- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Just to be clear, there's a LOT of discussion and I'm starting from where I left off the thread, so... it's a lot.
One is to just hold his conclave, mindful the entire time that GDI is watching him give instructions, advice, and chastisement to his warlords, thus providing insight into his actual thought process. Or, at any rate, into the thought process Kane reveals to his own immediate subordinate warlord commanders.
The other is to engage in pure theater that's staged in advance (with the warlords instructed to play their parts, with the possible exception of a few designated whipping boys like Gideon), and then issue the warlords entirely different instructions either before or after the staged meeting, which have nothing to do with what he said on camera except by coincidence.
...
The former has the advantage that "GDI knows," which is an advantage if Kane sincerely wants GDI to just stop slapping his warlords around and wants GDI to know that he's actively yanking on their leashes.
The latter has the advantage that "GDI doesn't know what we're really planning," which is an advantage if Kane has any plans that involve surprising GDI.
The same tiberium environment that's eating harvesters in a matter of weeks or months is probably also forcing us to replace the Zone armor of effectively 100% of our deployed personnel who ever go out in the open in a deep Red Zone on a similar basis.
Remember that:
1) Part of the reason we don't see more "-Capital Goods +Labor" options is because there's no point in it as long as labor is relatively plentiful.
2) The private sector is getting a lot of their workforce from people (especially Yellow Zone refugees) who have a hard time getting security clearances to work for GDI's government and state-owned enterprises.
I think we'll be okay.
Although then there are the automation projects to think of; it's not all about maximizing the number of Progress points worth of total LCI projects we can do.
If we don't take him, I'm still against doing the DAE, simply because it'll cost us Heavy Industry dice we can ill afford to spare.
I'm pretty sure the growth enhancers don't accelerate the rate at which nearby tiberium pulls material from elsewhere. I think they just accelerate the rate at which the nearby tiberium grows, which would if anything give it less need to pull material from elsewhere in an attempt to replenish itself.
Which is important, because frankly Nuuk Phase 4 is the more efficient source of Capital Goods; it's just that we're doing North Boston for the capstone and flavor and because Erewhon asked nicely.
So yes, there may be times when we have to sigh and not do something attractive and expensive at a particular time because we just don't have the money right then. But we'll get things done, and it'll be okay.
1050 RpT is a healthy budget even with 59 dice or so, and it's going to get stronger from there. I want us to make sure we hit our Orbital targets and other goals. Though to be fair, if we're getting more Orbital and Heavy Industry dice anyway, it reduces my desire to spend Free dice in those areas to hurry things along, making the idea of spending some on Tiberium more attractive by comparison.
I will note that this time, I think ZOCOM might actually be okay with us doing more phases of Red Zone Containment Lines if we wanted to, because those are definitionally not deep Red Zone projects.
But that's an "if we want to, mostly for the Red Zone abatement" option, not really an income option, for which vein mines are better anyway.
I view him as a guy who gives us +1 Heavy Industry dice for, oh, 8-12 turns, then metamorphoses into abeautiful butterfly +4 Energy per turn trickle.
Yeah, I felt the same way.
Right. But the catch is, in that case he has two options.
One is to just hold his conclave, mindful the entire time that GDI is watching him give instructions, advice, and chastisement to his warlords, thus providing insight into his actual thought process. Or, at any rate, into the thought process Kane reveals to his own immediate subordinate warlord commanders.
The other is to engage in pure theater that's staged in advance (with the warlords instructed to play their parts, with the possible exception of a few designated whipping boys like Gideon), and then issue the warlords entirely different instructions either before or after the staged meeting, which have nothing to do with what he said on camera except by coincidence.
...
The former has the advantage that "GDI knows," which is an advantage if Kane sincerely wants GDI to just stop slapping his warlords around and wants GDI to know that he's actively yanking on their leashes.
The latter has the advantage that "GDI doesn't know what we're really planning," which is an advantage if Kane has any plans that involve surprising GDI.
That, or there actually legit are two closely related but not identical classes of battleship, and GDI's navy just used one name, then the other, to preserve the consistency of the naming scheme.
Scrin: "Don't threaten me with a good time."
I don't think that'll help a ton. It'll hopefully reduce the physical size of the power packs on the suits, but there's still finite physical space back there, and you can't fit a missile launcher and a recon drone into the same volume.
Yes and no. We need more trainers cycling more people through the Ground Force training camps, BUT we also need more actual armor, because this kind of activity must go through Zone suits at an insane pace. Remember that the suits aren't tiberium-proof themselves; if tiberium hits them, there's a chance they get 'infected,' at which point part or all of the suit has to be scrapped and replaced.
The same tiberium environment that's eating harvesters in a matter of weeks or months is probably also forcing us to replace the Zone armor of effectively 100% of our deployed personnel who ever go out in the open in a deep Red Zone on a similar basis.
Well, it's gonna take us at least until mid-2064 to finish Chicago and Karachi combined, so we're looking at having or gaining a total of 45+40 = 85 Labor by then. I think we'll be okay... although at some point the +Labor trickle from prosthetics will start fading out. Even so, I think we're all right.
Remember that:
1) Part of the reason we don't see more "-Capital Goods +Labor" options is because there's no point in it as long as labor is relatively plentiful.
2) The private sector is getting a lot of their workforce from people (especially Yellow Zone refugees) who have a hard time getting security clearances to work for GDI's government and state-owned enterprises.
I think we'll be okay.
You are not wrong.
Although then there are the automation projects to think of; it's not all about maximizing the number of Progress points worth of total LCI projects we can do.
If you ask me, that's a fine idea if we end up taking the specialist who boosts the DAE.
If we don't take him, I'm still against doing the DAE, simply because it'll cost us Heavy Industry dice we can ill afford to spare.
I'm pretty sure that won't work. Tiberium grows anywhere; Red Zone tiberium also exhibits the tendency to migrate towards a depleted field.
I'm pretty sure the growth enhancers don't accelerate the rate at which nearby tiberium pulls material from elsewhere. I think they just accelerate the rate at which the nearby tiberium grows, which would if anything give it less need to pull material from elsewhere in an attempt to replenish itself.
Suffice to say that I am strongly in favor of us getting both the "better DAE" option guy and the improved fusion project option as soon as possible, so that we can make a precise and rational comparison and decide which is best for our purposes.
Yeah. North Boston looks a lot more achievable then, and we have a much better chance of fitting at least Phase 4 of Nuuk in during the current Plan.
Which is important, because frankly Nuuk Phase 4 is the more efficient source of Capital Goods; it's just that we're doing North Boston for the capstone and flavor and because Erewhon asked nicely.
You have to remember not to compare our current income (1050 RpT for 'Q2) with our indefinite future expenses. We have every reason to expect our income to be 1150 or 1200 RpT by the end of 2062, and while InOps is taking a -60 RpT slice of that, we're going to keep climbing from there. We still have a promise to do a huge amount of additional tiberium mining of all kinds just to hit our budget targets for the plan, remember!
So yes, there may be times when we have to sigh and not do something attractive and expensive at a particular time because we just don't have the money right then. But we'll get things done, and it'll be okay.
Honestly, I'm going to be preferring plans (remember, I'm not posting one of my own during the actual vote) that put most if not all our Free dice elsewhere.
1050 RpT is a healthy budget even with 59 dice or so, and it's going to get stronger from there. I want us to make sure we hit our Orbital targets and other goals. Though to be fair, if we're getting more Orbital and Heavy Industry dice anyway, it reduces my desire to spend Free dice in those areas to hurry things along, making the idea of spending some on Tiberium more attractive by comparison.
I'd expect to just keep having Capital Goods costs. The vein mines are operating well within our existing supply networks, instead of forcing us to ship goods from distant front lines where all the infrastructure was already destroyed by tiberium or blown up by retreating Nod troops. And we're supplying the operations in our backyard, not shipping the equipment out into Red Zones where you have to move everything with hovertrucks and VTOLs and where the average life expectancy of a whole-ass umpty-ton harvester vehicle is measured in weeks and thus a constant flow of replacement equipment is required.
Aaand that's why I'm a huge fan of doing Improved Fusion in 2062Q2, whether we get extra Heavy Industry dice or not!
We have a big surplus, but it needs to last at least 2-3 turns if we want to get fusion on line, so eating a big slice of the surplus immediately is problematic. Also...
Yeah, but those ion power refits take 350 Progress (about four Tib dice) per phase, which in turn conflicts with other Tiberium stuff we want to do, including the vein mines and the Blue Zone inhibitors themselves.
You are absolutely right.
I will note that this time, I think ZOCOM might actually be okay with us doing more phases of Red Zone Containment Lines if we wanted to, because those are definitionally not deep Red Zone projects.
But that's an "if we want to, mostly for the Red Zone abatement" option, not really an income option, for which vein mines are better anyway.
In the short term, that guy is probably more effective building fusion plants than he is working as the DAE... But within about three years, yeah, we turn him into DAE.
I view him as a guy who gives us +1 Heavy Industry dice for, oh, 8-12 turns, then metamorphoses into a
Oh that's cool then. I'm hoping to do several this Plan if the fusion power situation works out for us.
