i hope that eventually cybernetics will take the Cyberpunk 2077 and pick Endgame V over Adam Smasher since end game V can look like a mostly normal person
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Attempting to Fulfill the Plan: GDI Edition
I will say that the storyline is reasonably coherent within a game, but from one game to the next may not be so coherent. Some would argue this is somewhat the case from C&C2 to C&C3, or from C&C3 to C&C4. But other than "where'd the algae go and why is Tiberium all crystal now?", the storyline remains fairly coherent across the first 3 games (only fairly. What was up with the whole world changing missile thing in C&C2?).
And coherent storylines between games has no real place in the Red Alert franchise at all, given the role of time travel in that franchise's backstory.
grimely
Twink Death Sufferer
Since we're talking about the games, in a weird coincidence the complete collection just got released onto Steam. Command & Conquer™ The Ultimate Collection on Steam
its what prompted this whole thing
- Location
- New England
From God, to Kane, to %current_subordinate_name%
Ah yes, %current_subordinate_name%. Silly person thought they could do power plays against Kane right under his nose. You'd think that'd not become a recurring habit, but here we are.
aledeth
The Flesh is Weak
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Wouldn't that be %previous_subordinate_name%? %current_subordinate_name% is obviously a loyal, faithful member of the Brotherhood who would never dream of repeating %previous_subordinate_name%'s mistakes.
They'll just make brand new ones!
- Location
- Africa
to be fair Adam Smasher could do that too, in fact he did used to do that, he a dedicated cyborg body for leisure that looked and functioned like a normal human that he would slot into
Q3 2064 Results
- Location
- The Underdark
GDI Online Q3 2064
Terrans Fall First
Jim Higgins
Terrans Fall First is a tactical third/first person shooter, with a four player cooperative campaign based heavily on the exploits of the OSRCT. Feet first into hell is probably the best way to describe it, as the game rapidly ramps up from curbstomps into tactics like using drop pods for boarding actions, and the air becoming mostly bullets by volume. While you do have significant ability to deliver tactical options (thrown beacons for the most part), operational strikes (targets designated on a separate map screen), and finally strategic strikes that are called down before the mission opens.
For larger multiplayer, it is a asymmetric game, with real time strategy players on one side, and shooter players on the others, with games going as extreme as sixteen to one, with four teams of four players, each with separate objectives, mission packages, and communications, all against a single player managing their resources to fight all four groups.
In terms of enemies, there are three groups, colloquially called Bugs, Bots, and Boomers.
Bugs are in some ways the tactically simplest of the lot, focusing on swarming down the players with large numbers of very cheap units, but their high quality stuff, such as the scourge, are absolute monsters, able to intercept reinforcing drop pods with suicide bombs, rope players into melee range, and blanket the area in spores and smoke to make ranged play much harder.
Bots on the other hand are a very sneaky game, able to rapidly overwhelm player groups in a crossfire and with a barrage of impact fused (although for the most part very small blast radius) weaponry. However, every bot has a pretty obvious weak point, heads for most of the small and medium units, and vents for medium and heavy ones. Nearly any bot can be killed with even very basic weapons, but fire discipline is something that most players I have met really don't have.
Boomers are the closest that the game gets to a mirror match, with an emphasis on artillery, fire positions, and cover. At the start, they are basic infantry, with rifles, but by the end, they have most of the same toys you do, and there are a lot more of them than there are of you.
FloatingWood
Bugs may be tactically simple, but with a good minder they are absolutely horrible to fight against. Good for learning the mechanics of the game, but at the higher levels they start swarming to an absolutely ludicrous extent.
CrystalSkull
I find the Boomers to be a pain in the ass when the AI starts focusing on endless artillery barrages. I have to crawl my way forward inch by inch to get an objective.
Jim Higgins
#CrystalSkull
Heh, AI is ezmode compared to an enemy player, especially if you irritate them. They have a tendency to drown the target in shells.
As for counterplay to the boomers, I have tended to run Scout and Light suits, always with jumpjets, and pretty much every mobility option I can bolt onto them. Slugging matches are not a way to win against the boomers, ever.
FloatingWood
#CrystalSkull #JimHiggins Slugging matches against the Swarm start in your favour, but the bugs actually get higher income as the casualties mount. Pick a fight, hit hard, run away before the reinforcements can escalate. Repeat. Or get drowned in numbers.
BearlyThere
Good timing. There's a whole bunch of new consumer-grade chips coming out of NA in the next couple of months. I've been looking for a game to justify me spending a good portion of my paycheck on upgrading my system. Now, if only it had good VI partners… When are the next gen EVAs coming, anyways?
DrownedInTheBlue
#CrystalSkull
Sounds like you need to focus on stealth gameplay, the AI is at least not completely cheating, it will only direct patrols to your general location, rather than redeploying all of its forces to perfectly counter you. Credit where credit is due, they really tried to make the AI feel fair.
#FloatingWood
Is it based on casualties? I thought it was based on bodies being near active bugs, then again I don't particularly enjoy fighting the swarm, they're really more of an action flick fight then the actual tactics I'm looking for when playing TFF.
Teardown: Avatar
Jordyn Harris
Welcome to an episode of Teardown I never expected to be able to make. Links in the usual places.
I got my hands on a stars damned AVATAR!
Overall thoughts, very, interesting, with a lot of components done in ways I have never seen before. The way that they do their modular combat system is interesting, because we have all seen them tearing components off of other Nod vehicles, usually the disabled ones, but even so. Now, the trick actually seems to be some form of universal service bus. Not a new trick, GDI has had variants of that going back to the earliest days of the MARV program, and probably before then in the classified files. But this is something more than a little different. A pod system that can be slotted even in the middle of combat, and to a limited degree even route around damages.
On the other hand, their legs are a maintenance nightmare. Hips are very clearly biomimetic, but biomimetic to humans, and I don't think I need to explain to anyone over the age of maturity why that can be problematic. And then the lower legs are these weird skeletonized things. Very much something where they can learn from GDI rather than the other way around.
YellowZon3r (verified military)
Hell yeah! Man it was my dream to pilot one of those things since I was a kid. How does it stack up against the Havoc do you know?
Jordyn Harris
So, the Havoc I got my hands on was already stripped of all the sensitive bits. The shields were all pulled out, etc.
FloatingWood
How the hell did you get your hands on an Avatar? Also, human hip design is unfairly maligned, and that pod system sounds… fun for the maintenance staff. You'd think that it'd be easier to slot everything in at base.
CrystalSkull
I saw an Avatar once, safely from many miles away. Never thought I would see one up close like this. Damn thing is huge.
Eno_Eyes
Have you seen those internet vids of an Avatar tearing apart their friends and allies to upgrade their frame? I've always wondered what happened to the people piloting them. Like, if I'm riding an attack bike and I see an Avatar heading my way I'm getting the hell out of there before the pilot decides that I'd look better strewn across their chassis.
What does 'route around damages' mean?
FloatingWood
It means that things like the cables and power supplies can be run in a way that damaged areas do not impact the functioning of the machine. Or at least, are not as debilitating/dangerous to deal with for maintenance staff.
LogyLoggie
So, does that mean they use the same parts in lots of places, or lots of different stuff to provide redundancy so they can keep moving when they get shot up? I suspect I will hate how they do it, either way.
Q3 2064 Results
Tiberium Detectors
GDI has a number of means to find Tiberium, ranging from simple Geiger-Müller tubes, to far more advanced means – such as ground penetrating radar, and a number of other sensor systems. However, none of them are both precise and reliable. Some, like the Geiger counters, can find even small amounts of Tiberium, but lack the ability to detect how much beyond a fairly small amount. Others, like the radar, fail to detect Tiberium in small amounts, and even on a good day, often can't find more than a vague idea of where the Tiberium is. For most projects, the reliable way to find Tiberium is to take core samples, up to some one hundred meters (although for most projects it is more typically around fifty meters) deep, and do so in a grid pattern to find the average depths of Tiberium. Unfortunately, this often misses significant veins of Tiberium, and is a substantial investment of time and energy.
Work done in the Harvard laboratories has come up with a new mechanism, using a mix of homegrown and visitor technologies to produce a dedicated Tiberium detector system, or more specifically, a resonance imager, applying some of the techniques used in radiation detection as well as the tricks that Tiberium Glass and sonic weapons use to find the specific resonance of Tiberium, and then use a grid of sensor rods to produce an image. While limited in scope (as it will only find the topmost layer) it is a major step forward in GDI's ability to map Tiberium's expanse underground, which is well known to be far higher than what has been detected just below the surface during construction.
The overall program will however require a substantial degree of bureaucratic support, primarily to facilitate survey teams mapping large portions of the Blue Zones, and potentially attempting outreach to more reasonable factions of the Brotherhood of Nod in order to map their Yellow Zones.
The proof-of-concept area survey is a 30x30 kilometer area, west of Boston. It has discovered multiple giant seams of Tiberium seemingly reaching for the surface from deep underground. While existing mining infrastructure can cap these veins before they breach the surface, the fact that these veins were previously undetected has caused no small amount of worry in GDI planners, and local officials are diverting funding to expand the surveyed area to cover the Boston metropolitan area as soon as possible.
Avatar Battle Recovery System
The Avatar and its precursor, the Purifier, have been a thorn in the side of the Global Defense Initiative for decades. The loping stride as the earth shook below them has heralded the Brotherhood of Nod deciding that a particular battle is worth taking seriously. That victory has been deemed worthy of the expenditure of the gifts of Kane.
A large number of these mechs were destroyed or captured during the Regency War, many of them on the battlefields of Yellow Zone 6 as Gideon's lines collapsed and offensives failed, ripping apart these wrecks and captures has begun producing results, mostly in the form of Omnipods. While GDI certainly has their own modular systems, the Omnipods of the Avatar are primarily designed with redundancy in mind. An Avatar can literally rip laser pods, flamethrowers, and other options from mission killed Nod vehicles and march them once more into the teeth of the Initiative, and the Avatars themselves are impressively redundant, able to be restrung and brought to a certain level of combat readiness in the field with nothing more complicated than hand tools.
Karachi
With the long awaited invasion drawing close, InOps has disclosed a number of elements. While Al-Isfahani is working with limited resources, there have been a number of discovered shipments. While none seem to be particularly large, it does represent a worrying amount of preparation. The city, and the region around it seems to have been substantially fortified, although preparations have been disrupted by the regional floods, especially around the Indus river.
Al-Isfahani is expected to put the majority of his weight attempting to drive the Initiative into the sea, and hitting the landing craft, with the inland areas seem to be more sparse in terms of fortification, at least until the fortifications in the mountains as it closes on the Himalayan Blue Zone.
Tactically, the Brotherhood has few discovered new tricks, although it is likely that the Bannerjees will use this opportunity to test new model Gana, and human cybernetic augmentation technologies in battle against the Initiative, and while there is no proof yet, Varyag class vessels are likely to be a significant opponent in the battles to come. Surprise is not likely to be a factor given the limited frontage and angles of approach that the Initiative is going to be forced to use. With the relative speed of Initiative and Brotherhood aircraft, the battle is likely to primarily be in the Gulf of Oman, and spread from there, with both sides significantly able to rely on ground based airpower.
Economics
This quarter has seen significant slowdowns in the private markets, for a multitude of reasons. First is that demand is being substantially outstripped in many areas by supply, at least in the areas where the private economy can actually compete. While not as dramatic a contraction as has been predicted by some, the slowdown, despite GDI freeing up labor and capital goods, is also a collapse of some companies that were not built to weather competition or adverse conditions.
While the Treasury has continued working on bringing the civilian economy better results, there is significant lobbying in Parliament to begin bringing an end to grant programs, while shoring up the banking reserve to move from a grant based system to a loan based one, alongside other elements of a package of economic therapy, weaning the private market system off of Initiative supply lines.
Litvinov
Litvinov sits in her office, small amidst stacks of papers and in a chair that seems far too large for her. A wizened old woman, white hair, bulging veins running across her hands.
"Seo, thank you for coming."
"It was an honor to be invited."
"I am old. And while I must unsheathe the sword of the Initiative one last time, this war to come will take its toll on me. I am unlikely to keep the seat after this term is up. It is time for newer blood in this seat."
"How so?" Seo frowned. "You've sat it well. You're popular and you've improved lives with education initiatives that you have pushed. I can think of no-one better for after the conflict either. And not to be rude, but you're still more than healthy."
Litvinov reached across the desk to pat the back of Seo's hand and smiled at him gently. "It's sweet of you to say but it's not necessarily a matter of 'health'." She pursed her lips in thought. "Not physical at least. More that it will take its toll here." She said, placing a hand over her heart. "I was elected on a manifesto of peace." She said quietly and seriously. "Since then I have overseen conflict, war and bloodshed, skirmishes are still ongoing and here I sit, in this chair, ready to ignite another conflict."
"For all the right reasons." Seo assured her. "From time to time-"
"Tree of liberty, blood of patriots, and tyrants." Litvinov waved away the quote, tiredly cutting him off. "I've heard all the arguments. I have talked with the brass, and InOps. I understand, and agree that Al-Isfahani is best described as the leader of a rogue state, a terrorist with a nuclear arsenal, that he's denied all diplomatic overtures, official and otherwise. That even his fellow warlords have given their tacit approval for his removal as he's unpredictable and dangerous. The sound economic and military reasons for the link to our Blue Zone constituents. That in the long run by removing him and his nuclear arsenal we will almost certainly be saving lives. And yet, it still weighs heavy on me to know that I will be condemning thousands to die. The responsibility ends with me. It's my choice and I stand by it and am prepared to defend it, but that scarcely makes the burden much easier to bear. I am tired, Seo."
"Your leadership has been more than the wars you have led, and after this we could really, truly see your manifesto become a reality. We'd be bringing the light of knowledge, improving lives-"
"Careful now." Litvinov warned him. "The Initiative, the developed world has done terrible things in the name of spreading 'civilisation'. The reality is this. We are invading a country, killing thousands or tens of thousands, and murdering a man because we are scared. We've all seen how 'One last war and then the end of history' plays out. As for making my manifesto a reality, well, we've been doing that quite well. We don't need another war for us to be able to educate children, we can do that quite well without sending our young people to die."
"You don't sound sure about Karachi." Seo noted.
"Oh I am sure, and that's precisely the issue at hand. I hesitate to say that we 'need' Karachi. We could get along quite well without it as we have done. But so long as Zone Eighteen remains isolated it is a weakness inviting attack, putting our people at risk. Add in Al-Isfahani's threats, and well. Too many people want Karachi to succeed, and Al-Isfahani has known what we are planning for too long for there to be trust. Perhaps we could have done more, perhaps this could have been de-escalated. Perhaps, even now it's not too late. But I am not brave enough to take that risk, even though my heart is telling me I should. So, I shall throw us into the flames of war one last time, and then stand down."
"For what it's worth. I still believe you deserve to be leader. Precisely because you're able to make the difficult decisions like this."
"And what the Initiative deserves, what people really truly deserve is life, happiness, and prosperity, a chance to raise their children with love in peace. To not see our brave young serving soldiers lay dead in far off fields. And if there really, truly is to be peace and reconciliation between GDI and the Brotherhood? There needs to be someone new at the helm, whose hands aren't stained with blood, who doesn't have to make these horrible decisions, who isn't weighed down with regrets and mistrust. Whom Brotherhood leaders- world leaders can look at without remembering that she coldly decided to 'remove' their friends and peers time and time again. Rightly or wrongly, and far more the former in my own humble opinion I am seen as a warmonger. I wish for nothing more than peace, and yet time has proven I cannot be the one to nurture it or oversee it. The initiative needs nothing less than someone who is better than me. Wiser, more loving, kinder. Someone who looks at the world in wonder and still believes in peace. Someone younger who doesn't dwell so much on the past and what might have been, but instead strides forwards into the future with purpose and vision determined to make the world a better place."
"For what it's worth. You have made the world a better place. And I believe you can continue to do so."
"And I do not, or at least I'm no longer sure. And so, the time has come for me to step aside for someone else."
"Do you have any idea who this 'someone else' might be?" Seo asked.
"Several ideas, which is, as you've no doubt guessed, part of the reason we are meeting today." Litvinov smiled tiredly. "Let us begin."
Politics
A minor scandal has brewed among GDI and been put to rest by the Services Department, in particular regarding healthcare. Despite the somewhat low birth rate, among certain segments of the population fertility levels are meeting and even exceeding replacement rates.
Partly as a result of formerly living under information blackouts, young adults from the Yellow Zones starting families have been making liberal use of search engines and EVAs to ask health and infant related questions. Common questions such as "What age do babies start crawling." Or when to expect their first words. But also stranger, more unusual questions. Some of which have prompted widespread derision and mockery. (For the record, it is safe for Forgotten families to use Tiberium crystals as nightlights, but should not be attempted by anyone else. If unsure, remove the Tiberium in question immediately and contact your local emergency services for further advice and support).
In response to online abuse and mockery several prominent health officials have made several statements:
"Unfortunately none of us are born holding instruction manuals. I, and many of my colleagues fully support and encourage first time parents and indeed any caregivers to make use of all available support and to continue asking questions to help them learn and understand their infants needs. We remain available at all hours to answer any and all questions and are committed to providing advice, information and aid to those who most need care, love, and understanding. Lastly to our fine young parents and would-be parents, I will add that there remains a variety of parenting guides and manuals to help with some of these questions, ranging from pregnancy through all stages of childhood.
To those looking upon current events and reacting with mockery and abuse we say this. The families' questions come from a place of love and worry. Spurred by nothing less than seeking to ensure their child's happiness, safety and wellbeing. And we ask that our fellow human beings react with patience, love and understanding. And the humility to admit that none of us are born knowing all we shall ever need to learn."
Parliamentary Parties
The Developmentalists continue to run on inertia. For years now, they've been bleeding members to other parties and seeing their vote share dwindle, added to increasing disagreements within the party and as ever political analysts are predicting their eventual collapse. Spokespeople and anonymous sources from within the party itself have dismissed those claims. The Developmentalists, at their core, are a broad coalition, originally a result of trying to contest the more militaristic Hawks. With their main stated goal being to develop the economy, there are as ever disagreements on how exactly to carry that out, or more specifically where exactly the budget should be invested. Members and voters continue to defect to the UYL, Socialist Party, Market Socialists, Starbound, or joining the Free Market Party. If the Developmentalists' statements are to be believed then it is in no danger of a dramatic collapse or split but commentators theorize it may simply keep bleeding voters until it is no longer able to hold its position as the majority party.
The Militarists, conversely, despite their origin in the fracture of the Hawks into Initiative First and the Militarists, have seen their voter base largely remain steady if with a shift in messaging away from Defence against the Brotherhood of Nod or internal security, towards Tiberium abatement and containment, along with pensions for veterans, strong healthcare support, cybernetics, and providing factory jobs. Their shift in policy is perhaps best characterized by comparisons of their campaign posters. From showing tanks, planes, ships and infantrymen and women, the ships and planes remain if much changed, but the tank has given way to harvesters and the infantry to engineers and harvester pilots. In the coming elections, and indeed for decades to come, the Militarists are expected to remain a strong force in GDI's political system advocating for military spending and readiness.
Starbound has largely gone from a party that advocates for immediate evacuation at any cost, to one that has a significantly more nuanced standpoint. Even with increasing levels of abatement the steady uptick of orbital and lunar based population and the ongoing worries about the state of the Earth means much of the public continue to demand increasing investment in orbital and lunar habitation and industry. The solar system and the stars have captured the imagination of the public, and more bluntly, many seek an escape from what they see as a doomed planet. At the same time, they have established themselves as the voice of the spacer in most ways.
The Market Socialists and Socialist Parties are often natural allies regarding most spending priorities. Each wants a strong welfare state supporting GDI citizens, however, various ideologically motivated disagreements prevent them from presenting a united front. The Market Socialists lean towards an interventionist state with strong regulations and taxes while supporting the private market and in particular the culture of worker co-operatives and small business that GDI and the Treasury has fostered. The Socialists on the other hand are more in favor of direct central planning from the Treasury along with regional and local governments, and are strong proponents of government owned and run industry. In the spirit of compromise government owned industries often provide competition to private business and a floor to quality, ensuring unscrupulous business cannot over-charge for or under-provide low cost goods and services. As with most parties in GDI's coalition parliaments they have strong links to and work often with the Developmentalists, finding areas they can agree on. Even if sometimes quite heated political disagreements remain.
The Free Market Party is seeing a slow recovery. Both in voter numbers and support, and in cross bench alliances and deals with their peers. In the immediate aftermath of the Third Tiberium War, they attempted to leverage the existing wealth and their traditional position as a dealmaker and mediator to seize significant power in moves that saw the Treasury not even giving them the time of day. Since then, moderating influences and being willing and able to work within the system and limits of an increasingly regulated market has seen them put their support and name to several projects earning them goodwill from their peers in parliament and appeasing many of their supporters who benefited from the organization under major corporations that existed prior to the third Tiberium war. With over ten percent of Parliaments seats they are a major party still, but have by now realized they can still be excluded from coalitions and policymaking if they do not moderate their voices or the other parties choose to exclude them, and have adapted their rhetoric, goals and policies accordingly.
Most of the problems of the Free Market Party are mirrored among Initiative First. Each fundamentally wants a return to the way things were, and are competing with parties trying to offer new reforms and who have been successful in their goals. The Militarists and Developmentalists have the trust and support of the public and broad support for their manifesto, leaving little room for Initiative First to claim as their own, and they have been largely branded the Bigot party, characterized by their frequent proposed discriminatory policies and distrust of Yellow Zoners, Forgotten, Qatarists, the Open Hand and peaceful Nod faithful.
The United Yellow List has had their numbers dwindle compared to their heyday. But that is in large part because their policies, and their voters, have been accepted amongst a variety of other parties. They almost always oppose any legislation Initiative First proposes or votes for save when the latter is grudgingly voicing support for moderate policies with widespread support. The UYL is small, but influential and is frequently party to committees and private meetings regarding the wording of cross-parliament bills. While they quietly ensure that former Yellow Zones see continued investment and engage in pork barrel politics it has also been joked that nowadays they largely exist out of spite aimed at Initiative First and to provide a coordinated counterweight against their voices. Whatever the case, they and their voters are overwhelmingly supportive of GDI's government. While most serving members of the military lend their vote to the Militarists large sections of the Home Guard vote for the United Yellow List.
The Reclamation Party hit well above their weight in politics. Chiefly concerned with Tiberium abatement and land reclamation they benefit from the fact that Tiberium harvesting and mining is a source of major stimulus to the economy and sees support from almost all sides of parliament. With continued success in pushing back the Red Zones this small but influential party has seen increased interest and a continued influx of voters swelling their ranks and parliamentary seats. Analysts warn however, that the continued pushback of the Red Zones has the potential to backfire. Voters could indeed see it for the success it is in reclaiming territory from the crystal. But, as the risk of Tiberium becomes less visible and immediate other concerns may see voters drift to other parties.
The Homeland Party is best described as 'nationalist'. While this is a loaded term, it is technically correct, and often gives the wrong impression. GDI has a long history of refugees fleeing from war and Tiberium over the last several decades. And while GDI has reclaimed much of what has been lost and is reclaiming ever more, at its height Tiberium covered much of France and Germany, and practically all of Italy, not to mention the Balkans and large chunks of Spain, and that is just in western and central Europe. Simply put they include refugees and families from minority groups who wish to return to their homelands and support targeted efforts against Tiberium. More than that, with the success in expanding the Blue Zones a number are clamoring for new settlements and cities in the cleared ground. At the same time, the Homeland party distinguishes itself from the Reclamation party specifically by its military standpoints, specifically its interest in conquering Brotherhood territory to reclaim historic homelands.
The smallest of all parliamentary parties and controlling only a fraction of a percent of Parliament's seats, the Open Hand are openly Noddist, and despite the large numbers of Nod and former Nod refugees this has limited their electoral success. There are signs however that public sentiment may be shifting, with more and more polled voters seeing it as now safe to vote for the Open Hand with the parties continued existence and the feared crackdown never arriving. Not only that, but among the general public too. The Open Hand are hardly in the position of kingmaker, nor are they the deciding votes in a hotly contested issue. The small handful of parliament members however have earned respect among their peers for fair and honest conduct within the halls of power. The Open Hand have stated their beliefs and aims and live by them, voting with their conscience rather than attempting to make deals or parlay their support into benefits for themselves. Rather, they study the bills placed before parliament and vote for a law they think is good, or against a law they disapprove of with a handful of rare abstentions regarding complex issues or those they have no opinion on. As such their names appear in support of numerous bills authored by larger, more powerful parties. Some would argue their votes do not matter, but it has been noticed and is respected for their integrity.
Finally, there is probably the most important party in Initiative politics that is not in Parliament, the Forgotten. The Forgotten have continued to engage in a complicated push and pull dynamic. On one hand, they have carefully preserved significant independence from the Initiative, but at the same time, they are deeply intertwined with the Initiative, working in Tiberium fields, and producing a sizable increase in GDI's STU output.
The Forgotten, as a whole, are largely attempting to provide a very unified outer facing, often concealing distinguishing markings when interacting with the Initiative, or keeping them extremely subtle. However, there can broadly be considered three categories of Forgotten: Integrationist, parallelist, and isolationist.
The first group, the Integrationists, are probably the largest at this point, although maintaining a census of the Forgotten overall is difficult at the best of times, impossible at worst. The endgoal of the Integrationists is to fully integrate into GDI society. While they are likely to try to maintain their own communities, and have taken over a number of the old fortress towns to do so, they are, for the most part, taxpaying, hardworking citizens. The vast majority are living among the Tiberium infrastructure somewhere, but that is due to them being uniquely suited to it, in ways that make even the best of GDI's personal protective equipment look like the beaks worn by doctors during the black death.
The second, the parallists are inclined to see GDI as good allies, but are quite interested in maintaining their own society and way of life, taking remote slices of Blue Zones and establishing their own settlements built in their own ways, but not directly answering to the Initiative's governmental systems. Many see it as a self-evident truth that the Forgotten strains and 'natural' humans are too divergent to ever fully re-integrate with GDI and the rest of humanity. Moreso, they don't even see it as desirable to do so. They point to their own distinct advantages in the form of their biological adaptations. But also see their own distinct cultures having formed and being worthy of preserving. Not as openly hostile or standoffish as the isolationists, and happier to work with GDI. But as just one example, many Forgotten require vastly different medical treatments and have their own physicians, while many more ordinary trauma surgeons would be at a loss if asked to care for Forgotten patients.
Finally, there are the isolationists, and these are the hardest in some ways to keep track of as they do their best to avoid interaction with the Initiative. Among the isolationists there seem to be two major wings, one that simply dislikes both the Initiative and the Brotherhood of Nod, and the ones where they have aligned themselves to one Brotherhood figure or another, such as Mehretu's Order. Forgotten choose to align with the isolationists for a variety of reasons, but chief among them, particularly for those advocating for a 'homeland' of sorts and maintaining carefully controlled and contained red zones is that they remember the initial circumstances that led to the Forgotten, when the first mutants were ostracized from society out of fear of contagion. This is not only due to blaming GDI for abandoning them and their homes to the spread of Tiberium. They also fear and hate Nod for how early cybernetic research made heavy use of Forgotten for experiments, most notably the Beta strain due to their adaptations allowing biological components to power the cybernetic grafts. There are some happy to work with GDI among those who have lost friends and family to Nod and CABAL, while others still harbour distrust for all outsiders and seek wide reaching autonomy and territory that is uniquely theirs. Some accomplish this by remaining nomadic and living in convoys, while those settling down seek to cultivate Tiberium fields for health and developmental reasons, but also to ensure economic autarky and a source of exports and industry to ensure they and their people are never left impoverished.
Directorship Challenge?!
At the beginning of her term Director Litvinov was not much younger than she is today. But to see her as she was at the start of her term and to see her today is to sharply highlight the intense demands of the position.
At the beginning of her term Litvinov was asked to pose for a glamor magazine which was well received by the public, serving members of the military in particular noted their appreciation. Such images are a far cry from her current appearance, prematurely aged by the demands of her position. While there are no immediate concerns regarding her health it is an increasingly frequent topic of discussion as to if or when she might be stepping down and who could replace her.
The obvious choices are Seo Thoki and Harrison Carter. Seo, the so-called Mad Treasurer, has largely maintained significant political influence, while using it to push seemingly risky gambles that have often paid off, and is broadly popular in his role as secretary of the Treasury. However, few are practically interested in seeing him in the Director's seat. At the same time, he has a significant base of political support that could well see him lifted to that level. On the other side, there is Harrison Carter, Admiral of the Space Force, the sponsor of the OSRCT, and a major proponent of space development. However, his biggest problem is that Seo and Carter's bases have significant overlap, while leaving other groups out in the cold, leaving the two set up to fight while a potential third candidate sweeps from the outside.
Resources: 1360+225 in reserve (-30 from Reconstruction commissions) (-15 from Bureau of Arcologies) (-15 from Consumer Industrial Development) (-10 Division of Alternative Energy) (-20 Department of Munitions)(-30 Department of Refits) (-240 InOps) (-60 General Pool) (100 in Reserve for Banking)
Political Support: 105
SCIENCE Meter: 3/4
Tiberium Spread
25.405 (+0.285) Blue Zone
0.00 (-0.04) Green Zone
0.07 (+0.01) Cyan Zone
23.375 (+.235) Yellow Zone (99 points of mitigation)
51.15 (-.49) Red Zone (87 points of mitigation)
New Tiberium Spread
25.755 (+0.35) Blue Zone
0.00 (-0.04) Green Zone
0.07 (+0.00) Cyan Zone
23.725 (+.35) Yellow Zone (96 points of mitigation)
50.45 (-.70) Red Zone (86 points of mitigation)
Current Economic Issues:
Housing: +88 (+85 LQ, +3 HQ) (1 high-quality housing per turn)
Energy: +45 (+6 in reserve) (+5 per turn from sub-departments)
Logistics: +35 (-4 from military activity)
Food: +46 (+26 backed reserve, +5 unbacked reserve)
Health: +41 (+6 Emergency Health) (-8 from refugees)
Capital Goods: +42 (+2 per turn from Distributed Industrial Authority) (+405 in reserve)
Consumer Goods: +45 (+10 per turn from Private Industry) (+3 per turn from sub-departments) (-15 from realignment) (Net -2 per turn)
Labor: +22 (+3 per turn from medical care) (+2 per turn from Immigrant qualifications) (-2 per turn from private industry) (-3 per turn from other government) (-1 from graying population) (Net -1)
Tiberium Processing Capacity (2895/4800) (545/2450 HG, 1350/1350 IHG, 1000/1000 X) (HG: 1 per 95, IHG: 1 per 85, X: 1 per 45)
Tiberium Reserve (0/500)
STUs: +14
Taxation Per Turn: +225 (+20 per turn from Private Industry)
Space Mining Per Turn: +100
Maintenance Reductions: +50
Increased Refining Efficiency: +100
STU Production and Consumption
Net: +14 per turn
Production: +43 per turn (5.7 HG, 15.9 IHG, 22.2X)
Consumption: -29 per turn
22 Economy
-6 Tiberium (2 Harvesting Tendrils, 2 Sonic Weapons, 2 T-Glass)
-16 Other (8 Structural Alloys, 6 Hovercraft, 2 Gravitic Shipyard)
7 Military
-4 Aircraft (2 Tactical Lasers, 2 Plasma Munitions)
-1 Ground Vehicles (1 Mastodons [Shimmer Shields, Point Defense Lasers], 0 Havocs [Shimmer Shields])
-1 Strategic Air Defense Networks
-1 Navy (Lasers)
Projected Fusion Power Plant Decommissioning
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q1 2065
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q4 2065
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q3 2066
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q4 2066
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q2 2067
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q3 2067
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q4 2067
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q2 2068
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q4 2068
Status of the Parties
(strong support, weak support, weak opposition, strong opposition)
Developmentalist: 705 (200; 400; 75; 30) 17.6%
Militarists: 629 Seats (300; 100; 200; 29) 15.7%
Starbound: 618 Seats (400; 100; 100; 18) 15.5%
Market Socialist Party: 555 Seats (300; 155; 50; 50) 13.9%
Socialist Party: 493 Seats (250; 100; 93; 50) 12.3%
Free Market Party: 405 Seats (50; 150; 100; 105) 10.1%
Initiative First Party: 334 Seats (0; 34; 100; 200) 8.4%
United Yellow List: 117 Seats(80; 30; 7; 0) 3%
Reclamation: 99 Seats (50; 40; 6; 3) 2.5%
Homeland: 41 Seats (20; 10; 5; 6) 1%
Open Hand: 4 Seats (2; 2; 0; 0) .1%
Total: 4000 Seats (1652; 1121; 736; 491)
Military Confidence
Ground Forces: High
Air Force: High
Space Force: Decent
Steel Talons: Decent
Navy: Decent (Trending to High)
ZOCOM: Decent
Plan Goals
Provide 13 Consumer Goods points from the Treasury
Increase Income by 205
Increase population in space by 11.25k
Provide 12 Points of Red Zone Abatement
Spend at least one die on Steel Talons projects every turn
Projects
Complete Karachi Planned City by end of 2065
Complete North Boston Phase 5
Deploy Governor-A refit
Complete at least 4 Ground Forces Zone Armor factories
Complete Reforestation Campaign Preparation Phase 2
Develop Next Generation Armored Vehicles by end of 2065
Complete Regional Hospital Expansions by end of 2065
Complete Post War Housing Refits
Promises to Litvinov:
Do not activate Free Dice (except for Tiberium) unless all Department Dice are active.
Spend no more than two free dice per turn on Military.
[ ] Rail Network Construction Campaigns (Phase 6)
Further work on the rail networks will be focused primarily on preparing the ground for exploitation of the interior, especially in light of the pushes into the Red Zones, and creating new environs for Initiative exploitation.
(Progress 245/245: 15 resources per die) (+4 Logistics)
(Progress 60/245: 15 resources per die) (+3 Logistics) [39, 45]
Driving further development of the rail network has begun to seriously hit a point of diminishing returns. Much of the effort has been on expanding the upkeep network more than anything else, both to harden the rail system against attack, and to improve readiness. Historically, early trains would need to stop for water and fuel every ten to fifteen kilometers on average. Modern trains have significantly longer ranges between mandatory upkeep, but that only goes so far – especially because the maintenance is significantly more involved. Nearly all Initiative trains (outside of specialized military and adverse conditions units) are electrically powered, and even the specialized ones are hybrid designs, with onboard generators to provide power in case the grid goes down. This does mean however, that when they do need to stop for maintenance, it requires a clean space to crack open the outer casing, rather than simply being able to pour in water and coal.
The other side of the slowdown in rail infrastructure expansion is that the Initiative simply has a fairly substantial surplus of both rail lines and rolling stock, with many rail lines servicing less than one train a day, and the system overall being able to absorb a full military mobilization just in the downtime, at least on a local level. In the leadup to the First World War, every state managed a complex network of railroads, and had drawn up complex schedules to balance speed and avoid running trains empty or producing blockages on a line, as they could only maintain a single train moving along any section of track at a time. By contrast, the Initiative, at this point, has enough spare track and rolling stock that it can leave trains waiting at the marshaling yards until the troops are ready, and surge them all to the front as they are ready, rather than having to adhere to any kind of fixed schedule.
[ ] TransAmerican Railroad
Punching a rail line through the middle of what used to be the North American Red Zone will be a political coup, one that represents a major victory against Tiberium. While the project as a whole is mostly vanity, with limited real practical usage, it can also anchor GDI abatement efforts in the Red Zone with a high capacity connection to Chicago.
Progress 145/120: 10 resources per die) (+2 Logistics, +5 Political Support) [7, 43]
On May 10th, 1869, the symbolic last spike was driven at Promontory Summit, in the Utah territory. A silver sledgehammer, wired to a telegraph, was intended to send the hammer blows across the country in what was one of the first events of its kind. While the telegraph failed, and the spike was removed shortly after the ceremony completed, it was a symbolic link that joined the union together in a more permanent manner, cutting months off of travel times between California and the rest of the country.
The modern railroad is much the same, although lacking in ceremony or iconic spikes. It does however represent something utterly critical. A demonstration, more than Germany, more than any other program, that GDI can and will push back the Red Zone, and more than that, keep the way open. However, unlike the earlier railroad, this one has a fundamental problem in that it is one of the longest and most isolated routes the Initiative runs. While some, like punching through Red Zones, are significantly more risky, there is effectively no human civilization between the two regions, with every stop feeding into a supply depot that is the one supply point for dozens of spikes and sonic turrets, and outposts in many ways more isolated than even Hollywood's view of the Wild West.
From 'Trainspotters Massachusetts September 2064':
GreatEastern: Anyone know if there's a new livery or something? I snapped a picture of this locomotive around Boston today and it's not one I recognize.
Oiler84: Looks like foreign rail, West Coast Line livery, I think.
[ ] Construction Drone Centralization (New)
Reducing the Infrastructure department's need for people is relatively straightforward compared to other areas, as the programs already use massive swarms of drones. The difference is in the ratio of metal to meat, and the training requirements to use it.
(Progress 146/120: 15 resources per die) (+4 Labor, -2 Capital Goods) [24, 34, 25, 9]
GDI already uses massive swarms of drones in its construction work. In many ways, the system is about as automated as it is possible to get. The issue is that construction sites are incredibly rapidly evolving, and often highly dangerous, which in turn can recursively create a more rapidly evolving and dangerous situation as damaged or destroyed drones can get in the way of even a well managed jobsite, let alone one that has already had incidents.
The impact is twofold. For the workers who were retained, and are undergoing retraining, it is in some ways a substantial quality of life upgrade, as most no longer need to travel to often remote job sites – instead commanding fleets of drones from central hubs, for the most part located in urban centers. For the workers who are surplus to requirements on the other hand, many are finding work elsewhere, or have begun a retraining process to qualify for work elsewhere in the Initiative. While some few are going to be significantly distressed by the change, the vast majority are relatively happy to be finding other work, as drone operation is usually quite boring.
While the orbital colonies do not yet have the infrastructure to make good use of this system, the ability to control everything from the safety of one of the underground colony bases, and control mass swarms on a shoestring of personnel is a significant leap forward and a project that will soon come to the area.
[ ] Drone Logistical Integration (New)
With advances in drone control capabilities more can be done to hand off logistical tasks to automated systems. Although fully automated vehicles on public roads are not likely, many cargo handling facilities can easily be adapted to full automation without the need of a human presence on the work floor.
(Progress 145/240: 15 resources per die) (+6 Labor, -4 Capital Goods, +1 Energy) [26, 17, 32, 16]
Integrating drones into the logistical network has been a significantly slower process than some would hope. The biggest element here is that the system requires everything to be laid out without the use of institutional knowledge. For example, most job sites have some form of backing indicator, usually a post, or a sign, that says that the truck has backed up far enough. For a drone, those indicators are generally ignored unless the drone is specifically programmed to recognize them. Similarly, the vast majority of the driving hours are in the most difficult area – the last five to ten kilometers between the warehouse and the delivery point, whether that be a store, home, or delivery zone. Outside of that, nearly everything is handled via trains, where the only people on board are required for basic safety checks; and not even all of them are manned, instead relying on automated systems and crews at the loading docks.
The main thrust of the project is those loading docks – whether they are handling pallets, boxes, massive containers or bulk freight, the drones will replace much of the workforce currently dedicated to loading, unloading and shuttling freight between storage and transport.
[ ] North Boston Chip Fabricator (Phase 5)
A fifth and final expansion to the North Boston complex, this will focus not just on expanding chip fabrication, but also on a number of new technologies. While it is unlikely that these technologies will completely replace existing designs, there are a number of edge cases where inferior performance in one aspect is made up for by superior performance in others.
(Progress 1876/1805: 15 resources per die) (+35 Capital Goods, +16 Consumer Goods, -2 Labor, -8 Energy) (Required for further AI projects.) [22, 46, 9, 47, 9, 21, 18, 27, 4, 28, 34, 35, 35, 38]
The first full scale chip fab built since the Third Tiberium war has hit its full capacity. While there may be future upgrades and further development of a number of satellite campuses if needed, at this time, there are few plans for further work of this type.
Much of the work is going to be experimental, attempting to scale up smaller and more niche designs, ranging from carbon based chips, to others, primarily for specialized purposes. Many of these designs were first prototyped over a decade ago, as part of ongoing programs to improve GDI's electronic video assistant programs. While the development has not stood still since 2047, many of the developments to the chip patterns have come from elsewhere, including experiments that resulted in Erewhon, better understanding of Visitor software, and of course, the advent of isolinear computing. This has meant that the programs have been undergoing constant revision, expansion, and updating, and in many cases, the systems planned when Boston was drawn up originally are no longer in the same configurations, with many adding additional steps on the way to manufacturing.
The other major project for the immediate future is Artificial Intelligence. Erewhon was and is an agglomeration of computer hardware that is significantly less capable than what should be possible for a dedicated platform on chips specifically designed to support artificial lifeforms.
[ ] Bergen Superconductor Foundry (Phase 5)
A fifth and final stage of expansions will see Bergen reaching its logistical and practical limits. While building inside of mountain ranges is certainly secure, it is far from ideal, with the final expansion to the facilities requiring a substantial investment in blasting new tunnels into other mountains. Additionally, it will require substantial investments in port infrastructure to move the massive quantities of superconductors out of the region.
(Progress 483/1140: 30 resources per die) (+8 Capital Goods, +16 Energy) (-3 Logistics) (+10 Political Support) [10, 19]
The rail hubs around the Bergen facility have received significant upgrades, with the last phase of construction nearly reaching the halfway point. All of these auxiliary transport routes are critical components at this point, as the whole system needs ever more ways to get supplies in, and superconductor pods out.
The impact across the Initiative is becoming ever more noticeable, especially along the major lines. While the old system of wire and cables hung from towers is not being disassembled anytime soon, it is being retired from the primary backbone in significant areas, such as the coastal backbone that runs from Atlanta all the way up into what used to be Canada, while the link all the way across the middle of the continent, parallelling the transcontinental railroad line, will be made of superconductor, incidentally providing the railroad with power.
The reason the old system is unlikely to be retired anytime soon is twofold. First, it represents a second string in case of further invasions of the Blue Zones, and second it allows for some degree of switching, maintaining functionality even when a section of the electrical mains needs to be taken out of use
Similarly, many of the units have found their homes in fusion reactor arrays, a critical component for two reasons. First is that the reactors can, especially when pushed to their limits, put out enough power to melt the silver cables that would otherwise be used. Superconductor units allow that power to be split and split again until it is safe to put onto the grid in a format that won't melt many of the elements. One of the major sticking points however, is now legacy standards. Even if GDI manages to build enough superconductors to lay them all the way to the home, they still require significant amounts of flow regulation and stepping down, simply to prevent them overloading home electronics and the in-home power systems in use across the Initiative.
[ ] Factory Automation Programs (New)
While LCI has already seen substantial downscaling in required labor, it is something that can be brought to an even more extreme level with the deployment of drone control systems, moving people off-site, and reducing the staff counts even further.
(Progress 75/280: 15 resources per die) (+4 Labor, -4 Energy) [22, 24]
GDI's factories were already heavily automated, with most being effectively wild mazes of conveyor belts and whirring machinery even before the networking advantages brought on by the advent of more advanced drone control networks. The biggest advantage is not actually in the factories themselves, but rather transport between the factory units. A single factory complex often does not do the entire manufacturing process, and in many cases, the factories are strung out over kilometers to prevent a problem in one part, such as an overpressure event, from damaging the others. A significant amount of effort has gone into palletization, standardization, and the development of better marked road networks between the facilities as the drone wranglers have begun to move off onto other jobs.
However, there is still a substantial amount left to do, as very few facilities overall are actually equipped to manage such a significant changeover, and in most cases need much more work before the impacts can be felt. Similarly, there are a number of other significant changes in loading and unloading, and in many of the other areas where a human has often stepped in to move, open, or otherwise make small adjustments in order to make the entire thing flow more smoothly.
[ ] Civilian Drone Systems (New)
While the public marketplace does not have much use for all up construction drones, or the high performance delivery drone systems in use by the Initiative, simpler, lightweight, civilian focused designs, capable of high torque at low speeds, will find many uses both in the civilian marketplace, and for more consumer oriented purposes.
(Progress 150/150: 15 resources per die) (+1 Labor, -1 Capital Goods, +4 Consumer Goods) (Market Benefits) [5, 11, 41, 30]
Pushing more drones onto the civilian marketplace has a number of impacts. The first and most important is that it fills a need that many people have been seeing for a long time. Light utility assets. Rather than needing to maintain a still rare car or van for a restaurant wanting to extend its delivery range for example, most of the problems can be solved by a very simple drone system. Probably the biggest impact is to the civilian light industry, where a major bottleneck has been in finding small transport loaders and other means of efficiently moving a few hundred pounds of equipment.
However, many of the consumers are people looking for offroaders, for recreational vehicles, or for personal vehicles that just so happen to be effectively self driving. This market, and the ones who want it for other reasons in the same category, have been largely overjoyed, with a number of people putting together aftermarket projects in order to convert the drones into small semi-autonomous vehicles for personal transport and other means of getting around.
Why drive yourself?*
*Thaler Transport is not responsible for the consequences of failing to pay attention to the road.
[ ] Reforestation Campaign Preparations (Phase 2)
While politically open at this point, the reforestation campaigns have been scaled differently, abandoning goals of biodiversity, while instead focusing on securing as much land as possible. While some of the measures are likely to require abatement of their own, land secured now, is far more important than potential losses later.
(Progress 579/790: 5 resources per die) [30, 11, 11, 22]
Work has continued on laying the groundwork for proper reforestation, with mass seed bombing, and substantial progress towards building up proper scrubland across vast swathes of Initiative territory, alongside trying to build up wetlands, and other key areas. However, it has significantly slowed in recent months, as resources have been more prioritized towards other areas, most notably beginning to deploy various genetically edited crops in a more thorough and widespread manner.
At the same time, it has become increasingly clear that politically this is simply no longer a priority. Parliamentary hearings on Treasury affairs have repeatedly enquired as to why the Treasury has continued to pour effort into this project, especially given the other priorities that the Agricultural department has to worry about. While the vast majority of these hearings are routine things, ensuring that the Parliament and its agricultural committees and subcommittees have their finger on the pulse of the Treasury, it is an interesting position to be in, carrying out a commitment to a party that no longer has political power to back it.
Junior Undersecretary for Ecology Charles Eco was in a hearing before the Agricultural Committee earlier today when MP Alexey Korolev (Dev) asked why so many resources were being sunk into into the far off wastes while much more useful projects like the vertical farming and aquaponics are left to languish. Before the undersecretary could answer, MP Seob Youngjae (Rec) interjected, noting that he personally wrote the Nature Restoration Act of 2063, and that it is, in fact, law, even if he and other members of the Biodiversity Party have joined the Reclamation Party after the election.
[ ] Spider Cotton Plantations (Phase 2)
While the Initiative has made significant strides in the area, and the private sector has expressed quite a bit of interest in the field, there is still significant need for spider cotton derived capital goods that are going to be the core of the Initiative's program. (Plant Genetics) (Times Out Q1 2066)
(Progress 160/160: 15 resources per die) (+1 Capital Goods)
(Progress 100/165: 15 resources per die) (+1 Capital Goods) [45, 45]
Early ballistic vests came in two primary formats. Heavy plates of metal armor, and multilayer silk and cotton. It is the latter that is by far the more important, especially for Initiative police and civilian interests. The police and law enforcement more generally, are primarily using surplus hardware, with some dating back all the way to the Second Tiberium War, especially with the Home Guard taking priority in many cases for immediate post military uses. However, significant amounts of spider cotton makes it practical to begin issuing a variant on standard military vests, somewhat cutting down on protection in exchange for flexibility, weight, and comfort - while still remaining practical against the majority of expected threats, as being brought under fire from military grade weaponry is an extreme rarity, even in an age of shadow teams and insurgents.
Outside of that, there are more civilian oriented needs, including rope, and most importantly, treated cloth. A sufficiently tightly woven silk is effectively waterproof, and so can provide a lightweight protection comparable to significantly harder to produce waterproofed fabrics or even rain jackets. A significant portion of the savings and increase in capital goods availability from the spider cotton is not the cotton specifically producing a good, but rather the cotton removing steps in the production of goods already being manufactured by other means.
However, the biggest impact has actually been to power systems, specifically belting. While rarer in the modern day, most early factories powered themselves with a single energy source, either a water wheel or a steam engine, and then moved the energy around on a series of shafts and belts. While for the vast majority of projects in the modern day, separate engines are safer and more practical, the spider cotton is starting to be used for belting, producing systems that are long lasting and significantly resistant to stretching, the most common problem found in previous generations of belts.
[ ] Tarberry Plantations (Phase 4)
Tarberries are only useful in relatively limited quantities, with overuse potentially damaging many engines in Initiative service, and there being only so many engines to feed. Significantly more production is simply not warranted at this time, but a limited additional pool may be productive.
(Plant Genetics) (Times Out Q1 2066)
(Progress 115/65: 10 resources per die) (+1 Energy) [26, 34]
A final major wave of tarberry plantations has reached some level of completion, and tarberry bricks are continuing to stack up in Initiative warehouses. Part of the reason for the limits is that the primary users of fuel engines is the Initiative military, with civilian ICE vehicles being a comparative rarity, as the Initiative produces only a handful of armored cars for protection details, and private construction builds nothing bigger than what would have been considered a Japanese style Kei car, with engines of no more than a hundred cubic centimeters – and even then, fuel infrastructure is a significant barrier to entry for the vast majority of car users.
Strategically, the military is very welcoming of the strategic fuel reserve, because, fundamentally, it means that they can store and ship a now sizable fraction of their fuel needs without relying on specialized tankers, instead being able to deliver pallets of fuel on the same trucks as their food, ammunition, and other supplies.
[ ] Laboratory Meat Deployment (Phase 1)
Producing sizable amounts of meat products from laboratories is unlikely to be a particularly simple affair. While GDI does not particularly need the meat, it is a symbol of prosperity and signals the good times have returned. It is also noticeably more resource efficient than producing meat products by growing animals.
(Progress 170/170: 15 resources per die) (+6 Consumer Goods, -1 Food, -2 Energy) [31, 24, 18, 39]
Most of the lab meat has been snapped up almost as soon as it hits the shelves, a combination of there being significant amounts of pent up demand, and more importantly, the novelty factor. While still not steak by any metric, the experimental nature of it has encouraged demand. However, most people are not coming back around for a second shot, instead going back to old reliable staples for the vast majority of their protein needs.
Laboratory Meat Review: A return to the old days, or the next fungus bar?
Larry Henderson
Alright folks, time for yet another new food product review. This time, it purports to be meat. Actual, no shit, beef in this case, although there are other options, which will come in future reviews.
To begin with, we are going to start with a classic American staple, the hamburger. For that, we are using a standard, GDI specification yeasted roll, toasted in butter, and as usual, recipe in the footnotes.* Aside from that, the ingredients are simple. We are starting with preparation A, the Fine Mince, and we are making 150 gram spheres with our hands, before pressing them out into rough patties about 5mm thick. Salt and spice on both sides, today we are using a pepper blend and leave to rest about 15 minutes before cooking, which gives us plenty of time to slice up an onion, and prepare any other toppings we want. As for the pan, we are using a standard issue 20 centimeter stainless steel frying pan.
Oil the burger, and then lay it in on medium heat (approx 150 degrees). Cook until grey/brown on all sides, and then extract onto the roll. Top with onions, and the top half of the bun.
Overall, the answer is pretty simple. The burger is just not that good, and I don't see what the big deal with it is. It is a bland hunk of protein wrapped in carbs, with no real value, and having gone back and eaten it cold, it just goes grainy and unpleasant. The raw onion is an interesting touch, but not one that I would care to repeat.
* roll, yeasted, wheat, enriched.
From the comment section beneath the review video:
RamsonTheCook
Although a medium heat will cook a burger patty all the way through, what you really want for a good taste is to bake them at a high heat to develop the flavour you are looking for
[ ] Deep Red Zone Tiberium Glacier Mining (Stage 4)
Deep in the Red Zones, Tiberium glaciers are some of the most dense concentrations of Tiberium available. With GDI able to put its railheads directly next to Tiberium mines, these are some of the fastest ways to surge Tiberium production from a single site.
(Progress 190/190: 30 resources per die) (-3 Logistics, +2 Energy) (additional income trickle [60-90 Resources]) (2 points of Red Zone Mitigation)
(Progress 47/190: 30 resources per die) (-3 Logistics, +2 Energy) (additional income trickle [60-90 Resources]) (2 points of Red Zone Mitigation) [2, 28]
Income 1d7: [4] = +75 RpT
In precision engineering millimeters matter. The same is true in the Italian Red Zone. 'Cleared' ground laid with railways has had Tiberium outbreaks tear through the soil and transport links. There are frequent ion storms which prevent communications and leave ZOCOM patrols cut off from command and support. Packs of roaming wild beasts eerily reminiscent of hounds with crystals growing from their backs stalk patrols and are driven into a frenzy by the sonic emitters attempting to slow the spread of Tiberium. And almost every day after a long day's work and heading to bed exhausted, work crews awaken to find the glacier cliff-face healed as if days and weeks of mining had been but a dream. Teams are being rotated out as morale is low and yet, the numbers do not lie. More Tiberium is being harvested and the mining operation is gaining ground as new loads of gear and tools arrive to replace those damaged by the crystal. Most important of all, Tiberium is being pushed back in other places.
The abatement is slowly having an effect, not just in Italy but throughout Europe. Even with everything the alien landscape can throw at them, the glacier mining teams cling on tenaciously and take ground steadily. Other operations push forwards in leaps and bounds as even the most skeptical by now are grudgingly admitting to some sort of remaining link between the Red Zone's Tiberium fields. The sheer wealth of resources itself that are being harvested from Red Zone One's glacier mines are almost an afterthought compared to the struggle for Tiberium containment and abatement. This progress however comes at a cost with increasing demand for Zone Suits and harvesting gear to maintain the blistering pace of operations.
"And, as you can see, there has been a notable increase in the loss of Zone Suits and other resources since we started pushing the Italian front. Not so much in personnel, thankfully, but there is reason to ask if we can keep expanding our efforts in the Deep Red in the longer term."
[ ] Xenotech Tiberium Processing Plants (Stage 2)
A serious second wave will again jump GDI's STU output. There are currently many projects waiting in the wings for boosts in resources that can be made practical by the greater supply of STUs.
(Progress 300/300: 40 resources per die) (+500 processing capacity) (-6 Energy, -3 Logistics, -1 Labor)
(Progress 61/300: 40 resources per die) (+500 processing capacity) (-6 Energy, -3 Logistics, -1 Labor) [20, 8, 32, 32, 37, 27, 11, 22]
Engineers are, in some ways, a renewable resource. However, they are also a resource that has had to be husbanded carefully, and many of yours are rapidly, and of their own accord, reaching very close to the point of burnout, and others have already hit walls in their scramble to push new facilities into productivity. It is something where, for many of them, vacation time has been a requirement from their superiors, telling them to pack their bags for one of the options that is more off the grid, and usually under guard so they don't appear at the jobsite until they have had time to get an actual sleep schedule and stop requiring levels of caffeine that approach dangerous doses.
Messages from 'Managers herding engineers; thread CMV':
JacobSweeney: I swear, my engineers are like cats, I find them sleeping in the damnedest places, and they complain endlessly when you try to get them to an actual bed.
HikaruMorisato: I've had to call security on my own engineers because they tried to dodge the mandatory vacation time. I repeat, they tried to dodge the mandatory vacation time.
HumbertoLéon: My engineer told me completely straightfaced that he had 'too much blood in his coffee stream'. He was on the 8th cup I knew about, and I'm sure he had snuck in a few more. Medical had to cart him off for caffeine poisoning.
[ ] Forgotten Experimentation (Tech)
While active human experiments are a step too far for the Initiative, the Forgotten are themselves an interesting case, and specifically the causes of their mutations. Initiative scientists believe that they can find a common root cause of their changes, and more broadly examine commonalities in genetic, chemical, and other makeup, with the long term goal of finding means of reliably offering a means other than tiberian infusion to survive exposure to the crystal.
(Progress 188/260: 30 resources per die) (MS) (-5 Political Support) [44, 19, 10, 37]
Inducing Tiberium mutation is not a new technology by any means, but there is something about the Forgotten, some common element, that makes them not only more stable and able to live a full life without being overtaken by Tiberium, but superior, drawing strength and powers that by any means could be easily described as magic.
The how is unknown, the why is difficult at best to parse. GDI's scientists have long suspected a common genetic component, some theorizing that all Forgotten are descendents, at some remove from Kane, although this has never been more than a breakroom theory. However, the overall results of genetic testing, while there are definitely significant overlaps, do not show a set of specific marker genes for the Forgotten as a whole.
Similarly, there are a few other theories, the most notable being a chemical contaminant, and once again, things have not entirely panned out. While some perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances are universally found in the blood of the Forgotten, at significantly higher levels in nearly all cases than reference humans; Testing whether those chemicals are what lead to forgotten mutations suffers from deep ethical concerns, and more broadly, any attempt to induce such mutations runs into concerns of various forms.
[ ] GDSS Columbia Bays (1 each)
-[ ] High Density Housing
By noticeably cutting the population supported, a significant amount of room can be freed up for amenities. While it will still be cramped, it is something that can be worked around with communal spaces and a schedule built to keep people out of their accommodations as much as possible.
(Progress 297/295: 20 resources per die) (+1.2k Permanent Residents) [18, 8]
In the years since the Third Tiberium war, a significant fraction of the GDI population old and new have been made refugees at least once in their lifetime, amidst the chaos of other conflicts and border disputes since then. Many of the older GDI citizens and many former Yellow Zone citizens share a common history, not only in fleeing war, but in fleeing the creeping spread of Tiberium as well.
There have also been more mundane reasons for moving such as to find work. This is particularly in the cases of Tiberium related industries and military families, but also those living out of fortress towns, family accommodations on military bases, or aboard ship, the cramped quarters on the Columbia have been the source of many times more applications than there are spaces.
Applicants have thus been pruned ruthlessly even after a first pass for psychological suitability. There is a small but significant minority of spaces being assigned to heavily vetted former Green and Yellow Zone citizens. This is in part a public relations move to demonstrate the opportunities in space aren't just for 'Original' Blue Zone citizens, but also reflects that the Yellow Zone citizens have a history of communal living and are predisposed to handling the cramped quarters on a long term or permanent basis.
The rooms themselves have space for the beds and some small personal effects, with liberal use of every nook and cranny for overhead storage and other storage options. Despite that, wardrobes are sparse and most 'apartments' have very little room for recreation. Lacking kitchens and dining areas within almost all of the personal dwellings, the bay makes heavy use of public cafeterias and kitchens as well as a communal cinema for larger gatherings.
All in all, it provides a homely atmosphere as described by those living there. Some concerns remain over widespread adoption of the style of housing, but for those chosen, even those with varying backgrounds are adapting quite well to the change in their living conditions.
[ ] GDSS Shala Bays (6 available)
-[ ] Species Restoration Bay (Stage 2)
A second species restoration bay is going to focus much more on larger animals and plants, primarily from the temperate biomes of earth, as they are some of the easiest to maintain, and are likely to be the first to see practical implementation due to the location of many of GDI's Blue Zones.
(Progress 256/255: 20 resources per die) [31, 17, 38, 45]
The second assigned species restoration bay has seen significant quarrels over what should be restored. While there is significant pressure, especially from the public to see significant numbers of large mammals, like deer, racoons, and other elements often seen as being symbols of a healing nature, bypassing the often more important plant life. While a deer may be photogenic, a longleaf pine is in many ways more important, representing a long living key species, not just a plant, but a home for birds and rodents, a root network keeping the soil in place, and often hosting a network of fungi among its roots.
Parus Major
[Censored]
Rule 5 breach, take a 3 month ban -EVAMod
Sula Leucogaster
[Censored]
Rule 5 breach, take a 3 month ban -EVAMod
[ ] Lunar Homesteading (Phase 2)
A second wave of homesteads will expand on the first, and combine expansions on the mining site approach, and more importantly for long term settlement begin moving away from the extractive model, looking towards expansions on services, and establishing basic lunar refining and manufacturing.
(Progress 250/250: 30 resources per die) (1000 residents)
(Progress 217/250: 30 resources per die) (1000 residents) [11, 35, 33, 41, 18, 16, 33, 23, 45, 37]
The Lunar homesteads aren't quite as simple as just carving out new rooms from the rocky surface of the moon. Relying on the Lunar soil alone would mean the housing almost certainly isn't sealed, a death sentence with the Moon's lack of atmosphere. However, the work is still relatively simple, particularly with GDI's experience in building the orbital stations and the Lunar mines.
It has by now settled into something of a routine. The mining teams exhaust veins of useful ores and follow on teams begin widening the tunnels, carrying out rationalizations to avoid the homesteads becoming a confusing labyrinthine warren of tunnels. After ensuring the room is properly supported to avoid cave-ins the homestead's pre-built walls and other materials are shipped in, sealed, and bolted into place section by section.
The modular homesteads are far from uniform, with differing design layouts adapting to the path of least resistance carved by the mining operations. But each section connects neatly to the next and as soon as one of the shells is completed and tested other teams move in, still in pressure suits, and begin with the more delicate internal wiring, plumbing and other necessities of life. They have the feel of frontier towns, where everything is simultaneously brand new, but also hard-wearing and durable. This is in case of any accidents in the not so far off mines, not to mention the inherently hostile environment of the lunar surface.
First priority for housing spots goes to workers in the mines, but as families are brought in the beginnings of more 'ordinary' jobs slowly begin to appear. For the present, most are in catering for the miners or construction crews. Despite that, there are growing numbers of residents in the Lunar homesteads and in the Orbital stations calling for not only greater amenities and some home comforts, but also to provide spaces for work and more opportunities for employment.
In some ways this mirrors earlier complaints regarding GDI arcologies and apartments. While it may be housing, it is thus far overwhelmingly almost only housing, with increasing amounts of people lacking employment and entertainment.
They've got coffee, they've got Wi-Fi, they've got toilets, they're good to go. Although with these low-G models, if you look at the blueprints, the shit is supposed to hit the fan.
-Ashley Johansen, engineer, video message sent to family on Earth
[ ] Autodoc Systems Deployment
While currently politically complicated and psychologically difficult, the autodoc systems represent the potential for a significant increase in GDI's ability to process injuries. Broadly speaking, these are only going to be found in some of the largest and most capable medical facilities, especially those specialized in wound care, and other forms of traumatic injury. Even so, pushing them out will make people nervous, and give politicians opposed to the Treasury ammunition.
(Progress 385/280: 30 resources per die) (+4 Health, +6 Emergency Health, -3 Capital Goods, -3 Energy) (-5 Political Support) [22, 37, 31, 1, 48, 19, 38, 49]
[ ] Transhuman Technology Deployment (New)
While there are significant bioconservative elements within the Initiative, and the scars of CABAL and the numerous other technological horrors unleashed by the Brotherhood of Nod run deep, the sheer level of capability of next generation bioware and cyberware is too great to be ignored. Taking steps beyond the limitations of humanity represents a bold new frontier, both in terms of life extension, and more importantly, retention and restoration of quality of life for many in the Initiative.
(Progress 342/300: 30 resources per die) (+10 Health, +5 Labor, -5 Capital Goods) [17, 35, 33, 33, 37, 11, 24, 12]
The autodocs are still very much unpopular with the general public, but when combined with the transhuman technologies being deployed, they have become transformation chambers. Gals walk in, and guys walk out, and vice versa. While certainly something of an exaggeration, given the still long recovery periods, and the often serious side effects, it is quite a major shift from any prior medical interventions.
Similarly, the military has been quite interested in the programs – especially the navy, as an autodoc system can be integrated into their warships, providing some of the best medical care on the planet, while cutting down on the crew and specialist requirements of sickbays across the fleet. Compared to many other things, maintaining a stock of personalized cells aboard each ship is not particularly difficult, and trims down on the often undesirable (if good for career prospects) shipboard medical postings.
It is in the general civilian sphere that the system has continued to see pushback, with the vast majority of patients requesting human doctors, rather than autodoc visits, and being willing to be added to waitlists in many cases, rather than enter one of the civilian pattern autodocs.
[ ] Military Particle Beam Development (Tech)
While the Initiative is unwilling to make use of the liquid Tiberium power packs that make infantry versions of the Brotherhood's particle beam system work, the weapon does have a place in supplementing the Initiative's machine guns and autocannons, mounted on everything from hydrofoils, to zone armor and various forms of light vehicles.
(Progress 81/100: 20 resources per die) [17, 28]
Particle beam weapons are nothing particularly new for the Initiative. Weapons like the Merlin personal ion cannon have a long and hallowed history in the arsenal of the Tiberium Wars. However, they have always had three overlapping problems preventing extensive service on GDI's part: weight, impact, and heat management.
In terms of weight, the Brotherhood's system seems to have made significant compromises to a number of critical safety features, most notably the shielding for the primary accelerator housing, and the Tiberium power cell that provides the vast majority of the energy used. For infantry purposes, the power cell is effectively a requirement, as otherwise the weapon consists of a heavy rifle, plus a fifty-kilo (or more) tethered backpack for power, while still somehow needing to find an effective means of cooling it; the cell reduces the weight to a (still fairly heavy) rifle, plus a twenty-kilo backpack of water based coolant.
Impact wise, the particle beams are not particularly special in most ways. Simply put, they bracket the difference between a heavy rifle and a light machine gun, with some of the advantages of each. What makes them useful is their extreme velocity, meaning that they can generate hits at long range with minimal delay and comparative pinpoint accuracy, and their recoil impulse being sustained and even, rather than the repeated shaking of a standard firearm.
Finally, there is heat – and heat is the real killer, as even with the advances in heat sinking and heat dispersal technologies, there are a number of key elements that Initiative scientists have not yet figured out how to replicate, leading to a number of early prototypes having the focusing barrels melt during sustained fire testing.
While work towards completing a practical particle beam weapon has not yet borne fruit, the Treasury has seen fit to authorize continued work after the first prototypes have been deployed given the number of other plasma, particle, and similar systems that are in various development bureau projects and basic science programs.
[ ] Ultralight Glide Munitions Deployment (Phase 2) (Munitions)
Deploying widespread glide munitions will take a significant pool of time and resources. While they will not replace the full spectrum of Initiative weapons, anything to extend standoff ranges and allow the Initiative to preserve both pilots and airframes is worth serious consideration at a minimum.
(Progress 150/150: 10 resources per die) (-1 Energy) (Projected 3 quarters to begin, 9 to complete)
(Progress 35/150: 10 resources per die) (-1 Energy) (Projected 3 quarters to begin, 9 to complete)
The Initiative's current stocks of glide munitions are almost entirely stored in the naval bases around the Indian ocean. While after accounting for the expected rate of expenditure in the Karachi offensive there are only days of bombs available, this is because the air force is planning on maintaining hundreds of aircraft in the area of operation on a round-the-clock schedule, so it should still be enough to seriously degrade Brotherhood systems. The missiles will primarily be used in ARM modes to degrade Brotherhood sensor systems, or lofted to provide a safe second strike package against targets that would see recovery actions or otherwise survive the initial salvoes.
[ ] NovaHawk Development (High Priority) (Platform)
The Firehawk, as GDI's core combat aircraft, is at this point very long in the tooth, and even with upgrades is simply no longer capable of performing in all of its roles. With the amount of new technology available and even newer technology being built, a near complete redesign is required. However, with the number of parts currently in service, trying to reuse as many of them as possible is considered to be best practice in terms of both pilot familiarity and ease of manufacture.
(Progress 59/40: 15 resources per die) [30, 29]
The Novahawk program has largely been a problem of competing needs and desires. While it is currently possible for the Initiative to build something that is essentially a clone of the Barghest Bis, or the Kelpie, neither fits particularly well into the Initiative's overall doctrine for air power. Instead, the Novahawk program has focused on something different: Impulse Jets. Rather than trying to use the Brotherhood's repulsortech systems to provide primary power, they are being used primarily to simplify the Novahawk's engine system. While running the whole aircraft on repulsorplates would be extremely STU intensive, it takes significantly less to be able to move it at about a half meter per second as a secondary drive for VTOL operations or emergency landings.
In terms of armament, the Novahawk has an integral laser for relatively-close-in defense against Barghest-type dogfighters, but will continue to primarily use missiles for both anti-air and anti-ground missions. The laser is a multirole system, able to both burn incoming missiles out of the sky in a roughly twenty degree arc in front of the aircraft, and shoot down enemy aircraft. While some pilots have requested a kinetic option, that has so far been shot down as less capable and more expensive to add on.
Overall, the aircraft looks, externally, very similar to the firehawks it is intended to replace. The biggest differences are along the main fuselage, which has a number of additional bulges for the repulsor plate system, and from the rear, the engines are significantly more shrouded, due to them no longer needing nearly as much vectoring, adding protection and some degree of thrust.
[ ] Next Generation Armored Vehicles (Platform) (Merged)
GDI's mainline armored vehicles, from the Guardian APC, to the Predator, Mammoth, and the array of other platforms based on the core chassis have become a noose around the Initiative's neck. Across the entire fleet, the platforms have effectively reached the endpoint of what can be practically done to them. A redesign from first principles integrating new technologies and doctrinal requirements is needed to renew the vehicle park.
(Progress 77/160: 30 resources per die) [21, 20]
To describe the program overall, the three best words to describe it are unfocused, competitive, and most critically, theoretical. In short, GDI's technological base has fundamentally shifted in the last twenty to thirty years since the vehicles of the last generation took their final forms, and the modern arsenal offers fundamentally new capabilities, ranging from drone systems, to lasers, plasma, shields, and a dozen other elements.
For the APCs, work has been slow, with months of competitive testing on the most important part, the troop bay, and the exits. With over a dozen contenders, the problem has been, primarily, trade-offs. A more open troop bay requires more space, in turn increasing the size of the vehicle along with the attendant costs, armor, weight and so on. On the other hand, more cramped bays are more difficult to get around in, and far more difficult to bail out of. And then there are the styles of opening. Standard back hatches and drop ramps are by far the most convenient for foot infantry and for using the vehicle as a cargo transport. However, they also provide a very clear weak point compared to some of the other options, with a pair of designs offering up a set of top hatches, easy enough for even the Defender pattern to hop out of, allowing the entire squad to exit the vehicle extremely quickly and spread over a full 270 degree sweep, compared to a hatch being both much slower for power armored troops, and limiting egress routes.
The two Armored Fighting Vehicles contests in the programs have seen dramatically different approaches. The Predator replacement has mostly been a fairly subdued, limited, and fundamentally conservative project. Iron-air batteries to replace the lithium ion options. An upgraded point defense system that removes the current 'wedding cake' in favor of a more integrated defensive system using small caliber railguns both for point defense and anti personnel work, although that is still competing with an Infernium laser system essentially ripped straight off of a Brotherhood buggy. The differences between the proposals from the various bureaus have been in the details more than anything else, with some opting for a shimmer shield, others for a set of buckler emitters, and a few handing in proposals for a fully particle-shielded fleet, although the last one would be both incredibly expensive, and more importantly, be forced back to a chemical gun, as the power pack is far from large enough to be able to feed both the shields and the railgun in such a case.
The Mammoth on the other hand has seen exercise after exercise in utter absurdity, with designers going all the way up to mounting plasma weapons and shields on the vehicles. While the frontrunner is still a relatively constrained design, primarily focusing on sensors and survivability, while maintaining the standing arsenal of railguns, missiles, and rapid fire railguns or laser systems, other draft designs have experimented with concepts such as triple railgun mounts or high-elevation ion-cannon turrets for anti-Varyag work.
Finchley2022: The Skybreaker is just such a stupidly niche unit. It's a super heavy AA that can't AA against anything but the 'we swear it is not a Varyag' skyships, but dear god does it smack those idiots out of the sky, and outright vaporize any unlucky flyer it happens to catch.
AngelOfNoMercy: You can also force it to fire against ground units, although that requires manual input of course. Vaporizes everything, including the super bunkers.
[ ] Ground Forces Zone Armor (Set 2) (Phase 1) (High Priority)
While the tip of the spear are still equipping themselves with the best that the Initiative can offer, they are a relatively small fraction of the total forces that serve under the striking eagle. A second, substantially larger wave of factories will require both significantly more capital goods, and a sizable workforce to produce enough of the armor to make a difference on those scales.
(Progress 260/285: 20 resources per die) (-4 Energy, -2 Capital Goods, -2 Labor) [19, 12, 9, 29, 43, 39]
Initiative Ground Forces are a very mixed bag, with their umbrella covering a large number of different unit types – with the Army, Marines and Naval Infantry being the biggest three, but over a dozen groups in total, each with their own different needs, organization and use cases. Marines, for example, are primarily trained for over-the-beach operations, with a significant focus on landing on opposed fronts. While other forces are certainly trained to fight like this, none make it a focus the way the Marines do. Comparatively, the Naval Infantry serve primarily aboard ships, and in securing naval facilities, able to operate both at sea and ashore, but lacking in much of the equipment for operations over the beach.
However, it is the smaller units that are beginning to see improvements. Units like construction battalions, security detachments, and other specialized roles have begun to see squad after squad training for operations in powered armor, providing them with more safety, and the ability to carry significantly more equipment.
Beyond that, much of current armor production armor is actually slated for storage, because the Karachi offensive is expected to chew through the spearhead in short order. While the personnel losses are likely to be significantly lower than previous infantry offensives, the material losses are likely to be extremely high, with an expectation that every Zone Trooper in the field will go through approximately a whole suit over the course of the campaign. Whether GDI can maintain that level of loss, even with every day bringing greater production, is still an open question.
[ ] Fast Twitch Myomers Development (Tech)
Myomers, much like muscles, have differing twitch speeds. GDI has focused primarily on some very slow twitch speeds, emphasizing reliability and power over speed. That is not always the best of decisions, however, with faster twitch speeds meaning that a vehicle, or theoretically a person, can leap and sprint significantly faster than the more pedestrian speeds currently attainable.
(Progress 108/60: 10 resources per die) [33, 39]
The fast twitch myomer is a fundamentally different product from the slow twitch myomers currently in use. Much like the other variants, it is an electroactive protein chain, but rather than designed around maximum force, the myomer contracts almost three times as quickly, but with not even a third of the strength The biggest difference however is in the processing, as the fast twitch myomer bundles are significantly thinner than the slow twitch and so much more can be produced from a single batch.
In terms of impact, the biggest is going to be in the field of cybernetics, as one of the more common complaints in terms of quality of life is simply the lack of fast twitch reflex. It is genuinely difficult to do simple things like catching a rubber ball with a cybernetic hand, or many of the other simple tasks that require a person to snap their arm or hand quickly. Lifting weights is one thing, but the limited speed of the current myomer bundles often makes people feel like their limbs are not as responsive as they want. Aside from that, the Talons want to do a minor refit to their Havocs, using these bundles to provide a starting boost for their Havoc mechs, flinging them into the air, and giving the jump jets a significant leg up, extending the range of their leaps by up to sixty meters.
In most cases, the myomer bundles are going to be mixed, with different specialities for different purposes. For example, with myomer harnesses carrying guns, the vast majority are going to be switched to fast twitch, as there is plenty of space around the gun for the myomer bundles to contract, and increase the responsiveness of the system. On the other hand, most of the limbs are going to be quite different, sticking primarily with slow twitch for strength, and using small amounts of fast twitch for other purposes.
Deployment is likely to be fairly small scale overall, with the vast majority of GDI's need for myomers met by the slow twitch versions. About ten percent of current myomer production is likely to be replaced with this new variant.
A/N 1: Link to Ko-fi. It does really help. Ko-fi.com/ithillid
Terrans Fall First
Jim Higgins
Terrans Fall First is a tactical third/first person shooter, with a four player cooperative campaign based heavily on the exploits of the OSRCT. Feet first into hell is probably the best way to describe it, as the game rapidly ramps up from curbstomps into tactics like using drop pods for boarding actions, and the air becoming mostly bullets by volume. While you do have significant ability to deliver tactical options (thrown beacons for the most part), operational strikes (targets designated on a separate map screen), and finally strategic strikes that are called down before the mission opens.
For larger multiplayer, it is a asymmetric game, with real time strategy players on one side, and shooter players on the others, with games going as extreme as sixteen to one, with four teams of four players, each with separate objectives, mission packages, and communications, all against a single player managing their resources to fight all four groups.
In terms of enemies, there are three groups, colloquially called Bugs, Bots, and Boomers.
Bugs are in some ways the tactically simplest of the lot, focusing on swarming down the players with large numbers of very cheap units, but their high quality stuff, such as the scourge, are absolute monsters, able to intercept reinforcing drop pods with suicide bombs, rope players into melee range, and blanket the area in spores and smoke to make ranged play much harder.
Bots on the other hand are a very sneaky game, able to rapidly overwhelm player groups in a crossfire and with a barrage of impact fused (although for the most part very small blast radius) weaponry. However, every bot has a pretty obvious weak point, heads for most of the small and medium units, and vents for medium and heavy ones. Nearly any bot can be killed with even very basic weapons, but fire discipline is something that most players I have met really don't have.
Boomers are the closest that the game gets to a mirror match, with an emphasis on artillery, fire positions, and cover. At the start, they are basic infantry, with rifles, but by the end, they have most of the same toys you do, and there are a lot more of them than there are of you.
FloatingWood
Bugs may be tactically simple, but with a good minder they are absolutely horrible to fight against. Good for learning the mechanics of the game, but at the higher levels they start swarming to an absolutely ludicrous extent.
CrystalSkull
I find the Boomers to be a pain in the ass when the AI starts focusing on endless artillery barrages. I have to crawl my way forward inch by inch to get an objective.
Jim Higgins
#CrystalSkull
Heh, AI is ezmode compared to an enemy player, especially if you irritate them. They have a tendency to drown the target in shells.
As for counterplay to the boomers, I have tended to run Scout and Light suits, always with jumpjets, and pretty much every mobility option I can bolt onto them. Slugging matches are not a way to win against the boomers, ever.
FloatingWood
#CrystalSkull #JimHiggins Slugging matches against the Swarm start in your favour, but the bugs actually get higher income as the casualties mount. Pick a fight, hit hard, run away before the reinforcements can escalate. Repeat. Or get drowned in numbers.
BearlyThere
Good timing. There's a whole bunch of new consumer-grade chips coming out of NA in the next couple of months. I've been looking for a game to justify me spending a good portion of my paycheck on upgrading my system. Now, if only it had good VI partners… When are the next gen EVAs coming, anyways?
DrownedInTheBlue
#CrystalSkull
Sounds like you need to focus on stealth gameplay, the AI is at least not completely cheating, it will only direct patrols to your general location, rather than redeploying all of its forces to perfectly counter you. Credit where credit is due, they really tried to make the AI feel fair.
#FloatingWood
Is it based on casualties? I thought it was based on bodies being near active bugs, then again I don't particularly enjoy fighting the swarm, they're really more of an action flick fight then the actual tactics I'm looking for when playing TFF.
Teardown: Avatar
Jordyn Harris
Welcome to an episode of Teardown I never expected to be able to make. Links in the usual places.
I got my hands on a stars damned AVATAR!
Overall thoughts, very, interesting, with a lot of components done in ways I have never seen before. The way that they do their modular combat system is interesting, because we have all seen them tearing components off of other Nod vehicles, usually the disabled ones, but even so. Now, the trick actually seems to be some form of universal service bus. Not a new trick, GDI has had variants of that going back to the earliest days of the MARV program, and probably before then in the classified files. But this is something more than a little different. A pod system that can be slotted even in the middle of combat, and to a limited degree even route around damages.
On the other hand, their legs are a maintenance nightmare. Hips are very clearly biomimetic, but biomimetic to humans, and I don't think I need to explain to anyone over the age of maturity why that can be problematic. And then the lower legs are these weird skeletonized things. Very much something where they can learn from GDI rather than the other way around.
YellowZon3r (verified military)
Hell yeah! Man it was my dream to pilot one of those things since I was a kid. How does it stack up against the Havoc do you know?
Jordyn Harris
So, the Havoc I got my hands on was already stripped of all the sensitive bits. The shields were all pulled out, etc.
FloatingWood
How the hell did you get your hands on an Avatar? Also, human hip design is unfairly maligned, and that pod system sounds… fun for the maintenance staff. You'd think that it'd be easier to slot everything in at base.
CrystalSkull
I saw an Avatar once, safely from many miles away. Never thought I would see one up close like this. Damn thing is huge.
Eno_Eyes
Have you seen those internet vids of an Avatar tearing apart their friends and allies to upgrade their frame? I've always wondered what happened to the people piloting them. Like, if I'm riding an attack bike and I see an Avatar heading my way I'm getting the hell out of there before the pilot decides that I'd look better strewn across their chassis.
What does 'route around damages' mean?
FloatingWood
It means that things like the cables and power supplies can be run in a way that damaged areas do not impact the functioning of the machine. Or at least, are not as debilitating/dangerous to deal with for maintenance staff.
LogyLoggie
So, does that mean they use the same parts in lots of places, or lots of different stuff to provide redundancy so they can keep moving when they get shot up? I suspect I will hate how they do it, either way.
Q3 2064 Results
Tiberium Detectors
GDI has a number of means to find Tiberium, ranging from simple Geiger-Müller tubes, to far more advanced means – such as ground penetrating radar, and a number of other sensor systems. However, none of them are both precise and reliable. Some, like the Geiger counters, can find even small amounts of Tiberium, but lack the ability to detect how much beyond a fairly small amount. Others, like the radar, fail to detect Tiberium in small amounts, and even on a good day, often can't find more than a vague idea of where the Tiberium is. For most projects, the reliable way to find Tiberium is to take core samples, up to some one hundred meters (although for most projects it is more typically around fifty meters) deep, and do so in a grid pattern to find the average depths of Tiberium. Unfortunately, this often misses significant veins of Tiberium, and is a substantial investment of time and energy.
Work done in the Harvard laboratories has come up with a new mechanism, using a mix of homegrown and visitor technologies to produce a dedicated Tiberium detector system, or more specifically, a resonance imager, applying some of the techniques used in radiation detection as well as the tricks that Tiberium Glass and sonic weapons use to find the specific resonance of Tiberium, and then use a grid of sensor rods to produce an image. While limited in scope (as it will only find the topmost layer) it is a major step forward in GDI's ability to map Tiberium's expanse underground, which is well known to be far higher than what has been detected just below the surface during construction.
The overall program will however require a substantial degree of bureaucratic support, primarily to facilitate survey teams mapping large portions of the Blue Zones, and potentially attempting outreach to more reasonable factions of the Brotherhood of Nod in order to map their Yellow Zones.
The proof-of-concept area survey is a 30x30 kilometer area, west of Boston. It has discovered multiple giant seams of Tiberium seemingly reaching for the surface from deep underground. While existing mining infrastructure can cap these veins before they breach the surface, the fact that these veins were previously undetected has caused no small amount of worry in GDI planners, and local officials are diverting funding to expand the surveyed area to cover the Boston metropolitan area as soon as possible.
Avatar Battle Recovery System
The Avatar and its precursor, the Purifier, have been a thorn in the side of the Global Defense Initiative for decades. The loping stride as the earth shook below them has heralded the Brotherhood of Nod deciding that a particular battle is worth taking seriously. That victory has been deemed worthy of the expenditure of the gifts of Kane.
A large number of these mechs were destroyed or captured during the Regency War, many of them on the battlefields of Yellow Zone 6 as Gideon's lines collapsed and offensives failed, ripping apart these wrecks and captures has begun producing results, mostly in the form of Omnipods. While GDI certainly has their own modular systems, the Omnipods of the Avatar are primarily designed with redundancy in mind. An Avatar can literally rip laser pods, flamethrowers, and other options from mission killed Nod vehicles and march them once more into the teeth of the Initiative, and the Avatars themselves are impressively redundant, able to be restrung and brought to a certain level of combat readiness in the field with nothing more complicated than hand tools.
Karachi
With the long awaited invasion drawing close, InOps has disclosed a number of elements. While Al-Isfahani is working with limited resources, there have been a number of discovered shipments. While none seem to be particularly large, it does represent a worrying amount of preparation. The city, and the region around it seems to have been substantially fortified, although preparations have been disrupted by the regional floods, especially around the Indus river.
Al-Isfahani is expected to put the majority of his weight attempting to drive the Initiative into the sea, and hitting the landing craft, with the inland areas seem to be more sparse in terms of fortification, at least until the fortifications in the mountains as it closes on the Himalayan Blue Zone.
Tactically, the Brotherhood has few discovered new tricks, although it is likely that the Bannerjees will use this opportunity to test new model Gana, and human cybernetic augmentation technologies in battle against the Initiative, and while there is no proof yet, Varyag class vessels are likely to be a significant opponent in the battles to come. Surprise is not likely to be a factor given the limited frontage and angles of approach that the Initiative is going to be forced to use. With the relative speed of Initiative and Brotherhood aircraft, the battle is likely to primarily be in the Gulf of Oman, and spread from there, with both sides significantly able to rely on ground based airpower.
Economics
This quarter has seen significant slowdowns in the private markets, for a multitude of reasons. First is that demand is being substantially outstripped in many areas by supply, at least in the areas where the private economy can actually compete. While not as dramatic a contraction as has been predicted by some, the slowdown, despite GDI freeing up labor and capital goods, is also a collapse of some companies that were not built to weather competition or adverse conditions.
While the Treasury has continued working on bringing the civilian economy better results, there is significant lobbying in Parliament to begin bringing an end to grant programs, while shoring up the banking reserve to move from a grant based system to a loan based one, alongside other elements of a package of economic therapy, weaning the private market system off of Initiative supply lines.
Litvinov
Litvinov sits in her office, small amidst stacks of papers and in a chair that seems far too large for her. A wizened old woman, white hair, bulging veins running across her hands.
"Seo, thank you for coming."
"It was an honor to be invited."
"I am old. And while I must unsheathe the sword of the Initiative one last time, this war to come will take its toll on me. I am unlikely to keep the seat after this term is up. It is time for newer blood in this seat."
"How so?" Seo frowned. "You've sat it well. You're popular and you've improved lives with education initiatives that you have pushed. I can think of no-one better for after the conflict either. And not to be rude, but you're still more than healthy."
Litvinov reached across the desk to pat the back of Seo's hand and smiled at him gently. "It's sweet of you to say but it's not necessarily a matter of 'health'." She pursed her lips in thought. "Not physical at least. More that it will take its toll here." She said, placing a hand over her heart. "I was elected on a manifesto of peace." She said quietly and seriously. "Since then I have overseen conflict, war and bloodshed, skirmishes are still ongoing and here I sit, in this chair, ready to ignite another conflict."
"For all the right reasons." Seo assured her. "From time to time-"
"Tree of liberty, blood of patriots, and tyrants." Litvinov waved away the quote, tiredly cutting him off. "I've heard all the arguments. I have talked with the brass, and InOps. I understand, and agree that Al-Isfahani is best described as the leader of a rogue state, a terrorist with a nuclear arsenal, that he's denied all diplomatic overtures, official and otherwise. That even his fellow warlords have given their tacit approval for his removal as he's unpredictable and dangerous. The sound economic and military reasons for the link to our Blue Zone constituents. That in the long run by removing him and his nuclear arsenal we will almost certainly be saving lives. And yet, it still weighs heavy on me to know that I will be condemning thousands to die. The responsibility ends with me. It's my choice and I stand by it and am prepared to defend it, but that scarcely makes the burden much easier to bear. I am tired, Seo."
"Your leadership has been more than the wars you have led, and after this we could really, truly see your manifesto become a reality. We'd be bringing the light of knowledge, improving lives-"
"Careful now." Litvinov warned him. "The Initiative, the developed world has done terrible things in the name of spreading 'civilisation'. The reality is this. We are invading a country, killing thousands or tens of thousands, and murdering a man because we are scared. We've all seen how 'One last war and then the end of history' plays out. As for making my manifesto a reality, well, we've been doing that quite well. We don't need another war for us to be able to educate children, we can do that quite well without sending our young people to die."
"You don't sound sure about Karachi." Seo noted.
"Oh I am sure, and that's precisely the issue at hand. I hesitate to say that we 'need' Karachi. We could get along quite well without it as we have done. But so long as Zone Eighteen remains isolated it is a weakness inviting attack, putting our people at risk. Add in Al-Isfahani's threats, and well. Too many people want Karachi to succeed, and Al-Isfahani has known what we are planning for too long for there to be trust. Perhaps we could have done more, perhaps this could have been de-escalated. Perhaps, even now it's not too late. But I am not brave enough to take that risk, even though my heart is telling me I should. So, I shall throw us into the flames of war one last time, and then stand down."
"For what it's worth. I still believe you deserve to be leader. Precisely because you're able to make the difficult decisions like this."
"And what the Initiative deserves, what people really truly deserve is life, happiness, and prosperity, a chance to raise their children with love in peace. To not see our brave young serving soldiers lay dead in far off fields. And if there really, truly is to be peace and reconciliation between GDI and the Brotherhood? There needs to be someone new at the helm, whose hands aren't stained with blood, who doesn't have to make these horrible decisions, who isn't weighed down with regrets and mistrust. Whom Brotherhood leaders- world leaders can look at without remembering that she coldly decided to 'remove' their friends and peers time and time again. Rightly or wrongly, and far more the former in my own humble opinion I am seen as a warmonger. I wish for nothing more than peace, and yet time has proven I cannot be the one to nurture it or oversee it. The initiative needs nothing less than someone who is better than me. Wiser, more loving, kinder. Someone who looks at the world in wonder and still believes in peace. Someone younger who doesn't dwell so much on the past and what might have been, but instead strides forwards into the future with purpose and vision determined to make the world a better place."
"For what it's worth. You have made the world a better place. And I believe you can continue to do so."
"And I do not, or at least I'm no longer sure. And so, the time has come for me to step aside for someone else."
"Do you have any idea who this 'someone else' might be?" Seo asked.
"Several ideas, which is, as you've no doubt guessed, part of the reason we are meeting today." Litvinov smiled tiredly. "Let us begin."
Politics
A minor scandal has brewed among GDI and been put to rest by the Services Department, in particular regarding healthcare. Despite the somewhat low birth rate, among certain segments of the population fertility levels are meeting and even exceeding replacement rates.
Partly as a result of formerly living under information blackouts, young adults from the Yellow Zones starting families have been making liberal use of search engines and EVAs to ask health and infant related questions. Common questions such as "What age do babies start crawling." Or when to expect their first words. But also stranger, more unusual questions. Some of which have prompted widespread derision and mockery. (For the record, it is safe for Forgotten families to use Tiberium crystals as nightlights, but should not be attempted by anyone else. If unsure, remove the Tiberium in question immediately and contact your local emergency services for further advice and support).
In response to online abuse and mockery several prominent health officials have made several statements:
"Unfortunately none of us are born holding instruction manuals. I, and many of my colleagues fully support and encourage first time parents and indeed any caregivers to make use of all available support and to continue asking questions to help them learn and understand their infants needs. We remain available at all hours to answer any and all questions and are committed to providing advice, information and aid to those who most need care, love, and understanding. Lastly to our fine young parents and would-be parents, I will add that there remains a variety of parenting guides and manuals to help with some of these questions, ranging from pregnancy through all stages of childhood.
To those looking upon current events and reacting with mockery and abuse we say this. The families' questions come from a place of love and worry. Spurred by nothing less than seeking to ensure their child's happiness, safety and wellbeing. And we ask that our fellow human beings react with patience, love and understanding. And the humility to admit that none of us are born knowing all we shall ever need to learn."
Parliamentary Parties
The Developmentalists continue to run on inertia. For years now, they've been bleeding members to other parties and seeing their vote share dwindle, added to increasing disagreements within the party and as ever political analysts are predicting their eventual collapse. Spokespeople and anonymous sources from within the party itself have dismissed those claims. The Developmentalists, at their core, are a broad coalition, originally a result of trying to contest the more militaristic Hawks. With their main stated goal being to develop the economy, there are as ever disagreements on how exactly to carry that out, or more specifically where exactly the budget should be invested. Members and voters continue to defect to the UYL, Socialist Party, Market Socialists, Starbound, or joining the Free Market Party. If the Developmentalists' statements are to be believed then it is in no danger of a dramatic collapse or split but commentators theorize it may simply keep bleeding voters until it is no longer able to hold its position as the majority party.
The Militarists, conversely, despite their origin in the fracture of the Hawks into Initiative First and the Militarists, have seen their voter base largely remain steady if with a shift in messaging away from Defence against the Brotherhood of Nod or internal security, towards Tiberium abatement and containment, along with pensions for veterans, strong healthcare support, cybernetics, and providing factory jobs. Their shift in policy is perhaps best characterized by comparisons of their campaign posters. From showing tanks, planes, ships and infantrymen and women, the ships and planes remain if much changed, but the tank has given way to harvesters and the infantry to engineers and harvester pilots. In the coming elections, and indeed for decades to come, the Militarists are expected to remain a strong force in GDI's political system advocating for military spending and readiness.
Starbound has largely gone from a party that advocates for immediate evacuation at any cost, to one that has a significantly more nuanced standpoint. Even with increasing levels of abatement the steady uptick of orbital and lunar based population and the ongoing worries about the state of the Earth means much of the public continue to demand increasing investment in orbital and lunar habitation and industry. The solar system and the stars have captured the imagination of the public, and more bluntly, many seek an escape from what they see as a doomed planet. At the same time, they have established themselves as the voice of the spacer in most ways.
The Market Socialists and Socialist Parties are often natural allies regarding most spending priorities. Each wants a strong welfare state supporting GDI citizens, however, various ideologically motivated disagreements prevent them from presenting a united front. The Market Socialists lean towards an interventionist state with strong regulations and taxes while supporting the private market and in particular the culture of worker co-operatives and small business that GDI and the Treasury has fostered. The Socialists on the other hand are more in favor of direct central planning from the Treasury along with regional and local governments, and are strong proponents of government owned and run industry. In the spirit of compromise government owned industries often provide competition to private business and a floor to quality, ensuring unscrupulous business cannot over-charge for or under-provide low cost goods and services. As with most parties in GDI's coalition parliaments they have strong links to and work often with the Developmentalists, finding areas they can agree on. Even if sometimes quite heated political disagreements remain.
The Free Market Party is seeing a slow recovery. Both in voter numbers and support, and in cross bench alliances and deals with their peers. In the immediate aftermath of the Third Tiberium War, they attempted to leverage the existing wealth and their traditional position as a dealmaker and mediator to seize significant power in moves that saw the Treasury not even giving them the time of day. Since then, moderating influences and being willing and able to work within the system and limits of an increasingly regulated market has seen them put their support and name to several projects earning them goodwill from their peers in parliament and appeasing many of their supporters who benefited from the organization under major corporations that existed prior to the third Tiberium war. With over ten percent of Parliaments seats they are a major party still, but have by now realized they can still be excluded from coalitions and policymaking if they do not moderate their voices or the other parties choose to exclude them, and have adapted their rhetoric, goals and policies accordingly.
Most of the problems of the Free Market Party are mirrored among Initiative First. Each fundamentally wants a return to the way things were, and are competing with parties trying to offer new reforms and who have been successful in their goals. The Militarists and Developmentalists have the trust and support of the public and broad support for their manifesto, leaving little room for Initiative First to claim as their own, and they have been largely branded the Bigot party, characterized by their frequent proposed discriminatory policies and distrust of Yellow Zoners, Forgotten, Qatarists, the Open Hand and peaceful Nod faithful.
The United Yellow List has had their numbers dwindle compared to their heyday. But that is in large part because their policies, and their voters, have been accepted amongst a variety of other parties. They almost always oppose any legislation Initiative First proposes or votes for save when the latter is grudgingly voicing support for moderate policies with widespread support. The UYL is small, but influential and is frequently party to committees and private meetings regarding the wording of cross-parliament bills. While they quietly ensure that former Yellow Zones see continued investment and engage in pork barrel politics it has also been joked that nowadays they largely exist out of spite aimed at Initiative First and to provide a coordinated counterweight against their voices. Whatever the case, they and their voters are overwhelmingly supportive of GDI's government. While most serving members of the military lend their vote to the Militarists large sections of the Home Guard vote for the United Yellow List.
The Reclamation Party hit well above their weight in politics. Chiefly concerned with Tiberium abatement and land reclamation they benefit from the fact that Tiberium harvesting and mining is a source of major stimulus to the economy and sees support from almost all sides of parliament. With continued success in pushing back the Red Zones this small but influential party has seen increased interest and a continued influx of voters swelling their ranks and parliamentary seats. Analysts warn however, that the continued pushback of the Red Zones has the potential to backfire. Voters could indeed see it for the success it is in reclaiming territory from the crystal. But, as the risk of Tiberium becomes less visible and immediate other concerns may see voters drift to other parties.
The Homeland Party is best described as 'nationalist'. While this is a loaded term, it is technically correct, and often gives the wrong impression. GDI has a long history of refugees fleeing from war and Tiberium over the last several decades. And while GDI has reclaimed much of what has been lost and is reclaiming ever more, at its height Tiberium covered much of France and Germany, and practically all of Italy, not to mention the Balkans and large chunks of Spain, and that is just in western and central Europe. Simply put they include refugees and families from minority groups who wish to return to their homelands and support targeted efforts against Tiberium. More than that, with the success in expanding the Blue Zones a number are clamoring for new settlements and cities in the cleared ground. At the same time, the Homeland party distinguishes itself from the Reclamation party specifically by its military standpoints, specifically its interest in conquering Brotherhood territory to reclaim historic homelands.
The smallest of all parliamentary parties and controlling only a fraction of a percent of Parliament's seats, the Open Hand are openly Noddist, and despite the large numbers of Nod and former Nod refugees this has limited their electoral success. There are signs however that public sentiment may be shifting, with more and more polled voters seeing it as now safe to vote for the Open Hand with the parties continued existence and the feared crackdown never arriving. Not only that, but among the general public too. The Open Hand are hardly in the position of kingmaker, nor are they the deciding votes in a hotly contested issue. The small handful of parliament members however have earned respect among their peers for fair and honest conduct within the halls of power. The Open Hand have stated their beliefs and aims and live by them, voting with their conscience rather than attempting to make deals or parlay their support into benefits for themselves. Rather, they study the bills placed before parliament and vote for a law they think is good, or against a law they disapprove of with a handful of rare abstentions regarding complex issues or those they have no opinion on. As such their names appear in support of numerous bills authored by larger, more powerful parties. Some would argue their votes do not matter, but it has been noticed and is respected for their integrity.
Finally, there is probably the most important party in Initiative politics that is not in Parliament, the Forgotten. The Forgotten have continued to engage in a complicated push and pull dynamic. On one hand, they have carefully preserved significant independence from the Initiative, but at the same time, they are deeply intertwined with the Initiative, working in Tiberium fields, and producing a sizable increase in GDI's STU output.
The Forgotten, as a whole, are largely attempting to provide a very unified outer facing, often concealing distinguishing markings when interacting with the Initiative, or keeping them extremely subtle. However, there can broadly be considered three categories of Forgotten: Integrationist, parallelist, and isolationist.
The first group, the Integrationists, are probably the largest at this point, although maintaining a census of the Forgotten overall is difficult at the best of times, impossible at worst. The endgoal of the Integrationists is to fully integrate into GDI society. While they are likely to try to maintain their own communities, and have taken over a number of the old fortress towns to do so, they are, for the most part, taxpaying, hardworking citizens. The vast majority are living among the Tiberium infrastructure somewhere, but that is due to them being uniquely suited to it, in ways that make even the best of GDI's personal protective equipment look like the beaks worn by doctors during the black death.
The second, the parallists are inclined to see GDI as good allies, but are quite interested in maintaining their own society and way of life, taking remote slices of Blue Zones and establishing their own settlements built in their own ways, but not directly answering to the Initiative's governmental systems. Many see it as a self-evident truth that the Forgotten strains and 'natural' humans are too divergent to ever fully re-integrate with GDI and the rest of humanity. Moreso, they don't even see it as desirable to do so. They point to their own distinct advantages in the form of their biological adaptations. But also see their own distinct cultures having formed and being worthy of preserving. Not as openly hostile or standoffish as the isolationists, and happier to work with GDI. But as just one example, many Forgotten require vastly different medical treatments and have their own physicians, while many more ordinary trauma surgeons would be at a loss if asked to care for Forgotten patients.
Finally, there are the isolationists, and these are the hardest in some ways to keep track of as they do their best to avoid interaction with the Initiative. Among the isolationists there seem to be two major wings, one that simply dislikes both the Initiative and the Brotherhood of Nod, and the ones where they have aligned themselves to one Brotherhood figure or another, such as Mehretu's Order. Forgotten choose to align with the isolationists for a variety of reasons, but chief among them, particularly for those advocating for a 'homeland' of sorts and maintaining carefully controlled and contained red zones is that they remember the initial circumstances that led to the Forgotten, when the first mutants were ostracized from society out of fear of contagion. This is not only due to blaming GDI for abandoning them and their homes to the spread of Tiberium. They also fear and hate Nod for how early cybernetic research made heavy use of Forgotten for experiments, most notably the Beta strain due to their adaptations allowing biological components to power the cybernetic grafts. There are some happy to work with GDI among those who have lost friends and family to Nod and CABAL, while others still harbour distrust for all outsiders and seek wide reaching autonomy and territory that is uniquely theirs. Some accomplish this by remaining nomadic and living in convoys, while those settling down seek to cultivate Tiberium fields for health and developmental reasons, but also to ensure economic autarky and a source of exports and industry to ensure they and their people are never left impoverished.
Directorship Challenge?!
At the beginning of her term Director Litvinov was not much younger than she is today. But to see her as she was at the start of her term and to see her today is to sharply highlight the intense demands of the position.
At the beginning of her term Litvinov was asked to pose for a glamor magazine which was well received by the public, serving members of the military in particular noted their appreciation. Such images are a far cry from her current appearance, prematurely aged by the demands of her position. While there are no immediate concerns regarding her health it is an increasingly frequent topic of discussion as to if or when she might be stepping down and who could replace her.
The obvious choices are Seo Thoki and Harrison Carter. Seo, the so-called Mad Treasurer, has largely maintained significant political influence, while using it to push seemingly risky gambles that have often paid off, and is broadly popular in his role as secretary of the Treasury. However, few are practically interested in seeing him in the Director's seat. At the same time, he has a significant base of political support that could well see him lifted to that level. On the other side, there is Harrison Carter, Admiral of the Space Force, the sponsor of the OSRCT, and a major proponent of space development. However, his biggest problem is that Seo and Carter's bases have significant overlap, while leaving other groups out in the cold, leaving the two set up to fight while a potential third candidate sweeps from the outside.
Resources: 1360+225 in reserve (-30 from Reconstruction commissions) (-15 from Bureau of Arcologies) (-15 from Consumer Industrial Development) (-10 Division of Alternative Energy) (-20 Department of Munitions)(-30 Department of Refits) (-240 InOps) (-60 General Pool) (100 in Reserve for Banking)
Political Support: 105
SCIENCE Meter: 3/4
Tiberium Spread
25.405 (+0.285) Blue Zone
0.00 (-0.04) Green Zone
0.07 (+0.01) Cyan Zone
23.375 (+.235) Yellow Zone (99 points of mitigation)
51.15 (-.49) Red Zone (87 points of mitigation)
New Tiberium Spread
25.755 (+0.35) Blue Zone
0.00 (-0.04) Green Zone
0.07 (+0.00) Cyan Zone
23.725 (+.35) Yellow Zone (96 points of mitigation)
50.45 (-.70) Red Zone (86 points of mitigation)
Current Economic Issues:
Housing: +88 (+85 LQ, +3 HQ) (1 high-quality housing per turn)
Energy: +45 (+6 in reserve) (+5 per turn from sub-departments)
Logistics: +35 (-4 from military activity)
Food: +46 (+26 backed reserve, +5 unbacked reserve)
Health: +41 (+6 Emergency Health) (-8 from refugees)
Capital Goods: +42 (+2 per turn from Distributed Industrial Authority) (+405 in reserve)
Consumer Goods: +45 (+10 per turn from Private Industry) (+3 per turn from sub-departments) (-15 from realignment) (Net -2 per turn)
Labor: +22 (+3 per turn from medical care) (+2 per turn from Immigrant qualifications) (-2 per turn from private industry) (-3 per turn from other government) (-1 from graying population) (Net -1)
Tiberium Processing Capacity (2895/4800) (545/2450 HG, 1350/1350 IHG, 1000/1000 X) (HG: 1 per 95, IHG: 1 per 85, X: 1 per 45)
Tiberium Reserve (0/500)
STUs: +14
Taxation Per Turn: +225 (+20 per turn from Private Industry)
Space Mining Per Turn: +100
Maintenance Reductions: +50
Increased Refining Efficiency: +100
STU Production and Consumption
Net: +14 per turn
Production: +43 per turn (5.7 HG, 15.9 IHG, 22.2X)
Consumption: -29 per turn
22 Economy
-6 Tiberium (2 Harvesting Tendrils, 2 Sonic Weapons, 2 T-Glass)
-16 Other (8 Structural Alloys, 6 Hovercraft, 2 Gravitic Shipyard)
7 Military
-4 Aircraft (2 Tactical Lasers, 2 Plasma Munitions)
-1 Ground Vehicles (1 Mastodons [Shimmer Shields, Point Defense Lasers], 0 Havocs [Shimmer Shields])
-1 Strategic Air Defense Networks
-1 Navy (Lasers)
Projected Fusion Power Plant Decommissioning
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q1 2065
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q4 2065
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q3 2066
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q4 2066
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q2 2067
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q3 2067
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q4 2067
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q2 2068
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q4 2068
Status of the Parties
(strong support, weak support, weak opposition, strong opposition)
Developmentalist: 705 (200; 400; 75; 30) 17.6%
Militarists: 629 Seats (300; 100; 200; 29) 15.7%
Starbound: 618 Seats (400; 100; 100; 18) 15.5%
Market Socialist Party: 555 Seats (300; 155; 50; 50) 13.9%
Socialist Party: 493 Seats (250; 100; 93; 50) 12.3%
Free Market Party: 405 Seats (50; 150; 100; 105) 10.1%
Initiative First Party: 334 Seats (0; 34; 100; 200) 8.4%
United Yellow List: 117 Seats(80; 30; 7; 0) 3%
Reclamation: 99 Seats (50; 40; 6; 3) 2.5%
Homeland: 41 Seats (20; 10; 5; 6) 1%
Open Hand: 4 Seats (2; 2; 0; 0) .1%
Total: 4000 Seats (1652; 1121; 736; 491)
Military Confidence
Ground Forces: High
Air Force: High
Space Force: Decent
Steel Talons: Decent
Navy: Decent (Trending to High)
ZOCOM: Decent
Plan Goals
Increase Income by 205
Increase population in space by 11.25k
Provide 12 Points of Red Zone Abatement
Spend at least one die on Steel Talons projects every turn
Projects
Complete Karachi Planned City by end of 2065
Deploy Governor-A refit
Complete at least 4 Ground Forces Zone Armor factories
Complete Reforestation Campaign Preparation Phase 2
Develop Next Generation Armored Vehicles by end of 2065
Complete Regional Hospital Expansions by end of 2065
Complete Post War Housing Refits
Promises to Litvinov:
Do not activate Free Dice (except for Tiberium) unless all Department Dice are active.
Spend no more than two free dice per turn on Military.
[ ] Rail Network Construction Campaigns (Phase 6)
Further work on the rail networks will be focused primarily on preparing the ground for exploitation of the interior, especially in light of the pushes into the Red Zones, and creating new environs for Initiative exploitation.
(Progress 245/245: 15 resources per die) (+4 Logistics)
(Progress 60/245: 15 resources per die) (+3 Logistics) [39, 45]
Driving further development of the rail network has begun to seriously hit a point of diminishing returns. Much of the effort has been on expanding the upkeep network more than anything else, both to harden the rail system against attack, and to improve readiness. Historically, early trains would need to stop for water and fuel every ten to fifteen kilometers on average. Modern trains have significantly longer ranges between mandatory upkeep, but that only goes so far – especially because the maintenance is significantly more involved. Nearly all Initiative trains (outside of specialized military and adverse conditions units) are electrically powered, and even the specialized ones are hybrid designs, with onboard generators to provide power in case the grid goes down. This does mean however, that when they do need to stop for maintenance, it requires a clean space to crack open the outer casing, rather than simply being able to pour in water and coal.
The other side of the slowdown in rail infrastructure expansion is that the Initiative simply has a fairly substantial surplus of both rail lines and rolling stock, with many rail lines servicing less than one train a day, and the system overall being able to absorb a full military mobilization just in the downtime, at least on a local level. In the leadup to the First World War, every state managed a complex network of railroads, and had drawn up complex schedules to balance speed and avoid running trains empty or producing blockages on a line, as they could only maintain a single train moving along any section of track at a time. By contrast, the Initiative, at this point, has enough spare track and rolling stock that it can leave trains waiting at the marshaling yards until the troops are ready, and surge them all to the front as they are ready, rather than having to adhere to any kind of fixed schedule.
[ ] TransAmerican Railroad
Punching a rail line through the middle of what used to be the North American Red Zone will be a political coup, one that represents a major victory against Tiberium. While the project as a whole is mostly vanity, with limited real practical usage, it can also anchor GDI abatement efforts in the Red Zone with a high capacity connection to Chicago.
Progress 145/120: 10 resources per die) (+2 Logistics, +5 Political Support) [7, 43]
On May 10th, 1869, the symbolic last spike was driven at Promontory Summit, in the Utah territory. A silver sledgehammer, wired to a telegraph, was intended to send the hammer blows across the country in what was one of the first events of its kind. While the telegraph failed, and the spike was removed shortly after the ceremony completed, it was a symbolic link that joined the union together in a more permanent manner, cutting months off of travel times between California and the rest of the country.
The modern railroad is much the same, although lacking in ceremony or iconic spikes. It does however represent something utterly critical. A demonstration, more than Germany, more than any other program, that GDI can and will push back the Red Zone, and more than that, keep the way open. However, unlike the earlier railroad, this one has a fundamental problem in that it is one of the longest and most isolated routes the Initiative runs. While some, like punching through Red Zones, are significantly more risky, there is effectively no human civilization between the two regions, with every stop feeding into a supply depot that is the one supply point for dozens of spikes and sonic turrets, and outposts in many ways more isolated than even Hollywood's view of the Wild West.
From 'Trainspotters Massachusetts September 2064':
GreatEastern: Anyone know if there's a new livery or something? I snapped a picture of this locomotive around Boston today and it's not one I recognize.
Oiler84: Looks like foreign rail, West Coast Line livery, I think.
[ ] Construction Drone Centralization (New)
Reducing the Infrastructure department's need for people is relatively straightforward compared to other areas, as the programs already use massive swarms of drones. The difference is in the ratio of metal to meat, and the training requirements to use it.
(Progress 146/120: 15 resources per die) (+4 Labor, -2 Capital Goods) [24, 34, 25, 9]
GDI already uses massive swarms of drones in its construction work. In many ways, the system is about as automated as it is possible to get. The issue is that construction sites are incredibly rapidly evolving, and often highly dangerous, which in turn can recursively create a more rapidly evolving and dangerous situation as damaged or destroyed drones can get in the way of even a well managed jobsite, let alone one that has already had incidents.
The impact is twofold. For the workers who were retained, and are undergoing retraining, it is in some ways a substantial quality of life upgrade, as most no longer need to travel to often remote job sites – instead commanding fleets of drones from central hubs, for the most part located in urban centers. For the workers who are surplus to requirements on the other hand, many are finding work elsewhere, or have begun a retraining process to qualify for work elsewhere in the Initiative. While some few are going to be significantly distressed by the change, the vast majority are relatively happy to be finding other work, as drone operation is usually quite boring.
While the orbital colonies do not yet have the infrastructure to make good use of this system, the ability to control everything from the safety of one of the underground colony bases, and control mass swarms on a shoestring of personnel is a significant leap forward and a project that will soon come to the area.
[ ] Drone Logistical Integration (New)
With advances in drone control capabilities more can be done to hand off logistical tasks to automated systems. Although fully automated vehicles on public roads are not likely, many cargo handling facilities can easily be adapted to full automation without the need of a human presence on the work floor.
(Progress 145/240: 15 resources per die) (+6 Labor, -4 Capital Goods, +1 Energy) [26, 17, 32, 16]
Integrating drones into the logistical network has been a significantly slower process than some would hope. The biggest element here is that the system requires everything to be laid out without the use of institutional knowledge. For example, most job sites have some form of backing indicator, usually a post, or a sign, that says that the truck has backed up far enough. For a drone, those indicators are generally ignored unless the drone is specifically programmed to recognize them. Similarly, the vast majority of the driving hours are in the most difficult area – the last five to ten kilometers between the warehouse and the delivery point, whether that be a store, home, or delivery zone. Outside of that, nearly everything is handled via trains, where the only people on board are required for basic safety checks; and not even all of them are manned, instead relying on automated systems and crews at the loading docks.
The main thrust of the project is those loading docks – whether they are handling pallets, boxes, massive containers or bulk freight, the drones will replace much of the workforce currently dedicated to loading, unloading and shuttling freight between storage and transport.
[ ] North Boston Chip Fabricator (Phase 5)
A fifth and final expansion to the North Boston complex, this will focus not just on expanding chip fabrication, but also on a number of new technologies. While it is unlikely that these technologies will completely replace existing designs, there are a number of edge cases where inferior performance in one aspect is made up for by superior performance in others.
(Progress 1876/1805: 15 resources per die) (+35 Capital Goods, +16 Consumer Goods, -2 Labor, -8 Energy) (Required for further AI projects.) [22, 46, 9, 47, 9, 21, 18, 27, 4, 28, 34, 35, 35, 38]
The first full scale chip fab built since the Third Tiberium war has hit its full capacity. While there may be future upgrades and further development of a number of satellite campuses if needed, at this time, there are few plans for further work of this type.
Much of the work is going to be experimental, attempting to scale up smaller and more niche designs, ranging from carbon based chips, to others, primarily for specialized purposes. Many of these designs were first prototyped over a decade ago, as part of ongoing programs to improve GDI's electronic video assistant programs. While the development has not stood still since 2047, many of the developments to the chip patterns have come from elsewhere, including experiments that resulted in Erewhon, better understanding of Visitor software, and of course, the advent of isolinear computing. This has meant that the programs have been undergoing constant revision, expansion, and updating, and in many cases, the systems planned when Boston was drawn up originally are no longer in the same configurations, with many adding additional steps on the way to manufacturing.
The other major project for the immediate future is Artificial Intelligence. Erewhon was and is an agglomeration of computer hardware that is significantly less capable than what should be possible for a dedicated platform on chips specifically designed to support artificial lifeforms.
[ ] Bergen Superconductor Foundry (Phase 5)
A fifth and final stage of expansions will see Bergen reaching its logistical and practical limits. While building inside of mountain ranges is certainly secure, it is far from ideal, with the final expansion to the facilities requiring a substantial investment in blasting new tunnels into other mountains. Additionally, it will require substantial investments in port infrastructure to move the massive quantities of superconductors out of the region.
(Progress 483/1140: 30 resources per die) (+8 Capital Goods, +16 Energy) (-3 Logistics) (+10 Political Support) [10, 19]
The rail hubs around the Bergen facility have received significant upgrades, with the last phase of construction nearly reaching the halfway point. All of these auxiliary transport routes are critical components at this point, as the whole system needs ever more ways to get supplies in, and superconductor pods out.
The impact across the Initiative is becoming ever more noticeable, especially along the major lines. While the old system of wire and cables hung from towers is not being disassembled anytime soon, it is being retired from the primary backbone in significant areas, such as the coastal backbone that runs from Atlanta all the way up into what used to be Canada, while the link all the way across the middle of the continent, parallelling the transcontinental railroad line, will be made of superconductor, incidentally providing the railroad with power.
The reason the old system is unlikely to be retired anytime soon is twofold. First, it represents a second string in case of further invasions of the Blue Zones, and second it allows for some degree of switching, maintaining functionality even when a section of the electrical mains needs to be taken out of use
Similarly, many of the units have found their homes in fusion reactor arrays, a critical component for two reasons. First is that the reactors can, especially when pushed to their limits, put out enough power to melt the silver cables that would otherwise be used. Superconductor units allow that power to be split and split again until it is safe to put onto the grid in a format that won't melt many of the elements. One of the major sticking points however, is now legacy standards. Even if GDI manages to build enough superconductors to lay them all the way to the home, they still require significant amounts of flow regulation and stepping down, simply to prevent them overloading home electronics and the in-home power systems in use across the Initiative.
[ ] Factory Automation Programs (New)
While LCI has already seen substantial downscaling in required labor, it is something that can be brought to an even more extreme level with the deployment of drone control systems, moving people off-site, and reducing the staff counts even further.
(Progress 75/280: 15 resources per die) (+4 Labor, -4 Energy) [22, 24]
GDI's factories were already heavily automated, with most being effectively wild mazes of conveyor belts and whirring machinery even before the networking advantages brought on by the advent of more advanced drone control networks. The biggest advantage is not actually in the factories themselves, but rather transport between the factory units. A single factory complex often does not do the entire manufacturing process, and in many cases, the factories are strung out over kilometers to prevent a problem in one part, such as an overpressure event, from damaging the others. A significant amount of effort has gone into palletization, standardization, and the development of better marked road networks between the facilities as the drone wranglers have begun to move off onto other jobs.
However, there is still a substantial amount left to do, as very few facilities overall are actually equipped to manage such a significant changeover, and in most cases need much more work before the impacts can be felt. Similarly, there are a number of other significant changes in loading and unloading, and in many of the other areas where a human has often stepped in to move, open, or otherwise make small adjustments in order to make the entire thing flow more smoothly.
[ ] Civilian Drone Systems (New)
While the public marketplace does not have much use for all up construction drones, or the high performance delivery drone systems in use by the Initiative, simpler, lightweight, civilian focused designs, capable of high torque at low speeds, will find many uses both in the civilian marketplace, and for more consumer oriented purposes.
(Progress 150/150: 15 resources per die) (+1 Labor, -1 Capital Goods, +4 Consumer Goods) (Market Benefits) [5, 11, 41, 30]
Pushing more drones onto the civilian marketplace has a number of impacts. The first and most important is that it fills a need that many people have been seeing for a long time. Light utility assets. Rather than needing to maintain a still rare car or van for a restaurant wanting to extend its delivery range for example, most of the problems can be solved by a very simple drone system. Probably the biggest impact is to the civilian light industry, where a major bottleneck has been in finding small transport loaders and other means of efficiently moving a few hundred pounds of equipment.
However, many of the consumers are people looking for offroaders, for recreational vehicles, or for personal vehicles that just so happen to be effectively self driving. This market, and the ones who want it for other reasons in the same category, have been largely overjoyed, with a number of people putting together aftermarket projects in order to convert the drones into small semi-autonomous vehicles for personal transport and other means of getting around.
Why drive yourself?*
*Thaler Transport is not responsible for the consequences of failing to pay attention to the road.
- Thaler Transport sales slogan
[ ] Reforestation Campaign Preparations (Phase 2)
While politically open at this point, the reforestation campaigns have been scaled differently, abandoning goals of biodiversity, while instead focusing on securing as much land as possible. While some of the measures are likely to require abatement of their own, land secured now, is far more important than potential losses later.
(Progress 579/790: 5 resources per die) [30, 11, 11, 22]
Work has continued on laying the groundwork for proper reforestation, with mass seed bombing, and substantial progress towards building up proper scrubland across vast swathes of Initiative territory, alongside trying to build up wetlands, and other key areas. However, it has significantly slowed in recent months, as resources have been more prioritized towards other areas, most notably beginning to deploy various genetically edited crops in a more thorough and widespread manner.
At the same time, it has become increasingly clear that politically this is simply no longer a priority. Parliamentary hearings on Treasury affairs have repeatedly enquired as to why the Treasury has continued to pour effort into this project, especially given the other priorities that the Agricultural department has to worry about. While the vast majority of these hearings are routine things, ensuring that the Parliament and its agricultural committees and subcommittees have their finger on the pulse of the Treasury, it is an interesting position to be in, carrying out a commitment to a party that no longer has political power to back it.
Junior Undersecretary for Ecology Charles Eco was in a hearing before the Agricultural Committee earlier today when MP Alexey Korolev (Dev) asked why so many resources were being sunk into into the far off wastes while much more useful projects like the vertical farming and aquaponics are left to languish. Before the undersecretary could answer, MP Seob Youngjae (Rec) interjected, noting that he personally wrote the Nature Restoration Act of 2063, and that it is, in fact, law, even if he and other members of the Biodiversity Party have joined the Reclamation Party after the election.
[ ] Spider Cotton Plantations (Phase 2)
While the Initiative has made significant strides in the area, and the private sector has expressed quite a bit of interest in the field, there is still significant need for spider cotton derived capital goods that are going to be the core of the Initiative's program. (Plant Genetics) (Times Out Q1 2066)
(Progress 160/160: 15 resources per die) (+1 Capital Goods)
(Progress 100/165: 15 resources per die) (+1 Capital Goods) [45, 45]
Early ballistic vests came in two primary formats. Heavy plates of metal armor, and multilayer silk and cotton. It is the latter that is by far the more important, especially for Initiative police and civilian interests. The police and law enforcement more generally, are primarily using surplus hardware, with some dating back all the way to the Second Tiberium War, especially with the Home Guard taking priority in many cases for immediate post military uses. However, significant amounts of spider cotton makes it practical to begin issuing a variant on standard military vests, somewhat cutting down on protection in exchange for flexibility, weight, and comfort - while still remaining practical against the majority of expected threats, as being brought under fire from military grade weaponry is an extreme rarity, even in an age of shadow teams and insurgents.
Outside of that, there are more civilian oriented needs, including rope, and most importantly, treated cloth. A sufficiently tightly woven silk is effectively waterproof, and so can provide a lightweight protection comparable to significantly harder to produce waterproofed fabrics or even rain jackets. A significant portion of the savings and increase in capital goods availability from the spider cotton is not the cotton specifically producing a good, but rather the cotton removing steps in the production of goods already being manufactured by other means.
However, the biggest impact has actually been to power systems, specifically belting. While rarer in the modern day, most early factories powered themselves with a single energy source, either a water wheel or a steam engine, and then moved the energy around on a series of shafts and belts. While for the vast majority of projects in the modern day, separate engines are safer and more practical, the spider cotton is starting to be used for belting, producing systems that are long lasting and significantly resistant to stretching, the most common problem found in previous generations of belts.
[ ] Tarberry Plantations (Phase 4)
Tarberries are only useful in relatively limited quantities, with overuse potentially damaging many engines in Initiative service, and there being only so many engines to feed. Significantly more production is simply not warranted at this time, but a limited additional pool may be productive.
(Plant Genetics) (Times Out Q1 2066)
(Progress 115/65: 10 resources per die) (+1 Energy) [26, 34]
A final major wave of tarberry plantations has reached some level of completion, and tarberry bricks are continuing to stack up in Initiative warehouses. Part of the reason for the limits is that the primary users of fuel engines is the Initiative military, with civilian ICE vehicles being a comparative rarity, as the Initiative produces only a handful of armored cars for protection details, and private construction builds nothing bigger than what would have been considered a Japanese style Kei car, with engines of no more than a hundred cubic centimeters – and even then, fuel infrastructure is a significant barrier to entry for the vast majority of car users.
Strategically, the military is very welcoming of the strategic fuel reserve, because, fundamentally, it means that they can store and ship a now sizable fraction of their fuel needs without relying on specialized tankers, instead being able to deliver pallets of fuel on the same trucks as their food, ammunition, and other supplies.
[ ] Laboratory Meat Deployment (Phase 1)
Producing sizable amounts of meat products from laboratories is unlikely to be a particularly simple affair. While GDI does not particularly need the meat, it is a symbol of prosperity and signals the good times have returned. It is also noticeably more resource efficient than producing meat products by growing animals.
(Progress 170/170: 15 resources per die) (+6 Consumer Goods, -1 Food, -2 Energy) [31, 24, 18, 39]
Most of the lab meat has been snapped up almost as soon as it hits the shelves, a combination of there being significant amounts of pent up demand, and more importantly, the novelty factor. While still not steak by any metric, the experimental nature of it has encouraged demand. However, most people are not coming back around for a second shot, instead going back to old reliable staples for the vast majority of their protein needs.
Laboratory Meat Review: A return to the old days, or the next fungus bar?
Larry Henderson
Alright folks, time for yet another new food product review. This time, it purports to be meat. Actual, no shit, beef in this case, although there are other options, which will come in future reviews.
To begin with, we are going to start with a classic American staple, the hamburger. For that, we are using a standard, GDI specification yeasted roll, toasted in butter, and as usual, recipe in the footnotes.* Aside from that, the ingredients are simple. We are starting with preparation A, the Fine Mince, and we are making 150 gram spheres with our hands, before pressing them out into rough patties about 5mm thick. Salt and spice on both sides, today we are using a pepper blend and leave to rest about 15 minutes before cooking, which gives us plenty of time to slice up an onion, and prepare any other toppings we want. As for the pan, we are using a standard issue 20 centimeter stainless steel frying pan.
Oil the burger, and then lay it in on medium heat (approx 150 degrees). Cook until grey/brown on all sides, and then extract onto the roll. Top with onions, and the top half of the bun.
Overall, the answer is pretty simple. The burger is just not that good, and I don't see what the big deal with it is. It is a bland hunk of protein wrapped in carbs, with no real value, and having gone back and eaten it cold, it just goes grainy and unpleasant. The raw onion is an interesting touch, but not one that I would care to repeat.
* roll, yeasted, wheat, enriched.
- 500 grams whole wheat bread flour, 13.7% protein.
- 300 grams water.
- 8 grams yeast
- 50 grams powdered milk substitute.
- 20 grams powdered butter substitute.
- 5 grams salt.
From the comment section beneath the review video:
RamsonTheCook
Although a medium heat will cook a burger patty all the way through, what you really want for a good taste is to bake them at a high heat to develop the flavour you are looking for
[ ] Deep Red Zone Tiberium Glacier Mining (Stage 4)
Deep in the Red Zones, Tiberium glaciers are some of the most dense concentrations of Tiberium available. With GDI able to put its railheads directly next to Tiberium mines, these are some of the fastest ways to surge Tiberium production from a single site.
(Progress 190/190: 30 resources per die) (-3 Logistics, +2 Energy) (additional income trickle [60-90 Resources]) (2 points of Red Zone Mitigation)
(Progress 47/190: 30 resources per die) (-3 Logistics, +2 Energy) (additional income trickle [60-90 Resources]) (2 points of Red Zone Mitigation) [2, 28]
Income 1d7: [4] = +75 RpT
In precision engineering millimeters matter. The same is true in the Italian Red Zone. 'Cleared' ground laid with railways has had Tiberium outbreaks tear through the soil and transport links. There are frequent ion storms which prevent communications and leave ZOCOM patrols cut off from command and support. Packs of roaming wild beasts eerily reminiscent of hounds with crystals growing from their backs stalk patrols and are driven into a frenzy by the sonic emitters attempting to slow the spread of Tiberium. And almost every day after a long day's work and heading to bed exhausted, work crews awaken to find the glacier cliff-face healed as if days and weeks of mining had been but a dream. Teams are being rotated out as morale is low and yet, the numbers do not lie. More Tiberium is being harvested and the mining operation is gaining ground as new loads of gear and tools arrive to replace those damaged by the crystal. Most important of all, Tiberium is being pushed back in other places.
The abatement is slowly having an effect, not just in Italy but throughout Europe. Even with everything the alien landscape can throw at them, the glacier mining teams cling on tenaciously and take ground steadily. Other operations push forwards in leaps and bounds as even the most skeptical by now are grudgingly admitting to some sort of remaining link between the Red Zone's Tiberium fields. The sheer wealth of resources itself that are being harvested from Red Zone One's glacier mines are almost an afterthought compared to the struggle for Tiberium containment and abatement. This progress however comes at a cost with increasing demand for Zone Suits and harvesting gear to maintain the blistering pace of operations.
"And, as you can see, there has been a notable increase in the loss of Zone Suits and other resources since we started pushing the Italian front. Not so much in personnel, thankfully, but there is reason to ask if we can keep expanding our efforts in the Deep Red in the longer term."
- Danial Wibowo, Abatement Office Monthly Strategy Meeting
[ ] Xenotech Tiberium Processing Plants (Stage 2)
A serious second wave will again jump GDI's STU output. There are currently many projects waiting in the wings for boosts in resources that can be made practical by the greater supply of STUs.
(Progress 300/300: 40 resources per die) (+500 processing capacity) (-6 Energy, -3 Logistics, -1 Labor)
(Progress 61/300: 40 resources per die) (+500 processing capacity) (-6 Energy, -3 Logistics, -1 Labor) [20, 8, 32, 32, 37, 27, 11, 22]
Engineers are, in some ways, a renewable resource. However, they are also a resource that has had to be husbanded carefully, and many of yours are rapidly, and of their own accord, reaching very close to the point of burnout, and others have already hit walls in their scramble to push new facilities into productivity. It is something where, for many of them, vacation time has been a requirement from their superiors, telling them to pack their bags for one of the options that is more off the grid, and usually under guard so they don't appear at the jobsite until they have had time to get an actual sleep schedule and stop requiring levels of caffeine that approach dangerous doses.
Messages from 'Managers herding engineers; thread CMV':
JacobSweeney: I swear, my engineers are like cats, I find them sleeping in the damnedest places, and they complain endlessly when you try to get them to an actual bed.
HikaruMorisato: I've had to call security on my own engineers because they tried to dodge the mandatory vacation time. I repeat, they tried to dodge the mandatory vacation time.
HumbertoLéon: My engineer told me completely straightfaced that he had 'too much blood in his coffee stream'. He was on the 8th cup I knew about, and I'm sure he had snuck in a few more. Medical had to cart him off for caffeine poisoning.
[ ] Forgotten Experimentation (Tech)
While active human experiments are a step too far for the Initiative, the Forgotten are themselves an interesting case, and specifically the causes of their mutations. Initiative scientists believe that they can find a common root cause of their changes, and more broadly examine commonalities in genetic, chemical, and other makeup, with the long term goal of finding means of reliably offering a means other than tiberian infusion to survive exposure to the crystal.
(Progress 188/260: 30 resources per die) (MS) (-5 Political Support) [44, 19, 10, 37]
Inducing Tiberium mutation is not a new technology by any means, but there is something about the Forgotten, some common element, that makes them not only more stable and able to live a full life without being overtaken by Tiberium, but superior, drawing strength and powers that by any means could be easily described as magic.
The how is unknown, the why is difficult at best to parse. GDI's scientists have long suspected a common genetic component, some theorizing that all Forgotten are descendents, at some remove from Kane, although this has never been more than a breakroom theory. However, the overall results of genetic testing, while there are definitely significant overlaps, do not show a set of specific marker genes for the Forgotten as a whole.
Similarly, there are a few other theories, the most notable being a chemical contaminant, and once again, things have not entirely panned out. While some perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances are universally found in the blood of the Forgotten, at significantly higher levels in nearly all cases than reference humans; Testing whether those chemicals are what lead to forgotten mutations suffers from deep ethical concerns, and more broadly, any attempt to induce such mutations runs into concerns of various forms.
[ ] GDSS Columbia Bays (1 each)
-[ ] High Density Housing
By noticeably cutting the population supported, a significant amount of room can be freed up for amenities. While it will still be cramped, it is something that can be worked around with communal spaces and a schedule built to keep people out of their accommodations as much as possible.
(Progress 297/295: 20 resources per die) (+1.2k Permanent Residents) [18, 8]
In the years since the Third Tiberium war, a significant fraction of the GDI population old and new have been made refugees at least once in their lifetime, amidst the chaos of other conflicts and border disputes since then. Many of the older GDI citizens and many former Yellow Zone citizens share a common history, not only in fleeing war, but in fleeing the creeping spread of Tiberium as well.
There have also been more mundane reasons for moving such as to find work. This is particularly in the cases of Tiberium related industries and military families, but also those living out of fortress towns, family accommodations on military bases, or aboard ship, the cramped quarters on the Columbia have been the source of many times more applications than there are spaces.
Applicants have thus been pruned ruthlessly even after a first pass for psychological suitability. There is a small but significant minority of spaces being assigned to heavily vetted former Green and Yellow Zone citizens. This is in part a public relations move to demonstrate the opportunities in space aren't just for 'Original' Blue Zone citizens, but also reflects that the Yellow Zone citizens have a history of communal living and are predisposed to handling the cramped quarters on a long term or permanent basis.
The rooms themselves have space for the beds and some small personal effects, with liberal use of every nook and cranny for overhead storage and other storage options. Despite that, wardrobes are sparse and most 'apartments' have very little room for recreation. Lacking kitchens and dining areas within almost all of the personal dwellings, the bay makes heavy use of public cafeterias and kitchens as well as a communal cinema for larger gatherings.
All in all, it provides a homely atmosphere as described by those living there. Some concerns remain over widespread adoption of the style of housing, but for those chosen, even those with varying backgrounds are adapting quite well to the change in their living conditions.
[ ] GDSS Shala Bays (6 available)
-[ ] Species Restoration Bay (Stage 2)
A second species restoration bay is going to focus much more on larger animals and plants, primarily from the temperate biomes of earth, as they are some of the easiest to maintain, and are likely to be the first to see practical implementation due to the location of many of GDI's Blue Zones.
(Progress 256/255: 20 resources per die) [31, 17, 38, 45]
The second assigned species restoration bay has seen significant quarrels over what should be restored. While there is significant pressure, especially from the public to see significant numbers of large mammals, like deer, racoons, and other elements often seen as being symbols of a healing nature, bypassing the often more important plant life. While a deer may be photogenic, a longleaf pine is in many ways more important, representing a long living key species, not just a plant, but a home for birds and rodents, a root network keeping the soil in place, and often hosting a network of fungi among its roots.
Parus Major
[Censored]
Rule 5 breach, take a 3 month ban -EVAMod
Sula Leucogaster
[Censored]
Rule 5 breach, take a 3 month ban -EVAMod
[ ] Lunar Homesteading (Phase 2)
A second wave of homesteads will expand on the first, and combine expansions on the mining site approach, and more importantly for long term settlement begin moving away from the extractive model, looking towards expansions on services, and establishing basic lunar refining and manufacturing.
(Progress 250/250: 30 resources per die) (1000 residents)
(Progress 217/250: 30 resources per die) (1000 residents) [11, 35, 33, 41, 18, 16, 33, 23, 45, 37]
The Lunar homesteads aren't quite as simple as just carving out new rooms from the rocky surface of the moon. Relying on the Lunar soil alone would mean the housing almost certainly isn't sealed, a death sentence with the Moon's lack of atmosphere. However, the work is still relatively simple, particularly with GDI's experience in building the orbital stations and the Lunar mines.
It has by now settled into something of a routine. The mining teams exhaust veins of useful ores and follow on teams begin widening the tunnels, carrying out rationalizations to avoid the homesteads becoming a confusing labyrinthine warren of tunnels. After ensuring the room is properly supported to avoid cave-ins the homestead's pre-built walls and other materials are shipped in, sealed, and bolted into place section by section.
The modular homesteads are far from uniform, with differing design layouts adapting to the path of least resistance carved by the mining operations. But each section connects neatly to the next and as soon as one of the shells is completed and tested other teams move in, still in pressure suits, and begin with the more delicate internal wiring, plumbing and other necessities of life. They have the feel of frontier towns, where everything is simultaneously brand new, but also hard-wearing and durable. This is in case of any accidents in the not so far off mines, not to mention the inherently hostile environment of the lunar surface.
First priority for housing spots goes to workers in the mines, but as families are brought in the beginnings of more 'ordinary' jobs slowly begin to appear. For the present, most are in catering for the miners or construction crews. Despite that, there are growing numbers of residents in the Lunar homesteads and in the Orbital stations calling for not only greater amenities and some home comforts, but also to provide spaces for work and more opportunities for employment.
In some ways this mirrors earlier complaints regarding GDI arcologies and apartments. While it may be housing, it is thus far overwhelmingly almost only housing, with increasing amounts of people lacking employment and entertainment.
They've got coffee, they've got Wi-Fi, they've got toilets, they're good to go. Although with these low-G models, if you look at the blueprints, the shit is supposed to hit the fan.
-Ashley Johansen, engineer, video message sent to family on Earth
[ ] Autodoc Systems Deployment
While currently politically complicated and psychologically difficult, the autodoc systems represent the potential for a significant increase in GDI's ability to process injuries. Broadly speaking, these are only going to be found in some of the largest and most capable medical facilities, especially those specialized in wound care, and other forms of traumatic injury. Even so, pushing them out will make people nervous, and give politicians opposed to the Treasury ammunition.
(Progress 385/280: 30 resources per die) (+4 Health, +6 Emergency Health, -3 Capital Goods, -3 Energy) (-5 Political Support) [22, 37, 31, 1, 48, 19, 38, 49]
[ ] Transhuman Technology Deployment (New)
While there are significant bioconservative elements within the Initiative, and the scars of CABAL and the numerous other technological horrors unleashed by the Brotherhood of Nod run deep, the sheer level of capability of next generation bioware and cyberware is too great to be ignored. Taking steps beyond the limitations of humanity represents a bold new frontier, both in terms of life extension, and more importantly, retention and restoration of quality of life for many in the Initiative.
(Progress 342/300: 30 resources per die) (+10 Health, +5 Labor, -5 Capital Goods) [17, 35, 33, 33, 37, 11, 24, 12]
The autodocs are still very much unpopular with the general public, but when combined with the transhuman technologies being deployed, they have become transformation chambers. Gals walk in, and guys walk out, and vice versa. While certainly something of an exaggeration, given the still long recovery periods, and the often serious side effects, it is quite a major shift from any prior medical interventions.
Similarly, the military has been quite interested in the programs – especially the navy, as an autodoc system can be integrated into their warships, providing some of the best medical care on the planet, while cutting down on the crew and specialist requirements of sickbays across the fleet. Compared to many other things, maintaining a stock of personalized cells aboard each ship is not particularly difficult, and trims down on the often undesirable (if good for career prospects) shipboard medical postings.
It is in the general civilian sphere that the system has continued to see pushback, with the vast majority of patients requesting human doctors, rather than autodoc visits, and being willing to be added to waitlists in many cases, rather than enter one of the civilian pattern autodocs.
[ ] Military Particle Beam Development (Tech)
While the Initiative is unwilling to make use of the liquid Tiberium power packs that make infantry versions of the Brotherhood's particle beam system work, the weapon does have a place in supplementing the Initiative's machine guns and autocannons, mounted on everything from hydrofoils, to zone armor and various forms of light vehicles.
(Progress 81/100: 20 resources per die) [17, 28]
Particle beam weapons are nothing particularly new for the Initiative. Weapons like the Merlin personal ion cannon have a long and hallowed history in the arsenal of the Tiberium Wars. However, they have always had three overlapping problems preventing extensive service on GDI's part: weight, impact, and heat management.
In terms of weight, the Brotherhood's system seems to have made significant compromises to a number of critical safety features, most notably the shielding for the primary accelerator housing, and the Tiberium power cell that provides the vast majority of the energy used. For infantry purposes, the power cell is effectively a requirement, as otherwise the weapon consists of a heavy rifle, plus a fifty-kilo (or more) tethered backpack for power, while still somehow needing to find an effective means of cooling it; the cell reduces the weight to a (still fairly heavy) rifle, plus a twenty-kilo backpack of water based coolant.
Impact wise, the particle beams are not particularly special in most ways. Simply put, they bracket the difference between a heavy rifle and a light machine gun, with some of the advantages of each. What makes them useful is their extreme velocity, meaning that they can generate hits at long range with minimal delay and comparative pinpoint accuracy, and their recoil impulse being sustained and even, rather than the repeated shaking of a standard firearm.
Finally, there is heat – and heat is the real killer, as even with the advances in heat sinking and heat dispersal technologies, there are a number of key elements that Initiative scientists have not yet figured out how to replicate, leading to a number of early prototypes having the focusing barrels melt during sustained fire testing.
While work towards completing a practical particle beam weapon has not yet borne fruit, the Treasury has seen fit to authorize continued work after the first prototypes have been deployed given the number of other plasma, particle, and similar systems that are in various development bureau projects and basic science programs.
[ ] Ultralight Glide Munitions Deployment (Phase 2) (Munitions)
Deploying widespread glide munitions will take a significant pool of time and resources. While they will not replace the full spectrum of Initiative weapons, anything to extend standoff ranges and allow the Initiative to preserve both pilots and airframes is worth serious consideration at a minimum.
(Progress 150/150: 10 resources per die) (-1 Energy) (Projected 3 quarters to begin, 9 to complete)
(Progress 35/150: 10 resources per die) (-1 Energy) (Projected 3 quarters to begin, 9 to complete)
The Initiative's current stocks of glide munitions are almost entirely stored in the naval bases around the Indian ocean. While after accounting for the expected rate of expenditure in the Karachi offensive there are only days of bombs available, this is because the air force is planning on maintaining hundreds of aircraft in the area of operation on a round-the-clock schedule, so it should still be enough to seriously degrade Brotherhood systems. The missiles will primarily be used in ARM modes to degrade Brotherhood sensor systems, or lofted to provide a safe second strike package against targets that would see recovery actions or otherwise survive the initial salvoes.
[ ] NovaHawk Development (High Priority) (Platform)
The Firehawk, as GDI's core combat aircraft, is at this point very long in the tooth, and even with upgrades is simply no longer capable of performing in all of its roles. With the amount of new technology available and even newer technology being built, a near complete redesign is required. However, with the number of parts currently in service, trying to reuse as many of them as possible is considered to be best practice in terms of both pilot familiarity and ease of manufacture.
(Progress 59/40: 15 resources per die) [30, 29]
The Novahawk program has largely been a problem of competing needs and desires. While it is currently possible for the Initiative to build something that is essentially a clone of the Barghest Bis, or the Kelpie, neither fits particularly well into the Initiative's overall doctrine for air power. Instead, the Novahawk program has focused on something different: Impulse Jets. Rather than trying to use the Brotherhood's repulsortech systems to provide primary power, they are being used primarily to simplify the Novahawk's engine system. While running the whole aircraft on repulsorplates would be extremely STU intensive, it takes significantly less to be able to move it at about a half meter per second as a secondary drive for VTOL operations or emergency landings.
In terms of armament, the Novahawk has an integral laser for relatively-close-in defense against Barghest-type dogfighters, but will continue to primarily use missiles for both anti-air and anti-ground missions. The laser is a multirole system, able to both burn incoming missiles out of the sky in a roughly twenty degree arc in front of the aircraft, and shoot down enemy aircraft. While some pilots have requested a kinetic option, that has so far been shot down as less capable and more expensive to add on.
Overall, the aircraft looks, externally, very similar to the firehawks it is intended to replace. The biggest differences are along the main fuselage, which has a number of additional bulges for the repulsor plate system, and from the rear, the engines are significantly more shrouded, due to them no longer needing nearly as much vectoring, adding protection and some degree of thrust.
[ ] Next Generation Armored Vehicles (Platform) (Merged)
GDI's mainline armored vehicles, from the Guardian APC, to the Predator, Mammoth, and the array of other platforms based on the core chassis have become a noose around the Initiative's neck. Across the entire fleet, the platforms have effectively reached the endpoint of what can be practically done to them. A redesign from first principles integrating new technologies and doctrinal requirements is needed to renew the vehicle park.
(Progress 77/160: 30 resources per die) [21, 20]
To describe the program overall, the three best words to describe it are unfocused, competitive, and most critically, theoretical. In short, GDI's technological base has fundamentally shifted in the last twenty to thirty years since the vehicles of the last generation took their final forms, and the modern arsenal offers fundamentally new capabilities, ranging from drone systems, to lasers, plasma, shields, and a dozen other elements.
For the APCs, work has been slow, with months of competitive testing on the most important part, the troop bay, and the exits. With over a dozen contenders, the problem has been, primarily, trade-offs. A more open troop bay requires more space, in turn increasing the size of the vehicle along with the attendant costs, armor, weight and so on. On the other hand, more cramped bays are more difficult to get around in, and far more difficult to bail out of. And then there are the styles of opening. Standard back hatches and drop ramps are by far the most convenient for foot infantry and for using the vehicle as a cargo transport. However, they also provide a very clear weak point compared to some of the other options, with a pair of designs offering up a set of top hatches, easy enough for even the Defender pattern to hop out of, allowing the entire squad to exit the vehicle extremely quickly and spread over a full 270 degree sweep, compared to a hatch being both much slower for power armored troops, and limiting egress routes.
The two Armored Fighting Vehicles contests in the programs have seen dramatically different approaches. The Predator replacement has mostly been a fairly subdued, limited, and fundamentally conservative project. Iron-air batteries to replace the lithium ion options. An upgraded point defense system that removes the current 'wedding cake' in favor of a more integrated defensive system using small caliber railguns both for point defense and anti personnel work, although that is still competing with an Infernium laser system essentially ripped straight off of a Brotherhood buggy. The differences between the proposals from the various bureaus have been in the details more than anything else, with some opting for a shimmer shield, others for a set of buckler emitters, and a few handing in proposals for a fully particle-shielded fleet, although the last one would be both incredibly expensive, and more importantly, be forced back to a chemical gun, as the power pack is far from large enough to be able to feed both the shields and the railgun in such a case.
The Mammoth on the other hand has seen exercise after exercise in utter absurdity, with designers going all the way up to mounting plasma weapons and shields on the vehicles. While the frontrunner is still a relatively constrained design, primarily focusing on sensors and survivability, while maintaining the standing arsenal of railguns, missiles, and rapid fire railguns or laser systems, other draft designs have experimented with concepts such as triple railgun mounts or high-elevation ion-cannon turrets for anti-Varyag work.
Finchley2022: The Skybreaker is just such a stupidly niche unit. It's a super heavy AA that can't AA against anything but the 'we swear it is not a Varyag' skyships, but dear god does it smack those idiots out of the sky, and outright vaporize any unlucky flyer it happens to catch.
AngelOfNoMercy: You can also force it to fire against ground units, although that requires manual input of course. Vaporizes everything, including the super bunkers.
- Valorous Battalion forums
[ ] Ground Forces Zone Armor (Set 2) (Phase 1) (High Priority)
While the tip of the spear are still equipping themselves with the best that the Initiative can offer, they are a relatively small fraction of the total forces that serve under the striking eagle. A second, substantially larger wave of factories will require both significantly more capital goods, and a sizable workforce to produce enough of the armor to make a difference on those scales.
(Progress 260/285: 20 resources per die) (-4 Energy, -2 Capital Goods, -2 Labor) [19, 12, 9, 29, 43, 39]
Initiative Ground Forces are a very mixed bag, with their umbrella covering a large number of different unit types – with the Army, Marines and Naval Infantry being the biggest three, but over a dozen groups in total, each with their own different needs, organization and use cases. Marines, for example, are primarily trained for over-the-beach operations, with a significant focus on landing on opposed fronts. While other forces are certainly trained to fight like this, none make it a focus the way the Marines do. Comparatively, the Naval Infantry serve primarily aboard ships, and in securing naval facilities, able to operate both at sea and ashore, but lacking in much of the equipment for operations over the beach.
However, it is the smaller units that are beginning to see improvements. Units like construction battalions, security detachments, and other specialized roles have begun to see squad after squad training for operations in powered armor, providing them with more safety, and the ability to carry significantly more equipment.
Beyond that, much of current armor production armor is actually slated for storage, because the Karachi offensive is expected to chew through the spearhead in short order. While the personnel losses are likely to be significantly lower than previous infantry offensives, the material losses are likely to be extremely high, with an expectation that every Zone Trooper in the field will go through approximately a whole suit over the course of the campaign. Whether GDI can maintain that level of loss, even with every day bringing greater production, is still an open question.
[ ] Fast Twitch Myomers Development (Tech)
Myomers, much like muscles, have differing twitch speeds. GDI has focused primarily on some very slow twitch speeds, emphasizing reliability and power over speed. That is not always the best of decisions, however, with faster twitch speeds meaning that a vehicle, or theoretically a person, can leap and sprint significantly faster than the more pedestrian speeds currently attainable.
(Progress 108/60: 10 resources per die) [33, 39]
The fast twitch myomer is a fundamentally different product from the slow twitch myomers currently in use. Much like the other variants, it is an electroactive protein chain, but rather than designed around maximum force, the myomer contracts almost three times as quickly, but with not even a third of the strength The biggest difference however is in the processing, as the fast twitch myomer bundles are significantly thinner than the slow twitch and so much more can be produced from a single batch.
In terms of impact, the biggest is going to be in the field of cybernetics, as one of the more common complaints in terms of quality of life is simply the lack of fast twitch reflex. It is genuinely difficult to do simple things like catching a rubber ball with a cybernetic hand, or many of the other simple tasks that require a person to snap their arm or hand quickly. Lifting weights is one thing, but the limited speed of the current myomer bundles often makes people feel like their limbs are not as responsive as they want. Aside from that, the Talons want to do a minor refit to their Havocs, using these bundles to provide a starting boost for their Havoc mechs, flinging them into the air, and giving the jump jets a significant leg up, extending the range of their leaps by up to sixty meters.
In most cases, the myomer bundles are going to be mixed, with different specialities for different purposes. For example, with myomer harnesses carrying guns, the vast majority are going to be switched to fast twitch, as there is plenty of space around the gun for the myomer bundles to contract, and increase the responsiveness of the system. On the other hand, most of the limbs are going to be quite different, sticking primarily with slow twitch for strength, and using small amounts of fast twitch for other purposes.
Deployment is likely to be fairly small scale overall, with the vast majority of GDI's need for myomers met by the slow twitch versions. About ten percent of current myomer production is likely to be replaced with this new variant.
A/N 1: Link to Ko-fi. It does really help. Ko-fi.com/ithillid
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For those wondering what these two were saying?
We don't know, but the Discord channel's best guess is 'it was most definitely offensive, inappropriate, and sexist, even if it was about birds'.
We are not going to try to figure what it was, because I suspect it was not about birds and I for one would like to not eat a ban.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
cough.
It was ostensibly about birds.
Thank you.
- Location
- USA
Interesting to see how the politics shake out moving forward, also how the Militarists are shifting their messaging. Litinov stepping down, that is big, I am not sure if our guy is the right person for the directorate (or is even interested in it as they seem more interested in science).
Good progress overall, just need to work on finishing up some of the projects we started and knocking out those plan goals. Also glad we will have at least some of the new rifles in times for the Karachi push to help against Gana.
Good progress overall, just need to work on finishing up some of the projects we started and knocking out those plan goals. Also glad we will have at least some of the new rifles in times for the Karachi push to help against Gana.
Theunderbolt
"Prepare for trouble..."
- Location
- USoA
Plan: Stepping Stone to Karachi
Infrastructure (5 dice, 1FD +27 bonus) 110
-[] Drone Logistical Integration (New) (Progress 145/240: 15 resources per die) (+6 Labor, -4 Capital Goods, +1 Energy) 2D
-[] Japan-Korea Tunnel (Progress 0/350: 20 resources per die) (+3 Logistics) 4D
Heavy Industry (5 dice, 1FD +34 bonus) 150
-[] Nuuk Heavy Robotics Foundry (Phase 4) (Progress 143/935: 20 resources per die) (+32 Capital Goods, -2 Labor, -8 Energy) (+1 to Infrastructure dice) 3D
-[] Aberdeen Isolinear Fabricator (Phase 1) (Progress 0/270: 30 resources per die) (+9 Capital Goods, -2 Energy) 3D
Light and Chemical Industry (4 dice, 1FD +29 bonus) 120
-[] Factory Automation Programs (New) (Progress 75/280: 15 resources per die) (+4 Labor, -4 Energy) 2D
-[] Bergen Superconductor Foundry (Phase 5) (Progress 483/1140: 30 resources per die) (+8 Capital Goods, +16 Energy) (-3 Logistics) (+10 Political Support) 3D
Agriculture (6 dice +29 bonus) 60
-[] Reforestation Campaign Preparations (Phase 2) (Progress 579/790: 5 resources per die) 3D
-[] Spider Cotton Plantations (Phase 3) (Progress 95/165: 15 resources per die) (+1 Capital Goods) 3D
Tiberium (7 dice, 1FD +39 bonus) 240
-[] Forgotten Experimentation (Tech) (Progress 188/260: 30 resources per die) (MS) (-5 Political Support) 2D
-[] Blue Zone 1 (Progress 0/75: 30 resources per die) (-3 Energy) (+2 Yellow Zone Abatement) (1 Political Support) 1D
-[] Blue Zone 2 (Progress 0/75: 30 resources per die) (-3 Energy) (+2 Yellow Zone Abatement) (1 Political Support) 1D
-[] Blue Zone 5 (Progress 0/75: 30 resources per die (-3 Energy) (+2 Yellow Zone Abatement) (1 Political Support) 1D
-[] Blue Zone 8 (Progress 0/75: 30 resources per die (-3 Energy) (+2 Yellow Zone Abatement) (1 Political Support) 1D
-[] Blue Zone 10 (Progress 0/75: 30 resources per die (-3 Energy) (+2 Yellow Zone Abatement) (1 Political Support) 1D
-[] Blue Zone 11 (Progress 0/75: 30 resources per die (-3 Energy) (+2 Yellow Zone Abatement) (1 Political Support) 1D
Orbital (7 dice +34 bonus) 200
-[] Lunar Homesteading (Phase 2) (Progress 217/250: 30 resources per die) (1000 residents) 6D
-[] Lunar Mining Projects (Progress 0/185: 20 resources per die) (+15 resources per turn) 1D
Services (4 dice, AAD +35 bonus) 180
-[] Fifth Generation Electronic Video Assistants (Progress 152/200: 40 resources per die) AAD
-[] Regional Hospital Expansions (Phase 2) (Progress 85/270: 25 resources per die) (+4 Health) (-1 Energy, -1 Capital Goods, -1 Labor) 2D
-[] Stasis Box Development (Tech) (MS) (Progress 0/120: 30 resources per die) 1D
-[] Naquada Ring Experiments (Progress 0/80: 50 resources per die) (Must have at least 10 STU production spare) (+2 Orbital Dice, 15% Progress reduction.)
Military (6 dice, 2FD, AAD +31 bonus) 160
-[] Stealth Field Generator Development (Tech) (Progress 0/60: 15 resources per die) 1D
-[] Tib Core Missile Seeker Analysis (Tech)(Progress 0/60: 5 resources per die) 1D
-[] Military Particle Beam Development (Tech) (Progress 81/100: 20 resources per die) AAD
-[] Thunderbolt II Missile Development (Platform) (Munitions) (Progress 0/60: 15 resources per die) 1D
-[] Next Generation Armored Vehicles (Platform) (Merged) (Progress 77/160: 30 resources per die) 1D
-[] Ground Forces Zone Armor (Set 2) (Phase 1) (High Priority) (Progress 260/285: 20 resources per die) (-4 Energy, -2 Capital Goods, -2 Labor) 3D
-[] Phased Plasma Weapons Development (Tech) (Progress 0/80: 15 resources per die) 1D
Bureaucracy (4 dice +29 bonus)
-[] Administrative Assistance - Fifth Gen EVA
-[] Administrative Assistance - Particle Beam
110 + 150 + 120 + 60 + 240 + 200 + 180 + 160
1220/1360+225 (1585)
Infrastructure (5 dice, 1FD +27 bonus) 110
-[] Drone Logistical Integration (New) (Progress 145/240: 15 resources per die) (+6 Labor, -4 Capital Goods, +1 Energy) 2D
-[] Japan-Korea Tunnel (Progress 0/350: 20 resources per die) (+3 Logistics) 4D
Heavy Industry (5 dice, 1FD +34 bonus) 150
-[] Nuuk Heavy Robotics Foundry (Phase 4) (Progress 143/935: 20 resources per die) (+32 Capital Goods, -2 Labor, -8 Energy) (+1 to Infrastructure dice) 3D
-[] Aberdeen Isolinear Fabricator (Phase 1) (Progress 0/270: 30 resources per die) (+9 Capital Goods, -2 Energy) 3D
Light and Chemical Industry (4 dice, 1FD +29 bonus) 120
-[] Factory Automation Programs (New) (Progress 75/280: 15 resources per die) (+4 Labor, -4 Energy) 2D
-[] Bergen Superconductor Foundry (Phase 5) (Progress 483/1140: 30 resources per die) (+8 Capital Goods, +16 Energy) (-3 Logistics) (+10 Political Support) 3D
Agriculture (6 dice +29 bonus) 60
-[] Reforestation Campaign Preparations (Phase 2) (Progress 579/790: 5 resources per die) 3D
-[] Spider Cotton Plantations (Phase 3) (Progress 95/165: 15 resources per die) (+1 Capital Goods) 3D
Tiberium (7 dice, 1FD +39 bonus) 240
-[] Forgotten Experimentation (Tech) (Progress 188/260: 30 resources per die) (MS) (-5 Political Support) 2D
-[] Blue Zone 1 (Progress 0/75: 30 resources per die) (-3 Energy) (+2 Yellow Zone Abatement) (1 Political Support) 1D
-[] Blue Zone 2 (Progress 0/75: 30 resources per die) (-3 Energy) (+2 Yellow Zone Abatement) (1 Political Support) 1D
-[] Blue Zone 5 (Progress 0/75: 30 resources per die (-3 Energy) (+2 Yellow Zone Abatement) (1 Political Support) 1D
-[] Blue Zone 8 (Progress 0/75: 30 resources per die (-3 Energy) (+2 Yellow Zone Abatement) (1 Political Support) 1D
-[] Blue Zone 10 (Progress 0/75: 30 resources per die (-3 Energy) (+2 Yellow Zone Abatement) (1 Political Support) 1D
-[] Blue Zone 11 (Progress 0/75: 30 resources per die (-3 Energy) (+2 Yellow Zone Abatement) (1 Political Support) 1D
Orbital (7 dice +34 bonus) 200
-[] Lunar Homesteading (Phase 2) (Progress 217/250: 30 resources per die) (1000 residents) 6D
-[] Lunar Mining Projects (Progress 0/185: 20 resources per die) (+15 resources per turn) 1D
Services (4 dice, AAD +35 bonus) 180
-[] Fifth Generation Electronic Video Assistants (Progress 152/200: 40 resources per die) AAD
-[] Regional Hospital Expansions (Phase 2) (Progress 85/270: 25 resources per die) (+4 Health) (-1 Energy, -1 Capital Goods, -1 Labor) 2D
-[] Stasis Box Development (Tech) (MS) (Progress 0/120: 30 resources per die) 1D
-[] Naquada Ring Experiments (Progress 0/80: 50 resources per die) (Must have at least 10 STU production spare) (+2 Orbital Dice, 15% Progress reduction.)
Military (6 dice, 2FD, AAD +31 bonus) 160
-[] Stealth Field Generator Development (Tech) (Progress 0/60: 15 resources per die) 1D
-[] Tib Core Missile Seeker Analysis (Tech)(Progress 0/60: 5 resources per die) 1D
-[] Military Particle Beam Development (Tech) (Progress 81/100: 20 resources per die) AAD
-[] Thunderbolt II Missile Development (Platform) (Munitions) (Progress 0/60: 15 resources per die) 1D
-[] Next Generation Armored Vehicles (Platform) (Merged) (Progress 77/160: 30 resources per die) 1D
-[] Ground Forces Zone Armor (Set 2) (Phase 1) (High Priority) (Progress 260/285: 20 resources per die) (-4 Energy, -2 Capital Goods, -2 Labor) 3D
-[] Phased Plasma Weapons Development (Tech) (Progress 0/80: 15 resources per die) 1D
Bureaucracy (4 dice +29 bonus)
-[] Administrative Assistance - Fifth Gen EVA
-[] Administrative Assistance - Particle Beam
110 + 150 + 120 + 60 + 240 + 200 + 180 + 160
1220/1360+225 (1585)
Drones & Labor
Drone Logistical integration and Factory Automation need to be done for the benefit of moving labor from Logistics pools, to new areas more beneficial if we start seeing labor crunches, especially during Karachi.
Nuuk and Aberdeen being worked on alongside each other is specifically because we aren't going for the 5th Phase in the time remaining, so better to just get Phase 4 sometime early Q1-ish and Aberdeen is to begin building up our Isolinear Tech.
Bergen should finish about Q1 depends how we roll, but we need labor too, so its competing with Factory Automation too.
Tiberium is going to be contentious simply because of the amount of Inhibs and no progress on the RPT goal, but honestly we need Inhibitors more than we need RPT at this point, even if its a goal, and Forgotten Experimentation can help with STU's or other stuff alongside, making it less of a worry as well for the dice, next turn I may push out a large swathe of resource actions, but only because we will have at least SOME inhibs going up or being finished.
Orbital is Orbital, as per usual.
Services is all self evident (especially Orbital progress cuts and more orbital dice)
Military is the fun zone as usual, Stealth Field Gen for OpFor training against our own stealth units, and for researching more counters against it.
Tib Core and Thunderbolt II for better and more accurate missiles (and ones that won't die from sheer g forces)
More progress on the Zone Armor, and Phased Plasma for better Plasma based weapons
And Particle beams cuz might as well complete them
Drone Logistical integration and Factory Automation need to be done for the benefit of moving labor from Logistics pools, to new areas more beneficial if we start seeing labor crunches, especially during Karachi.
Nuuk and Aberdeen being worked on alongside each other is specifically because we aren't going for the 5th Phase in the time remaining, so better to just get Phase 4 sometime early Q1-ish and Aberdeen is to begin building up our Isolinear Tech.
Bergen should finish about Q1 depends how we roll, but we need labor too, so its competing with Factory Automation too.
Tiberium is going to be contentious simply because of the amount of Inhibs and no progress on the RPT goal, but honestly we need Inhibitors more than we need RPT at this point, even if its a goal, and Forgotten Experimentation can help with STU's or other stuff alongside, making it less of a worry as well for the dice, next turn I may push out a large swathe of resource actions, but only because we will have at least SOME inhibs going up or being finished.
Orbital is Orbital, as per usual.
Services is all self evident (especially Orbital progress cuts and more orbital dice)
Military is the fun zone as usual, Stealth Field Gen for OpFor training against our own stealth units, and for researching more counters against it.
Tib Core and Thunderbolt II for better and more accurate missiles (and ones that won't die from sheer g forces)
More progress on the Zone Armor, and Phased Plasma for better Plasma based weapons
And Particle beams cuz might as well complete them
Seo as Director means Seo bending the entire GDI government towards Mad Science!, even more effectively than he could as Treasury Secretary.
Honestly, I've never felt all that constrained on Mad Science by the rest of the government. We've literally been letting PS expire because we don't have projects worth spending them on (at least once accounting for needing to use dice on other things). Rather, it felt like there just weren't all that many Good Ideas (tm) to be had in the first place, and most of the time the conventional solution was also the more practical one.
I really don't see how things will be meaningfully different on the Mad Science front with Seo as Director vs Seo as Treasurer. The only real concern I have there is whether a hypothetical director Carter would fire Seo or keep him on.
I really don't see how things will be meaningfully different on the Mad Science front with Seo as Director vs Seo as Treasurer. The only real concern I have there is whether a hypothetical director Carter would fire Seo or keep him on.
- Location
- Russia
- Pronouns
- He
The English names for these birds include the words "tit" and "booby"
- Location
- his hidden lair
I'm sure it wasn't intended, but there was real dark comedy in Litvinov considering herself a warmonger who needs to retire in the name of peace as the Bannerjees prepare to use Karachi as an means of testing and further optimizing their biologically and socially engineered slave soldiers.
A monologue over the dangers of imperialism as the ostensible world leaders we need to appeal to are in the background engaging in creating people intended to be reduced and refined into the most effective weapons for their masters seems way more satirical than it was presumably intended.
A monologue over the dangers of imperialism as the ostensible world leaders we need to appeal to are in the background engaging in creating people intended to be reduced and refined into the most effective weapons for their masters seems way more satirical than it was presumably intended.
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- Location
- NorthEast
Hmmm, wouldn't these new tiberium detectors increase our income since we are discovering and now workig to mine these untapped tib veins?
I am holding my horror screams for when we have more complete mapping of tiberium with this new detector.
Oooh, Avatar tech, YUS!
Karachi... *gulp*
Poor Litvinov.
Woot! North Boston is done. Hello new AI friends!
Sounds like Deep Redzone Glacier mining teams are being strained severely.
I am holding my horror screams for when we have more complete mapping of tiberium with this new detector.
Oooh, Avatar tech, YUS!
Karachi... *gulp*
Poor Litvinov.
Woot! North Boston is done. Hello new AI friends!
Sounds like Deep Redzone Glacier mining teams are being strained severely.
The tib detectors are currently only in use in a 30x30 km square... and they found three previously undetected veins of Tiberium. Once they are actually rolled out, there will probably be options to take advantage of them, but they are not deployed in any widespread manner yest.
Yeah, Litvinov wanted to be a relatively peacetime Director, but other things happened.
And the Deep Red Zone Glacier teams are being strained, but it doesn't sound like they are being stressed beyond expectations. It's just that Red Zones do in fact hate you.
- Location
- Ohio
did the idiot even wash the burger meat or even cook it all the way through? They sound like one of those annoying slobs that half-ass something for a quick youtube video, and then complain that the thing they did not do right turned out wrong.
edit: sorry I was being rather mean there in ab uncalled for way.
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Oh, he cooked it all the way through. Hard not to on a 5 millimeter-thick wafer of hamburger. But he did it on medium, so it wasn't hot enough to get really good.
Remember, a significant portion of GDI's populace hasn't had the chance to cook burgers... well, ever.