- Pronouns
- He/his/him
[X]Plan About That Labor Shortage
[X]Plan Gremlinstomping
[X] Plan Goals and Labor
[X] Plan at your Service
[X]Plan Gremlinstomping
[X] Plan Goals and Labor
[X] Plan at your Service
For tech idea, it seem this one is recent. It's small and it it looks fairly stable, Part of the issue with other designs I've see. Is that they're too clunky. We all have big instruments left over from when rock band was popular, A lot of us just don't have space. So, if devs want to selll a lot they have to make something compact that people without much space can use
A/N: No Ko-Fi link this time, and I would like to remind any of my subscribers that this is going to be the last of GDIquest for a time, and to cancel if you are not planning on following Mechanist quest.
A/N2: Sorry this is not up to my usual standards, but this is the best I can make happen at the moment.
Just wondering about 'EVAs', how smart are they ? (at least in generation 4, also I haven't play C&C: tiberium game) Because it seem we already have this AI Vtuber tech here and she really smart and savage. Aside from that here is a fun video of her interaction with narrantor
Politics
The initial political wrangling has pivoted on a previously low priority project: Inferno Gel, the Initiative's version of the Brotherhood of Nod's own flame weapons. Effectively an improved version of napalm, it is a core piece of the Brotherhood's arsenal of terror. While GDI is certainly no stranger to incendiary weapons, with large parts of its arsenal either having incendiary components or being entirely incendiaries, it does tend to use a different suite of materials, mostly because of the desire for munitions stability, preferring thermobaric, phosphorus, and thermite based systems. After the elections had completed, the reinvigorated parliamentary parties had been looking to make their mark on the coming two years.
"Crucible. I've listened to your concerns, and I understand where you're coming from. Fire is a terrible way to die. It should have been an easy win for a fledgling party. Getting rid of a munition that's unpopular with the citizenry, a waste of resources to the military, and in return establish a slightly higher baseline respect for all of humanity. A win-win-win-win. I certainly would have been happier had you succeeded.
"Unfortunately, you're still too new at this. To many of our people, you represent the enemy. And when they saw you requesting for the weapons removal, that only made them perceive it as more effective and desirable. You'll need to be more subtle in the future, better train your party for public speaking, and build allies elsewhere in the Initiative if you want your proposals to go through.
"If it helps at all, the military is still against the deployment of the gel. They only begrudgingly accepted the development after I told them that InOps would be better able to track domestic terrorists' attempts to produce the material if we knew how it was manufactured."
-Snippet of conversation between Hackett and Crucible
[ ] Inferno Gel Development (Tech)
Derived from the Brotherhood of Nod's flamethrower systems, Inferno gel is a weapon of terror more than anything else. However, it does have its uses, and one of those is as a means of killing vehicles rapidly. By drenching a vehicle in pyroclastic gel, many of the soft systems can be destroyed, and the people inside blinded and likely immobilized.
(Progress 0/40: 10 resources per die) (Goes Away Q3 2064)
[ ] Thunderbolt II Missile Development (Platform) (Munitions)
The primary difference planned for the second generation of Thunderbolt missiles is in the fueling system. While most of the other parts of the system work well enough, the aggressive maneuvering required to successfully intercept a Barghest, Kelpie, or other high end Brotherhood aircraft puts too much strain on the missile when combined with Visitor and Brotherhood derived fuels.
(Progress 0/60: 15 resources per die)
[ ] Advanced Tunnel Borer Development (Tech) (New)
While digging holes is something that GDI has gotten remarkably good at, the Brotherhood was at one point a master of the field, connecting large parts of the world through a network of tunnel systems, allowing them to move forces safe from GDI airborne and orbital surveillance. Adapting their technology, if not their ambitions is likely to open new areas where the Initiative can make connections, and speed construction.
(Progress 80/80: 15 resources per die) [40, 8, 20]
Tunnel boring machines are not particularly new, with the first being Marc Isambard Brunel's shield in 1818, a relatively simple iron scaffold that provided protection for the twelve excavators working the tunnel face. While the shield would be relatively quickly outdated, with Michel Henri Joseph Maus inventing a steam powered tunnel boring machine named the Mountain Slicer, built for the king of Sardinia in an attempt to build a 12.8 kilometer tunnel through the Alps, which, at the time, would have been the longest tunnel in the world.
Brotherhood tunneling networks have their own history, with the first generation actually predating the First Tiberium War, with multiple major tunneling companies actually being Brotherhood fronts, developing the technology under the noses of everyone else. However, it was in the prelude to the Second Tiberium War that the Brotherhood, first as disparate groups, and later as a systematic program, began development of a worldwide tunnel network, able to travel nearly anywhere through a so-called "underway" that still has sections in use today. The big innovation has been speed – a combination of an adaptive drill head, that can dial its openings and cutting edges so that it can change the profile of attack to best match whatever is being cut through, a series of waterjets that provide critical cooling at the interface, and a number of other systems to improve the speed of the drills. These include various means of producing shock heating to fracture the rocks being drilled, mostly implementations of crystal beam lasers – but in some cases plasma cutters, and occasionally even more exotic options might be employed.
The Initiative design adds a few of its own tricks: namely a set of sonic projectors, effectively allowing it to use modulated sonic pulses to shatter and shake loose rock and dirt and stone in the way, easing the course of the borer and minimizing the amount of wear on the cutting head – an important innovation especially as it also does a fair bit to break up the Tiberium that is so common underground. However, the primary utility is likely not going to be on Earth, but rather in the digging of Lunar colonies, with the now finished 'Crown Jewel' stations offering a blueprint for life among the cosmos.
[ ] Japan-Korea Tunnel (New)
While building a tunnel underneath the sea of Japan will be a monumental undertaking, it will provide a rail connection between the two areas, joining them together into a single overall rail network, providing for both rapid transit and an easing of logistical linkages. It will likely mostly carry perishable goods that currently require air transport or fast courier ships, along with a regular passenger service.
(Progress 0/350: 20 resources per die) (+3 Logistics)
[ ] Bergen Superconductor Foundry (Phase 4)
Scaling up production once more will allow superconductors to find their way into a wide array of products, ranging from the ordinary to ones that most people will never see in their lives. Particle accelerators, fusion plants, network interchanges, cogeneration facilities, and a wide array of other elements will be significantly improved by more widespread availability of superconductors.
(Progress 523/610: 30 resources per die) (+4 Capital Goods, +8 Energy) (-2 Logistics) (+5 Political Support)
(Progress 0/1140: 30 resources per die) (+8 Capital Goods, +16 Energy) (-3 Logistics) (+10 Political Support)
[ ] Bergen Superconductor Foundry (Phase 5)
A fifth and final stage of expansions will see Bergen reaching its logistical and practical limits. While building inside of mountain ranges is certainly secure, it is far from ideal, with the final expansion to the facilities requiring a substantial investment in blasting new tunnels into other mountains. Additionally, it will require substantial investments in port infrastructure to move the massive quantities of superconductors out of the region.
(Progress 144/1140: 30 resources per die) (+8 Capital Goods, +16 Energy) (-3 Logistics) (+10 Political Support)
[ ] Yellow Zone Fortress Towns (Phase 7)
The last pair of Fortress Town waves will focus heavily on preparing a more rigid defensive line, albeit one that is in many cases tens or hundreds of kilometers deep. Positioned to dominate the surrounding areas, these towns are intended to provide the base for future bands of defensive fortifications.
(Supports Green Zone Intensification)
(Progress 250/250: 20 resources per die) (+4 Housing)
(Progress 20/225: 20 resources per die) (+4 Housing) [8, 44, 34, 37]
To call the most recent wave of fortress towns 'Yellow Zone' is probably pushing the definition quite far, as they are not really in the Yellow Zones, or towns in any real sense. Rather, they are more akin to the castra along the edges of the Roman Empire – fortified encampments for the military, often with a walled civilian town outside the military-restricted camp. How much areas along the edge are Blue, Yellow or Green Zones varies along the line and in time, as Nod and GDI forces skirmish back and forth in small engagements and Tiberium makes its presence felt. Few civilians live in the towns, something that is unlikely to change. Even in the fortress towns closer to the Initiative's heartlands population is sparse, the few decrepit commieblocks that remain preferred over the farther flung settlements due to their closeness to the Initiative's cultural and economic hearts.
Only three groups favour living within the fortress towns, albeit with some overlap between them. The first group is the dependents and families of soldiers, moving with their deployments. The second are Initiative First hardliners seeking a community 'untainted by Yellow Zoners' – only a handful of whom grasp the irony of doing so in a place that was a Yellow Zone not that long ago – and other political puritans. The third are members of the Home Guard who desire to fight, and seek out housing and jobs where they can pursue this goal.
Less permanently, but no less importantly, there are the Forgotten, many of whom have begun using fortress towns and the environs around them as home bases and waystations. While these new fortress towns are rarely in better locations, they are some of the few nonmilitary personnel to routinely pay visits to these locations as an easy source of amenities (like hot running water) that are difficult to obtain or maintain during their long Red Zone treks.
[ ] Strategic Food Stockpile Construction (Phase 5)
While localized caches are useful, more central positioning and expansion of existing larger stockpiles will be critical for allowing GDI to centralize refugee populations and continue to offer key services.
(Progress 149/170: 10 resources per die) (+2 Food in Reserve, -3 Food) [13, 29]
Despite being strategic, the current wave of food stockpiles are being constructed in an immensely tactical sense. While fronts like South America that are not expected to see a significant response from the Brotherhood have seen slow construction, the critical ones in areas like the Arabian Peninsula, Madagascar, and the Himalayas are, for the most part, ready to receive food supplies. All three are expected to receive nuclear strikes as part of Al-Isfahani's retaliation against any invasion of Karachi, and with zero hour fast approaching, everyone who can read a calendar knows that war is on the horizon.
[ ] Reforestation Campaign Preparations (Phase 1)
While actively regreening the world is certainly premature, between the continued expansion of Tiberium underground and the continued war with the Brotherhood of Nod, some efforts can be taken immediately to stabilize vast amounts of now-barren land reclaimed from Tiberium and begin the long march towards rebuilding functional soils.
(Progress 737/805: 5 resources per die)
(Progress 0/790: 5 resources per die)
(Progress 0/790: 5 resources per die)
[ ] Reforestation Campaign Preparations (Phase 2)
While politically open at this point, the reforestation campaigns have been scaled differently, abandoning goals of biodiversity, while instead focusing on securing as much land as possible. While some of the measures are likely to require abatement of their own, land secured now, is far more important than potential losses later.
(Progress 280/790: 5 resources per die)
[ ] Liquid Tiberium Power Cell Deployment (Phase 3) (Updated)
While still a bridge too far for many in the Initiative, and a political albatross, the redesigned versions, built as hybrid refineries and power plants, will both send out a trickle of resources, and produce noticeably more energy.
(Progress 4/125: 20 resources per die) (-10 Political Support) (+10 Energy) (+5 Resources Per Turn)
[ ] Xenotech Tiberium Processing Plants (Stage 1) (New)
While refits are impossible, building a wave of new Tiberium processing plants, built with lessons learned from reverse engineered xenotechnology and Brotherhood elements will substantially increase GDI's ability to produce STUs.
(Progress 0/300: 40 resources per die) (+500 processing capacity) (-6 Energy, -3 Logistics, -1 Labor)
[ ] Improved Hewlett-Gardener Refits (Phase 3)
While there are now IHG plants in production, and a number of smaller and secondary plants in the middle of the conversion process, there is still a significant amount of work to be done before even touching the grandiose assemblages of Jeddah, Chicago, or similar.
(Goes away Q1 2065)
(Progress 2/200: 35 resources per die) (-1 Labor)(Converts 450 processing capacity)
(Progress 0/200: 35 resources per die) (-1 Labor)(Converts 450 processing capacity)
(Progress 0/200: 35 resources per die) (-1 Labor)(Converts 450 processing capacity)
(Progress 0/200: 35 resources per die) (-1 Labor)(Converts 450 processing capacity)
(Progress 0/300: 35 resources per die) (-1 Labor)(Converts remaining processing capacity)
[ ] Orbital Cleanup (Stage 11)
With much of the largest and slowest of the debris collected, all that remains is the increasingly small and fast dust and sand remaining in the orbitals. While still significantly problematic, it is unfortunately much less profitable to mine, as there is not enough material left to save launches.
(Progress 85/85: 10 resources per die) (10-15 resources) (Unlocks Orbital Power Stations)
(Progress 109/85: 10 resources per die) (10-15 resources) (+5 Political Support) (20 progress discount on earth orbit satellites) [21, 75]
Income 2d2: [2, 1] = +25 R
The last stages of cleaning up the orbitals is as much about ensuring sustainable cleanup as it is anything else. While far less dramatic than the vast swarms of debris from the Philadelphia, or the remnants of decades of satellite launches, GDI's attempts to colonize space are fundamentally dirty. Every fusion ship leaves a trail of water molecules that agglomerate and form into ice. Every bolt lost and every chip of paint represents an orbital hazard. While space is mostly empty, as GDI prepares for the long term there has to be a sustainable way to manage the problem. Magnetic and more recently developed gravitic nets are certainly a part of the solution, as are the gravitic drive systems that leave much less in the way of trails of ejecta. But as a whole, space debris is a problem that is going to continue to have to be solved in the long run.
However, at the same time, the near-Earth orbitals are cleaner than they have been since before the Apollo program. Old satellites have been either scrapped or sent to museums. Fragments of the old Philadelphia and Ion Cannons sent to a thousand memorials, or churned into a brighter future. The detritus of the old world converted into the homes of a new one.
[ ] Fifth Generation Electronic Video Assistants
The fourth generation of EVAs was something of a wet squib, pushed to readiness too early and with too little in the way of support, leaving refits both expensive and doing relatively little. However, GDI's computing technology has advanced in leaps and bounds, providing significant hardware and software advances. This, combined with the lessons learned from previous generations, has provided the opportunity for a new, better-supported generation of EVAs.
(Progress 0/200: 40 resources per die)
[ ] Binary Propellant Exploration (Tech)
While GDI has begun substantially switching over to electromagnetic weapons, the field of binary propellants still likely has some niches, although likely fewer than it would have had a decade ago. A low priority for the military at this time, it is still a field that does likely need pursuit at least to some degree.
(Progress 110/60: 10 resources per die) [28, 46]
Binary propellants are, while not useless for GDI's needs, deeply problematic. Mostly because they require substantial amounts of complexity, substantial additional hydraulic work, and when mixed improperly are substantially dangerous. In the Regency War and before, the number of Brotherhood tanks that brewed up when the ammunition storage for their biprop guns was pierced was substantial. While they certainly did have various forms of CASE, their designs were insufficient, and for that matter, on any existing design, GDI's own attempts are likely to be insufficient.
There is however, one primary mission where the biprop system is actually reasonably useful. A generational improvement in Initiative artillery systems, a new vision of an artillery corps that is far more manpower lean than the current approach, using higher velocity guns throwing heavier shells. The key improvement is actually in command and control systems, with a single "battery command vehicle" leading a unit of automated artillery vehicles, plotting trajectories, before passing out fireplans that the automated vehicles execute, before repositioning. This use of drone-vehicles enables safe use of the highly volatile propellants. In the event of a stoppage that requires human intervention, a Zone Trooper exoskeleton with extra armor has been provided, although field expedient procedure is likely to accept a remote detonation of the drone.
When targeted by fire from laser weapons of class II through V, binary propellant adapted Predators were completely unsurvivable, with laser fire causing sympathetic exothermic events, and heating the fighting compartment to over two hundred degrees Celsius, despite repeated efforts to insulate the binary propellant canisters, and separate them from the fighting compartment. On test vehicles IIIC and IIIE, the binary propellant breached into the fighting compartment and would have killed all inside.
- Excerpt from Proving Ground Aberdeen's report on testing for Biprop Predator survivability.
[ ] Advanced Armor Composites (Tech) (New)
While GDI's armor is quite effective under most circumstances, STU technologies offer a potential to build armors that are substantial improvements over existing designs. All armor requires tradeoffs, in weight, cost, volume, and protectiveness, and oftentimes different profiles of protectiveness. Exploring the uses of STUs, and Visitor armor alloys, will see if there are potential advantages to be had in GDI's next generation of combat platforms.
(Progress 84/80: 15 resources per die) [11, 27]
Armoring in the modern day is a careful balancing act, and in some ways a fundamentally challenging one, not only because of the tradeoffs between protection, weight, and volume, but also, increasingly, because of the variability of what is actually needed in terms of threat profile. A century ago, there were basically three potential problems hitting a tank. A shaped charge, a kinetic impactor, or a high explosive shell. While each needed something different, it was a much narrower field than the modern day, which has all three of those, plus laser and plasma weaponry.
Marrying these many demands for durability, strength, and other needs was done by the Visitors, like most advanced armors, by compositing different materials together. The difference here is that rather than use traditional terrestrial materials, the Visitor's armor was made of layers of alternating STU doped substances, and was far thinner as a result. Despite this, the material showed an admirable balance of properties, combining into a single package energy redirection, ductility, radiation shielding, and a host of other useful qualities. GDI, on the other hand, has always been fond of heavy metal, and there is some considerable desire to simply use the increased capability for increased capabilities. Or, in terms understood by the meanest private, use the new alloys to produce the same thickness of plate for better protection.
[ ] Next Generation Armored Vehicles (Platform) (Merged)
GDI's mainline armored vehicles, from the Guardian APC, to the Predator, Mammoth, and the array of other platforms based on the core chassis have become a noose around the Initiative's neck. Across the entire fleet, the platforms have effectively reached the endpoint of what can be practically done to them. A redesign from first principles integrating new technologies and doctrinal requirements is needed to renew the vehicle park.
(Progress 0/160: 30 resources per die)
[ ] SSN Development Program (Platform)
The submarine fleet is one of the longer neglected parts of the Initiative navy, and one of the many places where the Initiative has less lived experience than most 20th century navies. While attempting to restore the capability will require substantial investments, they should also allow GDI to begin contesting the Brotherhood of Nod's own fleets of attack and missile submarines beneath the waves as well as on top of them.
(Progress 0/120: 30 resources per die)
[X] Tiberium Algae Decontamination
The eradication of Tiberium algae in the aftermath of the Second Tiberium War was a major milestone in our war to retake the earth, and was a major lauding point for the future successes that the GDI would be able to accomplish. Unfortunately, this success story is now in ruins, with new growths detected in many of our major lakes and rivers. By focusing on water purification and wet-water harvesting systems, we can hopefully be able to boast once again that the GDI, and by extension humanity, still has a future on Earth. (Progress 537/400: 10 resources per die) (slightly contributes to plan goal)
In a massive shock labor operation, combining dredging, submarine harvesting, and bag netting of drifting algae pods, the waterborne forms of the xenoforming crystals have been beaten back around the world. With much of the labor being done by drone operations, there have been efficiencies discovered that were not during the interbellum. With fewer crews and much more effective collection methods, what had been expected to be a value neutral operation has actually been running a small surplus, something that has been a pleasant surprise given the limits of GDI's military response forces.
[ ] Realign Standard of Living (New)
As part of parliamentary negotiations, the Treasury is being required to reassess the level of Consumer Goods production and availability that will be considered an acceptable baseline, adjusting away from wartime privations and towards a standard closer to the early 21st century in many areas. This is in part due to rising reports of inequality and accusations of favoritism from varying parties, and so the expectation is that the process will provide evidence to refute such claims.
-[ ] Low level adjustment: -150 Consumer Goods, -10 Consumer Goods/Turn
-[ ] Moderate adjustment: -200 Consumer Goods, -12 Consumer Goods/Turn
-[ ] Large adjustment: -250 Consumer Goods, -15 Consumer Goods/Turn
I expect it's part of a pivot in military strategy. Before, we were pushing Nod back and reclaiming territory from them. Except now we've reclaimed so much that some Nod forces are twitching towards WMDs to stop us. Karachi looks to be the last major incursion into Nod territory in general in the near future, though MARV hubs will continue enabling some pressuring of Nod territory. Instead, we might be pivoting to expanding our holds where Nod is generally not - Securing Green Zones, and reclaiming from the Red. That this enables more extensive glacier mining and thus major income boosts that could support funding military projects, etc is an added bonus.the 8th Phase of Yellow Zone Fortress Towns. I'm guessing some other part of the GDI apparatus is doing that and expanding the defensive networks as well now and for my money InOps is now running that project among other things with the resources we transferred them last turn.