Galactic Advancement Tiers

The Galactic Advancement Tiers were created by the Galactic Federation to classify any peoples that Federation explorers may come across.

Tier 4: Preindustrial
Tier 4 is one of the most common and stable states of sentient species. weaponry, although in late-Tier 4, weapons with moving-parts and primitive explosives are also common. However the overall impact to the environment that even a late-Tier 4 civilization makes is far less than that of even early-Tier 3. The global population of the sentient species tends to be under one billion. While all technology has been hand-made, there maybe some scientific advances in this period, these scientific advances have a small chance of leading to industrialization. While contact with these species is strictly forbidden by Federation Directive 0, spacecraft can be in reasonably low orbit to study such species.

Tier 3: Industrialization
Of the civilizations monitored by the Galactic Federation, only a handful of them are Tier 6 or greater. Statistics have shown that less than 30% of the civilizations that form become industrialized, this is mainly because Agrarian societies can remain stable. However, once industrialization arrives, population grows exponentially due to mechanized food production. This invariably creates political, economic, and environmental pressures only very few can balance. More than 60% of the sentient species that arrive at Tier 3 face environmental collapse or global war and are doomed to either extinction or regression to Tier 4. The other 40% improve environmental, medical, and general scientific understanding concurrently with mechanical, transport and general technological advancement. The vast majority of this remaining 40% will make it to Tier 2. Like Tier 4, contact with these species is strictly forbidden under most circumstances. However, unlike Tier 4, Federation ships are only able to be on the fringes of the race's home star system, at least ten astronomical units away from the homeworld.

Tier 2: Space Age
While a hallmark of late-Tier 3 is research into exoatmospheric craft, and clean energy production, Tier 2 is when such technology actually gets applied on a larges scale. Tier 2 also mean the species is more or less guaranteed not to go extinct by their own means, at least not for awhile. This is mainly because of medical advances and the fact that such species are not relegated to their homeworld anymore. However only about a third of the Tier 2 species will discover hyperspace technology. Tier 2 forms a bit of a gray area in the Federation Directive 0. While first contact might still be frowned upon by the Federation government, it sometimes might be unavoidable, therefore it is not strictly forbidden, just restricted unless dire circumstances require it. However, sharing of Federation technology is sill strictly forbidden.

Tier 1: Interstellar
Once a species develops hyperspace technology, it is only a matter of time before the species comes into contact with a major galactic governmental entity.