Board Thread:Fiction Universe Discussion/@comment-1073312-20141222002350

Hello. I've been meaning for a long time to turn what has become a large essay on technological growth back into a usable Tier scale. Initially, I set out to solve some of the problems that previous versions of the tier scale faced. But in the end, my simple ranking system now relates heavily to solutions in the Fermi Paradox, theoretical physics and knowledge growth. You may read this project if you wish, but you do not require to know it at any great length to understand the new (and hopefully finalised tier scale). I would also like to stress that while the tier scale has changed, none of the placements for any of your fictions have unless you wish to modify them.

Changes of most consequence
And so, each Tier can cater for previously "Tier U" species. They usually fall into dominant categories like "Tech collapsed", "Median", "Tech-gifted", "Swarm", "Non-Expansive" or "Tech limited". Interestingly, Tier 4 has a varied myriad of these, either due to environmental limits or author imagination. Tier 1 becomes as varied again, but with the only limits being universal laws of physics. Most Elder races can be categorised by their specialisms: Spacetime, Quantum Gravity/Hyperspace, Thermodynamics and Absolute Zero or combinations of these.
 * Tier U (standing for Unknown) no longer exists. The Tier U was a "catch all" category for all knowledge advancing societies which do not follow the same linear or parochial path we might expect ourselves or an alien race like ourselves to advance.  For extreme examples, there are the "Callisto bugs" in the Xeelee Sequence which were bacteria confined to a low energy environment of Callisto's ices.  Despite this they developed complexity orthogonal to their environment by manipulating quantum mechanical effects on a reality warping scale.  In Dragon's Egg, life develops from nuclear chemistry on a neutron star and became the Cheela, who develop technology far faster on the power scale, soon becoming what the Kardeshev Scale would consider Type II.  The old tier scale assumed too much about linear progression, it could not easily account for so-called "Hider" civilisations, or swarm races.
 * The older versions of the Tier Scale struggled to come to terms with Tier 2. By Tier 3, a civilisation already possessed the ability to built giant megastructures and harness the stars.  A Tier 1 civilisation however is approaching Elder level technology.  What distinctive feature did Tier 2 have?   The solution was a merger between my tier scale and Ghelae's class scale.  As a result, the finalised Tier scale has revolutions (based on physics applied technology limited by the environment, available energy sources and most importantly knowledge).  Tier 2 has become the hyperspatial revolution, where Type II energy sources unlock spacetime warps and hypermatter power-sources (and alternatives) that gradually replace the megastructural revolution.  A fully fledged Tier 2 civilisation would be easily Type II.V on the Kardashev scale having the ability to transport (at STL or FTL) energy sources otherwise limited.
 * The Class Scale grants the ability to have different types of progression through each tier and revolution. For a classic space empire (most fictions here)  the "median" line advances like this: Early industrial period is marked by the use of steam until internal combustion engines were invented. From the study of steam we discovered atomic science. Early industrial shifts into Modern Mechanics (Tier 6, our era) with the study of atoms: materials science, chemistry, quasiparticles and plasma. This led to subatomic physics and information physics after applying computation.  A classic space empire might therefore follow a linear path upwards the Kardashev scale.  But other positions are possible, one might imagine non-terrestrial life as having developed an understanding of fluid mechanics before geometry, or a society of "runaway" bio  or techships understanding Special Relativity and Electromagnetism in a different order.  But there are easier examples, one might once again imagine a Hider society developing very slowly up the scale, creating perhaps one big Dyson Bubble.

The Scale
So here is the scale. This time I will keep out civilisations from other universes to reduce clutter, although the list with science fiction races included is kept here. Detailed explanation for the scale here.

Archaic and Demographic revolution (Class 0 and 1, Tier's 10-9)

 * Both
 * Koldenwelt (SporeWiki Fantasyverse)
 * Khalinar, Klamb (SporeWikiverse)

Communal (Class 2, Tier 8) to Industrial Revolution (Tier's 7-6)

 * Tier's 7-6
 * Ioketa (SporeWikiverse) - Before being members of the UNO.
 * Koldenwelt (SporeWiki Fantasyverse) - Several cities and empires have steam power, battleships and so on.
 * Tier 6 (Median Interplanetary)
 * Deisna
 * Tech Collapsed

Interplanetary to Transtellar Revolution (Tier 5-4)

 * Tier 5 (Median Transtellar revolution)
 * Yotunian Ideom (SporeWiki) - Cold-adapted technologies, STL travel.
 * Alphan civilization, Menzezium, Elucaphon, TAE (Asgord) (SporeWiki) - Weakest SporeWiki races perhaps.
 * Tier 5 (Tech gifted)
 * Naxridon and Arnodian Command (SporeWiki)

Early Interstellar to Megastructural revolution (Tier 4-3)

 * Tier 4 (Median)
 * Tier 4 (Tech Collapsed)
 * Low Energy Civilisations/Hiders
 * Wild bio/techships and space-based biospheres
 * Tier 4 (Swarm)
 * Von-Nuemann colonisers/berserkers (e.g. early Nanohorde)
 * Mantisorac Swarm
 * Tier 4 (Non-expansive)
 * WDC'ians (SporeWiki) - Life on a white dwarf star which learned how to colonise nearby stellar degenerate
 * High end Tier 4 / Non-expansive Tier 3
 * Some of the Katar Sector races, the Four Races of the Kraw Galaxy and the KGGC, the Terditlians, Gablinus-Avis, BNSC, Defensive System's Block, Trucinex Imperium, Loron (Pre-UNO), Solonese Union; Natrian Empire (Pre-SporeWikiverse)
 * Ectobiomality - They have the ability to symbiotically grow their technology from life on their planet, which evolved from run-away nanotechnology on their planets prehistory. Their technology is sufficient enough to send them around the galaxy, and even enter the atmospheres of gas giants.
 * Tier 3 (Median)
 * Grox Empire (Spore) - If we speculate they use the Galactic core as a source of power. They seem to have FTL propulsion unaffected by gravity wells, hinting of some unknown science.
 * Tier 3 (Non-expansive)
 * Hogomoth Refuge - Tier 3 hiders.

Established Interstellar (Class 3, Tier 2) to Hyperspatial revolution (Tier 2-1)

 * Tier 3-1 (Tech gifted)
 * End-gameplay in Spore - Large-scale antimatter production (presumably enough to create "planet busters"), wormhole keys/return ticket, Staff of Life (replication or bionanotech?), interstellar drives which can cross the galaxy in minutes, one ship that can destroy entire empires in a single sitting, the ability to terraform planets quickly. A size that can reach class 7, Class 5 in scale. Also capable of using gravitational weapons.
 * Dominatus (Sporewiki) - Dominatus technology is defined by it's bipolarity. In some places, like the LEZIAPETSSHIT of the Tiamat, it is borderline tier 1/0, as it gives mathematics solid form in reality. Similarly advanced is it's megastructural engineering and it's materials engineering. However, at the other end of the spectrum, it has aspects of being low tier 4 or high tier 5 in terms of the majority of it's industry, of which the majority involves geoengineering. Similarly, they have no knowledge of wormholes in practical application, something that is a tier 3 trait. Therefore, the Dominatus are on aggregate, a tier 2, although they are making heavy transitions in most areas.
 * Tier 2-1 (Hyperspatial revolution Median)
 * Average SporeWiki civilisations - Most SporeWiki civilisations crowd between Tier 3 and Tier 1, most maxing out at late Tier 2, such as Humanity.
 * Tech-Limited (or collapsed)

Established Hyperspatial and Elder race (Class 4-5, Tier 1)

 * Median (ony just Tier 1)
 * Grox Meta-Empire,Shka'Tun Imperium (at entry), Delpha Coalition of Planets, Milky Way Cooperative, Andromedan Galactic Commonwealth, Dacean Ecumene - The six seem to share similar-level technology: degenerate matter mined from stellar remnants, quantum replicators, micro-gridfire, hyperspatial weaponry, permanent wormholes, stellar lifting/husbandry, matter/antimatter conversion, ghost-phasing, intergalactic presence, interuniversal travel through natural portals, and more.
 * Apalos - Spacetime shielding, access to high tier 1 computation, shapeshifting spacecraft, creation of quantum replicators (although based on Elder technology).
 * Non-expansive/Size Collapsed
 * Theian Dominion
 * Vermulan Autonomy
 * Thermodynamics and Absolute Zero (high Tier 1)
 * Quantum Gravity, hyperspace (high Tier 1)
 * The Junction
 * AI Netspace
 * Metric (High Tier 1)

Godrace (Tier 0)

 * Truly Limited (like Tech-collapsed)
 * Unlimited
 * Ultraterrestrials
 * Big Collective Consciousness
 * Ayrai'Shikua 