Attempting to Fulfill the Plan: GDI Edition

Esprit · Aug 3, 2022

Image said:
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.

The Mastodon is flawed not because it doesn't have enough gubbins but because we invented too many new gubbins in between the time when the project first appeared and when it rolled out from a production line.

The Steel Talons is the "we bolt as much fancy tech as we can onto testbed vehicles" department of the military. By developing new stuff, we caused so much more mass to be added to the thing that it had to switch from a 4-legged to a 6-legged form factor simply to hold the weight.

Better legs is good, but more important is just doing Steel Talons rollouts often enough that they don't have two many all-new dingbats on them. Even a single development cycle is enough to reduce the overweight factor.

Rakuhn · Aug 3, 2022

I'd kinda like to put a die in the YZ inhibitor. It's on the NA continent, costs no energy, and might help slow down underground tib growth there.

If we're lucky, it might also be enough to tip us to the next level of leverage in the Kane negotiations.

qazcdewsx · Aug 3, 2022

The giant mech doesn't seem to be very good though. The maintenance problems mean it will have to keep returning to base which limits there operational range. Given that they were supposed to be able to walk cross country and deploy themselves without straining our rail network this is a major problem. I don't want to do anymore mechs until we've addressed them. Nod's Fast-Twitch Myomers would probably be a good start but I'm not sure what to do about the disco-ball lasers falling out of alignment.

Void Stalker · Aug 3, 2022

Is the Mastodon the biggest mech we have rolled out? If so then toothing issues to be solved in a new model would be expected to an extent

Rakuhn · Aug 3, 2022

Steel talons are always the bleeding edge. If they aren't having reliability problems, they aren't doing their job.

Once they get the kinks worked out and the platform optimized, we can get the option to roll the mechs out to the ground forces.

Ithillid · Aug 3, 2022

Void Stalker said:
Is the Mastodon the biggest mech we have rolled out? If so then toothing issues to be solved in a new model would be expected to an extent

It is the second largest mech ever built by human hands, only marginally smaller than the Brotherhood of Nod's Redeemers.

qazcdewsx · Aug 3, 2022

Thats very big. I'm amazed that at no point did the Talons think that maybe they should stop adding all of the new toys to the Mastodon and just settle for some of them.

Void Stalker · Aug 3, 2022

Ithillid said:
It is the second largest mech ever built by human hands, only marginally smaller than the Brotherhood of Nod's Redeemers.

Right so GDI first crack at it meaning we have issues with scaling things up. That makes sense. Hopefully Mk2 will not have the leg issues and instead just have issues with cutting edge systems.

qazcdewsx said:
Thats very big. I'm amazed that at no point did the Talons think that maybe they should stop adding all of the new toys to the Mastodon and just settle for some of them.

It is not a matter of adding toys that made the size but the decision that we need something that can challenge the redeemer that determined size. And we ended up with scaling issues that we will solve for a Mk2.

Phant0m5 · Aug 3, 2022

Ithillid said:
Mastodon...
The major culprits are the legs, which are straining at all the weight given to them.

Is this something that will be fixed with one of the myomer factory capstones?

Hazard · Aug 3, 2022

Void Stalker said:
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).

Because GDI does not lose money in reallocation and the Treasury is responsible for coughing up the money the rest of GDI uses.

Yes, it is sub optimal for the Treasury. Deal with it. InOps struck a deal with us for more funding because they desperately need substantially more funding than they are getting, and the rest of the departments probably do too. Take the hint and roll out more money projects even if the Treasury does not directly benefit.

Hazardine · Aug 3, 2022

Ithillid said:
Still waiting for Hymnos though.

Ah, I like that this is a thing in-universe, if only for my love of Ar Tonelico stuff.

Model DC.14F · Aug 3, 2022

Since it sounds like we need to do more Steel Talon projects to keep Tali Jackson, does anyone have any preferences?

There are several tech projects to further improve our shield or laser techs, but I'm also interested in the Unmanned Support Ground Vehicle Development (Tech), since it might synergize with the harvesting claw bot/vein mine projects.

Strunkriidiisk · Aug 3, 2022

qazcdewsx said:
The giant mech doesn't seem to be very good though. The maintenance problems mean it will have to keep returning to base which limits there operational range. Given that they were supposed to be able to walk cross country and deploy themselves without straining our rail network this is a major problem. I don't want to do anymore mechs until we've addressed them. Nod's Fast-Twitch Myomers would probably be a good start but I'm not sure what to do about the disco-ball lasers falling out of alignment.

Well, regardless, if we want to keep our dice we're obliged to continue building more mecha.

[Grins]

Validation is sweet. I can't wait.

Void Stalker · Aug 3, 2022

Hazard said:
Because GDI does not lose money in reallocation and the Treasury is responsible for coughing up the money the rest of GDI uses.

Yes, it is sub optimal for the Treasury. Deal with it. InOps struck a deal with us for more funding because they desperately need substantially more funding than they are getting, and the rest of the departments probably do too. Take the hint and roll out more money projects even if the Treasury does not directly benefit.

So do the RZ operations and keep vein mines for when claws finish Q1 of next year -edit also they are going to get a ton of money shifted there way, and we did push out some heavy income projects this year as well

Model DC.14F said:
Since it sounds like we need to do more Steel Talon projects to keep Tali Jackson, does anyone have any preferences?

There are several tech projects to further improve our shield or laser techs, but I'm also interested in the Unmanned Support Ground Vehicle Development (Tech), since it might synergize with the harvesting claw bot/vein mine projects.

Sparkle shield as that might be a minor boost to our next fusion power. Modular Rapid Assembly System Prototypes sounds useful for any renewed offensives. And the 2 40 progress lasers are 1 dice actions

aceraptor · Aug 3, 2022

Model DC.14F said:
Since it sounds like we need to do more Steel Talon projects to keep Tali Jackson, does anyone have any preferences?

There are several tech projects to further improve our shield or laser techs, but I'm also interested in the Unmanned Support Ground Vehicle Development (Tech), since it might synergize with the harvesting claw bot/vein mine projects.

Modular Rapid Assembly System prototypes are a must if we want to take a crack at the Visitor base in the outer system in a couple of Plans. MRAS will lead to rapidly deployable mobile bases (kinda like Crawlers from Tib 4 though different) which will be essential for supporting ground offensive against the Visitor squatters. And we will need ground offensive if we want to refresh our Visitor tech loot gacha.

DecaffeinatedOwl · Aug 3, 2022

Ithillid said:
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.

Ithillid said:
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

If @Ithillid would ever give us a trap option this would be it. Nod's getting their house back in order faster than everyone expected, so the window might shut on us unexpectedly.

We should still pursue it, if ZOCOM thinks it's able, but cautiously.

Vehrec · Aug 3, 2022

Simon_Jester said:
My own opinion is... mixed. Let me explain.

*snip*

Maybe in 2064-65.

Well, since we've got the update and it's talking about the navy's opinion, I can say that I think that there will be no Landing Ships or Monitors in 65. Maybe not even 64.

----

Meanwhile, I am seriously thinking we should do a lot of Tiberium Power, and offset it's PS cost with blue zone inhibitors next plan.

19 BZInhibitors is +19 PS, while 6 phases of tiberium power costs only -30 PS! What a steal it would be! The only problem is that it would take something like 30 tiberium dice just for the inhibitors alone.

HousePet · Aug 3, 2022

Model DC.14F said:
Since it sounds like we need to do more Steel Talon projects to keep Tali Jackson, does anyone have any preferences?

There are several tech projects to further improve our shield or laser techs, but I'm also interested in the Unmanned Support Ground Vehicle Development (Tech), since it might synergize with the harvesting claw bot/vein mine projects.

We could deploy the plasma cannons that they have been asking for.

TheFourthman · Aug 3, 2022

HousePet said:
We could deploy the plasma cannons that they have been asking for.

I've seen some talk about shields. Researching and deploying both shield types would count as Talon options. As well as start the ball rolling for these items to hit general deployment.

Calvin · Aug 3, 2022

Ithillid said:
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.

Oddly sympathetic.

Ithillid said:
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.

All of these things could prove problematic.

Ithillid said:
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.

I do wonder if genetic engineering could help their situation.

Ithillid said:
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.

Excellent.

Ithillid said:
When applied to legs, these fast-and-slow combinations give great potential for an enhanced ability to bound, leap, and hop across a battlefield.

This might have potential in a Havoc successor in a few years.

Ithillid said:
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

I... was hoping for the amphibious assault ships. I could see the monitors being cut entirely, however.

aceraptor · Aug 3, 2022

We should definitely be going Steel Talons heavy the next couple of 5 year plans because we need their cutting edge stuff to prepare for the war against the Visitors in the outer system since if we want to turn them into loot pinatas we'll need boots on the ground. MRAS is a must at the very minimum if we want to be able to support such an operation.

HousePet · Aug 3, 2022

TheFourthman said:
I've seen some talk about shields. Researching and deploying both shield types would count as Talon options. As well as start the ball rolling for these items to hit general deployment.

We developed plasma cannons in Q1 2060.
Sure we could start developing new shield technology. But why do that without rolling out the tech we've had waiting for over a year.
One of these can be deployed this turn, and it isn't Sparkle Shields.

Ithillid · Aug 3, 2022

Calvin said:
I... was hoping for the amphibious assault ships. I could see the monitors being cut entirely, however.

Basically this is your warning to fund it or lose it. Because they can still rewrite Fleetplan 2070 to include all of the offensive navy stuff too, but right now, to them, it looks like what the Treasury wants to fund is an almost entirely defensive navy.

Calvin · Aug 3, 2022

Ithillid said:
Basically this is your warning to fund it or lose it. Because they can still rewrite Fleetplan 2070 to include all of the offensive navy stuff too, but right now, to them, it looks like what the Treasury wants to fund is an almost entirely defensive navy.

I suppose we should at least get to work on the Islands, preferably quickly if we want Karachi next plan. We could probably throw a die on the development project this turn.

Hazard · Aug 3, 2022

TripleTango said:
If @Ithillid would ever give us a trap option this would be it. Nod's getting their house back in order faster than everyone expected, so the window might shut on us unexpectedly.

We should still pursue it, if ZOCOM thinks it's able, but cautiously.

It's not a trap.

Ithillid is a not a hostile QM.

What it is, is ZOCOM and the Ground Force highest commanders saying 'we are betting that so long as you deliver Zone Armour factories on time we can have reinforcements in place before Nod actually manages to deliver a large enough force to challenge the understaffed garrisons we will need to deploy if you decide to go for extensive RZ operations'.

They probably have access to InOps reports and force structure analyses the Treasury Secretary doesn't see because, frankly, Seo has better things to do than getting into the weeds of that. But it's not completely without risk, yes.

Attempting to Fulfill the Plan: GDI Edition

Asura of Darkness

THE LEGEND