F0lkL0re
Officially not an Inquisitor
- Location
- Shetland
STU is an abbreviation of Stable TransUranic's.
Attempting to Fulfill the Plan: GDI Edition
- Location
- Earth
Stable Trans-Uranic atoms, at least officially. In practice, its noted that there is probably some weird physics-voodoo that distinguishes them from 'normal' atoms of their proton and neutron counts, though GDI can't currently tell what.
thanks for the answer! 
KnightDisciple
Love God. Do Right. Fear No Man.
- Location
- Midwest, USA
Getting mass numbers of people to move to space likely requires being able to provide them with living conditions extremely close to Earth.
The Colonies in Gundam, especially Universal Century, are actually relevant in terms of reference/perspective. The O'Neil Cylinder models we see have not only a large open space with breathable air outside of buildings/bunkers/boxes, but green and growing things. Trees, grass, etc. People on those colonies can reliably live a life that's extremely close to that of Earth.
Currently, at best we offer a much cruder, more chemical-smelling version of some of the less advanced space stations seen in Star Trek; corridors and rooms, perhaps with some thick windows to space, artificial gravity, and temperature control/breathable air. Everything's metal and plastic and so on, everything might be clean but it's unnatural. That's not appealing to families, to people who aren't truly dedicated to Space.
We need true Space Colonies, in number/bulk, to appeal to people.
Being able to give them a wider and wider array of nutritious and appealing food is a non-trivial component of that but not the central one. We could offer five-course meals but if living in space is basically "take a submarine but give everyone 5 times as much space" most folks will say "HELL NO".
The Colonies in Gundam, especially Universal Century, are actually relevant in terms of reference/perspective. The O'Neil Cylinder models we see have not only a large open space with breathable air outside of buildings/bunkers/boxes, but green and growing things. Trees, grass, etc. People on those colonies can reliably live a life that's extremely close to that of Earth.
Currently, at best we offer a much cruder, more chemical-smelling version of some of the less advanced space stations seen in Star Trek; corridors and rooms, perhaps with some thick windows to space, artificial gravity, and temperature control/breathable air. Everything's metal and plastic and so on, everything might be clean but it's unnatural. That's not appealing to families, to people who aren't truly dedicated to Space.
We need true Space Colonies, in number/bulk, to appeal to people.
Being able to give them a wider and wider array of nutritious and appealing food is a non-trivial component of that but not the central one. We could offer five-course meals but if living in space is basically "take a submarine but give everyone 5 times as much space" most folks will say "HELL NO".
I mean, most people are going to say "No Tiberium? No Nod? Hell Yes!!!".
Even the shittiest of long-term space habitation is comparable, or outright superior, to our best habitation earthside. Safety is the second level of the hierarchy of needs (after air, water, heat, and calories) for a reason.
Even the shittiest of long-term space habitation is comparable, or outright superior, to our best habitation earthside. Safety is the second level of the hierarchy of needs (after air, water, heat, and calories) for a reason.
- Pronouns
- He/It/Argh!
My solution to this dilemma would be Conestoga -> Fusion Bay -> Gravitic Bay.
Although I'm assuming we can get a prototype Conestoga built.
KnightDisciple
Love God. Do Right. Fear No Man.
- Location
- Midwest, USA
Not really? Blue Zones, at least currently, are generally comparable to modern-day earth. Tiberium is an abstract danger that's not visible day-to-day for those people. Nod terror attacks are likely a sharper fear, but bluntly they're going to be a fear on par with things like school shootings. Bad, scary, etc, but not something that makes most folks move away.
I think you're underestimating what it would take for the vast majority of people to be willing to permanently live in space.
I suspect that you are underestimating just how scary the vore crystal, and living on a slowly-exploding planet with hundreds of millions of people that you've been in a war of mutual annihilation for the better part of a century is.
Regardless, it'll be a very, very long time until we're looking at getting a significant minority, much less the vast majority, of people into space.
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Not quite, from what I recall. Tiberium, though contained inside a sonic fence, is present in the center of a roundabout in the London Scrin mission in TibWars. (For one example.) Most forests, even in blue zones, are much smaller if not gone. And now we're getting actual data about underground Tiberium, and it's looking bad.
That said, I do hope both that the later phases of Columbia, and bays with higher-quality housing, will help make the station less of an austere testbed, because that definitely would be a problem. (And hopefully just continued inhabitation will help with that.)
Edit: semi-ninja'd, but keeping it because I want to push against commie-blocks-in-space.
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Living in a Blue Zone is definitely nothing like living in a space station, yeah the environment is noticeably degraded from pre-Tiberium but you can still just.... go for a walk outside along the river, under a blue sky that goes on to infinity, in natural sunlight, feeling the wind on your face. Even if we make space stations that can match an arcology apartment in quality of your little box, the people who live in arcologies don't spend literally 100% of their lives in their boxes, they still go outside sometimes and it's shocking what occasional exposure to a real sky and real sunlight (or their absence) can do for your mental health.
- Location
- USA
Keep in mind the current station is not even 1,000 people. Our plan goal is 20,000 people- 20,000 is not even a small city in a lot of places. We are going to need a lot more than that in space before it starts triggering a bigger pop growth. Still we are getting a tiny boost and if we keep engaging in hope that may spread and grow.
Wolf girls
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Overdone, even.
There are people who willing live in the Fortress Towns, somewhat for the negative rent, mostly for the Blue Zone PTSD.
We're not going to lack for colonist candidates in these early stages I think. And later, we'll either have it down pat, or we'll be stuffing people six to a bunk because we ran out of time.
- Location
- Mobile, Alabama
Agreed no one likes overdone food.
Dad jokes Aside.
Could I ask a dumb question? Most of our space stuff is orbital. We need that to develop off world but why would most of the population need to be in orbit when we have the moon? At a certain point it just makes sense to switch to Lunar colonies to hold the population? Or maybe that is the point am I'm just brain dead from 12 hour days.
Lunar colonies are the mid and long term plan, but we need to start a little closer to home for the experimental prototypes. If something goes wrong, you want to be 3 hours away from help, not 3 days.
Yeah, I expect a lot of the people who want to go into space will be those who've had to live in Yellow Zones - sure, vacuum is dangerous, but it's not actively trying to eat through the walls.
And yes, lunar cities are potentially one of the ways we can contribute to the 20k population goal, if we focus on that. That would require doing the Fusion bay early, most likely.
- Pronouns
- He/It/Argh!
The moon is much further away. We'll need to make our transport infrastructure more robust before people will feel comfortable living that far away.
While we can send resupply ships to the moon regularly, and already do for the mining operations, I expect a lunar city to be a much more self sustaining design.
In many ways, our 4 existing big station projects are test-beds for the technology we will need to create a more self sufficient lunar city.
The moon is also a very different environment to work with compared to Earth or orbital stations. And at the moment, we have more experience constructing orbital infrastructure than we do for constructing lunar infrastructure.
So, it is just that orbital is much easier at the moment, and also serves as a stepping stone for moving towards lunar cities.
While we can send resupply ships to the moon regularly, and already do for the mining operations, I expect a lunar city to be a much more self sustaining design.
In many ways, our 4 existing big station projects are test-beds for the technology we will need to create a more self sufficient lunar city.
The moon is also a very different environment to work with compared to Earth or orbital stations. And at the moment, we have more experience constructing orbital infrastructure than we do for constructing lunar infrastructure.
So, it is just that orbital is much easier at the moment, and also serves as a stepping stone for moving towards lunar cities.
Ace of Scarabs
Mechanoid Pilot
- Location
- Singapore
Having the equivalent of garden domes inside a space habitat, where people can grow plants and enjoy the greenery, will be a longterm must. It'll be part of developing the habitats required to grow crops and raise livestock in space anyway, and adding smaller-scale versions of said habitats repurposed into community gardens/personal farm plots would do wonders for people living in space longterm.
grimely
Twink Death Sufferer
We've had lunar water as a locked project since forever waiting for us to build our infrastructure on the moon, so the pathway is there we've just been focused stations. To meet the plan goal we might need to hit the lunar mining projects hard though, depending on whether or not second line stations are viable as soon as we finish Colombia and Shala.
So, I'm working out the GD-x list rifle-wise, and I got wondering. GDI's used the M16 (C&C) and Cobretti Raptor (Renegade) during TW1, and according to the GD-3 dev entry standardized on the Raptor. These appear to both be 5.56mm guns. By 2030 we have the M16 Mk II, which is a .22 caliber pulse rifle (basically same size round as before, but not metric). By TW3, there's the GD-2... which has no round information. Given that, cyborgs of TW2/Firestorm aside, Nod doesn't seem to have really invested in body armor, I'm guessing that the GD-2 is still 5.56 or .22 caliber (also the design of it in the unit icon for the rifleman looks a lot like the M41A pulse rifle prop also used in C&C2 that was designated "M16 Mk II" alongside a Ruger Mini-14 based prop).
My question is... does the GD-3 keep the 5.56/.22 round size, just adds a 20-25mm grenade launcher for anti-Gana capability, or does it do like the XM5 is doing and increase round size for better performance against "body armor"? The part about making new machine guns to match new rifle ammunition seems to point to a new round size. ... unless the GD-3 is more akin to the XM25 (the standalone 25mm grenade launcher from the OICW project), in which case the new rifle "round" the GD-M3 is built around is 20-25mm?
--
As an aside, I realized recently why Gideon had to go. Kane's Stahl-ing for time.
My question is... does the GD-3 keep the 5.56/.22 round size, just adds a 20-25mm grenade launcher for anti-Gana capability, or does it do like the XM5 is doing and increase round size for better performance against "body armor"? The part about making new machine guns to match new rifle ammunition seems to point to a new round size. ... unless the GD-3 is more akin to the XM25 (the standalone 25mm grenade launcher from the OICW project), in which case the new rifle "round" the GD-M3 is built around is 20-25mm?
--
As an aside, I realized recently why Gideon had to go. Kane's Stahl-ing for time.
- Location
- The Underdark
So, GDI has been using a 6.5mm round basically from the 2030s on. The GD3 is keeping more or less the GD2 round, and adding a grenade launcher over top.
So like the XM29 OICW OTL, for example?
- Location
- The Underdark
I explicitly referenced it in the writeup, yes.