Thread:Wormulon/@comment-4911354-20130108173447/@comment-1073312-20130108215224

Well, there isn't any clear-cut definition between high Tier 3 and Tier 2. I'd expect high Tier 3 civilisations might be using massive dyson bubbles/swarms and even perhaps manufacturing superheavy elements in "Islands of Stability" by nucleosynthesis of the star's materials. Tier 3 civilisations I imagine, wouldn't need massive empires since they can tap directly into their stars and make great orbital structures for their populations, but with a Tier 2 civilisation, for whatever reason, the UFS for example, might begin expansion.

Using the energy of stars it is probably easier to build things like networks of semi/permanent wormholes, and the ability to transport energy at FTL speed from one side of the empire to another, but I doubt a Tier 3 could simply "leap" into that level so quickly on their own (they are engineering on an interstellar scale afterall). Things like neutron stars and black holes might be rarer to come across so are probably later developments.

However, the USF has colonised the Milky Way and Andromeda, so it is possible the UFS has learned how to reach this level of tech and scale they are at now, but for the moment they seem closer to Tier 2 than on the borderline with Tier 3. I'm not sure if its a problem however if they have neighbors like the Milky Way Cooperative and Andromedan Galactic Commonwealth. The Gigaquadrant's galactic communities are pretty much making everyone Tier 2 at least with all the tech distribution from politics and war.

So I think it is okay your fiction is where it is at.