- Location
- MSC
[X]Plan Lads we sail out into the lightless void
Attempting to Fulfill the Plan: GDI Edition
F0lkL0re
Officially not an Inquisitor
- Location
- Shetland
Bot's currently unable to run anything due to irl stuff so sunrise is running SCEDQuest until Bot can devote time towards it again.
Why is @BOTcommander voting for a turn in his own sidequest that is for some reason run by @sunrise this turn?
[X]Plan Lads we sail out into the lightless void
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
The problem is that doing 4-5 R&D projects means spending 4-5 dice, and we have a lot of other priorities. Like SADN and navy laser refits (both of which need doing between, say, now and mid-2063 or so). Like Orca and Hammerhead wingman drones. Like some other stuff I'm probably forgetting. We don't actually have a lot of wiggle room, so fitting 4-5 "it would be nice ifs" alongside everything else is a toughie.
As for the specific projects:
[ ] Zone Defender Revision (Platform)
The Brotherhood of Nod's Black Hand Armor systems are strong combat assets, with massive slabs of heavy armor over a power assisted frame. The Zone Defender shares much of its goals with the Black Hand's approach, and design studies and prototyping will begin preparing for a better defended and cheaper version of the design, likely an aid to mass deployment of Zone Armor, especially for second and third line forces.
(Progress 0/40: 15 resources per die)
This is something we probably need- because it actively improves our ability to deploy the suits for Ground Force, rather than being an optional upgrade that makes the suits more complex and expensive and thus less suitable for mass deployment.
[ ] Infantry Recon Support Drone Development (Platform)
One advantage of the Zone Armor is that every man has a significantly more powerful radio than could be given to any infantry force. While long range drone operations are significantly contraindicated by the nature of Red Zone environments, small "pop up" drones should provide advanced reconnaissance, and act as forward sensor platforms.
(Progress 0/40: 10 resources per die)
This is an "it would be nice to have" for Ground Force power armor units- give our power armor troops their own equivalents of the Switchblade drone. Pairs well with Advanced ECCM. This also specifically helps with ZOCOM missions: they have few warm bodies, so doing forward recon and sentry roles is difficult for them and makes it more likely for them to take a trickle of casualties they can ill afford. Drones help with that. Ground Force needs this less because Ground Force formations are more extensively supported by air and land-based recon assets.
On the other and, operating the drones will require additional training, which is a problem for Ground Force because they have to operate on a much larger scale. I'm in favor of it, but am not in favor of delaying rollout of the armor to ensure that it is available. We can do this in, say, 2062Q1 and let the factories and training facilities gradually retrofit the capability in; we don't need every individual power armored Ground Force trooper to have one of these for them to be helpful, after all.
[ ] Backpack Rocket Launcher Development (Platform)
With the Zone Operations Command ever more intensely engaged with the Brotherhood of Nod, backpack systems are one of the easier ways to substantially increase firepower. While not always the most convenient location, by shifting around the power pack somewhat, nearly any Zone Operations Command unit can have a limited supply of short to mid range indirect fire options at their disposal.
(Progress 0/50: 10 resources per die)
This is not something Ground Force actually needs. ZOCOM arguably needs it because they go into combat environments where the full array of GDI's heavy armor and artillery support cannot follow and where even air support is often endangered by ion storms. But GDI's regular line infantry, who even when wearing power armor are constantly supported by a wide variety of dedicated heavy weapons teams and AFVs, do not really need this system to the same degree.
[ ] Zone Lancer Development (Platform)
A variant of the Marauder suit refitted with a personal plasma gun, the Zone Lancer is intended to augment and support the already extremely capable antiarmor capacity of the Initiative's Zone Armored forces, and provide a viable replacement for the Marauder's limited ammunition.
(Progress 0/40: 15 resources per die)
ZOCOM, again, has real problems getting enough heavy firepower to the point of contact in their usual operations, which motivates the creation of a plasma-armed variant of their existing heavy weapons Zone suit. However, anything with plasma guns is unlikely to be something we can deploy on a mass scale for the Ground Force, so this is unlikely to help.
So of the four available power armor projects, one (Defender) is something I want to do Real Soon in preparation for Zone Armor factory construction, because simplifying production is something you do before you mass-produce. And one (drones) is something I could see doing along with construction, because it's a useful "extra" capability but one that is not a mission requirement for what Ground Force specifically requires- it is closer to a mission requirement for ZOCOM, which is why they want it, but less so for Ground Force.
The other two (backpack rockets and Lancers), while nice, are much more likely to only see service with ZOCOM proper.
The problem is the way that reapportionment and opportunity cost complicate the picture. R spent on the tendril harvesters is R not spent on, for example, Anadyr, which means spending R on Anadyr later, which means R not spent on, say, infernium laser refits for the Navy, which they could really use, so that the next time Bintang fires 50 nuclear-tipped missiles at one of our capital ships it can shoot them all down instead of only shooting down 48 and getting vaporized by the last two.
The big argument for doing tendrils now isn't the marginal +10% to Tiberium income from any projects we happen to do in 2061Q3 or whatever. It's that we'll have it on hand in 2062, when we will assuredly be doing a lot of tiberium mining in a hurry.
I personally consider getting the current round of fortresses done to be worth a second die. I was content with not having those done in 2060Q4, but I'm not content with having them undone at the end of 2061Q1.
Assuming the stockpile's big enough for us to take a -16 Food hit, I'm content with this.
My own plan is to focus on getting at least Phase 1 of the tendrils done quickly when they more or less break even in terms of not taking a big bite out of our discretionary budget on net.
Since the border offensives are prerequisites for something else we probably won't do until 2062 anyway, I feel less urgency around them.
Interestingly different approach similar to mine on shipyards. Four yards, all making progress, only one of them at all likely to complete this turn but hopefully at least 2-3 positioned to complete next turn.
The only problem I see is that my decision to do this is synergistic with my decision to NOT deliberately throw four dice into fusion and slam out Phase 8. If I were more confident of getting Phase 8 of fusion power (which you do), I'd be a lot less anxious about putting a third die on one of the carrier yards, or consolidating dice to give Seattle a reasonable chance to finish with four dice.
Yeah see, this was why I wasn't originally in a hurry to get crystal laser development done in Q4... though admittedly if we'd had a bad dice result in Q1 and had to finish the development in Q2, then the project could be embarrassingly difficult to squeeze in in Q3-Q4 if the Progress cost is high.
Yeah, that was why I was a fan of doing it last turn.
That, or Nod did a bunch of cool stuff that gives us flashbacks to the Legendary Insurgent, but we managed to counter it all like a boss.
If I understand how the corpse starch project works, we may be getting a project we can hammer out with Infrastructure dice that directly gives us +Stored Food, possibly with no -Food cost because we're making the blocks of 'reclaimed calories' out of utterly inedible agricultural waste or something.
That may take the pressure off Agriculture; being able to get +2 or +4 Stored Food by spending, say, 3-5 Infrastructure dice would come in really handy right about now, even if it would kill off my hopes of doing Blue Zone Arcologies Phase 4 during the current plan.
One thing we need to keep on our minds is that we should might want to do the next round of tiberium refineries during 2061 even if we DO build Chicago, because if we hammer the resource gathering button hard in 2062, we will likely overtop Chicago Phase 4's capacity.
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- Location
- USA
Border offensive gives some RZ mit and is slightly cheaper. Also I am getting our refits restarted since we should do that when we still have some slack in the system and it is a plan goal.
For shipyards we dont need each out asap in serial, we need all out asap in parallel so I dont feel the need to rush one shipyard instead try and get them all out with speed and efficiency so going 2 dice on the the two other carrier yards gives that tiny chance to pass but more likely set us up to drop a die on each Q2 to finish them. So I do not see the need to potentially overspend dice on the shipyards but we still need to knock them out.
We were at +18 picked up +6 from aqua this turn, will pick up +4 from fert factory and +6 from another aqua next turn so the adds alone offset the -16 from the action.
On the escort carriers... I hate to break it to you, but its air group is Orcas and Hammerheads. If we want those full strength, we actually need to complete both remaining drone deployment projects.
ZOCOM? Well, a major key to keeping them only sorta stretched is to avoid widespread commitments of their forces all over the globe. The Zone GF factories would enable them to shuffle deployments to relieve manpower pressure, but they aren't in a bad spot yet (I wonder why they haven't expanded size? Add a third corps of forces or something. Is it a GDI cap on independent Command sizes or something? Though I guess it could also be factory production rate can't sustain another Corps of ZOCOM).
We can't simply go "most free dice are Mil dice unless absolutely necessary because Nod." Also, do note that as is, we have enough Mil dice to cover Plan Goals and frigate yards (and Skywatch?) without needing free dice. If we needed to, we could delay frigates yards to Q3-Q4 in order to focus down our Plan Goals in order to free up all free dice from Mil. It's not something I think anyone would agree with, but it is an option. And that last yard would still be putting its second batch of frigates out by the time most people are considering starting Karachi.
Is it something I want? No. Is it something I can live with if need be? Yes. And it's possible that Q1-Q2 having 10 free dice for other places fixes things enough that we can bring 3+ more back Q3. Hell, 5 extra free dice might fix things enough Q1 to pull back some Q2.
Here's the thing? The military IS strong enough to deal with Nod. GF? Winning the Regency War overall, and once their stockpiles start filling back up, so will their confidence. AF? They have Apollo drones, TAL, and Plasma warheads, and their confidence can only continue to go up as the Firehawk drones grow common. Navy? They're in the worst shape, but I think we're on track to have at least 1/3 of the 300 pre-TW2 destroyers/frigates replaced by Sharks by Q2 2063. The escort carrier yards are going to be done by Plan end, which means first batches showing up 2062-2063. Between the two of those, our heavy units can be consolidated to deal with Karachi. The CVNs get to use Firehawk drones too. Getting HSL deployment this Plan would make things even better, but their situation is improving regardless and we can't really speed that up further.
ZOCOM? Well, a major key to keeping them only sorta stretched is to avoid widespread commitments of their forces all over the globe. The Zone GF factories would enable them to shuffle deployments to relieve manpower pressure, but they aren't in a bad spot yet (I wonder why they haven't expanded size? Add a third corps of forces or something. Is it a GDI cap on independent Command sizes or something? Though I guess it could also be factory production rate can't sustain another Corps of ZOCOM).
We can't simply go "most free dice are Mil dice unless absolutely necessary because Nod." Also, do note that as is, we have enough Mil dice to cover Plan Goals and frigate yards (and Skywatch?) without needing free dice. If we needed to, we could delay frigates yards to Q3-Q4 in order to focus down our Plan Goals in order to free up all free dice from Mil. It's not something I think anyone would agree with, but it is an option. And that last yard would still be putting its second batch of frigates out by the time most people are considering starting Karachi.
Q1 2061 (8+2)
Plan Goals (8 dice)
Skywatch + Frigates (2 free dice)
5 free dice for everyone else
Q2 (8+2)
Plan Goals (8 dice)
Frigates (2 free dice)
5 free dice for everyone else
Q3 (8+2)
Plan Goals (6-8 dice) (this should wrap up Plan Goal commitments)
Hallucinogen Countermeaures Dev (1 die)
Zone Defender Revision (1 die)
Possibly 2 more dice available here (HSL Deployment probably)
5 free dice for everyone else
Q4 (8+7)
Zone GF factories (3 dice) 86% (if we have 5 free dice used Q3, shift this up a turn to use the three extra dice)
Hallucinogen Countermeasures Deployment (2 dice) ??
HSL Deployment (5 dice) 22% (if two dice spent Q3, this becomes more like 90%)
SADN Phase 1 (5 dice) 97%
If Zone GF factories shifted up a turn, 3 extra dice here. (Light Combat Laser Dev, GD-3 Dev, Island-class Dev?)
Plan Goals (8 dice)
Skywatch + Frigates (2 free dice)
5 free dice for everyone else
Q2 (8+2)
Plan Goals (8 dice)
Frigates (2 free dice)
5 free dice for everyone else
Q3 (8+2)
Plan Goals (6-8 dice) (this should wrap up Plan Goal commitments)
Hallucinogen Countermeaures Dev (1 die)
Zone Defender Revision (1 die)
Possibly 2 more dice available here (HSL Deployment probably)
5 free dice for everyone else
Q4 (8+7)
Zone GF factories (3 dice) 86% (if we have 5 free dice used Q3, shift this up a turn to use the three extra dice)
Hallucinogen Countermeasures Deployment (2 dice) ??
HSL Deployment (5 dice) 22% (if two dice spent Q3, this becomes more like 90%)
SADN Phase 1 (5 dice) 97%
If Zone GF factories shifted up a turn, 3 extra dice here. (Light Combat Laser Dev, GD-3 Dev, Island-class Dev?)
Is it something I want? No. Is it something I can live with if need be? Yes. And it's possible that Q1-Q2 having 10 free dice for other places fixes things enough that we can bring 3+ more back Q3. Hell, 5 extra free dice might fix things enough Q1 to pull back some Q2.
Theunderbolt
"Prepare for trouble..."
- Location
- USoA
Poor Krukov just can't catch a break!
The Pinata needs to be beaten for all the goodies after all.
Reynaldo's giga brain move is paying off huh
- Location
- The Underdark
Few reasons.
1. Training time. It takes the better part of a year, minimum, to train someone to be a Zone Trooper, let alone one of the more specialized roles.
2. Material. Right now a fair bit of their material is being produced on a very limited scale. One or two factories, because they simply don't need that many more. And that material is being used extremely widely, especially with them aiding the Forgotten in the Red Zones around the world.
3. Funding. They have been expanding in these last plans, but are running into a solid wall of costs associated with standing up additional divisions, let alone corps strength formations.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Actually, if I'm reading the Q4 Plan turn correctly, @Ithillid has updated Chicago Phase 4 to provide 280 refining capacity, exactly the amount that would be required to hit that target with no further refinery construction.
If that's not a typo or something, then we don't "need" to finish the last round of refits. The Phase 5 refits alone would not be sufficient to hit the Plan target either way, and if we complete either of the two projects that are sufficient (Chicago Phase 4 or Tiberium Processing Plants Stage 2), either will reach the full target on its own.
Which makes the Phase 5 refits a good example of the kind of thing we can put off until later without real consequence. It's not like we even need to use those plants right now, so their inability to produce STUs from the tiberium they process is irrelevant because they're not processing tiberium and it just goes elsewhere.
Well, if Energy weren't even a consideration at all, I'd probably want to put about three or four dice on each yard (the minimum to give a carrier or frigate yard, respectively, a realistic chance of completion, then trickle-charge them with additional dice as necessary.
If neither Energy nor time were really a factor, I'd do 2-3 dice for a carrier or frigate yard, then trickle from there, but we do want that first tranche of frigates to hit the water as early in 2061-62 as possible, because having the frigates will do a LOT to reduce the pressure on our convoys, and the overall Nod submarine threat.
As it stands, this coming turn specifically, we may want to avoid needing to build a phase of fusion plants, such that it isn't actually a problem if Phase 8 of fusion reactor construction doesn't complete until 2061Q2. This would give us more wiggle room in Heavy Industry and avoid the need to spend Free dice in that category. And for that purpose, something like what you do with the shipyards is nearly ideal, because it gets us progress on a lot of things, without penalizing us by draining all our Energy if we roll lucky (at least, for realistic definitions of "roll lucky").
Yeah, I'm not really disputing that, just that I hadn't been keeping track very well. Thanks.
You're right, but they can at least operate in rear areas at reduced efficiency while the drone factory projects are completed.
One possibility I've heard @Ithillid talk about is that with the war winding down, those remaining drone projects may be broken down into multiple phases. It would take only a few factories to supply the navalized Orca/Hammerhead drones the Navy needs for carrier aviation, so we might get away with just 'Phase 1' of the two projects, or with one production line of each and leaving the others for later.
Also, ZOCOM operates in what is effectively an alien landscape on a very hostile 'other planet.' In terms of being a bad place to operate, of all places in the solar system with a solid surface, Earth's Red Zones are probably the second-worst place to be, surpassed only by Venus's Red Zones which I can only assume are even worse. The rest of the surface of Venus might be as bad as the Red Zones, dunno.
But the point is, being a ZOCOM trooper is a bit like being an astronaut. The standards of training, technical literacy with finicky equipment, and need to pay close attention to detail are very demanding, and not everyone is suited for the role. ZOCOM, much like the Steel Talons, is effectively drawing from a much smaller recruitment pool than the conventional Ground Force.
I think that's a big part of why ZOCOM can't easily expand its forces.
See my previous remark about desire to get the frigate yards done quickly, because the frigates finish fast enough that it's the first tranche of frigates hitting the water that's likely to do the most to shut down Nod's naval pressure against us between now and 2063. Everything else trickles out slower.
Honestly, I'm coming around towards something vaguely like this; the big thing to remember is that we need to start work on OSRCT now, that is to say in 2061Q1-Q2, to avoid having to spam a ton of dice on it in 2061Q4. Ideally, by 'Q4 we should be done or nearly done with every Plan commitment project, except for ones that have one remaining die to roll. That gives us the most amount of wiggle room.
But yeah, once we've got the overall amount of work required for the shipyards pared down I'm going to relax on my standard "twelve dice on military" approach. My one caveat is that I want to frontload Hallucinogen Countermeasures, specifically, because I'm picking that to prevent Nod commando raids, which could happen at any time and are thus rather urgent.
- Location
- USA
It is ahead now, but NOD is very much active and evolving threat. We also are operating a lot of older platforms as NOD is beginning to roll out replacements. Are we going to keep the same break neck pace on mil? No part of it is needing to catch Navy up, another part is to try and eke out every edge we can during the Regency war since that impacts modifiers which makes cases where the battle dice go against us not as bad or draws.
We also have some areas (SADN) that we have seen are shortfalls but still need to roll out general mil upgrades in order to push into NOD held areas.
We flat out dont do this. Free dice tends to shift as we push through a major project or set of projects in different areas. We have had infra pushes, HI pushes, orbital pushes and yes mil pushes as well but even when we surge an area with free dice for a while it never stays that way. But dont underestimate the threat they posed, if not for an intel crit we would have been blindsided and had our forces stretched and tied down instead of being the one to push things on our own terms. We in essence backfooted NOD and managed to keep the general initiative throughout this war.
Keep in mind a lot of the free dice I use are for a naval surge. For example I tend to put 6 to 7 dice into naval spending and that goes away after we finish the shipyards as for the laser refits we are likely looking at 2-3 dice a turn to push those out which already means a pretty big drop in mil dice.
Oledoms
Friesmancer
This was because due to lack of dice from Q1 2058 to ,Q3 2059 which bottlenecked us to only six dice, which we had to expand at great cost via Philadelphia and the Refits. This is why if there is another Option like Tali Jackson (2 Dice General) even if it just adds 1 Dice, we should take it and Expand Heavy Industry to 7 Dice using Graduates because we really need to maximize the amount of Energy and CG we need for the military
Also, Get both AEVA and Kudzu up to reduce the need for more Dice on a single project and spread it around on many more, especially research on ones.
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That explains the state of his other quests. I was getting worried that he might have dropped them, but if he has IRL stuff to worry about then it is understandable.
Let's not kid ourselves the venusian surface is way WAY WAY worse than any Red Zone on Earth, Red Zones on Earth you could survive with current (if specialized) equipment. Red Zones on Earth you ONLY have to worry about the poisonous air, the Tib infesting everywhere, and Ion storms (with the associated electronic interference). On Venus you have a poisonous and corrosive atmosphere, crushing pressure, and (literally) burning heat: and that is before you add Tiberium to the mix.
Theunderbolt
"Prepare for trouble..."
- Location
- USoA
Railgun harvesters are worth next to nothing in these large scale conflicts. Unlikely.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Yes. The Red Zones rolled badly and took a spanking from ZOCOM, and the reconquered Green Zones are well on their way to being converted back into Blue Zones.
See, the main thing that makes me ambivalent is that if you have a vehicle or shelter that is sealed and armored against the normal (tiberium-free) environment of Venus... it stays that way. There's no self-replicating alien femtotech where if you step on it and a tiny microscopic fleck of it adheres to your boot and you track it into your habitat somehow, it can lodge against a water pipe and grow through the wall of it and get into your water supply and kill you all.
Venus is more hostile than a Red Zone, but the tiberium in a Red Zone is more insidious. It's like asking who's stronger, the Incredible Hulk or Doctor Strange?
It depends on what Reynaldo's roll actually represents. Are his men raiding tiberium fields, or not? If they are, the railgun harvesters likely matter, because the kind of forces you use for that are usually light ones and the railguns help fight them off. If they're not, then the railgun harvesters can't do much of anything immediately.
Strunkriidiisk
THE LEGEND
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Reynaldo is the terrorism/insurgency guy. He doesn't do large-scale conflicts.
Yeah, so things like the railgun harvesters work well against him.
Hey Ith, now that we have Firehawk drones completed, how long will it take for them to appear in sizable numbers to have an effect?
- Pronouns
- He/It/Argh!
That can't be right. It is either tied to YZ Harvesting, which we just completed another phase of. Or it is tied to YZ Fortress Towns, in which case completing the Fortress Towns opens another phase.
Not that it matters. We don't even have the results for this turn. This is just a 'proof of concept' costing plan.
I had considered that. But if Starbound push through the legislation to make lunar mining income exempt from reallocation again... Then I don't mind spending an extra dice or two for +15 income straight after the Reallocation.
Yeah, you've argued either side in the past. We've got some of the Frigate Yards done, so I'd like to catch up on the Carriers.
They are also slightly cheaper on Energy. Which is something slightly constrained while we work on HI promises.
Basically a placeholder for either of them. I'm not sure how useful either of them are going to be at the moment anyway.
Civilian Satisfaction: We want more Housing. Also less bombing please.
Economic Census: We need the Capitol Goods back. Also less bombing please.
Damn, I got caught out.
Expect them to start having an impact next turn, because unlike ships, aircraft don't have a year long lead time from the start of construction.
However, it will take time for the production to ramp up enough to go from 'Firehawk drones are rare but useful' to 'Firehawk drones outnumber the piloted craft 3 to 1'.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I seem to recall that the reason we even had a partially completed railgun factory in Porto to finish off this turn was because in some previous turn, I thought:
"Hey, you know whose raiding tactics would be significantly curtailed by railgun harvesters? Mehretu and Reynaldo."
Given the precedent of the Apollo drones, probably 1-2 turns? We finished those two turns ago, and there are still Apollo units that don't have them, but there are plenty of other units who do and it's significant.
Hang on, I miscalculated.
The relevant cap is, as I recall, that if we have N phases of fortress towns, we're allowed N+2 phases of Green Zone Intensification.
So, IF we also finish the Phase 6 fortress towns, THEN it becomes at least conceivably worthwhile to put two dice on Green Zone Intensification, because then we could actually accomplish something that way by clearing two phases of intensification and rolling on into a partially completed but still locked ninth phase. Fortunately, that's what we're doing.
I still don't think it's a good idea, because right now I think we have better things to do with our Tiberium dice, but if we happen to roll 10 RpT out of Phase 8, then I might be talking out the other side of my mouth.
You're sure as heck going to mind if it means we fail to complete Enterprise and get yelled at for missing a Plan target. We are very short on Orbital dice right now, so it's a bad idea to spend Free dice on optional Orbital projects before completing the mandatory Orbital projects. If you want to spend Free dice on Orbital, I welcome it, but I strongly recommend putting them directly on Enterprise so that, in 2061Q4, we have some wiggle room to do something like "build another mine" or "build a desirable space infrastructure project."
Note: I've argued either side in the past because changing circumstances have caused me to gradually change my mind over the multiple months that this debate has been going on. I used to think one way on this, but observing the war situation has pushed me towards wanting the frigates done quickly. Not to the point of spending nothing on carrier yards until the frigate yards are done... But also not to the point of spending nothing on frigate yards until the carrier yards are done.
The thing is... well, I went back and looked at the action description.
Economic Census isn't just an opinion poll. It's the Domesday Book. It's a survey of what physically exists, what kind of organizations we have, how the co-ops we encouraged back in the First and Second Plans are faring, and so on.
Civil Satisfaction Surveys, on the other hand, are opinion polls.
The Economic Census is going to be complicated and fussy and a lot of work to interpret correctly. It's going to contain a lot of information, and much of that information will take time for our bureaucracy to ingest and make use of for planning purposes. We need time to sort that out before the end of the Plan. And moreover, it is less critical that we wait for the war to end, because knowing what exists and what is being used is still useful even during wartime; we know what we'll be doing during demobilization and can adjust for it.
Given that our entire population has Internet access, the Surveys are going to be a bit simpler. We can probably get those done pretty fast, and the results will be relatively easy to interpret. I want to have that information by 2061Q3, mind you, so we have time to brace and position ourselves as best as possible for the reapportionment vote.
Yeah, this. Let's keep in mind that the majority of the GDI's main military platforms are twenty years old, at least for the Ground Forces, and that they're starting to show some worrying signs of approaching block obsolescence. The fact that we're going to start to roll out mass-production Zone Armor in the next few years means that the Guardian APC will no longer be fit for purpose, due to it being unable to effectively handle their bulk. Mammoth tanks are shown to be struggling to perform their role as heavy line-breakers in set piece actions. The Predator MBT is explicitly stated to be a maxed out chassis and unable to accept more than incremental upgrades. Even the Super MARV has been called out as showing its age. Meanwhile, Nod is rolling more and more dangerous units. Centurions are proliferating mechs, plasma weapons are starting to proliferate, and Krukov's Avenger is giving a worryingly close showing against the Predator. We need to keep advancing if we want to maintain our edge.