Okay, so let me try to explain the research system in detail.
Really there are two kinds of research. One goes on in the background, going from basic science to prototypes, to developing first wave hardware to putting ablative armor sections on your tanks. It is generally small and iterative.
But there is also the other side. The Breakthrough Technologies. These are one off or few off leaps that generally come from studying someone else's stuff. NOD, Scrin, the Tacitus, things like that.
These are modeled as a range of breakthroughs, generally 100. (there are often several degrees of one technology scattered throughout the range)
To see what you get, I roll 1dx or 2dx to determine the number of d100s that I roll. Those d100s reference points on the chart, which is sorted in generally ascending order of usefulness. (100 was unlocking the secrets of modern stealth technology for example, while 1 was an old NOD codebook). If duplicates are rolled, (lets say 2 20s) you get the technology and the one above it (so 20 and 21) These projects will complete over the next 1-16 turns, unlocking new options to finalize development and starting to throw projects around that actually start taking substantial effects.
So, since this discussion has happened several times.
1. Not everything is in the numbers. This is intentional. Not everything can be summed up into a set of +s and -s or as points on a scale. Among those is the military. Military performance is not just my number bigger than yours, but a delicate interplay of multiple fields and the tactical and operational doctrines of the forces. I am not going to turn that into (Military Need +)
2. The narrative is important. Read the updates, because it is not just fluff text. There are warnings, there are potentials, I am trying to weave multiple stories that matter through the text.
3. The numbers lie. They are not perfect, and you do not have a god's eye view. They are your best estimate of what the overall situation is, and how well your current abilities match up to needs. They are generally pretty good, but are not perfectly reliable indicators of anything.
As a mod for the C&C Wiki, I can tell you that it's really a lot more complicated than that. The lore surrounding the Tacitus was a convoluted, confusing mess from start to finish, made all the more complex by the fact that it was written by not one, not two, but THREE companies.
So in the beginning, we have the Tiberian Sun lore, which didn't bother to explain ANYTHING about the Tacitus. All we know is that it was a vague, powerful MacGuffin with tons of knowledge in it ("The Tacitus told me of Tiberium missiles, of invulnerable flying ships, of real-time genetic mutation." - Kane). In the manual of the game, we learn that the Tacitus used to be "protected and studied by the Forgotten" before Kane tricked Tratos into translating it for him. Why does Tratos know how to translate it? How did the Forgotten find it? Who made it and for what reason? None of these things are ever explained or even discussed. But anyway, GDI gets the Tacitus by the end of the game.
Then there's Firestorm, which revealed a lot more about the Tacitus... Not all of which make sense. For starters, it's finally explicitly stated that the Tacitus is a data matrix, and that CABAL helped Tratos translate it. According to a forum post by one of the Westwood devs, it was data from the Tacitus that allowed CABAL to have a will of its own and eventually turn on mankind. You know that Ultron episode from Avengers: EMH? Yeah, it's like that.
But then we learn that the Tacitus is actually incomplete, with a small piece of it stored in some random pyramid in Bolivia, presumably for hundreds of years (it was a Mayan pyramid, which doesn't actually exist in South America, but whatever). In the GDI ending, after the two pieces were recovered from CABAL, they were found to have merged into a complete whole, and Dr. Boudreau was able to extract those "millions of teraquads of data" from it very easily, implying that the only reason it was so difficult to decipher before was because of the missing piece. So now that GDI has enough super tech to fill up a million futuristic hard drives, what will they do with it?
Well... we never found out. Tiberium Wars did a soft reboot on the franchise and ignored pretty much everything that happened before, aside from a few scattered references to events from previous games here and there. (On a semi-related note, EA seems to believe that the First Tiberium War happened in 2019 because of a reference in the Renegade manual, what.) However, we do get the first explicit mention that the Tacitus is "clearly not of this Earth" and that "all [GDI] know for certain" is that it contained a warning for a future alien invasion. An intel database entry has this line:
"The transmissions recorded from the invasion force seem to be patterned in a similar way to the data structure in the Tacitus. This leads us to believe that the invaders are the Scrin, or perhaps some faction thereof."
The term "Scrin" was first used in Tiberian Sun: this crashed spaceship was labeled "Scrin Ship" in the game. We never did find out much about it, other than that it wasn't an alien ship, but constructed by Nod using technology from the Tacitus. So it's pretty clear that "Scrin" is the name of the alien species that originally created the Tacitus. Considering the new information from TW, the Scrin seems to be a benevolent species who sent the Tacitus to Earth to warn humanity of a future invasion.
...But wait, if the Scrin are looking out for us, then what about these guys? Who the hell are they?
The aforementioned line in the Intelligence Database entry was followed up with this:
"It is clear upon closer examination that this invasion force demonstrates acute differences from the source of the Tacitus in dialect and physical form. Perhaps they shared some distant connection, or there was some ancient contact between their cultures?
One transmission we decoded using our most advanced decryption computers indicated alien chatter regarding another alien race they had previously encountered. We were unable to translate the word for the other alien race, but the encryption computer returned the terms brother, ascended, enemy and Scrin."
The aliens that invaded Earth during TW3 weren't the Scrin.They were the enemies of the Scrin.
The evidence is there if you look for it, during the "Scrin" campaign, not once do the aliens refer to themselves as the Scrin. And Kane, who knows more about these aliens than anyone else on Earth, only ever refers to them as "the Visitors". The final "Scrin" mission briefing has the invaders refer to themselves as "the Race". But the most decisive evidence is actually hidden in the game itself. In the unused subtitles feature of Tiberium Wars. If you reenable the subtitles for the first "Scrin" mission using a patch, the Supervisor, after saying "No precedent exists for viable indigenous resistance after Ichor LQ detonation event.", has a line that was subtitled but not spoken.
And what was that line?
"Species must be Scrin."
They are so interested in Earth because they think humanity is Scrin.
Then there's Kane's Wrath, which, due to being outsourced to BreakAway Games, has a lot of continuity conflicts with Tiberium Wars. The alien invaders are also explicitly referred to as the Scrin in Intel Database entries that go into detail about their culture and such. (Those entries are all labeled with [Source Unknown] or [Source Redacted], because the writers couldn't think of anyone who would actually know about this stuff other than maybe Kane.)
But I'm getting sidetracked, right, the Tacitus. The very first intel database entry you unlock in the game is about the Tacitus.
"Despite Dr. Boudreau's breakthroughs in the early 2030s, progress continues to be slow for our own attempts to interface with the device. What information it holds, and what value said information had to Kane, continue to be matters of serious concern for this agency."
This seems to be intended to address why TW!GDI didn't get access to any of the Tacitus super tech that Kane described. However, the word choice of "interface with the device" is a strange one. Boudreau already got most, if not all of the data out. She said she just needed to decipher it. Why is GDI still trying to interface with it?
Also, this game hammers it in how Kane really, really wants the Tacitus. He refers to it as "the key to ascension", and the aforementioned intel database entry also states that "the Tacitus is key to the ascension prophecies, the core mythology around which Kane built the Brotherhood of Nod". Which... also makes no sense. "Ascension" is not really a thing pre-TW. Nod's main belief was that Tiberium can bring about the next stage of human evolution, and the non-canon Nod ending for TS seems to imply that "ascension" (if that was what happened to Kane in that ending) was only for Kane himself.
But anyway, Kane's diary states that he created LEGION using preserved fragments of the Tacitus, which is why LEGION has a connection to it and can sense it in some way. In the final mission, GDI typed in so many wrong passwords on the Tacitus that it activated its lockout feature... which was apparently blowing itself up. Kane put it into LEGION just in time, however, for LEGION to apparently use it to access the not!Scrin communications network, where the AI see that the not!Scrin is planning an invasion of Earth.
Anyway, that's the whole, convoluted history of the Tacitus, spanning three companies and four games. There's a few bits of info from The Game Which Must Not Be Named as well, but nothing substantial. There's also Westwood's original ideas for the Tacitus, but I'd rather not get into that right now. I guess my whole point is, it's a convoluted mess, but only because the real-life history of this franchise is a convoluted mess.
So I thought I'd collate the various profiles we have gotten on NOD commanders.
The most important is Kane. While none within the Brotherhood know his true story, there are many legends. Most place him as being ancient, with some even crediting him as being a central figure in the first stories of the old testament. What is known, from Havok's report on the works beneath the pyramids of Giza, is that Kane is very old, with tombs bearing his sigil dating back thousands of years to the time of the Pharaohs. However, any claims to be as old as Kane are widely agreed to be insecure commanders lying to make themselves look better.
Kane Kane is many things to many people. Madman, Prophet, Saint, Sinner, Angel and Demon. His truth is far, far more complicated. Kane was not born on Earth. Was not even born on a planet. He is in fact Bentusaar, a race of binary aliens. Half organic forms, half shipminds. Ancient...
forums.sufficientvelocity.com
The second is a new name to GDI's knowledge. Rather than operating under banners and heraldry, Jackson Waterley has preferred stealth and to strike and fade often before the enemy commander knows he is there. A brilliant tactician and field commander, he has proven to have little political knowledge, a crippling failing in the Brotherhood's often intercine political dealings. Having served many masters, he has recently fallen off of the grid, with many suspecting that Kane himself has chosen him as a future commander. Of course, it is also possible that he has been killed in the ongoing strife within the Brotherhood's ranks.
Noted strengths: Stealth, Tactical brilliance, Current operations are unknown
Noted weaknesses: NOD leadership, May actually be dead
Specialty: ???
Gideon (no other name recorded) is an up and comer in the Brotherhood's ranks. While he was raised on the opposite side of the world, records from his days in one of the Black Hand's Schola Fidelis, gave him high marks in oratory and the code, but not as a particularly skilled battlefield officer, likely to be pushed aside to serve as a confessor or a local priest, rather than rising through the ranks. However, the war has killed many of his superiors, placing him high in the ranks of the North American Black Hand, where he has also shown a skill for politics.
Strategy if picked as Kane's right hand: weapons of terror and propaganda
Noted strengths: NOD recruitment, NOD leadership
Noted weaknesses: Gamer, Inexperienced
Specialty: propaganda and politics
Masterstroke: Tiberium weapons
Status: Lost Canadian and Mexican vassals, reduced to secondary power, Dead
Attitude: Hardliner
The current head of the South American branch of the Brotherhood, Stahl is a rarity within Brotherhood ranks. Having risen from being a street confessor in the 2030s to the head of a regional branch, Stahl has more regard for the lives and capabilities of the Militant than most of his compatriots. Instead of trying to replace them with more regular forces, Stahl has tended to emphasize giving them the best equipment and training possible, paired with distinctly fabian tactics. Rather than the headlong assault, Stahl prefers to harass and harry GDI. A key part of his tactics is the geography. NOD is generally constrained to the area east of the Andes, meaning that GDI has a relatively short front, and oftentimes a significant geographical advantage.
In terms of technology, Stahl has pushed for equalizers and force multipliers, deploying not only laser weapons, but a number of radiation weapons and Tiberium based devices in his war on GDI. These are his preferred force multipliers as they can be given to militants with relatively minimal training, although they are certainly more effective with well trained troops.
However, Stahl has significant opposition within the Brotherhood itself, and while he has refined the South American branch to a fine blade, it is one that he is unlikely to wield. Primarily this is due to his refusal to directly attack GDI, either in the north or south, without some form of substantial tactical advantage and limited goals.
Strategy if picked as Kane's right hand: pseudoconventional forces with significant asymmetric warfare approaches
Noted strengths: Quality troops, Force multipliers, Fabian tactics
Noted weakness: NOD leadership
Specialty: Rationality and fabian tactics
Masterstroke: Extreme tactical competence
Status: 'Winner' of the Regency war.
Attitude: Pragmatic
One of the few members of the Brotherhood leadership to not have divorced themselves from their original name, Talitha Bintang was born in the year 2000, and has had a very long career in the brotherhood of NOD. Enlisting before the Second Tiberium War, she missed the major battles, only rising to prominence as the "Pirate Queen of the South Sea" in the years between the Second and Third Tiberium wars, as the seas once more became major logistical lines. Outwitting or outfighting GDI commanders for a decade, she played little role in the Third Tiberium War, husbanding her forces. Today she is one of the best equipped NOD warlords, having some of the few remaining NOD battleships, one of which, the Rajanaga, she has taken as her flagship.
In the years since the war, she has tended to keep her head down and her raids limited. While still the pirate queen, at fifty five, she has become more concerned with keeping her own power rather than winning victories in the name of the Brotherhood.
Strategy if picked as Kane's right hand: Corbett strategy (naval)
Noted strengths: Experienced, Naval forces
Noted weakness: Content
Specialty: Naval warfare
Sponsoring Australian Minor Warlords
Masterstroke: Pylon/ Ion Diffuser Shields
Status: Pacific Conference Signatory
Nicholai Krukov is a former Russian Army officer. As the region collapsed in the lead up to the Second Tiberium War, he found his natural allies to be the Brotherhood of NOD. Naturally aggressive, many of his formations use as much captured GDI equipment as the Brotherhood's. But unusually among Brotherhood leaders, he is very willing to engage GDI head on, relying on combined arms and a secure base of operations to maintain his ability to do so.
In the Third Tiberium War, his columns drove as far as Helsinki before being driven back, punching through many of the same positions his ancestors had broken on over a century prior.
Based out of the Ural Mountains, his position is deep enough in the Yellow Zone that GDI has effectively no ability to actually reach out and touch him. Concerningly, while little is known about his bases, it seems highly likely that they are built around and into the mountains themselves, countering GDI orbital superiority.
In terms of personality, Krukov is notably stable as a NOD commander, having earned respect not through fear and intimidation, but through competent and effective leadership, on and off the battlefield. While his territory is large, he seems to have significantly less dissension than many other NOD commanders.
Noted strengths: Experienced, NOD leadership, Civilian leadership, Combined arms, Captured GDI equipment
Noted weakness: Willing to commit to head-to-head engagements against GDI
Specialty: Conventional Warfare
Lost Superweapon to Orbital Drop
Sponsoring Yao
Alazar Mehretu began his career in the Brotherhood shortly before the Second Tiberium War. A relatively young warlord at the time, he found his focus in special operations. As Marcion split the Black Hand, Mehretu, among others, took in the losing splinters. In contrast to the other Warlords' contentment in having 'simple' specialist field infiltrators, Mehretu chose another path. He forged them into relatively low tech deep penetration field operatives. While his men are certainly capable of conventional warfare, as demonstrated by the tests of some of the first Redeemer platforms, their key tasking has always been deep penetration raids and sabotage.
Additionally, while his core territory is in the African Yellow Zone, he has a global network of contacts and has been linked to attacks and terror activities as far away as the Americas and even Korea. While these attacks are of a much smaller scale, more oriented towards lone wolf attacks, they tend to target political flashpoints, such as the attack on a reopening university immediately after the war.
Noted strengths: Experienced, Infiltration: deep penetration raids and sabotage, Infiltration: Global operations, Infiltration: Political flashpoints
Noted weaknesses: None
Specialty: Infiltration and terrorism
Vassalized the Ten Rings
Masterstroke Active: Remembrancers
At war with Caravanserai
Attitude: Hardliner
Before the Third Tiberium War, Reynaldo was a nobody and part of an extremely minor branch of the Brotherhood of NOD. Western Europe has always been GDI territory, and Reynaldo's branch was cut off by the Pyrenees sitting on the historical border between France and Spain. His position is unusual for the Brotherhood in the region, where the most powerful and favored Warlords were typically those found in the Balkans and tended to be increasingly less relevant from there, with Reynaldo's branch being the furthest and most minor. However, with the Brotherhood's best and brightest expended in the Third Tiberium War and all but wiped out during the Scrin invasion, the Spanish branch found itself the largest and most intact in the region.
Doctrinally, Reynaldo favors infiltration and Shadow Teams along with his own specialists, the Guerileros, to avoid direct engagement. Massive use of land mines, IED positions, and hit and run tactics has been his preferred approach, a tactic of weakness before the Third Tiberium War, and an intentional approach to avoid conflict since then. These Fabian tactics have not won him many friends, but at the same time, most of his potential enemies have died, either to the encroaching Red Zone or to the GDI. At this time, no critical locations are known, and his efforts to obfuscate his supply lines have been very successful, especially as his forces grind down or do not include maker, proof, or other identifying markings on many of their weapons systems.
Noted strengths: Infiltration, Fabian tactics, Obfuscation
Noted weaknesses: NOD leadership, Poorly equipped, Gained power by GDI or tiberum killing his much stronger rivals
Specialty: Infiltration and guerilla warfare
Status: Submitted to Kane
Attitude: Hardliner
The Middle Eastern Brotherhood is currently in disarray. Traditionally, they have been at the center of a series of interlocking rings of feuding ethnic, religious, and cultural groups frequently fuelled and fanned by the Brotherhood. By the end of the Third Tiberium War and the destruction of the Temple Prime however, their primary and both secondary headquarters have been destroyed. Since then, the inexorable spread of the Red Zone has put paid to every warlord attempting to make a play for power, as they have inevitably been forced to move, setting off another wave of internecine feuding as the survivors scrabble for any remaining scraps. However, there is an exception to this norm. An oasis of relative peace have formed itself, a neutral cordon between Mecca and Medina, where a combination of Neutral and loosely-aligned NOD Warlords joined forces with a task force of The Forgotten and GDI to stave off the encroaching Tiberium threat and organize what remained of the yearly Islamic pilgrimage. However, this oasis is not likely to last, as Tiberium means that the full resources of a major power is required to defend the site.
Noted Strengths: Willing to work with anyone to protect Mecca, Raiding
Noted Weaknesses: Internal fighting, Few resources, Poorly equipped, Willing to work with anyone to protect Mecca
Non-aggression pact with GDI
Hostile to Mehretu
As a consequence of organizing the Mecca planned city, InOps has discovered the Caravanserai. While chiefly an organization of Arabian Warlords, the Caravanserai has tasked itself with ferrying Hajj pilgrims from all around Nod-controlled or contested areas around the world. Though previously known as a consortium of Warlords invested in the protection of Mecca, the truth– as forged camaraderie and loose lips would spill– is more than that. Though the Meccan Warlords acted as the main, if somewhat fractious, stewards of the Al-Mukarramah, they levy a considerable soft power throughout Nod spaces with varying Nod factions considering them in different light. More than not, however, their importance was considered to be that of the Red Cross in pre-Tiberium years. NOD Warlords often chip in funds and materials for Mecca in various trickles. In exchange, they are given a set quota of pilgrims per year– departing from two corners of the world as two Commanders of the Pilgrims (Umara' Al-Hajj) start their journey from both the western corner of Africa and south-eastern corner of Indonesia for a four-month trip to Mecca and back. They do this in small disparate convoys that take the pilgrims through perilous lands and landscapes, forcing them to take a slow route as the convoy picks up momentum and to ensure that the pilgrims, a great portion among them infirm or sick, are taken care of.
The extent of the Caravanserai's operations, the publicly known ones thus far, have been enlightening. Though what it will mean to the decisions of the GDI leaders remain, for now, uncertain. One thing is certain, however: GDI's attempt to influence the Caravanserai has been noted– and though most NOD Warlords outside of Mecca are liable to take a 'live and let live' attitude so long as their quota systems are kept in place- others will take a forceful stance on it.
Noted Strength: Diplomacy
Co-ordinates with all powers to enable Hajj
Non-aggression pact with GDI
At war with Mehretu
Yao Qinglian is the most significant of the Chinese Warlords. With much of the area burnt over during Operation Dawn Star back in 2052, the Brotherhood of Nod was thrown into general disarray, with a number of regional leaders springing to prominence. Claiming to be the legitimate successor (one of about a half dozen in the region) to the People's Republic of China, Yao has been able to unite much of the region behind her banner. However, she is also one of the weakest of the major regional warlords, and has been unable to invest much into advancing his technologies of war. At the same time, she is opportunistic, and has been effective in acquiring technologies from nearby warlords in exchange for other forms of support.
In the region, her forces have been generally well organized, and some of the most professional Nod armies. While not up to the standards of Stahl or Krukov in terms of general equipment or tactical acumen, her forces are generally able to hold their own in the field, although they are often let down by inferior equipment. However, the regional warlords have quite a number of heavy batteries of Specter artillery. These have been their saving grace, often using preplanned fire and rapid maneuver to keep the pressure on GDI positions. They have also been one of the least affected by the Initiative's advancing technologies, as in most cases, they have never adopted the systems that the technology was built to counter.
Status: Pacific Conference Signatory
In the broader scheme of things, Ibrahim is a relatively minor Warlord, controlling the border regions of the former Iran and Afghanistan. Situated between the center of power in India and the formerly divided Middle East, Ibrahim outlasted many of his ambitious and younger rivals. With records that spanned as far back to the first interwar period, he is a septuagenarian survivor, tending to his fragmented fiefdoms with a very defensive oriented outlook. The main reason for this survival can be attributed to his canniness and risk-management, allowing younger warlords to rise up and be absorbed into the greater Middle Eastern theatre while giving himself credit as their tutor.
And if that does not suffice, Al-Isfahani has a hammer in his disposal. According to latest intelligence, he had gained the moniker of 'Shah of Atom' after it became known that he had been the last in the long line of Warlords to gain the schematics from Persepolis, a joint nuclear research organization between Russia and Iran before the chaos of the first Tiberium War. Unconcerned with fighting dirty, it became known that his bombs were the one who lit up GDI's FOB in the Sinai Valley with nuclear fire. Caravanserai-sourced information corroborated with InOps reasoning that after the destruction of Temple Prime and the dissolution of the Middle Eastern Warlords, he pushed forth in bringing smaller warlords under his control. However, GDI's interests in extraction operations have led to him being put in the inadvertent frontline. Though GDI has no problems beating his forces back, such defeats have been located in the far periphery of his territories.
During the First Tiberium War, India had sided with GDI, fighting a generally inconclusive war among the mountains that line along the border with Brotherhood controlled China, and sending troops across the middle east to conflicts there. However, after the war, as Tiberium and the associated mutations began to spread, GDI increasingly saw India as being one of its many untenable outposts, and had begun substantial preparations as early as 2010 to begin evacuating India's population northward into a series of mountain fastnesses, and potentially far further. This process continued for the next twenty years, although often in fits and starts, with GDI forces needing to stage operations elsewhere, and substantial other costs, such as the humanitarian crises that need to be resolved during the collapse of national governments across the world.
While GDI had been slowly constructing what would become BZ-18, the Brotherhood of Nod had certainly not been standing still, and had found support among the people of India's underclasses. What they lacked was leadership, centralized control, and heavy military support assets. During the buildup to the Second Tiberium War, all three changed. The Bannerjee siblings had been slowly rising up the ranks, dodging assassins and Initiative efforts to kill them off. As Kane focused his efforts on the Americas and Europe during the Second Tiberium War, the Bannerjee siblings, through politics, incentives and force majeure, forged the Indian Brotherhood into a force to be reckoned with. With GDI distracted during the war, the Bannnerjees raised their banners and marched, their armies smashing GDI detachments south of Gwalior, and causing GDI efforts to collapse across the central Indian plain. At around the same time, CABAL and his cyborg legions turned on both the Brotherhood and the Initiative, rampaging across the world. The Bannerjees, having relatively few of these weapons, escaped the worst of its attentions, and in the aftermath marched on New Delhi, the core of the Initiative's hold on northern India. While it would take years for them to cement their control, GDI leadership at the time elected to not contest the Indian plain, seeing it as being a bridge too far, especially with the need to focus available resources on projects like the then still prototype sonic projectors.
This is something that had changed after the Third Tiberium War. Hackett scarcely gave details here, but the biggest news was thus: There had always been patches of what would today be called "Blue Zones" in India even during the Second Tiberium War. They're just controlled by the Brotherhood. Between not wanting to give legitimacy to the Brotherhood and to ensure overzealous GDI higher-ups did not destroy what few patches of 'pristine' land remained after the ravages of Tiberium, this finding was buried deep within InOps, almost to the point of countermanding any Directorial insight. What happened when the Scrin razed the whole world equally and burned the subcontinent remains unknown; what is known is that afterwards, the Bannerjee siblings centralized their control over the Brotherhood in India, shifting from a collective organization to one where rule is passed down from central authority.
The younger brother, Buddhadeb Bannerjee, is a protege of Abdul Kareem, one of the tripartite researchers behind the Abdul-Pascal-Kane Tiberium refinement process. Considered a critical researcher and savvy enough to keep his head down, he made himself welcome within the power structures of all the extant Warlords of his time by building up APK refineries and mimicking GDI-style Tiberium control measures, devising highly effective abatement methods before eventually getting his hands on GDI's own abatement methods and equipment after the Third Tiberium War and proliferating them, ensuring that Tiberium outcroppings in urban areas were safely handled while the Indian warlords centralized their own production centers. As he seized India, he also managed to obtain vast swathes of Indian industrial capacity, capturing multiple cities nearly intact, and often allowing evacuation convoys and retreating GDI units to escape in order to secure factories and refining complexes.
But it is the older sister, Ishani, that cemented the two as truly indispensable to the whole of the Indian Brotherhood. While her brother was a prodigy in matters of material science, Ishani is merely a middling researcher in biological science. However, she has a knack for delegation and politicking. With a resume that starts at Project ReGenesis – the purported next step of human evolution – as a junior researcher to varied bioscientific 'technology of peace' projects. From gene tailoring surgeries for surviving mild Tiberium sickness to improved hydroponics and aquaponic farming – maximizing what remained of the Seven Rivers of India – an ever growing roll of honours describe her achievements and advancement, and she has distributed her discoveries among the subordinate warlords of India, and used them as leverage for influence among the rest of the Brotherhood.
Through means that Hackett did not deign to tell Seo, their achievements had allowed the siblings a place in Kane's technological council since the Third Tiberium War. From what can be gleaned, Ishani likely managed to crack the code of the Scrin Buzzers and its rudimentary sentient-intelligence in a biological framework. During the chaos after the Third Tiberium War, the siblings joined forces and created their first hybrid Gana, the Aja-class Collectors. The organism, a goat-like Tiberium-infused creature, operates in a swarm-like manner, searching for outcroppings of Tiberium and 'grazing' them with molars with enough power to crush the crystals into finer chunks. After a short life cycle, the collected Tiberium crystallizes within and kills the beast for the 'herders', the supervisors of the Collectors, who ensure the expired Ajas and their bounty end up processed in the Brotherhood's refineries. While the Ajas have since seen several revisions, including a number that seem to have integrated some form of stable tiberium mutation, they are still a key source of tiberium harvesting and abatement.
The Indian Brotherhood of the new 60s is a relatively prosperous state that contains the largest share of the remaining Brotherhood population. With its inward focus and unchecked growth over the past decade, India is as much a redoubtable fortress as it is a research facility for the Bannerjees. While certainly far from a wonderland, it is as close as the Brotherhood has ever gotten to making their propaganda and promises real.
Of the warlords in the remnants of Mexico, Jose Luis Mondragón is probably the most well known and capable. With Gideon relatively far away, Mondragón has chosen to strike out on his own. While not as politically skilled as Gideon, he has been one of the more technically adept of the warlords, and a source of many of Gideon's walkers. He is just as unlikely to negotiate as, like Gideon, he is heavily influenced by the Black Hand.
With his position trapped between the encroaching Red Zone and the Initiative controlling his coastlines, he is a cornered rat, one that may well lash out if pressured. However, he is not expected to launch into a death or glory attack at this moment, as that seems to have been one of the division points that led to his split with Gideon.
Status: Former Gideon vassal
Attitude: Hardliner
With regards to the Krukov's fiefdom, b speaking, his area of operations is divided into three theaters. The East, the Urals, and the West. In the East, forces were spread out and operated at the far end of thousands of kilometers of supply lines. For the most part, Krukov's decentralized operations were focused on the deep Yellow and Red Zone edge regions for harvesting operations. It is a region of paradoxes, where subordinates considered too powerful or dangerous are put to exile, battling away against ostensible peers and giving their income to Krukov in exchange for Ural-made arms. The most prominent Warlord in this theatre is Oleg Pavchenko, exiled in parts due to his tactically gifted mind and his own ambitious drive. Cherdenko confided that Pavchenko is the main sponsor for Yao Qinglian, the rising Warlord in Chinese Theatre, directing him to proxy offensives against the Korean Blue Zones and probing attacks at the Himalayan ones.
Engaged in Regency War
The West, however, is a region of danger. As the primary operational theatre, it was where subordinate Warlords could strike out and make a name for themselves against the GDI using anything from quick smash and grab operations via tactically superior forces to surprise bombardment from Spectre platforms. Here, success and failure differentiates whether one gets promoted or shot unceremoniously, as Krukov brooked no incompetence in such an important theatre. Here, Cherdenko and Moskvin had ruled as the main Warlords, neither ever truly powerful enough to overpower the others while fending off any vultures wanting to usurp the weakened winner. With his capture and Moskvin's demise however, Cherdenko speculates that peace would reign for the GDI in the interim as power struggles and the sustained casualties prevents any but the lightest operations against the Initiative..
Cherdenko Status: Captured
Moskvin Status: Dead
In the great north, there are dozens of minor warlords. While the region is mostly barren and relatively poor in Tiberium, it does have one thing that the Brotherhood of Nod desperately needs. Massive volumes of empty terrain. Jessica Majors, one of the most experienced mining hands in the region, has rallied them to Krukov's banner in the name of better working conditions and greater appreciation for their work.
Majors has vast amounts of tiberium for the amount of population that she has to work with, and is believed to not be particularly interested in continuing the war with GDI. While her record in combat against GDI is relatively good, winning battles across the north-eastern front, they have primarily been against relatively small and lightweight GDI forces during the opening weeks of the Third Tiberium War. Since then, her record has become far spottier and more mixed, losing battles north of Seattle during the reconquest, commanding a major conflict at Calgary in 2048, before linking up with GDI forces during the 2049 war against the Scrin and then turning on them, and failing to protect the northern of the two North American threshold towers.
Status: Former vassal of Gideon
The North African Brotherhood has not seen a singular prominent warlord. Instead, a group known as the Ten Rings has taken overall command. These ten smaller warlords, ranging along what was once known as the Barbary Coast, formed a loose alliance, choosing to fight GDI rather than each other. All have tended to focus on smaller light boats, with their largest being only 250 to 300 tons of displacement. However, with the deployment of large numbers of Hydrofoils to the region, their focus has shifted from piracy to raiding, specifically using dumbfire missiles in a series of terror attacks on blue zones. While so far they have been generally so inaccurate that they are not a significant problem, or there has been a hydrofoil line in a position to shoot down the missile before it could impact, they have been an increasing problem in the last year.
While ground combat is rare, their operational core seems to be in a series of settlements along the coast, supported by a number of trans-Saharan trade routes, likely using some variant of the old Beduin caravan system, although they have been generally able to avoid overflight, suggesting that they have some particularly impressive offensive intelligence, and some very well prepared dugouts.
Update:
A telltale blow of the Ten Rings, of hidden ships designed in the same manner as the Queen of the Seas advised. But then, it's not the Ten Rings. They're now worn by Mehretu, the faction vassalized under the weight of his accomplishments and threats.
I've done it. I've broken out every military project we've done in the entire game, and grouped them into a huge dataset of resources and dice spent for progress achieved. Now you too can compare the expenditures on the Air Force (8 dice, 105R) to MARVs (25 32 dice, 505R) or tally up our total progress on Ground Forces projects (3067).
Use this information to inform future plans and examine past behavior.
Turn 1: Zocom 1 dice, Air Force 1 dice, Space Force 1 dice
Turn 2: Ground Forces 1 dice, Navy 1 dice, MARV 1 die 25R, 39 progress
Turn 3: Steel Talons, 1 dice
Turn 4:
Turn 5: ZOCOM 1 die 15R 40 progress, Ground Forces 2 dice 20 R 38 progress
Turn 6: Ground forces 1 die 10R 22 progress
Turn 7: General Military 1 die 10R 4 progress, ZOCOM 2 dice 20R 80 progress, Ground Forces 3 dice 30R 39 progress, Steel Talons 1 die 10R 40 progress
Turn 8: General military 1 die 10R 1 progress, ZOCOM 2 dice 30R 75 progress, Air Force 2 dice 30R 70 progress, Ground Forces 2 dice 20R 61 progress, 1 die Security Review.
Turn 9: General Military 1 die 10R 45 progress, Zocom 2 dice 30R 75 progress,
Turn 10: Ground Forces 3 dice 40R 91 progress
Turn 11: Ground Forces 2 dice 30R 99 progress
Turn 12: Space Forces 1 die 15R 53 progress, Ground Forces 4 dice 40R, 150 progress
Turn 13: Space Forces 1 die 15R 22 progress, ZOCOM 2 dice 30R 75 progress
Turn 14: Navy 2 dice 20R 80 progress, 1 die security
Turn 15: Ground Forces 3 dice 30R 94 progress
Turn 16: Space Forces 4 dice 120R 253 progress, Ground Forces 1 die 10R 29 progress
Turn 17: Ground Forces 1 die 10R 27 progress, Navy 1 die 10R 15 progress
Turn 18: MARV 2 dice 40R 105 Progress, ZOCOM 2 dice 30R 120 Progress
Turn 19: MARV 3 dice 60R 210 progress, Navy 2 dice 20R 100 progress
Turn 20: Marv 3 dice 60R 198 progress, Ground Forces 6 dice 60R 335 progress
Turn 21: MARV 4 dice 80R 288 progress, Air Force 2 dice 30R 88 progress, Navy 2 dice 20R 100 progress, Ground Forces 1 die 10R 85 progress
Turn 22: MARV 3 dice 60R 136 progress, Air Force 1 die 15R 52 progress, Ground Forces 2 dice 20R 103 progress, Steel Talons 2 dice 20R 125 Progress
Turn 23: MARV 3 dice 60R 168 progress, Ground Forces 2 dice 30R 150 progress, Steel Talons 1 die 10R 58 progress
Turn 24: General Military 1 die 20R 40 progress, MARV 3 dice 60R 102 progress, Ground Forces 2 dice 20R 128 progress, Navy 1 die 15R 40 progress, Steel Talons 3 dice 30R 122 progress
Turn 25: MARV 2 dice 40R 178 progress, ZOCOM 1 die 15 R 60 Progress, Ground Forces 3 dice 30R 253 progress, Navy 3 dice 60R 200 progress, Steel Talons 1 die 15R 40 progress, Security Review 1 die
Turn 26: MARV 2 dice 40R 51 progress, Ground Forces 2 dice 20R 154 progress, Navy 2 dice 40R 148 progress, Steel Talons 3 dice 30R 175 progress
Turn 27: General Military 2 dice 40R 80 progress, MARV 2 dice 40R 141 progress, Air Force 2 dice 30R 80 progress, Ground Forces 2 dice 30R 80 progress, Navy 2 dice 40R 85 progress
Turn 28: General Military 3 dice 75R 171 progress, MARV 1 die 20R 26 progress, Ground Forces 3 dice 30R 151 progress, Navy 2 dice 40R 170 progress
Turn 29: General Military 1 die 25R 55 progress, MARV 1 die 20R 43 progress, Ground Forces 6 die 85R 309 progress, Navy 3 dice 60R 185 progress
Turn 30: Ground Forces 4 dice 50R 295 progress, Navy 1 die 20R 45 progress
Turn 31: ZOCOM 1 die 10R 40 progress, Navy 4 dice 80R 277 Progress
Turn 32: Space Force 3 dice 60R 235 progress, Navy 1 die 20R 18 progress
Turn 33: ZOCOM 2 die 20R 129 progress, Navy 1 die 20R 30 progress
Turn 34: General Military 2 die 25R 142 progress, ZOCOM 1 die 10R 31 progress, Ground Forces 1 die 15R 40 progress, Navy 2 dice 25R 129 progress
Turn 35: General Military 2 die 40R 101 progress, ZOCOM 1 die 10R 40 progress, Navy 4 dice 55R 137 progress
Turn 36: ZOCOM 1 die 10R 90 progress, Ground Forces 3 die 45R 184 progress, Navy 3 dice 45R 149 progress, Steel Talons 1 die 10R 30 progress
Turn 37: MARV 2 dice 40R 138 progress, ZOCOM 1 die 10R 30 progress, Ground Forces 4 die 45R 141 progress, navy 1 die 15R 60 progress, Steel Talons 2 dice 20R 169 progress
Turn 38: MARV 7 dice 140R 481 progress, Space Force 1 die 20R 40 progress, Air Force 1 die 15R 40 progress, Ground Forces 3 dice 30R 199 progress, Steel Talons 1 die 10R 33 progress
Turn 39: General Military 5 dice 110R 289 progress, MARV 1 die 20R 2 progress, Space Force 1 die 20R 55 progress, Air Force 7 dice 105R 331 progress
Turn 40: General Military 4 dice 100R 217 progress, Space Force 3 dice 60R 301 progress, Air Force 1 die 15R 49 progress, Ground Forces 6 dice 65R 434 progress, Steel Talons 1 die 25R 60 progress
Turn 41: General Military 2 dice 55R 85 progress, MARV 1 dice 20R 26 progress, Space Force 1 die 20R 79 progress, Air Force 2 dice 35R 80 progress, Navy 2 dice 30R 80 progress, Steel Talons 2 dice 55R 123 progress.
Turn 42: Air Force 7 dice 130R 473 progress, Navy 6 dice 120R 450 progress, Steel Talons, 1 die 25R 22 progress
Turn 43: Air Force 4 dice 70R 342 progress, Ground Forces 2 dice 20R 143 progress, Navy 6 dice 120R 392 progress
Turn 44: Air Force 3 dice 60R 235 progress, Ground Forces 3 dice 30R 184 progress, Navy 5 dice 100R 299 progress, Steel talons 1 die 10R 30 progress.
Turn 45: Space Force 1 die 10 R 31 progress, Ground Forces 2 dice 25R 62 progress, Navy 5 dice 100R 309 progress, Steel Talons 2 dice 20 R 113 progress
Turn 46: ZOCOM 1 die 15 R 40 progress, Space Force 1 die 30 R 110 progress, Ground Forces 2 dice 30R 133 progress, Navy 3 dice 60R 179 progress, Steel Talons 1 die 10R 31 progress
Turn 47: Space Force 8 dice 160 R 609 progress, Ground Forces 5 dice 368 progress, Navy 1 die, 20 R 61 progress, Steel Talons 1 die 10R, 81 progress.
I decided to do the unthinkable. I've gone back through every single dice roll and find out the average of the D100s. I took me longer than expected because going back through the old votes was hard. Hopefully it will finally solve the question of if the dice are cursed or not. I might have made some small mistakes along the way. I've also decided to make it more fun to read.
Report on the Cursing of GDI Treasury Directors
Compiled by Analysist Victor Chance
Introduction: It has always been important for the GDI to be well guarded against any threat. Whether it is the threat of Tiberium mutation, NOD infiltration, alien invasion, and political unrest, we must be prepared for everything. That is why the GDI has maintained several small departments to protect against currently unknown threats. One such department is the Department of Randomness, which insures that the luck of all major personnel stays consistent with the expected average. With the current rumors of there being a curse on the Treasury Directors, data has been compiled to find if such a curse exists.
Methodology: Every Quarter, the directors roll D100s at randomly determined days. The average of these dice rolls is then taken, with several other measurements, to help determine the Average Luck Value during a quarter. This data is then analyzed to find any discrepancies and alert other departments
Average Dice Roll Value Per Quarter
Provided by the GDI Department of Randomness
Quarter/Year
2050
2051
2052
2053
2054
2055
2056
2057
2058
2059
Q1
46.03
55.97
54.96
43.37
45.77
53.11
56.67
47.92
49.96
47.31
Q2
48.00
58.59
53.78
57.85
47.56
50.71
56.88
49.77
45.79
43.15
Q3
43.09
52.54
56.04
50.11
55.51
51.58
51.17
56.17
45.40
Q4
51.47
44.15
60.26
51.26
47.43
40.15
41.82
45.81
45.93
Current Overall Average Dice Roll: 50.08
Summary: Based on the data collected on average dice rolls it is the opinion of the GDI DR that the dice are not cursed or have just recently been cursed. In fact, it appears that overall, the dice rolls are in favor of the GDI as the Current Average is slightly above the Expected Average. However, it should be noted that the dice rolls of Treasury Director Seo has rolled constantly below average during his current term. It is theorized that Seo may be a Low Luck Individual, but the lack of data previous to his appointment prevents further analysis.
Recommendation: It is recommended that Treasury Director Seo take steps to increase his luck. These include carrying four-leaf clovers, have several upturned horseshoes installed, keep a rabbit's foot on hand, and shake hands with any available chimney sweeps. He should also keep away from any luck decreasing activities* such as walking under ladders, breaking mirrors, or opening an umbrella indoors. An appointment has also been made for the Department of Paranormal Phenomena to have their best shamans, witchdoctors, and priests analyze him for any curse.
*After the 2044 study Everyday Events and Their Effect on Luck it has been determined that walking by a black cat, ravens, and tipping a salt shaker do not cause bad luck to occur. Though it is noted that some animals can be omens in certain scenarios (see Prophecies Through Animals by Dr. Tetra Corvid)
For anyone who is interested in modding for the steam version of C&C 3: Tiberium Wars or C&3: Kane's Wrath, you might find the following useful to get started:
You need one of the following programs, depending on which game you are creating your mods for.
The latest version of the official map editor for C&C 3: Kane's Wrath. Please note: You must update Kane's Wrath to patch 1.01 or newer for this latest version of Worldbuilder to function correctly.
You can also make maps much, much larger by using a large address aware utility on the worldbuilder .exe after it is installed, which will allow the program to use more than 2GB of memory when creating scenarios.
This is an application that assists in making applications large address aware. When a 32-bit application is large address aware, it can access up to 4 GiB on x64 operating systems and all memory that isn't used by the operating system and other applications on x86. 64-bit versions of Windows...
www.techpowerup.com
-Be sure to use the moddb version of worldbuilder files. The links provided by the publisher on their website have a distressing tendency to be unable to be installed on Windows 10.
-If that doesn't resolve the issue, use regedit to add the "\" at the end of the install path of the game you are planning to mod for.
e.g.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Electronic Arts\Electronic Arts\Command and Conquer 3 Kanes Wrath
installpath
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Command and Conquer 3 - Kane's Wrath
to
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Command and Conquer 3 - Kane's Wrath\
Here is a comprehensive guide for all tools you will need to modify Tiberium Wars and Kane's Wrath. The links will change as new files are added and mirrors are uploaded....
GDI's Zone Trooper and Raider Projects are best understood not as a mainline infantrymen, but rather mobile, aggressive, counterforce/countervalue assets, closer in both theory and practice to the Commandos, rather than the rifle squad. Both are intended to fill two primary roles. Either, they were to get into the back lines and raise havoc (as seen during Operation: Payback) or they were to act as primary strike assets, taking the fight to NOD armored columns, or their walker forces. In neither role were they expected to hold positions on their own. However, with the growth of Tiberium, and ZOCOM's perceived need for a new generation of suits, a more combined arms approach is being brought to the fore. Three new suits have exited testing.
First is the Zone Captain. Taking the sensor package from a GDI Sniper team and mounting it to a suit of powered armor is functionally simple. A laser designator, personal RADAR system, and an expanded communications suite gives these suits the ability to act as forward observers, directing fire support with lethal precision. While not intended for front line combat, it has been given a standard issue light machine gun with minor modifications, most notably reshaped grip surfaces so that the larger hands of the Zone Captain.
Second is the Defender. While Zone Armor is inherently complicated and expensive, it can be substantially stripped down. Equipped with a disc grenade launcher and a light machine gun, the Defender aims to be a version that reduces the cost of the equipment to being something that can be widely deployed. Instead of each soldier costing nearly as much as an entire squad, a Defender, with its lack of jetpack, advanced HUD, limited communications systems, and stripped down armor and mobility support systems is aimed to resolve. While still more expensive than standard GDI infantry kit, it is still substantially more comprehensive, and provides full coverage against Tiberium exposure.
Third and finally is the Maurauder pattern. Aimed to be a "Zone Heavy" the Maurauder is built around delivering a constant stream of rocket propelled grenades. While each grenade is small by RPG standards, they are still more than sufficient for use against both infantry and light vehicles.
Additionally, revisions have been made to the existing Trooper and Raider models, primarily in the form of improved armor, and modified articulation. While substantial work will have to be delayed until there are sufficient myomer bundles to completely rework the systems, small tweaks should keep the suits as they are relevant for decades to come.
Ground Vehicles
The MBT-6 Predator is a veteran tank of the Third Tiberium War where it served with distinction in battlefields ranging from the deserts of Africa to the streets of Washington. That being said, the design has not survived entirely intact. The most immediately noticeable change is that the original 152mm smoothbore barrel has been replaced instead by a high velocity railgun, providing better armour penetration and range. On top of the tank, the Remote Weapons System, inspired by the ones used on Guardian APCs but using the newer 'Raptor' system helps protect the vehicle from infantry rushes and rpg troopers, while the 'Wali' laser point defence system mounted on top protects the vehicle from rockets and missiles. Improved armour was required and then provided to deal with Nod's laser weapons in the form of Ablat plates, attached to the front and sides of the vehicle where they can absorb laser strikes. Finally, and almost unnoticeably, the sensor systems have been entirely replaced in order to deal with Nod stealth technology. All in all, the Predator is a far deadlier beast than it's first iteration but it is still an aging system that will require replacement in the future, rather than further upgrades.
The MARV as designed is a powerful weapon of war and has proven itself in hundreds of battles. While occasionally defeated such as in the African Red Zone in 2047, each destruction saw the use of overwhelming NOD firepower and repeated attack waves, often using stealth assets to destroy MARV.
The critical flaw in MARV is its limitation of its Tiberium harvesting and refining methodology. While standard harvesters rake through the topsoil, collecting even relatively small crystals, the fixed harvesting array on a MARV on the other hand cannot sweep the Tiberium instead only collecting the large surface crystals. While admittedly able to collect a substantial amount of resources and able to cut through Tiberium fields, it is also far less than could be collected, and the remaining Tiberium crystals grow back faster than hoped meaning the area must undergo additional sweeps.
The "super" version of the MARV is intended to solve both of these problems. An additional trailer section behind the main gun turret adds much more space for weaponry and more storage for Tiberium while retaining the (admittedly limited) mobility that makes the MARV functional. This adds two sections for additional gun mounts and more tiberium storage. For the latter problem, the "mouth" of the MARV has been completely redesigned. A pair of sweeper arms, effectively upscaled from the standard Harvester, and able to sweep through the topsoil to bring smaller crystals up and into the MARV, have been installed and are intended to draw Tiberium into its mouth for processing. This will unfortunately render MARV immobile while the sweeper arms are deployed, but we believe this is to be a good trade off.
Rather than refitting existing MARV plants, the current goal is to build a series of new construction yards, a concession to the fact that the Super MARV is even more excessively armed, armored, and expensive than the "Standard" design.
As of 2060, GDI's artillery park consists mainly of four guns:
The 203mm rifle remains secure in its role as GDI's heavy artillery. A former 8-inch naval gun mounted on the Juggernaut walker and more recently the Huntsman SPG, the 203mm remains the heaviest and longest-ranged tube in the arsenal.
The 152mm smoothbore remains the most common regimental-scale artillery piece in use. A former tank gun obsoleted by tank-portable railguns and retrofitted onto a towed gun carriage as a war-expedient measure, the 152mm smoothbore is heavy, inaccurate, and slow-firing. Furthermore, the gun fires at a very high pressure and a high muzzle velocity--while this nominally extends the maximum range, the gun remains too inaccurate for use at those ranges and the thicker shell walls necessitated limit the effective payload of those shells that do arrive. Hwever, despite its many flaws, the 152mm smoothbore has formed the basis for the revival of massed artillery, particularly mechanized regimental artillery in the form of the Overseer SPG.
While obsoleted by the 155mm rifle and in the process of being replaced, as of 2060 many smoothbores remain in use among second-line units and rear positions who have yet to receive the new guns.
The new 155mm rifle, on the other hand, is purpose-built as an artillery gun. More accurate, lighter, faster-firing, and with more effective shells, the rifle is in every way an improvement over the 152mm smoothbore, with the latter being replaced wherever the rifle becomes available. As of 2059 the smoothbore was expected to be fully replaced by 2066--it remains to be seen if the Regency War will delay or accelerate that process.
Lastly, the humble 120mm mortar soldiers on mostly unchanged as the battalion organic fire-support option.
Q2 2058 (Development)
At this time, GDI's artillery park is standardized around three guns. First, a 203mm rifle, originally built for the Mark 2 Juggernaut, and later expanded out in lighter configurations. Second, a 152mm smoothbore, And third, a 120mm mortar. Of these, the first and last are quite acceptable. Somewhat short ranged on the former, and somewhat slow firing on the latter, but perfectly acceptable. The problem comes from the middle of the three.
The current 152mm artillery gun was an emergency measure to create a stopgap solution for the demand for more artillery. As the MBT-6 Predator was undergoing a force wide upgrade to rail guns, its old 152mm smoothbore high velocity guns were available in great quantities, and would not require substantial retooling at a time when GDI was still deep in reconstruction efforts following the Third Tiberium War. Unfortunately, it has performed poorly, with commanders commonly attempting to leave the 152mm pieces behind and requesting greater allotments of 203mm Juggernaut walking artillery and 120mm mortar equipped Bulldogs. Sadly, the problems for the current iteration of 152mm cannons are chronic. As a smoothbore gun, shells are not spin stabilized, and as the gun was designed for high velocity operation it requires very high pressure to properly function, necessitating a thick, heavy barrel. These are useful traits for a gun firing APFSDS shots, as the shot would not engage with the rifling anyway and sheer velocity was the main method of breaching enemy armour. They are not as useful for an artillery piece that is meant to be accurate at great ranges. The new model is substantially optimized for artillery work. First, the gun has been redesigned to work with lower pressures, allowing the barrel to be made thinner and lighter while losing little in range. Second, as the pressure has been lowered it has become possible to use shells with considerably thinner shell walls, holding more filler for better effect on target. Third, the barrel has been rifled, imparting much greater accuracy at range. While the absolute maximum range has shrunk, the effective range has thus been increased. Fourth, the gun can now operate on both integrated munitions, with shell and propellant in the same cartridge, and with separated shell and propellant charges in case the standard load would be inconvenient.
Beyond modifications to the 152mm gun, the primary changes have been made to the targeting computer. With GDI increasingly relying on forward observers and massed battery fire, the use of centralized fire direction, despite adding in another step between a call for fire and shells reaching the target, increases accuracy and speed of response. In GDI's next generation force, each company will have a fire direction vehicle, almost certainly an extensively modified Guardian chassis, replacing its crew compartment with computers, sensors, and communications equipment to allow for directed fire against targets across an over fifty kilometer range.
The total refit costs are going to be incredibly marginal. While refits are definitely required, they will not require more than a series of modifications to existing equipment. This will not immediately remove the existing smoothbore guns from service, but it will relegate them to increasingly marginal roles, and over the course of the next five to seven years, they will be removed completely, as GDI transitions to a more modern artillery park.
Q4 2058
The deployment of the new tubes has not gone quite swimmingly. While adding rifling to existing guns is simple, and aside from some of the materials science little different than the standard for producing artillery pieces for two centuries, some minor problems have emerged in the fire direction vehicle project. Specifically, in the shock housing for the optical fire control system. While firmly tertiary, intended to be used for direct fire support and in Ion Storms, it is a critical system. The impacts of moving at speed over terrain can throw it slightly out of alignment, producing negative accuracy impacts. While little more than a handful of minor widgets, and not stopping the widespread deployment, it is something that can be fixed with a final infusion of funding, rather than giving it up as a bad job.
More broadly, the new artillery pieces have only started arriving at the front in small numbers. Primarily so far they have been allocated to fortress towns, where their mobility is not required, and so the problems with the fire control vehicles is a nonissue. However, so far it has been a bare handful, with Arkhangelsk receiving a first shipment of twenty four guns on the 20th of December, and other fortress towns in the region getting smaller complements in the same week. Similar situations are occurring around the world as guns are parceled out in small packets. However, over the course of the next three to nine months, GDI fully expects to have significantly reduced the role of the old smoothbore guns, and replaced them in most priority areas with new rifles.
Q1 2059
New versions of the tube artillery systems have begun to enter widespread deployment, with most forward deployed units receiving at least a handful of new guns. However, when looking at ammunition consumption, the numbers are not as good as could be hoped. While the average fire mission has been halved or more, the number of fire missions has drastically increased. The edge in effective range has left the guns firing at longer ranges and effectively in use constantly during operations. On average ammunition consumption has dropped by some ten to fifteen percent, but that is far less than optimistic projections had assumed. While this is likely to continue to drop as more units are equipped, and available fire missions are spread out among more units, it is unlikely to be enough to fundamentally change the shell situation. However, even small reductions are having a noticeable supply impact, with many areas beginning to be able to lay in marginally larger stockpiles of shells that they have not needed to fire, and some units on quieter parts of the front can last for more than a supply convoy between needing more shells, simplifying the overall logistical footprint.
GDI's modern harvesters were first commissioned in the months after the Second Tiberium War. Mounting sonic systems to help clear Tiberium off of them, they were designed to be lightly armed due to the consensus that the Brotherhood had been effectively defeated and unable to contest harvesting operations. While future designs, such as the circa 2040s Heavy Harvester of the Zone Operations Command built upon this by adding heavier weapons, the core schematics was never displaced, not only in more secure regions of the Yellow Zones, but instead everywhere across Initiative operations. It had the desired durability, economical cost, and all around an easy to use workhorse that makes it accepted. However, the Third Tiberium War put paid to that concept. In many locations, raids and skirmishes around and on harvester operations were– and are– some of the first signs of Brotherhood interest in a region, oftentimes the precursor to general assault operations in a given region.
The new design is more iterative than revolutionary. Taking ZOCOM's already heavier Harvester schematics, the design work had to add multiple tons from the final weight. Not only to mount the railguns, but also the attached capacitor banks, power systems, and other miscellaneous equipment and maintenance tools. While in some ways this is significantly simpler than the two arm system that ZOCOM favored, in others it is much more expensive and limiting. While it is unlikely to actively replace the vast majority of the designs– for there was nothing inherently wrong with them in the first place– it is likely to supplement the Steel Talon's variant, or otherwise be assigned to the most bitterly embattled Harvesting operations. In long terms, it is hoped that the model could replace the Steel Talon Harvesters wholesale, and for field officers to request greater proportions of the heavily armed harvesting systems.
In the latter half of the 19th century, the most advanced blasting composition in the world was Dynamite, an emulsion of Nitroglycerin and clay, invented by Alfred Nobel. It was, of course, quickly taken up by militaries, looking for a better means of breaking ships and destroying fortresses. However, it had one critical problem. The deflagration or detonation of existing propellants provided a short, sharp, shock to the system, one that would detonate a dynamite filled shell, especially older ones whose emulsion had begun to break down, and had begun weeping pure nitroglycerin.
The same problems apply to sonic shells. Each is in effect a single shot sonic projector, using a reactive crystal as an amplifier for a single overpowering blast wave. However, this crystal is a fundamental flaw in the design, as it is both the primary determinant of how much energy, and therefore how much damage the shell can impart, and how fast it can be accelerated. The answer unfortunately in the latter case is not much. A sonic shell is quite the fragile thing, and heavy impacts, such as being dropped from about two stories, is enough to make shells unreliable at best. This has meant a more low impact solution is required. At the tail end of the 19th century, the Sims-Dudley dynamite gun used a smokeless powder charge to pressurize a piston that launched the dynamite charge down the barrel. The modern system is little different aside from the means of propelling the piston. Instead of a charge of powder, it uses a linear induction motor to fling the piston down the barrel, and launch the shell.
The Pacifier MAV uses four of these cannons, each 125mm in diameter. With the barrels themselves being only slightly longer than the travel of the piston, and only really being there to support the weight of the shell during the first part of the transit, they are notably lightweight, if only having around five kilometers of range, at least on a ballistic course. While a significant upgrade when compared to the Dynamite guns of the late 19th century, it is far from enough for a general purpose artillery piece of the mid 21st century. The solution however, has already been found in the form of glide munitions. Instead of loading a full caliber sonic munition, a subcaliber round can be loaded, and freeing up the rest of the space for other purposes which in this case is a set of folded wings. This turns the projectile into a high speed glider, and one able to deliver relatively precise munitions as far as twenty or thirty kilometers away. While still extremely short ranged by artillery standards– and though the reality of signal interference of Tiberium fields meant that conventional artillery would not be effective at those ranges regardless, it offers substantial advantages in other areas, most notably when operating in heavily Tiberium infested environments in providing heavy fire support without setting off Liquid Tiberium deposit within the earth's crust, and has a blast radius between fifty and seventy five percent greater than a conventional shell of the same caliber.
With conflicts with the Brotherhood heating up, losses among the Zone Corps have been steadily increasing, especially as there are few to no good ways to evacuate the wounded from the battlefield. Unless you are in reach of a V-35 configured for medical evacuation, or a Hammerhead, most wounds that would be quickly patched up in other branches and other areas, are significantly more dangerous to the Zone Corps.
The solution has been a fairly large hovercraft shaped like a box, carrying both the tools to disassemble Zone Armor, and treat the injuries of the trooper inside. The largest hover unit currently fielded by GDI, it is roughly analogous to the Hover MLRS systems of the Second Tiberium War, except instead of a missile system and a cockpit in the middle, the driver is sat right at the front of the vehicle, and the entire system is covered under an angled casemate.
With responses from both the Forgotten and the Zone Operations Command having been positive, the system is slated to go into full production sometime next year, with political pressure to get it done as soon as possible.
Ships
The hydrofoil is centuries old. First patented in 1869, and first tested full scale in 1904, hydrofoils are fast, at least for boats. Rather than driving a hull through the water, hydrofoils primarily ride on top of the water, with only a relatively small blade actually cutting through the water. Attempts at military use emerged in the 1940s, however they did not come into their own until the cold war.
GDI's newest watercraft, the 50 meter hydrofoil is designed to maintain speeds of 92 kilometers per hour on its foil, and carries a pair of point defense box launchers (one fore and one aft) along with eight standard multirole missiles in two launchers, one on each side of the ship. While their combat endurance is notably poor, their speed and range more than make up for it, with a single ship able to cover a radius of up to 450 kilometers from base, and still return by the end of the day.
The navy intends to build them at three plants. One for the Asian theater of operations, one for the Atlantic, and one for the Pacific. While the precise locations have not been determined, the projected order is likely to be large, doubling the number of hulls that GDI operates in all likelihood.
The Governor class is a relatively conservative design, built much like the cruisers and destroyers of the late 20th century. Forward, a pair of twin railgun turrets provide for direct fire against most targets. Behind them, the superstructure, festooned with large radar plates, towers above the rest of the ship. Around the base of the structure, four antimissile point defense systems crouch in armored basins, alongside a pair of rapid fire antiaircraft mounts. Behind the superstructure is a 54 cell VLS system. Behind that, a raised drone shed provides for reconnaissance flights deployed from a catapult rail, and on its roof are another pair of antiaircraft weapons in their own basins.
The ship has been long requested, and has been paid for in the blood of GDI's navy. With the prewar navy's near exclusive focus on the heavy warships, the carriers and battleships, the destroyers, frigates, and other deepwater escorts were heavily obsolescent, based nearly entirely on pre first tiberium war designs, and were far too few in number. The navy at the time had some 290 ships, 90 of which were capital weight. Today, sixty capital ships, and only some hundred other warships survive. To make good the losses, the navy desires some ninety ships as soon as possible with potential to expand the order to some one hundred and twenty to one one hundred and fifty ships. While this will not be a single tranche of craft, it should make good a substantial portion of GDI's total need for heavy warships. While the ships will not be the only new class desired, they will be the most numerous, and the most versatile, covering everything from naval gunfire support for amphibious operations, to missile strikes, anti aircraft perimeters, and anti submarine warfare.
Mechs
The Mark 3 Wolverine is fundamentally a fairly conservative design. Very similar to the Mark 2, its big new features are an expanded power pack, and the reason for the expanded power pack, a pair of rapid fire railguns. While the most basic form was a pair of quadpack railguns taken from Zone Trooper units, these were discarded in favor of attempting to improve the rate of fire from each barrel. The eventual assembly was a rotary tribarrel, using both an active and passive cooling array to keep the rails from melting. While capable of achieving the same velocity as the Zone Trooper's design, each assembly can put more rounds downrange per minute than an entire squad of Zone Troopers. However, this does come with the inherent downsides of needing much more power to keep the guns firing.
Otherwise, the design is mostly fitted for, but not with. While there have been proposals for a range of upgrades, ranging from smart grenades to shoulder mounted missile racks, to sensor pods, none have made it onto the final design.
When approaching a naked Mark 3 Titan from the left, it is nearly indistinguishable from its Mark 2 predecessor. Same shaping of the turret, same sensor ball and counterweight, and the same general shape of the legs. However, as one begins to move around it, things become a bit more clear. The other side holds a railgun, rather than the previous standard 152mm gun, while the counterweight is actually a shield for a second, rapid fire railgun. Additionally, there are a number of hardpoints, currently with nothing mounted besides a simple plate of armor over the connectors. The key to what makes the new unit fundamentally different from its predecessors are the internals and the modularity.
Rather than a simple update to the older model, the Mark 3 is a near complete rebuild, keeping only the shape. Starting in the crew compartment, while the Mark 3 has kept both crew seats from the Marks 1 and 2, the entire suite of controls is available from both positions, and one of the Talon's goals for the platform is to eventually reduce the crew needed to one. Otherwise, the key is in the modular hardpoints. Particle beams, plasma cannons, and even laser systems are planned for both of the main weapons hardpoints, although of significantly different scales. To go with the main weapons mounts, a centerline ventral "crotch mount" and two dorsal mounts round out the potential armament load. The ventral system is aimed to be primarily used either for a targeting pod, or an anti personnel system. Dorsally, the Talons are being more ambitious with a long list of projects, most significantly a series of proposals for either jamming or shooting down incoming missiles.
However, the new model Titan is not without drama. Rather than being a straightforward upgrade, the system had been iterated time and time and time again not only before and during the Third Tiberium War, but afterwards, in one of the most significant examples of scope and mission creep in recent history. Once funding actually became available, what had grown into a nearly 150 ton monstrosity, had to be pared down to a reasonable state. Working through the nights in shifts for three weeks, Talons engineers had to bring it down to something that could actually be fielded.
The Havoc scout mech is a 35 ton "light" vehicle, and is absolutely revolutionary. In many ways, it breaks all of the paradigms of the era before the Third Tiberium War. Shields, point defense, speed and agility. Hunched forwards, cockpit jutting out ahead of a pair of reverse kneed legs, munitions pods jutting out over shoulders and beneath the chin. Four toed articulated feet grip the ground as a trio of impulse jets provide not only a lightness of step uncharacteristic of any mech, but also the ability to soar through the air, although currently only on a ballistic arc.
While its standout feature is the jump jet system, it is built around a trinity of weapons. First and most critically, a centerline rapid fire railgun, on its left shoulder, a combined remote weapons pod, and on the right, a rapid fire grenade launcher. This is the ninth variation of the design proposed, a result of the near decade between the beginning of the design and its completion, with a number of what are now seen as critical survivability elements on nearly any new Initiative vehicle. When compared to the first design, it has nearly doubled in weight, and rather than being a proper scout vehicle, it is perfect for a more active role as a beater, forcing the Brotherhood to respond to fast moving Initiative forces.
In terms of interest, it fits a role that few other assets in the Initiative arsenal can fill. While the Steel Talons and the Zone Operations Command are the only ones so far who have expressed not only an interest but an actual demand, the Ground Forces have elected to hold off, expecting improved versions to appear in the future, and having other high priorities at this time.
Aircraft
The Aurora sacrifices everything for speed. While it shares much of its design with its Apollo cousin, there are many notable differences. For one the engine arrangement. While the Apollo has pretensions of being able to operate at lower speeds, the Aurora does not. This has meant a redesign of the engine arrangement. While the Apollo uses a pair of low bypass Turbojets, the Aurora adds to them with a third Scramjet engine between the other two. In normal operations, the Aurora will come onto its axis of attack well short of enemy positions at a mach 3 supercruise, and then initiate the scramjet to send it screaming well over mach 4, and can even push mach 5 under certain circumstances, at least in early test flights.
Beyond that, there is the weapons arrangement. While the Apollo technically can, and sometimes does, carry a substantial load of external armament, the Aurora is a significantly more specialized aircraft, and so every external hardpoint that does not absolutely need to be there (such as a pair of external drop tank points to extend the range) has been deleted. Instead, it is wrapped around two modular bays rated for three tonnes each, each able to carry a pair of heavy bunker busters– ones suitable for cracking through mountainous terrain with little collateral damage– or a suite of smaller payloads, such as 100kg inertial guided bombs or munitions sleds. These sleds are relatively simple affairs, equipped with a set of delayed release drogue chutes, used to bring the missiles down into their usable airspeed ranges, as attempting to launch at too high velocities can produce problems with the guidance system.
The reason for this is a fundamental problem with air defense in the modern world. It is unfortunately short ranged. At a speed of over a kilometer per second during combat operations, an Aurora can cross through the entire threat envelope of any modern defense system, likely before the system can reorient to launch, and has enough speed that some defensive systems, at times cannot retarget fast enough to get an angle for more than a split second. When paired with glide bombs, it is nearly immune to any weapon the Brotherhood of Nod has in its current arsenal.
The Orca of the Third Tiberium war was originally designed to carry 12 AGM-240 Sidearm missiles or an array of other modular weapons systems, ranging from Sidewinders or autocannon to hundreds of unguided rockets. However, during the war itself, by far the most common configuration was six Sidearm missiles. This was a result of three interlocking reasons. First, before the war, Sidearms were considered to be a relatively safe weapon. High precision fires that did not require long loiter times or repeated passes to empty the magazines. This had meant that they were, by far, the most available weapon in GDI's arsenal during the war itself. Second, NOD commanders on the ground tended to prioritize attacking and destroying factories producing for the Orca platform, sometimes at the expense of broader strategic goals. Third, the Venom increasingly made unsupported attack flights, especially ones requiring longer loiter times far too dangerous. While the Orca still carried out tens of thousands of critical missions and provided air support for Initiative forces everywhere from the Arctic Circle to the tip of South America, it did so in a noticeably crippled manner. While some commanders were, by luck, influence, or priority, able to authorize heavier missile loads, full packs were an extreme rarity during the war years. Even after the war, full prewar combat loads have remained a rarity.
The refit project as originally envisioned was a relatively simple upgrade package, increasing ammunition load, adding conformal drop tanks, and improving the sensor suite, alongside adding air to air missiles. The resulting design, however, aside from technically sharing a name, has seen nearly every component receiving either sweeping changes or being completely replaced. The new Orca, designated A-16, is a radically more capable platform than its predecessor. With the new fuel tanks, it can maintain half again as much combat range when fully loaded, while the new modular missile pods are actually even more convertible than the old A-15 models.
Beginning at the nose, a remodeled sensor pod integrates the new, more effective, sensor system. Beneath that, a rapid fire railgun on a single axis turret provides capability for strafing runs, and more importantly a means of defense against the near omnipresent threat of Venoms. Wrapped around the cockpit are a number of panels of lightweight carbon fiber and boron carbide. These, along with lightening cuts and the integration of long chain carbon nanotubes have helped keep the weight down, despite all of the additions being made. Along the cheeks, a pair of modular weapons pods have been installed. While not particularly better than the previous model, these are compatible with the new universal rocket systems. Above them, tucked inside the engines, a pair of conformal tanks have been added. Behind that, a third drop tank is located under the tail, for even more range. While the third tank does make it far more difficult to fly, it also significantly increases total range.
Notes: Thought we needed an info-threadmark about all the additions to GDIs arsenal. Ideally I would like to keep this one updated, but there are still a few things I am missing, mostly all the various upgrades to the current arsenal, like to the Predator. If you want to write a short blurb describing an existing vehicle that was upgraded, just ping me. Also I have threadmark priviliges. Bow before my might.
