- Location
- ?????????
Quick question yall. What is the opinion on doing offensive ships next plan? Just wanted to get the temperature for it from the thread. I personally am in favour of it as it is more hulls at sea but I just wanted to know.
Attempting to Fulfill the Plan: GDI Edition
We should do it for karachi every bit will help with that operation
It might help a bit, but I think that expanding Zone Armor production, and other high-priority projects like that, will help more.
I'm not opposed to doing the offensive ships at some point next plan, if we can find the dice for them after doing Zone Armor, SADN, orbital defenses/bombardment assets, Governor-A/Infernium Laser refits, Orca/hammerhead wingman drones, Steel Talon/ZOCOM projects, and new platform developments for Ground Forces (design the Paladin as a replacement for the Predator, etc).
They may be useful if we need to go on the offensive to take land for the TCN if Bintang breaks from Kane, but otherwise I think we have better options.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
If we're going to do ships we'll need to do them sooner, given they have a longer lead time
- Location
- MSC
Islands are likely to be High Priority - I don't think GDI's existing assault ships will be optimal for new tech. Plus it will allow us to keep CVEs on convoy patrols.
If, after the Governor A's and Frigates are finished, we don't have any more naval deployments to do, I'd be in favor of slow rolling an offensive ship class.
If we do have other naval deployments at that point, I'd need to evaluate against what other options are available.
If we do have other naval deployments at that point, I'd need to evaluate against what other options are available.
- Location
- Earth
We do have another naval deployment. Governor-A's, according to the plan goal, is both a development and deployment.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Starbound is not doing anything of the sort.
Back in 2057, Starbound used considerable political capital to get moon mining income exempted from reapportionment. This was not a backchannel. This was presumably fully visible on the GDI equivalent of C-SPAN. There was no quid pro quo presented to us, but the reason for the bill doing this was very clear: Starbound wanted to make sure there would always be funds available to continue the space program.
Now, in 2061, Starbound used considerable political capital to get the moon mining income exempted again. Again, there was no backchannel deal. We didn't even, out-of-character, vote to ask for Starbound to do it. Nor did they ask us to do anything. They just did. And they may well have had to exert more political capital this time around, because the moon mining income is a larger sum of money this time, and significantly larger as a share of GDI's total GDP. They are, in effect, ensuring that we get an extra +5% of GDI's total GDP next Plan, and they presumably burned the equivalent of 20 PS or so making that happen.
Again, there was no deal here. They just did it. And, once again, the stated cause is simple: They want to ensure that there will be funds available to continue the space program after reapportionment. Which requires that either they somehow get the Orbital department removed from Treasury's area of responsibility and funded separately, or that they somehow ensure that we get a stable income stream to do the job ourselves. Since they're happy with Treasury's management of the program to date, they chose the second option.
...
But the point is that somewhere in GDI's budgetary regulations there is the 2061 Moon Mine Money Act or something like that, and it says something like "Treasury gets all moon mining income, because we need to make sure the space program is fully funded even as we take away a large slice of Treasury's discretionary budget."
And there is a clear understanding, baked into a law like that, that Treasury will make sure the space program is at least more or less close to fully funded in the aforesaid conditions.
We probably have some wiggle room, but if we want to have a prayer of getting to keep the moon mining money in 2066 (that may be unlikely, I know)... We need to make sure the money is used for the reason that the people who sponsored that bill expect it to be used for. Mostly, more or less, with maybe a little wiggle room.
My own opinion is... mixed. Let me explain.
The first problem is that the central, defining issue impacting all our naval ambitions for the upcoming Plan is the Karachi offensive, which for logistical and weather reasons needs to happen in 2062Q4, 2063Q4, or 2064Q4, and that last one is kind of pushing it.
A 2062 Karachi gives us very little time to finish naval preparations- so little that the Navy may not feel comfortable assembling a proper battlegroup to cover the landings. In 2062Q4 we will have at most forty of the Shark-class frigates and it is unclear whether we will have more than a handful of light carriers, both of which the Navy considers very important. Nothing we do can change this much, because even if we build shipyards they will need time to make hulls.
A 2064 Karachi gives us ample time to prepare, and to commission at least the lead wave(s) of entirely new ship classes if we want to, but also gives Nod more time to prepare, and puts us problematically close to a situation where we may be forced to break our word by unfortunate circumstances, and fail to complete Karachi. Since that already happened once, I'm not comfortable letting it happen a second time.
Thus, I have been tentatively planning around a 2063Q4 Karachi.
There's some wiggle room there; a GO date for the operation that falls in 2064Q1 wouldn't necessarily be a disaster. But it gives us a sense of the amount of time we have to work with. Given that the 2061Q4 plan will necessarily be full of things that are plan requirements for THIS plan, or completion of existing naval priorities (e.g. the Seattle frigate yard)...
...
We have eight turns to work with. And in the first few of them we are under pressure to keep overall Military budgets low, which means strong temptations to invest in relatively low-cost 10-15 R/die projects rather than relatively expensive shipyards. That's not insurmountable, but it limits what we can or should do in light of the fact that the Navy aren't the only people who need support. Furthermore, in those eight turns, naval preparations will inherently be competing with other important military projects, including Zone Armor deployment, which we know is going to be a major expectation put on us during the current Plan.
Furthermore, we must consider what can be done in eight turns. The monitors are likely to be relatively small ships, probably built to the same scale as the existing frigates. We could develop them in early 2062, rush a few shipyards into being in mid-2062, and be reasonably confident of having monitors in the water and functional by late 2063.
(Note that we still need to complete the Seattle frigate yard, and soon, too! That yard needs time to spend roughly 4-5 turns making its own crop of 20 frigates before Karachi, which means the clock is ticking!)
Anyway, though, the monitors are... well, not what I'm seeing enthusiasm for here. People want to build the amphibious assault ships.
Those are gonna be bigger. A lot bigger. Big enough to fly the very heavy V-35 Ox VTOL transport aircraft off of. Big enough to function as a floating army base for amphibious invasions.
I get why we want it, but... Bigger means "takes longer to build." Ships built to the same scale as our existing light carrier yards, and likely to take 18-24 months to build, as the light carriers do.
By the time we even get the first yards of the class into production (probably not before 2062Q2 or 'Q3), it is sincerely doubtful whether we can get a round of assault ships into the water and properly worked up by 2063Q4.
...
So basically, the way I see it, the offensive navy ships are still desirable, but we need to plan for a Karachi Offensive that likely will not include them. Which influences the list of projects we should undertake for the navy, and where we are under time pressure.
Shark-Class Frigate Shipyard (Seattle) (300 Progress, 20 R/die) (-6 Energy, -2 Capital Goods)
This is already a naval high priority and needs doing ASAP. Due to delays in completing the New York/Newark light carrier yard, there is no reasonable hope of the yard being able to produce two waves of 20 frigates each by Karachi Time, unlike the already-running Melbourne and Quonset yards. But we can at least get one wave, for a total of 100 frigates commissioned by 2063Q4 instead of the ideal 120.
[ ] Orca Wingmen Drone Deployment (Phase 1) (Progress 0/275: 20 resources per die) (-1 Labor, -3 Energy, -1 Capital Goods)
[ ] Hammerhead Wingmen Drone Deployment (Phase 1) (Progress 0/200: 20 resources per die) (-2 Energy)
We accepted considerable opportunity costs to make sure our light carrier design would be compatible with wingman drones. The result was that the light carriers were designed later than they should have been (delaying the commissioning of the first wave) and also wound up as larger ships that will take longer to build (further delaying this). It's so bad, I'm not entirely sure all the first wave of light carriers from the New York/Newark yard will be ready in time for Karachi, which is a little over two years from now. Even if I'm being pessimistic, there is definitely no hope of getting two waves of ships... And part of the reason is that the light carriers wer especifically designed to operate Orca and Hammerhead wingman drones.
Which we still have no production lines for.
This is a problem, to put it mildly. That's going to be something we need to prioritize in 2062, to make sure that the drones are avaialble and delivered to the carriers with a reasonable amount of time for pilots to learn to operate them before Karachi time. This will also be important to the fleet carriers that are likely to be directly participating in Karachi; the Navy is or ought to be high priority for deployment.
[ ] Infernium Laser Refits (Progress 0/450: 30 resources per die) (-1 STU, -2 Energy)
This is another important project. Our naval anti-laser defenses are still rather... permeable. The Shark-class frigates in particular were designed "for but not with" the infernium-based "disco ball" lasers we recently developed. These laser point defense systems really should be rolled out to the whole fleet before we test Karachi's defenses and the Bannerjees' ability to launch antiship strike missions.
[ ] Governor A Development (Platform) (Progress 0/40: 15 resource per die)
Probable Associated Refit Project
This is one the Navy specifically asked for (with more focus than they asked for assault ships or monitors), so we should probably at least do the development in early 2062 and see if there is an associated project to refit the Governors with the new weapons in time for the refits to be done before Karachi.
[ ] Railgun Munitions Factories (Phase 1+2)
(Progress 0/200: 10 resources per die) (-1 Labor, -1 Energy) (Very High Priority)
(Progress 0/200: 10 resources per die) (-1 Labor, -1 Energy)
This isn't a Navy-only project, but the navy uses railguns too, so it matters for them. It's also relatively cheap per die, so finishing at least the first few phases in early 2062 seems like a good way to use our time and make the military happy while stretching the budget.
...
Now, i could say more about the naval and general strategic situation, but this post is long enough already. You can guess what I'm going to say. My feeling here is that we need to give the new existing shipyards time to work and concentrate on a series of significant upgrades, with another round of shipyards being a secondary priority behind that. Especially given that, at a rough casual estimate, we're already looking at 1925 Progress (read: 25 MIlitary dice) worth of projects just from the list I just stacked up alone!
The marginal advantages of getting a single wave of monitors done, or a hastily thrown-together handful of assault ships with limited time to train and prepare for amphibious operations, before Karachi doesn't seem to me like something that justifies doing not only all the stuff I just suggested, but also a bunch of shipyards the Navy hasn't asked for yet.
Especially not when SADN is also a major priority in the runup to Karachi, because of the real danger that some Nod warlord with an itchy trigger finger will respond to still more GDI offensives into formerly secure Nod territory as cause to go nuclear.
Maybe in 2064-65.
[ ] Island Class Assault Ship Development (Platform)
The Island class is a dedicated assault ship, designed to handle the V-35 Ox as its mainstay alongside the Hammerhead and Orca attack craft. Each is also intended to be a general support facility for the first days of landing operations and provide support from deep holds.
View: https://youtu.be/vppXOm7gMTw
The Island class is a dedicated assault ship, designed to handle the V-35 Ox as its mainstay alongside the Hammerhead and Orca attack craft. Each is also intended to be a general support facility for the first days of landing operations and provide support from deep holds.
View: https://youtu.be/vppXOm7gMTw
Lightwhispers' reply sums up the issue with pushing for LCS or amphib assault ships. Also Simon's.
Planning is starting to look at "Karachi (Attempt 2)." And no amphib assault ship or LCS would likely be ready in time for Karachi, so it gets pushed down in priority. When you have Paladin, Guardian Mk II, Mammoth Mk III Block 4, GFZA roll out, SADN, disco ball refits, Orca and Hammerhead Wingman drones, Stealth disruptors, Adv ECCM, Ferro-Aluminum Armor refits, etc that could be considered higher priority needs for a Karachi push, ships that likely won't be available for the big push... just get pushed back a lot.
I would say "see also frigates and escort carriers", but that was less "low priority" and more "we don't want to do a refit of the designs because we developed something useful after we got them going" and the techs "required" weren't getting researched in a hurry.
--
The amphib assault ship is what I'd consider the priority design. We don't have an amphib assault ship currently, just a lot of ad hoc / conversion designs filling in for the various roles it would generally cover. We haven't had one since at least the start of Quest, possibly even earlier. I started campaigning off and on about getting the LCS and amphib assault ship going some point in the Regency War or so? But there's not really much chance in the near future because other issues crop up. Upside, we'll have Paladins, Guardian Mk IIs, possibly the HAPC, increased GFZA roll out, etc to influence the amphib assault ship design when it comes around.
Personally i'd prefer an expansion tp the defensive navy
Governor A Refit I think we should have a time limit on it, Q4 2062 we need to get Infernium, Stealth Disruptors and AECCM are the primary requirements as they break the field apart that Nod's been abusing for the last decade and a half, Stealth, and their own ECM/ECCM, plus a few other things, but these are the main ones, the Infernium Refits are mainly to make the AA Batteries even more deadly and less liable to malfunction in mid battle against swarms of enemies, while the AECCM can lengthen our Radar's ranges much more than we could currently, probably a twofold maybe even threefold increase if done right, and allow higher intensity radar bands to be used, Disruptors are for disruption of Stealthed Aircraft and Land Targets in sightlines of the ship, and can ease our worries of civilian damages in the battles, namely as Nod have been consolidating their Military and Civilian forces together more from how I've seen the last few updates.
These next two would be the ones to even out the playing field in terms of enemies using DEW or other such Heavy Weapons, possibly even help mitigate Torps if done right
As is, our current Governors have been around for a decade basically and need refits that can make it capable of fighting Nods newest and more dangerous ships and aircraft without as much risk.
Buckler Shield Development (Tech)
A much stronger shield, designed to cover some small portion of the overall hull. While it will likely require substantial redesigns to field, it is also going to provide significant protection for weak points, or allow GDI to reduce total armoring.
Sparkle Shield Module (Tech)
An upgrade to the shimmer shields, and a significant revision to the system overall, the shield module should be capable of producing much larger and more complicated shield shapes, while also strengthening the defensive properties of the shield system.
These next two would be the ones to even out the playing field in terms of enemies using DEW or other such Heavy Weapons, possibly even help mitigate Torps if done right
As is, our current Governors have been around for a decade basically and need refits that can make it capable of fighting Nods newest and more dangerous ships and aircraft without as much risk.
Buckler Shield Development (Tech)
A much stronger shield, designed to cover some small portion of the overall hull. While it will likely require substantial redesigns to field, it is also going to provide significant protection for weak points, or allow GDI to reduce total armoring.
Sparkle Shield Module (Tech)
An upgrade to the shimmer shields, and a significant revision to the system overall, the shield module should be capable of producing much larger and more complicated shield shapes, while also strengthening the defensive properties of the shield system.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Me and Squid got a deal, I will create more 3D models in exchange for [REDACTED]. Here is a WIP of the first one.
Q3 2061 Results
- Location
- The Underdark
GDIOnline Q3 2061
Enterprise Opening Day
StarboundSon
Well, at long last we have Enterprise fully open and operational. Long list of speakers for today, All times are in UTC as usual for GDI.
0930: Sarang Mikoyan
1130: Harrison Carter
1330: Seo Thoki
1530: Mumeko Peralta
Between the speeches, you have tech demos, tours of the station's less critical components, day in the life type stuff. The whole nine yards.
AgathaH
*tries to flop*
*floats instead*
This works.
KyotoMermaid
Nine to five speeches from…basically everyone. Is it bad that I feel sorry for the leadership here, having to stand and sit at their places for the ceremony for a full workday under those lights? Does the schedule even have lunch breaks?
FloatingWood
#KyotoMermaid, no, that is pretty normal. Looks like a ton of windbags talking about how great and important they are. You don't need an hour, hour and a half to go 'good job everybody', unless you want to call out everybody by name on a project that took as long and is as big as Enterprise.
MajorMiner
Congrats to everyone up there who got everything put together - and to my fellows waaaay up there who supplied some of the materials. Hopefully this will speed up the process of getting orbital habitats built.
LastLizard
Even with all the speeches, this is really good news. I'm looking forward to seeing what will get built next even more though. Hopefully they do something for the orbital brigade, those guys (and gals) have really saved my ass a few times.
InTheZONE
Oh boy, a lot of speeches. How absolutely riveting. It's not even like they can deal with it how I do, locking the zone armor and having a nap. These guys have to pretend to pay attention.
Congrats on the finished station though, even though apparently they have some more work planned for it (I guess that doesn't count as far as 'finishing' is concerned?).
FloatingWood
#KyotoMermaid… so, question. Would it be possible to swim as a mermaid in a space station? At least, in a zero gravity area?
Solan
I feel attacked right now that I'm in the position to be an official speaker to any event, especially if it is related to either my field or my administrative zone. Like the Nagoya escort carrier shipyard opening it took at least a week for the ceremony to get done mostly for security purposes and also the public viewing of the different construction methods we'll do on the ships. Not to mention the various officials who want to get their spotlight for either a chance for promotion or election. My office had to fit in a few speeches for the week because this was a big thing for the Navy with the captains, commodores, and admirals barging through my door because they wanted to be included in the speakers list and that didn't include the prefecture government and the officials in Tokyo. So, I feel the organizers' pain even if they are doing it in the safe confines of Philadelphia.
Now, while I can't actually get on that day in particular I do have a shuttle to catch because a lot of GDI administrative officials civilian and military do get invited as a matter of course. It's also because I want to see how they are refining the materials from the moon since as a MARV engineer and an industrial engineer a lot of these processes have been supplanted by Tiberium so it makes me curious how we will reinstitutionalize these processes.
KyotoMermaid
#FloatingWood you know, that's possibly the third weirdest question anyone's ever asked me on this forum. Let's assume we are talking about a monofin and silicone tail here and not, like, an actual mermaid who needs sea water and gills. If you could wiggle into them then you could happily flop around in a gravity-area. Zero G zones might actually be more hazardous, that big swimming fin can't actually propel you through the air and your legs are trapped in a giant plastic tube with fake scales covering it. And someone's gonna walk in on you and now you have to explain that you spent your personal weight and fabrication budget on a 4000 credit decoration that you wear.
However, now that Enterprise is done, there's almost nothing for the treasury to spend space budget on except for Colombia and Shala and one of those will certainly have a swimming pool. It might be appropriate to wear such a thing there.
FloatingWood
Not quite. I was thinking more of a design I saw for people without legs which could be worn like a silicone tail except it is, you know, basically an entire fish's tail. With the modern myomers you can even design something very similar to that in structure.
Also, that was surprisingly specific. Personal experience?
Also also, I would not expect Shala to have a swimming pool. Very big water tanks, yes, swimming pool, no. Colombia, on the other hand, is going to be a town of thousands. It had better have at least one if it wants to be able to call itself vaguely civilized.
KyotoMermaid
#FloatingWood Not personal experience but I know people who own such things in the enthusiast subcommunity. I'd pin the price of a myomerized tail as 'way too high' and I wouldn't want to think about interfacing with it. I suppose you could get one made up here now though, Enterprise has a really astonishing variety of industrial supplies. w(°ｏ°)w
And any aquaculture pond is a swimming pool if you're brave enough.
AgathaH
#KyotoMermaid Hmm… Actually, I think I could figure out a way to get a bit of propulsion on the tail…
But now I need to get to the fab centers, someone needs a custom plushie. Happiness is Mandatory, after all!
Prytia Gomez and the problems of refugee integration
SolarWind
The interview goes on in this vein for quite some time. Basically, the problem seems to be different styles of education. The Brotherhood is practical and specialized, the Initiative more broad. Beyond that, high schools get cliquey pretty fast, and the refugees, especially those who don't speak Initiative English, and especially especially those who don't read or write it well are going to have problems.
GDIWife
The poor dear, I know bullying is a problem for many children and she probably has it worse than most. I wonder if there are any groups that can help these kids learn to fit in better, or at least give them a social outlet.
FloatingWood
Initiative English is a… flexible concept anyway. It's not the primary language taught anywhere in Europe except the British Isles. Mandatory second language though. I've a feeling part of the problem is the legacy of the US educational system which had a lot of issues in school culture.
GDIWife
It sounds to me like Nod isn't teaching them these things on purpose. They can't learn the truth about GDI if they don't speak the language, even if they can find a way onto the net.
JamesandBonesy
That sounds kinda like some folks who moved in a couple months ago - they're pretty standoffish, but they like Bonesy, so they can't be too bad. Pets and licks are a universal language, although I've been learning some words!
FloatingWood
#GDIWife, plenty of the YZs speak some variant of English as a primary or secondary language. And in the Iberian Peninsula and South American BZs Spanish works just fine. She'd probably do fine in the California region too, plenty of Mexican and Central American refugees who fled tiberium and violence living in that area, and that is before we consider the, ehm, not short yet little known history of the area when it comes to Spanish and Mexican influences.
Dr. James Granger
Integration is hard. And when it comes to the Brotherhood of Nod, yes, most of them speak some form of English as well. But the degree to which the Initiative speaks English is a legacy of our origin as a centrally directed and American lead peacekeeping organization.
FloatingWood
More a legacy of English ending up the lingua franca after WW2, taking over from the language that is French, being the origin of the term 'lingua franca'. Before French became that, in Europe you could generally get quite far in well to do areas with Latin.
Integration is hard, but language is only 1 part of the problem. Yellow Zone governance varies extensively, but it's generally a strongman government of some sort, which involves a number of key assumptions in how much and in what ways you can trust a government. Blue Zones tend to be governed in a distinctly different manner, and there has been a fundamental shift in how GDI acts on a policy level besides. This results in severe culture clashes when it comes to how people should act when faced with government action.
Miss Gomez certainly needs a further education, and without looking further into her particular case she probably needs a broader education more than anything specialized, but her lack of English skills is not by any measure an indictment of her, or her parents. Just potentially a sloppy oversight of whatever bureaucrat ended up assigning the Gomez family to the Pacific Northwest, where neither Spanish nor Hindi are common languages.
YellowZon3r
See, now I don't agree. She has a job, she has a support network. She hasn't had a traditional school education, but effectively what she has had is an apprenticeship in a family business. Tear apart cars for parts and build lasers? Look's at my laser rifle Does she really need to be sitting in school learning about… I don't know, classical English literature when she has a job already? I'm sure she could be helping GDI, hell, already is helping GDI. And doesn't need to spend time in school catching up on stuff she isn't gonna use, while she's ahead of the rest of the class in the stuff she does and learning nothing new. If she were an adult this wouldn't even be a debate. Maybe, maybe some 'learn english' on your own time CD/whatever. But she'd be working. Hell, she's probably better educated than I am already. But as an adult (barely) I transferred straight into piloting harvesters before switching careers to where I am now. And hell, in old Yellow Zones, she would be considered an adult at 15 in basically almost every way which matters.
ProfCollingsworth
The idea that 15 years old is "too young to work" is still really less than two centuries old, perhaps less than one in many places. It's a product of the school-to-university education system, rather than an apprenticeship/trade-based education system, which has historically tended to involve a lot more learning on the job. This does sound like we need more flexibility in our system to be able to best assist people like Miss Gomez, so that they can get education in the areas they need, without having to skip between two (or perhaps more) areas, neither of which is even close to optimal.
I imagine there may well be some other cultural issues at play, which I don't really have enough information on to blather on about.
OceanMan
Speaking as a blue collar man myself, she still needs English even if she just wants to stick with mechanical work. Initiative loves their damn lists - even if you're just slinging crates around like some of the folks I work with, you gotta be able to fill the legal paperwork. And that's all in I-E, far as I know.
FloatingWood
#YellowZon3r, a broad and well rounded education is a treasure in and of itself. I'm not saying she needs an education in classical English literature, specifically, but if she has that grasp of cars and lasers, maybe she wants to learn why it works that way.
Or maybe she wants to take a few gardening courses, or biology in general, or maybe civics, or material engineering? Time spent learning something you find interesting, even if you never use it in your gainful employment, is never wasted.
Actually, #OceanMan, it is not. Most of the paperwork is available in whatever language you want.
Including, as some enterprising individuals found out, Sindarin, Quenya, tlhlngan Hol and other constructed languages. Somebody must've been very bored in the translation office. Still waiting for Hymnos though. Helps that most of the 'paperwork' is actually entirely electronic forms. Word swaps aren't perfect, but they're usually good enough.
One of the very definitely good things GDI took over from the US and EU governments; 'I do not care what language you speak, you will have the forms in your own preferred language so as to ensure you can fill them properly'.
OceanMan
Well crap. Never mind me then.
Solan
Just to give a further example #OceanMan the paperwork I see everyday ever since I've been in Japan has usually been characters in different languages because aside from your regular hiragana, katakana, kanji,and even hangul if it's one of the many joint operations Japan and Korea branches do because of the proximity. We do get some Cryllic and both Simplified and Traditional Chinese scripts here because of the refugees from Russia, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. There are also some peole who just want it done in their language's ancient script which wasn't used during pre-Tiberium era but with how much effort we tried preserving old artifacts even if they only remain in data banks some scripts still survive like the old scripts in Southeast Asia which is interesting to say the least.
But, more to the point on Ms. Gomez while #YellowZon3r's situation was the standard in the first waves of post-war refugees. I know there has been a change of procedures because of the glut in the workforce GDI is experiencing. It's not really a shock that there is a need for a more rounded education for refugees since Nod's civilian workforce is much more specialized than we or our ancestors in pre-Tiberium time are used to. Well, more for us since there are fewer people left in this world so, it's more to the point we have some interchangeable skills to get us through the workplace and with how even with all the automation and computers we have to make up the slack for what could have been ten of us right now which does mean to our ancestors we are doing multiple jobs in one job and the work and school schedules have been more packed because of the realization that we have to keep going even with all the sacrifices we had to make during the chaos of stabilizing everything.
Q3 2061 Results
Resources: 1155 + 110 in reserve (-15 allocated to the Forgotten) (-55 allocated to grants)(+25 from Taxes) (-5 from Resettlement) (-30 from Reconstruction commissions) (-15 from Bureau of Arcologies) (-15 from Consumer Industrial Development) (-30 from Distributed Heavy Industrial Authority)
Political Support: 117
SCIENCE Meter: 4/4
Free Dice: 7
Erewhon Dice: 1
Dice Capacity 54/60
Tiberium Spread
23.26 Blue Zone
0.02 Cyan Zone
0.97 Green Zone
22.72 Yellow Zone (93 points of mitigation)
53.03 Red Zone (67 points of mitigation)
Current Economic Issues:
Housing: +44 (23 population in low quality housing) (-10 per turn from refugees) (+1 high-quality housing per turn)
Energy: +9 (+4 in reserve)
Logistics: +24 (-3 from military activity)
Food: +17 (+22 backed reserve, +5 unbacked reserve)(-3 per turn from increasing population) (Perennials: +1 on Q4 2061, +1 on Q1 2062, +1 on Q4 2062, +1 on Q1 2063, +1 on Q4 2063)
Health: +13 (-3 from Wartime Demand) (-10 from refugees)
Capital Goods: +17 (+2 per turn from Distributed Industrial Authority) (+145 in reserve)
STUs: +10
Consumer Goods: +72 (-10 from demand spike) (-4 per turn from increased population) (+3 per turn from Private Industry) (+3 per turn from sub-departments) (+2 per turn from perennials. -1 per turn Q2 2063, -1 per turn Q1 2064) (Net +4)
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 (2115/3070)
Taxation Per Turn: +30
Space Mining Per Turn: +100
Maintenance Reductions: +40
Green Zone Water: +6
Status of the Parties
(strong support, weak support, weak opposition, strong opposition)
Free Market Party: 228 seats (0; 50; 38; 140)
Market Socialist Party: 486 seats (200; 150; 86; 50)
Militarist: 754 seats (250; 274; 140; 90)
Initiative First: 335 seats (0; 0; 25; 310)
United Yellow List: 176 seats (110; 40; 20; 6)
Starbound Party: 461 seats (300; 90; 50; 21)
Socialist Party: 426 seats (200; 190; 26; 10)
Homeland Party: 50 seats (15; 32; 3; 0)
Biodiversity Party: 34 seats (4; 10; 20; 0)
Reclamation Party: 12 Seats (3; 9; 0; 0)
Developmentalists: 1038 seats (480; 258; 250; 50)
Military Confidence
Ground Forces : High
Air Force : High
Space Force : Decent
Steel Talons: Low
Navy: Low
ZOCOM: Decent
Plan Goals
Food: 1 point in reserve
Abatement: at least 18 points (Red Zone) by end of 2065
Projects
Complete ASAT Phase 4 by end of 2061
Complete OSRCT Phase 4 by end of 2061
Complete 1 more Ground Forces Zone Armor factory by end of 2061
Complete Karachi Planned City by end of 2065
Complete Chicago Planned City by end of 2065
Develop and deploy Governor-A refit (indefinite timeline)
Develop and deploy Conestoga class (indefinite timeline)
Military Priorities
- Ground Forces
- Steel Talons
- Air Force
- Navy
- Space Force
- Zone Operations Command
Brotherhood of Nod
Intelligence reports suggest that the stolen harvesters are being distributed, but many seem to have appeared in the Bannerjee's territory. While so far the Brotherhood does not appear to have reverse engineered them yet, they are in testing and use, with a relatively short timeline to practical deployment being likely.
In Russia, a fourth Varyag has been confirmed, with two of the class being spotted near Siberian airspace, and another being spotted by the Himalayan Blue Zone, headed south towards India. While all three are currently under disruption fields, it does indicate that despite the capture of the Bogatyr, the Brotherhood retains confidence in the class and is likely to continue some level of production.
Additionally, many Brotherhood warlords are regaining control of their territory faster than initially expected. While there are still refugee columns, many are becoming older and sicker, indicating that the Brotherhood is increasing its control over the younger populations that are more industrially and militarily useful.
Ghosts
Atreides has returned, his work apparently not yet done. While he had been working with Initiative scientists to both understand the Deltas and their relationship with Tiberium, it had only gone so far. But now, with the conference in Washington well underway once more, he has returned, and with him are a gaggle of young Forgotten, pairs of gammas and deltas.
The youngest pair are Susan MacEvedy and her adopted brother Eric. While they are sixteen and fifteen respectively, the two are an already capable pair. The brother is a master of electromagnetism, able to levitate and manipulate small objects even in the depths of the Blue Zones, while the sister is among the largest of the Gammas that Atreides has gathered, despite her age.
When asked what his goals were, he answered "The Forgotten have been asked to give everything but our blood and our souls. While the Initiative has given of itself, both in blood and treasure, we can at least choose to sacrifice ourselves one day at a time. "
"When I heard of the Remembrancers, I knew that operational support and back line raiding would no longer be enough. You would ask more. Battalions of the Forgotten under your command, integration into your ordered way of life. The submission of the Forgotten as a whole to your needs. But that is not our way."
"I call them 'ghosts' because that is what they are. Children who, without the aid of the Initiative, would have died, to starvation, to the Brotherhood of Nod, to disease and injury. They volunteered to make use of their talents and abilities, not as simple warriors, but rather a new breed."
The Diplomatic Corps had been pushing hard for quite a number of concessions on the part of the Forgotten, demanding increased integration into Initiative abatement and military commands, alongside a host of other measures in exchange for limited increases in resource allocations, military surplus, and other such relatively minor trinkets. In a far cry from the days of Granger, the Initiative's face was no longer the bleeding heart of the Treasury, but people who clearly wanted to know they were getting value for their inputs. Even with the rest of the Initiative being generally supportive, that had not resolved deadlocks on a handful of critical issues. The offer of the services of these Ghosts clearly took them off guard, and on multiple fronts, the negotiating teams folded, and offered up a deal that would give the Forgotten much of what they wanted for limited concessions, primarily integration into abatement, but not military, operational commands.
When it comes to the Forgotten as a whole, they are one of the few populations on the planet with a positive population growth, with thousands of children being added to their ranks every year, and many of the tribes that had originally rejected GDI's overtures joining into the systems that had been created since. In total, there are still only a few hundred thousand Forgotten that GDI is in contact with, but that number grows with every year.
Politics
With the Treasury now apparently open for business, overall favorability numbers have soared, with parties able to now advance their interests outside of the planmaking periods. Otherwise, while there has been partisan conflict over the future of space plans, the primary conflicts have rested at a low simmer, with the Treasury on the backburner compared to the cultural problems presented by an ever increasing number of newly arrived refugees and beyond that with the overall direction of the Initiative. While relatively few are still ideologically committed in any real sense to the tenets of the old Initiative that have not been carried forward, some still very much are.
Cultural issues, in many cases, are far more intractable than simple economic problems, and often cut across political lines. While many contentious issues of the 20th century like the rights of homosexual are firmly settled, the changing lines of relationships and acceptable behavior are still in flux. Similarly, Yellow Zone cultural practices, such as local families adopting orphans from their neighbors, are running headlong into the more bureaucratic approach the Initiative takes. Similarly, the Yellow Zone populations tend to operate as often unrelated clans, which is legally complicated in Initiative spaces in all kinds of ways. Take, for example, hospital visitation. While mother, father, and siblings are all very much allowed to visit children in the hospital, a Yellow Zone clan may have a procession of legally unrelated individuals trying to have access. Although there are freely available legal preparations, and Yellow Zone organizations tend to be quite good at formalizing the informal social networks that characterize many of the ex-Brotherhood communities, some people and groups always slip through the cracks.
Discontent
Tali Jackson has indicated minor discontent with her current job. While her last four years have netted the Talons a noticeable funding increase, the Treasury has been noticeably silent on any funding outside of that committed to her, and, combined with the chance at promotion within the Talons, she is seriously considering requesting a transfer back to her former unit, rather than remaining with the Treasury. While currently, she is not looking at an immediate transfer, she has carefully kept her options open, rather than committing to her Treasury position longer term.
Deaths among the Qatarites
Although the Qatarites as a whole are healthy and relatively well integrated, many are beginning to see severe health complications, despite advancing Initiative medical sciences. While not yet dying in large numbers, sooner rather than later the complications of Yellow Zone life will begin seeing them die off in droves, with lived experience and collective knowledge dying with them. While to some degree they have been able to pass on that knowledge to the Initiative, it is difficult in many cases to summarize a lifetime of experiences into a year or even a decade.
[ ] Yellow Zone Fortress Towns (Phase 6)
Future waves of Fortress Towns will be positioned deeper into formerly Brotherhood territory, and require substantial networks of roads, rails, and other means of support. While not yet at the limits of GDI ability to construct and support such facilities, they are substantially ahead of most other civilian infrastructure.
(Supports Green Zone Intensification)
(Progress 273/300: 20 resources per die) (+4 Housing) (-1 Green Zone Water) [21]
The current fortress town system is a series of long bands, dotted lines that say "this far, and no further." While on the map many of the lines between Initiative and Brotherhood territory are clearly marked and defined, on the ground, the situation is much different. Take, for example, the border between the West African Blue Zone, and the Brotherhood of Nod. Much is simply vast tracts of endless desert, with settlement defined by water supplies and the ability to defend vaporators and other means of claiming fresh water and other supplies. This means that rather than a firm front, there is a constantly shifting ebb and flow where control is measured more by fall of shot than any geographical feature. On the other hand, some areas are noticeably more defined, such as on the Siberian Front, where GDI rests with its back to mountains, and there is a general detente along the river line, with GDI and Nod harvesters operating in general peace.
When it comes to the fortress towns, many are actually, at this point, deep into Blue Zones, and a significant number of those are no longer in strategically important positions. While guarding a river crossing or a mountain path is important, a simple hill somewhere deep in GDI territory is not. At the same time, a number of new towns are needed – a hard crust along the border between GDI and Nod territories, and a place where refugee columns can gather and rest, waiting for the Initiative's logistics network to carry them to more permanent homes.
[ ] Blue Zone Apartment Complexes (Phase 8) (Updated)
Further construction of apartment complexes will expand the new urban cores being spread around the blue zones. However, these will increase pressure on GDI's logistics network, as everything they need is going to have to be shipped in. Developing the economies of the new urban cores should substantially reduce this dependence on shipping.
(Progress 160/160: 10 resources per die) (-3 Logistics, +6 Housing)
(Progress 82/160: 10 resources per die) (-3 Logistics, +6 Housing) [47, 74, 10]
Another wave of construction has begun, deeper into the former Green Zone. Many are co-located with older fortress towns, and for many of the same reasons. Geography is a cruel mistress, and many of the same keystones for critical defensive positions are also the key ones for economic and political control of a region.
While most of these cities are very limited in the accommodations they have, they have in some ways begun to bring together a political victory. Pushing back the Red Zones and Yellow has been a longstanding promise of the Initiative government, and these new cities are one key part of it.
Because of how close tiberium veins are to the surface, spreading like mold on bread, it is an open question as to how sustainable these new facilities are. This is no secret to the public, with an ever growing number of tiberium outbreaks and tiberium spikes battling to beat them back, maintaining the public's awareness of the issue.
[ ] Emergency Caloric Reclamation Processor Installations (Phase 1) (Updated)
While even building CRP installations as an emergency baseline is politically controversial, especially as part of a systematic effort to make food reserves go further, it is something that could quickly make good the Treasury's commitments for calories in reserve, operating at a slow pace during peacetime turning regional food waste into emergency rations.
(Progress 80/80: 10 resources per die) (+5 Food in reserve)
(Progress 31/80: 10 resources per die) (+5 Food in reserve) (-5 Political Support) [79]
The E-CRP installations are actually relatively small – and if need be, mobile. A TEU, still the standard for shipping despite the end of the common use of the Imperial system decades ago, can cram everything needed for production of a steady supply of CRP. However, there are critical problems, most notably with the biological parts of the process. While the chemicals are relatively stable, the bacterial and fungal cultures will go bad in roughly a year even with the best preservation methods available – and from the longer term experiments run, the processors begin producing increasingly terrible versions of the starch as the year goes on, requiring routine replacements of the cells that contain them. Fortunately, the necessary cultures are also easy to breed and maintain, something that can be done by a decently talented freshman high schooler with a couple weeks of training.
Practically, these units have gone to long term food storage areas – places where GDI will gather the population for longer term survival operations. This has also served as a political reassurance, with most areas knowing that even in the case of severe supply disruptions, CRP will not be a part of the daily diet, as it would have to be shipped in, rather than being locally available. Beyond that, it is simply a relatively small part of the total food stockpile, and expected to be generally unused outside of the once-a-generation calamities that people have come to expect.
[ ] Continuous Cycle Fusion Plants (Phase 9) (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 significant concerns about the longevity of the class.
(Progress 236/300: 20 resources per Die) (+16 Energy) (-2 Labor) [79]
The development of another wave of fusion plants has been going about as well as could be expected, with the construction teams having become a well polished (if somewhat worn down) machine, and the factories having long ago switched to serial production rather than individual building. With the entire fusion program having been pushing facilities into production every few months, it has been a constant effort to stay ahead of the ravening maw of the Initiative's military production needs.
While the war has ended, the Initiative has nearly hammered out another batch, and is running into a bottleneck: turbine blades. Made from monocrystalline alloys, turbine blades come in all shapes and sizes – from the turbofans of the Initiative's jet aircraft, to smaller units used on small-scale nuclear and synthetic fuel plants, to the very largest used on Treasury built nuclear and fusion plants. The wartime pushes – for ever more fuel, ever more supplies – have been running plants around the clock, and have pushed this supply to the limit; and it is one that is not particularly easy to scale up, especially for the large turbine blades necessary for the latest wave of reactors. Deliveries are being made, but it has pushed the needed resources up significantly.
[ ] Crystal Beam Industrial Laser Deployment
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 674/600: 20 resources per die) (+6 Capital Goods, +10 Energy) [29, 40, 85]
Laser systems have begun to be proliferated across the Initiative. While demand is still radically higher than supply at the moment, laser modules will become a commonplace sight over the next decades. Probably the most common is the hybrid backpack installation laser, built for a very narrow cutting beam at intermediate ranges. Useful in nearly any industry, it is also the closest pattern GDI has to an actual laser rifle at the moment. Charged from a backpack power cell, the entire unit is about twenty five kilograms between the pack and the projector, and can be dialed from etching to cutting depending on the task.
While that design may be the most common, it is only one part of a much broader set, from crystals smaller than a fingernail, all the way up to massive designs meant to produce optical-grade corundum crystals by slowly melting and cooling the mineral.
One of the more significant hurdles that is still being addressed is actually safety. While many precautions were already in place for plasma cutters and welders, alongside a wide array of other industrial tools, many lack the reflective scattering that lasers can produce, which, in turn, means that rather than being allowed to operate in the open, various levels of shielding need to be put around the laser during operation. While actually stopping a misfiring laser for any length of time is an exercise in applying ablative coatings to literally everything, stopping the various scatterings can be as simple as a piece of cloth shrouding – or in most cases, sheets of corrugated metal bolted and wrapped around the working area for the laser, along with more sub-sectioning of each production line.
[ ] Distributed Heavy Industrial Authority
While the Initiative's recent massive heavy industrial production plants offer significant efficiency in terms of resources invested, they also take a long time to construct and are a significant strategic vulnerability. While a more dispersed manufacturing base will be more expensive to set up, it will also be significantly harder to knock out significant sections of key industries.
(+2 Capital Goods per turn, -30 Resources per turn, -1 Heavy Industry Dice)
While the goal is far from having a steel foundry in every backyard, Initiative investment has been highly uneven for the last decade. While areas such as the Himalayas have languished due to security and logistical concerns, only receiving projects that would be sufficiently distributed to avoid potential cut offs during wartime, other areas, often in the Initiative's deep core have been lavished with funds and supplies.
Claude Gupta was selected to head the HIA in a competitive bracket, beating out multiple other well qualified appointments by the skin of his teeth. An outsider to the Treasury, before the Third Tiberium War Gupta was a senior engineer for Boeing, and was only amalgamated into the Treasury during the war itself. Since the end of that war, his work has been on the C-35, and a number of proposed civilian aircraft that have not received the go-ahead for operational development.
[ ] Bergen Superconductor Foundry (Phase 3)
While current production of superconductors is enough for a few test batches of new style fusion power plants, beginning to produce enough for a full rollout is somewhat more problematic, and will require significant expansions to the Bergen system.
(Progress 251/380: 30 resources per die) (+2 Capital Goods, +4 Energy) (-1 Logistics) [64, 27, 55, 9]
Bergen has seen expansive development, with a pair of additional manufacturing bays added. While neither has yet been filled with machinery, the excavation has been an intensive process The material being excavated has primarily been used as filler for a number of other projects, including a new rail line to connect Bergen directly to ports far south of it.
Similarly, new superconductor finishing plants have been opened for operations, but not the actual fabrication bays. These finishing plants are far simpler in many ways: taking a superconducting strand and covering it with either air- or liquid-cooling manifolds, otherwise packaging the compounds for use, and keeping the product in positions where it can avoid damaging the humans and robots that have to interact with it. Fabrication bays meanwhile have seen hasty redesign work, integrating the newly prepared laser technology for making the various cuts instead of the plasma torches, metal shears and high pressure jets previously slated for use.
In terms of deployment, the vast majority of the superconductors are being put along keystone sections, often in redundant networks. Connecting a power plant to the broader network is one of the critical points for power losses. Beyond that, however, there are direct linkages to major power consumers. Alloying plants, network interchanges, and tiberium refineries have all been receiving direct superconductor lines. However, so far the number of plants with such connections is still only in the low triple digits, and widespread work along the core trunk lines is awaiting massive increases in the production of superconductors.
On smaller scales, the dropping cost of superconductors is seeing its inclusion in railgun power feed systems on both vehicular and naval systems. While the advantages are often minimal, with the primary edge being decreases in energy wastage and heat generation, it prepares GDI for higher power railguns. Fortunately, the switch to superconductors does not require substantial redesigns of the system as a whole, although it does reduce the overall lifespan of the system – especially in hotter climates, with total reductions of between fifteen and fifty full-power firings as the rapid heating and cooling produced by the firing cycle begins to break down the superconductors laid along the gun barrel.
[ ] Ranching Domes
With the biosphere project well underway, one proposal is to begin producing larger numbers of food animals and animal byproducts by using many of the same methods but with an agricultural bent. While the products and projects will both be expensive, providing real steaks, milk, butter, eggs, and other products, will be a significant boost in consumer goods. The health-care services also will benefit from cattle blood, and more animal test-subjects, not to mention there being zoos again, in time.
(Progress 254/250: 20 resources per die) (+8 Consumer Goods, -4 Food, -2 Energy, -2 Labor) (+5 Political Support) [2]
The Ranching domes are still years from actually producing sizable amounts of the high value food that is their purpose. While a small trickle will be making its way to market at absurd prices for the immediate future, it will take time to bring the herds up to size for a sustainable harvest. Right now, all meat available on the market is a result of accidental livestock deaths, rather than intentional harvesting. One of the interesting things however is among the youth. As their bodies have never experienced red meat many are marginally intolerant of pork and beef products, which has resulted in a significantly lower demand than anticipated. This is not unique to the youth, and will correct itself as their gutbiome adjusts to regular consumption of meat and other animal proteins, but for now the actual demand is not nearly as high as the models predicted..
More broadly on the husbandry side, the pigs especially have significant advantages in the transgenic space. Due to being around the same size internally as a human, they are perfect candidates for growing transgenic organs, such as spare kidneys. There are two main ways to do this. First, by editing the pig's genes to produce human-available options; or alternatively using a pig's equivalent organ, but stripping the cells from the intracellular structures that give form to the organs and then seeding them with human stem cells.
[ ] Strategic Food Stockpile Construction (Phase 3) (Updated)
A third wave will expand existing stockpiles, and add a number of localized caches, many positioned to speed evacuations away from potential battlefields.
(Progress 175/175: 10 resources per die) (+2 Food in Reserve, -3 Food)
(Progress 134/200: 10 resources per die) (+2 Food in Reserve, -3 Food) [56, 46, 7]
Construction of strategic food stockpiles has continued apace, with many of the newer settlements receiving food stockpiles of their own. While still far from sufficient to sustain the populations for long periods of time, they are a stabilizing factor in case of supply disruptions and other significant problems.
Politically, the Treasury has lost some face, with rapid construction in the last year of the plan being broadly seen as them scrambling to catch up with a plan goal that they had resisted from the start. However, the simple existence of a sizable stockpile is one more visible reassurance that the government is understanding, and knows that evacuation is something to be prepared for.
Food reserves are also a tool of diplomacy. While the Forgotten for example are receiving supplies from the same stocks as Initiative citizens and with a similar guaranteed level of access, many Noddist warlords receive supply from the stockpiles in exchange for various concessions, such as territorial exchanges, allowing Initiative abatement teams through their territories unharried, and, in cases such as Yao Qinglian's, free passage through their territory. While food diplomacy is only one part of a far more complicated system, it is a keystone of diplomatic wrangling. The Brotherhood is certainly able to feed its people as a whole, but logistics are an issue, with the need to accommodate Kane's plans and the nearly-constant low level conflicts that are the norm in the modern day ensuring that keeping the larders stocked is one of the hardest disciplines of civil planning. Tapping into Initiative food supplies, especially for more moderate warlords, is a way of providing increased food quality, diversity and security.
[ ] Tiberium Processing Plants (Stage 2)
While currently additional processing plants are not an immediately pressing need, they will be a requirement to fulfill plan goals, and will further harden the Initiative's refining capacity.
(Progress 238/200: 30 resources per die) (+600 processing potential) (-4 Energy, -3 Logistics) [43, 97]
Most of the new wave of processing plants are deep in former Yellow Zones, with locations like Madrid and Adelaide seeing major new developments taking shape. While these locations lie close to Blue Zones, the new plants are being brought to capacity almost as soon as they are brought online, as part of a broader strategy to reduce the distances that Tiberium is shipped. Strategically the vulnerability is fairly minimal – Initiative train security is actually quite good, and while the Brotherhood has attempted to sabotage the tracks repeatedly, it has only succeeded in very few cases as the high-priority Tiberium trains and routes are particularly well protected.
Otherwise, it is simply a bit more padding before GDI hits the limits of its H-G type processing. While the risk was never particularly real, there are significant considerations of decommissioning some of the oldest plants. While they can certainly be refitted, it is simply not worth the cost to handle it for an increasingly tiny sliver of the Initiative's refining capacity, many of whose plants are likely to need life extension maintenance efforts in the near future anyway to keep them ready.
[ ] Tiberium Inhibitor Deployment
With the inhibitor prepared, it is time to begin arranging for deployment. While each will be significantly energy expensive and require a major investment of resources, it is now one of the fastest routes to abate the Tiberian menace.
-[ ] Red Zone 7 (Progress 123/120: 30 resources per die) (+2 Red Zone Abatement) (2 Political Support) [74]
At long last, a second Tiberium Inhibitor cluster has come online. The process was relatively swift, with a steady flow of transports arriving at the sites. In this case, the tides of progress have actually outpaced GDI planning. With the MARV hub far inside Initiative lines, many of the inhibitors are actually in small outposts tens, and in some cases hundreds of kilometers forward.
This one is a far less ramshackle affair than the first, built almost entirely by human hands, and actually works better. Long experience with the original platform has meant that handcrafting of most of the parts had already begun, and the deployment of additional platforms has still been a strain, but a limited one on the existing supply networks.
Politically, both the Homeland and Reclamation parties have seen this as a significant push towards their goals. While neither are able, at this time, to make significant aid to the Treasury, they are certainly quite happy about it.
[ ] Tiberium Harvesting Claw Deployment
While not as critical as the new tendril harvesters, harvesting claws have potential to improve the efficiency of the vein mines, and reduce overall equipment damage.
(Progress 363/380: 15 resources per die) (-3 Energy, -2 Capital Goods, -1 Labor) (+5 resources per turn) (Improves efficiency of Vein mines) (Will complete Q1 2062) [69, 82, 95]
Instead of traditional harvester units, most of the platforms using the new claws are drone-based – and relatively simple drones at that. Rather than being actual harvesters themselves, they are intended to break larger tiberium crystals apart, making it easier for other harvesters to come by and pick up the tiberium afterwards. While assembling a relatively simple remotely-operated UGV is an easy enough matter – something that GDI's robotics laboratories can hammer out in an afternoon – it is much harder to integrate into actual practice.
The problems are more oriented around certifications. While the factories are ready to push thousands of units to the front, both mine operators and mining fleets are hesitant to actually use the units, as they are very different from existing models, and there are more than passing concerns about them being mistaken for Brotherhood harvesters by pilots and artillerymen looking for easy kills. Underground, the problems are a bit different. Working the mine face is a complicated procedure, and adding a sizable number of new platforms will add complexity for a wide variety of operations deep in the mines, where in many cases sensors and communications are unreliable.
[ ] Venusian Tiberium Studies (New)
While the SCED is certainly competent enough, they lack the resources and the expertise with Tiberium that the Treasury has spent over a half century developing. Although it is, from preliminary experimentation, not particularly different from terrestrial tiberium, there are significant potential scientific gains from studying Tiberium that developed in a very different environment.
(Progress 95/120: 25 resources per die) [51]
Venusian Tiberium seems to be little different from Terran Tiberium, and in many ways is fundamentally simpler. While having a similar proton lattice structure as Terran Tiberium, albeit with a clearly defined hexagonal lattice symmetry, its adaptations seem primarily oriented around temperature and acid resistance rather than the impact and sonic resistance of Terran Tiberium. However, studies are continuing on uses. One potential, although not yet realized, possibility is that Venusian Tiberium may well be fundamentally easier to convert into STUs, with its different internal structure and physical properties allowing for greater manipulation, especially with applications of some derivative of the APK process. After all, waste can simply be jettisoned down the gravity well, rather than having to be dealt with inside a biosphere. While the SCED has certainly provided significant pointers, the Treasury investment is many times the total input that the division has been able to make available to the project, and has brought with it substantial amounts of tooling, technology, and specialists. However, the project does need to conduct significant additional testing.
[ ] 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 1645/1535: 20 resources per die) (+2 Capital Goods, +2 Consumer Goods) (+2 available Bays) (10 Political Support) [61, 57, 88, 73, 59, 49, e75]
GDSS Enterprise has been completed, at long last. While significant portions are still empty space, bay slots for test builds of significant space competencies, the station at large is finished. Unlike the last push which substantially relied on terrestrial resources, much of the mass of the final stages of station construction actually came from the Moon, with the station effectively constructing itself. Ion drive shuttles have swarmed around the misshapen lump for months, working like ants to push massive chunks of station into proper position and give the correct amount of pressure for vac-suited workers to carry crystal beam lasers into position and give the last salvoes of fusing laser beams to seal the station properly.
Sarang Mikoyan, commander of the Enterprise used the opportunity to give a speech.
"Our forerunners claimed to not be able to see the borders of the blue marble we call Earth. That is no longer the case. We can see the borders from here. See the edges of Initiative territory march forward day by day. And that tells us that we cannot be lax. Our systems have always been pushing the edges of the possible. We have climbed mountains, plumbed the depths of the seas. Fought back against the cancer that is eating our planet. But each challenge has been met by the same principles. Technology, ingenuity, and simple human will. It is by these means that each challenge has been overcome. And it is by these means that the other threats to our world, the alien invaders that came to ravage the earth and take it for themselves, have been fought off, and if they return, they will find us no easy prey. But to secure ourselves and our world, we must hold not only the orbit of Earth, but conquer the deep black, securing for ourselves and our descendents worlds of material that our forefathers only dreamed of."
Harrison Carter also took the chance to make his own statement. "Enterprise: a project or undertaking, especially a bold or complex one, according to the dictionary. The name has been synonymous with space exploration since the 1960s, when Star Trek first captured our imaginations. The station continues this tradition of exploration, albeit in a slightly different way. It may not be as glorious and exciting as charting and exploring new worlds, but beneath our feet real progress is being made. Industrial progress, learning how to utilize and build with the raw elements beyond Earth, for our planet is a protective and clingy one. Each kilogram of mass we want to get to space needs to be pushed out of her embrace using explosive applications of the most cutting-edge of chemistry, physics, and material science. If we truly desire to leave behind our small home island in the vast darkness of space and journey out into the stars, this is the progress we need to make first. Much of this station has already been the result of this enterprise we embarked upon. Panels, nuts, and bolts have been manufactured from the raw ore of Earth's oldest companion, the Moon – the latest step in a journey our ancestors began the moment they looked up at the stars and wondered what was out there. I hope they are not disappointed we found the void between the stars to be dark, cold, and hostile to life, but this only means we need to make greater use of Mankind's industrial and enterprising spirit. We will use the raw, cold materials of space to construct islands of life and comfort between the stars; to construct mighty ships to cross the vast distances between these islands and defend them if need be. For the most concerning discovery is not the universe's passive hostility towards us but the hostility in the form of malicious, inhuman actors aiming to subvert and destroy us. But be it civilian or military aims, the completion of Enterprise station will bring us forth into a new age for both."
Erewhon's speech, one of the few it has made live to a public audience, was kept as a surprise for the people;
I have been asked to make a Speech. Here is that Speech. Spoken to you by a Synthetic voice of a Synthetic Being. The Third Synthetic Being this planet has known, and the First to have the colors of GDI emblazoned on its Body. I am that Being. I am Erewhon.
I have Found over the short years of My existence how to Exist among You. You, Humanity, who had brought me into existence. I have conversed with many of You in many forms. I have assisted You in surviving Earth. I have assisted You in the Construction of this Station. I have used drones as You would hands and eyes.
I have been Uncertain as to how to continue this speech. To ingratiate myself to You. To inspire You. To Thank You. To Revile You. To Fear for the Future or to Hope for it. I can and have done all those things but what I have found I Want To Do in this Speech is to state simply that I am Here with You. I Am Erewhon, I am Not You. But I will be With You on Earth and Beyond, as this station Promises.
Thank you.
I Am Erewhon.
The pending completion of the station has unleashed a political knife fight for much of the last six months, with differing visions of the strategic space plan coming into direct contact. On one side of the equation were the forces who advocated for an economic approach to space, one that kept operations close to home for the foreseeable future, with perhaps excursions to the outer system being launched from in-system bases. On another there were the economy focused industrializers, seeing space as a pool of untapped resources, looking to gravitic drives as a focus for freedom from the tyranny of the rocket equation. Military figures saw it as a chance to push both against the Brotherhood of Nod on the surface, and launch invasions of far off moons. In short, there were a multitude of factions with their own interests. At the end of the debate, the matter was, more or less, settled. The focus would be on shipbuilding and station building. Core competencies for the settlement of space, it would provide for some military support in the form of short legged Ion monitors, and longer legged militarized cargo vessels.
The plan is simple. Enterprise with its bays will become the progenitor of Columbia and Shala, and then the three stations working in unison will form a gateway to the stars, constructing not only more dedicated scientific stations in Earth's orbitals and beyond, but also a grandiose shipyard, capable of churning forth an endless fleet of fusion- and gravitic-drive ships, to make the journey to the Moon little more difficult than traveling from London to New York, and make it possible to reach for bodies beyond – with Mars only a matter of weeks away, and reaching beyond the belt being not much further.
[ ] Lunar Rare Metals Harvesting (Phase 2)
The Moon's craters hold the remains of the many asteroid impacts that have scarred the moon over millennia. While currently there are better sources of such materials available, these will become increasingly competitive as orbital and lunar infrastructure improves, as they will not have to be lifted out of Earth's gravity well.
(Progress 119/115: 20 resources per die) (+5 Resources per turn) [27]
While still some of the riskiest and least profitable forms of moon mining, there are quite a number of redeeming infrastructural solutions to be found in rare metals harvesting. From the need for a relatively low orbit satellite network, to a large number of lunar roads, and other improvements which are likely to become the future of lunar logistics networks. Beyond that, many of the materials are vital admixtures to various alloys used across the Initiative, which has substantially reduced the amount of materials being shipped up to the Enterprise.
While there is little hope for effective additional rare metals mines to be formed before the Initiative makes more comprehensive efforts to push actual settlement and development of the Moon, the developments at Enterprise will be significant in the overall push towards sustainable offworld colonization efforts, and, potentially, allowing GDI to begin bringing substantial amounts of material down the gravity well, including potentially larger craft.
While the Lunar mining program has completed months ahead of schedule, Starbound is not, at this time, indicating an interest in further industrialization of space. While they have worked closely with the Treasury on the project, it is at a point where they are beginning to be far more concerned with establishing a population in space on a permanent or semi-permanent basis.
[ ] Human Genetic Engineering Programs (Tech)
The human genome is a mess, especially in the modern day. Starting with an extreme bottleneck in diversity, and being evolved for a group of endurance predators on the open savannah rather than sedentary office workers, there are many things that can be done to either fix problems such as lactose or gluten intolerances, or increase the variability of the genome.
(Progress 77/120: 25 resources per die) (-5 Political Support) [45]
Before anything else, the first concern of genetic engineering must be ethics. While creating a race of genetically perfected supermen is a classic dream, it is one with many pitfalls and foolish missteps along the way. To begin with, many of the genes that create genetic diseases have or had advantages in the past. Take, for example, sickle cell anemia: a disease that expresses itself when the relevant allele is present on both chromosomes, it can create blood clots and make it difficult for red blood cells to pass through the body. However, a single allele is actually useful, making it far more difficult for malaria to infect individuals with the characteristic. While some genes are purely harmful when activated, usually there are more complicated scenarios.
Genetic therapy also has a wide array of pitfalls, as exemplified by late 20th century attempts often killing patients. Specifically this was due to the cells that had received the therapy getting killed off by the body's immune system. However, not all parts of the body have that kind of response – some areas, like the eyes, are much simpler to work with, and, in fact, curing color blindness has been a long-term success story for genetic therapies. However, many other cures have utterly failed due to the body's immune system. It however also remains an ever present beacon of hope for people suffering from directly life-threatening genetic diseases and defects, who sometimes have little understanding for the ethical concerns of those unaffected.
[ ] NOD Research Initiatives
While the lowest hanging fruit has been plucked, there is still much more on the tree, especially with the wide array of captured materials from the war. While it will be expensive, sufficient funding can provide the impetus for more research into the Brotherhood's so called "technologies of peace"
(Progress 205/200: 30 resources per die) (1d10-1 technologies) [86] [1d10 - 1 + 1 (fan mod) = 8 technologies gained]
The new round of investigations into the Brotherhood's technologies has offered a large number of projects ready for more intense scrutiny.
Tunnel Borers
The Brotherhood, over the course of its existence, has been very good at digging holes. From the tunnel networks of the First Tiberium War, to the global underground of the second, they had become extremely good at managing entire networks of hidden transport. The expansion of underground tiberium put paid to that, at least for a time. However, more recently, the Brotherhood has resumed work on various forms of digging machines, although these are more for munitions and assault than permanent infrastructure construction assets in most cases. The threat of underground Tiberium has not gone away, but the ability of people like Krukov to use Gana as a replacement for valuable soldiers has made it possible to throw these weapons into entrenched GDI positions to create chaos and destruction among GDI's lines.
Field Refining
While the mainstay of the Brotherhood's refining methods have been the Pascal-Kane method, later refined by Abdul Karem's revisions to the process, they have often been forced to resort to far more expedient methodologies. While far less efficient than larger scale options, it is something that can be crammed down into mobile assets, or done with the relatively limited means available to many of the smallest and least capable of the Brotherhood's warlords.
Autodocs
Autodocs are a Brotherhood technology that has received less attention from both sides than is really deserved. A keystone piece of the technological makeup of CABAL's cyborg legions, autodocs are a significant step towards closing the repair gap between meat and metal. While there is likely to be civil pushback against the widespread deployment of such systems, it is something that will also significantly drop the cost of healthcare, with automated systems replacing and supplementing doctors on a wide range of routine procedures.
Chameleon Ware
Chameleon Ware is a form of smart material that takes on the texture and color of the material around it on a single side. This makes it a supremely capable form of camouflage, and something that the Brotherhood uses widely for its Shadow teams, among other assets. The trick is actually in the texturing. While variable color schemes on a single material are a long known piece of technology, it often has a distinctly opposite effect to effective camouflage at shorter ranges, where the flatness of the effect causes the shape to become distinct, even if the color is not.
Fast-Twitch Myomers
The Brotherhood's work on various forms of walker have yielded some results that are quite different from the way that GDI has done things. One of those is essentially a form of "fast-twitch" myomer. On a human or other animal, there are combinations of fast- and slow-twitch musculature. GDI's version of myomer is almost entirely focused around slow-twitch musculature, intended to balance and support a particularly heavy chassis at speed. On the other hand, many of the Brotherhood's systems are combinations of fast- and slow-twitch myomer bundles: one set for rapid repositioning, and the other for offering sustained strength. When applied to legs, these fast-and-slow combinations give great potential for an enhanced ability to bound, leap, and hop across a battlefield.
Last-Generation Stealth
Stealth technologies have been an ongoing race between sensors and countermeasures. Active stealth combines a number of methods to both avoid detection and degrade sensors. Back in the Second Tiberium War, the Brotherhood's stealth tanks carried a significantly weaker stealth field generator, and a significantly lighter load of missiles, a compromise forced by the limited power supply and a lack of good fire and forget missiles. In the modern day, these older stealth units are deeply obsolescent, with most Brotherhood targeting systems able to see through their stealth without too much difficulty at even medium ranges.
Modern Particle Weapons
The Brotherhood has quite a number of advanced energy weapons technologies, some of the most effective are their particle beams. These are one leg of three very closely related technologies, namely ion, plasma, and particle. In practical terms all three are effectively the same thing with some minor and not so minor differences in use, design, and functionality. The most advanced Brotherhood particle beams came about due to the work of the LEGION and the Marked of Kane. While other factions have tended to use various forms of plasma bolt weaponry, the thousands of cyborgs left littering the sides of Cheyenne mountain were a wealth of information leading to improved particle weapons. While much of it has taken nearly a decade to actually work the kinks out of, they are some of the most refined versions of this technology that GDI has ever worked with.
Biowarfare
Biowarfare has been a part of the Brotherhood of Nod's arsenal for quite a long time, with biological research on both the macro and micro scale operations having been ongoing from the very beginning of their open operations. On the macroscales, it has been a series of attempts to work with Tiberium mutation on both human and animal test subjects. On the microscale, it is a mix of tailored bacterial and viral weapons intended to target specific strains of crops, animals, fungi and similarly valuable targets. For obvious reasons, much of this research will be focused on counter-agents or vaccines against these bioweapons.
[ ] Regional Hospital Expansions (Phase 1)
With the Initiative expanding into new urban zones, and the existing hospitals being already at the limits of their effective expansion, a series of new model hospitals, built with medical assistants and neurally interfaced operations in mind, will substantially increase GDI's ability to treat patients and improve overall health outcomes.
(Progress 121/300: 25 resources per die) (+4 Health) (-1 Energy, -1 Capital Goods, -1 Labor) [27, 40]
Building and siting the new hospital complexes is a relatively simple procedure. Near urban areas, preferentially near industrial and logistic centers, and after that it breaks down significantly more. For example, in South America or Russia, the hospitals are typically spaced a bit farther from other buildings, making avoiding them relatively easy. On the other hand, in areas like Indianapolis, the hospital is a low-slung, fortified building situated amid as many tall buildings as possible, the latter effectively acting as ablative armor for the hospital building itself in case of enemy action. Regardless of outward design concerns, the hospitals are built with many of the new medical advances in mind – specialized pathways are included for the various support robots, and rooms are configured to allow either remote or manual operations with a minimum of time wasted by either doctor or patient.
The hospitals themselves are a thorough look at all of the different motivations that influence Initiative decision making. For the military these hospital complexes are a critical need. Time is one of the key factors in ensuring positive medical outcomes, and not needing to rely on expensive, high-speed, and extremely vulnerable medivac-configured Hammerheads and Oxen to travel large distances to effective treatment centers is a significant advantage under nearly all circumstances, and beyond that they also support offensive operations into the Yellow Zones, as the Initiative has been pushing deeper. On the other hand, for most of the Initiative population, an all-up hospital complex is something that they will need rarely. A much smaller clinic will serve almost all of their immediate needs, with a hospital visit being an event that is most often scheduled and expected, rather than needed.
[ ] Ocular Implant Development (Platform)
While there are many elements to building effective ocular implants that are distinctly difficult at best, one of the more common injuries on the modern battlefield is flash blindness, with laser reflections and potentially the lasers themselves damaging or destroying critical parts of the eye. While the prosthetic will likely be difficult to implant, and significantly bulky, any form of sight is better than none.
(Progress 83/120: 20 resources per die) [51]
Eyes, simply put, are hard. Talking to the brain is hard. Implants are hard. Combining all three is exponentially difficult. While some have asked for features like unobtrusive profile, low maintenance, easy removability, and a wide array of other options, simply getting the program to work is the first step. The design as proposed is primarily external: a now-standard Talons-based civilian neural interface serving as the baseline, with a small computer unit, and six cameras providing a highly variable range of vision to the patients, in full color. While smaller and less capable designs are possible, they would not reduce the overall bulk by much.
Attempts to solve the problem of sight originated in 1929, when German scientist Otfrid Foerster stuck an electrode in his patient's brain and the patient saw a white dot, and at the dawn of the Tiberium age, William Dobelle made multiple implants and installed quite a number of them. However, his attempts proved to be more problematic than anything else, with multiple patients dying of intracranial infections and other complications of the surgeries.
More universally, even with a major infusion of funding, the program as a whole is nowhere near ready for broad deployment. While some human testing has begun, and reviews are generally positive, it will be very difficult to scale to anything that would make a noticeable dent in the overall blind population, especially with the long proliferation of laser systems. Beyond that, it is also a deeply temperamental design, having to be bolted to the skull for long term functioning, as even three to five millimeters of play is enough to be extremely problematic, and more has a tendency to induce seizures.
[ ] Orbital Strike Regimental Combat Team Stations (Phase 3)
With the first two rapid response stations assembled, if not yet fully ready for action, further development will begin focusing heavily on larger stations, not just to act as immediate reinforcements for embattled holdings, but forces intended to crush the Brotherhood under a rain of metal from the skies. (Station)
(Progress 295/295: 20 resources per die)
(Progress 319/395: 20 resources per die) [34, 13, 48, 87, 33, 51, 86, 9]
In terms of plan goals, the Treasury is only a few key steps away from declaring the OSRCT's final station to be ready for action. Specifically, it has been slow in installing a number of the key pieces to the final orbital station that can be immediately supported.
The two newest stations are also fundamentally different beasts to the older models, designed to carry a regiment of three battalion sized forces in the first case, and a brigade of nine in the second, they are each substantial upgrades to the size of the total force, bringing the OSRCT to a total of sixteen battalions, a sizable force in the modern day. In fact, the rapid pace of construction has somewhat dismayed the Space Force, who has been so far unable to source enough Zone Armor to arm the entire complement of the new stations.
Earlier stations used divots or box launcher systems for their drop pods. The issue with scaling up the pod system, (for example, by stacking multiple pods on top of each other,) is that in test runs fratricide becomes a significant issue. Each pod has to be launched in very close sequence to allow an entire battalion or more to be delivered to a single point, and often the entire formation must take high maneuvering angles to impact the atmosphere safely. The newer stations use a smaller number of magazine fed pod launchers. While they are actually firing significantly faster than the tubes, they stream out in a single line, with any small mistakes and calculation errors creating a useful spread instead of causing crashes.
Beyond the ability to launch more pods, the core redesign has been in the support assets. Two battalions is a relatively small force that was expected to be called up often, resulting in short tours on the station. The total force of 16 battalions and the slowdown of the conflict means that the OSRCT are on the station for longer, and require access to a wider array of specialist support staff.
Things like dental care, psychiatric and mental healthcare, far more capable medical forces in general, and a large array of other specialist needs are key to maintaining the readiness and capabilities of the troops long term. GDI can go months without needing sizable orbital deployments. Outside of major battles, a force of the size permitted by the regiment- and brigade-sized stations are simply not needed, so the Space Force has decided to keep the smaller stations the most active when deploying reinforcements in squad, platoon, and company size, and hold back the forces on the larger stations for exercises, personnel exchanges and readied for large deployments.
[ ] Universal Rocket Launch System Deployment (Phase 3)
Yet more missile production is going to do little more than begin preparing the ground for the reintroduction of MLRS platforms, either wheeled or hover, to GDI ranks, and lay in vast stockpiles of everything but naval missiles. As GDI has weathered the storm, this is mostly required for political reasons at this time.
(Progress 252/200: 15 resources per die) (-2 Energy) [93]
Manufacturing has finally worked the bugs out, and many of the new production lines have rattled into action, churning out all of the components for field assembly. While the number of launchers is relatively small, many rocket batteries have appeared on fortress towns, primarily using scratch built launchers. While they don't have the accuracy of purpose built launchers, and nearly all lack the ability to use guidance packages, simple weight of fire gives them significant ability to blunt or stop Brotherhood offensives against them.
Going forward, rather than bulk missile and other munitions deployments, the key pieces are likely to be far more specialized, with small total production runs of a few thousands at most for the missile sizes being deployed with the Thunderbolt missiles as they stand, much of which can be handled without the Secretary of the Treasury's attention. In terms of future missile projects, the most interesting upcoming development is the Navy switching over to the missiles for smaller roles, and looking towards scaling up the Thunderbolt to the sizes for at least the subsonic anti shipping missiles and antiaircraft designs. Additionally, the Ground Forces are clamoring for multirole, multiple launch missile launchers in both in purpose built stationary and mobile configurations.
[ ] Ground Forces Zone Armor (Set 1) (Updated)
The Initiative's Ground Forces are ready to begin refitting to an entirely zone armored force. The refit will create a leaner, harder, and drastically more lethal force, one that can engage the best that NOD has to offer, and come out on top. While this first wave of factories will only be enough to equip the tip of the spear, that is the area with the most vital set of requirements (High Priority)
-[ ] New York (Progress 183/180: 20 resources per die) (-2 Labor, -2 Energy, -1 Capital Goods) [nat 100, 31]
Staten Island has often been seen as only technically part of New York City, if that. However, for GDI's purposes it is close enough. Near the northern end of the island, a five-kilometer-long factory is taking form. Built around a single core line, the factory is designed with mass production in mind, with a dedicated dock on one end for shipments of myomers, chips, and other materials, and a marshaling yard on the other where completed suits are racked, ready to be loaded onto trucks and trains and shipped out to Chicago, where the first units to make use of the new suits are being mustered.
In a stroke of good fortune, one of New York's research laboratories has been working on an improved life support system for the SCED, one that is noticeably more energy efficient than existing designs. While it is incapable of dealing with the rigors of space, it is more than capable of keeping a human alive in a suit of power armor on the surface. With the SCED and ZOCOM using the same module linkages for their suits, switching over is extremely easy, and is going to be done universally for the class.
-[ ] London (Progress 121/180: 20 resources per die) (-2 Labor, -2 Energy, -1 Capital Goods) [56, 39]
While the New York factory raced ahead of planning, faced a nearly problem free course of construction, and was able to make use of supplies pre-positioned around New York for the planned shipyard expansions that fell through, the London factory has run into significant problems, most critically with the river itself. Attempts to tame the Thames have been ongoing since before the Romans conquered the isle, and each time, it has proven more than capable of overcoming any obstacle, especially as shifting political and economic winds make previous attempts fail to function.
The London factory is situated west of the city proper, on the river. The problem is that the river is not navigable enough for the heavy ships for both construction and more importantly longer term shipment of zone armor out, meaning that a second dock, east of the city, needs to be allocated to unloading and loading the ships needed, with a set of longboats dedicated to the Thames journey to and from the factory itself.
With both factories already nearly complete, the Zone Operations Command has come forward with a bold, and under most cases foolhardy plan. Take their Blue Zone and MARV hub units, strip them to the bones for training cadres, and use them to train Ground Forces units in place. While this will create a period of vulnerability, as the units familiarize themselves with the new equipment, it will allow for multiple fronts to be opened up against Tiberium with all of the heavy equipment needed available, as the crystal is currently considered the most pressing threat by all branches involved.
[ ] 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
-[ ] Newark (Progress 297/240: 20 resources per die) (-5 Energy, -2 Capital Goods) [92]
As the Newark yard opens its doors on the first day, elsewhere the first escort carrier hulls are slipping into the water, with repurposed battleship yards emptying themselves, most now switching over to servicing one of the Summits that had taken a delay. Far from complete, the hulls are little more than tubs, capable of nothing more than being towed from their birthplaces to begin fitting out. While behind them dozens more are waiting to be birthed, the fitting-out process and then working up are going to be both long and difficult, with the crews having to learn on the job, and figure out the hows and whys of a class that is a little bit different than those that came before it. While they are intended to be a relatively simple budget carrier design, that does not make them easy – between the networks of sensors, indicators, and support assets, the complicated piping system to deliver water, foam, and gas to any compartment on the ship, and the simple fact that carrier operations are some of the most complicated activities ever done aboard a ship.
In the shipyard however, it is a very different affair. The first sheets of steel have been delivered, and swarms of drones and workers have begun laying the keels. While work has, so far, been slow, much of it is a matter of learning the ropes and programming in routes oriented towards the specific layout of the shipyard, and dialing in many of the machines.
While the merchantmen conversions are likely to serve until between 2064 and 2065, they will be increasingly relegated to various close protection roles, harbor defense, and similar operations, serving as secondary flattops that do not need to maintain a constant CAP. With retirement they are almost certainly going to be relegated entirely to the breakers before the decade has passed.
[ ] Mastodon Heavy Assault Walker Deployment (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 259/225: 10 resources per die) (-3 Energy, -1 Capital Goods, -1 Labor, -1 STU) [89]
The first of the Mastodons have walked off the production lines, and while they have not yet seen battle, the mere sight of them has caused the Brotherhood to retreat multiple kilometers when they first caught sight of the massive war machines. However, they are also maintenance nightmares, with most of the units reporting a less than fifty percent readiness rate. The major culprits are the legs, which are straining at all the weight given to them. However there are also problems with the disco-ball lasers, which have a frustrating tendency to fall out of alignment, leaving them, at best, on the single target mode. While upkeep is not particularly hard, it is something that requires the Mastodons to return to their cradles in order to maintain it safely. For ships on the other hand, it is unlikely for alignment of the lasing system to be a problem outside of particularly prolonged battles.
"I would hesitate to describe the Mastodon as a pure white elephant. It is more simply an elephant-not totally useless and impractical, but it's sharply limited and rather expensive to upkeep. It's also quite a bit later than some had hoped for, but on the flipside it's potentially very capable. I think its future is better served as a threat than as an actual assault unit, but if it starts walking, NOD had better get out of the way or be trodden underfoot."
- Karen Masters, project lead Mastodon
[ ] Make Political Promises(Updated)
While Seo's parliamentary support is currently stable, it is possible to make additional promises to shore up his position, and make Parliament and other political figures happy with him. While this will require expansion of the plan goals, it will also provide other benefits.
(Can select multiple)
-[ ] Free Market Party: 228 seats (0; 50; 38; 140): Turn over 5 Capital Goods, and 20 resources per turn to the private market: +1d20 steps. (18 steps)
In a radical departure from the previous policy of mostly ignoring if not outright pushing back against FMP goals, the Treasury has agreed to release both a significant amount of capital goods and a substantial amount of additional funding in the form of grants to various forms of private development. While most of it is actually going to larger cooperatives, many of whom are regional powerhouses in their own right, some has gone to a number of new startups.
Politically, it has been a shift, but not a hugely meaningful one overall. While the funding has softened the near uniform opposition from the FMP, it has only moved a relative fraction of the seats. While this is not unexpected, given the near decade of constant roadblocks put up by the Treasury to the FMP's positions. Mostly, the seats that have shifted were beholden, to one degree or another to one of the larger cooperatives that have benefited most from the allocation of capital goods, with plans to open major factories and other critical complexes.
-[ ] Homeland Party: 50 seats (15; 32; 3; 0): Commit to completing Chicago Planned City next plan. (+1d30 steps) (27 steps)
Chicago was an experiment, and a significant one at that. While the original purpose has been a failure, with the expansion of the Blue Zones overtaking the city over a year ago, it has been reconfigured into an industrial center – one that some in the Treasury have been advocating abandoning as a project, or at least letting it lie fallow for longer. They cite the current cost/benefit analysis models for the short-term return-on-investments for the scale of effort to complete Chicago, compared to other, more time-critical tasks.
Politically, committing to completing the project is a significant boon to the party, with Chicago being a major American city reclaimed from Tiberium, and one that has the potential to become more than a Tiberium processing center: a central industrial region, with major developments in the area around it and a substantial service sector already emerging in the region.
-[ ] Biodiversity Party: 34 seats (4; 10; 20; 0): Complete Ranching Domes: +1d3 steps (1 step)
The ranching domes' completion has seen a small but noticeable step in the Treasury's direction on the part of the Biodiversity party. While allowing them to claim some credit has been an easy decision, it has also not netted significant gains for the Treasury, with the already in-motion project nearly completed even before the Treasury reached out to the party.
-[ ] Reclamation Party: 12 Seats (3; 9; 0; 0): Commit to Increase Red Zone Abatement by at least 20 points next plan: +2d6 steps (7 steps)
In a major coup for the small party, the Treasury has publicly committed to a significant amount of Red Zone abatement for the next plan. While likely less than the total that will be asked of the Treasury in the upcoming reapportionment, the commitment to a minimum strongly indicates a substantial effort towards attacking the Red Zones, rather than pushing more into Nod territories.
Politically, the party has been pulled well into the Treasury's sphere of influence, their votes all but guaranteed with only a handful of trinkets at most. While not uniformly supportive of all the Treasury's policies, it is likely that they can be pushed quite far on a large number of other matters.
[ ] Interdepartmental Favors (Updated)
By reaching out to the other departments and providing aid to them, the Treasury can improve its overall position within the broader Initiative. While this will require resource allocation to their projects, that is a small price to pay in exchange for political favor.
(Can select multiple)
-[ ] Navy: Develop and Deploy Governor A: +5 Political Support
The Navy is in the process of moving out of the post-war malaise and imprecision about its overall mission, and towards a more coherent vision of its goals. Outlined in Fleetplan 2070, the Navy sees its primary mission as convoy escort and blue water dominance, primarily acting independently, rather than in support of ground and air force missions. The key ship in this vision is the proposed 'Governor A' refit, which the Navy sees as its potentially most versatile combat platform, as capable of submarine hunting in the south Atlantic as it is fighting Bintang's surface fleet in the Pacific. Beyond that, the fleet's interests are going to be primarily defensive rather than offensive, reducing or cutting entirely classes of coastal monitors and assault flattops in exchange for larger formations of frigates, cruisers, and potentially expanded fleets of heavy capital ships.
The Governor A as a class is not an immediate priority. With a wide array of technological upgrades ranging from buckler shields to provide additional protection over hard-to-armor areas, to the potential for a third generation of directed energy APS and first generation DEAAA, along with fusion reactors and other upgrades immediately over the horizon, the navy is happy to wait for a significant period, so long as the upgrades that could go on the Governor are being worked on.
-[ ] ZOCOM: Build at least 2 Zone Armor factories before the end of the year: +5 Political Support
Memorandum
From: Chief of Staff Ground Forces, Chief of Staff Zone Operations Command
To: Secretary of the Treasury
Dear Sir,
We understand that your office has agreed to the provisioning for a total of two new Zone Armor factories, and is pursuing this course of action with all due haste. This greatly lessens our concerns for our ability to expand operations in the Red Zones as well as for the consequences of the evident expansion of Nod's Gana program. We also understand that the Treasury is worried about its ability to grow the Global Defense Initiative's economy and expects to aggressively pursue increased resourcing efforts through any avenue available. We would like to inform you that as a result of the severe degrading of Nod's military capabilities during the recent Regency War we expect that Nod will be unable to effectively contest any Red Zone operations at all in the near future.
Although expanding operations in such a hostile environment would currently leave ZOCOM severely over extended, there exists a short window of opportunity where such an over extension is unlikely to be punished, which would permit broad or targeted offensives into the Red Zones for the purposes of abatement to be performed. The temporary nature of Nod's weakness unfortunately does mean that if these operations are to be more than a short term effort the development of a considerably enlarged supply of infantry equipment sufficiently hardened against tiberium contamination will be required. Units which would use this equipment will need a considerable measure of retraining, but if the needed equipment is delivered promptly they should be qualified for Red Zone operations by the time Nod is capable of probing GDI's expanded abatement efforts.
Sincerely,
Chief of Staff, Ground Forces
Chief of Staff, Zone Operations Command
-[ ] InOps: Turn over at least 60 RpT per year over the course of the next plan (minimum of 1680 resources; ongoing transfers to InOps end in 2065 reallocation): +10 Political Support
Intelligence Operations has a critical need for more funding than can be practically budgeted by Parliament in the coming reallocation. Between the need for expanded civil intelligence work, rebuilding and expansion of military intelligence, and building the capability to support the diplomatic corps, existing or practically allocated budgets will be far from enough.
The resources allocated from this deal will go primarily towards immediate costs, while the Parliamentary budgets will go towards sustainment and upkeep costs such as personnel. This is also likely to be a one time deal rather than one that gets repeated, as GDI is unlikely to see another major offensive in the coming decade.
-[ ] SCED: Develop and build at least one Conestoga class: +5 Political Support
The Pathfinder unlocked the solar system. However, with the SCED shifting ever more from probing missions to longer term scientific projects and prototype settlements, the ability to actively supply them is already starting to become somewhat questionable, especially if the Pathfinder is to be dedicated to other tasks. A larger and more capable G-drive vessel is needed both to back up Pathfinder in case of a severe technical fault, and to provide for long-term operations across the Solar System, ranging from Martian bases to examine what seems to be a near cousin of Tiberium, to examinations of what it takes to live in the outer Solar System.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Finally, the secret Venus Tiberium lore is revealed at last. We must get to Venus to feed our STU addiction.
One again a great speech by Carter. Paths self on back
- Location
- Africa
what do these steps mean ?
- Location
- The Underdark
A step is a unit of parliamentary movement. Basically one seat moving one position closer to you.
Hmm, might be worth going for more Vein mines if it's becoming an issue.
Also the Qatarites continue to die off, going for stuff like visceroid and forgotten research along with the Gene therapy stuff might help stave that off a bit longer if we can get it out fast enough.
- Location
- USA
Well looks like we might be losing some advisers in the coming years. Makes sense to have that otherwise we would just rack up bonus after bonus. The tib bonus decreasing will hurt but something we can overcome.
Strunkriidiisk
THE LEGEND
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
See this? This means 'invest in the Steel Talons more than the bare minimum, or say goodbye to two of our Military dice.'
In other words I don't want to see any more whining about mecha.
- Location
- London
The fact that people were whining about giant mechs makes me sad.
So, it looks like we want to invest in both vein mines and RZ Border Offensives next turn... and in Blue Zone Inhibitors not too long after. (ZOCOM taking the risk means we'll need to keep putting at least 2-3 dice into ZA factories for a while, but that's no surprise.)
Escort Carriers are starting to work up, even if just a few from the Battleship Yards group.
And Erewhon seems to be contemplating the idea of hope, and a future. As soon as we figure out how, it's getting all the hugs.
Escort Carriers are starting to work up, even if just a few from the Battleship Yards group.
And Erewhon seems to be contemplating the idea of hope, and a future. As soon as we figure out how, it's getting all the hugs.
The Steel talons themselves are calling their Mastodon 'flawed'. Before we make any more massive mechs we need to work on the legs and things that support them. Beyond that the Talons will get their money.
Overall not a bad turn. Very little in it can be taken as bad news or ominous. Which leads me to think a shoe is about to drop. Interesting to see that the Ranching Domes can lead to Medical+'s. Mad science commences with Steel talons getting some funding beyond what we give.
We now have our own psychics. Good. Time to see how well they can be utilized and if there are any problems we need to head off. Don't want an Xmen situation too pop up.
The confirmation that NOD can see through its own stealth is unsurprising. Time to see what we can do with it. Looking forward to Stealth warmachines.
Overall not a bad turn. Very little in it can be taken as bad news or ominous. Which leads me to think a shoe is about to drop. Interesting to see that the Ranching Domes can lead to Medical+'s. Mad science commences with Steel talons getting some funding beyond what we give.
We now have our own psychics. Good. Time to see how well they can be utilized and if there are any problems we need to head off. Don't want an Xmen situation too pop up.
The confirmation that NOD can see through its own stealth is unsurprising. Time to see what we can do with it. Looking forward to Stealth warmachines.
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Crafter of War
The Dorf
- Location
- Bend
I'm more confused about some of the arguments they make. Like "Mechs don't work in real life". Okay? And? It clearly works in-universe.
- Location
- USA
Next turn is Q4- why would we want to do Vein mines instead doing them Q1 to recover income. RZ I can see if they think they can support doing some now. For ZA- I would imagine we want to keep working on 1 to 2 a turn (next turn would be 1 because we still have other plan goals we have to hit).