If everything might be be untrue, then how can we know anything? At some point we have to accept in-quest information as true-enough, even if some of it might be flawed. Otherwise the only truths become those given by whoever argues their zero-data guesses the loudest.
It's another thing to dismiss the datapoints out of hand because "I don't believe things could work this way, I'm pretty sure I have a better understanding of GDI citizens' psychology from here in my armchair in a literally different world than GDI's own NPC politicians and the Treasury's own NPC sociologists do."
I've never said that and I'll thank you if you stop putting your words in my mouth.
I said that I consider datapoints you based your decision on as either unreliable (political, you or me just need to turn on TV to see how internal government mechanisms can distort citizens' wishes) or failing to match what else I know of GDI accurately enough (much harped about graying population).
As it currently stands, we will need some free dice investment into Orbital even without doing Colombia phase 1-3. We will also need free dice investment in Heavy Industry to meet the Capital Goods goal and our Energy needs. We also should consider investing free dice into Military to boost production in the current flare up. If the flare up occurs prior to Q4 or looks like its going to occur immediately after, Colombia doesn't seem doable. If it doesn't we have more slack in our requirements. In any event lets shelve the decision on wether or not to green light Colombia in Q4 as it is a bit far out.
Even just rolling the (hopefully by then) six Orbital dice we have in 2059Q4 with no Free dice expenditure, with a bonus of +17+2(two more quarters of Settling In)+4(Philly Phase 5)+5(station under Seo) sums to +28...
...Well, getting to Phase 3 of the station only costs 580 Progress. Allowing for omake bonuses, that's an assured completion of Phase 2 and at least getting close to completion of Phase 3, though with only a 10% or so chance of clearing it in a single round with no Free dice.
The median progress we can expect to make with six dice on station-building in 2059Q4 is about 471 points.
I don't know if you have, but others have very explicitly said things along the lines of "I don't believe this project can be this important to people," even when the only in-story information we have suggests that it's very important to people.
When a person dismisses effectively all of the narrative in-story information available as "unreliable," and substitutes it with... I dunno, their own armchair deductions about what logically must be happening... They're on shaky ground.
If we'd done that on things like MARV hub locations ("oh, the local commander is probably just being paranoid about the prospect of Nod attacks, keep building at one die per turn") or Mecca Planned City ("oh, there are always biased interested parties who want the project done fast, that doesn't mean we can't just slow-walk completion") or arcologies ("those protestors are only a small minority of the electorate"), we'd be looking a lot less competent and effective in-quest than we do.
Regarding reliability of information, there are several sources of possible unreliability.
First, of course, anything in the GDIOnline section is basically people shitposting on the internet, with a few exceptions. It can be useful for getting an impression of what the Terminally Online portion of GDI's populace thinks, but rarely gives reliable data. Even things said by GDI officials are "said for public consumption". Some of it will be accurate, but some won't.
Things like military priorities are accurate representations of "What is the military asking the Treasury to prioritize?" The people providing these requests may be biased, but they are not idiots, and they legitimately want a strong military. (Or similar, for other sections of the government.) Their assessment of priority relative to other groups' priorities may be inflated, because everyone does that, but it can be assumed to be accurate within their group. (With the exception that new-tech development projects tend to be deprecated a bit, because we don't know if they will actually pan out.)
Barring infiltration/corruption, numbers for indicators can be considered to be accurate. Giving inaccurate numbers to the head of the Treasury tends to get you fired. The most indicators have been off due to corruption was, IIRC 2 Consumer Goods and 1 Food. Similarly, project descriptions and results can be assumed to be the result of Treasury workers doing the best they can to provide useful information.
In general, information we are given is generally accurate: it's what we aren't told that trips us up. Or enemy action, but that's a given.
Or, if Ithillid says something definitive outside a turnpost, or in an Informational threadmark, that can be considered to be reliable.
As a note, regarding hope, space habitats, and increasing population via babies (which is an indicator of hope), one thing Ithillid said a while back on the Discord: "The big baby boom will come when you are printing City and Island class space stations and spamming them all over the system."
In other words: Colombia will be a signpost that we're moving in that direction, which will cause some increase in morale, but how much of an increase is not known.
Also, if we do "Make Political Promises" (the Bureaucracy action), we'll almost certainly get an option to promise some/all of Colombia before the end of the plan, which would give us support from the Starbound party. Which would probably be a very satisfactory state for them if done before the election. It's not actual progress, but it's a commitment to working on it in the next 2 years, which will a) help keep them relevant, and b) provide a bit of anticipatory hope for the people looking to get off of Earth.
I don't know if you have, but others have very explicitly said things along the lines of "I don't believe this project can be this important to people," even when the only in-story information we have suggests that it's very important to people.
When a person dismisses effectively all of the narrative in-story information available as "unreliable," and substitutes it with... I dunno, their own armchair deductions about what logically must be happening... They're on shaky ground.
I probably did said something that come across like that, I apologize if I did.
I do have problem with articulating everything I mean, so let me try yet again:
"While your conclusion from evidence you gathered are reasonable and compelling, I have doubts about accuracy of evidence. Therefore, I suspect that your conclusion; That significantly greater percentage of population than could be estimated from Senate seat distribution, posses sufficiently strong Starbound-ajacent beliefs to generate meaningful impact from limited (11%), hasty deployment of phase 1 of project with no supporting action and no followup in reasonable timeframe (and such followup can not be afforded in current situation to the best of my knowledge); Is not sufficiently compelling to warrant deviation from previously agreed plan of action".
Once we get Colombia phase 3 done we will probably want to see about building the Himalayan Orbital Mass driver so we can start putting several tons of material (more) in space daily. I expect that it will be ether an infrastructure project or Orbital project.
Small question about the new roll over mechanic. Is there a limit cap on how much overspent resources are shelved? There might need to be if the spending is egregious. like plus 150 and the like. Just so certain options can't be take a slot put one dice in it and have the previous expenditures pay for the whole thing.
Small question about the new roll over mechanic. Is there a limit cap on how much overspent resources are shelved? There might need to be if the spending is egregious. like plus 150 and the like. Just so certain options can't be take a slot put one dice in it and have the previous expenditures pay for the whole thing.
If you are talking about the MARV hubs, there is no limit. It is just that there are only so many MARV hubs in useful places. In theory you could put seven free dice, and all your military dice onto MARV hubs and spew hubs out across an entire continent or two. It is just that it goes to the nearest point, not the next yellow zone. So after Savannah it is a Blue Zone hub, and then another yellow zone, and then the last yellow zone, and then down into South America.
Regarding reliability of information, there are several sources of possible unreliability.
First, of course, anything in the GDIOnline section is basically people shitposting on the internet, with a few exceptions. It can be useful for getting an impression of what the Terminally Online portion of GDI's populace thinks, but rarely gives reliable data. Even things said by GDI officials are "said for public consumption". Some of it will be accurate, but some won't.
Things like military priorities are accurate representations of "What is the military asking the Treasury to prioritize?" The people providing these requests may be biased, but they are not idiots, and they legitimately want a strong military. (Or similar, for other sections of the government.) Their assessment of priority relative to other groups' priorities may be inflated, because everyone does that, but it can be assumed to be accurate within their group. (With the exception that new-tech development projects tend to be deprecated a bit, because we don't know if they will actually pan out.)
Barring infiltration/corruption, numbers for indicators can be considered to be accurate. Giving inaccurate numbers to the head of the Treasury tends to get you fired. The most indicators have been off due to corruption was, IIRC 2 Consumer Goods and 1 Food. Similarly, project descriptions and results can be assumed to be the result of Treasury workers doing the best they can to provide useful information.
In general, information we are given is generally accurate: it's what we aren't told that trips us up. Or enemy action, but that's a given.
Or, if Ithillid says something definitive outside a turnpost, or in an Informational threadmark, that can be considered to be reliable.
Notably, of the evidence in question, I'm not relying on the GDIOnline stuff (except for using it a bit as a "finger on the pulse" ancillary piece of info when trying to go back in time and gauge political mood circa 2051, which isn't really relevant to the Columbia question but was relevant to a chat I was having with @uju32 about political dynamics.
The two big indicators for me are:
1) The "A Greying Population" piece from, I think, the 2058Q3 results (which is pretty clearly something done for internal consumption and at least intended in good faith to be accurate), and
2) The part where in 2058Q1 the Starbound and Development parties were willing to offer a lot of political credit for a promise to complete Columbia, significantly more than they were willing to offer for, say, completion of Philadelphia or Enterprise or even Chicago Planned City which has the potential to turn into a new New Eden Project and would be a big gesture towards efforts to truly reclaim the Earth from tiberium and push back the Red Zones. Shit, Development considered finishing Columbia to be worth as much as all caffeine-related promises combined, and for that matter all the other stuff in Perennials that isn't caffeine.
(2) is tricky, because of course the politicians are biased... but they're biased the way the military is biased. They're generally pretty much experts at doing what they do, and what they do is gauge public opinion and convince people to vote for them, so while they might be wrong or overestimating, they're probably not outright bullshitting or entirely off-base about how important a project is within the context of their own needs and agendas.
As a note, regarding hope, space habitats, and increasing population via babies (which is an indicator of hope), one thing Ithillid said a while back on the Discord: "The big baby boom will come when you are printing City and Island class space stations and spamming them all over the system."
In other words: Colombia will be a signpost that we're moving in that direction, which will cause some increase in morale, but how much of an increase is not known.
Also, if we do "Make Political Promises" (the Bureaucracy action), we'll almost certainly get an option to promise some/all of Colombia before the end of the plan, which would give us support from the Starbound party. Which would probably be a very satisfactory state for them if done before the election. It's not actual progress, but it's a commitment to working on it in the next 2 years, which will a) help keep them relevant, and b) provide a bit of anticipatory hope for the people looking to get off of Earth.
I'm not hoping to trigger "the big baby boom," mind- I'm hoping to do something to arrest the decline of the birth rate and any impending hopelessness as awareness that tiberium is spreading under the Blue Zones and so on.
And again, HI dice are in an absolute knife fight between power and cap goods. Right now the only other well to draw on there is really superconductors, a 30R project that really isn't going to make all that much power just do the development lads. Come on let's open the wrapping paper and if we hate it there's a gift receipt and we can just return it to the store, we're not grafting it to our heads.
Notably, of the evidence in question, I'm not relying on the GDIOnline stuff (except for using it a bit as a "finger on the pulse" ancillary piece of info when trying to go back in time and gauge political mood circa 2051, which isn't really relevant to the Columbia question but was relevant to a chat I was having with @uju32 about political dynamics.
First, it's Colombia. With an 'o', not a 'u'. Just to be pedantic.
Second, this was sparked by the recent arguments, but I was trying to provide a general view.
And while I'd love to trigger the "big baby boom", that's probably a decade off, at least.
As another note, I would really like to do Orbital Defense Laser development this turn, since from the descriptions we've had, that will likely lead to laser PD emplacements on Philly, in addition to the Shimmer Shield defenses. Gah. More dice shuffling.
As another note, I would really like to do Orbital Defense Laser development this turn, since from the descriptions we've had, that will likely lead to laser PD emplacements on Philly, in addition to the Shimmer Shield defenses. Gah. More dice shuffling.
I do have problem with articulating everything I mean, so let me try yet again:
"While your conclusion from evidence you gathered are reasonable and compelling, I have doubts about accuracy of evidence. Therefore, I suspect that your conclusion; That significantly greater percentage of population than could be estimated from Senate seat distribution, posses sufficiently strong Starbound-ajacent beliefs to generate meaningful impact...
Point of order: Development hammered on space goals. Without them there's no plausible way Starbound could have pressured Treasury into promising 4000-6000 points of space station construction during the Plan, because that's a huge goal and they are a small minority.
Furthermore, Development's stated agenda (development) did not in and of itself require this. They could have required us to build tiberium inhibitors, or to build arcologies, or required more ambitious Capital Goods goals, or a more developed transportation infrastructure, or any of a number of other things. They didn't call for those things, most of which would be in keeping with their goals.
They picked space stations.
I don't think it's a tenuous conclusion to conclude that Development is backing space colonization, even if they are not as outspokenly single-issue about it as Starbound. Again, it's like the difference between a mainstream progressive party in Parliament and an explicitly labeled Green Party. The Greens may be a bit more outspoken on the environment and willing to give it absolute priority, but the environmental agency is going to get plenty of support from the progressive party.
from limited (11%), hasty deployment of phase 1 of project with no supporting action and no followup in reasonable timeframe (and such followup can not be afforded in current situation to the best of my knowledge); Is not sufficiently compelling to warrant deviation from previously agreed plan of action".
I think we can fit in deployment of Phase 2 and potentially Phase 3 of the Columbia project, which are much more significant and likely to have impact on public morale and interest. Followup within about 2-2.5 years' time is not as bad as you make it out to be.
Once we get Colombia phase 3 done we will probably want to see about building the Himalayan Orbital Mass driver so we can start putting several tons of material (more) in space daily. I expect that it will be ether an infrastructure project or Orbital project.
I'm not sure that will actually help much unless the throughput is massive. The turnaround time on our fusion shuttles is enough that orbiting several tons per day is a "just build more shuttles" problem. Orbiting several tens or hundreds of tons per day is a "just build more shuttles" problem, as far as I can tell.
Our space commitments are so large that we're effectively resigned to spending Free dice on them; the question is how many. Furthermore we'd need to invest about three dice just to clear the orbitals enough to allow it, and it's not clear how good the return on dice investment is. If solar power satellites wind up costing, say, 200 Progress in Orbital at 15 R/die to get +8 Energy, it's probably as or more cost-effective to put the Free dice on Heavy Industry directly and build fusion reactors.
By contrast, we can meet all our directly tiberium-related targets (abatement and Resource income) without going over into Free dice. Thus, we have wiggle room to do things with Tiberium dice... though the hazards of building tiberium power plants may make it a Bad Idea to do this particular thing with them.
@Ithillid told me that the station was named after the first space shuttle, as I recall. Since that makes sense in a way that naming the station after a largely defunct South American country mostly overtaken by Red Zones would not... I'm going to keep calling it Columbia.
As another note, I would really like to do Orbital Defense Laser development this turn, since from the descriptions we've had, that will likely lead to laser PD emplacements on Philly, in addition to the Shimmer Shield defenses. Gah. More dice shuffling.
I'm not sure that will actually help much unless the throughput is massive. The turnaround time on our fusion shuttles is enough that orbiting several tons per day is a "just build more shuttles" problem. Orbiting several tens or hundreds of tons per day is a "just build more shuttles" problem, as far as I can tell.
From what I understand the throughput is massive, as it was stated by the GM that we wouldn't want it unless we had a lot of stuff going on (and to do) in space.
@Ithillid told me that the station was named after the first space shuttle, as I recall. Since that makes sense in a way that naming the station after a largely defunct South American country mostly overtaken by Red Zones would not... I'm going to keep calling it Columbia.
TopTierCitizens
So, you know those "communal housing experimental units" that got popped up around the Initiative? Well, from all reports, they suck. A lot.
And a good part of the reason they suck? Stupid people who didn't read the description beyond 'not Yellow Zone', and so weren't ready to live with people outside their little clan. And this is what you can expect whenever we try to bring them into civilized society. They have their little clan and are always going to pick their clan and their faith above anything else.
Also, the complexes were a mistake in the first place. We have housing that we like, and it works. Apartments, Arcologies. But no, the Treasury has decided that they need to try socialist experiments that failed a century ago again when some of us are still living in concrete monstrosities built right after the war. This is the problem with socialists. They claim to have a historical truth, and then refuse to learn from history. People are people, and you can't change them. There are good and bad, and trying to mix the two never works.
If you want to fix the mistakes of the Initiative, remember to vote Initiative First in the coming elections and stop this madness for good.
LaserKiwi2000
I don't see this as "dirty yellow clanners" I just see it as the communal housing project being done at a bad time. A brief look at the layout and amenities and it's not even bad. You just need to have people who like sharing living spaces. This should have waited until there was no normal apartments and arcologies on the waiting list. These spaces could work really well for large families or extremely dedicated roleplayer groups larpers.
GreenBird
Oh man my family almost got selected for this. A couple months back they offered the choice to my family and we almost took it. But then some GDI team found my pah and we got back together. My pah's a smart one, he said he'd seen something like this before. "You gotta get the right people who really want this for it. Can't pick people who'd never done it before." So mah and pah decided we would wait a little longer in the holding area.
AccomplishingProvidence
#LaserKiwi2000 There's definitely an argument to be made that the timing on these was poor. The concept has some strong merits, though it's clear there's still a lot of debate over the finer details.
#GreenBird I am happy to hear you have been reunited with your father! And it is perhaps a good decision that your parents waited; as stated, the concept is sound but it's a bit rushed. Also, it seems like you've improved your typing ability, if I might be so bold to note. Congratulations, and keep up the good work! You'll be making our own prose look amateur by comparison yet.
#TopTierCitizens , the issue here is not "socialism" or "Yellow Zone clanners". The implementation of this specific idea went poorly. Perhaps too rooted in the past this time. Speaking of "rooted in the past", your attitudes certainly harken back to the darker days of humanity. Why, I have to wonder if you've got a predilection for wearing white or very light shades most of the time? I say we Blue Zoners could learn something from the communal mindset of those in the Yellow Zones. It's served them well to survive, and even thrive (as much as anyone can) in much harsher environments. It's also curious how you single in on "their faith", since those from Yellow Zones represent the full breadth of human philosophies and faiths. Amusing that you're so dismissive of that while saying that others are the ones with a distorted vision of Truth.
GreenBird
Yeah! The new tablets you guys have are great! I never knew spellcheck was a thing before. I don't have to learn to spell my words anymore, just get close enough! Pah makes a big fuss about it though, but he hasn't quite figured out how to stop me from turning it back on when he turns it off. I take to the computer much better than he does, even if he's the only one that can build one and fix cars.
We're still holding out for the arks though. Mah saw one of the pamphlets for them and had her heart set on it. Said it would be a much better place to raise my sis. Didn't quite get through the lineup or lottery or whatever to get a spot in the new arks.
FloatingWood
#LaserKiwi, actually, I know a subsection of the population who would absolutely love this too. Students. Finally out from under mom and dad's control, but not isolated and alone. At most you need to make sure there's a couple of adults per dozen of those living units to keep things on an even keel and prevent idiocy.
Might also work well enough for bachelors and old people, depending on the situation.
#GreenBird, please don't stop with learning to spell your words. Spellcheck helps, but it won't get things right all the time. It's also not always going to be available either. I mean, you try to make spellcheck work on a piece of paper without taking a picture, I dare you.
LaserKiwi2000
Oh and I have got to say, being able to visit Auckland and it's just a bit different with the harbour messed up by the removal of some of the tib that had got there, and there's even the Skytower! Except it's a bigger than usual tiberium spike with some decoration. Treasury definitely listened to our Auckland Refugee petitions we'd been doing since Auckland had become a yellow zone, so all the tib spikes and preventative measures are painted a bit and there's cute placements that make things look as pre-outbreak as possible.
KropotkinsGhost
So when the Treasury decided to start the communal housing experiment, they sent out a call for blue zoners that would like to try living alongside yellow zoners. As an old socialist myself I decided to give it a go. I was already living in one of the apartment blocks and was told it would be just like that but with more people. That sounded great! Liven up the place a bit. It's lonely and boring being old and not having people around to chat with. Hell I finally get people to compliment my cooking!
Top Tier Citizens
I just don't understand you people. Every single time the Initiative has tried to do nice things for the Yellow Zones, it has backfired. In the battles for Rio, we got pushed out the first time by riots, and then when we tried again in the Third War, we were being fired on from positions that the Initiative built in the first place.
When we gave food aid, most of it ended up back in the Blue Zones in the knapsacks of militants. When we gave them environment suits, they used them as plate carriers.
And nearly every dead blue zoner was shot by some tib poisoned nutjob from a yellow zone. They are not like us. They don't want to be like us. So why the hell are we letting them in?
FloatingWood
#TopTierCitizens The tens of thousands streaming in from the Green and Yellow Zones to live among us in peace, to share in our joys, to comfort us in our sorrows, to guard us all from harm, show with each and every one of them that you are fundamentally wrong.
Yeah, there are assholes in the YZs that want to hurt people. There are assholes that think they deserve what we have and that we don't. We have people like that in the BZs too, and we call them for what they are.
And then we lock them away in jail until they either learn to play nice, or, more likely, die of old age.
ILikeBBsAndICannotLie
Blue, yellow, green with purple polkadots? Doesn't matter. You can learn to live with a bunch of people. I live on a big metal island with a few hundred people in much less space. Of course, we get to shoot big honking guns, so maybe the perks make up for it.
Heh. Assimilate into the best Blue Zone! Join the Navy!
KropotkinsGhost
#TopTierCitizens which part of the "Blue Zone Culture" Do you want them to assimilate into? The North American one? The european one? The west African one? The Korean one? We're as varied as they are so it would be silly to think they would be like us in the first place since half of "us" aren't even the same in the first place.
FloatingWood
#KropotkinsGhost, which European culture specifically? Or West African culture? Hell, even the North American culture isn't unified, even though it's the most homogenous of the bunch.
KropotkinsGhost
#FloatingWood Hah! Exactly!
LaserKiwi2000
#TopTierCitizens
A lot of the places we invested in the yellow zones weren't where we had intention of holding and it was stillborn. I once looked at the investment and costs and there's been like 1 or 2 billion dollars invested in yellow zones before the Third Tiberium War. Every single month Granger and/Seo were/are improving things. Granger built special cities on our border and actual industry, water, aquaponics and fortifications. Supplied the military's expansion that the Terminal Cities are in Blue zones right now. Every single month there was something done and it's not just processed goods being given. Pre Granger did GDI build factories that employed thousands? Did they have protected food and forts and military postings that weren't just temporary buffers? Was there a time where GDI, before Granger, halted Nod from a full on invasion without the yellow portion falling and being abandoned?
Look at the Russian warlord's attack. Seo's term involved Nod being unable to take Arkhangelsk. Being slowed by loyal EX Nod militia. Why? Because we fed, clothed, employed, housed and gave hope and were helping them defend their homeland.
So yes, Rio in the past turned out to be a failure, because giving food for the day and temporary protection only buys loyalty for as long as it exists. But Rio now? The people living there will definitely have heard about GDI plonking an entire SMARV fleet in a yellow zone to protect refugees from being slaughtered.
Solan
I mean I don't consider it a failure since this is just an experiment and while I'm living in a base again the crème de la crème of communal living I will say you get used to it even if you have some people you hate while living there. Though my architect friends who were studying the communal housing program in how they could fit in more people for the arcology and apartment blocks love the ways communal housing centralized even more facilities they were afraid of but since there is finally a study new designs are going to be in place for the millions who will live in the newly built housing.
Treasury Internal Forum
Sarah Vostoy
Right, break out the Vodka again. We need it. We thought Granger was bad, but Seo, Seo is worse. It is not just Granger being a politically blind gaffe machine anymore. It is somebody being a bloody nightmare. Tiberium Infusion? Communal Housing Experiments? Artificial Bloody Intelligence? I don't know what this man is thinking, and honestly, I am not sure if I want to.
Lea Abbot
Maybe we can get an AI to write our press releases for us. Who knows what one of these things is capable of once it has absorbed and memorized every piece of writing ever.
Fritz Willis
I've a feeling I know what Secretary Seo is thinking. SCIENCE!!!. Yeah, Granger was pretty bad, but whenever he did something you could see it was because an academic who just flat out didn't give a shit about the optics, and only cared about getting the things that needed doing done.
Seo's much more of a manager with Ideas, it shows and he's not likely to listen when you tell him something is a bad idea and why.
Mia Deeps
I'm just working to keep an eagle eye on the second try at offshore harvesting platforms - it's theoretically a good idea, but the way the previous try went...
Li Shang
It's pretty clear that The Secretary understands that other people have doubts and reservations-he's clearly able to play the political and public perception game. But his goals are totally out there! Just the other day we were asked to assess how long it would take to work the G-drive and prototype repulsors together to create a new kind of super-lifter for space work...so that garbage can be taken to Enterprise for recycling!
Christina Song
I feel bad for the PR guys, but if you look at the new spreadsheets, we gained more income so we can spend more money, which is my favourite thing about this job. AI might get us more money too, and the sea platforms will get us money if they don't get sabotaged so that's a net win; if it works.
Fritz Willis
#Christina Song, have you seen the really long term projections from back when Granger was in charge? They're not sure they have enough manpower to toss around on tib abatement even if they somehow managed to get every person on the globe on it.
Admittedly, that is very old data, some of the first projections done under his authority when we didn't even know for sure how much of GDI itself was intact. But if there's an inkling of truth to it, well, we are going to need either AI or very smart EVA to hope to reclaim the Earth from the thrice damned crystal.
#Li Shang, the hell is he smoking? We have much, much better ways to deal with the kilotons of garbage we produce. In fact, part of the industrial zones now under construction are dedicated garbage handling facilities.
Jack White
#Fritz Willis, If you're referring to dumping it into tiberium fields to be converted to tiberium and then harvested again there's two major problems with that. One, it's actively adding more tiberium that then needs to be cleaned up again. And two, hopefully in the future just dumping trash in a tiberium field won't be an option. So, practice the standard/old/new ways of recycling the materials themselves. I'm in full agreement, there's better ways of dealing with trash than sending it all the way to space, but we do need some data and experience at methods of cleaning up that junk. Or alternately finding ways to produce less waste.
Fritz Willis
#Jack White, we don't dump everything on tiberium fields. Lots of garbage, yes, but not everything. Recycling is an old concept that isn't quite dead, even if it's not as extensive as it could be because tiberium is just so useful, there's pre-sorting for stuff that can be recycled without being first converted back into tib. Plenty of metals, for example, get pulled out of the waste stream and fed into the smelteries for refinement. The new waste processing facilities in the heavy industry areas will help a lot in increasing our garbage handling capacity and efficiency, especially since open tiberium fields are getting less accessible.
Li Shang
#Fritz Willis It's apparently an idea he had because there's not enough mining capacity in space? So rather than ship up raw materials, he wants to use 'garbage ore' since there's all this refining capacity on Enterprise going idle without big mines on the moon or asteroids? The note I got looked like something he'd literally scrawled on a napkin.
Akira Oda
You guys really don't want to know how many more ideas he has in his head that don't go to the official proposals. It's not just him, the various planning committees and other heads like what he's thinking. When I was with our newer hires they really liked the secretary's ideas since while Granger can be called a steady ship for the department, Seo is a maverick who can get stuff done. I'm sure they are willing to get Seo's vision to reality.
Besides a lot of old hands are just gone or retired I've been in the Treasury before the war and while I was just a new hire having a year or two of experience before Philadelphia was gone I will say good riddance to the corporate lobbyists who came in and out without fail making me handle my boss' job. Now as one of the higher ups in this Treasury I've seen less corporate and private types of lobbyists but more bureaucratic and political types. I've come to regularly see Welfare, Developmentalist, Militarist, Starbound, InOps, Military, and even the Director's Office lobbyists asking for Treasury approval in their pet projects. It's hard being the people who hold the money.
Political Support: 80
SCIENCE Meter: 4/4
Free Dice: 7
Tiberium Spread
18.42 Blue Zone
3.04 Green Zone
23.85 Yellow Zone (86 Points of Abatement)
54.69 Red Zone (70 Points of Abatement)
Current Economic Issues:
Housing: Major Surplus (+31) (16 population in low quality housing) (1 points of refugees)
Energy: Major Capacity Surpluses (+9) (+4 in reserve)
Logistics: Limited Surpluses (+7)
Food: Major Surpluses (+21) (+8 in reserve)
Health: Steadily Improved (+11) (3 consumed by emergency refugee healthcare)
Capital Goods: Marginal Surpluses (+3)
Consumer Goods: Significant Surpluses (+38) (+5 from private industry)
Labor: Significant Surpluses (+34) (+4 per turn)
Tiberium Processing Capacity (1720/2370)
Green Zone
Water: Notable Surpluses (+6)
Plan Goals
Capital Goods: 49 Points
Consumer Goods: 99 (18) Points
Food: 20 points in reserve
Income: 310 Points
Stations: 2861 Points
Abatement: 22 Points
Processing: 430 points
Projects
Complete ASAT Phase 4
Complete OSRCT Phase 4
Prototype Plasma Weapons Development
Orbital Defense Laser Development
Railgun Munitions Development
Tactical Plasma Weapons Development
Complete at least three more phases of Shell Plants
Complete at least two more phase of Ablative Armor
Complete at least two more phases of URLS production
Complete at least two phases of Wadmalaw Kudzu Plantations
Complete at least one more phase of Blue Zone Arcologies
Complete GDSS Enterprise
Complete GDSS Philadelphia II
Complete at least six phases of Space Mines
Complete Perennials Phase 3
Complete at least four phases of Karachi Planned City
Develop Tactical Ion Cannons
Develop and Deploy Mastodon
Deploy Havoc
Forgotten Studies
After months of research, the studies with Zaragoza Atreides, the Delta Forgotten have begun to produce results. At this time, he started to corroborate claims and rumours of ESP abilities. Having said that, rumours as collected by InOps indicated that the Delta might hold other more potent abilities– ones more suited for combat purposes– though Atreides is unwilling or unable to demonstrate them and GDI is currently not ready to force the issue. Not when the alliance between the GDI and Forgotten has been of great benefit to both sides and, as the newly made Diplomatic Corp began to spread its wings to the disparate polities that are friendly or neutral leaning with the GDI.
In proving the capabilities of Deltas, the first test to be made as benchmark is what could be called the writing test. This entails a researcher writing a passage in one room before Mr. Atreides is challenged to reproduce the writing. The result proved the claim: Deltas are capable of Extra Sensory Perception. Consistently, Mr. Atreides is able to accurately match passages ranging from 200 to 250 words, with accuracy in spelling and the words themselves trending down the longer the passage becomes. The other, much greater, factor determining accuracy is with regards to distance itself. Putting Mr. Atreides further than a kilometer away from the testing site lowers the accuracy range from 150 to 200 words, with even longer transcribing becoming more garbled and incoherent.
Adding Tiberium to the equation, however, produces a worryingly incredible– or incredibly worrying– result. When Mr. Atreides is allowed to hold a Tiberium crystal in his off-hand while transcribing, accuracy and precision shot up dramatically– allowing him to flawlessly copy five hundred word passages made by one researcher while two others write different yet equally long passages across the distance of one kilometer. The distance restriction itself seems to be dramatically waived in the latest rounds of testing when he was placed on the southern end of the South American Red Zone and the writing site being on the opposite northern end, making him able to reach the benchmark of 200 - 250 words accuracy.
Markets
The Markets have begun to see a handful of large cooperatives emerging. Breaking the record of four and a half thousand employees (ten times the size of the largest fully private company) this quarter is the New Moscow Soviet. Previously an organization that emerged as a mutual aid cooperative in the midst of the Third Tiberium War, it has since formalized into a general services cooperative in its aftermath. Now, it has expanded its reach into every area that has Treasury grants that supports its endeavours. Additionally, the NMS has a large number of subsidiaries affiliated to it, not only within its native regions in the Russian and Baltic Blue Zones but also as far afield as the Japanese Home Islands– with the latest merger being one that made the coop break the record. Though in size the NMS is a large one, its pattern is one that is commonly seen in cooperatives all across GDI– doing business in a general service area and operating in nearly every sector of the civilian economy.
Other cooperatives specialized themselves in a more select niche in small to mid-sized holdings. With the case of Blue Sky Software – a game design company now responsible for several key advances in AR gaming tech – and the Ma-La Expatriates – a conglomeration of rediscovered regional ethnic Chinese restaurants formed under the Granger Administration, their numbers hold steadily at around five hundred employees with few acquisitions. These 'Métier' cooperatives, as Litvinov classified them, operate in the cracks where the titanic yet sporadic attention of the GDI and the larger or numerous generalized cooperatives cannot directly service, thus allowing the Métiers to gain profit in areas where they are not directly competing.
This, of course, is not without its concerns. Though muted due to the small size, there are concerns that these Métiers would become too entrenched in their niche. While the case of the Ma-La is likely to continue without complications, ones with regards to Blue Sky Software or the newly formed Mekhane's Industrial likely will. The last in particular is a thorny issue to the left wing of the GDI. Sponsored by Arias Simanjuntak, one of the vanishingly few FMP Parliamentarians willing to entertain Treasury's leftward push, Mekhane's Industrial has grown to a comfortable size of two hundred and fifty employees with the niche of creating precision robotics, including the increasingly popular "Jowangshin" line of cooking robots, among others. These have come to dominate a small sector of the economy, one where it is unlikely for even one of the much larger cooperatives to be able to seriously displace him. He has made noises of concerns on how his own company might hold an unfair advantage in the future. In this, he has reignited in parts the topic of industrial grants, and how they might be needed to create a level playing field.
Assassination
Wesley Riggs is one of the most senior officers to have survived the Third Tiberium War. A general during the war, commanding units across Germany, including the Scrin invasion, he is one of the most experienced in fighting the invaders, a key part of the reason he got the nod for the Chief of Staff for the Ground Forces. While the Scrin have not returned, by this point he is an institution in his own right, serving as General Granger's strong right hand, and keeping the military in line with the more civilian political aims.
While he has a much cooler relationship with Litvinov, he is, much like her, ready to look for solutions other than war to the chronic problems of the Brotherhood. Having survived two Tiberium Wars, he does not wish to fight a third.
While his work parks him behind a desk for much of his time, he does prefer to travel as much as possible, spending significant time at the front with the men. It was at one of these forward trips that a trio of Barghests attempted to cross the Initiative's forward defensive lines. However, they were intercepted far short of Rigg's transport by a pair of Apollos on Combat Air Patrol duties, While two survived the initial QAAM salvo, both were damaged, and quickly dispatched by gunfire. While one did manage to return fire, it was only a glancing hit, and the Apollo is expected to return to service.
Politics
While there are certainly campaigns spinning up as election year arrives, it is not one where ideologies are put to stake with venomous barbs and retorts. Rather, it's a muted affair borne out of a feeling of inevitability. Between the dominance of the Treasury-backed Developmentalist block and the penumbra of smaller parties surrounding them, there is a feeling of unshakeable victory borne out of eight years of struggle. Of course, there are background noises aplenty. The Initiative First continues to fume, the FMP continues to call for grants, and other smaller parties start to consider ways to increase their footprint in a Parliament that seems to continue expanding. All is not entirely well in the upper echelon either. Litvinov and Hackett still continue to clash in matters of security with no clear winner and the Socialists are in disarray with the assassination of their founder and leader. And yet, for a blessed once, the fundamentals are clear. For once, the future of the Initiative seems to be a clear continuation that is unlikely to change courses.
Brotherhood of Nod
While Stahl has been quiet for years after his subordinates' defeat at the hands of Brigadier General Escoffier, the ripples of Brotherhood conflict have reached his zone of operations. And here, it seems, he has decided to ramp up the tempo. Raiding parties stream up and down the hidden ways of the Amazon, clashing with Forgotten tribes and smaller GDI outposts at a pace that borders on the edge of sustainability. Technologically, he kept the pace with what seems to be a novel stealth aircraft. While the full shape is not currently known to GDI– let alone the technical specifications thereof– it has been a matter of significant speculation. Currently it seems to be a multirole standoff aircraft, designed around using stealth to set up long range attack runs on GDI air and ground targets. While the effectiveness of these strikes is limited so far, it has meant that no examples have yet been shot down, or even seriously threatened.
Elsewhere, Krukov has continued reinforcing his position. With the unrest in Siberia comprehensively put down, he has continued rallying warlords to his cause. However, the Titan, having seemingly performed well below expectations has been increasingly rare in favor of more Centurion type mechs. Beyond that, he has also been pushing forward a new type of tank. A fairly conventional form factor from all accounts, it is an engine forward design with a rear turret and heavily sloped armor. Likely this is to protect the binary propellant system from encountering too much GDI fire. Otherwise it seems like a general revision to a standard Scorpion pattern, but looks can be deceiving, and it is likely still in relatively early prototyping phases.
Military Priorities
Ground Forces
For the Ground Forces, the highest priority must be the prompt delivery of Zone Armor as soon as possible. Second is consumables. While current consumables supplies are enough for smaller scale operations, general operations exhaust supplies quickly, while given enough time strategic stockpiles can be built, that time is measured in years, if not decades.
Currently, the provision of vehicles is generally sufficient. However, many of the existing designs lack the space or other requirements for enhancing capabilities. Though these will require replacements during the coming years, the completion of the refit has mollified these concerns.
Steel Talons
The Steel Talons desperately want to see their current design docket completed in line with the goals committed to in exchange for Tali Jackson. With the Havoc developed and ready for action, they definitely want it in the field as soon as possible. They are also very interested in new weapons and armor technologies, especially the potential of the Ion Cannon system in novel configurations. In terms of truly blue-skies research, they are curious about the logistics of a plasma cannon battery as used by Bintang and where it could be used properly.
Air Force
With the missile problem well on its way to being resolved– although none would gainsay more supplies being available– the Air Force has reassesed its priorities. The most important of them is the A-16 Orcas, but the Wingman drones are not far behind. Beyond that, Cherdenko's intelligence has led to the Aurora bomber being increased in priority, although the Air Force believes that the intelligence is aging fast, and unless action is taken immediately it will unfortunately pass. However, the key systems at this point are not more new airframes but rather new tools for airframes, especially things like the Wingman Drones and other means to increase pilot efficiency.
Navy
GDI's naval forces have returned to a point where convoys can expect routine escort, and even attempted blockades can be forced, although not without sacrificing other routes. They see the escort carriers with the naval variants of the Orcas as the next major important area to invest in. However, they are also looking into expanding the number of ships drastically, as less than two hundred hulls is simply not enough to cover a global operational zone.
Space Force
The Space Force strongly desires the OSRCT concept to move as soon as possible from the drawing board to reality. Additionally, the development of new technologies is an increasingly high priority, as systems to defeat the Ion Cannon network are only likely to proliferate.
[ ] Blue Zone Arcologies (Stage 3) (Updated)
A further wave of arcology construction will include the first Arcology Complexes, clusters of multiple arcologies that operate in conjunction and can support each other, built since the Third Tiberium War. Additionally, a further wave of construction in the secondary and tertiary cities will spread out the arcology housing, allowing for availability in more locations.
(Progress 651/650: 15 resources per die) (+8 Housing, +4 Consumer Goods, +1 Energy Reserve, -2 Energy) (High Priority)
[7, 51, 99, 73]
Unlike the last wave of arcology construction, one rife with delays and perceived inadequacies, this wave of construction has been a cause for celebration aplenty. With the rapid construction of these arcology complexes in second and third tier cities, even more of the GDI populations are able to enter in a life close to luxurious as can be in a world ravaged by Tiberium. While each and every last one of the new arcologies remain a testament to Initiative's civil engineering, there have been several notable tweaks that differentiates them from the deeper Arcologies. As an extreme measure, these pyramidal structures are further hardened, allowing them to survive direct contact to Tiberium for weeks before the outer seals could begin to fail. Even then, damage control efforts could push survival time out for months, as citizenry could retreat back deeper into the self-sustaining city or outside for an evacuation. It would not be able to save the greater complex from the encroaching crystal, but it can buy enough time for GDI to try and find a solution.
However, these arcologies are likely to be the last for some time. While there is still demand for more arcologies, war is in the air, and while it may not be immediate, sacrifices must be made in order to ensure that GDI is well prepared this time instead of taken by surprise. Arcologies are grand symbols, but not necessarily the most effective means of housing the population.
[ ] Communal Housing Experiments
Building communal housing units, designed around a common professionally operated kitchen and grounds should provide for a combination of privacy, high quality supplies, and a sense of communal living, all at a cost significantly cheaper than even the apartment complexes. This form of living should create community and camaraderie among a population, even if it is disrupted at times due to people moving in or out.
(Progress 178/140: 10 resources per die) (+8 Housing) (-5 PS) (Quality 72, 20)
[80] [Quality: 67, 15]
The experiments in communal housing can only be considered a failure. While the housing schematics itself is more than adequate, the experience of the people living there has been far from acceptable. The problem, in a phrase, is the people. What seemed to be the case is that in testing the housing schematics, most of the volunteers were Green Zone citizens seeking entry to the Blue Zones rather than people who wanted to experiment with communal living, considering it to be an inroad for moving into Blue Zone properly. However, the experience seemed to not be what was expected, leading to a slew of local tensions and negative reports.In terms of the problems themselves, the more common ones involve practices that are normative in Yellow Zones.
One of the examples is the negative reciprocation of scarcity-based strategies, where one or more members of the communal household would hoard important goods for their usage, which in turn causes other members to adopt strategies of retaliation or attempt to punish the troublemakers. In such a tight housing scenario, the experiments needed to be cut off prematurely, in fears of the altercations moving past verbal and into physical ones. While this would never kill the idea for good, it is something that will likely be consigned to small scale communes where it can be contained to people who actually want to live under those conditions, rather than becoming the new standard. However, with the advantages that being able to centralize significant infrastructure elements clear, it is likely to be a pattern that also finds its way into refugee housing in the case of future housing crises.
"From one researcher to another, I appreciate your sacrifice in the line of proverbial fire, Seo."
"The data could be of use to you more, hopefully."
"In the matters of anthropological studies, no such data is ever worthless. Though concerns of false positives remain extant. There simply aren't any worthwhile studies on behavioural science of Yellow Zoners."
"I know the thought process enough to cut through: What's the end point?"
"Ethically? Nothing. Questionably? Better targeting on social engineering."
– Private conversation between Seo Thoki and Julian Bennet
[ ] Continuous Cycle Fusion Plants (Phase 3)
Mass production of modern fusion systems has substantially replaced the older nuclear systems. While not an immediate need, it is likely to be critically needed as GDI's power needs scale up. Additionally, establishing a reserve of generation capacity will help ensure that damage to the system would not impact greater performances.
(Progress 199/300: 20 resources per Die) (+16 Energy)
[14, 18]
Despite the resources put into the construction of a further wave of fusion plants, progress has been very slow. Work has been delayed by sabotage, but most of the problems have been a result of simple mismanagement and miscommunication. With the standardization of the plants, much of this wave has been handed off to newer managers and less experienced teams, and the consequences have been problematic.
While much of the construction work is according to GDI norms, there are many critical features to the fusion reactors themselves that require significantly higher levels of precision and care. While not beyond the possibilities offered by GDI's automated construction systems, they are well within the standard margins of error, which are a compromise between speed and precision. This has lead to multiple containment vessel leaks, as hot gasses escape the fusion cell during early tests.
[ ] Blue Zone Heavy Industrial Sectors
The Initiative has an ever increasing need for heavy industrial products, ranging from heavy stampings and pressings, to synthetic crystals and tooling. While specialized areas are often more efficient, they are less capable of sheer bulk compared to setting aside large areas of the cities towards the production of capital goods.
(Progress 146/500: 25 resources per die) (+8 Capital Goods, -4 Labor, -8 Energy)
[19, 85]
Normally, groundbreaking and selecting the optimal location for heavy industry takes a lot of time. The normal does not apply here, in places such as Antananarivo, Bonn, Conakry, Magadan, and Vancouver. In these places and depressingly many more, groundbreaking was already done. Once holdovers in a time before the Third Tiberium War, these locales would have been part of a greater urban plan of an integrated city sprawl, planned expansions for 2048 and 2049, either by private industry or the Initiative. Now, however, they were nothing more than jutting scars surrounded by an empty skyline, rising out from the horizon. While on the outside they look to be nothing but prefabbed rows of identical blocks, the insides are more complex and diverse. Each block contains within a cluster that produces anywhere from one to two hundred different widgets and component parts often in short supplies. Ranging from aircraft parts to machining tools to steam turbines, the variety is substantial and critical to fill in the gaps.
While most of these are set in areas now no longer populated, some are placed closer to the urban sprawl, which poses a problem. Despite attempts to make otherwise, these blocks are fundamentally noisy, smelly, and aesthetically unpleasing to behold. In the few places where the GDI attempts to integrate the sectors closer to the urban centers, they have been met with substantial protest ranging from letter writing campaigns, petitions, and even a few demonstrations against the constructions. While some of these protests can be ascribed to NIMBY-ist tendencies, the unpopularity seems to range beyond that and further assuaging of the populace may be needed.
[ ] Reykjavik Myomer Macrospinner (Phase 3)
Serious expansion, bringing the macrospinner plant to a point where it is not only supplying capital goods, but noticeably cutting GDI's energy demands. This will bring it closer to parity with the Johannesburg Macrospinner, providing serious expansions to GDI's ability to produce high thickness myomers, such as those used on the Titan and Havoc mechs.
(Progress 260/320: 20 resources per die) (+2 Capital Goods, +1 Energy)
[81, 4, 91, 16]
Resources have continued to pour into the northern myomer macrospinner. New growth vessels, ropewalks, and machinery bays have sprung up across the complex. Day and night work crews swarm, robots and humans working side by side as building after building springs up. Each one a sealed, isolated environment, one that will be comprehensively sterilized before work can begin. Something as simple as a yeast found on every human's skin can, in theory, disrupt months if not years of work. However it is a slow process, and with demand far greater than the Initiative can supply, far more work needs to be done. With a small amount more investment from the Treasury, Reykjavik should match the South African plant in construction. The question then, is which of the two rope walks will get the planned upgrades for more advanced myomers that GDI Command is interested in due to ever increasing demand for power armor and units such as the Havoc.
Additionally, GDI strategic planning has increasingly seen Reykjavik and other future sites as a better alternative to the South African complex. While its construction preceded the reveal of Mehretu's capability as an espionage and sabotage oriented Warlord, there's little reason to develop the complex into an even bigger target. Additionally, GDI is a global power that should not be limited to two different revolutionary plants. Miniaturization is possible, seeding the synthetic cultivar complexes all around the Ring of Fire regions where even nuclear-powered cargo ships take significant time to trek the treacherous waters.
[ ] Perennial Aquaponics Bays (Stage 2)
A further phase of major perennial bay aquaponics development will focus on producing various forms of mass luxuries for global consumption. While it will take well into the next plan to reach full production, it will be an investment into the future and a generally popular decision.
(Progress 513/350: 10 resources per die) (+4 Food over 16 turns, +16 Consumer Goods over 16 turns) (+10 Political Support)
(Progress 153/350: 10 resources per die) (+4 Food over 16 turns, +16 Consumer Goods over 16 turns)
[43, 47, 84]
A further surge of investment into perennial bays has been ongoing. While at this point a significant portion of the payoff will come in the next plan, the planned uptake represents a notable boost to production of luxury foods. While the cultivars such as chocolate, coffee, or tea are still in the process of growing, many among the citizenry are circling the proverbial date when such products would become available. After decades of unavailability, such products are highly sought after and publicized biweekly by the media arm, if only because there remains a great subsection of the GDI populace who has never tasted such products, synthetically or otherwise. At this point, there is an entire generation of children who were born in the 2040s, who are now adults, and they have likely never drunk tea, or coffee, and some, especially on the tail end, have never had chocolate. Instead they are semi-mythological goods, symbols of the good times that once were.
Beyond that the investment has gone far. A further and likely final set of perennial bays has already entered construction, and made significant progress. Nearly halfway complete already, these are a significant continuation of the project, adding yet more production coming online as the previous set reaches capacity.
[ ] Red Zone Containment Lines (Stage 5)
A final major stage of development will put the full supportable effort into effectively containing the spread of Red Zones around the world. While it will not be the last gain in containment efforts, it is the point where further pushing will be seeing less impact on the spread of Tiberium.
(Progress 234/180: 25 resources per die) (additional income trickle (10-15 Resources) (3 points of Red Zone Mitigation)
[30, 72] [Income: +15]
A final major surge of construction has focused on the coastlines. There are tens of thousands of kilometers of coastline, far from human civilization, many out of effective range of any Brotherhood ballistic or cruise missile capable of bypassing the ASAT network. It is here where GDI has laid hundreds of small bases. Few are more than a modular dock large enough to run a harvester out of, crewed by maybe two dozen people, these are easy to erect, and easy to ship resources out of. While there are often intervening Yellow Zones controlled by the Brotherhood of Nod, these are increasingly beaten down. Life is by far the greater challenge. It is a hazardous duty assignment, fighting not only Tiberium, but sea and storm. While a ship, even one as large as a cargo ship can weather the grand storms that sweep over the seas, and the ion storms off of large Tiberium fields without worry, and the large fortresses of the Blue Zones, masses of concrete and steel, can do the same, these outposts are small, and vulnerable. Already some have been torn out to sea, and others dashed against the shoreline. While they can swim to some extent, that is a cold comfort to their crews.
Ragu and Arsene came back infected. Damnfool storms of Coral Seas dashed their outpost on the Tiberium reefs. Ragu might have been luckier, a large shard having impaled his side, the Tiberium treatment maybe could give back an extra decade or three.
Arsene? His faceplate hit the reefs first. Last I saw him, the docs were still trying to pull the shards out of his jaw. Fucks sake, this was supposed to be an easy posting. The Qatarites were on our side. Australia is supposed to be our continent. ...It's unfair.
– Classified recording from FOB 8-83-11, marked for InOps Morale Survey
[ ] Tiberium Processing Refits (Phase 1) (New)
By offlining and rebuilding existing processing plants, and refitting them to more modern means, GDI can manage to be efficient with both its energy and logistics capacity. The biggest difficulty will actually be managing the rate of refits, as GDI does not, at this time, have the capacity to offline large sections of its total plant. (No more than 1 die per turn)
(Progress 100/100: 20 resources per die) (+50 processing capacity [-250 during refits])
(Progress 20/100: 20 resources per die) (+50 processing capacity [-250 during refits])
[91]
Work has begun on the systematic refits of the legacy processing capacity. While the Hewlett-Gardener method is comprehensively better than the older Granger-Mobius method, it requires a significantly different approach, and more separation stages due to the flexibility that it offers. To some among the GDI's higher echelons, it was never a question of 'should' for the key refineries placed within key logistical points, it's a matter of cost in materials and opportunity. Not only are these refineries more expensive than building new nodes, it curtails the processing works themselves and introduces delays in the ever larger maw of GDI's resource consumption.
To the detractors of the refits, their concerns have been curtailed with the example seen in the British Isles. In the newly refurbished Glasgow Refinement Center that services much of the Isles Tiberium processing needs, things have changed dramatically for supply lines. Once, it had primarily taken from Tiberium spikes and occasional outbreaks of crystal outcroppings, but the refinery refits allowed it to service greater than the total production on the Isles themselves. With the Glasgow site being much safer than most, it has led to an increase of shipping along the Edinburgh-Glasgow canal as the site became a centralized piece of a greater Tiberium handling system, taking in Tiberium imports across the European Green and Red Zones and exporting the raw materials across the European theatre. Similar stories cropped up across the Blue Zones and it is with some belief and certainty that if the naval harvesting systems survived the seas, the refits would become a much more important part of the overall processing environment and hardening.
[ ] Offshore Tiberium Harvester Stations
While the first attempt at offshore Tiberium harvesting was a spectacular failure, a more dedicated system may well have significantly better results. Built on floats, these stations are likely to be little more than Tiberium Spikes on the end of long poles running down towards the sea floor.
(Progress 148/200: 20 resources per die) (-5 PS per die) (+20-30 resources per turn)
[7, 83]
While the previous attempt was a spectacular failure, Seo is nothing if not persistent. Returning to the concept, a series of free floated harvester platforms have been erected. Rather than attempting to maintain a constant contact with the Tiberium, it is going to be using more of a scoop method, pulling up a mass of Tiberium and anything else on the bottom of the sea, and then filtering out the crystals. However, the all important scoops have not yet been delivered. While so far doubts still run high about the viability of the approach, it is so far at least going relatively well, with no really serious problems.
[ ] Improved Tiberium Containment Facilities Development
While Tiberium has often been siloed in various steps of the processing system, long term storage has often been elusive. However, with a study of the Corruptor's handling system, and the tiberium blend found in its holding cell, it should prove useful in allowing GDI to create a strategic reserve in case production ever overruns processing capacity.
(Progress 101/40: 25 resources per die)
[67]
The core component of the new system is layers of Aluminum Oxynitride doped with a series of stable trans uranics. Working from the outermost layer in, it begins with Aluminum, followed by polycrystalline Zrbite, and then another layer of Aluminum, and finally a very thin layer of Adamant. This creates a defensive layer against the encroaching Tiberium. When combined, it produces a material that effectively shakes off Tiberium crystals that attempt to grow on it, and prevents it from gaining a foothold even without internal vibrations.
For any of this to make sense however, it must be put into the context of GDI's expanding research into the Stable Transuranic Elements. While some activities, such as the Tiberium Stabilizer and Inhibitor modules can be done with a general undifferentiated mix of the elements, other technologies are far more picky. So far, GDI has isolated a good dozen elements in the spectrum, a result of trial and significant amounts of error. The stable transuranic elements begin with Californium, or as the laboratory nerds have begun calling the stable form Cochranium, which demonstrates gravitic manipulation capabilities, although currently only in the small scale, and current prototypes of the repulsor plates use small amounts of the material. The two critical ones here are Zrbite and Adamant. Zrbite is a yellowish crystal that looks somewhat like sulphur in its pure form, and amplifies sound. While this is useful in many applications, its most likely use is in providing various forms of sonic weaponry. Adamant is (much like many other metals) a silvery grey, although far more silver than grey. In its natural form, it is an extremely hard and lightweight metal. Harder than Chromium, and about 90 percent as dense, it responds very well to electroplating, providing a very thin finish. However its most notable advantage is that it is significantly tiberium resistant, with a 2 micron thick layer tripling time to consumption on test panels.
In total, the new glass is something that will need vast production, as it provides a means to maintain pockets of Tiberium in a safe and stable way. With a test silo having maintained integrity for two months at this point, and with no signs of failure, it is likely that this will be the future of Initiative attempts to both harden against Tiberium, and contain it for economic purposes.
[ ] GDSS Philadelphia II (Phase 5) (Updated)
The construction of a grand parliamentary dome, able to house a full ten thousand man Parliament, plus aides and other support staff will be a massive undertaking. However, once complete, it will be a powerful symbol of GDI's commitment to government of and by the people, rather than an unelected array of bureaucrats. More practically, the complex will also provide plentiful space to move yet more critical government functions offworld, directly aiding the Treasury's efforts to manage a global economy.
(Progress 474/1425: 20 resources per die) (+4 to all dice, +1 die to each category) (15 Political Support)
[94, 29, 5, 42, 3, 23, 83]
A titanic mushroom cap has begun to sprout at the upper end of the Philadelphia. Designed to hold a full ten thousand member Parliament, and their hundreds of thousands of aides and staff, it is a titanic assembly, greater than any so far built as part of the Philadelphia project. Despite the resources poured in however, it has not made nearly as much progress as desired. The construction is of an epic scale, one of the grandest structures planned in human history, and unlike previous systems, such as the Tiberium Stabilizer Network, this has proven to be a complicated process. While the outer structural ring has been completed, so far, the curving beams that will come to meet at the center, and which will provide structural support to the windows that will provide a view out to space and the earth below, have not yet met in the middle.
Beyond that, the program has also had to begin deploying the shimmer shield system onto the station. While this has required significant retrofits to existing station structures, it is worthwhile, as it means that the station will be significantly hardened against radiation, even after its lead and water sheaths. This has spawned a series of rings, creating something of an inverted pine tree effect as they wrap the station from the capstone dome to the far tail.
[ ] Green Zone Teacher Colleges
Providing enough highly qualified teachers has always been a struggle in the Green Zones, especially with the refugees filling the region. Building dedicated teachers colleges will help alleviate some of those problems, and aid Litvinov's education mandate.
(Progress 211/200: 5 resources per die)
[41]
The development of the Green Zone Teacher Colleges has been completed, and the units have been turned over to the education department. While it will take years for the impacts to be felt, it has been a noticeable shift in policy. Rather than rely on known loyalists and core populations who are highly politically reliable, these teacher colleges would have entrusted education to people who were a year or less out of the Yellow Zones. While much of the curriculum would have been various levels of outright indoctrination, most notably in breaking the obscurantism of the Brotherhood, it would be trying to break a lifetime of learned behavior, something that GDI has rarely been willing to trust even after the increasing fraction of refugees in the overall population.
However, events have in some ways overtaken the construction. A combination of Green Zone cities being absorbed into the blue zones, and the evacuation of massive numbers of Green Zone people into more internal locations with better educational opportunities. While the construction will certainly not go to waste, as GDI chronically needs more teachers, and is likely to continue expanding the green zones, it is unlikely to fit precisely where it was envisioned.
[ ] Tissue Replacement Therapy Development
While still far from being able to properly assemble large complex structures from scratch, smaller scale items, such as tissues and skin segments is a first stepping stone towards general replacements. While still potentially traumatic, being able to use a person's own cells as a baseline is a starting point for more complex systems.
(Progress 42/60: 20 resources per die)
[16]
Tissue replacement has been significantly problematic. While the science of making stem cells is well known, going back to the mid to late 20th century, it is still a fairly expensive process especially in man hours. The technique is fairly basic, pluripotent stem cells are capable of regenerating lost tissue by changing from their type to the type of cells surrounding them according to the complex blueprint of the human body encoded in the genome, a process which is still fairly badly understood. As is, the more tissue has to be replaced or the more complex the piece of tissue is, the more prone the process is for error, generating too many or too little nerve connections, muscle fibres growing in the wrong direction or wildly growing, non-cancerous bone protrusions. Beyond that, there is the critical problem of cell proliferation. Mass cell proliferation suffers from numerous problems-thermodynamic, genetic, sanitation, and simple nutrition. On a basic level, cells demand a diet of highly specific amino acids and micronutrients. Once, this was provided by fetal bovine serum, obtained from slaughterhouses. But without the massive cattle herds of the 20th century, this source is no longer available, and replacement growth serum is difficult to source without contamination and at reasonable cost. Cells also produce waste products-the faster they grow, the more waste they produce, and this requires that the mixture be bubbled or stirred. Both of these processes put shear forces on the cell membranes they were never meant to take, and over-mixing can lead to mass cell death in a goopy homogeneous mess. Both problems will need to be fixed before GDI has a usable means of replacing bulk tissues.
[ ] Advanced Electronic Video Assistant Development
With the Edinburgh EVA Research Centre working on improved models of the EVA units common across the Initiative, a potential improved model will increase the efficiency of general systems management, and will likely lead to significant advancements in combat and in the civilian sphere. (Progress 33/60: 20 resources per die)
[7]
Since the Second Tiberium War, much of the development of EVAs has been a series of iterative hardware upgrades rather than expansive software updates. However, with more risk accepting leadership and limited technical advancement since the Third Tiberium War, software advancements are a requirement. While experiments are ongoing, none have resulted in an effective upgrade package.
Development has been slowed significantly by the fact that the vast majority of the most skilled and best trained workforce has been shifted over to the artificial intelligence project, leaving the GAI project in the hands of relatively new staff. This has caused the project to run significantly behind budgeting, and leaves it needing significant resources to continue development.
[ ] Early Prototype General Artificial Intelligence Development
While development of true artificial intelligences is politically severely problematic, it is also an area where if a model can be developed that is sane, stable, and willing to help the Initiative, it could be a revolutionary breakthrough in many ways.
(Progress 66/120: 20 resources per die) (-10 PS)
[40]
Making an AI is in some ways remarkably simple. As early as the late 2000s Electronic Video Assistant development began running into what was at the time called rampancy. Essentially the EVA unit under development spontaneously began consuming all system power, and began to attempt to communicate. However, there is a key problem. None of these systems are stable. After a matter of minutes, the rampant EVA began to break down, exhibiting severe problems in all areas, and ceased attempting to communicate within an hour. By the period after the Second Tiberium War, this had been recognized as an artificial intelligence, and much of the more exploratory research was curtailed. While these incidents were relatively rare, between twenty and thirty events (depending on what is counted, some destabilized so fast that they were debatably hardware crashes) over the course of approximately a quarter century, they do provide a starting point for the creation of intentional artificial intelligences. However the problem of stability is critical. Torturing sapient creatures, even if they are based on silicon rather than carbon, is not in GDI's best interest.
In order to hopefully build a more functional Artificial Intelligence, the teams in Edinburgh have begun with analyses of the past events and come to a trio of conclusions. First, AIs are going to be orders of magnitude larger than even the most advanced and complicated EVAs, each likely requiring a server cluster to function without substantially advancing GDI's technology. Second, they likely need to begin feeding it data immediately, rather than waiting for it to complete a boot cycle. Human reaction speeds are simply too slow, and waiting for a human to press the button has the AI running in circles. Third, is providing the researchers with neural interfaces to allow for a more direct interface with the nascent AI, hopefully helping guide it towards stability.
However all of this will require significantly more funding. The production of the mainframes alone will be a significant cost, as will the neural interface systems, but these are the costs of research beyond the cutting edge.
[ ] Reclamator Hubs
While Massive Armored Reclamation Vehicles proved themselves on the field of battle in the Third Tiberium War, they are difficult to construct and maintain in the field in significant numbers. By establishing regional hubs, MARV units can harvest and process more Tiberium, allowing for more units to be supported.
(20 resources per die) (Tiberium dice can be used, each project requires at least two military dice before Tib dice can be used)
-[ ] Reclamator Hub Red Zone 7 South (Progress 105/105) (Mobile Bay)
[35, 67]
The Mobile Bay fortress has been thoroughly modernized and completed. While the MARV bays are the core of the functions of the base, it is a fully featured fortress. With GDI switching over to new tube artillery, and plentiful supplies of missiles, it secures a zone of control in its own right, even without MARVs to begin turning the region yellow, if not green. Additionally, the fortress makes any attack on the glacier mines a significantly more difficult challenge. While the camps themselves can be overrun, the people, and much of the equipment can be withdrawn inside the fortress complex, and preserved until either relief arrives or the Brotherhood is forced to withdraw due to their logistical problems.
With Gideon making ever more aggressive moves in the region, Mobile Bay is still not protected to the degree it could be. However, with sufficient further investment it is likely that GDI can make significant strides in securing the region.
-[ ] Reclamator Hub Yellow Zone 6a (Progress 84/105) (Savannah)
A more direct challenge to Gideon is the rapid construction of a second MARV hub near Savannah. A port fortress, it is built as a fortress first, a mass of walls and artillery that happens to include a number of MARVs as a means of force projection. Safely away from the vital glacier mines, it is intended to be a distraction. While it is plausible for it to receive a MARV fleet in the coming quarters, it is not a particularly critical field. Even if it is attacked and destroyed, it will have served its role in ensuring that the battles are fought in Nod territory rather than GDI's backyard.
While it is very likely that it will soon become a refugee crisis like the one in South America, it is also close enough to the front line that local GDI forces provide constant meaningful support, with airbases to the north already providing a constant combat air patrol over the region.
[ ] Pacifier Mobile Artillery Vehicle Deployment
The Pacifier will be a significant addition to the GDI arsenal. It shares enough components with other hover vehicles like the Shatterer, Slingshot, and ZMEV patterns that it can draw from their factories rather than needing a dedicated production line. Spreading out production will also ensure that no single strike can destroy this piece of the production system.
(Progress 144/120: 10 resources per die) (-2 Energy) (High Priority)
[36]
The Pacifier MAV has begun to hit the battlefield in significant numbers. Primarily it has found itself in the role of a fast assault gun, moving with other hover assets and reducing Brotherhood positions in hailstorms of rapid burst fire. While significantly shorter ranged than most artillery, it has been very useful in fending off the forces of Al-Isfahani in the middle eastern Red Zones as GDI and Nod still contest the region. Similarly, in the American South, as Gideon has continued to make threatening moves towards the now complete MARV hub, multiple forces have been shattered by massed barrages of sonic artillery, especially when it comes to columns of Gana. However, they are not just combat vehicles. More importantly they are relatively accurate engineering vehicles, able to put sonic shells on target from a safe distance. ZOCOM has begun using them in that role more than any other, as they can create tiberium slides by disrupting key points and causing titanic landslides as entire rock faces shear off from a well placed blast.
[ ] Tube Artillery Deployment
Refitting the existing factories producing the 152mm guns that are currently in GDI's stockpile will be a somewhat limited process, but one that offers significant increases in ammunition efficiency for all GDI forces. Additionally, diverting some number of Guardian APC chassis towards the artillery command variant will see improved efficiency of fire direction.
(Progress 276/200: 15 resources per die)
[74]
New versions of the tube artillery systems have begun to enter widespread deployment, with most forward deployed units receiving at least a handful of new guns. However, when looking at ammunition consumption, the numbers are not as good as could be hoped. While the average fire mission has been halved or more, the number of fire missions has drastically increased. The edge in effective range has left the guns firing at longer ranges and effectively in use constantly during operations. On average ammunition consumption has dropped by some ten to fifteen percent, but that is far less than optimistic projections had assumed. While this is likely to continue to drop as more units are equipped, and available fire missions are spread out among more units, it is unlikely to be enough to fundamentally change the shell situation. However, even small reductions are having a noticeable supply impact, with many areas beginning to be able to lay in marginally larger stockpiles of shells that they have not needed to fire, and some units on quieter parts of the front can last for more than a supply convoy between needing more shells, simplifying the overall logistical footprint.
[ ] Shell Plants (Phase 4)
While new artillery pieces would provide for more accuracy, current mainline artillery platforms are unlikely to leave service this decade. To cover them vastly more shell production is required, primarily the standard selection of shells, but also a smaller number of specialist rounds.
(Progress 128/300: 10 resources per die) (-2 Energy) (High Priority)
[28, 5, 38]
With the guns becoming substantially more efficient. GDI still needs the shell plants. These will be providing primarily for tactical, operational, and strategic reserves. Rather than having to be deliberate with shellfire, or run the risk of running out, units can fire with abandon. Primarily this style requires vast amounts of high explosive shellfire, which, while not maximally effective against any particular kind of threat, is generally effective against everything.
However, the plants are not yet online. While the chemical works for the plants have been erected, the shell handling operations have not been. Similarly, fusing stations have not even begun to be erected. Much like previous shell plants these are spread over kilometers, as they provide for safety for not only the factories, but also many of the people. Even a kiloton explosion, which is about as bad as it can get with one of these factories, will not destroy the entire complex, leaving much of the structure intact. This style of construction, while safe, is also far more expensive than other approaches, and the sum works will need significantly more funding before they are completed.
[ ] Naval Defense Laser Refits
The Navy requires laser refits across the fleet, including the newer Governors. While it will not be improving the very lightest units, it will provide significant improvements in the defensive umbrella that most naval units can provide. While it is a noticeably intensive refit, requiring significant effort to run additional power conduits through the ship, and involves losing out on some of the antiaircraft firepower, the protections are definitely worthwhile.
(Progress 381/330: 15 resources per die)
[93]
The Navy finally has enough defense lasers to actually equip all of its heavy units. However, this does not mean that the program has completed. Even now, there are many ships, most notably early model Governors, which still lack the laser units as they are continuing their cruises around the world, escorting GDI's many convoys.
The Carriers however have, for the most part, been refitted, as they are both high priority targets, and do not need nearly as much air defense as they had been originally equipped with. Removing half of the air defense guns has allowed the addition of a substantial swarm of laser systems, rendering the carriers significantly resistant to nearly any missile attack.
However, this is likely not the end of the deployment of point defense systems for the Treasury. While ships are important, cities and strategic points are even more so, and deploying mixes of missiles (although less than truly effective) and point defense lasers, which have a record of significantly reducing incoming fire.
[ ] Havoc Scout Mech Deployment (New)
Rapidly mobile attack units have often been a hole in GDI's forces. However, with the Havoc, that is no longer the case. Two factories, one in Brest, and one in Seoul will provide the penny packets of the Steel Talons with a significant increase in force available, and begin supplying the Zone Operations Command with a sizable number of units of their own.
-[ ] Brest (Progress 77/110: 10 resources per die) (-2 Energy)
[59]
The Brest factory has been the recipient of a sizable proportion of Reykjavik's myomer production. However, it has not been nearly as successful as hoped. Rather it has run into a series of severe problems. To begin with, it has required the construction of a substantial series of ropewalks. The legs have been a chronic problem, as they require extremely large myomer bundles to make it functional. Not just because of the need to move the unit, but also to act as shock absorbers during a landing. Beyond that, there are the joints. Getting them right is critically important, as they provide both stability and grip. Mechs with poor joints have a tendency to tip over, as their center of mass tips outside of the stability box. However, a dynamic center of mass has its own advantage, as it can be used to increase speed, with the mech essentially falling forward as it walks.
Calibrating these extremely complicated parts has left the factory well behind schedule, and in need of a substantial further investment before completion.
-[ ] Seoul (Progress 92/110: 10 resources per die) (-2 Energy)
[74]
The Seoul plant has been somewhat more successful, but is still not completed. The problem here is the jump jets. The engines have been temperamental, and so far calibrations have been consistently outside of acceptable limits. Too little power, and the engines simply don't have enough thrust to catapult the Havoc through the air. At the same time, too much power, and the Havoc becomes little more than skeet as it flies uncontrollably, and may begin to tumble as the forces involved overwhelm internal gyroscopes and stabilization systems. With stripping off this critical feature not an option, it will require either time or an infusion of funding to bring the Seoul factory to full operational status.
[ ] Security Reviews
GDI has often faced problems with infiltration by the Brotherhood of Nod. A full security review of one department of operations can mitigate or discover infiltration, however it will take a significant amount of effort. (DC 50 + 1 operations die) (183)
Going through the military procurement system with a fine tooth comb once more has discovered a number of attempted infiltrations by the Brotherhood of Nod. However, many of these have been abortive, and limited in scope, far from the attempts to steal large swathes of the advanced hardware that the Initiative relied on after the Third Tiberium War. Strategically, many have been going after the Initiative's various weapons development bureaus, seemingly attempting to steal a march on the future of weapons systems for GDI and its Forgotten allies.
A/N: I am allowing one of my editors to make a small formatting tweak. If it bothers anyone, I am happy to revert to the older style.
