Q2 2055 Results
- Location
- The Underdark
GDIOnline Q2 2055
Blue Zone Defense Complex Completed!
Dr. Henry Olvier
GDI has finally completed the new set of walls. While they did not protect the Blue Zones last time around, the system is a bit more complex nowadays. Layers of outposts, redoubts, and then the walls. Plus a lot of artillery. Should be enough to give us an advantage the next time NOD attacks. Of course, since it is Granger at the helm, he is also turning it into a major Tib abatement complex. Lot of important stuff happening since the military finally put its foot down, especially since it has languished for years.
Happy to have been able to work on it, felt like this was something that mattered, protecting our homes not trying to fill the Treasury's coffers.
MajorMiner
I saw the construction last time I was on leave, and… just damn. It's good to know that my family is behind that. Tib may be economic magic, but it's nasty stuff.
AccomplishingProvidence
These recent efforts are a clear byproduct of Doctor Granger's long study of Tiberium, and his understanding of both the potential it holds, and the danger it represents. The layers of walls, fences, and other warding measures is certainly an outgrowth of that mindset. The fact that these layers serve dual purposes for both military defense, and keeping Tiberium away, is only more impressive.
I am curious to see how long the momentum of focused buildup of GDI's military arm continues. It has been impressive thus far, but even the vaunted Dr Granger is not perfect, as the long period of near mono-focus on more basic industrial issues shows. Then again, hindsight is, as they say, 20/20.
SpeakertoManagers
The security measures should have been put in place years ago-I don't know what the government was thinking by letting the Tiberium situation get so bad. We've lost so many Blue Zone areas around the world, half the new walls have gone up in areas that are Yellow now. At least we're not putting up fortifications in Yellow Zones that can be taken away by some brotherhood nutjob.
AccomplishingProvidence, you know something about the military uptick? Any chance it's more than just a flash in the pan from an easily distractible bean-counter?
ShakaButhelezi
It is concerning to me that many efforts have been made to safeguard the rich blue zones with such massive and expansive fortifications, and yet year after year, millions of square kilometers of the Yellow Zone is lost to Red Zone encroachment. In the last year alone, the Red zones have stolen 6.12 million kilometers of our world from us. Where are the fortresses, redoubts and fencing on that border? Why are those in the deep Yellow being left with no recourse? We are part of this Globe too! Defend us!
AccomplishingProvidence
#SpeakertoManagers , I haven't heard anything concrete. I'm not an "inside guy". But it's easy to watch a lot of the things happening out there, to hear the relief in the voices of soldiers on the street. Things seem to be better for them. But as for what Granger, or the majority in Parliament, will seek to do? That is much harder to predict. Granger is no mere bean-counter, but one of his largest blind spots seems to be the finer points of military needs. I'd wager several of the senior military commanders sent much more explicit requests, as well as laying out what they could or couldn't be expected to do. We will have to wait and see what becomes of those requests.
#ShakaButhelezi , let us be fair, there is merit in an approach that starts at your strongest point and works out. The sorts of walls and fences the Blue Zones have received, those work best in areas with little to no Tiberium at their "backs". The Fortress Towns seem to be formidable shelters for many citizens in the Yellow Zones. I would not be surprised if GDI makes efforts to start expanding the sonic fences and other such measures further and further out.
FloatingWood
I just hope the Hawks don't manage to force through the whole 'Yellow Zoners bad' proposal package. It was naked xenophobic bullshit the first time, and it isn't any better now. If anything, they've been screeching about it louder than during the '40s.
I mean, I get it, Nod's power base is there. But from what I'm seeing? Most of the Yellow Zoners just want to not get shot at. By anybody.
Disgruntled Old Man
#FloatingWood From what I'm hearing in B-2 The Hawks are starting to splinter between the pure Blue Zone Xenophobes and the pure militant faction.
LaserKiwi2000
Shaking my head. NZ has had fortress walls since the beginning of time lmao
>needing walls instead of being safely defended by thousands of kilometers of ocean.
>ocean that is highly resistant to tiberium
>only had north island go a bit shitty because GDI didn't react faster because reasons
>now just need to hope Nod don't do some sort of naval attack due to not having full coverage of rapiers
>rapiers probably wouldn't be enough to stop a full attack
>have to rely upon dipshits from Wellington to organize the military response if we were attacked
So, are there any Forgotten online?
Unforgotten
#LaserKiwi2000
Yes, and I am right behind you, in ur living room
EvangelionLover2080
Whatever helps stop Nod and tib I guess, we need all the aspiring artists to get some proper anime developed again, the latest stuff aren't that good.
#LaserKiwi2000
>be brother
>brag about stuff which was purely luck
>shitpost in a way that the Headhunter nod branch up I'm pretty sure is still banging about in Tauranga is gonna try something shifty like the meth-heads they are
So, when does the military go bomb the Headhunters into oblivian?
LaserKiwi2000
#EvangelionLover2080
Headhunters are harmless wankers, also it's more amusing to keep them there and artillery strike them when they move around too much
Feanor
Ahhh forum madness, I missed ye, I guess people online have gotten enough stability in meatspace so don't need to have a safe space to pretend things are okay. Good civ. Also, Galadriel>Eowyn
FloatingWood
#Feanor
I'd accuse Galadriel of having sat on her ass doing nothing but look pretty while Eowyn kicked the Witch King of Angmar in the balls, but I've read the appendices. Keeping the orcs and goblins in the West busy was no doubt a tremendous drain on Sauron's ability to screw around with things. Also locked down the Free People of Middle Earth doing that, sadly, but better that than having armies of orcs and worse roaming around doing all sorts of things I'm not allowed to talk about on these fora.
EVA-Automod
People, really, get back on topic. This is a warning.
ProfCollingsworth
So, I have to say that these fortifications are very impressive, and look better planned than the Maginot line… but I do fear that, like that line of fortresses, they will be less effective against an enemy that adapts to obstacles. That said, forcing an enemy to adapt is in itself somewhat of a victory.
FloatingWood
#ProfCollingsworth
It's a common misconception that the Maginot line was meant to halt the German offensive. It was not. It was meant to stall a German offensive across the French-German border, so that France could marshal its forces and strike back. There's a number of reasons why that didn't work out, France did famously poorly in the summer campaign of 1940, but to actually achieve the victory Germany did the Germans took massive risks and more than once the French and British could've turned the resounding victory that seems inevitable from a brief overview of the campaign into a messy stall or outright disastrous defeat.
I hope that what GDI is doing now in facing off against tiberium is better coordinated and organized than what the Allies did during the first year of the conflict in Europe, but with Granger at the helm, both Grangers, they seem to have things in hand.
ProfCollingsworth
#FloatingWood
I may specialize in 19th Century history, but I am familiar with the flaws in the Maginot line… many of which are not present in these new fortifications. For one thing, they would be a lot harder to outflank. My concerns are mostly that both enemies we face have a history of adaptation and changing tactics or technology, which emphasizes the historical tendency that static defenses need to be a part of defensive planning, and there need to be options available for the unexpected.
FloatingWood
#ProfCollingsworth
I'd say the walls have already been outflanked. There's already tib below the soil layer in the Blue Zones, and it ain't going away. Not to say they won't help keeping worse out, but if we fail to keep a lid on the tib deposits in the Blue, things can go a lot more wrong, very quickly.
ProfCollingsworth
#FloatingWood
Indeed. However, it's also important to consider how much these defenses have helped the GDI slow down Tiberium's encroachment on the Blue Zones - we're no longer losing ground on average, and according to some of the more numbers-aligned grad students, we may well be gaining ground on average. Here's hoping a similar miracle can be achieved for the Yellow/Red Zone borders.
FloatingWood
#ProfCollingsworth
I'll believe it when the Red claims less than half our world again.
Solan
While my hub would wait for the new spare parts for MARVs in South America I gotta say as one of the work crews in both a Yellow Zone hub and those new new perimeter walls for the Chile Blue Zone it gets exhausting to be in the front lines of fighting the Tiberium menace. Even our leave was cancelled when the factories cannot produce enough of the new MARVs so we went to work finishing up South America Blue perimeters. Thank God for the drones we just had to control them instead of building up everything by hand like my grandpa said he did. Even then the troops on the ground are still slim from where I was like we were building multiple bases for hundreds when they arrived only twenty people were assigned there each. I guess that's why more recruitment officers were then when we went to the cities for a short break because the quotas are not meeting enough of the military's commitments now.
Q2 2055 Results
Resources: 490 + 0 in reserve (15 allocated to the Forgotten) (20 allocated to grants)
Political Support: 60
Free Dice: 5
Tiberium Spread
14.65 Blue Zone
27.99 Yellow Zone (77 Points of Mitigation)
57.36 Red Zone (47 Points of Mitigation)
Current Economic Issues:
Housing: Small Surplus (+2)
Energy: Marginal Surpluses (+2)
Logistics: Marginal Surpluses (+2)
Food: Significant Surpluses (+8) (+4 stored)
Health: Substantially improved (+5)
Capital Goods: Meeting Demand (+1)
Consumer Goods: Titanic Shortages (-20)
Labor: Gargantuan Surpluses (73)
Tiberium Processing Capacity (1140/1250)
Yellow Zone
Water: Limited Surpluses (+3)
Status of the Parties
(strong support, weak support, weak opposition, strong opposition)
Free Market Party: 19 Seats (1; 2; 10; 6)
Hawks: 31 Seats (2; 10; 12: 7)
United Yellow List: 10 Seats (2; 7; 1; 0)
Independents: 7 Seats (0; 4; 2; 1)
Developmentalists: 53 Seats (35; 15; 3; 0)
Military Confidence
Ground Forces : Decent
Air Force : Low
Space Force : Decent
Steel Talons: None
Navy: Low
ZOCOM: Decent
Plan Goals
Capital Goods: 17 points remaining
Consumer Goods: 47 points remaining
Food: 23 points remaining
MARV Fleets: 3 remaining
Deployment Programs: 5 remaining
Complete Yellow Zone Industrial Sectors
Abatement: 12 points remaining
GDI Income: 140 remaining
Space Stations: 2 phases remaining
Arcology Programs: 2 remaining.
Politics
With the Philadelphia now in the hands of a caretaker crew, and work continuing on substantial consumer goods production, it is beginning to come down to the wire. The Free Market Party has used the continued shortages and the lack of immediate increases as a rallying call, boosting their numbers in the polls, although not to the dizzying highs where they could hope to achieve first or second party status. However, much of this is likely to be a dead cat bounce, especially with how many products are soon to hit the shelves. Similarly, the Hawk split has continued to deepen, with Al-Jilani prepared for a substantial campaign to oust the current leader. While these leadership struggles will have to wait for after the election, the Treasury's continued funding has deepened Hawk divides, as instead of being able to demand action on a military crisis with one voice, the continued funding of the military, at points even in excess of the plan goals has left the Hawks with little to actually demand and few points of agreement.
Military
With the shell situation now in hand, and the Apollo becoming GDI's mainline air superiority fighter, anywhere in range of a GDI airbase has become severely contested for the Brotherhood of NOD, rendering large sections of their airlift either grounded, or requiring heavy escort. Small counteroffensives, presaged by carefully planned shock bombardments have quickly become a norm, especially in the Ohio River Valley, with NOD bases withering under the combined pressure of air and ground assault. While these are not the daring deep strikes of the Third Tiberium War, or the rolling thunder of prewar sweeps, they have been punishing for those unfortunate enough to get in the way.
Markets
Development of the Markets has continued, with the service sector nearly reaching a substantial breakpoint, where continued investments will begin to see increasing results. Part of the is the formation of the first credit union of the postwar world. While GDI employees have had a credit union of their own for decades, the new North American Credit Union has marked the start of effective fiscalization of the service sector. While this will take some time to have full effect, it is likely to begin a phase of faster growth and more substantial gains to the consumer. However, this is also risky, as regulatory shifts may well provide opportunity for bad actors to take significant roles in the overall market.
[ ] Tidal Power Plants (Phase 1)
With the oceans contaminated by Tiberium, tidal power has rarely been an effective means of power generation, especially with the limitations on actual power generation. However, with GDI's heavy industrial resources tied up attempting to bring fusion and more fission plants online, Tidal power has become a far more feasible design problem.
(progress 157/200: 10 resources per die) (+++ Energy)
A tidal power plant is essentially similar to a dam, however it is one that fills and empties every day. The amount of power one can generate is therefore an effect of the tidal surge, something that can vary drastically with location. While some areas, such as the British Isles, are quite well equipped to handle such an installation, with as much as 16 meters difference between high and low tide, others are much worse equipped. The core design is fairly basic. A low wall near the low tide line encloses an area that fills with water as the tide comes in. When the tide has gone out, the turbine flows are opened, and the water flows out again, producing a surge of power once every 12 hours and 50 minutes, which is then stored in battery banks and trickled out as needed. However, with the current installation arrays, primarily in Europe and the New England Coast, protected by the Rapier fleets, the turbine systems, while delivered, have not yet been installed or tested, requiring a further infusion of funding.
[ ] Blue Zone Arcologies (Phase 1)
An Arcology is an all in one solution, combining comfortable living spaces with high levels of density, and providing all that one could want within a single building. While inherently complex as a structure, and not a requirement for Blue Zone life, they were a highlight of prewar GDI urban planning, and rebuilding damaged and destroyed buildings will begin providing for both more housing, and the basics of consumer goods production.
(Progress 396/450: 15 Resources per Die) (++++ Housing, +++ Consumer Goods, -- Energy)
Work has continued on the Blue Zone Arcologies, leaving them looking complete from the outside. However, internally, there is still substantial work left to do. Ranging from appliance installation to the inspections and certifications required to designate them as properly equipped living spaces, to cleaning up the dust and debris from finalizing construction work, there is still a substantial amount left to be done, and this requires a significant amount of funding.
Politically, the question of who is to live in the new houses has also been an issue. While groups like Ozawa's Hawks have pointed to them as living quarters for the "true patriots" and "righteous citizens" that defended GDI in her hours of need, the Treasury has quietly positioned itself to ensure that the quarters will go to the most needy, moving people out of Yellow Zones and the apartment blocks constructed immediately after the war.
[ ] Chicago Planned City (Phase 1)
Originally rising to prominence as the endpoint of the eastern rail system, connecting the industrial products of the east to the natural resources of the west, Chicago was abandoned shortly after the second Tiberium War as GDI fell back towards the coasts. Today the windy city is a skeletal ruin, marked by decades of war, and infested with Tiberium. However, GDI planners see a new future for the city, one dominated by its proximity to the North American Red Zone and connection to the Great Lakes.
(Progress 41/80: 20 resources per die) (--- Labor) (Can spend mixed Tiberium and Infrastructure dice, at least 1 die must be Tiberium)
Before people can move in, two critical aspects of the city need to be prepared. First is an outer perimeter, and second is port facilities. For the perimeter, the current system is a series of mortar batteries, just behind a simple arcing line of entrenched infantry, using a combination of ruined buildings, sandbags, and compacted blocks to protect themselves. After decades of neglect, much of the city is in ruins, however some of those ruins are still intact enough to be useful, at least for now, and others are in particularly frustrating points, especially as the Brotherhood of NOD has already begun harassing, despite thunder runs of grenadiers either in Hammerheads or APCs to clear out entrenched positions. This line is extremely temporary, a simple protection for the other critical component. The port facilities. While Chicago has a long history as a port, decades of neglect have left them effectively useless. Instead, a series of temporary facilities have had to be erected. The Initiative has gotten very good at this, essentially using a series of Mulberry type ports. While it is certainly possible to conduct over the beach resupply using hovercraft, existing designs are not capable of providing anywhere near the throughput that Chicago is going to need. Instead an artificial breakwater, with flexible pontoon based docks has been erected along the coast. While not a permanent solution, it should be enough for at least the first couple of phases of the city's construction and allow for enough infrastructure to be built for a full scale permanent port facility, or the reconstruction of existing facilities.
[ ] Fiber-Optic Expansion
Fiber-Optic cables combine extremely high speed, and substantial bandwidth. While many lines were damaged or destroyed during the Third Tiberium War, redevelopment has brought a number of major new projects on previously undeveloped lands, leaving large numbers with more limited access to vital services. Expanding access to fiber optic lines, and laying a number of new trunk and branch cables down nearly every street in the initiative, and along every rail line, will substantially increase overall connectivity, and reduce demand on existing human logistical lines.
(Progress 105/240: 20 resources per die) (+ Labor, +++ Consumer Goods, ++ Logistics)
This quarter, the construction of the fiber optic lines has barely occurred, between needing chronic repair work and substantial reworking of existing lines due to mistakes made in initial construction. While there has been no clear disaster, or anyone to blame, much of the initial work has had to be redone, mainly at the splicing points. With the number of other projects demanding trained manpower, the few left assigned to the task have done everything in their power to stay on top of the problem, but have in turn made little progress in their assigned task of expanding the network.
[ ] Blue Zone Power Production Campaigns (Phase 2)
The Initiative has spent the resources of the last power production campaign almost as quickly as it has built them. With the next phase nearly halfway complete, bringing the array to full readiness is a requirement for further military and civilian development.
(Progress 345/550: 10 Resources per die) (- Labor, +++++ Energy)
Development of the next wave of fission plants has been continued as GDI spent another quarter laying turbines, pipes, coolant tanks and the other paraphernalia of nuclear fission power plants. While none of the systems yet have cores installed, the largest and last major step before fueling, the preparations for the stage are nearly completed. With allocated funding, the engineers have done an admirable job in pushing construction as fast as they have, and any more progress will require substantial amounts of additional funding to provide for the installation of the cores, fueling, and inspection.
[ ] Fusion Power Prototype
With Fusion reactions in use in the space program, there are intentions to attempt to use fusion as a baseline for powerplants. While the initial proof of concept designs will not produce a substantial amount of power, they are a herald of a new age, one not reliant on relatively expensive fissionables.
(Progress 124/200: 20 Resources per Die) (+ Energy)
Work on the fusion prototype has continued, with the first attempt at bringing the system online occuring this quarter. While successful, the system produced a mere hour of power, and then destabilized, requiring it to be brought down for repairs. However, while it was working, it did turn out a substantial amount of energy. While a significant milestone, it is still only one step, rather than a breakthrough.
[ ] Yellow Zone Power Grid Extension (Phase 2)
With the Terminus Cities now having reliable sources of power, local generation is the next major step. However, the situation is far from secure enough to allow for sizable nuclear development, and all of the rivers are too contaminated to allow for development of hydro power. This means that the available power solutions are local solar and wind plants. While these plants are at this time surplus to requirements, they will future proof and disaster proof the terminus cities, and most proposed developments. (Progress 346/275: 5 resources per die) (++ Energy)
The Yellow Zone Power Grid has been substantially extended, with fields of solar panels existing below turning swarms of wind turbines. Most of this has gone towards stabilizing the existing grid rather than expanding it to new areas, especially with how concentrated the populations are.
Much of these developments have surrounded the new industrial areas, as they are soon to be one of the largest consumers of power. While still far from enough for the yellow zones to provide energy for themselves at any better position than rolling blackout, they do represent a continuing investment in the power grid, one that if cut off from GDI can provide for at least a period of time before the Yellow Zones are forced to rely once more on the Brotherhood of NOD for necessities.
[ ] Union Class Construction Yard
Most spacecraft rely heavily on various construction methods to lose weight, mainly in the selection of materials, but also by cutting safety margins to the absolute limit. For a fusion drive vehicle however, the opposite is true. With plenty of extra thrust from a dial a yield column of plasma, the prime limiting factor is more volume. These loosened tolerances turn rocketry from a boutique and artisanal program into a problem of proper serial production. With significant investment, the long term savings are likely to be quite substantial
(Progress 137/180: 20 resources per die) (+1 Fusion Lift Die)
Work on the construction for the Union Class yard has begun relatively well. While not yet complete, due to a lack of sufficient allocation to build the parts for more fusion engines, the hulls for the future class are already being produced. However, the core is the most complicated part, containing something akin to the sun and channeling it into being useful is not easy.
Located like its partner in the West African Blue Zone, the yard is primarily serviced by sea, both to bring in components from the North American and European Blue Zones, and to take the finished ships out. Already, a specially constructed wide bottomed barge is on site in order to carry one or two Unions a trip to launch sites typically located on the southern coast of the region.
[ ] Yellow Zone Light Industrial Sectors
With Yellow Zone cities now in full development, and the capital goods crisis almost in hand, GDI can now begin looking towards developing a full suite of light industrial developments in the Terminus Cities. While this will cost substantial amounts of capital goods as GDI builds all new factory complexes, for everything from toys and toothbrushes to perfume, it will substantially increase employment in the Yellow Zones, making the yellow zones more obviously mutually beneficial with the blue zones.
(Progress 173/400: 10 Resources per die) (++++ Consumer Goods, -- Energy, -- Capital Goods, --- Labor)
Work on the Yellow Zone LI Sectors has been slow. With an effective token investment, local engineering teams have done the best that they can to make effective work. Mostly it has been various forms of internal transport systems, conveyor belts, hooklines, and other means of moving components around the factory system. However, the rest of the equipment, including the vast majority of the expensive materials needed to bring the complexes online, has not been ordered or delivered. While slow progress is keeping Yellow Zones satisfied, it has become a source of grumbling as it increasingly looks like a low priority for the Initiative.
[ ] Bulk Plastics Facilities
Polymers and plastics have become an ever increasing part of GDI's overall development programs. Developing more bulk production facilities will provide for a greater overall availability of vital materials.
(Progress 126/200: 10 resources per die) (+ Capital Goods, ++ Consumer Goods)
Progress this quarter has been slow, as improperly installed components have left some of the first test batches more sludge than plastic. Without feedstocks for many forms of plastic, the vast majority of the production has had to go towards cellulose based plastic. While not as good in many ways as other plastic bases, it is widely available, as one of the byproducts of agricultural development. However it is also somewhat tricky to polymerize. Originally it served as a "green" solution to the problems that plastics raised for the environment, but it ended up abandoned as a technological path as Tiberium came to be a universal solution for recycling. However, GDI has returned to it due to the simple availability of material more than anything else.
[ ] Perennial Aquaponics Bays
While most aquaponics relies on relatively fast growing crops, the method can also be used with more long term crops, such as berries, beans, and perennialized versions of other grains, oilseeds, and legumes. These require a fundamentally different structure than the linear bays of single growth crops. Instead of a long single run, with sheets of plants rafting down as they grow, perennial aquaponics bays are typically taller, with spirals of plants being fed by tanks placed on ground level. While the crops only typically produce a harvest once a year, they can be staggered by artificially manipulating the growing environment.
(Progress 106/350: 10 resources per die) (++++ Food over 8 turns, +++ Consumer Goods over 8 turns) (5 Political Support)
Two of the most vital perennial crops are not in fact food, but coffee and tea. While production is slow, some of the first coffee and tea trees have been planted. A tea tree takes up to three years to grow, while coffee can take up to five years. Both were some of the first mass luxuries in human history. While luxury goods have always existed few became consumed by all classes in society. Beginning in the 18th and 19th centuries, the two became a near universal addiction, although many religious groups saw them as sinful. Many of the other crops take similar timeframes, years to begin producing. However, these perennials also continue to produce for decades. The perennial bays are typically a circle, with a series of concentric spirals. These are laden with saplings and sprouts, walls of bright green, a very different color than that of Tiberium.
[ ] Vertical Farming projects (Phase 1)
Vertical farming is not a particularly new idea. Initially proposed shortly before the First Tiberium War, vertical farms took off as part of an ecosystem of controlled environment agriculture projects. While the Initiative has tended to favor aquaponics as the primary solution to its food needs, even that method is still reliant on the environment to some degree. Vertical farms on the other hand, became one of the favored measures for a new generation of private agriculturalists starting fifty years ago, as it provided regular, high quality crops, and ones that can be available year round. Vertical farms are one of the better means to provide for more access to consumer food products, and ensure access to good, fresh food, for many of the very most remote projects, including the Himalayan Blue Zone.
( Progress 315/250: 15 resources per die) (+++ Food, +++ Consumer goods, -- Energy)
With the first wave of vertical farms coming online, GDI's engineering teams rapidly moved on to lay more foundations. While so far they are little more than hollow frames put up in secondary cities, they have attracted some crowds. The initiative has a fairly robust system for petitioning. While these forms are often impractical, or something that the Initiative has already begun and the public has not noticed, in some cases measures are more popular than initially expected. Originally, the Vertical Farm project was expected to be little more than a curiosity in the overall project, something that would provide a limited supply of luxury goods alongside major aquaponics and processed foods developments. Things like beer, cider, steaks and leather were to be the main consumer goods drivers, rather than chicken and vegetables. However, the project has caught the imagination of the people, and so more phases are beginning to be implemented, creating a minor surge in popularity of the Treasury, and the government as a whole, especially as people see policy shifting before their eyes.
[ ]Blue Zone Perimeter Fencing (Phase 3)
A final wave of laying walls, fortifications, and defense systems will turn the Blue Zones into the second largest array of fortifications in human history. With more harvesters, patrols, and quick response forces, GDI can turn it into a final defensive position short of the Blue Zone cities.
(Progress 424/400: 15 resources per die) (6 points of yellow zone mitigation)
The second largest fortification complex in human history, second only to the prewar fortifications around the blue zones, has been completed. While large sections are little more than fencing and a wall, others are substantial fortress complexes and every few kilometers is a gate fort. While properly fortifying the line will be a military project, substantial work has already been done. As a project, completion has been a closing of a chapter, and a return to a near prewar state, however it is not actually complete. Each quarter, at least for now, the lines are pushed forward, and significant construction work continues as new positions open up and old positions are either repurposed, left as backups, or torn down, depending on their location. Even so, it is still well within the prewar perimeter, and in some places the remnants of the old walls are within visual range of the watchtowers. While a tremendous accomplishment in terms of engineering, it has stemmed the bleeding rather than being a substantial victory. However, it also marks the end of the major Blue Zone defense projects. Protected to the best of GDI's current technology, future projects must push deeper into the Yellow and Red Zones, taking the fight to the crystals before they reach GDI's core territories.
[ ] GDSS Philadelphia II (Phase 1)
Destroyed in the opening stages of the Third Tiberium War, Philadelphia Station must be rebuilt to show that we are capable of regaining what we once had, and serve as an administration center for the Initiative. While at this point we would only lay the framework, even marginal progress will serve as a powerful symbol of GDI's continued resilience. (Progress 182/90: 30 resources per die) (5 PS for completion)
Early in the quarter a major milestone was reached, with the core tube being pressurized and a caretaker crew taking symbolic command of the station. Simultaneously, a mushroom cap of a command deck began taking form. While the station is right now little more than a symbol of the Initiative's resilience, the completion of the command deck will begin seeing the benefits of the station, starting with the movement of a core of bureaucrats and the General Staff to the station, the beginning of a core of leadership that cannot be interrupted barring extreme measures on the part of the Brotherhood. Additionally, it will take the role of a lynchpin of the entire communications network, a core datalink that will provide for even better communications.
[ ] Expand Orbital Communications Network (Phase 2)
With the worst of the damage replaced, GDI's new need is for higher speed and more bandwidth. While everywhere is connected, few of those connections are particularly high bandwidth. With this in mind, making more bandwidth available will drastically cut the need for couriers for any but the most highly classified projects, and as more computers become available, more of GDI's citizens can begin working from home, reducing the strain on public transit networks.
(Progress 148/135: 15 resources per die) (+ Logistics) (5 PS for completion)
The satellite communications network has been substantially expanded. Politically it has meant that there is now the secure bandwidth to add a full hundred seats to the parliament, bringing it one step closer to the preferred number of one representative for every hundred thousand citizens. While this would mean a body of five thousand just for the current citizenry of GDI, and fifteen thousand for the entire population, making the current 120 representatives a joke, and not a particularly funny one either. However, two years out from the war, it was the best that could be done. Now, the numbers are substantially closer. With this, a full 1200 representatives, from Blue Zones and GDI controlled Yellow Zones will be seated, barring further expansions in the system in the coming six months.
On more day to day business, it has meant substantial cuts to travel as GDI administrators have found increasingly few reasons to be on site and not sitting in their office, sometimes on the other side of the world, although that level of travel is rare in the extreme.
[ ] Scrin Research Institutions
Most Scrin technology is inert, and much of it has been damaged by the fighting or afterwards. However, there is enough of it that even a low chance of finding useful technologies is worth pursuing. While this will require substantial investments into the research areas, it also has the possibility of producing substantial technological breakthroughs.
(Progress 354/350: 30 resources per die)
The Scrin research institutes have begun producing an outflow of potential projects. Ranging from the probably useless, to the world changingly influential, dozens of potential projects. However, six of them seem potentially more than theoretical.
First and least potentially useful is an analysis of corruptor toxin. A combination of liquid Tiberium, made somehow even more dangerous. The spray from a corruptor is one of the most lethal weapons ever created, and one that is both politically and tactically unacceptable to the Initiative. At best, this project will result in finding new ways to contain the toxin and limit its damage. At worst it will be classified and buried so deep, it won't emerge for a century.
Second is in fact another weapon, a version of the Scrin Plasma Disruptor. Effectively a light autocannon found across their fleet, from gun walkers to stormriders and drones, the plasma guns are fairly slow firing and relatively bulky weapons. However, they are quite damaging. Unlike GDI and NOD weapons, designed to punch through enemy armor, the plasma weapon splashes on the surface, weakening large sections of plate. While building one using earth technologies has so far evaded GDI's engineering teams, it is likely to be ready in the coming years in one form or another.
The third military project is a shield. The Scrin used a number of charged particle bubble shields in their fleets, capable of repelling most strikes, and able to regenerate after some time. So far, testing has been less than encouraging. While too weak to stop even the least energetic kinetic rounds, the charged particle field collects dust, in essence a layer of ablative anti laser armor, that can be restored in the field. However, with further refinement, this could become a universal shield system, useful for everything from spaceships and fighters to tanks and buildings.
The most strategically important developments have come from the Growth Accelerator. One is a Tiberium Inhibitor. Essentially an accelerator running in reverse, it creates a field that slows (but does not stop) tiberium growth. While tactically not particularly useful, and power intensive, strategic deployment of these systems should provide substantial degrees of abatement and protect Blue and Yellow Zones around the world. The other project is, if anything, more important. Tiberium "mutates" in response to threats, a biomimetic reaction that makes common threats less effective. While sonics have been a substantial aid in slowing the spread, and in some places reversing it, they are not enough, especially with worrying signs already of Tiberium beginning to mutate to make abatement less effective. The Tiberium Stabilizer, a component piece of the Growth Enhancer does a significant part of that for the Scrin, a way of slowing the rate that it mutates in response to a threat, allowing them to harvest without worrying about Tiberium overtaking them too.
The final, and most revolutionary project is a reactionless drive. Long considered a thing of science fantasy, it is based on the engines of the Scrin capital ships. While they were able to leverage the system into being an effective antigravity generator, much like the previously encountered Banshee, current models that GDI can build are much more limited, producing barely more thrust than a conventional ion engine. However, with further development, the engineers of the team working on the project believe that they can refine the system towards at least half a gravity of acceleration, and over time more.
[ ] Childcare and Preschool programs
Many parents do not want to spend all day taking care of their children. While often considered too young to learn, offering childcare and preschool programs can offer parents the chance to work, and to have some time to themselves. While no substitute for parenting, offering kids a structured environment can teach them important behavioral lessons and better prepare them for schooling.
(Progress 268/200: 5 Resources per die) (--- Labor)
Preschools originated in the dying days of the 18th century, with the rise of the working day, and industrialization in Germany, with schools being established in Bavaria, Detmold, and Strasbourg among other locations by the early 1800s. In 1816, Robert Owen opened a preschool for the workers at his planned community at New Lanark. It primarily remained a project for the rich and middle class until 1965, with the Head Start program. However, this was only for the poorest 10 percent of families. GDI's program is somewhat more comprehensive, being a universal free program, generally covering anything from either morning or afternoon classes (or a combination of the two) to full time education. While covering little more than the basics of reading and arithmetic, the primary goal is socialization, giving the students time to play, and learn from both the games and from each other. Similarly, childcare procedures have been finalized, with points of contact and networks of assets prepared to assist as much or as little as the parents desire. While the current system is far too substantial for the existing number of children, it is hoped that near future projects will begin to increase the birthrate as GDI's work to provide a safe home for humanity bears fruit.
[ ] Reclamator Fleet RZ-6 South
Wth the hub completed, there are two good options for the fleet.
-[ ] Super MARVs
An improved model, conceptualized after examining the destruction of MARVS before and during the Third Tiberium War, the Super MARV is substantially more expensive, but offers equally improved rewards
(progress 136/210: 20 resources per die) (3 Points Red Zone Mitigation, 25 RpT)
GDI's progress towards more MARV fleets has come to a shuddering halt this quarter, as the stockpiles have run dry. Each MARV requires hundreds of tons of specialized single use components. From the battleplates of its hull, to the track links, to its primary sonic cannon, a MARV is a titanic investment, and one that takes a long time to build. However, GDI has not been pushing the production of MARVs these last few years, mothballing multiple foundries as other, more pressing concerns were addressed first. With the Treasury's last year of MARV construction being far more than the rest of the time since the Third Tiberium War combined, GDI has run out of its stockpiles, and much of the funding intended to go to MARV construction has had to be redirected towards reopening and restocking for future quarters. While this should not be a chronic problem, it has slowed construction substantially.
[ ] Apollo Fighter Factories
While the Apollo was developed before the Third Tiberium War, and was in testing at Valparaiso Spaceport, much of the initial run was destroyed in a Black Hand raid that also seized Dr. Alphonse Giraud, the project lead of Apollo. The remaining units were, for the most part, destroyed over the course of the Third Tiberium War. More factories are needed soon for the Initiative to be able to maintain effective air superiority.
-[ ] Toronto (Progress 84/70: 15 resources per die) (-- Labor, --- Energy)
Development of the last of GDI's major fighter facilities has gone relatively smoothly, completing on schedule and already hitting its production goals. The Apollo has become the terror of the skies, with NOD forces effectively unable to contest it. The Apollo in service to GDI has had a stellar record, with more average kills, and half the casualties compared to similarly experienced pilots in the Firehawk. While it will take about two years before GDI can fully replace the Firehawk in the primary air superiority role, the new production has meant that even in areas with no Apollos, more Firehawk squadrons can be patrolling the air at any given time.
In terms of performance, the Apollo is an absolute rocket sled, however it is actually surprisingly forgiving at low velocities due to its lifting body design. Easy to fly, and easily dominating any existing NOD air superiority craft, even specially redesigned Air Superiority Venoms, the Apollo has become a political mark, as the new face of GDI's air forces. However, it does have its limitations. The most clear of them is its large turning circle, a result of its speed and wide lifting body.
[ ] Shell Plants (Phase 3)
With the immediate crisis in shell production covered, continued development of GDI's shell plants is required. With another wave of new plants, GDI's shell stockpiles can begin to be built up in preparation for the next Tiberium War, and the inevitable future conflicts with the Brotherhood of NOD
(Progress 153/150: 10 Resources per die) (-- power)
Yet more shell plants have been brought online, bringing estimates to fill the demand down from over a decade to years, even including substantial shell expenditures in the course of operations. With the end of just in time deliveries, less intense theaters have begun small scale operations, usually using small volleys of spotted shells as a force multiplier. While not the infinite mountains of shells desired by military commands, it is enough to provide more support regularly than GDI forces have ever had outside of carefully prepared offensives.
Many of the shell plants are only in LRIP now, with production slated to increase substantially in the coming quarter, leaving future plans somewhat up in the air. There are broadly two key problems. First is a lack of real precision fire. The mainstay of the artillery parks is a smoothbore 152mm gun, which at the ranges being asked of it has a fairly wide Circular Error Probable, meaning that large fire missions are the only way to provide significant support instead of simple suppression. Second is a lack of enough shells for properly large scale offensives into Brotherhood territory. With the situation stabilized, GDI military commands are looking into the possibilities of not only limited offensives but generalized broad front offensives in a reverse of the early months of the Third Tiberium War. However, within current limitations that will require massive mountains of shells, with any given army expecting to expend months of production surplus in weeks, even with expected production increases.
[ ] Ablat Plating Development
NOD has always used laser weapons to some extent, but never in as large a number as during the Third Tiberium War. Rather than being a dedicated weapon for the most elite of NOD's armies, or a fixed defensive piece, NOD fielded large numbers of laser systems across its force, with some proliferating down the ranks. In the post war world that has continued, with NOD forces attempting to bring lasers even to the infantry. While dedicated anti laser armor systems have generally been considered not to be worth the weight and defensive trade offs, the increased deployment of lasers has changed the calculus substantially.
(Progress 98/70: 10 resources per die)
Ablative armor is not a particularly new idea. In the mid 20th century, one idea experimented with by many armies was various forms of stand off armor. Rather than allowing a projectile to impact the side of a tank's turret for example, the Germans often installed stand off bands of armor. Similarly, many American tanks came with mounting points to add additional panels of armor. In the postwar years, came the rise of explosive reactive armor, which detonated to disrupt incoming missile attacks. Ablative armor in this case is essentially a continuation of that idea. The system is a hexagonal puck, 60mm from vertice to vertice and 20mm deep, with three primary layers. The backing is a bulk nanotube layer, providing a hardy stick, and ease of replacement. Above that is a layer of silver alloy, the same material used in GDI's power cables, used for its ability to conduct energy. Finally, the bulk of the puck is a 17mm thick layer of carbon nanotubes, iron filaments, and titanium filaments held in ceramic, which is designed to spread the energy of a laser blast, rather than allowing it to burn through the hull behind it.
[ ] Advanced Myomer Works
Myomer is a next generation material. Essentially an artificial muscle, Myomers can be used to substantially increase the strength and responsiveness of artificial limbs, ranging from prosthetics to assembly arms, to combat mechs. Able to, much like organic muscles, contract at an electrical signal, they will be a substantial help in developing new walkers and offer opportunities across many military and economic spheres. (Progress 142/125: 10 Resources per die) (Reduces cost of Walker development and progress required)
Myomers are essentially artificial muscles. A series of microscopic tubes filled with an electroactive fungal substrate, they are then woven together into bundles, and from there used as an effective simulant for animal muscles. Requiring a high voltage (but low amperage) many of the early tests of the Myomers relied on various forms of stungun, built before the Third Tiberium War. While not particularly useful or efficient for things like wheels or treads, they have their place firmly in the realm of arms and hands, where they are extremely efficient, typically providing a 20-30 percent edge in performance versus a comparable servomotor. They are also hard wearing, with prototype versions able to last for years on end, even with significant abuse so long as they are not substantially overheated. On the testbed Wolverine, they were run until the joints wore out, and the myomer bundles could be transferred to another unit and kept going. They are classified starting at type 1, a thin, 1cm in diameter bundle of myomers that the Talons have taken as the standard. Every other version is classified in terms of number of type 1 bundles in it, so, for example a type 2 bundle is two type 1s twisted against each other, and a type 3 is three. Myomers, of a very similar type, were used in the construction of the Avatar and Purifier, leading to notably spindly designs, a result of not needing the bulk of large motors to produce the force to rip laser cannons and flamethrowers from NOD vehicles.
The first myomer works is a fairly small construction, capable of producing only a few hundred kilometers of type 1 a year. While plenty for initial prototyping, much more will be needed, especially as a single company of mechs can require more than yearly production from the facility.
[ ] 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 60 + 1 operations die) (LCI) (183)
With major consumer goods pushes coming down the pipeline and years since the last review, the department was long overdue for a major dive into their finances. With InOps scouring the department from top to bottom, they have found a number of places where minor corruption occurred, things like ensuring that a child got a toy for their birthday or a major holiday. However, major corruption along the lines of diverting substantial parts of the total production has been rare to nonexistent, with nearly all of the goods delivered for inspection, and almost all the goods that passed inspection being delivered to final destinations. With the goods that failed inspections, the most common reason was faulty components, something that has since been generally rectified, a consequence of working with too limited tooling. While some of these do seem to have disappeared in various ways, it seems to be a result of the workers and managers making do, and putting the components that did meet specification into personal use.
Blue Zone Defense Complex Completed!
Dr. Henry Olvier
GDI has finally completed the new set of walls. While they did not protect the Blue Zones last time around, the system is a bit more complex nowadays. Layers of outposts, redoubts, and then the walls. Plus a lot of artillery. Should be enough to give us an advantage the next time NOD attacks. Of course, since it is Granger at the helm, he is also turning it into a major Tib abatement complex. Lot of important stuff happening since the military finally put its foot down, especially since it has languished for years.
Happy to have been able to work on it, felt like this was something that mattered, protecting our homes not trying to fill the Treasury's coffers.
MajorMiner
I saw the construction last time I was on leave, and… just damn. It's good to know that my family is behind that. Tib may be economic magic, but it's nasty stuff.
AccomplishingProvidence
These recent efforts are a clear byproduct of Doctor Granger's long study of Tiberium, and his understanding of both the potential it holds, and the danger it represents. The layers of walls, fences, and other warding measures is certainly an outgrowth of that mindset. The fact that these layers serve dual purposes for both military defense, and keeping Tiberium away, is only more impressive.
I am curious to see how long the momentum of focused buildup of GDI's military arm continues. It has been impressive thus far, but even the vaunted Dr Granger is not perfect, as the long period of near mono-focus on more basic industrial issues shows. Then again, hindsight is, as they say, 20/20.
SpeakertoManagers
The security measures should have been put in place years ago-I don't know what the government was thinking by letting the Tiberium situation get so bad. We've lost so many Blue Zone areas around the world, half the new walls have gone up in areas that are Yellow now. At least we're not putting up fortifications in Yellow Zones that can be taken away by some brotherhood nutjob.
AccomplishingProvidence, you know something about the military uptick? Any chance it's more than just a flash in the pan from an easily distractible bean-counter?
ShakaButhelezi
It is concerning to me that many efforts have been made to safeguard the rich blue zones with such massive and expansive fortifications, and yet year after year, millions of square kilometers of the Yellow Zone is lost to Red Zone encroachment. In the last year alone, the Red zones have stolen 6.12 million kilometers of our world from us. Where are the fortresses, redoubts and fencing on that border? Why are those in the deep Yellow being left with no recourse? We are part of this Globe too! Defend us!
AccomplishingProvidence
#SpeakertoManagers , I haven't heard anything concrete. I'm not an "inside guy". But it's easy to watch a lot of the things happening out there, to hear the relief in the voices of soldiers on the street. Things seem to be better for them. But as for what Granger, or the majority in Parliament, will seek to do? That is much harder to predict. Granger is no mere bean-counter, but one of his largest blind spots seems to be the finer points of military needs. I'd wager several of the senior military commanders sent much more explicit requests, as well as laying out what they could or couldn't be expected to do. We will have to wait and see what becomes of those requests.
#ShakaButhelezi , let us be fair, there is merit in an approach that starts at your strongest point and works out. The sorts of walls and fences the Blue Zones have received, those work best in areas with little to no Tiberium at their "backs". The Fortress Towns seem to be formidable shelters for many citizens in the Yellow Zones. I would not be surprised if GDI makes efforts to start expanding the sonic fences and other such measures further and further out.
FloatingWood
I just hope the Hawks don't manage to force through the whole 'Yellow Zoners bad' proposal package. It was naked xenophobic bullshit the first time, and it isn't any better now. If anything, they've been screeching about it louder than during the '40s.
I mean, I get it, Nod's power base is there. But from what I'm seeing? Most of the Yellow Zoners just want to not get shot at. By anybody.
Disgruntled Old Man
#FloatingWood From what I'm hearing in B-2 The Hawks are starting to splinter between the pure Blue Zone Xenophobes and the pure militant faction.
LaserKiwi2000
Shaking my head. NZ has had fortress walls since the beginning of time lmao
>needing walls instead of being safely defended by thousands of kilometers of ocean.
>ocean that is highly resistant to tiberium
>only had north island go a bit shitty because GDI didn't react faster because reasons
>now just need to hope Nod don't do some sort of naval attack due to not having full coverage of rapiers
>rapiers probably wouldn't be enough to stop a full attack
>have to rely upon dipshits from Wellington to organize the military response if we were attacked
So, are there any Forgotten online?
Unforgotten
#LaserKiwi2000
Yes, and I am right behind you, in ur living room
EvangelionLover2080
Whatever helps stop Nod and tib I guess, we need all the aspiring artists to get some proper anime developed again, the latest stuff aren't that good.
#LaserKiwi2000
>be brother
>brag about stuff which was purely luck
>shitpost in a way that the Headhunter nod branch up I'm pretty sure is still banging about in Tauranga is gonna try something shifty like the meth-heads they are
So, when does the military go bomb the Headhunters into oblivian?
LaserKiwi2000
#EvangelionLover2080
Headhunters are harmless wankers, also it's more amusing to keep them there and artillery strike them when they move around too much
Feanor
Ahhh forum madness, I missed ye, I guess people online have gotten enough stability in meatspace so don't need to have a safe space to pretend things are okay. Good civ. Also, Galadriel>Eowyn
FloatingWood
#Feanor
I'd accuse Galadriel of having sat on her ass doing nothing but look pretty while Eowyn kicked the Witch King of Angmar in the balls, but I've read the appendices. Keeping the orcs and goblins in the West busy was no doubt a tremendous drain on Sauron's ability to screw around with things. Also locked down the Free People of Middle Earth doing that, sadly, but better that than having armies of orcs and worse roaming around doing all sorts of things I'm not allowed to talk about on these fora.
EVA-Automod
People, really, get back on topic. This is a warning.
ProfCollingsworth
So, I have to say that these fortifications are very impressive, and look better planned than the Maginot line… but I do fear that, like that line of fortresses, they will be less effective against an enemy that adapts to obstacles. That said, forcing an enemy to adapt is in itself somewhat of a victory.
FloatingWood
#ProfCollingsworth
It's a common misconception that the Maginot line was meant to halt the German offensive. It was not. It was meant to stall a German offensive across the French-German border, so that France could marshal its forces and strike back. There's a number of reasons why that didn't work out, France did famously poorly in the summer campaign of 1940, but to actually achieve the victory Germany did the Germans took massive risks and more than once the French and British could've turned the resounding victory that seems inevitable from a brief overview of the campaign into a messy stall or outright disastrous defeat.
I hope that what GDI is doing now in facing off against tiberium is better coordinated and organized than what the Allies did during the first year of the conflict in Europe, but with Granger at the helm, both Grangers, they seem to have things in hand.
ProfCollingsworth
#FloatingWood
I may specialize in 19th Century history, but I am familiar with the flaws in the Maginot line… many of which are not present in these new fortifications. For one thing, they would be a lot harder to outflank. My concerns are mostly that both enemies we face have a history of adaptation and changing tactics or technology, which emphasizes the historical tendency that static defenses need to be a part of defensive planning, and there need to be options available for the unexpected.
FloatingWood
#ProfCollingsworth
I'd say the walls have already been outflanked. There's already tib below the soil layer in the Blue Zones, and it ain't going away. Not to say they won't help keeping worse out, but if we fail to keep a lid on the tib deposits in the Blue, things can go a lot more wrong, very quickly.
ProfCollingsworth
#FloatingWood
Indeed. However, it's also important to consider how much these defenses have helped the GDI slow down Tiberium's encroachment on the Blue Zones - we're no longer losing ground on average, and according to some of the more numbers-aligned grad students, we may well be gaining ground on average. Here's hoping a similar miracle can be achieved for the Yellow/Red Zone borders.
FloatingWood
#ProfCollingsworth
I'll believe it when the Red claims less than half our world again.
Solan
While my hub would wait for the new spare parts for MARVs in South America I gotta say as one of the work crews in both a Yellow Zone hub and those new new perimeter walls for the Chile Blue Zone it gets exhausting to be in the front lines of fighting the Tiberium menace. Even our leave was cancelled when the factories cannot produce enough of the new MARVs so we went to work finishing up South America Blue perimeters. Thank God for the drones we just had to control them instead of building up everything by hand like my grandpa said he did. Even then the troops on the ground are still slim from where I was like we were building multiple bases for hundreds when they arrived only twenty people were assigned there each. I guess that's why more recruitment officers were then when we went to the cities for a short break because the quotas are not meeting enough of the military's commitments now.
Q2 2055 Results
Resources: 490 + 0 in reserve (15 allocated to the Forgotten) (20 allocated to grants)
Political Support: 60
Free Dice: 5
Tiberium Spread
14.65 Blue Zone
27.99 Yellow Zone (77 Points of Mitigation)
57.36 Red Zone (47 Points of Mitigation)
Current Economic Issues:
Housing: Small Surplus (+2)
Energy: Marginal Surpluses (+2)
Logistics: Marginal Surpluses (+2)
Food: Significant Surpluses (+8) (+4 stored)
Health: Substantially improved (+5)
Capital Goods: Meeting Demand (+1)
Consumer Goods: Titanic Shortages (-20)
Labor: Gargantuan Surpluses (73)
Tiberium Processing Capacity (1140/1250)
Yellow Zone
Water: Limited Surpluses (+3)
Status of the Parties
(strong support, weak support, weak opposition, strong opposition)
Free Market Party: 19 Seats (1; 2; 10; 6)
Hawks: 31 Seats (2; 10; 12: 7)
United Yellow List: 10 Seats (2; 7; 1; 0)
Independents: 7 Seats (0; 4; 2; 1)
Developmentalists: 53 Seats (35; 15; 3; 0)
Military Confidence
Ground Forces : Decent
Air Force : Low
Space Force : Decent
Steel Talons: None
Navy: Low
ZOCOM: Decent
Plan Goals
Capital Goods: 17 points remaining
Consumer Goods: 47 points remaining
Food: 23 points remaining
MARV Fleets: 3 remaining
Deployment Programs: 5 remaining
Complete Yellow Zone Industrial Sectors
Abatement: 12 points remaining
GDI Income: 140 remaining
Space Stations: 2 phases remaining
Arcology Programs: 2 remaining.
Politics
With the Philadelphia now in the hands of a caretaker crew, and work continuing on substantial consumer goods production, it is beginning to come down to the wire. The Free Market Party has used the continued shortages and the lack of immediate increases as a rallying call, boosting their numbers in the polls, although not to the dizzying highs where they could hope to achieve first or second party status. However, much of this is likely to be a dead cat bounce, especially with how many products are soon to hit the shelves. Similarly, the Hawk split has continued to deepen, with Al-Jilani prepared for a substantial campaign to oust the current leader. While these leadership struggles will have to wait for after the election, the Treasury's continued funding has deepened Hawk divides, as instead of being able to demand action on a military crisis with one voice, the continued funding of the military, at points even in excess of the plan goals has left the Hawks with little to actually demand and few points of agreement.
Military
With the shell situation now in hand, and the Apollo becoming GDI's mainline air superiority fighter, anywhere in range of a GDI airbase has become severely contested for the Brotherhood of NOD, rendering large sections of their airlift either grounded, or requiring heavy escort. Small counteroffensives, presaged by carefully planned shock bombardments have quickly become a norm, especially in the Ohio River Valley, with NOD bases withering under the combined pressure of air and ground assault. While these are not the daring deep strikes of the Third Tiberium War, or the rolling thunder of prewar sweeps, they have been punishing for those unfortunate enough to get in the way.
Markets
Development of the Markets has continued, with the service sector nearly reaching a substantial breakpoint, where continued investments will begin to see increasing results. Part of the is the formation of the first credit union of the postwar world. While GDI employees have had a credit union of their own for decades, the new North American Credit Union has marked the start of effective fiscalization of the service sector. While this will take some time to have full effect, it is likely to begin a phase of faster growth and more substantial gains to the consumer. However, this is also risky, as regulatory shifts may well provide opportunity for bad actors to take significant roles in the overall market.
[ ] Tidal Power Plants (Phase 1)
With the oceans contaminated by Tiberium, tidal power has rarely been an effective means of power generation, especially with the limitations on actual power generation. However, with GDI's heavy industrial resources tied up attempting to bring fusion and more fission plants online, Tidal power has become a far more feasible design problem.
(progress 157/200: 10 resources per die) (+++ Energy)
A tidal power plant is essentially similar to a dam, however it is one that fills and empties every day. The amount of power one can generate is therefore an effect of the tidal surge, something that can vary drastically with location. While some areas, such as the British Isles, are quite well equipped to handle such an installation, with as much as 16 meters difference between high and low tide, others are much worse equipped. The core design is fairly basic. A low wall near the low tide line encloses an area that fills with water as the tide comes in. When the tide has gone out, the turbine flows are opened, and the water flows out again, producing a surge of power once every 12 hours and 50 minutes, which is then stored in battery banks and trickled out as needed. However, with the current installation arrays, primarily in Europe and the New England Coast, protected by the Rapier fleets, the turbine systems, while delivered, have not yet been installed or tested, requiring a further infusion of funding.
[ ] Blue Zone Arcologies (Phase 1)
An Arcology is an all in one solution, combining comfortable living spaces with high levels of density, and providing all that one could want within a single building. While inherently complex as a structure, and not a requirement for Blue Zone life, they were a highlight of prewar GDI urban planning, and rebuilding damaged and destroyed buildings will begin providing for both more housing, and the basics of consumer goods production.
(Progress 396/450: 15 Resources per Die) (++++ Housing, +++ Consumer Goods, -- Energy)
Work has continued on the Blue Zone Arcologies, leaving them looking complete from the outside. However, internally, there is still substantial work left to do. Ranging from appliance installation to the inspections and certifications required to designate them as properly equipped living spaces, to cleaning up the dust and debris from finalizing construction work, there is still a substantial amount left to be done, and this requires a significant amount of funding.
Politically, the question of who is to live in the new houses has also been an issue. While groups like Ozawa's Hawks have pointed to them as living quarters for the "true patriots" and "righteous citizens" that defended GDI in her hours of need, the Treasury has quietly positioned itself to ensure that the quarters will go to the most needy, moving people out of Yellow Zones and the apartment blocks constructed immediately after the war.
[ ] Chicago Planned City (Phase 1)
Originally rising to prominence as the endpoint of the eastern rail system, connecting the industrial products of the east to the natural resources of the west, Chicago was abandoned shortly after the second Tiberium War as GDI fell back towards the coasts. Today the windy city is a skeletal ruin, marked by decades of war, and infested with Tiberium. However, GDI planners see a new future for the city, one dominated by its proximity to the North American Red Zone and connection to the Great Lakes.
(Progress 41/80: 20 resources per die) (--- Labor) (Can spend mixed Tiberium and Infrastructure dice, at least 1 die must be Tiberium)
Before people can move in, two critical aspects of the city need to be prepared. First is an outer perimeter, and second is port facilities. For the perimeter, the current system is a series of mortar batteries, just behind a simple arcing line of entrenched infantry, using a combination of ruined buildings, sandbags, and compacted blocks to protect themselves. After decades of neglect, much of the city is in ruins, however some of those ruins are still intact enough to be useful, at least for now, and others are in particularly frustrating points, especially as the Brotherhood of NOD has already begun harassing, despite thunder runs of grenadiers either in Hammerheads or APCs to clear out entrenched positions. This line is extremely temporary, a simple protection for the other critical component. The port facilities. While Chicago has a long history as a port, decades of neglect have left them effectively useless. Instead, a series of temporary facilities have had to be erected. The Initiative has gotten very good at this, essentially using a series of Mulberry type ports. While it is certainly possible to conduct over the beach resupply using hovercraft, existing designs are not capable of providing anywhere near the throughput that Chicago is going to need. Instead an artificial breakwater, with flexible pontoon based docks has been erected along the coast. While not a permanent solution, it should be enough for at least the first couple of phases of the city's construction and allow for enough infrastructure to be built for a full scale permanent port facility, or the reconstruction of existing facilities.
[ ] Fiber-Optic Expansion
Fiber-Optic cables combine extremely high speed, and substantial bandwidth. While many lines were damaged or destroyed during the Third Tiberium War, redevelopment has brought a number of major new projects on previously undeveloped lands, leaving large numbers with more limited access to vital services. Expanding access to fiber optic lines, and laying a number of new trunk and branch cables down nearly every street in the initiative, and along every rail line, will substantially increase overall connectivity, and reduce demand on existing human logistical lines.
(Progress 105/240: 20 resources per die) (+ Labor, +++ Consumer Goods, ++ Logistics)
This quarter, the construction of the fiber optic lines has barely occurred, between needing chronic repair work and substantial reworking of existing lines due to mistakes made in initial construction. While there has been no clear disaster, or anyone to blame, much of the initial work has had to be redone, mainly at the splicing points. With the number of other projects demanding trained manpower, the few left assigned to the task have done everything in their power to stay on top of the problem, but have in turn made little progress in their assigned task of expanding the network.
[ ] Blue Zone Power Production Campaigns (Phase 2)
The Initiative has spent the resources of the last power production campaign almost as quickly as it has built them. With the next phase nearly halfway complete, bringing the array to full readiness is a requirement for further military and civilian development.
(Progress 345/550: 10 Resources per die) (- Labor, +++++ Energy)
Development of the next wave of fission plants has been continued as GDI spent another quarter laying turbines, pipes, coolant tanks and the other paraphernalia of nuclear fission power plants. While none of the systems yet have cores installed, the largest and last major step before fueling, the preparations for the stage are nearly completed. With allocated funding, the engineers have done an admirable job in pushing construction as fast as they have, and any more progress will require substantial amounts of additional funding to provide for the installation of the cores, fueling, and inspection.
[ ] Fusion Power Prototype
With Fusion reactions in use in the space program, there are intentions to attempt to use fusion as a baseline for powerplants. While the initial proof of concept designs will not produce a substantial amount of power, they are a herald of a new age, one not reliant on relatively expensive fissionables.
(Progress 124/200: 20 Resources per Die) (+ Energy)
Work on the fusion prototype has continued, with the first attempt at bringing the system online occuring this quarter. While successful, the system produced a mere hour of power, and then destabilized, requiring it to be brought down for repairs. However, while it was working, it did turn out a substantial amount of energy. While a significant milestone, it is still only one step, rather than a breakthrough.
[ ] Yellow Zone Power Grid Extension (Phase 2)
With the Terminus Cities now having reliable sources of power, local generation is the next major step. However, the situation is far from secure enough to allow for sizable nuclear development, and all of the rivers are too contaminated to allow for development of hydro power. This means that the available power solutions are local solar and wind plants. While these plants are at this time surplus to requirements, they will future proof and disaster proof the terminus cities, and most proposed developments. (Progress 346/275: 5 resources per die) (++ Energy)
The Yellow Zone Power Grid has been substantially extended, with fields of solar panels existing below turning swarms of wind turbines. Most of this has gone towards stabilizing the existing grid rather than expanding it to new areas, especially with how concentrated the populations are.
Much of these developments have surrounded the new industrial areas, as they are soon to be one of the largest consumers of power. While still far from enough for the yellow zones to provide energy for themselves at any better position than rolling blackout, they do represent a continuing investment in the power grid, one that if cut off from GDI can provide for at least a period of time before the Yellow Zones are forced to rely once more on the Brotherhood of NOD for necessities.
[ ] Union Class Construction Yard
Most spacecraft rely heavily on various construction methods to lose weight, mainly in the selection of materials, but also by cutting safety margins to the absolute limit. For a fusion drive vehicle however, the opposite is true. With plenty of extra thrust from a dial a yield column of plasma, the prime limiting factor is more volume. These loosened tolerances turn rocketry from a boutique and artisanal program into a problem of proper serial production. With significant investment, the long term savings are likely to be quite substantial
(Progress 137/180: 20 resources per die) (+1 Fusion Lift Die)
Work on the construction for the Union Class yard has begun relatively well. While not yet complete, due to a lack of sufficient allocation to build the parts for more fusion engines, the hulls for the future class are already being produced. However, the core is the most complicated part, containing something akin to the sun and channeling it into being useful is not easy.
Located like its partner in the West African Blue Zone, the yard is primarily serviced by sea, both to bring in components from the North American and European Blue Zones, and to take the finished ships out. Already, a specially constructed wide bottomed barge is on site in order to carry one or two Unions a trip to launch sites typically located on the southern coast of the region.
[ ] Yellow Zone Light Industrial Sectors
With Yellow Zone cities now in full development, and the capital goods crisis almost in hand, GDI can now begin looking towards developing a full suite of light industrial developments in the Terminus Cities. While this will cost substantial amounts of capital goods as GDI builds all new factory complexes, for everything from toys and toothbrushes to perfume, it will substantially increase employment in the Yellow Zones, making the yellow zones more obviously mutually beneficial with the blue zones.
(Progress 173/400: 10 Resources per die) (++++ Consumer Goods, -- Energy, -- Capital Goods, --- Labor)
Work on the Yellow Zone LI Sectors has been slow. With an effective token investment, local engineering teams have done the best that they can to make effective work. Mostly it has been various forms of internal transport systems, conveyor belts, hooklines, and other means of moving components around the factory system. However, the rest of the equipment, including the vast majority of the expensive materials needed to bring the complexes online, has not been ordered or delivered. While slow progress is keeping Yellow Zones satisfied, it has become a source of grumbling as it increasingly looks like a low priority for the Initiative.
[ ] Bulk Plastics Facilities
Polymers and plastics have become an ever increasing part of GDI's overall development programs. Developing more bulk production facilities will provide for a greater overall availability of vital materials.
(Progress 126/200: 10 resources per die) (+ Capital Goods, ++ Consumer Goods)
Progress this quarter has been slow, as improperly installed components have left some of the first test batches more sludge than plastic. Without feedstocks for many forms of plastic, the vast majority of the production has had to go towards cellulose based plastic. While not as good in many ways as other plastic bases, it is widely available, as one of the byproducts of agricultural development. However it is also somewhat tricky to polymerize. Originally it served as a "green" solution to the problems that plastics raised for the environment, but it ended up abandoned as a technological path as Tiberium came to be a universal solution for recycling. However, GDI has returned to it due to the simple availability of material more than anything else.
[ ] Perennial Aquaponics Bays
While most aquaponics relies on relatively fast growing crops, the method can also be used with more long term crops, such as berries, beans, and perennialized versions of other grains, oilseeds, and legumes. These require a fundamentally different structure than the linear bays of single growth crops. Instead of a long single run, with sheets of plants rafting down as they grow, perennial aquaponics bays are typically taller, with spirals of plants being fed by tanks placed on ground level. While the crops only typically produce a harvest once a year, they can be staggered by artificially manipulating the growing environment.
(Progress 106/350: 10 resources per die) (++++ Food over 8 turns, +++ Consumer Goods over 8 turns) (5 Political Support)
Two of the most vital perennial crops are not in fact food, but coffee and tea. While production is slow, some of the first coffee and tea trees have been planted. A tea tree takes up to three years to grow, while coffee can take up to five years. Both were some of the first mass luxuries in human history. While luxury goods have always existed few became consumed by all classes in society. Beginning in the 18th and 19th centuries, the two became a near universal addiction, although many religious groups saw them as sinful. Many of the other crops take similar timeframes, years to begin producing. However, these perennials also continue to produce for decades. The perennial bays are typically a circle, with a series of concentric spirals. These are laden with saplings and sprouts, walls of bright green, a very different color than that of Tiberium.
[ ] Vertical Farming projects (Phase 1)
Vertical farming is not a particularly new idea. Initially proposed shortly before the First Tiberium War, vertical farms took off as part of an ecosystem of controlled environment agriculture projects. While the Initiative has tended to favor aquaponics as the primary solution to its food needs, even that method is still reliant on the environment to some degree. Vertical farms on the other hand, became one of the favored measures for a new generation of private agriculturalists starting fifty years ago, as it provided regular, high quality crops, and ones that can be available year round. Vertical farms are one of the better means to provide for more access to consumer food products, and ensure access to good, fresh food, for many of the very most remote projects, including the Himalayan Blue Zone.
( Progress 315/250: 15 resources per die) (+++ Food, +++ Consumer goods, -- Energy)
With the first wave of vertical farms coming online, GDI's engineering teams rapidly moved on to lay more foundations. While so far they are little more than hollow frames put up in secondary cities, they have attracted some crowds. The initiative has a fairly robust system for petitioning. While these forms are often impractical, or something that the Initiative has already begun and the public has not noticed, in some cases measures are more popular than initially expected. Originally, the Vertical Farm project was expected to be little more than a curiosity in the overall project, something that would provide a limited supply of luxury goods alongside major aquaponics and processed foods developments. Things like beer, cider, steaks and leather were to be the main consumer goods drivers, rather than chicken and vegetables. However, the project has caught the imagination of the people, and so more phases are beginning to be implemented, creating a minor surge in popularity of the Treasury, and the government as a whole, especially as people see policy shifting before their eyes.
[ ]Blue Zone Perimeter Fencing (Phase 3)
A final wave of laying walls, fortifications, and defense systems will turn the Blue Zones into the second largest array of fortifications in human history. With more harvesters, patrols, and quick response forces, GDI can turn it into a final defensive position short of the Blue Zone cities.
(Progress 424/400: 15 resources per die) (6 points of yellow zone mitigation)
The second largest fortification complex in human history, second only to the prewar fortifications around the blue zones, has been completed. While large sections are little more than fencing and a wall, others are substantial fortress complexes and every few kilometers is a gate fort. While properly fortifying the line will be a military project, substantial work has already been done. As a project, completion has been a closing of a chapter, and a return to a near prewar state, however it is not actually complete. Each quarter, at least for now, the lines are pushed forward, and significant construction work continues as new positions open up and old positions are either repurposed, left as backups, or torn down, depending on their location. Even so, it is still well within the prewar perimeter, and in some places the remnants of the old walls are within visual range of the watchtowers. While a tremendous accomplishment in terms of engineering, it has stemmed the bleeding rather than being a substantial victory. However, it also marks the end of the major Blue Zone defense projects. Protected to the best of GDI's current technology, future projects must push deeper into the Yellow and Red Zones, taking the fight to the crystals before they reach GDI's core territories.
[ ] GDSS Philadelphia II (Phase 1)
Destroyed in the opening stages of the Third Tiberium War, Philadelphia Station must be rebuilt to show that we are capable of regaining what we once had, and serve as an administration center for the Initiative. While at this point we would only lay the framework, even marginal progress will serve as a powerful symbol of GDI's continued resilience. (Progress 182/90: 30 resources per die) (5 PS for completion)
Early in the quarter a major milestone was reached, with the core tube being pressurized and a caretaker crew taking symbolic command of the station. Simultaneously, a mushroom cap of a command deck began taking form. While the station is right now little more than a symbol of the Initiative's resilience, the completion of the command deck will begin seeing the benefits of the station, starting with the movement of a core of bureaucrats and the General Staff to the station, the beginning of a core of leadership that cannot be interrupted barring extreme measures on the part of the Brotherhood. Additionally, it will take the role of a lynchpin of the entire communications network, a core datalink that will provide for even better communications.
[ ] Expand Orbital Communications Network (Phase 2)
With the worst of the damage replaced, GDI's new need is for higher speed and more bandwidth. While everywhere is connected, few of those connections are particularly high bandwidth. With this in mind, making more bandwidth available will drastically cut the need for couriers for any but the most highly classified projects, and as more computers become available, more of GDI's citizens can begin working from home, reducing the strain on public transit networks.
(Progress 148/135: 15 resources per die) (+ Logistics) (5 PS for completion)
The satellite communications network has been substantially expanded. Politically it has meant that there is now the secure bandwidth to add a full hundred seats to the parliament, bringing it one step closer to the preferred number of one representative for every hundred thousand citizens. While this would mean a body of five thousand just for the current citizenry of GDI, and fifteen thousand for the entire population, making the current 120 representatives a joke, and not a particularly funny one either. However, two years out from the war, it was the best that could be done. Now, the numbers are substantially closer. With this, a full 1200 representatives, from Blue Zones and GDI controlled Yellow Zones will be seated, barring further expansions in the system in the coming six months.
On more day to day business, it has meant substantial cuts to travel as GDI administrators have found increasingly few reasons to be on site and not sitting in their office, sometimes on the other side of the world, although that level of travel is rare in the extreme.
[ ] Scrin Research Institutions
Most Scrin technology is inert, and much of it has been damaged by the fighting or afterwards. However, there is enough of it that even a low chance of finding useful technologies is worth pursuing. While this will require substantial investments into the research areas, it also has the possibility of producing substantial technological breakthroughs.
(Progress 354/350: 30 resources per die)
The Scrin research institutes have begun producing an outflow of potential projects. Ranging from the probably useless, to the world changingly influential, dozens of potential projects. However, six of them seem potentially more than theoretical.
First and least potentially useful is an analysis of corruptor toxin. A combination of liquid Tiberium, made somehow even more dangerous. The spray from a corruptor is one of the most lethal weapons ever created, and one that is both politically and tactically unacceptable to the Initiative. At best, this project will result in finding new ways to contain the toxin and limit its damage. At worst it will be classified and buried so deep, it won't emerge for a century.
Second is in fact another weapon, a version of the Scrin Plasma Disruptor. Effectively a light autocannon found across their fleet, from gun walkers to stormriders and drones, the plasma guns are fairly slow firing and relatively bulky weapons. However, they are quite damaging. Unlike GDI and NOD weapons, designed to punch through enemy armor, the plasma weapon splashes on the surface, weakening large sections of plate. While building one using earth technologies has so far evaded GDI's engineering teams, it is likely to be ready in the coming years in one form or another.
The third military project is a shield. The Scrin used a number of charged particle bubble shields in their fleets, capable of repelling most strikes, and able to regenerate after some time. So far, testing has been less than encouraging. While too weak to stop even the least energetic kinetic rounds, the charged particle field collects dust, in essence a layer of ablative anti laser armor, that can be restored in the field. However, with further refinement, this could become a universal shield system, useful for everything from spaceships and fighters to tanks and buildings.
The most strategically important developments have come from the Growth Accelerator. One is a Tiberium Inhibitor. Essentially an accelerator running in reverse, it creates a field that slows (but does not stop) tiberium growth. While tactically not particularly useful, and power intensive, strategic deployment of these systems should provide substantial degrees of abatement and protect Blue and Yellow Zones around the world. The other project is, if anything, more important. Tiberium "mutates" in response to threats, a biomimetic reaction that makes common threats less effective. While sonics have been a substantial aid in slowing the spread, and in some places reversing it, they are not enough, especially with worrying signs already of Tiberium beginning to mutate to make abatement less effective. The Tiberium Stabilizer, a component piece of the Growth Enhancer does a significant part of that for the Scrin, a way of slowing the rate that it mutates in response to a threat, allowing them to harvest without worrying about Tiberium overtaking them too.
The final, and most revolutionary project is a reactionless drive. Long considered a thing of science fantasy, it is based on the engines of the Scrin capital ships. While they were able to leverage the system into being an effective antigravity generator, much like the previously encountered Banshee, current models that GDI can build are much more limited, producing barely more thrust than a conventional ion engine. However, with further development, the engineers of the team working on the project believe that they can refine the system towards at least half a gravity of acceleration, and over time more.
[ ] Childcare and Preschool programs
Many parents do not want to spend all day taking care of their children. While often considered too young to learn, offering childcare and preschool programs can offer parents the chance to work, and to have some time to themselves. While no substitute for parenting, offering kids a structured environment can teach them important behavioral lessons and better prepare them for schooling.
(Progress 268/200: 5 Resources per die) (--- Labor)
Preschools originated in the dying days of the 18th century, with the rise of the working day, and industrialization in Germany, with schools being established in Bavaria, Detmold, and Strasbourg among other locations by the early 1800s. In 1816, Robert Owen opened a preschool for the workers at his planned community at New Lanark. It primarily remained a project for the rich and middle class until 1965, with the Head Start program. However, this was only for the poorest 10 percent of families. GDI's program is somewhat more comprehensive, being a universal free program, generally covering anything from either morning or afternoon classes (or a combination of the two) to full time education. While covering little more than the basics of reading and arithmetic, the primary goal is socialization, giving the students time to play, and learn from both the games and from each other. Similarly, childcare procedures have been finalized, with points of contact and networks of assets prepared to assist as much or as little as the parents desire. While the current system is far too substantial for the existing number of children, it is hoped that near future projects will begin to increase the birthrate as GDI's work to provide a safe home for humanity bears fruit.
[ ] Reclamator Fleet RZ-6 South
Wth the hub completed, there are two good options for the fleet.
-[ ] Super MARVs
An improved model, conceptualized after examining the destruction of MARVS before and during the Third Tiberium War, the Super MARV is substantially more expensive, but offers equally improved rewards
(progress 136/210: 20 resources per die) (3 Points Red Zone Mitigation, 25 RpT)
GDI's progress towards more MARV fleets has come to a shuddering halt this quarter, as the stockpiles have run dry. Each MARV requires hundreds of tons of specialized single use components. From the battleplates of its hull, to the track links, to its primary sonic cannon, a MARV is a titanic investment, and one that takes a long time to build. However, GDI has not been pushing the production of MARVs these last few years, mothballing multiple foundries as other, more pressing concerns were addressed first. With the Treasury's last year of MARV construction being far more than the rest of the time since the Third Tiberium War combined, GDI has run out of its stockpiles, and much of the funding intended to go to MARV construction has had to be redirected towards reopening and restocking for future quarters. While this should not be a chronic problem, it has slowed construction substantially.
[ ] Apollo Fighter Factories
While the Apollo was developed before the Third Tiberium War, and was in testing at Valparaiso Spaceport, much of the initial run was destroyed in a Black Hand raid that also seized Dr. Alphonse Giraud, the project lead of Apollo. The remaining units were, for the most part, destroyed over the course of the Third Tiberium War. More factories are needed soon for the Initiative to be able to maintain effective air superiority.
-[ ] Toronto (Progress 84/70: 15 resources per die) (-- Labor, --- Energy)
Development of the last of GDI's major fighter facilities has gone relatively smoothly, completing on schedule and already hitting its production goals. The Apollo has become the terror of the skies, with NOD forces effectively unable to contest it. The Apollo in service to GDI has had a stellar record, with more average kills, and half the casualties compared to similarly experienced pilots in the Firehawk. While it will take about two years before GDI can fully replace the Firehawk in the primary air superiority role, the new production has meant that even in areas with no Apollos, more Firehawk squadrons can be patrolling the air at any given time.
In terms of performance, the Apollo is an absolute rocket sled, however it is actually surprisingly forgiving at low velocities due to its lifting body design. Easy to fly, and easily dominating any existing NOD air superiority craft, even specially redesigned Air Superiority Venoms, the Apollo has become a political mark, as the new face of GDI's air forces. However, it does have its limitations. The most clear of them is its large turning circle, a result of its speed and wide lifting body.
[ ] Shell Plants (Phase 3)
With the immediate crisis in shell production covered, continued development of GDI's shell plants is required. With another wave of new plants, GDI's shell stockpiles can begin to be built up in preparation for the next Tiberium War, and the inevitable future conflicts with the Brotherhood of NOD
(Progress 153/150: 10 Resources per die) (-- power)
Yet more shell plants have been brought online, bringing estimates to fill the demand down from over a decade to years, even including substantial shell expenditures in the course of operations. With the end of just in time deliveries, less intense theaters have begun small scale operations, usually using small volleys of spotted shells as a force multiplier. While not the infinite mountains of shells desired by military commands, it is enough to provide more support regularly than GDI forces have ever had outside of carefully prepared offensives.
Many of the shell plants are only in LRIP now, with production slated to increase substantially in the coming quarter, leaving future plans somewhat up in the air. There are broadly two key problems. First is a lack of real precision fire. The mainstay of the artillery parks is a smoothbore 152mm gun, which at the ranges being asked of it has a fairly wide Circular Error Probable, meaning that large fire missions are the only way to provide significant support instead of simple suppression. Second is a lack of enough shells for properly large scale offensives into Brotherhood territory. With the situation stabilized, GDI military commands are looking into the possibilities of not only limited offensives but generalized broad front offensives in a reverse of the early months of the Third Tiberium War. However, within current limitations that will require massive mountains of shells, with any given army expecting to expend months of production surplus in weeks, even with expected production increases.
[ ] Ablat Plating Development
NOD has always used laser weapons to some extent, but never in as large a number as during the Third Tiberium War. Rather than being a dedicated weapon for the most elite of NOD's armies, or a fixed defensive piece, NOD fielded large numbers of laser systems across its force, with some proliferating down the ranks. In the post war world that has continued, with NOD forces attempting to bring lasers even to the infantry. While dedicated anti laser armor systems have generally been considered not to be worth the weight and defensive trade offs, the increased deployment of lasers has changed the calculus substantially.
(Progress 98/70: 10 resources per die)
Ablative armor is not a particularly new idea. In the mid 20th century, one idea experimented with by many armies was various forms of stand off armor. Rather than allowing a projectile to impact the side of a tank's turret for example, the Germans often installed stand off bands of armor. Similarly, many American tanks came with mounting points to add additional panels of armor. In the postwar years, came the rise of explosive reactive armor, which detonated to disrupt incoming missile attacks. Ablative armor in this case is essentially a continuation of that idea. The system is a hexagonal puck, 60mm from vertice to vertice and 20mm deep, with three primary layers. The backing is a bulk nanotube layer, providing a hardy stick, and ease of replacement. Above that is a layer of silver alloy, the same material used in GDI's power cables, used for its ability to conduct energy. Finally, the bulk of the puck is a 17mm thick layer of carbon nanotubes, iron filaments, and titanium filaments held in ceramic, which is designed to spread the energy of a laser blast, rather than allowing it to burn through the hull behind it.
[ ] Advanced Myomer Works
Myomer is a next generation material. Essentially an artificial muscle, Myomers can be used to substantially increase the strength and responsiveness of artificial limbs, ranging from prosthetics to assembly arms, to combat mechs. Able to, much like organic muscles, contract at an electrical signal, they will be a substantial help in developing new walkers and offer opportunities across many military and economic spheres. (Progress 142/125: 10 Resources per die) (Reduces cost of Walker development and progress required)
Myomers are essentially artificial muscles. A series of microscopic tubes filled with an electroactive fungal substrate, they are then woven together into bundles, and from there used as an effective simulant for animal muscles. Requiring a high voltage (but low amperage) many of the early tests of the Myomers relied on various forms of stungun, built before the Third Tiberium War. While not particularly useful or efficient for things like wheels or treads, they have their place firmly in the realm of arms and hands, where they are extremely efficient, typically providing a 20-30 percent edge in performance versus a comparable servomotor. They are also hard wearing, with prototype versions able to last for years on end, even with significant abuse so long as they are not substantially overheated. On the testbed Wolverine, they were run until the joints wore out, and the myomer bundles could be transferred to another unit and kept going. They are classified starting at type 1, a thin, 1cm in diameter bundle of myomers that the Talons have taken as the standard. Every other version is classified in terms of number of type 1 bundles in it, so, for example a type 2 bundle is two type 1s twisted against each other, and a type 3 is three. Myomers, of a very similar type, were used in the construction of the Avatar and Purifier, leading to notably spindly designs, a result of not needing the bulk of large motors to produce the force to rip laser cannons and flamethrowers from NOD vehicles.
The first myomer works is a fairly small construction, capable of producing only a few hundred kilometers of type 1 a year. While plenty for initial prototyping, much more will be needed, especially as a single company of mechs can require more than yearly production from the facility.
[ ] 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 60 + 1 operations die) (LCI) (183)
With major consumer goods pushes coming down the pipeline and years since the last review, the department was long overdue for a major dive into their finances. With InOps scouring the department from top to bottom, they have found a number of places where minor corruption occurred, things like ensuring that a child got a toy for their birthday or a major holiday. However, major corruption along the lines of diverting substantial parts of the total production has been rare to nonexistent, with nearly all of the goods delivered for inspection, and almost all the goods that passed inspection being delivered to final destinations. With the goods that failed inspections, the most common reason was faulty components, something that has since been generally rectified, a consequence of working with too limited tooling. While some of these do seem to have disappeared in various ways, it seems to be a result of the workers and managers making do, and putting the components that did meet specification into personal use.
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