Interdepartmental favors includes requests that are due in ~5 years time.
I think Y4 is the best possible point of any plan to do the action. We have the most (relative) resources, we have the least amount of pre-committed projects, we have up to five years to complete the new goals, and we might have access to rush-projects with out-sized ps gains.
And bonus points in that instead of the departments needing to spend PS to get their projects included in party slates (and even then, they have no guarantee that the party would offer enough to make it worth our while), they can instead negotiate directly with us.
If we are going to be working on non-plan goals, it's also useful to see if we can get PS for projects that we wanted to do anyways.
What quarter do you expect to do this? We have Conduct Civil Satisfaction Surveys eating up 4 dice we also have Agri security review to do as well which probably wants 4 dice (2 for review 2 for admin assitance so we don't have to burn a free dice that could be used on pushing actual agri projects forward)
What quarter do you expect to do this? We have Conduct Civil Satisfaction Surveys eating up 4 dice we also have Agri security review to do as well which probably wants 4 dice (2 for review 2 for admin assitance so we don't have to burn a free dice that could be used on pushing actual agri projects forward)
Q2 is the absolute latest that we should do it. Any later, and the party planks will already have solidified and the departments probably won't have spare PS to spend for a couple of years.
As I see it, we have 6 bureau dice committed through the end of the year. 4 on civil surveys, 2 on agriculture security reviews. Interdepartmental Favors takes one die, and so pairs well with agriculture security reviews.
We only have two 'one die' bureau projects, and they don't work well together (political promises and interdepartmental favors). So that will always leave us in an awkward position. But I don't want to spend a free dice on interdepartmental favors just to be able to unlock an AA die, which is strictly worse.
Sort of. The main thing is, while we have some sectors we're struggling to meet goals in. We have other sectors where we've got plenty of room to do extra stuff.
Keep in mind that we aren't obligated to take on a project due by the end of the year. So long as we give something (like spare housing indicator) we've met our commitment. I consider this an exploratory mission, to find out what options we have available.
We probably could have done this or political promises to have gotten PS out of our Firehawk wingmen project, or our Frigates deployment. (i'm personally hoping we can get a nice chunk of PS for completing tendrils before realloc)
And crucially, I want the PS for reallocation and the possible Kane negotiations. The former will give us the opportunity to take permanent expenses off of our balance sheet, whereas the latter we'll want as high as possible.
A higher PS during the negotiations could allow us to:
-reduce the amount of GDI defections
-force Kane to turn over/excommunicate the bigger war criminals
-negotiate for a better TCN
-get more Nod techs
-get more Scrin techs
-get Kane techs (that even Nod doesn't have)
-get Tacitus techs
-not have to give as much stuff to Nod
-make Kane do a silly dance
A higher PS during the negotiations could allow us to:
-reduce the amount of GDI defections
-force Kane to turn over/excommunicate the bigger war criminals
-negotiate for a better TCN
-get more Nod techs
-get more Scrin techs
-get Kane techs (that even Nod doesn't have)
-get Tacitus techs
-not have to give as much stuff to Nod
-make Kane do a silly dance
Basically none of this is directly related to your political support number. In a negotiation the key number is leverage. Negative Leverage moves things in your direction, Positive Leverage moves things in the direction of the person you are negotiation with. The final number has to be greater than zero for them to accept.
What political support earns you in negotiations is the ability to get other parts of GDI to support your positions. Meaning that you can give more up to the other side with fewer problems.
What sets you up better for the negotiations is doing things to increase GDI's power, and weaken whoever you are dealing with.
You dont see the issue with not clearing out saboteurs and infiltrators before we get our food in place? So that we are giving them time to sabotage any stored food like they have in the past with the fungal bars?
You dont see the issue with not clearing out saboteurs and infiltrators before we get our food in place? So that we are giving them time to sabotage any stored food like they have in the past with the fungal bars?
You dont see the issue with not clearing out saboteurs and infiltrators before we get our food in place? So that we are giving them time to sabotage any stored food like they have in the past with the fungal bars?
I think that the issue can easily be blown out of proportion.
Given that maintaining the storehouses has a permanent associated -Food cost, we're not just sticking a jillion tons of whatever in a lockbox and welding the door shut to ignore it. This stuff's being continuously replaced and renewed, and the facilities are under SOME kind of active monitoring. The overall quantities of food are too large for Nod to sabotage as a whole- sneaking tiberium chips into a single facility isn't out of the question but it's a problem on a very different scale from "whole project fall apart" if so.
I think it quite unlikely that a meaningful Nod sabotage plan on a relevant scale is in place, so I do not consider the security sweep to be a required goal at this time, and it would furthermore distract us from actually filling the storehouses. This really is not a good time to do such sweeps if we can help it. Moreover, if I were greatly concerned, I would want to make the Agriculture security sweep a two-die sweep, which would raise further schedule conflicts alongside Interdepartmental Favors and the quite important (in my plan, at least) AA die on fusion reactors.
People told me that GDi had mostly won against NOD in the Regency Wars. Now that I am catching up on those updates, I am seeing that its the opposite, NOD has been kicking GDI ass with only victories against Gideon and Krukov.
Allow me to help answer that with part 2 of my much delayed 2059 Q4 - 2060 Q4 change tables:
Note that all distances are estimates, especially in areas subject to significant map distortion (map edges) and lacking nearby landmarks (ex. Himalayas, Central Europe)
Zone Name
Blue Zone changes
Green Zone changes
1 - Northern Europe
20 (ex. around France and western Germany) - 190 km advance (St. Petersburg)
Overrun by Blue Zones in France, Southern Poland/Bohemia (at least 100 km southward push into RZ!). No significant changes in the border south of Onega to Belarus. 700 km of coast along Nenets Autonomous Oblast including Novaya Zemlya.
2 - Eastern North America
5 - 20 km NE advance into New Brunswick, 80 km advance into Canadian GZ, 5 - 100 km (Chicago area GZ completely converted) (avg. 20) km advance into Eastern former USA.
No changes in Maritimes, Canada and around the Ohio-Mississippi River intersection. Up to 185 km advance around Chicago area into Green Bay and Iowa. Up to 150 km advance south into Florida (see: Jacksonville).
4 - South-Eastern Arabia
Socotra converted from YZ, up to 50 km advance into GZ.
None, though the Arabian portion of YZ-17 is now either GZ or firmly co-belligerent territory.
5 - Western Iberia and Morocco
20 - 120 km (Madrid area) advance eastwards, with some pre-war GZs overrun - more than half of Iberia is now blue. Sidi Ifni area (~ 10 km of edge) converted.
20 - 120 km (Madrid area) shift eastwards, having kept pace with BZ conversion.
7 - Korea
20 - 30 km conversion, Vladivostok now decently clear of tiberium.
None
8 - Southern Cone
30 km conversion of GZ.
None
9 - South-Eastern Australia
120 - 270 (along eastern coast) Km advance, overrunning all of GZ and more. Adelaide now Blue.
200 - 440 km general advance subsuming Eastern Australian YZ and part of RZ.
10 and 19 - South Africa-Mozambique
30 km conversion of GZ.
None
11 - Western North America
40 (Gulf of California, Western Canada) - 440 (Salt Lake area) km eastward advance into GZ, YZ and RZ.
Up to 260 of advance into YZ and RZ in Idaho - Nevada area into Utah and Arizona. No changes outside of Idaho - Nevada area.
13 - South-Western Africa
5 - 10 km GZ conversion in central parts of BZ.
None.
16 - Alaska-Chukotka
30 - 40 km conversion of Western Canadian GZ, 40 - ~100 km advance into Far Eastern Eurasia.
100 - 640 (Arctic coast) km advance into Far Eastern Eurasian YZ.
The problem with having a very specialized and few-in-number space presence is that even if your spaceship is the fricking Millennium Falcon, you can't actually accomplish much with it by yourself. Not unless you already know exactly where to go and what to do with it and can find stuff that gives you a lot of leverage (usually knowledge, since resources and weapons and so on take numbers and bulk to handle).
So while I'm morally certain Kane could put a man on the moon on fairly short notice if he ever wanted to, I'm not sure it'd do him any good.
Simon I get that NOD uses technicals a lot, but their spaceships would be a part of their high-tech end, not low tech end. So mind explaining why you are using what can at best be described as the spaceship equivalent of a technical made out of a rustbucket weedmobile roadster as your example spaceship?
Cause I find your argument confusing because I can't tell if you intended to bring up the most famous spaceship technical in pop-culture to make a point while aware that it is a technical or because you think the Millennium Falcon is actually a cool warspaceship.
The problem is that it also gives us a lot less time to fulfill the favors in question. If we do this in Q2, we have Q3 and Q4 to complete any relevant projects that pop up. And we have no assurance that said projects will be "painless."
Simon I get that NOD uses technicals a lot, but their spaceships would be a part of their high-tech end, not low tech end. So mind explaining why you are using what can at best be described as the spaceship equivalent of a technical made out of a rustbucket weedmobile roadster as your example spaceship?
Because Star War's Space-Toyota is more capable than anything the Command and Conquer factions have demonstrated thus far?
Like, that's not even a diss. YT-1300s are the product of a civilization that has been spacefaring for longer than we've had agriculture. Of course they're going to have beater ships that beat the pants off our fusion rockets and our dinky-little antigravity fighters superglued around bits and pieces of xenotech.
Novel Tiberium Harvesting Deployments and the Future of Harvesting Methodology.
Dr. James Granger
If you keep up with the Tib journals, GDI just rolled out a few new pieces of hardware into the red zones. Now, before anyone starts complaining, none of this is classified. The Initiative has not put this on parade by any means, but everything is there if you have the right subscriptions.
The new harvester is seemingly using a substantially bigger harvesting unit, although the precise mechanisms are not particularly available in the open journals. It seems to use a set of modules, a combination of sonics and other technologies in most diagrams, to break down the tiberium, and then essentially acts like a magnetic vacuum cleaner, sucking up Tib, and only tib, leaving most of the rest of the material behind. It appears, like previous harvester models, to be effectively a sweeper, covering a fairly substantial area. Looks like a few square meters at a time, across the front of the vehicle.
Everything else looks pretty conventional. I know there were mutterings about trying to mate something like the Slingshot chassis to the harvester back when I was running things (Honestly, probably inspired by this board's shitposts but I never cared to check), but that never went anywhere. Too much mass to high up and too much ground interface being required. I could see that working with this though.
Impact Estimates
These are some very broad calculations, but I would expect a model like this to have a few major impacts. To begin with, it is likely to see significant reductions in overall losses. One of the leading causes of vehicle loss in the yellow and red zones is a small piece of Tiberium getting caught in the treads, or otherwise getting stuck in the vehicle assemblies. With the claimed effect of one of the new sweepers, there is going to be a lot less tib, and most of the tib that does not get swept up is going to be much bigger, probably a cubic centimeter or more by some rough estimations.
Overall
I'm really happy to see this. It's probably going to be one of the bigger upgrades we have seen to Tiberium harvesting ever, and I can only wish all the luck to the people who are working on this, and in the fight against Tib.
GDIWife
I'm sure it's very impressive and any improvement in tiberium harvesting has to be a good thing but… did they have to make it look like that?
Ang1e_Your removed by EVAAutomod: inappropriate content
AccomplishingProvidence
While I understand the, ah, concern some observers might feel at the current iteration of the design, I have faith that it is simply the best that can be done at the current time, with the time and resources they had available.
Erewhon
The Design is optimized to remove Tiberium. The Design having any appearance or connection to Other is unimportant. The Design staves off our collective Death slightly more. The Design inciting thoughts of recreation for You is unimportant.
MajorMiner
The new design is very effective at removing even tiny amounts of Tiberium from nooks and crannies that would have been missed by the previous design. I don't understand what all the fuss is.
InTheZONE
Look, I've heard it's really a great design but I'm pretty certain somebody on that team pulled a prank on someone
StrongerHarderBetter: removed by EVAAutomod: inappropriate content
Gryphon Le Rouge:
The Description for how the Harvesters collect materials reminds me of some civilian captured footage of Alien Invader Harvesters working. How the tiberium seemed to be dissolved and lifted into the harvester.
FloatingWood
… Did Erewhon just burn GDIWife with 'stop being a horny pervert'?
To more thread relevant matters, doctor Granger? Not everybody is subscribed to 'Tiberium Weekly', or something. And wouldn't the weight of the cargo bay eat any attempts to lift the harvester anyway?
Although, probably crazy idea, what about a truck hauling the cargo bays around with the harvester remaining in the tib field?
AgathaH
To quote an idol of mine: "Oh myyyy!"
To address less aesthetic concerns, I can definitely see how maintenance techs will be happy about not having to pick as many fragments of Tiberium out of treads.
CarrotCat44 removed by EVAAutomod: inappropriate content
TheCopybookHeadings
I would thank you all to get your minds out of the gutter. Frontline of the war on tiberium indeed.
InTheZONE
#FloatingWood Wait, we're not? To be fair, Tiberium Weekly isn't a particularly great example, I prefer Abatement Update, I find the articles tend to be much higher quality
Erewhon
It is better to remain Ignorant of the spread of Tiberium unless One of You is directly involved. Which You All are I suppose.
Gryphon Le Rouge
I get enough doomsaying from the nightly news commentators when it comes to tiberium abatement, I don't need to see how bad it is in finer detail.
Ang1e_Your removed by EVAAutomod: inappropriate content
Dr. James Granger
#Floatingwood The problem with the idea of having a chain of support trucks for the harvester is that one of the trickiest parts of the whole process is transferring tiberium containment pods between units. Doing it at a field refinery can remove quite a few points of failure, and is much easier to automate, because there are known relationships between all of the component parts.
AccomplishingProvidence
Jokes aside, it's a fascinating and heartening development. Not the sort of technology to change the world in one fell swoop, but these sorts of innovations add up over time.
FloatingWood
So… less stupid question, hopefully. Wouldn't this mean that more of the subsurface tib is left behind? The old sifting arms dug through the soil, but this seems surface only. Wouldn't that make harvesting less effective?
Yellowzon3r
Not necessarily floatingwood. Nod harvesters for example used to be coded to leave small shards left behind to help the field reseed more rapidly than taking all of it. Larger crystals tend to spread faster than smaller crystals. If this gets most of them faster it should be more effective. Regardless the boys and girls in research have done tests and said that yes it's an improvement. Not necessarily in efficiency if you have to go back over the field again later, but there's a definite improvement in how fast the harvester bay fills up. But then, even in blue zones there's occasional tib breakthroughs. Overall, feels like an improvement and the labcoats say the same.
Dr. James Granger
#Floatingwood
Technically, probably. I don't have the full reports, but from the designs, it looks like it does have some extractive capacity.
Redy2Rumble
#Floatingwood
I've actually got the privilege of being close enough to one of these harvesters to go take a look at its handiwork. I've attached three photos-two of them show small divots in the ground where it seems the crystal was just pulled out of the substrate, and the third shows the only crystal shard I could find in the harvested area, which is both small and seems to have been dragged up from underground somewhat. I think that pictures of dirt shouldn't be illegal to post.
InTheZONE
It also looks like it has some insertive capacity
Erewhon removed by EVAAutomod: inappropriate content
BattleSpaceGal5
Oh no they got you to.
SuperIntendentEVA
Keep it clean!
Solan
The new harvesting technologies have been interesting to see in person and the new harvesting platforms in deployment have been a godsend when trying to fix up the home islands with Tiberium flaring up over the different parts of Japan after Bintang's attack. With how devastated various industrial estates were and the stockpile of non-refitted harvesters were gutted in different operational sectors for the abatement process. The local administration here is doing great with the abatement it's just that the progress is slow going even with all the effort local units and personnel are doing in rebuilding what has been lost.
Return of the Chips the Treasury Stole! (edited)
Anthony+Beecher
Weve been wanting a new computer and finally we could!!! Dont want it to happen again cause was not fun. Having a broken one sucks had, to do homework on a tablet for months.
Erewhon
I was hungry.
Born2Mine:
Sweet, I can upgrade the ol'rig when I finally got some time off. Surely I won't be the only person trying get some right???
InTheZONE
I figure I'll get one once the demand drops again, anyone know any good games for a complete newbie?
FloatingWood
Depends on the genre, InTheZone, because, well, there's a lot of options these days.
#Erewhon, not that I want to make you feel bad, but maybe be a bit less gluttonous?
InTheZONE
Not puzzles, I've had enough of those, but something that makes you think? Strategy maybe?
FloatingWood
Strategy? Hmmm, yes. There's always the Civilization series, for the turn based newbies, there's a raft of RTS games, but if you want one that makes you think you'll need to dig in the weeds. Cold War and Tiber are good Grand Strategy games, but frankly, even with the AI assisting, well, that Swedish studio has improved over the decades, from what I've heard, but that just means it went from 'terrible' to 'mildly competent'. Front Contact series is interesting for the small unit tactics, focused on company and smaller, what you arrive on the field with is what you get, generally.
TheCopybookHeadings
Yes I'm sure we're all very grateful for the kind gifts we have received. Pray that their absence was for good cause and great effect. Mayhaps a few will even reach my workshop, still mustn't grumble.
InTheZONE
Well I can't say about the computer chips specifically, it's hardly my area of expertise after all. What I can say is things went very well on the whole, I figure they probably helped.
#FloatingWood Thanks for the suggestions, I'll give them a shot. Front Contact especially, I've heard people complaining about it and it piqued my interest
Erewhon
#InTheZONE May I interest you in a game of Chess Or Poker?
InTheZONE
#Erewhon A game of chess sounds great, it's been a while since I played it. Lost my old set and never ended up getting a new one. Send me a DM with the details
OnceUponAMeme
#InTheZONE Might I suggest Illwinter works? Definitely strategy and let me tell you, better chips won't help with the turn time anyway, but thats what happens when a Grand Strategy Game is simulating the age of singular peasants.
1Fox2FoxRedFoxGreenFolx
Honestly waiting is not too bad. At least it is there. Eventually. Like everything it feels like.
FloatingWood
Illwinter needs to learn to exploit multithreading. Although… Actually, maybe we can finally get our hands on isolinear chips now? That might make the turns take less than 15 minutes.
OnceUponAMeme
At the point you got enough Threads for Dominions, you might as well make a shawl out of it and overhead kills efficiency at that point. So, let's all hope for that Alien Computer juice to hit shelves soon.
FloatingWood
It'll cost a year's wage per chip, Meme. And I thought cutting edge chip prices were bad with the Regency War.
Anyway, I'll echo Anthony, tablets are terrible instruments for most purposes. Got a little one in my new arm.
GDIWife
Brand new alien tech chips and I still can't get a cheeseburger.
#InTheZONE Don't bother with Illwinter unless you are overly obsessed with minor details and have far too much time on your hands. If you are interested in anything less military I'd recommend Mars Survival, a colony builder game set on the red planet.
OnceUponAMeme
Or Mars Horizon if you think you can do a better job at getting into space than the current administration (cough, cough).
FloatingWood
#GDIWife, the vegabeef patties, can't believe it's not porc bacon, and not actually cheese not to your liking?
Also, obvious Starbound shilling is obvious (and entirely fair. Mars Survival is a great game).
GDIWife
#FloatingWood I find they go great with a cup of technically can be called tea. I'm not exactly a starbound shill, as most of the names I recognise here probably know but it's a great game regardless
FloatingWood
It's not tea actually, not even technically. For something to be tea it has to be made from tealeaves, and kudzu be kudzu, genetically modified to give a mild dose of caffeine or not. It's nice to have a mug of something hot at hand though, even if the caffeine can get lost.
If I need a stimulator I'll go grab some of the over counter stuff. Sleep is way better.
Even when gaming.
GDIWife
#FloatingWood I'd ask about fruit teas but I think we're getting off topic
AccomplishingProvidence
To be fair regarding the food side-topic, our beloved #Erewhon did make the joke about being hungry for the Forbidden Crisps. Well, "forbidden" if you're a.) a human and b.) trying to actually eat them.
And while the depths of human ingenuity in the pursuit of fun and leisure can be remarkable, it is a relief to hear that the "crunch" will be lessening soon.
LastLizard
I hate phone browsing, so this is really happy news for me.
Battlemaster Galactic 5
My old gaming rig broke right as the war started up, but now I've finally gotten a replacement, I don't even know what to do with it. I'm just playing old 2d puzzle games like I did on my dinky little work computer, but now at home on a bigger screen. It's like I'm so unused to modern gaming that I'm somehow scared to dip my toe back in it. Just booted up good-old Starfield NV today,but I'm still stuck puttering about Goodsprings.
Yellowzon3r
*laughs in Yellowzone* Poor babies. Having to make do with computers a few years old. But seriously, prior to GDI coming along I was making do with a computer dating back to the twenties and often didn't have electricity at all. That was me, as a fairly well off harvester pilot. Able to occasionally get spare parts for repairs/upgrades. But GDI grade stuff A was more powerful than all that. And B, has lasted for me since then. Most of my old stuff is in storage. Fortunately I'm on base and we have entertainment here. So, really can't complain.
InTheZONE
#Yellowzon3r Yup, I will say it's easy to get used to what you have. Just remember that while a lot of us started with sod all to end up fairly well looked after here, others remember a better time (in some ways) that we haven't quite gotten back to yet.
Also, congrats for (presumably) getting through training, I imagine you're drooling over those new railgun harvesters I've seen.
Yellowzon3r
#InTheZONE Nice edit Well done for removing curse words.
Fair point. Though for me…. Almost everything has improved since GDI came along. I will say though. After finding some in one of the MRE's I have gave in and am a convert to the bacon gods. Moar meat please. But yeah, I haven't been assigned a railgun harvester yet, though I got to take a tentacle harvester for a spin. While I'm harvester certified a lot of the time I'm actually on backup duty riding in the apc. Sometimes I've taken part in peacekeeping operations. To answer the question yes. I passed training. The yellow zones are just as beautiful as I remember, if not more so.
InTheZONE
#Yellowzon3r I may have forgotten there are kids on this channel, so sue me =P. You struck lucky there, I've only heard of the bacon rations in rumours and myth. Yeah, still an improvement. I will say I joined up because I had something to fight against. It's a nice feeling to have something to fight for. I hate those APCs, far too cramped but I guess they're designed for the PBI not their big brothers. I actually was able to see my old home not too long ago. Looked completely different now of course, what with all the scorpions everywhere but hey, it's getting a new paint job now.
FloatingWood
There's kids in every channel, seriously, this is the government forum. InOps roams among the moderati here for more reasons than just looking for Nod botnets.
Also, I am sad to say that we've not had actual bacon available since… sheesh, 15 years ago now, give or take. Bit of a pity. I mean, it's not as if we haven't had the money to start animal product farming again, or the manpower. Those ivory tower technocrats must have their heads up their behinds if they think we'll keep accepting a lack of proper Goudse, or sausages that taste of something other than chicken and too many spices.
We accepted the decrease in chips because the war was on, but that war is over. Give us our food back too, and while you're at it, maybe get to work on a few stadiums so the sporting fans have a place to sit, rather than packing the gyms to unsafe extents when there's a big match on.
Yellowzon3r
#InTheZONE Yeah, those older siblings are no joke. Already I've had I think a couple of your 'sisters' pull my squads ass out of a fire. Command is saying our local superheroes will be gone just as soon as we get widespread ZA rollout and training for our guys. Then more of you can get back to jetting around with your stompy boots rather than playing babysitting duty.
InTheZONE
#Yellowzon3r Heh, just don't ask them if they're compensating for something. Fingers crossed something will happen soon with that sometime soon, better for you to have full time babysitters than us whenever we happen to be close. Also, I heard that promotion opportunities for experienced full timers will be available for those interested in shifting
Solan
I am being reminded of the food being served for administrative heads here while not as luxurious as the high ranking MPs or Secretaries I know the chefs have really did all they could to stretch the eggs, poultry, and the rare real cheese we were given from what I heard six times a year by the local vertical farms and zoos. It's a far cry from before where everyone can get a burger from a fast food chain that contained actual meat when my parents were young since here in Japan, meat is much more expensive here even during the Pre-War Era and it was only bought for special occasions like birthdays and the New Year. It's delicious but I digress.
Anyway, I am quite happy that new shipments of capital goods and especially chips are coming back to general use after a period of high intensity warfare since while my office and staff are generally provided computer parts through GDI shipments since this is technically a military operation, the local administrations have unenviably been in a tough bidding war to get more chips after Treasury guidelines loosened capital good controls throughout the world. While I'm sure some private distributors are already selling the chips to fellow citizens I've heard that various emergency repairs for local systems required our local governments to pay more than the retail price to get ahead of private customers. While it's still chaotic I'm sure things will stabilize soon enough.
Q1 2061 results
Resources: 1130 + 0 in reserve (-15 allocated to the Forgotten) (-35 allocated to grants)(+25 from Taxes) (-5 from Resettlement) (-30 from Reconstruction commissions)
22.22 Blue Zone
0.01 Cyan Zone
1.69 Green Zone
22.46 Yellow Zone (98 points of mitigation)
53.62 Red Zone (70 points of mitigation)
Current Economic Issues:
Housing: +44 (23 population in low quality housing) (-10 per turn from refugees)
Energy: +5 (+4 in reserve)
Logistics: +24 (-6 from raiding) (-5 from military activity)
Food: +26 (+12 in reserve)
Health: +10 (-7 from Wartime Demand) (-10 from Refugees)
Capital Goods: +12 (+114 in reserve)
STUs: +11
Consumer Goods: +40 (-18 from demand spike) (+3 from Private Industry) (-4 from increased population)
Labor: +46 (+4 per turn from medical care) (+2 per turn from Immigrant qualifications) (-1 per turn from private industry) (-1 per turn from other government) (Net +4)
Tiberium Processing Capacity (2015/2470)
Taxation Per Turn: +30
Space Mining Per Turn: +95
Green Zone Water: +6
Plan Goals
Consumer Goods: 6 Points
Food: 16 points in reserve
Processing: 280 points
Projects
Complete ASAT Phase 4
Complete OSRCT Phase 4
Complete at least one more phase of URLS production
Complete GDSS Enterprise
Complete at least one more phase of Space Mines
Complete Karachi Planned City by end of Q4 2065
Deploy Mastodon
Complete All remaining Escort Carrier Shipyards
Complete Isolinear Chip Foundry Anadyr
Deploy Crystal Beam Industrial Laser
The various Warlords sat in their chairs in a semicircle. Or rather, each was in a chair in a different room, with projections showing their peers in other, empty chairs. Many glanced occasionally at the others present, typically when "no one else was looking". They were clearly waiting for someone. Finally, their wait ended.
Kane's image appeared seemingly from nowhere, though really he'd simply entered the radius his own holo-conference chamber could pick his position up in. He was clad in his typical "work" robe-like outfit, various shades of black and dark gray. A small NOD symbol pin was on his left lapel, its bright blood red standing out in the field of darkness. He paced around the circle of chairs, his face unmarred by emotion, barely moving as if carved from living stone. Every Warlord present felt him stare into their very soul despite the separation of continents for most of them. Finally, he moved to a spot in the center, where all could look to him without straining their necks, and he could look to each without discomfort on his part.
"I have come to a conclusion on recent matters. One based on the words of a dear, departed friend of mine."
The sentence hung heavy in the air for several moments before he continued.
"One useless person is simply a disgrace. Twouseless people, is a law firm."
A couple of the Warlords started to smile, but Kane was not smiling.
"Three or more, is a Conclave."
No one was smiling now. Some were already starting to sweat, despite how chilly the holo-chambers had to be kept to avoid overheating the projectors and computers involved.
"And it seems that fate has left me with thisConclave."
Now Kane's face showed emotion, and that emotion was anger.
"I set up the Brotherhood so that a decapitation strike against one of you does not cripple the entire Brotherhood. The cell structure, the Warlord leadership design, means that independence is not only encouraged, it is expected. I am not displeased that all of you have acted independent of my directions. As you know, we value independence, freedom, and self-directed action.
What this was notmeant to encourage, but apparently has, in the absence of me constantly holding your hands to give you orders, is that you somehow collectively decide to start a full-scale war, without even consulting or informing me. Only Reynaldo came to me, after the war had started and GDI had not only defeated his forces in battle, but he was nearly captured or killed!
Did none of you learn the lessons of the last war? GDI is self-defeating if we pressure them lightly, but pushed to war their machine empire is stoked to a fury we can only match by working united! They've been squabbling internally about what kind of vegetables to grow, but you drove them to churn out an entire new navy!"
Here he turned and pointed at Bintang, his face showing restrained anger.
"Count yourself lucky your many successful adventures upon the seas have not forced my hand in matters, and that you have preserved as much metal as you did. If nothing else, despite deploying nuclear weapons, GDI has not escalated in kind."
He swept onward as his robe billowed in his wake. Krukov was his next stop. Kane's fury was palpable.
"GDI has one of our most powerful airborne craft, thanks to you. I do not doubt the courage of our soldiers so I must assume you simply under-equipped and under-staffed the vessel such that they could not do their final duty in time. And nothing else you have shown makes up for that, General."
He said nothing else to Krukov as his gaze turned to Mehretu. Kane's pace slowed, yet somehow felt faster than ever.
"Dear Mehretu. Would you mind explaining, again, to the entire Conclave, just why the seat for the representative of the Caravanserai sits empty today?"
Suddenly a hand was pointing a single finger at Gideon, without Kane even looking at the man. Gideon's mouth was open, as if about to exclaim something.
"I have never asked for theological uniformity, dearest Gideon. Loyalty, yes. Absolute worship of me or Tiberium, no. The Brotherhood of Nod is inclusive, not exclusive. So sayeth Kane.Now."
Kane's gaze shifted from looking at Gideon from the corner of his eye, to pinning Mehretu in place.
"For a man all but obsessed with subtlety and intrigue, you did not foresee this? You did not calculate that the deaths you caused would rouse these men to wrath against you? I have not called the Conclave to War, they did not have an absolute obligation to engage in hostility. You've soured what was not only a manyfold opportunity for intelligence gathering, but also one of our greatest and most public campaigns to win hearts and minds! I would think carefully in the future of such strikes, my friend."
He turned to Reynaldo. Disappointment won out over anger on the face of their Messiah.
"You have been given such gifts, Reynaldo. You endured trials, you survived, you came to me, following the Old Codes, and you entreated my assistance. I gave you that assistance. And now you use these gifts to sow small spikes of fear and distrust? All the blessings I gave and the best you can come up with is random terror attacks in stores and schools? Is your imagination really that small? Perhaps my confidence was…misplaced."
He turned to Yao Qinglian, still disappointed.
"I am not upset that you have not launched major offensives against GDI. There is wisdom in guarding your strength. What doesdisappoint me is that, instead of using the opportunity of lax GDI attention to build up forces, or make innovations, as the Bannerjees have done, or to create an environment ripe for gathering low and mid level intelligence, as the Caravanserai have done, or any number of other things, you have essentiallysat there. Others spent their talents of silver and lost or made money. You did not put yours into the bank or the market, you did not earn interest. You have simply buriedit, where it does nothing. The loyalty of your people and your competence when you do sally forth are your saving graces, but that grace grows thin, Qinglian. Begin giving the Brotherhood returns on my investment of you as a Warlord."
For a few moments, he considered the second "row" of chairs, representing various "minor" Warlords, such as Mondragon and Ibrahim al-Isfahani. HIs expression was more neutral, guarded with them.
"Many of you have been doing nothing but surviving, but you have done so in the face of an ever-growing machine-state of an enemy. More than that, you have preserved your forces in general. To whom much is given, much is required, but to whom little is given, even preservation is a good return. You will have tasks to perform in time, but for now, you have done nothing wrong."
He paused only briefly in front of the double-chair that Buddhaheb and Ishani Bannerjee utilized. The siblings shifted for several moments before he spoke.
"Buddhaheb, your tending of the local gardens of Tiberium is frankly masterful. You are living up to all the expectations I had when you tutored under Abdul. You are on a true path to synthesis and ascension. Well done."
Then he smiled, sincerely.
"And Ishani, your work is simply….I do not believe I currently have accurate words, other than 'masterful' and 'beautiful'. You do your ancestors, your people, and me proud. Thank you. Though you have not prosecuted this conflict directly, your contributions have held back the predations of GDI at key points."
He turned and regarded Stahl, his face a cold mask.
"You have done well. Continue your good work."
Then he turned and walked slowly over to Gideon, his hands tucked in his robe, a smile on his face that did not reach his eyes. He stopped when his image was within arms length, before he reached down and laid a hand on Gideon's shoulder. With an almost fatherly tone, he spoke.
"Dear Gideon, my son, what am I to do with you?"
He stood and tucked his hands away, but did not step back.
"On the one hand, you have maintained admirable cohesion of your forces despite suffering numerous setbacks. On the other hand, you not only have suffered setbacks, you have clearly agitated GDI with your use of a Tiberium weapon, unsuccessfully I might add. And they know you are on the precipice of unlocking your stores of more…strategic…weapons. You have apparently bought time, but is it enough? I had such high hopes for your operations but I have begun to have questions. No, now is not the time to speak, Gideon. Now is the time to listen. So listen well."
Kane's gaze sharpened as he continued.
"Your greatest gifts are your orations. Use them. Call out to all who will listen. All who are discontent. Not to mindlessly attack, but to aid you and join you. Call out to those left in nigh-empty fortress-towns. Call out to those subsisting on the worst food as those in the deepest Blue Zones feast on fresh produce. Those who face continual prejudice from the ignorant. Call out to them, and rally them. Because if you do not soon reverse the course of your fortunes, to some degree in some way, we will have to have several long, informative conversations."
The tone of their Messiah left little doubt as to what he truly meant by that. Kane finally turned and walked back to the center, taking in the entirety of the group.
"This meeting has not been pleasant for anyone attending. I acknowledge that. But meetings such as this needto occur. There is value in me rebuking you one-on-one, in private. But for a matter this large, where you all initiated a worldwide, full-scale armed conflict, dare I call it a war. Not only without my 'blessing', but without any orders from me. All because, so far as I have been able to determine, you wanted to prove yourselves worthy. Well, tell me, do any of you feel 'worthy' now? Do you think GDI is impressed with you?"
Suddenly, he whirled, staring at a spot directly atop the chair Bintang sat in (which was at one end of the half-circle, and directly opposite Gideon's chair). Only then did Gideon notice that there was a slight shine to that spot. Something physically present in his holo-chamber that none of the others had, as they seemed confused. Meanwhile, Kane's grin was almost manic.
"Perhaps we should ask them ourselves! Shouldn't we, Gideon? After all, youwere the one who allowed them into this meeting room. Who allowed their operatives to plant this camera here over a monthago. Don't bother punishing anyone on your staff, the agents are long gone. Truly clever, I say. Well, what's done is done. Nothing of consequence has been learned today, though who knows what other meetings you've held here, Brother Gideon."
Kane's image turned and regarded Gideon with an expression that all but shredded the man's soul for a moment. Then he was back to staring at the camera, so close that Bintang's image was almost merging with his before he shifted to standing "beside" her.
"Andrew, please make sure that dear Director Litinov sees this. She works so hard, perhaps it will amuse her. And give Mister Grantham my regards, his games are exceedinglywell-developed. And Kenji, please listen to your wife, dear Missus Ito is simply worried about your sugar intake. You drink more artificial soda than dear Secretary Seo and are less active, we can't have your health declining. Feel free to show this recording to all of the 'Important People'. Most of you seem to adhere to the Art of War, at least; Know Thine Enemy. Of course, we cannot simply leavethis here…"
Kane's hologram stepped back, and his left hand raised into the air. With a smirk, he snapped his fingers. There was a bright white flash of light, and a strange sort of snap-whoosh sound. When the light faded, Kane's hologram was gone, and there was a tiny smoking crater where the hidden camera had been, with a couple of flickering sparks showing it had been electrically overloaded.
The meeting was apparently done. Andrew Grantham pushed his chair back, the video player in front of him having the play again button prominent in its center. "Well, fuck."
Developmentalists
Andrew Addams has stepped into the leadership position without too many serious challengers. While he is certainly far from the best leader the Developmentalists have had, he is also far from the worst, and the Developmentalist coalition has sat strong for much of a decade after the Hawks shattered, a testament to the flexibility and popularity of a platform that promises wealth. However, the Developmentalists are a very broad camp, primarily split along two axes: Economic, and Social.
On the economic axis, the Developmentalists hold many camps, from a few stragglers of the Marxist movements of the 19th and 20th century on the far left, to corporatists on the far right. One of the few topics that all elements agree on is the power of the government to influence the economy. Beyond that, there is little agreement, with some demanding grant programs and life support for big businesses, and others demanding a firmly centrally planned economy.
On the social axis, it is a question of rights, responsibilities, and powers. On one end of the spectrum are the levelers, working from a principle of "From each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs." On the other, there is little concern for individual rights beyond the right to directly contract. Between are hundreds of different inclinations.
While Addams has the unenviable role of herding all of the cats into a single direction, fortunately, as the designated successor, he has seen few real attempts to challenge his leadership. Although some radicals on each end of the spectrum may stage walkouts of the party, it is unlikely to actually change the makeup, or for that matter much of the power of the Developmentalist Party. Fundamentally, the Developmentalists have held strong through the last decade, and have been in a position to dictate Initiative policy to a degree greater than ever before. And it has led to victory after victory.
Militarists
Chaeon Yong has had to forge an unsteady compromise between the branches of his party. The Militarists as a whole have been defined by what they are not. They are not Hawks, and they are not the Initiative First. They are the people unwilling to join Blue Zone chauvinism with the cause of fighting the Brotherhood of Nod with every tool in the Initiative's vast arsenal.
However, in 2061, there is something of a crisis of faith, primarily because GDI has won the most convincing victory in its history. There were defeats certainly: Damages to Initiative fleets, the destruction of the Indianapolis railway junction, the bombardment of Tokyo, the repeated devastation of GDI forces in South America, but GDI drove the Brotherhood back on nearly every front, brought one of the largest of the warlords low, and demonstrated the capability of vast swathes of the Initiative arsenal.
In the modern day there are dozens of different camps under the banner of the Militarists, which can be distinguished on the basis of which part of the military they support, on their domestic policies, and on which broad policy to pursue going forward. Ground, Air, and Space Forces all have their proponents, as do the Navy, ZOCOM and the Steel Talons, with much internal maneuvering in the party to make sure their particular branch gets the shinies.
Domestic policy tends to be a wider ranging subject, from Socialists who like guns to Free Marketeers who like selling guns, and from Yellow Listers who want to make sure their new homeland has all the tools it needs to protect itself and the refugees, to those who would be Initiative First if not for their belief that outright Blue Zone chauvinism is a tactical error.
Finally, there are the splits along the future policy line. On one end of the spectrum there are the Wardens. These believe in a more defensive future policy, focusing on securing the Blue Zones, and the lines of supply, rather than preparing for further pushes into the Yellow Zones. While bolstered due to the recent nuclear sabre rattling, this war has been a poor showing overall for their cause. Their converse are the Crusaders who see this as the perfect opportunity to increase the aggression, to pour out blood and treasure to build strategic defensive networks, and engage in strategic brinksmanship on the part of the Initiative to crush the Brotherhood of Nod once and for all. In between those two extremes are a handful of other major groups, including those that look to technological solutions, those who want peace dividends, and those who want to look towards more dual use technologies.
For Chaeon, navigating this morass of different factions has been difficult, with many of them wanting mutually incompatible goals. While he has been able to gather a reasonably strong core of supporters, he is simply not as charismatic as Al-Jilani, and has been forced to rest on a more loose confederation, rather than a centrally planned party.
Milk and Honey Protests
With the winding down of the war, GDI's successes in the field have not yet translated to a victory at home. While in the abstract the populace find the Regency War to be a satisfying reversal to the patterns of large-scale wars against the Brotherhood, in the real, a discontent that tapped from the same well of the past used by the Initiative First and the nearly broken FMP made themselves manifest. Dubbing themselves the Milk and Honey Initiative and led by a former attorney, Emil Hahn, the movement started with a core of formerly middle-high class citizens that did not regain their previous standard of living prior to the Third Tiberium War. In another time, their concerns would have been addressed by either the Free Market Party or Initiative First. With the subsequent hardline attitude of both parties towards the Treasury and the disfavor they incurred in the process, the concerns of the proto-movement went unaddressed even as they moved to different parties.
Now, however- they have found the right time to strike. The Milk and Honey Initiative have used their considerable contacts across the Initiative media and political landscape to ensure that they have been given a share of the limelight, and in doing so, grabbed the attention of the newly arrived and integrating YZ population, while at the same time pitting themselves against the Parliament and the Treasury in particular. Hahn's call for action marks the end of nearly every speech he has made: "Moreover, if the Initiative is to control the economy, give us automated communism, not barracks socialism."
While stunts like this have not endeared them to their peers with differing viewpoints, the draw of the movement is more than apparent. Though contained within a framework of broadcasted interviews and letter writing campaigns, there is a raw sense of indignant anger at the seeming neglect of administration to the people that were part of the GDI first, rather than those after. While Hahn and the persuasive core of the Initiative always prefaced their tirades as 'an equal cause to be celebrated by the new and old alike', if left unchecked and festering, it may move to an outright anti-governmental opposition. Currently, it is a relatively small organization, a few tens of thousands spread across the world. However, this is unlikely to last.
Litvinov
The next time Seo saw Litvinov, it was a local strategy meeting in Washington, and she was looking better. To those who knew her, she was still thin, but there was a glow to her cheeks, a bounce in her step. With the war winding down, but not over, Seo could still hear the ringing of "Dixie" even over the rumble of treads as a fresh brigade passed through Washington.
Groundside meetings like this one had become a rarity, but were occasionally needed. It did the people good to know that their leadership was there alongside them, not sitting safely up the gravity well. While the meeting was at the Pentagon, well inside one of the more secure areas on the planet, it was at least a symbol.
"I never expected to have people marching for the very things I ran on, nor did I expect them to be backed by Ozawa's goon squad" commented Litvinov, staring out over the city skyline.
"Strange times makes for strange bedfellows. People want the storybook ending. A land fit for heroes, an end to wartime constraints, and the like. There was a reason Churchill got the boot in 1945 after all."
"Well, the next plan is coming up, this one is being wrapped up well, and I expect you can get some extras done?"
"Depends on which extra you are looking at. Boston? Unlikely. But I can spend more on civil accommodations. It has been pointed out to me quite forcefully that we have spent the last few years gearing up to fight this war, not relieving the wounds of the last."
The Greedy Yellow Zoner
In Initiative First, and other organizations that oppose current government policies, a new figure has appeared, the "Greedy Yellow Zoner." Typically, these figures are a woman and several children, each one with a cart full of supplies. The caption reads "This is what you work for!" "They live on your backs!"
There is a degree of truth in this, as there is in any good lie, but in nearly every case, it is one of a few things happening. To begin with, most Yellow Zone refugees are doing a single large shopping trip within a few days of arriving at long term lodgings, with most having arrived with little more than the clothes on their backs, so they are stocking up. Beyond that they are engaging in hoarding practices, storing as much as they can, mostly of bulk nonperishables in order to save for the hard times. While most Initiative citizens do not, trusting in the ability of GDI to maintain stockpiles and reserves, for many Yellow Zoners outside of the core of the Brotherhood of Nod, it has been second nature to maintain their own stockpiles, and to keep them hidden as best as possible. The most common way has been to hide them under beds, inside closets and the like, away from immediate inspections. More rare, but decently common, is tearing up the floorboards and walls to install hidden caches.
Politics
This quarter has seen the beginning of the usual political jockeying. With the grand parties that usually dominate the discussion trapped in internal disputes, the more minor parties have been able to set the terms of the debate.
Starbound has put forward an incredibly aggressive goal, looking for a bare minimum of ten thousand residents in space permanently, starting with Shala and Columbia, and then rapidly expanding from there. While this is likely to be nearer to a roof than a floor in practical terms, it is red meat for their base, many of whom would rather not continue fighting the Brotherhood of Nod for the wastelands of Earth.
The Socialists and Market Socialists have put together what they call the Restart Manifesto. While it is pushing a broad range of social and political programs, the elements that the Treasury needs to be concerned with are fundamentally requests for a series of grant and loan programs, the founding of an economic development bank, and beyond that a series of major programs focused on consumer goods and creating a major surplus of capital goods to kickstart the overall economy.
The FMP has made overtures to the Developmentalists, but have not made common cause. While this is almost certainly a matter of the Developmentalists internal realignments, it is likely indicating a significant softening of their stance. Instead of being a party backed primarily by the old power structure, it is likely to be an increasingly Yellow Zone party, as they are the individuals most likely to head towards the private sector in the current day and age.
The Initiative First Party has once again put forward a project list that privileges Blue Zone loyalists over all others. While they are gaining in power currently, it has become a party of protest more than anything else, a force that people turn to whenever they dislike the path of the current Initiative government. While their individual issues are typically not all too popular, in aggregate they have enough support to be problematic.
The United Yellow List has its program focused on basic needs, asking for housing, abatement, and additional aid to the refugees swarming the Initiative.
The Brotherhood of Nod
The Regency War has effectively wound down. While some fronts, like Siberia, are still seeing higher than normal activity levels, and the Brotherhood has remained on far higher than normal nuclear preparedness levels, the end of Initiative offensives has brought much of the conflict to a close around the world. In many areas, the Brotherhood has begun attempting to deescalate local tensions, especially in South America, where Stahl has been allowing additional Tiberium harvesters through the lines, and cutting back significantly on the number of submarines he has been shipping out.
At sea the conflict is still relatively active, although the Navy has had to pull back on many fronts. The high tempo of operations in the last year has forced maintenance deferrals, and a significant number of ships need repair and overhauls before things break and the ship becomes a liability. This has put more pressure on the merchant conversion carriers, which have managed to step up to the plate to some degree, but CVE GDS Ginebra has been mission killed. Salvage operations are already underway to pull it off the sandbar it rests on, but the battle damage it suffered prior to beaching itself makes its future seaworthiness questionable.
In the Himalayas, operations have remained at a relatively low intensity. However, losses in the close quarters tunnel fights continue to mount and seem to escalate, even with the widespread use of grenades. While so far it seems unlikely to be a critical issue, it is undermining BZ-18's overall defensive preparedness, and has increasingly isolated many of the forwardmost outposts, which rely heavily on specific tunnels and tunnel networks for reinforcement and resupply.
Lessons of War
Looking at the Regency War as a whole, it was in many ways a final demonstration of the capabilities of the fully realized war machine that GDI fought the Third Tiberium War with. There are weaknesses, there are problems, but fundamentally on nearly every front, and on nearly every battlefield, GDI held overall superiority.
In some ways, the problem is similar to the American Civil War. It was a relative rarity for the Confederate military to have forces even approaching parity with the American army. However, they were still able to win due to bold generalship, and in many battles concentrated forces at the decisive point. The same, more or less, holds true here. While the Brotherhood of Nod has rarely been able to maintain enough forces to win conventionally, their tactics and strategies that worked relied heavily on misdirection, and clear decisive strikes using overwhelming force on one small part of a much broader battlefield.
Going forward, the needs are both widespread and obvious. While current generation vehicles are certainly sufficient, it is an open question if they will remain that way. However, in many of the roles that they are being asked to fill, Initiative infantry and infantry equipment are not. The proliferation of heavily armed and armored gana have pushed the GD2 towards obsolescence in short order, with no feasible munition able to make a significant difference. The navy will need a significant infusion of new hulls, especially with the needs of driving fronts forward, not simply holding the line.
Military Priorities
Ground Forces
At the moment, the priority is primarily towards two factors. New technologies to make future weapons systems more efficient, and the mass deployment of Zone Armor to as many units as possible. While the Ground Forces are currently capable of winning nearly anywhere, it is likely to be at increasing prices as the Brotherhood standardizes around technologies and tactics that have worked in the past.
Steel Talons
With the Mastodon in progress, the Steel Talons program at this time is focused nearly entirely on preparing for the battlefield of the future, with aims towards hover technology, advanced drone swarms, directed energy weapons, future protection programs and other methods to leverage the advantages of GDI's economy to win the long term war against the Brotherhood of Nod.
Air Force
For the moment, while finishing the Wingman drone project is a high priority, the Air Force is reconsidering its force structure. While many elements are quite capable, some are getting quite long in the tooth, and will need fundamental upgrades to remain relevant in a battlespace primarily opposed by xenotech fighters.
Navy
With new hulls coming online in the known future, and the defensive fleet's section increasingly capable, it is an open question what the navy will actually need. While finishing the existing shipyard projects is important, so is maintaining qualitative parity, so the Navy is formulating programs to improve technological capabilities, provide improved orbital fire coordination, and prepare for future designs.
Space Force
The discovery of Scrin remnants in the Jovians has radically reoriented the Space Force's desires. Preparing Transorbital combat assets and preparing for combat in the depths of space have rocketed up the priority list, to some extent displacing the needs of supporting Earth. However, doing that will require significant investments in orbital manufacturing, lift capacity, and off-Earth resource utilization.
Zone Operations Command
ZOCOM sees its two primary priorities as suit upgrades and the mass delivery of Zone Armor to the other branches of the military. This is an ever more pressing concern as ZOCOM anticipates that the Treasury will seek to make a broad advance into the Red Zones for harvesting purposes. ZOCOM cannot provide enough personnel to cover such operations on its own, and without Zone Armor the risk of tiberium contamination is far too great to hand off even shallow Red Zone operations to the Ground Forces. Just as importantly, ZOCOM is currently looking to rededicate itself to the deep Red Zones, and relieving it of its current heavy infantry duties elsewhere would free up the necessary manpower.
Zone Recalculations
GDI's zone designations, and zone mapping, have always had key elements of estimation, and quite a bit of "good enough" in it, especially for the last decade. But with orbital surveillance and observation for the Regency War taking a new priority, along with ever more Initiative eyes on the ground, a much better picture has been emerging, and in the coming months and years, the Initiative has begun embarking on a project to better understand the actual spread of the yellow and red zones, going over old data with a fine tooth comb to eliminate the discrepancies between calculated and actual spread of Tiberium.
[ ] Suborbital Shuttle Service (Phase 1)
GDI's fleet of Leopard shuttles has reached a point where at any given time some significant portions are sitting without mission payloads. By retasking them towards suborbital shuttles, they would be able to reach anywhere in the world in a matter of hours at most. This will allow GDI to further tighten the bonds between Blue Zones and significantly cut travel times for critical supplies.
(Progress 156/200: 30 resources per die) (+3 Logistics) [30]
Work on the shuttle services have continued. While the physical groundside preparations are nearly complete, the shuttles themselves are something of a problem. Or, more specifically the yard time needed to refit them. With many shuttles occupied with the long, hard route to the Moon, it has been a struggle to get the manufacturing time needed to build custom wing assemblies and control surfaces, let alone mount them. However, progress is still being made, with a critical milestone being reached in late February.
The first suborbital flight by a modified shuttle with a payload (a load of drill bits to be specific) occurred on February 20, taking off from BZ-2 and landing in BZ-18, and then making a return flight later the same day, deadheading back. While more of a political stunt than an actual air bridge, the test was a practical demonstration that GDI has not given up its attempts to connect the isolated Blue Zone. However, a single load of drill bits is far from enough to meaningfully impact the course of operations in the theater.
For most of the shuttle strips, they have been placed relatively far from the core cities, simply as a safety precaution. For example, New York City's strip has been placed along the Hudson river, about a third of the way between the northernmost point, and Albany, roughly in the ruins of Poughkeepsie. While it still leaves the glide path for the port passing over the city, by the time it is over the city the shuttle is distinctly subsonic, and on its way in for landing. As a secondary benefit, there is an already prepared secondary landing strip on the other side of the river. While it is mostly used for military aviation currently, it is very plausible to land on that airstrip as well.
[ ] Blue Zone Apartment Complexes (Phase 3) (Updated)
A third wave of Apartment complexes will be focused on more of the Inland cities, building housing in recently claimed Blue Zones. While these will be noticeably harder to properly defend, these new clusters will become the backbone of actually developing a global interior, rather than major urban areas dotted along the coast.
(Progress 160/160: 10 resources per die) (-1 Logistics, +6 Housing)
(Progress 160/160: 10 resources per die) (-2 Logistics, +6 Housing)
(Progress 160/160: 10 resources per die) (-2 Logistics, +6 Housing) [88, 10, 85, 32, 23]
Housing construction has been a significant investment, with major construction efforts spread across the Initiative's Blue Zones. For most of these, they are new or rebuilt urban cores, in locations like Savannah, where the Initiative has driven the Brotherhood of Nod far back, and new housing construction creates opportunities not found elsewhere. While most of these urban areas are fairly spartan, little more than block after block of housing and with the only shopping being Initiative commissaries, it is something of a blank canvas in many respects, with little surviving of the old settlements that these clusters are being built over there is ample room for industrial facilities to establish themselves.
Unfortunately, many of these cities have also required significant infrastructural and logistics investments to maintain. While they are typically well linked by rails, the easiest, and cheapest way to travel has always been by boat. By adding significant numbers of rail loads to the network, while certainly far from actually straining total capacity, it has created a number of momentary traffic jams and scheduling problems, with both new and old loads running into issues. While many of these are going to be sorted out as the cities develop, it occupies slack that will not be available for priority loads.
[ ] Continuous Cycle Fusion Plants (Phase 8) (Updated)
While the pace of factory construction is likely to decline as GDI stands down from ongoing offensives, more immediate fusion generation is likely to continue to be a high priority. At the same time, there are concerns about the longevity of the class, even with limited evidence for it.
(Progress 243/300: 20 resources per Die) (+16 Energy) (-1 Labor) [25, 93]
Construction and investment into CCF Plants has slowed down dramatically. While it is still a major priority, it has moved well away from the punishing pace that had been maintained to build up the Initiative military before and during the Regency War.
That slowdown has given time for a more thorough undertaking of the system. Overall, the system is very much a first generation attempt. Crude in many places, overly complicated in others, and fundamentally not wearing well. Most of the problems are in the reactor chamber itself. Already, there are patches (usually a few atoms thick at most) of radioactive gold forming on the lead walls of many of the chambers. However, even for the most extensive of the gold formation, it is years if not decades away from compromising the shielding. Still, this has meant that stepping up refits to the wartime emergency construction has taken on a whole new urgency, especially filling up the water tanks that surround the lead shielding.
[ ] Crystal Beam Industrial Laser Deployment (New)
Producing enough of the Crystal beam lasers in enough varieties, from the microscale laser etching systems, to massive steel cutting lasers, is going to require hundreds of plants. Between the overall fragility and ease of production it is far more efficient to build a relatively small and specialized plant for each major industrial area than to try to feed everyone from a single major site. While this does pose some significant security concerns due to the potential for product loss, CBLs are not of particular interest to the Brotherhood of Nod.
(Progress 51/600: 20 resources per die) (+6 Capital Goods, +10 Energy) [22, 12]
The start of the process has been relatively simple. It begins with making seeds. Seed crystals are a critical component, as they inform the way that the crystal will grow and mold as it is formed. Fortunately, rather than having to start from scratch, GDI already has some level of crystal beam laser production, and seeds from the offcuts of those crystals are being shuttled all over the world. Actually building the facilities however has not really yet started, with most sites being little more than clusters of ruins, a shell hole or two, or similar.
On the other hand, much of the funding has actually gone towards education programs, where a new generation of vocationally trained crystal engineers are being recruited. They will go through months of training in theory, and then be cycled through military production before they move onto actually making the civilian versions. At the same time, a core leadership cadre is being recruited from the military production sites, who will become site managers and shift leaders as the factories complete.
[ ] Isolinear Chip Foundry Anadyr
With the Isolinear chip a reality, rather than a work of science fiction, GDI can begin substantial development of a prototype small scale chip fabricator. While it will be a massively expensive project, it is putting resources towards a new generation of computing technology that leaves all existing models in the dust.
(Progress 258/320: 50 resources per die) (+4 Capital Goods) (-2 Energy) [16, 99]
The isolinear chip foundry has been undergoing rapid construction. A constant stream of plasma containment chambers, crucibles, and sintering machines have entered the premises and await installation. Currently the core problem is training and calibration. There are only a few people who actually know how to operate the machines, as it is currently more of an art than a science, with many steps operating by feel and instinct as much as measurement. The formation of a bubble a mere millimeter across in the substrate can ruin a chip. Beyond that, figuring out all of the various elements that impact overall performance is still an ongoing process, with experiments being carried out at the site.
In the coming weeks, LRIP is expected to begin, with major expansions of production following that. One of the major bottlenecks on the isolinear chip performance is the need to shift between electronic and optical computing systems, as there are no peripherals designed to interface directly with the new systems, and the delays imposed by the need to translate between optical and electronic signals cuts significantly into the edge that the chips can provide. While improved and purpose built systems will come in time, that is a long term problem, and not hugely relevant to many of the mass data processing jobs that will be the primary purpose of the upcoming isolinear chips.
[ ] Civilian Support Expansion (Phase 1) (New)
With the millions upon millions of new citizens needing everything from bedding to teapots, a solid round of civilian factory expansion is likely to be relatively important, and fairly cheap.
(Progress 263/250: 10 resources per die) (+6 Consumer Goods) (-1 Labor) [32, 42, 8, 85]
The rapid increase of GDI's population, to a point where most estimates put it at near parity with the Brotherhood of Nod, has stressed many of the keystone consumer goods to near breaking points. There are simply not enough forms of basic clothing to keep everyone clothed on a long term basis, and many of the warehouses full of material that had built up in the prior decade have been efficiently emptied.
Beyond bulk, one of the key challenges is diversity. Simply supplying a minimally viable kitchen array takes a surprisingly sizable set of tools. Plates, bowls, knives, forks, chopsticks (the Korean style silver chopsticks are very typical, although there are variants available), cutting boards, and then a pot or pan. For the last the most typical is a simple flat bottomed low or mid wall saucier or a wok. Beyond that, a variety of knives. While a cleaver or chef's knife is one of the most versatile tools in the kitchen, it is not a universal solution, requiring one or more other blades to properly prepare a meal. And this is just in the kitchen; there are hundreds of other needs elsewhere.
While the new goods factories have not picked up a great reputation, with user reviews being a mixed bag, and currently an unacceptably high rate of failure or other problems with quality control, these are issues that are being sorted out well below the level of the Treasury Secretary, and mostly take time and tweaking, as no two machines are entirely the same.
[ ] Agriculture Mechanization Projects (Phase 1)
While GDI's current agricultural methods are not particularly labor intensive, a widespread deployment of additional mechanization and statistical analysis should allow for the reduction in overall labor committed to the agricultural sector, and rapidly increase food production by a significant margin
(Progress 150/150: 15 resources per die) (+8 Food, -1 Energy, -1 Capital Goods)
(Progress 26/250: 15 resources per die) (+12 Food, -1 Energy, -1 Capital Goods) [73, 55]
For most of human history, agricultural success was a function of the amount of manpower and horsepower that could be supplied. From the rolling Roman farms worked by enslaved labor, to incan networks of terraces, to the vast plantations full of sugarcane, rice, cotton, and the other luxuries of the colonial period, nearly every society of the past broke the land to their needs through the vast application of (not necessarily willing) manpower. Beyond that, animal labor was, in areas where there were appropriate animals, extremely widespread, between horse or oxen drawn plows and tillers, flour mills, and a hundred other devices, animals were a critical component of agriculture for the vast majority of human history.
It was not until the 19th century that chemical energy was added. While small one and two horsepower engines were not particularly uncommon by the tail end of the period, one of the most important inventions would not take shape until 1892, when the first tractor was invented.
In the modern day, nearly all of that experience is either pointless or counterproductive. There is no soil to be tilled, no field to plow, no need for sweeping sprinkler systems or, for that matter, a hundred other problems that machines were built to solve. Instead, it is a system of robotic arms, elevators, and cameras, all linked to a single control room. Entire cubic kilometers of production space per person, all automated from the planting to loading produce onto pallets and from there onto trucks.
[ ] Freeze Dried Food Plants
Freeze Drying effectively turns most food into permanent, shelf stable systems. While building additional plants to process food in this way will be expensive, it should significantly reduce waste, and increase the lifespan of the stockpiles noticeably.
(Progress 181/200: 20 resources per die) (+5 Food, increases efficiency of stockpile actions, -1 Energy) (Will Complete Q2 2061) [6]
The freeze dried food plants have become a focus of much political activity in the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, having been shifted from the Subcommittee on Storage and Crisis Response when several members smelled a way to make the Developmentalists look bad. With significant investments in preparing stockpiles of food over the last quarter providing another excuse, officials in the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Treasury have been dragged in for hearings at critical times, causing further delays for the food plants as the Departments sacrificed the time needed to ensure proper equipping and staffing of the food plants to ensure the stockpiles were completed. This has only provided further justification for the political powerplays currently ongoing, but as it seems to have little traction among the public the members of Parliament who tried this appear to have overplayed their hand. Luckily the resources dedicated to the project were not wasted; they only require disbursement as everything else has been set up. While this will take some time, time is all that will be required.
"Okay, these plants are like, actually cursed, right? So much investment in them should NOT have produced so little results! We're pushing security up, but we're also gonna get an exorcism, and...hell with it, find me a voodoo priestess and a chicken. I will make literal sacrifices to clear up this bad juju."
-Milton Gibson, GDIOnline
[ ] Strategic Food Stockpile Construction (Phase 2)
A further expansion of food stockpiles and granaries in deep reserves, Cut into the frozen wastes at the far northern and southern reaches of GDI's grasp, these will be a final backup for GDI's overall food supply. While they will be far from enough, even at full capacity, they can buy the Initiative critical months in case of massive reverses in its fortune.
(Progress 150/150: 10 resources per die) (+2 Food in Reserve, -4 Food)
(Progress 85/175: 10 resources per die) (+2 Food in Reserve, -4 Food) [68, 34, 23]
The expansion of food stockpiles is a set of operations that has seen many plans come and go before the Treasury got moving. One of the earliest was simply spreading the caches around. In addition to central fortresses holding supplies, it would be spread around, with neighborhoods and boroughs each having their own little cache. For much of the last decade, the plan was actually to build the stockpiles in the fortress towns, who would then be able to hold out for months or potentially years, a constant thorn in the Brotherhood's side. And now, the plan is primarily central supply depots. One such is in Tierra Del Fuego, the land of fire, down at the tip of South America. Passively cooled, the bunker complex is extensive, and is far more than just a food stockpile. In case the worst happens, it is designed to serve a dual purpose, with food being shipped out and refugees shipped in; a final holdfast against any enemy. The same can be said of the half dozen others scattered around the world. All are massive constructions, but even so, the reserves are not where many people want them.
Politically, food stockpiles are a very popular idea. While more difficult and complicated than most people like to acknowledge, the mere presence of a set of canned beans is a comfort for many, and discourages independent hoarding, which can be even more disruptive. From a purely numerical perspective, simply producing excess calories is simpler, less expensive, and generally a better solution. However, that policy is also difficult to point to as GDI being ready for systematic disruption, as it is often extremely reliant on entire networks of logistical and governmental systems for function, rather than being able to be deployed by people as low-ranking as a school principal.
[ ] Harvesting Tendril Deployment (Phase 1)
A substantially novel development in Tiberium harvesting, GDI can now begin to deploy the Harvesting Tendril in significant numbers. While it will not be able to entirely replace the existing harvester models with the current project, future projects will make it into the standard, and redefine how GDI approaches laying out Tiberium mining projects.
(Progress 600/600: 30 resources per die) (+90 Resources per turn) (-1 STU)
(Progress 74/750: 30 resources per die) (+100 Resources per turn) (-1 STU) (Increases efficiency of future Tiberium harvesting operations) [89, 16, 64, 33, 35, 68, 35, 22]
The now developed harvesting tendrils are primarily being deployed to the Red Zone fronts, where they are already making a difference, and elsewhere are beginning to hit other bottlenecks. For example, in the Egyptian theater of operations, the cargo handling port facilities have begun to back up, with more tiberium being churned through them than they can handle. While their coverage is not nearly as good, the new harvesters are much more thorough, with a ten to fifteen percent increase in time to regrowth in the allotments being harvested by the new tendril harvesters compared to the older models, although they are also much more harvester intensive, with the harvesters filling up quite rapidly.
In the Blue and Green Zones those few that have arrived are not making nearly as significant a difference. While certainly useful and greatly decreasing the cost of track replacement and time spent on maintenance, it is not nearly as much of an upgrade over the older harvester models. This is primarily a result of the way they are employed, as unlike in the Red Zones, there are no vast fields of tiberium a line of harvesters can go through like a farmer's combine digging up potatoes or beets. Still, the excellent performance of the new tendril harvesters have seen BZ-2 mate a dozen of the vehicles with the 836th Transport Squadron's V-35s, which fly them to new tiberium breaches to clear out the tiberium contamination and prepare the ground for a new spike or other containment system every few days. While it does put extra strain on the transport aircraft, it has given them an elegant means of responding to outbreaks deep in the uninhabited areas that form much of the Blue Zone.
[ ] Tiberium Harvesting Claws Development (Tech) (New)
Tiberium harvesting claws are a derivative of the Brotherhood of Nod's tiberium harvesting technology. While not as good at clearing the surface, the digging claws are far better at extracting subsurface tiberium. While adding a secondary fleet of diggers will significantly improve overall tiberium production, the most major impact will be on the Tiberium vein mines.
(Progress 98/80: 15 resources per die) [54]
The Brotherhood of Nod's harvesters are a mix of the very conventional, and the very strange. It takes an opposite approach to the Initiative: Dragging the harvesting equipment behind it and using a pair of digging claws to break crystals and kick them up into a hopper. Some parts are extremely conventional, like the dual arms, using much the same technology pioneered over a century ago by Vaino J Holopainen and Roy E Handy, Jr. On the other hand, the actual digging parts are significantly more advanced; a requirement given their purpose. The key is in materials science, and within that there are a number of different solutions. The simplest ones are boron carbide‑silicon carbide ceramics, relatively conventional materials, although usually deposited by use of high energy laser onto the primary blade. For others, it is a fair bit more complicated, effectively using zrbite alloyed blades that are electroplated with a thin layer of Adamant, much like GDI's Tiberium glass designs.
For the Initiative currently, it is the more conventional designs that are the most likely way forward. While they don't last nearly as long as the zrbite alloy blades, they produce much less wear on other parts of the system, as vibrations do not only impact the joint between the arm and the blade, but also the other joints as the vibrations echo up the arm. However, the core technology is more broadly useful, effectively creating a superior cutting edge due to the vibrations and the superhard exterior.
[ ] GDSS Enterprise (Phase 5)
Upgrading the GDSS Enterprise to a fully functioning orbital industrial station will make significant progress towards giving humanity an interplanetary future. The goal is small scale fabrication of nearly every needed component for space travel and habitation, a test bed for future development and technologies.(Station)
(Progress 348/1535: 20 resources per die) (+2 Capital Goods, +2 Consumer Goods) (+2 available Bays) (10 Political Support) [23, 91, 39]
While most of the Initiative's space launch capacity has been dedicated to the construction of additional lunar mines, the Enterprise has launched into its final phase of expansion. In the ports of Dakar and Monrovia, every day a ship arrives from Nuuk, loaded to the gills with robots. While many are destined for the Moon, others are dedicated fabrication machines, and those are headed for Enterprise. Most are built with a simple goal in mind: allowing the station to build itself. Rather than shipping massive hull plates and other materials that, even flat packed, do not fit the hundreds of tons that a launch can hold inside its cargo bay, the station can take in raw materials from the Earth and the Moon and construct itself. While that will only feasibly be for the final sprint, it will be a final proof of concept for an industrial base in space. Not a self sustaining one, to any degree, but that is one of the many future steps.
However, the other half of the construction project is habitation and life support. The housing areas being built are still more worker barracks than proper homes. Each person gets a single room, little bigger than a prison cell. Beyond that, everything else is done in communal areas. While some people have lived on the station for years, most are on three and six month cycles, spending about half their time on the surface. However, this is not unusual, and GDI has decades of this kind of living, and for that matter, more luxurious living exists on the Philadelphia.
You gotta be some kind of crazy to want to work here! Long hours, bad quarters, hard work-work so hard you just wanna fall into your bunk and sleep most days, and you'd better get used to sounds and motion! There's always some noise coming in through the hull. "There is no sound in space" Bullshit there isn't! You can hear goddamn everything-the extruders, the smelters, the welding crews, worksuits and shuttles docking and undocking, the whole nine yards. Only time I ever get any quiet is when I'm buttoned up for my shift, and even then there's always the suit making noise.
So why do I work here? Two reasons: because I believe in the work, and I eat like a king! Join the orbital construction corps for two eggs, two slices of turkey bacon, and a slice of pie every day!
Jabulani Anders, Worker on the Enterprise.
[ ] Lunar Rare Metals Harvesting (Phase 1)
The Moon's craters hold the remains of the many asteroid impacts that have scarred the moon over millennia. While currently not feasible to mine, it will be the rebirth of the Initiative's non-tiberium based mining and refining infrastructure.
(Progress 140/140: 20 resources per die) (+5 Resources per turn)
(Progress 11/125: 20 resources per die) (+5 Resources per turn) [37, 17]
The rare metals mines have begun producing a number of trace ores. While sourcing these materials from Tiberium is far easier than mining them on the Moon, if the worst of the doomsaying is realized to be true, GDI will need to relearn how to use these minerals from other sources. However, even without that doomsaying, Lunar rare metals are likely to remain surprisingly competitive due to lift costs. Climbing out of the Earth's gravity well is an expensive procedure, requiring heavy, complicated systems. With the Moon's gravity 1/6th of Earth's and the sheer amount of oxygen that is produced by cracking lunar ores, a simple chemical hydrolox rocket, the kind used a century ago, can actually reasonably compete with tiberium sourced materials from Earth mounted on the most modern fusion rockets. However, this first phase is more a proof of concept than anything else. The rare metals are there, they are reasonably easy to extract, and are already making a difference in the construction of the Enterprise.
Additionally, with the teams mostly deployed instead of setting up to deploy, the temporary problems created by the drumbeat of development in the last quarter have eased up somewhat. While it is still harsh and poor by the standards that many of the more idealistic branch of Starbound aspire to, the complaints at least have slackened.
[ ] Lunar Regolith Harvesting (Phase 2)
The silicate compounds in the Moon's crust contain extractable levels of iron, titanium, and aluminum, making them incredibly useful as a source of bulk materials. While processing will require massive amounts of energy in some cases, it is also a useful beginning point for developing the solar system.
(Progress 367/310: 20 resources per die) (+15 Resources per turn) [65]
Around the prepared landing pads, networks of quarries have begun reshaping the lunar surface. Even so, they are distinctly small scale, a few dozen kilometers in area total. Instead, the biggest implications are political. Starbound, seeing the completion of their goals incoming at least six months before reallocation, has begun serious lobbying to again preserve lunar mineral income for the Treasuries' use. While they are receiving noticeable pushback, especially from the other departments, it is likely that they will be able to pass it once again. Fortunately, the military, led by the Space Command has been pushing for it too, seeing the Treasury as being key to building up towards orbital monitors and eventually actual spaceships capable of taking the fight to the outer system in case of a second Scrin invasion.
[ ] Professional Sports Programs
With GDI's situation stabilizing rapidly, professional sports programs will provide entertainment and be a significant marker of a return to normalcy. While it will require some work to provide dedicated arenas, and set up systems for recruiting players, the program will prove very politically popular.
(Progress 102/250: 10 resources per die) (+2 Consumer Goods, -1 Health, -1 Labor) (+10 Political Support) [75]
For professional sports far more is involved than just the players. Indeed, for an athlete to be able to make sport their occupation they need to make enough money playing that sport, which means funding. And to acquire funding there needs to be publicity, because with publicity you can advertise the matches for the sale of tickets, and gain sponsors who will purchase advertising.
Although sporting leagues were severely disrupted during the Third Tiberium War, and no professional leagues survived, there remains a robust body of local amateur leagues of highly variable quality, reconstructed over the past decade. While the best of these will make a good start for the professional leagues, this is indeed merely a start. There remains a number of issues that prevent the start of any competitions:
First is that negotiations for recording and publishing rights of the matches have been slow, a result of the news organizations vehemently competing for what they correctly see will be a major source of income and influence. Additionally, networks are looking to shut each other out, with each trying to manage an exclusive slice, as each sports game they can exclusively cover is millions of pairs of eyeballs that will come to their channel.
Second is establishing the leagues themselves and the play rosters. With the teams not yet selected, much of this is only in the planning stages, but the intent is to have every BZ organize their own regional leagues in a round robin system, with regular worldwide tournaments for various sports. Football (association football to BZs 2, 11 and 16) has been chosen as the test piece due to a combination of a large number of amateur clubs to choose from and the minimal material requirements for a match.
Third is largely ancillary, but has everything to do with encouraging the public to get engaged with the teams. Mostly, this means merchandising. A lot of merchandising. While preparations are being made and a number of factories note that they have room for orders, nothing has been decided yet, as they wait for final decisions on which teams will be participating.
The fourth and final issue is that right now GDI is footing the bill for all of it, but if professional sports is to maintain itself successfully it will need to be able to support itself financially, at least for the most part.
[ ] Scrin Research Institutions (New)
While the Scrin material has provided substantial advantages already, Initiative scientists believe that there is still more that can be gained by studying the remnants of the invaders. While it will be expensive, the last round of research has already more than paid off.
(Progress 415/400: 30 resources per die) (1d9-2 technologies) [85, 90, 40, 72]
Significant resources have gone towards funding a new wave of research projects. While many are not producing immediate results, or are simply work on fundamental science, others have begun producing near immediate results that, once polished, can be pushed out in the coming years. While most of these are far from the revolutions that will change how the Initiative approaches the future, some are quite significant across a wide variety of fields.
The first breakthrough has actually been in a recently developed system, specifically in the field of Hardlight systems. With the Initiative now knowing what to look for, a further pass over the remaining Scrin systems has resulted in a far better understanding of their shield projectors. While replicating them at full power is far beyond the Initiative's ability at this time, they do have significant implications for the ability to produce low power shields and Hardlight systems projected beyond a bowl. It is reputed that the laboratory in question has already produced and attempted to duel with a pair of lightsaber-like devices, but as of yet no hard evidence has been found of their existence.
Second is harvested from the Scrin networks. What seems to be a black boxed artificial stupid for lack of a better term, it appears to be a relatively complicated priority management and navigation system for drone control. While controlling drone swarms is something that has been experimented with for the last half century and beyond, it can still be a very limited and finicky task, one that hopefully this advanced control system is able to make practical on a battlefield or strategic operational level.
Finally, spurred on by the discovery of Scrin still in the system, multiple functioning transceiver units have been found. The Scrin do, after all, talk to each other, and one of the ways that they do that is by using transceiver units in both narrow and broad speaking patterns. While GDI sensors have historically not been able to track these effectively, their hidden signals interspersed with Tiberium interference, it is possible, if not likely, for GDI to be able to track any active Scrin signatures across the system using this method. Even less likely, although theoretically possible to attempt, is hiding a GDI ship's identity using one of these transceivers, and using that to bypass defenses on Scrin ships and bases that remain in the system.
[ ] Skywatch Telescope System
While no longer a requirement for further exploration of the solar system, a constellation of Skywatch telescopes will be useful for the Space Force as well, an early warning tripwire in case of another alien invasion or asteroid bombardments.
(Progress 103/95: 10 resources per die) (High Priority) [13]
The Skywatch system has been completed, and already has its first area of focus: the moons of Jupiter. The Jovian ring system is a singularly unfriendly place. To begin with Jupiter has a massive magnetosphere, and many areas within its rings are bathed in radiation. Beyond that are the sheer number of moons involved, some eighty in total, not counting potentially calving moons and moonlets. The one of greatest interest is Europa, or Jupiter II, where the burst of static that destroyed multiple probes deployed by the Pathfinder originated from.
The results are interesting. While clearly not a large-scale base, approximately half the average size of the ones built during the Scrin incursion, it is built around a gateway. The base currently appears thoroughly inactive, being nearly the same temperature as the Europan surface, but it is a significant potential risk if it can communicate to the outside universe. While details are a little difficult to make out, much of the base seems to be resting on a low power mode, emitting little enough that the first automated pass registered it as being nothing more than an unusual terrain feature. It was only when humans began sweeping the area that it became obvious that there was a base there.
The Jovian pictures have not been released to the public, but Space Command has been aggressive in putting out already swept and cleared pictures for public consumption. These pictures have, for most, been somewhat reassuring, though there are numerous clubs sweeping every single pixel for the barest hint of extraterrestrial threats. The parliament however has been informed of the discovery, but at this time has not yet formulated a response. The most likely answer is an endorsement of rapid development of a space military, although it is still unknown whether or what they are willing to sacrifice in pursuit of the ability to project force to the moons of Jupiter.
Naturally, focus on this point of interest has reduced priority for study of other areas of the solar system, but nothing of immediate importance has been found elsewhere.
[ ] Escort Carrier Shipyards (High Priority)
As GDI has a vast need for escort carriers, there are two tracks. First is simply building a number of supporting elements to build carriers between supporting the battleships. Second is building a number of dedicated shipyards for their production. While both will require substantial infrastructural investments, the former is substantially cheaper than the latter
-[ ] New York (Progress 0/240: 20 resources per die) (-5 Energy, -2 Capital Goods) (Nat 1) [1, 85]
The New York carrier shipyard is technically speaking in Brooklyn, a new part of an ever-expanding complex of shipbuilding assets. However, the project seems to have been completely cursed, with delay after delay ranging from the practical to the symbolic. In late February, all such delays became completely academic, with a large-scale tiberium outbreak punching through right between two of the slipways, and smaller outbreaks compromising two other buildings on the site. While nobody died, two workers were injured when their crane was consumed by tiberium, and the site was comprehensively compromised.
The 836th Transport Squadron brought one of the first tiberium containment units on the scene, with their novel harvesters able to contain one of the smaller outbreaks and fight it back to the point where a trio of harvesters could maintain a constant harvest on the exposed vein within the first day of operations. The rest were dedicated to fighting the main outbreak. While by the end of the quarter the outbreak was contained, it has made the site nonviable, with multiple Tiberium spikes situated in places that are at best difficult to work around, and at worst sitting in the middle of a drydock.
"Archeological sites, Union rules that date back to 1910, NIMBY pushback from the local arcology dwellers who don't want to look at a shipyard, now we can't get enough fucking porta-potties and fencing because the main distribution hub is backed up on orders-what next, is a Tiberium vein gonna blow through the middle of my construction site?
Arnold Burton, two weeks before a Tiberium vein did blow through the middle of his construction site.
-[ ] Dublin (Progress 242/240: 20 resources per die) (-5 Energy, -2 Capital Goods) [97, 93]
The Dublin bay has been extensively reclaimed, piles of rubble driven into the sea, with grand quays expanding out beyond that. The navy yard is technically speaking in Howth, taking over a pair of long abandoned golf courses to serve as the primary fabrication areas, with the yard jutting into the northern aspect of the bay. Dublin has been a gracious host to the thousands of construction workers, with a steady stream of temporary workers and a small but noticeable boost to naval recruitment. Progress was incredibly fast, especially as the local bureaucracy made every possible effort to get out of the way, with the areas already seeing road and services connections before the first of the workers arrived on the site.
While the first steel was being cut in the last days of the quarter, it is a fundamentally slow process, and has not yet produced anything to look at. In a year the first of the seagoing castles will begin sliding into the waters of Dublin bay, and from there be sent on for full fittings at one of the many naval bases in the area.
-[ ] Nagoya (Progress 243/240: 20 resources per die) (-5 Energy, -2 Capital Goods) [31]
Nagoya has more limped over the finish line than sprinted. While the resources poured into it have been significant, it has also run into noticeable problems, with the biggest being fuel. When Bintang bombarded Tokyo, she managed to destroy significant parts of the total fuel reserve for the Blue Zone. That has had significant knock on effects, especially with the Air Force, always a voracious consumer, stepping up antisubmarine operations this quarter. This required thousands of extra flight hours in order to suppress Bintang's operations across the Eastern Pacific, with the Navy also pushing additional hydrofoil patrols out to intercept smaller submersibles. In turn, that significantly choked off the spare fuel supplies for Treasury operations, including the shipyard. However, that has proven to only result in a few weeks delay in the opening of operations, as the work crews were still able to finish despite operating on shorter shifts and with smaller drone swarms than usual.
[ ] Mastodon Heavy Assault Walker Deployment (New) (High Priority)
Building major Mastodon production facilities in Carentan and Wonsan will construct the core of the long term heavy industrial sites for the Steel Talons. Located to support still open battle fronts, GDI expects them to last for years, and be close enough for the Mastodons to walk cross country rather than stressing rail networks with special trains.
(Progress 113/225: 10 resources per die) (-3 Energy, -1 Capital Goods, -1 Labor, -1 STU) [39, 22]
The Mastodon program is well underway, although it is running into significant issues. Probably the most critical are the sensors and the legs. While tactical scale sensors have few problems with swaying back and forth, and to some degree a few programming tricks can use parallax effects to actually work better, the longer ranged sensors on the Mastodon have been throwing error messages rather than data, at least on the testing range. While it is almost certainly some missed configuration file somewhere in the gigabytes of code that makes the Mastodon work, it is an annoying problem that is going to take time and resources to fix properly.
The second is more problematic. Simply put, the Mastodon is the biggest, heaviest thing ever put onto myomer legs, to the point where no existing myomer bundle is actually capable of moving it properly. Instead, the myomer bundles in use on the Mammoth are custom built at the factories. This has come with significant problems, as trying to scale up the bundles has started resulting in minor tears with each movement. While this problem will be ameliorated by loosening the overall bundle, it does indicate that there is a practical upper limit to how big a myomer bundle can be without significant problems cropping up.
On the other hand, putting the infernium fiber laser into production is only a marginal problem. While the beam splitters are somewhat difficult, and the laser fiber itself has been slow in getting set up, everything else has been little more than a matter of taking components off the shelf and putting together logistics chains.
[ ] Hallucinogen Countermeasures Development (Tech)
With the Hallucinogen grenades deployed by the Brotherhood of Nod being a critical threat to GDI's ability to hold positions, the development of effective physical and pharmacological countermeasures to these devices is an important aid to troop survivability.
(Progress 84/40: 15 resources per die) [53]
Hallucinogen countermeasures are a multivarious problem. While there are certainly means of filtering out the gas, none meet all the criteria needed for a practical response. Various forms of wet filtration, for example, do not hold up long without maintenance, and asbestos based filters are almost more dangerous to the user than what they would protect from. Others simply make it hard enough to breathe that they would be rapidly bypassed, or at best replaced in the field with less protective filters. Those filters that have survived those two rounds, run directly into weight and volume problems. While nonissues on vehicles or power armor, which already can switch to internal life support at will, and so effectively negate the problem in most circumstances, it is severely problematic for the already heavily burdened footsoldier.
The second potential line, long term prophylaxis, also suffers from significant problems. While the side effects are certainly manageable, it is difficult to prevent hallucinogens from binding, especially without significantly impacting neurotransmitters in general. In testing, all options that had shown effect on cultured cells ran directly into problems with bad dreams, depression, manic episodes, and a wide variety of mood swings caused by the drugs as side effects.
Third and fourth are short term prophylaxis and treatment. Here, there has been more progress. While immediate prophylaxis is the easiest, with a newly designed counter agent able to bind directly to the hallucinogen, it unfortunately does not stick around in the system, being filtered out by the kidneys in all tested individuals. This means that taking it directly before or during combat is the best approach.
As for treatment, there are a few possible antipsychotics that will help quite a bit. While they do not keep soldiers in the fight, if taken immediately upon exposure, it will reduce them to a relatively compliant zombie-like state until the effects of the hallucinogens have worn off, where they can be safely escorted out of the fight to recover.
[ ] Railgun Munitions Development
While the Initiative has deployed railguns for decades, the only munition has been some form of inert slug, either an ovoid in early designs, and a fluted dart in later ones. Typically, this has been all that is needed, with its sheer kinetic force capable of doing much of the damage. However, with rail weaponry taking up an ever larger part of the Initiative's arsenal, more forms of ammunition are likely to be required.
(Progress 107/60: 10 resources per die) (Very High Priority) [38]
While the last quarter mainly had problems, this quarter saw solution after solution, with the selection of only the fittest designs, and the ones that would be easiest to bring to the field. The shells selected for the larger caliber guns are beehive, explosive, and shrapnel. However, for the smaller railguns a much larger profusion of rounds is being made available. The most important here are the incendiary and high explosive incendiary rounds, which will take a burst from poking holes little bigger than a pre-tiberium coin, to punching holes bigger than a fist.
In terms of deployment, it is likely to be a substantial set of constructions, especially as GDI's next generation vehicles transition entirely or nearly entirely over to railguns. While refitting and expanding the munitions production chain to provide the required supply of railgun munitions will not require much investment per factory, there are many factories to refit, or replace entirely.
One of the bigger problems left to be solved is with variable fused ammunition or other smart munitions. The current designs have shown unacceptably high failure rates, as between failure to separate, failure to deploy, failure to arm, and failure to detonate, only a very small fraction function properly. A big part of the problem is the electromagnetic flux involved, along with the friction of the whole system.
[ ] Security Reviews
GDI has often faced problems with infiltration by the Brotherhood of Nod. A full security review of one department of operations can mitigate or discover infiltration, however it will take a significant amount of effort. (DC 50 + 1 operations die) (101) (L&CI) [82]
The department is mostly clean, at least from Brotherhood infiltration. Where they are dirty is in the same ways that the Bureaucrats were dirty. The reason is simple. Of all of the departments, Light and Chemical industry does the most to disrupt civilian life. While knowing the locations of military development can be useful, knowing, or at least suspecting, the locations and products of civilian goods factories before they are initiated is a critical advantage for many in the private businesses, simply because they are both useful for making refinished goods, and because the Treasury's factories rapidly drive up the local costs of labor.
The second is critical here, because labor is not perfectly mobile. Labor tends to stick. Which makes some areas very attractive to business because there is a labor force available, and more workers than there is work, and other areas actively repulsive due to having far more work than there are workers. Sudden changes in this balance caused by Treasury action can have potent ripple effects, especially in areas of the civilian economy where cheap labor is a primary driver of their modest profits.
[ ] Conduct Economic Census
It has been over a decade since GDI took a comprehensive census of its economic affairs outside of its own industrial efforts. With taxation becoming an ever more noticeable part of the Initiative's economic base, a better understanding of the people and companies is likely advantageous.
(DC 100/150/200/250) (346) [25, 99, 69, 69, 8]
The simplest word for the civilian economy is pathetic. It exists, but it has struggled to take shape into something that can actually compete to any meaningful degree. While the roots and routes of this problem are complex, and oftentimes tangential, there are broadly four key overlapping problems:
Competition for highly qualified labor.
Lack of circulating investment capital.
Lack of sufficient access to capital goods for digitalization and automation of systems.
Lack of overall liquidity.
To begin with, there is the labor force. For the vast majority of the graduates of the Initiative's schools and universities, the next step is joining one of the Initiative's branches, and slowly working their way up the seniority ladder. While slow, it is also a fairly safe route, at least so long as the graduate is not pinned with a particularly major screwup. This has meant that many of the workers are either building skills and experience to make up for testing poorly or not getting the Initiative job that they actually want, and then jumping ship when they can, rather than staying and forming a core experienced workforce. Or they are simply lower quality overall for one reason or another. This has slowed the growth of companies generally, and has especially impacted smaller companies, which can't offer the incentives to stay that a larger one can.
Second is capital. One of the core basic problems is that for many companies, there is little in the way of circulating capital. Now, they can build up capital, but a massive share of that goes directly back to the Initiative in order to buy critical goods, rather than entering the broader economy to be reinvested.
Third is capital goods, as distinct from fiscal capital. Access to mechanization, access to digitization, and access to options to build parallel structures to the Initiative's systems are fundamentally difficult for many companies, strangling the Information technologies sector overall, especially the more computationally intensive approaches. While, for example, creating computer games is one thing, and can be done, on generally consumer grade hardware, other processes are significantly harder, especially without much access to server racks or similar.
Fourth is overall liquidity. Vast amounts of wealth were effectively destroyed during the Third Tiberium War, and many other goods are fundamentally difficult to convert to wealth. While reintroducing new goods to markets tends to be immediately quite valuable, many crash in price within weeks or months as immediate demand becomes satisfied. Equally, most of the vast majority of people's wages goes back to the Initiative. While there are some savings, generous welfare programs and a social contract that includes taking care of people in their old age, this means that saving for retirement, and retirement more generally, has become much less of a social mainstay, making it much more difficult to actually gather the funding for businesses. While Initiative grants and loans help, they are not enough overall.
Identifying problems has been the easy part. Building effective solutions to those problems is the much, much harder part. Most of the possible solutions to one problem will exacerbate the others. It will take time, resources, and efforts to make the civilian economy reasonably functional overall. However, at the same time, there are a number of factors that are pointing directly to rapid economic growth, including the rapid expansion of refugee populations that are more likely to find opportunity in the civilian marketspace than the Initiative's service, due to a combination of institutional inertia, chronic systematic discrimination, and, in many cases, a lack of the qualifications that would be critical for advancements.
Erewhon
The Design is optimized to remove Tiberium. The Design having any appearance or connection to Other is unimportant. The Design staves off our collective Death slightly more. The Design inciting thoughts of recreation for You is unimportant.
Those ivory tower technocrats must have their heads up their behinds if they think we'll keep accepting a lack of proper Goudse, or sausages that taste of something other than chicken and too many spices.
We accepted the decrease in chips because the war was on, but that war is over. Give us our food back too, and while you're at it, maybe get to work on a few stadiums so the sporting fans have a place to sit, rather than packing the gyms to unsafe extents when there's a big match on.
Kane's image appeared seemingly from nowhere, though really he'd simply entered the radius his own holo-conference chamber could pick his position up in.
"I set up the Brotherhood so that a decapitation strike against one of you does not cripple the entire Brotherhood. The cell structure, the Warlord leadership design, means that independence is not only encouraged, it is expected. I am not displeased that all of you have acted independent of my directions. As you know, we value independence, freedom, and self-directed action.
What this was notmeant to encourage, but apparently has, in the absence of me constantly holding your hands to give you orders, is that you somehow collectively decide to start a full-scale war, without even consulting or informing me. Only Reynaldo came to me, after the war had started and GDI had not only defeated his forces in battle, but he was nearly captured or killed!
Did none of you learn the lessons of the last war? GDI is self-defeating if we pressure them lightly, but pushed to war their machine empire is stoked to a fury we can only match by working united! They've been squabbling internally about what kind of vegetables to grow, but you drove them to churn out an entire new navy!"
He paused only briefly in front of the double-chair that Buddhaheb and Ishani Bannerjee utilized. The siblings shifted for several moments before he spoke.
"Buddhaheb, your tending of the local gardens of Tiberium is frankly masterful. You are living up to all the expectations I had when you tutored under Abdul. You are on a true path to synthesis and ascension. Well done."
Then he smiled, sincerely.
"And Ishani, your work is simply….I do not believe I currently have accurate words, other than 'masterful' and 'beautiful'. You do your ancestors, your people, and me proud. Thank you. Though you have not prosecuted this conflict directly, your contributions have held back the predations of GDI at key points."
And I suppose these are the Indian Warlords. Never thought they'd be siblings. If anything, I thought they'd have been infighting. Looks like one is focused on Tiberium control while the other is focused on Gana.
The results are interesting. While clearly not a large-scale base, approximately half the average size of the ones built during the Scrin incursion, it is built around a gateway. The base currently appears thoroughly inactive, being nearly the same temperature as the Europan surface, but it is a significant potential risk if it can communicate to the outside universe.
While by the end of the quarter the outbreak was contained, it has made the site nonviable, with multiple Tiberium spikes situated in places that are at best difficult to work around, and at worst sitting in the middle of a drydock.
Looks like we had better hurry up and improve the quality of GDIs food before this Milk and Honey Initiative becomes a problem or Gideon pulls his thumbs out of his ass and starts actually using his oration skills against us.
While that is true, there have been projects that have actually lost progress after being abandoned for some time, and it's very clear that this isn't just a game of "number go up". The storylines in the update matter, and I suspect this might be one of those.
We know that these outbreaks happen sometimes. They have since the beginning, hell probably sonce before the quest started. This time one just happened to come up somewhere important rather than in the middle of nowhere like usual
