaking, requires tons of maintenance, etc. while a car is much more durable and is just about as good. Space ships and maybe even airplanes have developed more over time, but cars are pretty much the same. So, in your standard city you will see cars and flying shuttles but not the in between of the hovercraft.
Weapons
We also don't want lasers and again, the reasoning is much the same. Projectile weapons are still king. Sure, there have been advances over time but you're still spitting small bits of metal out of your gun. Lasers are expensive, fragile, etc. and offer little benefit over an advanced mass driver (a future gun). Maybe you'll find a guy with a laser every once in a while. You'll laugh and then shoot him with your gun, take his expensive toy, and pawn it. It's like showing up to a fight with a crossbow. Yeah it can kill you, has some advantages over a gun, etc. but in the end a gun is still probably a better choice.
Space Travel
Until I hear otherwise, we're keeping the system I explained for space travel here on the 'Verse. Atmospheric flight is powered by jet engines which just burn tons of fuel and make fire and shit. Space flight is powered by your pulse engine which is pretty much a controlled nuclear detonation. This is all made possible by gravity manipulation which:
1) Gives you artificial gravity to walk around and stuff.
2) Balances competing gravity (e.g. you enter a planet's atmosphere or pass too close to another ship which has its own gravity being generated on board) so you don't die from forces pulling you apart.
3) Makes sure the ship doesn't break apart from moving at such high rates of speed and shit.
4) Shields you against space radiation and the like so you don't die.
5) Directs the small nuclear pulses in a direction that pushes your ship forward instead of blowing the ship up in a nuclear blast.
Our general speed of travel is 2/15th the speed of light which is really damn fast but it's not instant travel. Jumping from planet to moon might take a minute. Going to a nearby planet might take a few hours. Travelling across a system might take a few days. Travelling all the way across known space might take a month or so (to be determined once we actually make a map with distances).
Communications are faster than ships but also are not instantaneous. Messages get sent to nearby comm stations where they are tight-beamed and fired on beams of light to another relay across the stars. Thus they travel as the speed of light (minus some for the interpretation and transmission by the system). This means that there is lag (sometimes significant lag) between communications.
That's what I have so far. Feel free to discuss the above topics or to bring up new ones.