The Local Warp Regime

I was getting nerdy about the question; What practical good do various warp velocities provide anyway? Space is *vast*. And from a historical perspective, regardless of the era or the technology, a polity can practically exercise direct control/support of a colony or asset only under the condition that they are within ~6 weeks travel time (one way) from the Core. Beyond that, there's often a huge drop-off in a polity's ability to protect colonies from outside threats, provide timely relief in emergencies, or put down rebellions. It would simply take too long for the Core to act.

With this in mind, even after a species achieves Warp capability, it really isn't until they refine the tech to reliably travel at Warp 4 or higher that permanent and centralized expansion could practically occur. Colony ships could be dispatched prior to this of course, but despite being Warp-capable, they would still need to either be sleeper ships or large, lumbering vessels with the stocks to keep the colonist alive and sane (with no support and no stops!) for months or years with enough left over to jump-start a colony at the end of the trip. And they'd be entirely on their own in the Dark Forest until the day finally comes when the Homeworld catches up to them.

Local Regime: Warp 1-3
Group Regime: Warp 4-7
Sector Regime: Warp 7-10...