No, while all the heavy ASAT items are ion cannons, we have a plethora of less-than-maximal options, including missiles and kinetic kill vehicles and yes, even a few orbital lasers, though they're probably much larger and much less powerful watt per watt than other items.
Attempting to Fulfill the Plan: GDI Edition
I'm gonna need a source on that because the omake is canon and the ASAT description blurb is hinting at "new weapons and novel methods" only in later stages, not currently existing right now.
- Location
- in the trash
I mean it's not going to be "the ASAT system is now completely useless", it's going to be "degraded effectiveness" and "we can't guarantee a 95% sure-kill probability anymore without drastically revising the current network" as I see it.
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- Location
- The Underdark
With an Ion Cannon, you can pretty much expect first shot kills against anything vaguely missile shaped in the upper atmosphere barring alien supertech. You don't even have to hit the missile in order to kill it, just get close enough. And there are kinetics and laser systems up there, but neither is anywhere near as good at killing targets compared to the ion cannon network, so that has been the baseline of the system.
It's from the NOD and GDI intelligence briefings from the game, which state, and I quote "This orbital necklace of death is based on a network of space-based kinnetic kill weapons, lasers, and even the Ion Cannons themselves, used to intercept and destroy incoming missiles."
- Location
- Mobile, Alabama
Might become cost effective when we actually start mining in space. The cost with using them is mostly in getting them to orbit. Moving around material in orbit is a lot cheaper.
Still it's not a replacement it's an augmentation. Missiles didn't kill artillery. Nor did aircraft. The Ion cannon didn't replace either as well. I can see a Kinetic impact system being deployed one day as just another tool in the arsenal.
- Location
- in the trash
I mean it's a constant arms race between both sides. And I don't think GDI is going to get to keep their monopoly on the orbitals forever. Nod will want their own spacecraft to contest the orbitals, and I'm sure they can find ways to do it.
- Location
- Buskerud, Norway
Probably by scavenging scrin tech if we go by their new avenue of aircraft development
Durabys
Miaow! Break the Chains!
- Location
- the land of the Boii
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Nod getting any kind of successful unobstructed orbital access means all Blue Zones and Green Zones cease to exist at that moment as Nod rains down on GDI the thousands of tactical nuclear warheads they have in orbit drop-able capsules.
Now, Nod getting tech to fuck off to nowhere (not just Threshold Portal, but stealthed spaceships) and us not being able to stop them from leaving? Yep. That is probably going to happen.
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That the Ion Disruptors need a low power mode to be mobile does imply a rather simple way to deal with them.
Dedicate another Ion Cannon or two to the target.
Is it a pain in the ass? Yes.
Is it going to work? Probably.
Sure, you won't get 1 shot 1 kill, but bluntly put, overwhelming fire works on account of being overwhelming. An Ion Disruptor being able to take a single 4 kiloton strike does not help when it needs to contend with 3 times 4 kiloton strikes within seconds of eachother. It will take the first strike, it might take the second strike (and blow components) but the third is going to hit like there's no disruptor field inhibiting it because there is no disruptor field inhibiting it.
Dedicate another Ion Cannon or two to the target.
Is it a pain in the ass? Yes.
Is it going to work? Probably.
Sure, you won't get 1 shot 1 kill, but bluntly put, overwhelming fire works on account of being overwhelming. An Ion Disruptor being able to take a single 4 kiloton strike does not help when it needs to contend with 3 times 4 kiloton strikes within seconds of eachother. It will take the first strike, it might take the second strike (and blow components) but the third is going to hit like there's no disruptor field inhibiting it because there is no disruptor field inhibiting it.
[X] Military Appropriations Planning Board
- Location
- in the trash
No, it doesn't? It means the orbitals are now contested, so neither GDI or Nod can go death-from-above as freely. Nod isn't going to have free reign to drop nukes on the Blue Zones, and even if they did wholesale genocide has never actually been their goal.
Yeah, that's a logical weakness of such a system; with enough brute force you can overwhelm the capacitors used to charge between cycles, but I didn't want to spell it out outright.
Durabys
Miaow! Break the Chains!
- Location
- the land of the Boii
- Pronouns
- He/Him
...wait a second...
Wait! You are a Co-GM?!?
@Ithillid
Question. Does, in this particular quest timeline, GDI also use Lasers and Kinetic Pellet satellites alongside the Ion Cannons themselves as part of the ASAT network? Because in canon it was part of the ASAT grid.
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- Location
- The Underdark
No, just following the same lines of thought that I did.
Yes. Not all that many however, because the Ion Cannon worked that well as the primary defensive line. Removing the Ion Cannons would compromise the system, but not entirely defeat it.
Durabys
Miaow! Break the Chains!
- Location
- the land of the Boii
- Pronouns
- He/Him
So if we heavily invest in Nod derived lasers and installed that and actual rail guns onto a new generation of missile interception satellites would it patch over the holes in our defense somewhat if Nod decides to put ion disruptors on ICBM and Surface-to-Orbit missiles?
Sounds to me like someone's been taking bribes from the scientists likely to be on the Orbital Lasers Development team.
More pertinent is the question of, if we do that Development, will there be a separate deployment project, or will they be rolled into further stages of ASAT?
Durabys
Miaow! Break the Chains!
- Location
- the land of the Boii
- Pronouns
- He/Him
@Simon_Jester
We will have to roll out space defense like nothing else with a warning like that. And Tiberium abatement and research. And Military deployment. And Space Colonization efforts...
...we are so fucked.
We will have to roll out space defense like nothing else with a warning like that. And Tiberium abatement and research. And Military deployment. And Space Colonization efforts...
...we are so fucked.
KnightDisciple
Love God. Do Right. Fear No Man.
- Location
- Midwest, USA
Panicking that NOD getting literally anything into space means Instant Death/Loss is a bit too much catastrophizing. It also assumes that Kane wants NOD to just brutally destroy the entire mass of all of GDI's holdings, which...doesn't seem likely.
We have a couple years, we have a development project to provide better and more non-Ion Cannon orbital defense weapons, and we're likely to be starting on ASAT 3 shortly. We're swamped, but definitely not fucked.
Edit: ...and Guilder to frame for it.
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Durabys
Miaow! Break the Chains!
- Location
- the land of the Boii
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Tiberium Mutation Stabilizers have the form of a satellite network. Which is something Kane will want to take out to accelerate his timetable.
- Location
- The Underdark
Also this. You are not at a point where there are really any instead death cards in the deck on either side. There is no innovation that you can build that can utterly defeat the Brotherhood, and nothing in their arsenal that can instantly destroy you. You have done a fair bit to make their life harder, they have some things that are starting to make your life harder. But that does not mean that either side is about to escalate to nukes fall everyone dies.
That would actually be an interesting quest, where you have to play brinksmanship in a Cold War setup, but that is not this quest.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
This. Remember, Kane's canon endgame is to convince GDI to build something for him. Even if he had the means to simultaneously vaporize every GDI thing from orbit with nuclear carpet-bombing, it'd just leave him fucked over on the ruins of a burned-out planet that would rapidly be eaten by tiberium.
What he needs is either to convince us to build the TCN, or to conquer us and seize the means to build the TCN. Either way, he has to let us retain the capacity to build the TCN. In principle he, like us, has a "space colonization" endgame where he fucks off into space with the Tacitus and figures out his ascension goals from a Mars base or something, but it's more remote for him than it is for us.
Debatable. Remember, Kane's plan isn't actually "cause world to be eaten by tiberium." At most he wants tiberium to exert pressure on GDI to do things his way... but he can't have tiberium be in a position to eat GDI before the job gets done, either.
The stabilizers concern him, but not because they exist. It's because they imply that GDI may be figuring out more about tiberium, enough that they need him less. It's the fact that GDI can build them that might concern him, not the 'need' to destroy them.
But yeah, we need space-based laser systems (to defend our own orbitals) and space-based impactor systems (to provide orbital bombardment support). This is reasonable, we just need to commit actual resources to the task, which isn't fun but we can do it.