Imperial System Profile (Patreon)

Also called ISP, the imperial system profile was invented by the imperial exploration corps for the free traders that would follow in their footsteps. In a simple code, it includes many of the notable features of a star system's trade data through a numerical code. The scale is sometimes expanded into hexadecimals, but the official designation utilize 'X' as a replacement for 'exotic', anything outside of the expected parameters.

There are five digits in an ISP code. They are, in order : Population ; Inhabited Worlds ; Space Development ; Industrial Index ; Technology Index

Population :

The system's sapient population by orders of magnitude.

0 : No one.

1 : Tens of people.

2 : Hundreds of people.

3 : Thousands of people.

4 : Tens of thousands of people.

5 : Hundreds of thousands of people.

6 : Millions of people (galactic average).

7 : Tens of millions of people.

8 : Hundreds of millions of people.

9 : Billions of people.

X : Tens of billions of people or above. Only used for the Imperial Inner Core.

Inhabited Worlds :

The number of inhabited worlds with a population significant enough to be worth recording. Generally set as above ten thousand people. X designates a number of worlds of ten or above. Under the Imperial definition, a 'world' is a body capable of having standard humans (in so far as this means anything after the rampant genetic engineering of the Federation) live relatively confortably under its natural gravity field, thus excluding small moons, most objects in asteroid belts and virtually all habitats, but does include many relatively low gravity bodies such as Luna. There is no official threshold, but it is generally accepted to be a tenth of Earth's gravity, 0.1g or 0.98 m/s².

Space Development :

Some primitive systems, primarily elven, have amazing space infrastructure to cater to traders and have very different needs and goods compared to some other worlds, that may be highly advanced but, for cultural, political or technical reasons, be unwilling to venture out into space or unable to create a presence there. Unofficially, this also serves as an indication of how capable a given system is of defending itself and those within it from pirates and raiders.

0 : Inexistent.

1 : Capable of receiving ships made for planetary landings, usually as a consequence of airship travel.

2 : Primitive satellites (Early cold war).

3 : Satellite constellations, interplanetary probes (Late cold war).

4 : Satellite networks, primitive space stations (early 21st century)

5 : Space stations proper, starports.

6 : Orbital industry, asteroid mining, space based shipyards.

7 : Space habitats, exploitation and colonization of asteroid belt.

8 : Orbital superheavy industry, capital ship construction (Imperial Core Worlds).

9 : Void industrial supremacy, supercapital ship construction, solar orbiter construction.

X : Orbital megastructures, such as orbital rings (Imperial Inner Core Worlds).

Industrial Index :

Just because a system is technologically advanced does not mean it possesses large manufacturing capacity. A case in point is the star system of Barnard's star, an Imperial inner core world. It is extremely technologically advanced, and yet the entire system has less production capability than a single Jovian moon, let alone Luna or Terra. It should be noted that the industrial index description for certain tiers is a generalization, some system might rank as 3, but have full assembly lines, simply very few of them.

0 : Non existent.

1 : Craftsmen, blacksmiths, small scale production.

2 : Guilds, organized group manufacturing.

3 : Manufactories.

4 : Factories proper.

5 : Assembly lines.

6 : Arcane manufactories.

7 : Mass enchantment.

8 : High Planetary industrialization (Core Worlds).

9 : Total System Industrialization (Sol)

Technology Index (TI) :

Notes the level of technological sophistication of a given system and its population. Usually only the most advanced population of the system, though the detailed system report has a full breakdown.

0 : Inexistent, effectively stone age.

1 : Basic metalworking, antiquity.

2 : Ironworks, early medieval.

3 : Arcana and Alchemy, early medieval (Galactic Standard).

4 : Steel and gunpowder, late medieval.

5 : Machinery, alchemical explosives, industrial revolution.

6 : Mundane spaceflight, radioactives manipulation, advanced arcane kinetic weaponry, atomic age.

7 : Arcane electronics, advanced arcane energy weapons, age of information.

8 : Interstellar gates, mundane energy weapons, Imperial Core Worlds.

9 : Magitech thermonuclear power, Imperial Inner Core Worlds.

Under this system, a star system like Lamia would be 71543 (the 5 only thanks to the exploration naval base in orbit, otherwise would be a 3), while Sol would, fittingly, be XXX99.