It definitely sounds like the upper reaches of tech will be on the borderline between seriously advanced pre-industrial tech and steampunk. Zeppelins are definitely cool and definitely seem a must for that sort of setting. Guns are a more difficult question. With excellent materials, airguns might be more popular, since it's far easier to build what amounts to a bolt action air-rifle than a bolt action gunpowder rifle if you have materials that can be used to make a sturdy and leak proof pressure vessel. Steam cannon are also fairly obvious if you have the right sort of materials tech. Better yet, neither air rifles nor steam cannon lead to machine pistols, high powered rifles, or modern artillery particularly well and gatling guns will remain huge and limited, given the air reservoir needed to power them. So, weapons tech remains pre-20th century, thus making combat something that won't look much like the lethality of modern warfare.
You could also loot Benford's Beyond the Fall of Night/Beyond Infinity for ideas - a biologically rich and diverse solar system is nifty, especially with biological spaceships and space life. I quite like the idea of steam zeppelins docking at a biological beanstalk that lets people off in a living space station that living ships dock with.
Throw in biological street and home lighting as well as good quality plumbing, sanitation, and heating, and you have what is (to me at least) an absolutely wonderful setting for adventure - acceptably civilized in the civilized areas, but with the obvious potential for deadly wilderness and savage kingdoms (and a lack of weapons that allow the PCs to play nastiness like British troops vs. Zulu warriors particularly effectively).
It would be interesting if they didn't particularly use electricity. Also, if they had electricity, then aluminum would be in abundant supply, since even in 30,000 years, humanity is unlikely to make much of a dent in the amount of aluminum that's available - it's really abundant. Also, no electricity + high quality materials means that babbage engines might exist (or not, since they might be higher tech than you want).
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You could also loot Benford's Beyond the Fall of Night/Beyond Infinity for ideas - a biologically rich and diverse solar system is nifty, especially with biological spaceships and space life. I quite like the idea of steam zeppelins docking at a biological beanstalk that lets people off in a living space station that living ships dock with.
Throw in biological street and home lighting as well as good quality plumbing, sanitation, and heating, and you have what is (to me at least) an absolutely wonderful setting for adventure - acceptably civilized in the civilized areas, but with the obvious potential for deadly wilderness and savage kingdoms (and a lack of weapons that allow the PCs to play nastiness like British troops vs. Zulu warriors particularly effectively).
It would be interesting if they didn't particularly use electricity. Also, if they had electricity, then aluminum would be in abundant supply, since even in 30,000 years, humanity is unlikely to make much of a dent in the amount of aluminum that's available - it's really abundant. Also, no electricity + high quality materials means that babbage engines might exist (or not, since they might be higher tech than you want).