N-technology is a collection of high-tech materials created from N-matter or N-life. It has various subtypes depending on the type being used. If N-matter is a rough term for living programmable matter of unlimited potential, N-technology is that potentially fully realized and fixed in place, melded with the basal matter of the world to become something usable for normal people.
N-technology can switch between subtypes for the cost of energetic compound alone, and costs nothing to recycle, but will have a far greater chance of yielding basic materials over reclaiming N-matter.
A-tech is used in armor. It’s lightweight but durable, and is in part responsible for the prevalence of melee weapons due the ability of its wearers to close the distance.
This is used to craft weapons. W-tech is heavier than A-tech, making it good for blunt weapons as well as edged ones. It is also used for making ranged weapons.
M-tech is used for munitions. High-tech projectiles are needed to bust through high-tech armor, which has also contributed to ranged combat becoming a specialization rather than the norm. Massed gunfire is simply too expensive.
This is N-matter used in industry. It is used in “anvils” and mining tools, along with some workshops. N-matter tech is often required for things pertaining to crafting posthuman upgrades. It is rather dangerous, emitting harmful radiation and being very heavy, but is the muscle behind many high-end crafting facilities.
High-end tech used for civilian purposes, like crafts or furniture. An exorbitant waste, it’s almost never seen. It’s light, expensive, and a sign of decadence. Use it to make your wealth rating skyrocket if you have enough of a surplus to afford it. You would think there would be many more specialized variants for the numerous applications in day to day life, but it is so rarely seen compared to much more demanded military variants that it has yet to really be studied.
B-tech isn’t crafted, but rather refers to the kind of cybernetics that are integrated with N-life forms. Heavier than A-tech, it is also capable of self-repair so long as it is attached to its host, via the use of nanomachines. B-tech allows even a naked posthuman to go face-to-face with a fully armored soldier and have a chance of weathering their blows and smashing right through them with just their fists, teeth, or claws.
H-tech, or hyper-tech, represents the absolute pinnacle of modern N-matter. Almost impossible to replicate after the Fade lowered the baseline energy density of the Solar System, what fragments remain are like pearls nestled in the flesh of the Megastructures, coveted for the power they possess. An H-tech projectile or weapon can crush through armor both worn and innate, and armor can protect from the same. In order to obtain it, mercenaries and desperate fools scavenge islands of high-energy activity, places in the Megastructure that most closely touch the Datasphere and teem with malevolent info-life. Those who bring back such relics to a civilization are surely to be greatly rewarded.