What IF...the Virus was something different?

[EDG]

In short, I find it very heavy on "plot hammer" and "Fiction" and very short on "science".

Considering that basically Virus was a plot hammer (by Dave's own admission), you're right on that count . Dave just wanted something that could really smash everything down rather than drag things on in an ever-dying spiral. Whether one thinks that was a good idea or not is up to the individual, and is a whole other flame war that I'm sure nobody really wants to bring up here .

TBH, even I don't think Virus makes much sense from a science perspective (unless every single silicon chip in Traveller is based on the cymbeline chips, perhaps. But then we're talking about TL10-15 cultures still using silicon chips in the first place!), but it doesn't really matter for me. I'm quite happy to armwave it away as some product of ultratech science, or more likely as just a Plot Device That One Should Not Look At Too Closely That Makes The Game Setting More Interesting. Either way, it works fine for me as it is.

(As another example, Psi in WW's Aeon/Trinity setting doesn't make much sense, but it's what makes the setting what it is so I'm not going to complain about its realism )