FURTHER REACTIONPOST!
...an older apartment or bunker can (and usually does) have negative rents, with residents instead being paid to stay in them.
May I just say that there is assuredly a healthy, thriving ecosystem of "negative rent" jokes?
Because if GDI has to pay
you to live somewhere...
While construction is currently outpacing immigration, that is not expected to last, as the weakened Brotherhood warlords are likely to see massive emigration as their grasp on their populations slacks, and the Initiative lines are closer than ever to major yellow zone population centers. For much of the next year at minimum, GDI is likely to see massive waves of immigration.
Here's a time estimate. At least a year. We need to slam out at least +20 or so Housing just to not hit zero at that rate, and we should be aiming for +40 or so if we can. We probably can't go that far without sacrificing a lot of other priorities.
Fortunately, after further inspections, and a deep dive into fusion plants after the first wave, while some of the early ones do show signs of rapid wear, the rest do not, and are expected to finish out their service lives. The wartime ones are somewhat more marginal however, and it is too early to tell whether the rushed pace of construction has left long term consequences.
Well, we can deal with those consequences then, hopefully by building better ones enabled by superconductors.
The rollout is likely to be slow, as making the lasing crystals is a difficult and labor-intensive process, as they have a tendency to develop noticeable internal imperfections that can drastically disrupt the laser. However, that rollout is likely to solve two problems, as it is likely to reduce overall energy costs, and provides a new method of rapid welding, cutting, and sintering on a large scale.
Uhoh. "Slow rollout" sounds like "is gonna take a lot of dice."
Progress has been slow on making those tools, especially the sinterers. While heat is an inherent requirement, needed to fuse the components of the chip together and create a unified system rather than a glorified pile of sand, a miscalculation of as little as a tenth of a degree in the heating process can ruin the chip. While on the small scale the sinterer can wait and be cooled back to baseline, when trying to scale that up, it is significantly more problematic, meaning that it will have to operate under near constant heated conditions. This requires more advanced hardware. While the crystal beam lasers will make this easier to achieve, it is still going to be an extremely finicky element, in an already finicky process.
Huh. If we're lucky, then the laser development project may have lowered Anadyr's Progress cost. That'd be nice, because even if it doesn't let us roll fewer dice, it lets us be more confident of succeeding ON those same dice.
If we're unlucky, we have to deploy the lasers first... which means we'll be lucky if it happens in time to matter.
When it comes to the cutting edge of technology, it is a constantly moving target. While material science moves somewhat more slowly than most other fields, there have been noticeable changes in precise combinations of elements and the crystallization processes. For Bergen, it is a marginally new breed of rare-earth-based pseudoceramic metalloid-rich hybrid structure that is created using laser sintering or ultra-cleanroom furnaces, but can be worked somewhat like a metal at high enough temperatures. This enables it to be drawn into wires using mostly traditional methods, then spun into windings for electromagnets. However, at operational temperatures (below 15C) it is much more brittle and inflexible.
Ahp! Laser sintering again. Another place the industrial lasers may matter.
Hm. 15 degrees centigrade is particularly annoying. It's just cold enough that you need continuous cooling in many terrestrial environments.
No sign of this actually helping with anything direct yet, in terms of impact on other projects. Maybe a new option or two pops up next turn from the unlocking.
As a key concession to the military environment, the drones will be fixed to semi-automated 'guide rails' for longer ranged flights, especially in urban environments. While this will congest the skies rapidly as drone fleets increase in size, it is a small concession, especially compared to the wide array of other demands proposed to maintain security – such as built-in hardware kill systems, power to weight ratio limitations that would have crippled the program from the get go, and a wide variety of other demands. While the drones are still going to be noticeably fatter, slower, and louder than they have to be, it does get the program off the ground, and with the security services potentially getting their hands on drone fleets of their own, there is quite a potential to remove these limitations in the future.
Nod drones have no right to exist unmolested by glorious Eaglebots.
The construction of new aquaponics bays has been a major part of the systematic construction aimed at supporting the refugees. While the current wave has eaten up the majority of the increase in throughput, the prospect of significant reductions in caloric intake or food diversity have been staved off.
The civilian experience of the refugee wave has mostly been in the form of bare shelves, a result of a bottleneck in stocking and shipments. Increases in demand have not quite been matched with increases in throughput, meaning that shelves get stripped bare faster than stocking crews can put more supplies back on the shelves. For the average store, there are maybe a dozen stockers, and they have been increasingly overworked between unloading cargo transits, and putting supplies on the shelves.
On the other hand, you'd think that "grocery store stocker" would be one of the first areas that refugees from the Yellow Zones could get jobs in. Should be a self-solving problem.
On the other hand, that means increases in sabotage of the food supply chain.
[ ] Freeze Dried Food Plants
Freeze Drying effectively turns most food into permanent, shelf stable systems. While building additional plants to process food in this way will be expensive, it should significantly reduce waste, and increase the lifespan of the stockpiles noticeably.
(Progress 151/200: 20 resources per die) (+5 Food, increases efficiency of stockpile actions, -1 Energy) [Nat 1]
The Parliamentary committee on agriculture, specifically the subcommittee on storage and crisis response, has increasingly seen the Treasury's approach to solving the problem of stored food as fundamentally unserious. With the Treasury's slow investment in freeze drying plants, and the recent collapse of one plant in the north of Paris due to sabotage, it has been all the excuse the subcommittee needed to begin bringing administrators and engineers in to answer questions.
So, the impact of the crit-fail is some extra political shit-storm triggered by sabotage and overall slow progress.
The Caloric Reclamation Processor is, simply put, a chemical and biological stomach, breaking down nearly anything into a foodlike product. While GDI has captured many examples of this technology, it has never had a full understanding of the operational principles – mostly because the end product is so disgusting that previous administrations had more scruples about what they were feeding their people.
Look, I am only proposing to use this stuff to avert literal famine if we can find no other way.
Parliament is, to put it mildly, displeased with the results, seeing it as a means of avoiding the stockpiling goals with 'virtual stockpiles,' and as 'food' not fit to be fed to food animals, even if it was available as a category. While it is unlikely for Parliament to try to ban the technology entirely, at this time it is likely an incredibly bad idea to put it into action.
Well, we
clearly can't use it to actually feed people (we were explicitly told this would burn Political Support).
We were also told to expect an Infrastructure project that would give us +Stored Food for 'free,' but from the sound of it this may also cost Political Support. We'll see.
We are still quite capable of hitting the Stored Food target. Next turn, we should put one more die on the freeze-drying plants, and then either put one die on
Extra Large Food Stockpiles and the rest on aquaponics, or simply put all the rest of the dice on just building granaries. Either strategy is viable, but if we're gonna go for ELFS, we need to increase our Food production a bit more in that same turn to keep up a reasonable margin of error.
While the Brotherhood has not yet chosen to unleash its arsenal of strategic armaments, it has been pushed to the absolute limit. Many of the backchannels and Hackett's intelligence networks have indicated that Brotherhood nuclear preparedness has been increasing, with nuclear arms being dispersed to lower levels, and command authorizations being passed down to allow lower level commanders to unleash large portions of the total Brotherhood nuclear arsenal if they believe their positions are being threatened.
WELP.
That's the limit of Steel Vanguard. We've made Nod desperate enough to start passing out the Davy Crocketts.
No more Yellow Zone harvesting for now; we're actively taking the land
they are accustomed to harvesting and they are
pissed.
Construction of expansive Green Zone harvesting operations has been ongoing, as has the transition to Blue Zone harvesting approaches. A Blue Zone, by definition, does not lack Tiberium contamination. Rather, it has a low Tiberium contamination level and Tiberium contamination is being actively controlled. The basis for this is a series of low and high level depots that maintain and operate fleets of harvesters, paired with a network of tiberium spikes. The spikes are both for harvesting and an early warning system, with reductions in harvest throughput highly correlated with outbreaks of Tiberium. With this system, GDI can usually (and increasingly so in recent years since the supply of capital goods has improved) localize Tiberium outbreaks to within ten square kilometers across any Blue Zone on the planet, and begin moving before the outbreak hits the surface.
How this matters to the Green Zone intensification is simple. Instead of just pushing out high intensity setups ever further forward, in many cases beyond the reaches of what the Initiative can properly secure, this quarter's construction has focused on building up Blue Zone style constructions well ahead of the Blue Zones, saving both time and resources by not needing to fully rebuild the system as it reorients from being primarily a harvesting project to a containment one, making the system as a whole noticeably more efficient.
Very informative. Thanks,
@Ithillid !
On Scrin vehicles the Ion Storm collector, when fitted, was a small cage-like construction – six claw-like ribs, with a metallic ring as a base. Acting like a lightning rod, it was able to provide a significant amount of energy to a Scrin vehicle, increasing its overall capabilities. GDI's scientists have been working for years to produce something similar, and in recent months have had a breakthrough. Rather than try to produce a similar form factor, a much lower efficiency can be gained with a simple collector panel – harnessing a very similar technology to existing solar cells, just calibrated to a much higher energy spectrum to catch the ultraviolet, x-ray and gamma-ray wavelengths that are a significant part of the output of an ion storm. Beyond that, energy can be harvested using electron nets, catching lightning strikes and the exotic products thereof, and splitting them down to a manageable stream of energy.
Gamma rays.
Wow. That's an aspect of ion storms I hadn't quite realized would be A Thing.
"As you can see, the interior of the so-called mining colony is little more than a pressurized cluster of the standard G330X habitation units. You can also see that the crew are forced to hot-bunk, with thirty men and women sharing a single room and a single shower. We are creating unsafe and unsanitary work-camps on the moon, which will, mark my words, turn into a disaster if the government does not fund the appropriate measures! The construction of the Columbia station is urgent, both as a home away from earth, and to prove the technologies needed to make these lunar cities actual places where human beings can live instead of being packed into cans like sardines."
-Bernadette Herzog, Starbound Representative
Ahhh. This explains why Starbound is cranky. Yeah. While we can to some extent make things better just by dumping down more habitat space (to eliminate hot-bunking, for instance), making
actually livable facilities that are designed for large workforces and not small crews of astronauts who are very highly disciplined and trained to get along together... That takes some real work.
Columbia is that work.
You want to know what the worst part of testing these stunners was? We had to knock a granny down. Little old lady with a heart condition and a widow's hunch, 97 years old. She was actually a former representative who wanted to see if it was "really safe" and boy let me tell you I almost had a heart attack watching her fall down. It was the absolute last test, worst case situation, but man, I hated it.
-Personal log of Henrietta Jones
...
Wow.
Beyond the critical problems of high explosive rounds, which are the highest priority for most forces, the other rounds have been equally problematic. The Air Force and Steel Talons, for their rapid fire railguns, have wanted duplex or triplex munitions, which would separate out into a burst of darts midair. Here, the problems have been equally widespread, with about a tenth of the rounds used in the most successful test either failing to separate or fusing together in the barrel. While less of a problem with three to six round bursts, testing has shown that problems increase with the length of burst, with bursts above twenty rounds having a rapidly increasing failure percentage.
Failure to separate is bad but not a serious problem.
Fusing in the barrel is a problem, because then your railgun is jammed.
Delayed for nearly a decade, the Mastodon has seen over a hundred revisions to the platform, and repeatedly increased in weight as new capabilities have been needed. This has reached a point where in order to get the ground pressure under control, it has needed to shift from a four legged design to a hexwalker...
It
grew more legs!?
and then finally a stern-mounted rapid-fire railgun, again positioned to shoot at incoming aircraft as well as infantry.
That dreadful butt-gun.
[ ] Security Reviews
GDI has often faced problems with infiltration by the Brotherhood of Nod. A full security review of one department of operations can mitigate or discover infiltration, however it will take a significant amount of effort. (DC 50 + 1 operations die) (Orbital) (110) [86]
The orbital sector has slacked off significantly from their fanaticism a decade ago. While some of their near paranoiac security procedures have become embedded in tradition, others have not. Problematically, the drumbeat of expansions, new mines, new stations, and new crews have created holes for infiltration, although primarily on the surface, with most crews still being very difficult to infiltrate, being tightly bound and working together in a high degree of isolation from anything but official Initiative channels for long periods of time. While the Brotherhood certainly knows of GDI's efforts beyond the immediate bounds of Earth's orbit, including the details of the discovery of Tiberium on Venus, they do not seem to have been able to convert that into technological or serious informational gain.
Hmm. That's... good? Depends on how much Nod knows about Venusian tiberium. Glad we did the review, anyway.
Investigating the Bureaucracy has been a slow and painstaking affair, with care having to be taken to avoid stepping on too many toes. While most of the civil service is loyal, hardworking, and dedicated, the Bureaucracy has been increasingly studded with agents, or the proxies of agents, not only from the Brotherhood of Nod, but a wide variety of outside powers. In some ways, this should be expected, with the Treasury maintaining a wide selection of powers, and a firm hand on the economic currents, everyone from the larger cooperatives, to the political parties, to the other branches of government are all jockeying for a view on what the next decision out of the Treasury will be. While many of them, especially those working for other parts of the Initiative, are conscientious, effective, and above all else competent workers, they are feeding information along backchannels to other factions, many of whom are looking for the best positioning to make good advantage of the Treasury's decisions.
Ahhh shit.
-[ ] Purge the Bureaucracy
While some degree of infiltration from interested parties is inevitable, by making examples out of those who have filtered out information, firing and blacklisting them at the very least, and prison sentences for some, the Bureaucracy can be put into its place below you. While this will lead to massive overall problems, as the Bureaucrats become too scared to talk to each other, let alone outsiders, and will likely come with political consequences, it is an option.
(-20 to Bureaucracy dice, -1 Bureaucracy die)
-[ ] Eliminate Outside Influence
While a complete purge of the bureaucracy is inadvisable, a few rounds of firing, and a series of mandatory refresher courses on information security may help stem the outflow of information. However this is likely to only be a very temporary solution, as the Treasury will still maintain an extremely large role in the overall economy, and therefore be of great interest to other parties.
(-5 to Bureaucracy dice until Q2 2061)
-[ ] Expand Official Backchannels
With there being no end in sight to the interests of other parties, offering up a series of more secure lines, with vetted and verified representatives acting as official backchannels to outside interest groups. While it is still a security risk, runs the risk of being seen as political favoritism, and may grant those interest groups outsized influence in decision making with time, there are significant advantages to actively addressing the root causes of the problem.
(+5 Political Support)
-[ ] Leave It Alone
With Intelligence not really seeing this as a major problem, and no evidence of comprehensive leakage to the Brotherhood of Nod, allowing people to relax and discuss work with friends and relatives, and other forms of natural information leakage is simply common sense. Fighting it is not generally worthwhile in the long run, and the risks of influence are too high to make it more official.
Purge is excessive. "Eliminate" is inconvenient but acceptable. "Expand" is tempting because I suspect we're gonna need the Political Support. "Leave It Alone" strikes me as a bad idea. On the other hand, we want the upcoming surveys to go well, and a cumulative -5 per die could easily knock us back a success tier.
I really dunno. May sit this vote out.
edit- might put 2 dice onto freeze plants to make sure that finishes next turn
I really hope not. It's gonna take dice away from the other stuff we actually need to put those dice on if we're gonna finish the project and hit the target on time.
edit 2- wait is Tali Jackson dead or just injured?
I'm not sure she's even injured apart from her dignity? It sounds like that antitank missile salvo kneecapped her mech and caused it to fall down, but unless the attackers finished her off with follow-up salvoes before anyone could stop them, she should be fine- she wasn't injured on-camera apart from probably bruises when her mech fell down.
Shame about the Scrin tech just being a better solar panel basically.
We've had the project described- it's actually significant when set up on a big enough scale. And our Red Zone projects
are large scale.
And the caloric processor is a dead tech unless we dump more research into to make it less of morale tank.
We'll see. Remember, we definitely have the means to clear the Stored Food target without it, and were planning to. It may or may not be possible to implement the caloric processor without burning unacceptable Political Support costs.
Definitely some problems.
Food is becoming a huge issue. The nat 1 was bad and the corpse starch is a dead project now as a side effect.
I don't think that's a side effect of the Natural 1. We
always knew corpse starch would be massively unpopular if we tried to feed it to people, and even as emergency rations in case of total disaster, nobody's gonna like the idea. Even if it's not from actual corpses.
Oof. Really like buzzer tech, shame NOD got to it first. Also we can probably expect ground forces satisfaction to start falling relatively soon.
Why? Offensive's over; they can bunker again. I suspect they'll stay at High for the next several turns unless Nod rolls out a major new wunderwaffen in mass production.
So, using CRPs to free Agri dice is probably out of question.
Damn it, I wanted to do Ranching Domes in 2061.
We might still be able to, if we use Free dice, and that's not the worst idea.
I have two proposals for next turn's agricultural production First is:
Agriculture (4 dice) 40R
-[] Blue Zone Aquaponics Bays (Phase 4) 75/140 1 die 10R 75%
-[] Freeze Dried Food Plants 151/200? 1 die 20R 91%
-[] Strategic Food Stockpile Construction (Phase 2) 38/150 1 die 10R 28%
-[] Extra Large Food Stockpiles 1 die auto
If we do
Extra Large Food Stockpiles, we should throw at least two dice at aquaponics. Because that's gonna burn -16 Food (maybe -12 if the freeze-drying plants come through)... and we may take additional hits from refugees. We need to cushion the shock with additional Food production.
The second is much more...ambitious.
Agriculture (11 dice+E) 160R
-[] Agriculture Mechanization Projects (Phase 1+2) 0/400 4 dice 60R 7% (phase 1 100% completes)
-[] Blue Zone Aquaponics Bays (Phase 4) 75/140 1 die 10R 75%
-[] Tarberry Development 0/40 1 die 20R 100%
-[] Poulticeplant Development 0/50 1 die 20R 95%
-[] Freeze Dried Food Plants 151/200? 1 die 20R 91%
-[] Strategic Food Stockpile Construction (Phase 2) 38/150 2 dice+Erewhon 30R 99%
-[] Extra Large Food Stockpiles 1 die auto
Memeplan should be shifting resources from tarberries and poulticeplants to aquaponics, too. For the exact same reasons.
My thoughts are:
Agri 4/4 40R +24
-[] Blue Zone Aquaponics Bays (Phase 4+5) 75/280 2 dice 20R 18%
-[] Freeze Dried Food Plants 151/200 1 die 20R 91%
-[] Extra Large Food Stockpiles 1 die auto
This works on ensuring we have enough food to convert into reserve, gets the freeze dried done and also puts food into the reserve so we can show actual progress on the goal (and saves a bit of R) with this and the fertilizer I hope we have enough food to slam reserve food Q2 and Q3 with our agri dice.
I like this. Something like this, probably with a +1 Free dice and Erewhon on the stockpiles, is likely to show up in my plan draft.
