I don't really know what to say about military procurement. Everyone wants everything now, if not yesterday. To me, that seems situation normal, like a lot of other things the people of GDI want done. I think what we've been doing is working, so I don't see a current reason to adjust our plans there. Maybe give a couple free dice? I certainly don't want to get complacent, but there's Zone Armor and Zerbite and Lasers and Particle Weapons and Particle Shields and Armor Alloys and- the list just goes on.
The only adjustment I feel we need is making room for MARVs, as we just need so many STUs.
Anyway, going into more detail about the Breakthroughs.
Tiberium-Core Missiles
The Brotherhood of Nod, for much of the last twenty years has fielded Tiberium Core missiles in tactical roles, most often from the racks of their stealth tanks. The missiles use a solid Tiberium core, mounted to a hot and fast burning rocket motor, and effectively act as kinetic kill vehicles, slamming a Tiberium dart into a target at supersonic to low hypersonic speeds. While building them is not particularly hard, there are two tricks that make things interesting. First is the seeker head, which has to deal with quite a bit of Tiberium radiation in trying to find its target, and offers the potential for noticeable improvements in that area. Second is the motor itself, which, while conventional, is fairly handy as a high speed tactical rocket motor.
Advanced Rocket Fuel
While GDI has broadly disinvested in chemical rocketry due to the advent of fusion flight, and more recently the prototyped impulse drive on the transorbital fighter program, there have been breakthroughs in the field, in part derived from the Corruptor, and other Visitor weapons and fuel systems. While the program as a whole is unlikely to unseat the fusion and impulse systems, it is far from worthless, with potential applications in terms of both solid and liquid fuel rocketry, with offering safer, higher energy, and less demanding fuels.
Individually, these are both pretty good. Not special, but certainly worthwhile. Together, this is probably enough to justify a new generation of missiles. Get that Inferno Gel and Binary Propellant Exploration done, our chemical science has needs!
Civilian Augmentics
The Initiative is facing an absolute quantum leap in cybernetic technologies, in part due to an improved understanding of Visitor technology. An eye prosthesis is likely to go from being a large scale procedure, requiring the use of an external neurohelmet, to one that is functionally an outpatient procedure, although acclimating to the eyeballs is still a lengthy process.
I'm glad we built those cyber-eye laboratories, I genuinely am. I like having a solid foundation for these kinds of breakthroughs to work off of. This is almost on the level of the Rock Lung treatment with how many cases of Flash Blindness we've been dealing with. This alone could get a ton of people back in the workforce, something we need quite badly. And it probably applies to a hell of a lot more besides.
Visitor EM Capacitors
There are a substantial number of technologies that rely on infusions of massive amounts of electrical charge over the course of a very short period of time, from computers and fusion reactors to lasers, railguns, electromagnetic forming, and nuclear arms. A conventional capacitor can store less than three kilojoules per kilogram, while prototype Visitor derived designs can store over seven. While the absolute energy load is still far less than a battery, let alone most fuels, the ability to rapidly store and draw more than double the total energy previous designs could at the same weight will make a significant difference in a wide selection of areas.
Not huge on its own, but definitely has uses. Ships and factories will love them, space habits as well.
Phased Plasma Munitions
There are many methods to cohere plasma. Both GDI and the Brotherhood of Nod have often used the beam rider methodology, creating a low resistance pathway via laser, because it is one of the simplest means and most reliable means to hold plasma in a high enough energy range to help. There are other methods, and the Visitors use a mix to produce phased plasma rounds, ones that manipulate the plasma itself to cohere bolts that both extend range, and provide increased penetration.
A great step towards making our plasma weapons practical. And particle weapons. And maybe the lasers, depending on how close to a particle something has to be for this to work.
Median Tiberium Refining
The Visitors' mastery of Tiberium makes the Brotherhood of Nod's look like they built their refineries in a cave, with a box of scraps, which, to be entirely fair, they often are. While GDI cannot mimic their technology, let alone improve on it, there are many lessons to be learned from their means of processing, although it is very likely that they are near-completely separate in terms of process from existing HG and IHG systems.
Huge. No idea how huge, but absolutely huge.
Scrin Articulation Systems
The Visitors used a wide array of biomimetic systems to create often frighteningly lifelike war machines, in many cases quite similar to the myomer systems that GDI and the Brotherhood of Nod use, but considerably more advanced. Smaller, lighter, more reliable, more durable, the articulation offers a combination of improvement in everything from mechs, to arms.
So this is useful in the civilian sector as well. It'll be great to be able to use this for our cybernetics. We have a lot of cybernetic stuff in the pipes, especially from Nod. It'll be interesting to see how all that comes together.
It also occurs to me that, combining this with Nod's Fast Twitch Myomer, our existing Jump Jets and the Advanced Rocket Fuels, our mechs will be able to jump to
space by the time we're done researching.
Particle Shields
While the Visitor shields proper are still beyond GDI's understanding, multiple breakthroughs have been made in producing a high power stressed shield, using elements from the Brotherhood of Nod, GDI's own research including the Firestorm Project, and nearly every last functional shield projector that remains from the Visitors' attack over a decade ago. The results so far are expensive, but at least in theory capable of taking hits from nearly anything in the Brotherhood tactical arsenal, although far short of most operational, let alone higher level munitions.
So lots of technology has finally all come together to make a less good version of what the alien assholes had.
Nah I kid this is cool. I'm hoping we can eventually use the technology we'd already developed to push beyond what the Scrin had.
With the surprise announcement of advanced, Visitor derived Tiberium refining methodologies however, there are very open questions about the future of the refit program, as it appears that the new methodology outstrips HG and IHG methods, and requires substantially different processing methodologies, although they are likely to be extremely STU intensive, although the final form is far from being completed.
So it's not a better version of what we have, but a different one. Interesting. So long as it makes STUs I'm all for it.
The practical spike on the other hand, is actually far safer. It is not simply an accelerator strapped to a spike. It is using technology from the Visitors to summon Tiberium towards the surface, not accelerate its spread. While the differences from the standpoint of surface abatement are mostly academic, the technical differences are fundamentally vital to making a product that even the most risk-averse of Treasuries would be willing to field. Even so, there are significant concerns about the safety of the program, both in terms of the safety of the systems themselves, and their safety from the Initiative public.
Nice, that's exactly what we wanted.
These fighters have been given the designation of ASF-1 Sabers.
Heeeey, a Halo reference! That's nice, I have fond memories of playing Reach.
Oh, cool!
Well, that's another way to get some RpT on the margins that doesn't bother ZOCOM one bit, because securing those tiberium mining operations isn't ZOCOM's problem until someone figures out how to equip a Zone Suit with water wings.
The Navy does want Zone Suits, yes.
[X] Plan Having Tasted The Fruit, Nothing Shall Be Impossible For Them v2
I'm with Simon in that I'd like to have a third Species Restoration Bay, but honestly I'm not sure when we're even going to build the first one. And Dr. Bora is being all No Fun Allowed guy by reminding us that Nod gets a cut of the Fun plants. He's still more then worth it for the extra Agriculture dice, but man. At least this means his bonus applies to those projects. The Animal Husbandry bay is a must for me, as is the High Efficiency Void Crops Bay. Strangely though, I'm coming around to the Core Crops Bay given it's stated purpose. Being able to orbital drop food on people sounds both cool and very fucking funny. Or another Fruiticulture Bay. Trees need lots of everything, and more space for them is also good. I'm also kinda okay with the Habitation bay. So I suppose I'm not that picky on what the Seventh bay should be.
