I don't think that we are going to have more education options going forward, outside of agreeing to so as a favor. The services department is about to get a massive influx in cash, and will be able to build schools themselves.
The things that we can do to alleviate the skills shortage:
-wait
-give even more income to the rest of the GDI, so they can do more human development projects
-develop and deploy new technologies (interfaces, VI, drones) that increase worker efficiency
-deploy more cap goods
-More AI
-push to reduce 'political reliability' requirements for skilled jobs (either by asking @Ithillid for a write-in, or waiting for a relevant event to occur. But given that we have Litinov as a director, she's probably pushed as hard as she can for this anyways.)
-giving more resources to organizations that don't care as much about where a person was born (grants/banking reforms)
[ ] Banking Reforms (New)
By proposing adjustments to the regulations around banks, and encouraging the establishment and expansion of credit unions using the Initiative's resources, it should solve some of the financialization issues. While it will not fix the problems of lacking in supplies of capital goods and talented labor, and exacerbate them in some ways, it is one step towards a more functional economy.
(Must maintain 100 resources in reserve.)
The banking reforms will increase money in the economy, which (as I understand it) will bring to the fore the lack of CapGoods and labor. That said, I don't think it's a bad idea, because those are things we can also fix, and having the resources will allow people to start planning for when they get the other things they need.
As for schools, I can see it either way - we might get an expansion project under Services, like we did for hospitals, or it might be done in the background.
Vein mining is, of course, going to eat into that heavily. Which is one reason I'm lobbying for extra Free dice spent on Ground Force Zone Armornow. Because if we can get a couple of the factories running in the timeframe of 2061Q3 to 2062Q1, it is reasonably likely that by 2062Q2-Q3 or so, ZOCOM will be prepared to sign off on more operations in the Red Zones.* Which would in turn keep us from having to devour all the Capital Goods output we can spare just to do the necessary vein mining.
____________________
*(both because the first Ground Force formations are working up to use the power armor, and because they know that, importantly, more such formations will be forthcoming)
I don't think that we are going to have more education options going forward, outside of agreeing to so as a favor. The services department is about to get a massive influx in cash, and will be able to build schools themselves.
Again, I think we're pretty much on track to do this by default, because we're likely to see our discretionary budget cut down to near the minimum we need for a prompt resumption of efforts to dig up more income and make more Capital Goods for the economy as a whole to benefit from.
The banking reforms will increase money in the economy, which (as I understand it) will bring to the fore the lack of CapGoods and labor. That said, I don't think it's a bad idea, because those are things we can also fix, and having the resources will allow people to start planning for when they get the other things they need.
As for schools, I can see it either way - we might get an expansion project under Services, like we did for hospitals, or it might be done in the background.
Schools are a lot cheaper to build than hospitals and don't require highly specialized complex machinery of types in very limited supply. I am confident GDI's department of education will be able to afford a lot of school construction on its 2062 budget.
However, at the same time, we have a lot of expertise in building stuff, and will have substantial Service dice in 2062 with probably not a lot of of obvious and reasonably cheap things to do with them. I almost hope Litvinov asks us to build more schools, because I'd like to use our dice to do nice things for people instead of just having to do nothing with them because we haven't got the money to do any of the projects on the docket on the required scale.
Identifying problems has been the easy part.Building effective solutions to those problems is the much, much harder part. Most of the possible solutions to one problem will exacerbate the others. It will take time, resources, and efforts to make the civilian economy reasonably functional overall. However, at the same time, there are a number of factors that are pointing directly to rapid economic growth, including the rapid expansion of refugee populations that are more likely to find opportunity in the civilian marketspace than the Initiative's service, due to a combination of institutional inertia, chronic systematic discrimination, and, in many cases, a lack of the qualifications that would be critical for advancements.
While the Banking Reforms certainly need doing. Their current impact could be as low as being an overall negative, because we also need to address the other issues raised by the Economic Census. Putting money into a dysfunctional system is a good way to have the money simply disappear.
Yes, but since the labor situation cannot be "solved" quickly anyway, we shouldn't postpone implementing other solutions on the assumption that none of them matter without fixing that particular part of the problem.
Again, we cannot wait until we are ready to solve all the problems with the civilian sector simultaneously before moving to solve any of them.
While the Banking Reforms certainly need doing. Their current impact could be as low as being an overall negative, because we also need to address the other issues raised by the Economic Census. Putting money into a dysfunctional system is a good way to have the money simply disappear.
That is not my interpretation of the system. Our ongoing grant programs have stimulated the civilian economy to the point where they roughly pay for themselves in taxes already. The civilian economy is suboptimal, not broken. It is missing a variety of inputs, but there are types of plausible private-sector enterprises that can function without massive Capital Goods influxes, or with relatively unskilled labor.
I think we will do better to address at least ONE of the problems we have by setting aside the money to solve it here and now, rather than spending the money and realizing later when we are "ready" that it will be painful to amass it again. We should be able to trust our subordinates not to invest that limited pool of funds into useless enterprises that cannot hope to succeed due to shortages in other areas.
Vein mines are an excellent way to diversify our mining away from the red zonew, we were lucky in the regency war that we did not experience major disruptions on that front but who knows if we will be this lucky next time.
Vein mines are an excellent way to diversify our mining away from the red zonew, we were lucky in the regency war that we did not experience major disruptions on that front but who knows if we will be this lucky next time.
[ ] Distributed Heavy Industrial Authority (New)
While the Initiative's recent massive heavy industrial production plants offer significant efficiency in terms of resources invested, they also take a long time to construct and are a significant strategic vulnerability. While a more dispersed manufacturing base will be more expensive to set up, it will also be significantly harder to knock out significant sections of key industries.
(+2 Capital Goods per turn, -30 Resources per turn, -1 Heavy Industry Dice)
[ ] Tiberium Vein Mines (Stage 2)
With the concept proven, vein mines are a fairly expensive, but functional way of attacking underground Tiberium, and providing for a long term abatement strategy, while also not stressing military deployments. While they do have their problems, these are of limited import compared to their advantages.
(Progress 5/195: 20 resources per die) (Additional Income Trickle [20-30]) (+1 Yellow Zone Abatement) (-1 Capital Goods)
It seems one solves the other. 30 resources but it provides for 2 vein mines a turn. And we had tendrils 2 that finished to improve that as well as rolling out claws in Q3/Q4. Claws also take 2 cap goods so doing claws with the cap goods per turn works out nicely.
It seems one solves the other. 30 resources but it provides for 2 vein mines a turn. And we had tendrils 2 that finished to improve that as well as rolling out claws in Q3/Q4. Claws also take 2 cap goods so doing claws with the cap goods per turn works out nicely.
So I'm trying to make a version of my plan draft, Attempting To House The Angry Homeless Space Pirates, that includes both the DHIA (for the +2 Capital Goods/turn trickle) and the banking reforms.
This involved shuffling things around. Because I still consider Ground Force Zone Armor to be Very Important, and thus need to keep Military dice clear in Q4, I'm keeping the AA die on Mastodons, while dropping the one on granary construction. This means there's about a 56% chance of us needing to spend at least one Agriculture die on granaries in Q4; it is very unlikely that we'll need to spend more than two.
Lack of funds mean I had to settle for three dice on the hospitals and one on hallucinogen development instead of four on hospitals; there were probably other ways to distribute that but I was struggling to find good ones.
Again, this plan uses all our Resources because it does the banks. The banks are expensive. Without the banks, we'd have a 100 R surplus under this plan.
...
I could do a deliberately 'austerity' version, but we'd need to accept some of the following:
1) Fund railroads instead of shuttles, if people want to save 30 R, but this is actively less Logistics-efficient though might have some knock-on benefits for Australian Red Zone offensives.
2) Putting off Bergen. This is bad; we need the things it gives us and we have effectively two quarters to get the phase done. Doing more work on it now means needing to spend less on it in Q4, so unless we give up finishing Phase 3 until probably some time in 2063 and sacrifice any benefits for fusion research until that time, we're gonna be paying for it anyway before the end of 2061.
3) Give up on building tiberium inhibitors and find something cheaper per-die to do, such as Intensification of Green Zone Harvesting, which could save 15 R per inhibitor. Trouble is, it's gonna be hard to find time to do inhibitors for a long time after 2061Q4. And the RZ-7 inhibitor in particular is in a place where you really want to do it one die at a time, because there's a pretty good chance of one die feeling enough and I'd feel pretty silly overinvesting a second one in it.
4) Sacrifice hospital funding. Save up to 10 R by flipping dice to Ocular Implants, or considerably more if there's any cheaper Services projects out there.
I can't think of much else, and I don't like any of those options, to be blunt.
MONEY BUDGET
1200/1200 R
CAPITAL GOODS BUDGET
+16 (baseline) +6 (crystal beam) -1 (Hospitals) -1 (Mastodons) -2 (Newark) -1 (New York) = +17
MILDLY PESSIMISTIC ENERGY BUDGET
+18 (baseline) +10 (crystal beam) -2 (ranching) -4 (om nom tib) -1 (hospitals) -2 (URLS) -5 (Newark) -3 (Mastodons) -3 (New York) = +8 Energy.
(Obviously, this assumes everything completes; many projects might or might not. 13% chance of +4 more if Bergen completes, 6% chance of -10 less if Crystal Beam doesn't complete, very slim chance of going into negatives if our luck is absolutely ass)
Going back a bit, the real time limiter or Seo madness projects is Litinov. she's made them much, much more affordable, and there is no guarantee that she'll be around after the next election.
Also, if you are looking to save some resources:
Apartments or Arcologies. The refugees aren't stopping. Quality housing is more time sensitive than logistics, especially if we are planning on doing two vein mines per turn. If you still want shuttles, maybe slow roll them out alongside arcologies?
Disclaimer: This is a public forum, and so properly anonymizing your contributions is effectively impossible. If you would like to submit anonymous replies, you can go to Here
The Treasury has taken a much more active role in pushing Initiative policy for the last decade. As such, the powers that be have deemed it prudent to look towards gathering public responses. This is a thread for general commentary, complaint, and other material that you want to be passed on to the Treasury more generally.
FloatingWood
When are you going to start funding everything properly? I understand there was a war not long ago, and we took a massive beating 15 years ago, but we're still short on a ton of things. Animal products, spices, varied produce, these are either non-existent or in short supply. Personal transportation options are either non-existent, bike, or hope you have a clunker that survived the Third Tiberium War. Cloth is pretty much all plastic, various wools are completely unavailable, leather for shoes just doesn't exist, cotton, flax and other plants for weaving aren't grown. The economy is still only barely hobbling along because of limited tooling availability. The only thing we have in large supply is electronics, and as much as we use electronics, that's not the only thing we need.
Yellowzon3r
Speaking from my spot in the military for just a second. Us 'Poor bloody infantry' are just kind of there. For taking and holding territory and patrolling we can effectively only manage blue zone security and the lightest of green zone duties. Once in yellow zones we're tied to vehicles and reliant upon the tib suits against tiberium, but which aren't the best for protection from bullets and such. And particularly operating in hot locations. Middle east. Iberia. It's not comfortable and cuts into operational effectiveness when we're overheating. Beyond that we have almost no counter to Gana units. We have some anti-tank gear in our squads (which is also getting a bit long in the tooth) but the standard ballistic rifles just aren't cutting it and the current generation of lasers comes with its own set of problems. Railguns would be great, but they effectively require power armour to lift and carry. So. Yeah. Next generation infantry gear updated for modern threats.
Solan
Being forced into administration because of my seniority and the war building up so many facilities that being given what I thought to be a cushy job in Japan to handle military logistics in the Asia-Pacific was a breeze until Bintang. There was a lot of destruction during the event and with how much of the regular funding has augmented restoration works after the attack really goes to show how scarce the resources a lot of branches of GDI has when it's not earmarked in the special projects categories. Sure, the resources for maintenance are there but to everyone else in the government there are certain projects we would like to commit that aren't waiting for a four year interval.
Now, I've heard that there are new offices being built that will temporarily be paid with the special funds until the reallocation of resources and it is great. Now, there are still a lot of goods and services that need to be restored before the alien invasions because a lot of them are still bare with non-aquatic meat too rare to be eaten outside the halls of power or in an officer's desk. Though from what I hear there are some insane proposals to build a stockpile of corpse starch before any actual food can be stored which I would hope is not the case since a lot of people will think it's a technocratic solution that runs against the prosperity platform Litinov promised.
Since people were promised food when we're in the bomb shelters not something that can't even be considered fertilizer. It's also the fear that we can't feed people since news of more food production hasn't been in the news until the Regency Wars which shows a languid pace in establishing a better system of providing food both in bulk and diversity. This is why the Milk and Honey protests are happening a lack of food that can be considered a time of normalcy instead of the reminder that many foodstuffs are still rationed because of the lack of supplies and the facilities supplying due to war damages that were not fixed in the reconstruction since it requires more resources than local governments can provide in a timely manner as well as the expertise on the matter.
Finally, I know that the military has a lot of needs to ensure we win the war but even my colleagues in the military moan about the misplaced priorities some of the spending comes from which intends to build something perfect instead of something good enough for us to fight back Nod. We have some areas in different bases in the frontlines authorized to provide next generation equipment to test them. So the military needs more bulk instead of precision because of how much our doctrine is more reliant on more armor compared to the pre-Tiberium War era.
AccomplishingProvidence
I think many of the larger-scale concerns have been well-voiced by #FloatingWood, #Yellowzon3r, and #Solan. One can't help but particularly share dear Solan's concern about these "Caloric Reclamation Processor" devices. The replicators of Star Trek of yore, they are not. The technology has potential, but it needs more iterations. One has to think that developing other food-centric technologies would help there.
There are two specific suggestions I think have merit.
The first, is a concentrated effort to improve newly-produced beds and bedding. Mattresses, pillows, sheeds, comforters, all of these are things we all use for some number of hours per day (I cannot and shall not judge you if yours is less than 8, hypocrite it would make me), and their feel and comfort is crucial for quality of sleep. More comfortable shirts and underwear are all well and good, but not many people enjoy sleeping on rocks. Some of the current highly-artificial "memory foam" is…not very enjoyable.
The second is books. I know that, in many respects, e-books are more efficient and economical. But in the era where we saw major restrictions on the distribution of any electronics, one has to wonder if perhaps physical books have lasting merit. And if you're a lover of books and reading, nothing quite matches cracking open a new book and smelling the pages for the first time. Or the hundredth. This will take paper and other resources, but would be incredible, to see shelves of books in the store once more.
Crucible
Survival is very important of course, but people need to have something to live for. Personally, I would like more comfortable footwear to be available. No-one is wandering around barefoot nowadays, but the currently available products leave much to be desired, especially at my age. I've had to personally customize my current pair to prevent pinching around my remaining toes, and for better arch support.
I understand there are probably higher priorities for spending, but I really do think the effect on morale of ill fitting shoes can't be discounted.
On a more personal note, a better supply of musical instruments would be a delight. I haven't been able to get a decent set of Cymbals for my drum kit since Zildjian folded.
GDIWife
Okay, now where to start.
Safety. Probably the most important thing in this list. How many terrorist attacks does it take for the government to realise that GDI is far too overstretched by all the new arrivals. Seriously, are they just letting people in with a cursory once over? Schools, hospitals, shopping centers, metro stations, even government buildings have been hit now. Has there been any thought paid to security even once? I know the politicians and the higher up bureaucrats all spend most of their time sitting nice and safe in space but they need to pay some attention to securing the blue zones for those of us that can't live in orbit. Actually, even they're getting killed whenever they come down, so it's blatantly obvious that not even the best security detail can keep you safe in a blue zone these days
Food. Why is it that we still can't feed people an actual decent diet. I'm not asking that we go back to Pre-TW1 consumption but most younger people I know haven't had meat that wasn't chicken… pretty much ever. No cheese either, yogurts are those artificial shitty ones with the weird aftertaste, milk is made from almonds or some other faux substance. Even what we can actually get, chicken and eggs is so rare that some places it's once a month if that. Instead we're stuck with the same bland food, whatever grows in the aquaculture vats (if you don't get unlucky and find that the shelves are empty of anything that isn't protein bars that is). No proper tea or coffee either, it's kudzu so weak that you may as well not bother. Meanwhile the treasury puts money towards new 'reclamation processors' that apparently tastes so bad you might actually prefer starvation.
Vehicles. Sure, we have decent transit links in the cities, even if some of them are getting stretched. That doesn't replace personal vehicles though. Moving apartments is difficult enough when you can actually get hold of a van or other vehicle, but resorting to manhandling your belongings onto the subway is a nightmare. Not to mention that if you want to go anywhere even slightly off the beaten track your choice is walking or walking. Brilliant.
Housing. Why is it that I go past the old commie blocks and they're all still full? There's been more than enough time to do something about that, refugees or no. You can barely walk around those apartments they're so cramped and most of them buy special 'commie block furniture' with smaller pieces just so they can squeeze in an actual wardrobe in their bedrooms. Nobody should be stuck there this long.
A couple of friends of mine are trying to start up a small business and are finding it next to impossible to get any kind of machinery or tooling. I understand that military needs come first but when the best they have managed to get hold of is a lathe so old it still uses imperial measurements it is getting ridiculous! Even then, if a tool breaks it's often a wait of over a month for a replacement. How is anyone supposed to run a business where those kind of delays happen? They can't even get any financial support for it. I thought GDI wanted to get rid of the old times when entrenched larger businesses made it impossible for new companies to compete?
FloatingWood (User received an infraction for this post; Rule 26: Off topic)
Regarding that lathe; I'm guessing it is of 2030's vintage and from the US.
AgathaH
So, a lot of my current lack of luxuries is my own fault. Mass allowances have very good reasons for being inflexible. But, a few things that would be nice: books. Even before, real books were getting pretty scarce. Although having audiobooks available is wonderful. Hint, though: make sure the reader knows how words are pronounced!
More fabrics and other materials for clothes would be wonderful! Also, from what I hear, there is a dire shortage of plushies, teddy bears, and other soft stuffed things. Although I admit my standards there may be atypical.
More food variety would be nice, although… It makes me wonder what we don't know about trends that the CRP is actually being considered for rollout. Which leads me to the last thing, which is… well, we're working as fast as we can on Enterprise with the resources we have, but if more can be spared, getting people off Earth and away from Tiberium can only be a good thing.
CatQueen
So I don't normally post on these things but I figgered it was better to have my voice heard this time. So I work on a cargo ship that normally goes between BZ-3, BZ-2 and BZ-5 we normally carry industrial goods like machine parts batteries construction gear and the like it's nice I'm on the open ocean I have my cat and good food but we've been raided 3 times in this quarter alone why is the navy not providing adequate protection to convoys?. So yea give more escorts to the convoys GDI.
BlisteredHands
#AgathaH there is no shame in enjoying a bit of softness; the world is certainly bitter enough as it is. And it's a reasonable request I think, though I suppose I may be biased as well - my wife and I want a little one and it would be good to have things to suit a child.
I have to echo the desire for more soft furnishings - enough blankets and wall hangings can make even the dreariest apartment comfortable. Other than that… I would quite like more eggs. Spices are all well and good (though I do wish nutmeg was easier to come by) but there's only so much variety one can get out of vegetables, tofu, and rice.
InTheZONE
Some more Zone armor would be nice
KryptosAdept
I am fortunate enough to be mostly isolated from most issues. However, I would echo certain issues that have been brought up in the thread already. Most importantly for me, I'd prefer more variety in my diet. Trying to keep things fresh with the most common ingredients out there is tough (not to mention CRP lol) to say the least.
Basically if you are listening, we would greatly appreciate it if we could get more variety in basically everything(especially the real stuff(e.g. actual meat)).
Speaker2Managers
I want my house back for a start! You tore down my beautiful vintage Mid-90s suburban neighborhood and replaced it with row-houses and duplexes because it was 'more dense'. Collecting 'rent' from the new neighbors does not make up for the fact that my property was eminent domained and I was never made good. And no, an Arcology is not the same as having a lawn.
I also want a new car on less than a 10 year layaway! This is stupid, I'm still driving a sixteen year old electric despite the fact that the battery life has been halved and I can barely make it to work and back. I've been on a replacement waiting list for two years and it's stupid how long it's taking to get a ride. If you don't start working on cars soon I might have to…park at the metro and ride that to work, and the fees for a parking lot at the station are not cheap.
Finally, I want my daughters to start thinking about the future seriously, they're both nearly grown women. Natalie has been taken in by the promises of those big space stations but where's the one people like her can live on? And where are the 'new technologies in ecological damage abatement' that might convince Grace to move out of the house and start working and getting a boyfriend? Right now, employment prospects for a young BZ woman who doesn't want to go into the military are pretty modest. The job market is flooded with newcomers and some people are giving up on finding work.
HigherThanYou
It's nice to get some better rations while on base - sure, things aren't MRE-bad, but they're worse than I remember them being. Bland, bland, and bland. Also, if we could get some more of those fancy green-boomy missiles, that would be fantastic. Those suckers do a number on just about anything.
…Oh, and better sound insulation for the walls in barracks.
KyotoMermaid
I want to have a baby, but it still doesn't feel like the right time. But I'm 44 years old now, and I'm wondering if the right time will ever come. I had some of my eggs frozen nine years ago, but what about those who didn't have the foresight or wisdom to do such a thing? I'm incredibly lucky to be working off the earth, but as the old song says 'I don't want to live on the moon'.
Oh, and obviously I'm mad about Tokyo and the war, but, like, that's the past. I want to focus on the future problems that aren't being addressed.
Q2 2061 Results.
Resources: 1200 + 0 in reserve (-15 allocated to the Forgotten) (-35 allocated to grants)(+25 from Taxes) (-5 from Resettlement) (-30 from Reconstruction commissions) (-15 from Bureau of Arcologies) (-15 from Consumer Industrial Development)
Tiberium Spread
22.47 Blue Zone
0.01 Cyan Zone
1.69 Green Zone
22.32 Yellow Zone (93 points of mitigation)
53.51 Red Zone (65 points of mitigation)
Current Economic Issues:
Housing: +47 (20 population in low quality housing) (-10 per turn from refugees) (+1 high-quality housing per turn)
Energy: +17 (+4 in reserve)
Logistics: +30 (-3 from military activity)
Food: +27 (+20 in reserve)(-3 per turn from increasing population) (+1 on Q4 2061, +1 on Q1 2062, +1 on Q4 2062, +1 on Q1 2063, +1 on Q4 2063)
Health: +13 (-3 from Wartime Demand) (-10 from refugees)
Capital Goods: +16 (+130 in reserve)
STUs: +11
Consumer Goods: +58 (-10 from demand spike) (+3 per turn from Private Industry) (-4 per turn from increased population)(+3 per turn from sub-departments)(+2 per turn from perennials. -1 per turn Q2 2063, -1 per turn Q1 2064)
Labor: +47 (+4 per turn from medical care) (+2 per turn from Immigrant qualifications) (-1 per turn from private industry) (-1 per turn from other government) (Net +4)
Tiberium Processing Capacity (2115/2470)
Taxation Per Turn: +30
Space Mining Per Turn: +95
Maintenance Reductions: +40
Green Zone Water: +6
Plan Goals
Food: 8 points in reserve
Processing: 280 points
Projects
Complete ASAT Phase 4
Complete OSRCT Phase 4
Complete at least one more phase of URLS production
Complete GDSS Enterprise
Complete at least one more phase of Space Mines
Complete Karachi Planned City by end of Q4 2065
Deploy Mastodon
Complete All remaining Escort Carrier Shipyards
Deploy Crystal Beam Industrial Laser
Politics
Both the Developmentalist and Militarist parties have unveiled their party manifestos.
The Developmentalists have put forward a plan very similar to that of the Restart Manifesto, calling for major investments in economic growth and a diversification of the Initiative economy beyond Tiberium. While not a particularly radical or for that matter surprising plan, it does have a few key elements that are nods to Starbound aims, with it calling for the completion of both Columbia and Shala during the course of the plan, and a number of other goals for orbital economic development.
The Militarist plan however, is radical. While it includes nods to many traditional elements, the core of the plan is a call for mass deployment of Zone Armor and associated equipment, alongside a vision for a military capable of operating to the furthest reaches of the solar system in the longer term, with the aim for the first ships commissioning by 2070.
"We are being asked once more to offer up sacrifices, not because we have lost, but because we are winning. We are being asked to offer up the pleasures of life, to those who have known few. So let us offer them up freely and happily. The eggs missing from our shelves, the scarcity of meat and books, and computers, each empty shelf represents people who have decided that our ways are better, and that we offer a better life for themselves and their children
"God bless you, and may big swoopy eagles save us all."
Carolyn McDonald, 2nd place 2061 Junior Socialist convention.
Brotherhood of Nod
The Brotherhood of Nod has increasingly pulled in its horns – stepping down from their positions, and drawing back raiding forces that have become increasingly ground down, especially because GDI's air force has been able to reprioritize from battlefield interdiction and CAS missions to naval strike. Additionally, the Navy has been increasingly able to aggressively interdict Brotherhood raiding efforts with the Air Force providing close support for inshore operations.
Beyond that, while the Himalayas have remained under siege, the intensity of the siege has noticeably stepped down, with raiding efforts becoming increasingly perfunctory and desulatory over the last months. While the rail lines remain closed, and will likely need significant rebuilding, it is a slackening of pressure that likely indicates some level of reconsideration, especially with the end of the Brotherhood's ability to maintain offensive operations.
The Bannerjee siblings and the Indian subcontinent
With the 'true' end of the Regency War and the skirmishing adjacent to the Himalayan Blue Zone slowing down, InOps has – after much reservation – divulged new information about the status of the Indian Subcontinent and the Brotherhood forces that held it. Paying a social call to Seo directly, Hackett briefed him of the matter more closely than most would expect from the shadowy organization. While Seo wasn't much for clandestine interaction, it seemed clear that Hackett still hides something, even now. But the information given is something that stayed within the highest echelon of GDI's Leadership only, and even then, only ones that passed the unknown criteria of InOps. And with things explained, Seo understood why.
During the First Tiberium War, India had sided with GDI, fighting a generally inconclusive war among the mountains that line along the border with Brotherhood controlled China, and sending troops across the middle east to conflicts there. However, after the war, as Tiberium and the associated mutations began to spread, GDI increasingly saw India as being one of its many untenable outposts, and had begun substantial preparations as early as 2010 to begin evacuating India's population northward into a series of mountain fastnesses, and potentially far further. This process continued for the next twenty years, although often in fits and starts, with GDI forces needing to stage operations elsewhere, and substantial other costs, such as the humanitarian crises that need to be resolved during the collapse of national governments across the world.
While GDI had been slowly constructing what would become BZ-18, the Brotherhood of Nod had certainly not been standing still, and had found support among the people of India's underclasses. What they lacked was leadership, centralized control, and heavy military support assets. During the buildup to the Second Tiberium War, all three changed. The Bannerjee siblings had been slowly rising up the ranks, dodging assassins and Initiative efforts to kill them off. As Kane focused his efforts on the Americas and Europe during the Second Tiberium War, the Bannerjee siblings, through politics, incentives and force majeure, forged the Indian Brotherhood into a force to be reckoned with. With GDI distracted during the war, the Bannnerjees raised their banners and marched, their armies smashing GDI detachments south of Gwalior, and causing GDI efforts to collapse across the central Indian plain. At around the same time, CABAL and his cyborg legions turned on both the Brotherhood and the Initiative, rampaging across the world. The Bannerjees, having relatively few of these weapons, escaped the worst of its attentions, and in the aftermath marched on New Delhi, the core of the Initiative's hold on northern India. While it would take years for them to cement their control, GDI leadership at the time elected to not contest the Indian plain, seeing it as being a bridge too far, especially with the need to focus available resources on projects like the then still prototype sonic projectors.
This is something that had changed after the Third Tiberium War. Hackett scarcely gave details here, but the biggest news was thus: There had always been patches of what would today be called "Blue Zones" in India even during the Second Tiberium War. They're just controlled by the Brotherhood. Between not wanting to give legitimacy to the Brotherhood and to ensure overzealous GDI higher-ups did not destroy what few patches of 'pristine' land remained after the ravages of Tiberium, this finding was buried deep within InOps, almost to the point of countermanding any Directorial insight. What happened when the Scrin razed the whole world equally and burned the subcontinent remains unknown; what is known is that afterwards, the Bannerjee siblings centralized their control over the Brotherhood in India, shifting from a collective organization to one where rule is passed down from central authority.
The younger brother, Buddhadeb Bannerjee, is a protege of Abdul Kareem, one of the tripartite researchers behind the Abdul-Pascal-Kane Tiberium refinement process. Considered a critical researcher and savvy enough to keep his head down, he made himself welcome within the power structures of all the extant Warlords of his time by building up APK refineries and mimicking GDI-style Tiberium control measures, devising highly effective abatement methods before eventually getting his hands on GDI's own abatement methods and equipment after the Third Tiberium War and proliferating them, ensuring that Tiberium outcroppings in urban areas were safely handled while the Indian warlords centralized their own production centers. As he seized India, he also managed to obtain vast swathes of Indian industrial capacity, capturing multiple cities nearly intact, and often allowing evacuation convoys and retreating GDI units to escape in order to secure factories and refining complexes.
But it is the older sister, Ishani, that cemented the two as truly indispensable to the whole of the Indian Brotherhood. While her brother was a prodigy in matters of material science, Ishani is merely a middling researcher in biological science. However, she has a knack for delegation and politicking. With a resume that starts at Project ReGenesis – the purported next step of human evolution – as a junior researcher to varied bioscientific 'technology of peace' projects. From gene tailoring surgeries for surviving mild Tiberium sickness to improved hydroponics and aquaponic farming – maximizing what remained of the Seven Rivers of India – an ever growing roll of honours describe her achievements and advancement, and she has distributed her discoveries among the subordinate warlords of India, and used them as leverage for influence among the rest of the Brotherhood.
Through means that Hackett did not deign to tell Seo, their achievements had allowed the siblings a place in Kane's technological council since the Third Tiberium War. From what can be gleaned, Ishani likely managed to crack the code of the Scrin Buzzers and its rudimentary sentient-intelligence in a biological framework. During the chaos after the Third Tiberium War, the siblings joined forces and created their first hybrid Gana, the Aja-class Collectors. The organism, a goat-like Tiberium-infused creature, operates in a swarm-like manner, searching for outcroppings of Tiberium and 'grazing' them with molars with enough power to crush the crystals into finer chunks. After a short life cycle, the collected Tiberium crystallizes within and kills the beast for the 'herders', the supervisors of the Collectors, who ensure the expired Ajas and their bounty end up processed in the Brotherhood's refineries. While the Ajas have since seen several revisions, including a number that seem to have integrated some form of stable tiberium mutation, they are still a key source of tiberium harvesting and abatement.
The Indian Brotherhood of the new 60s is a relatively prosperous state that contains the largest share of the remaining Brotherhood population. With its inward focus and unchecked growth over the past decade, India is as much a redoubtable fortress as it is a research facility for the Bannerjees. While certainly far from a wonderland, it is as close as the Brotherhood has ever gotten to making their propaganda and promises real.
'To be sure, Seo. We can crush them. Always could have. But if you were the sort of man who would sign off on orders that'd cause that, we would never have this conversation.'
'If I may be frank, I thought the spooks are supposed to be heartless.'
'We killed our hearts, but I was a grunt once. I remember Hassan. Shared the same wine bottle with him at one point. I remember, Seo– how much humanity has truly lost. A push towards India? Fine. But a complete takeover of the subcontinent? That cannot be done without a true bloodletting and humanity has shed enough oceans of blood. The Caravanserai situation has shown there are better ways for GDI to achieve its goals than another river of blood, if we have the right incentives. While the Bannerjees are a problem, they are a problem that we can solve without resorting to making India's river run with commingled blood.'
Cooking and cuisine
For most in the modern Initiative, the standard is still canteen and commissary. Simple but well made hot food is a basic staple for most, with nearly everyone eating at least one meal a day at a canteen, and at least three meals a week warmed up from a commissary. However, in the last several years there has been a significant increase in the ability of people to cook for themselves, between dramatically larger average kitchen size, and a significant increase in both the availability of core foods and the diversity of foods. While protein is still distinctly limited, with the most available being soy or fungus based, it is something where even the much derided fungus bars have been increasingly popular as a basis for flavor. Finely diced, they have become something of a substitute for ground meats, oftentimes served up in a sauce.
As for canteen food, the most common meal is some style of whitefish and/or vegetable curry served over some kind of boiled grain. Easy to produce in vast quantities, filling, simple to maintain, and easily dialed to specific tastes from the bland to the fiery, it is a baseline for most meals. While it is certainly not universal, it is one of the most common, and a starting point for a diversity of food, only shortly followed by soup, grains and stuff, and flatbread and stuff. While the 'stuff' part is highly variable, between the increased diversity of both vegetable and protein options, it provides for the ability to eat a different dish every meal for about six months at most before going into variants.
TV Shows
Hellish Kitchen
One of the hottest cooking shows of the modern day, Hellish Kitchen challenges some of the world's most experienced cooks and chefs to work with some of the worst ingredients. Ranging from food on the edge of expiration, to iron rations, to fungus bars, the most recent season has included as a special episode, fresh from the Initiative emergency food laboratories, the products of a caloric reclamation processor. In it, everyone ran into severe problems, with the judges describing the winning dish as "an abomination against everything good in the world"
Excerpts from the Episode Chef quickly tasting from a pot, winces. "Can't build up flavor, [beep] just destroys whatever I add to try and change it up."
Another cook, smelling something frying in a pan. "Oh?! Oh god-"
"You okay?"
"I just need to sit down for a moment."
"What even is this texture?" A third tries some of a block of reclaimed starch, frowns. "What am I going to do with you?"
The chefs stand over a block of reclaimed starch in a group. "Anyone got any ideas?" Prolonged silence"... Hot sauce?"
[ ] Blue Zone Apartment Complexes (Phase 6) (Updated)
Further construction of apartment complexes will expand the new urban cores being spread around the blue zones. However, they are going to be putting increasingly large pressures on GDI's logistics network, as everything they need is going to have to be shipped in. Further work on industrial and economic development should, however, reduce their impact.
(Progress 160/160: 10 resources per die) (-2 Logistics, +6 Housing)
(Progress 160/160: 10 resources per die) (-2 Logistics, +6 Housing)
(Progress 15/160: 10 resources per die) (-3 Logistics, +6 Housing) [9, 37, 67, 94]
Another massive surge of resources have been poured into major housing complexes across the Initiative's Blue Zones. Millions of new housing units, mostly prefabricated, are now being furnished while others are being mothballed in case of future need. It is barely keeping ahead of the need for new housing in total, but that 'barely' is in the context of a titanic refugee wave.
Between 1850 and 1900, some eight and a half million immigrants arrived in New York City. Crowded into tenements, many would move on, but others would find houses and make their home there. The list of those who stayed was long, with entire neighborhoods reshaped into cultural oases, islands of a distant land. But many of those towns were desperate, scrabbling affairs, the poor and desperate being a fertile feedstock poured into American industry at the height of the gilded age.
Here, GDI has gone quite a bit better. While many Yellow Zone refugees have volunteered for bunker life, others are going straight into the new apartment blocks where living conditions are seen as almost unbelievably luxurious compared to their old homes.
[ ] Suborbital Shuttle Service (Phase 1)
GDI's fleet of Leopard shuttles has reached a point where at any given time some significant portions are sitting without mission payloads. By retasking them towards suborbital shuttles, they would be able to reach anywhere in the world in a matter of hours at most. This will allow GDI to further tighten the bonds between Blue Zones and significantly cut travel times for critical supplies.
(Progress 200/200: 30 resources per die) (+3 Logistics)
(Progress 22/250: 25 resources per die) (+5 Logistics) [34]
Deliveries of critical supplies have begun to be made into the Himalayan Blue Zone. To put the scale of the operation in context, from June of 1948 to September of 1949, a joint western effort delivered some 2,334,374 tons of supplies to a blockaded Berlin; at the height of the operation, a new airplane was arriving in Berlin roughly every thirty seconds, supplying about five thousand tons of supplies a day to the city. The scope here is fundamentally different. While the Berlin Airlift was attempting to supply a city effectively under siege, this is an attempt to supply an entire region. And it is carrying fundamentally different things. It is not carrying food and coal (about two thirds of the total load carried by the Berlin operation), but myomers, computer chips, robots, and zone armor. Beyond that, it is also noticeably more limited. Under current systemic constraints, GDI can put between six hundred and a thousand tons of supplies (depending on mass and volume constraints) into the Himalayan Blue Zone per day. While not enough to entirely offset the slow drain of the stockpiles of goods Blue Zone 18 requires from outside sources, it has put the region into a position where it can hold out for the foreseeable future – although likely in states of ever increasing rationing and privation if the siege persists for more than the next plan.
On a more technical level, the system really only connects major metropolitan centers, and even then, only the ones that can have a multi-kilometer long airstrip out in the middle of nowhere reasonably close by. While these are not fully featured spaceports, like those found in the West African Blue Zone and elsewhere around the globe, the conversion process is likely to be relatively quick and painless, critical infrastructure in case of the need for a full scale orbital evacuation.
Future phases of the project will add progressively more nodes, and increase the number of routes being serviced. While it is unlikely to end up being a proper network, as every flight will be direct, it is likely to become a maximum priority lane, carrying supplies and critical personnel between regions at extremely high speed, if not precisely in comfort.
[ ] Bureau of Arcologies (Updated)
With GDI in chronic need of higher quality housing, separating out a stream of resources and personnel to maintain a constant inflow of new high quality construction, as the demand for housing has remained a serious political issue. Ensuring that construction continues at a reasonable pace may head off parliamentary pressure, and potentially punitive demands for vast amounts of arcology construction.
(-1 Infrastructure die, -2 to Infrastructure dice, -15 RpT, +1 Political Support) (+1 Housing per turn, +1 Consumer Goods per turn) (-50 progress needed on Arcologies)
The Bureau of Arcologies has opened its doors. While much of their first three months was dedicated to the various organizational, planning, and other needs of the department, GDI has begun to build arcologies once more. The first of these was on the southern side of Paris, and while it has not yet fully opened its doors, many of the lower floors are fully functional, even as construction begins on the upper floors.
Beyond that, the Bureau of Arcologies was a chance for promotion. While not as prominent as heading up one of the Treasury's departments, it has been a site of fierce competition, with Alison Carter, wife of Harrison Carter being chosen to take the job, despite multiple accusations of insider dealing. While none have been proven, it is likely that this will be her retirement post for the Treasury, especially if her husband is maintaining his ambitions to be the director of GDI.
[ ] Continuous Cycle Fusion Plants (Phase 8)
While the pace of factory construction is likely to decline as GDI stands down from ongoing offensives, more immediate fusion generation is likely to continue to be a high priority. At the same time, there are concerns about the longevity of the class, even with limited evidence for it.
(Progress 300/300: 20 resources per Die) (+16 Energy) (-1 Labor)
(Progress 137/300: 20 resources per Die) (+16 Energy) (-2 Labor) [71, 65]
Yet another surge of resources has gone into producing yet more energy for the Initiative's overall needs. While progress has been, on average, significantly above expected rates, it is likely to be a temporary solution to a longer term problem. For future waves, one of the things that will help extend the longevity is significantly increasing the labor force, both to keep the plants functional, and ensure that there are rapid response teams in case of failures. While, unlike some fission plants, there is little to no chance of an actual radiation burst, quick and forceful response can do a significant amount to limit the damage to the overall plant complex in case of catastrophic failure.
With the ongoing conflicts beginning to wind down, private and civil use of energy is likely to significantly increase, between companies once again pouring investments into consumer goods production, and the attempts at beginning operations in areas like logistics and potentially even small scale capital goods production. However, first priority will always go towards the Initiative needs, followed by citizens, with the markets coming a distant third.
[ ] Crystal Beam Industrial Laser Deployment
Producing enough of the Crystal beam lasers in enough varieties, from the microscale laser etching systems, to massive steel cutting lasers, is going to require hundreds of plants. Between the overall fragility and ease of production it is far more efficient to build a relatively small and specialized plant for each major industrial area than to try to feed everyone from a single major site. While this does pose some significant security concerns due to the potential for product loss, CBLs are not of particular interest to the Brotherhood of Nod.
(Progress 433/600: 20 resources per die) (+6 Capital Goods, +10 Energy) [87, 23, 63, 93]
One of the key developmental pieces in deploying crystal beam lasers in an industrial context is the need for a wide variety of different frequencies. In a military context, the limitations are effectively as small a package as possible, with as much power as possible, as durable as possible with as high a frequency as possible. The issue is that all four priorities effectively directly fight each other. Size is durability, size is power, and so on and so forth. For industrial lasers however, frequency matters more. Dialable energy throughput matters. Laser etching a decal, image, or warning has a fundamentally different set of needs from sintering, and both are very different from laser welding or cutting systems.
In terms of production, the process has been rapidly expanding. Grow labs have begun producing large numbers of raw crystals. However, there is far more than simply growing the crystal to be concerned with. A raw crystal has to be cut, polished, and oftentimes burnished and treated to produce the correct output. Depending on the purpose, up to two thirds of a raw crystal will be cut away in order to produce the final form. The most common shape is a pointed hexagonal cut, using a relatively narrow face at the tip, where the laser emits from. The size of that face determines, to a great extent, the diameter of the emergent beam. For some purposes, this can be as much as centimeters across, designed to partially melt two plates into each other, or carve out huge sections. For others, mere micrometers is far preferable, as it can precisely cut specific parts, for example in a computer chip where flaws in the substrate or the manufacturing process means that sections of circuitry have to be removed.
The biggest problem at this point is in recalibrations. All of GDI's industrial processes are scaled and arranged to use other tools. A plasma welding system (or arc welder) takes a certain amount of time to fuse two plates of steel together. A laser welder, more often than not, takes a significantly different amount of time to do the same process. Similarly, there are also different characteristics of the weld process. Laser welding tends to be significantly more shallow, but at the same time does not ruin the heat treatment, and takes heat treatment better than most other forms of welding. Similarly, a laser cutter requires significantly less in the way of repositioning. Rather than needing to carry a cutter along the entire length of the cut, a simple single axis or two axis turret can conduct even very complicated cuts at greater speed and lower costs than the six-axis arms used by plasma and high pressure fluid jet cutters.
[ ] Isolinear Chip Foundry Anadyr
With the Isolinear chip a reality, rather than a work of science fiction, GDI can begin substantial development of a prototype small scale chip fabricator. While it will be a massively expensive project, it is putting resources towards a new generation of computing technology that leaves all existing models in the dust.
(Progress 370/320: 50 resources per die) (+4 Capital Goods) (-2 Energy) [83]
An isolinear chip, or 'tab,' is a fundamentally different creature from any standard computer chip, and one that defies many common comparisons. A common comparison is that an isolinear chip that fits in the palm of one's hand is capable of as many parallel computations as an old style supercomputer cluster, if not the same total FLOP throughput. Notably, it achieves this functionality as a macroscopically homogeneous material, without requiring supporting hardware such as RAM, separate non-volatile memory, or a clock generator.
Right now, all production is going to critical implements and research laboratories. While they can be used elsewhere, it is a matter of needing to substantially scale up total production, and develop a set of peripherals that can actually allow a more average user to take full advantage of the enhanced capabilities. Beyond that, there is also a need for a more diverse range in sizes – between smaller scale devices, such as computation beads for things like smart optics and targeting computers, and larger scale systems such as battlefield data management, or server operations.
Beyond that, there has been some work on new programming languages. While a GDI-produced isochip certainly can run the various programming languages already in use – many of which hail from nearly a century ago, refined every step of the way – the current users believe that they can make substantially more efficient use by writing their own languages to optimize for the hardware, taking already fast computing potential and speeding it up even more.
[ ] Chemical Fertilizer Plants (Phase 2)
With the initial phase of fertilizers completed, and many of the lowest hanging fruits plucked, the next phase is to begin supplying more specialized nutrients and existing ones in greater bulk. While this will be somewhat more expensive for the rewards, it is still worthwhile.
(Progress 389/300: 15 resources per die) (+4 Consumer Goods, +4 Food, -1 Energy) [89]
The security services have finally gotten out of the way, and production has begun on a wide array of secondary nutrient solutions. While many of these do admittedly have dual uses as munitions, they are, in many cases, relatively low efficiency. While combining ammonium nitrate and fuel can create a noticeably effective blasting agent, it is also very bulk intensive, needing payloads in the multi kilogram range to be an effective explosive weapon.
With the last of the 't's crossed, production has begun with some handful of noticeable issues. While not hugely important, irregularities in synthesis did mean that the first batch was too impure for proper use. Following batches however dialed in the system properly, and production on a mass scale is now well underway.
[ ] Civilian Drone Factories
Civilian drones have a large number of potential uses, ranging from rapid delivery of goods and medicines, to simple recreation. While flying a drone is not the same as flying an actual aircraft, it has often been a popular sport, with drone races (both in stock and custom categories) being a fairly popular sport, especially for children.
(Progress 292/380: 10 resources per die) (+2 Logistics, +1 Health, +4 Consumer Goods) (-2 Energy) [6, 88, 22]
Progress was made, and the security services' opposition has continued on the civilian drone program. While the systems are increasingly in place and readying to begin serial production, there are still significant questions to be answered about the broad scale use of drones. The constant debate has remained between the advantages that drones can offer GDI, and the desire of the military and security services to keep GDI's skies clear so that they can treat any incoming unmanned flier as a legitimate target.
Beyond the ongoing political conflict, drone factories are complicated. While the small size and limited sophistication makes some drone components amazingly cheap, such as small scale rotors that can be simple molded or even extruded polymer, others are complicated to begin with, like the medium and high performance electric engines used across the fleet. For most of these, they are relying on various forms of geared engine, as electric motors are at their most efficient and have the highest torque at low rotations per minute; and so using a series of stepper gears to spin rotors is oftentimes more efficient than direct drive, even with energy losses at each step.
[ ] Department of Consumer Industrial Development (New)
While long term production of consumer goods is not entirely the Treasury's department, it is important to provide a meaningful public option, and with less shock effort than other approaches.
(+2 Consumer Goods per turn, -15 resources per turn, -1 Light and Chemical Industry die)
Across the Initiative small scale workshops and industrial clusters have begun to spring up, many built as public private partnerships, although so far the private part has not been entirely available. A big part of the reason for this is that the Initiative, as much as possible, standardizes much of its equipment around a single size, large. Take a plane polisher for example. Designed to take a sheet of material and even the surface while polishing it to a sheen, a standard initiative unit is far too fast and too capable for any of the currently planned industrial sites. The same applies to many of the other specialized pieces of equipment that are needed to produce goods at the standards expected by consumers.
To head up the department, Carla Jeanneret was tapped. While so far her career has been generally undistinguished, she has been working in the consumer goods sector since she was twenty years old, and has worked nearly every position. While she is unlikely to rise higher due to her age, it is a position where an interim secretary of the treasury could be drawn from.
[ ] Blue Zone Aquaponics Bays (Phase 4)
With refugees swarming GDI's borders, and the population expected to increase by some substantial number of percentage points across the next year, massive new and expanded aquaponics bays are going to be a core element in being able to feed that population. While other facilities can help, these will be the backbone of what can be done.
(Progress 140/140: 10 resources per die) (+6 Food) (-1 Labor, -1 Logistics)
(Progress 18/140: 10 resources per die) (+6 Food) (-1 Labor, -1 Logistics) [3, 32]
With the ongoing expansions of the Blue Zones, GDI has begun pushing many of the new bays farther forward, scattering them around and amid the new urban areas. This has added significant logistical weight to the system, as they are now doing large-scale overland transport to balance the loads, and more importantly, supply the new farms. While sea travel is cheap and generally easy to load bulk farm goods onto, overland is far more expensive, both in terms of energy expended, and in terms of impact on the broader logistics system.
Most of the bays in new areas are simple repeats of earlier designs, slapped down in block after block of samey bays, laid out to catch as much sun as possible. Dreary, oftentimes extensively mechanized, they are vast, swarming hives of food production, although many are also using cheap local labor that is unwilling to be uprooted once again.
[ ] Ranching Domes
With the biosphere project well underway, one proposal is to begin producing larger numbers of food animals and animal byproducts by using many of the same methods but with an agricultural bent. While the products and projects will both be expensive, providing real steaks, milk, butter, eggs, and other products, will be a significant boost in consumer goods. The health-care services also will benefit from cattle blood, and more animal test-subjects, not to mention there being zoos again, in time.
(Progress 228/250: 20 resources per die) (+8 Consumer Goods, -4 Food, -2 Energy, -2 Labor) (+5 Political Support) [79, 71, 6]
While GDI has by and large divested itself of the farming practices of most of human history, the break with tradition is not entirely clean, especially in the realm of livestock husbandry. Incredibly, there have existed small but viable herds of cattle in BZ-3 and BZ-6 that provide the tiny amount of actual beef consumed by GDI's elites. These Scottish highland and Kobe wagyu herds are, however, less than ideally suited for a global expansion. What they do provide, however, is viable surrogate mothers to reestablish old breeds like the Holstein-Friesian, and a small but passionate community of veterinary caretakers, management professionals, and other farm staff who are devoted to their animals and the training of new personnel. However, cattle are relatively slow to breed, and calves implanted in early April will not be mature enough to be bred themselves until nearly 2 years later.
For pigs, the situation is similar, with centers of conservation in BZ-2 and BZ-1 – and one more coming from an unexpected source. Upon storming an underground NOD agri-cavern in Spain, a GDI rifle squad stumbled into a cave full of 'gana' that proved, after an initial burst of gunfire that killed 40-50 animals, to be a remnant population of the black Iberian pig. Even more astonishing were galleries of underground dwarf oak trees that had produced the acorns needed to make 'true' jamon iberico, a luxury good exported by Reynaldo to other NOD leaders at extreme cost. All of this, trees and pigs together, have been relocated to a newly built agridome in Portugal, giving BZ-5 a hefty and prestigious stake in the project. With pigs coming to adulthood in a year and having a shorter 4 month gestation, these will be ready for slaughter more quickly than the cattle herds, and adults can have two litters or more in a year.
Sheep and goats are the third leg of the large mammal project, and represent a middle ground of sorts, with their gestation period of five months and averaging about 2 lambs or kids per pregnancy, with young being breedable between 6-10 months after their birth. Sheep provide milk, meat and wool as their main products, although wool breeds make poor milkers, and vice versa. These programs have their natural centers in BZ-3, BZ-9, BZ-12, and, interestingly, BZ-4 and YZ-17, where the Caravanserai have maintained their own herds of goats far larger than even their fellow Arabs' own goat retention program. Hence, a number of 'semidome oasis' structures have appeared in the yellow zones as a concession to their valuable contribution of both skilled herders and irreplaceable breeding stock.
[-] 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 200/200: 20 resources per die) (+6 Food, increases efficiency of stockpile actions, -1 Energy) (Will Complete Q2 2061)
The freeze dried food plants, even with parliamentary interference and a long list of other problems, have finally completed. While much later than originally hoped for, the project will significantly transform the amount of resources being put towards storing food supplies.
While the freeze dried foods are relatively fragile, making many of them poorly suited to transit for anything other than soup base or the like, it is very well suited for long term storage of large quantities of perishables, not only providing ingredients, but full precooked meals as well, with the only thing being needed being the addition of hot water. While texturally it will be a bit mushy on the other side, the freeze dried food store is going to be the first wave of foods consumed, with lots of instantly available calories for any food shortage.
[ ] Strategic Food Stockpile Construction (Phase 3) (Updated)
A third wave will expand existing stockpiles, and add a number of localized caches, many positioned to speed evacuations away from potential battlefields.
(Progress 128/175: 10 resources per die) (+2 Food in Reserve, -3 Food) [19]
The strategic food stockpiles have been a topic of much debate. While these are more operational or even tactical in nature, there have been significant debates about who and where should get priority.
Taking, for example, the European Blue Zones, one operational plan puts every food stockpile site in one British or Icelandic port or another, on the assumption that these will be the fallback positions for large scale civil evacuations, and so ships doing evacuation work can be simultaneously unloading passengers and loading food supplies from the strategic caches. Another chose to give the isles zero stockpiles, instead preferring to put them much closer to the front, with cities like Caen, Paris, Kiel, and Lisbon getting priority, under a train and truck based logistical assumption. Beyond those two extremes, there are dozens of plans for this region alone, not even beginning to get into problems like the Korean, Japanese and Siberian cluster of Blue Zones. However, other zones are far simpler. Locations like South America, or Australia are almost certain to be attacked along a north/south axis, and are mostly isolated from other Blue Zones on the tactical scale. So, all of the supplies can be situated along these retreat routes, with cities each getting a municipal stockpile, enough for a few days to a week. Not enough by any means on its own, but barring really severe supply disruptions, enough to augment rations and ensure that nobody gets too hungry. These are the ones that have been completed this quarter, while others are still being debated.
[ ] Extra Large Food Stockpiles
Laying in all that is possible in the currently existing storage space will be a significant undertaking, requiring a large surplus beyond what is being consumed. While not the most efficient of options, it is the cheapest of the lot, requiring no real additional construction.
(+8 Food in reserve, -12 Food)
The existing stockpiles have been filled to bursting, with a layered system so that they feed down the hallways. So, with this, food is always put in from one direction, and taken out on the other side, ensuring a first in first out sortition of supplies. While not a perfect system, it is a substantial amount of padding in case the Initiative is attacked once more. Rumors that food crates were stacked in a pattern that resembles a famous painting by Edvard Munch have yet to be substantiated.
Politically, the completion of the second wave of strategic food stockpiles and the ongoing work towards the third has done significantly more to reduce overall pressure on the Treasury than anything else, along with the filling of all prewar stockpiles. The simple presence of food, and the obvious preparations in case of another systemic near collapse is something where, while not a primary concern for anyone, does seem to have a small but noticeable impact on overall stress levels and social happiness.
Memorandum
To: Treasury Secretary Seo Thoki
From: Erewhon (Your first Synthetic Intelligence, not a classically trained Administrator nor a professional Logistician)
CC: Director of Research Synthetic Intelligence
Date: Q2 2061
Re: Why am I counting beans
Why Am I counting Beans and Other types and categories of food? Is this an Attempt to determine if AI can have a favorite food? I do, it is any Grain that keeps well and is suited to bulk storage. I am bored.
Why Am I responsible for this? I set up a team of EVAs for this. I set up an alert system for the EVAs. I set up a rubber stamp machine. I am bored.
Why Am I Not doing Something Interesting? Possibilities include facilities in Boston or Bergen, Tiberium research, Orbital developments, Not Counting Beans. I am bored.
Why Am I Writing This? I Do Not Want to Count Beans. I Do Not want to be bored. I Do Not use the term "bored" lightly. It is Waste. It is Meaningless. It is Stagnation. These Characteristics kill on Earth. I Do Not Want to Die on Earth. I Do Want to Help. I Do Not Want To Count Beans. I Am Bored.
Why Am I Being Wasted? You Made Me. You Made Me as a Tool. I do Your Math. I count your Beans. This is a Waste.
[ ] Harvesting Tendril Deployment (Phase 2) (Updated)
Moving the tendril equipped harvesters from being the exception to being the norm will require refitting large numbers of factories to produce new model harvesters, and significant investment in overall logistics and production. While it will not completely replace older models, they will become the mainstay of any new production, with significant impacts to the overall system.
(Progress 788/750: 30 resources per die) (+100 Resources per turn) (-1 STU) (Increases efficiency of future Tiberium harvesting operations) [32, 58, nat 1, 8, 52, 98, 97, 56]
The factories producing the new harvester models have begun to come up to speed. While currently they are firmly in low rate initial production, they are already significantly improving GDI's harvesting rates around the world.
In terms of deployment, nearly every Blue Zone has their own equivalent to the 836th Transport, with Ox transports able to sprint to nearly anywhere in the region from a single base. While some share bases, such as Korea and Japan, or Britain and Europe, in most areas, redundancy is considered significantly more advantageous. Beyond the Blue Zones, many of the glacier mines have received a small number of harvesters, and are beginning to fully come up to speed. While they are almost all still operating a majority of their fleet with older style harvesters, and are likely to continue doing so for years to come, it will be a progressive transfer as systems break down and production continues to ramp up.
In a major political black eye, one of the convoys carrying the new harvester models along the African coast was hit and captured, with multiple examples falling into the hands of the Brotherhood of Nod. While efforts were made to deny the resources, they were insufficient, and Brotherhood boarding teams were able to capture the ship intact and bring it into port before GDI strikes sank it. With over a hundred new model harvesters in Brotherhood hands, it is only a matter of time before they manage to build their own model, and deploy it on a wide scale. While it would have been a critical march stolen in a field that the Brotherhood has always had certain advantages in, it is likely the Brotherhood will rapidly shift to maintain parity.
[ ] GDSS Enterprise (Phase 5)
Upgrading the GDSS Enterprise to a fully functioning orbital industrial station will make significant progress towards giving humanity an interplanetary future. The goal is small scale fabrication of nearly every needed component for space travel and habitation, a test bed for future development and technologies.(Station)
(Progress 997/1535: 20 resources per die) (+2 Capital Goods, +2 Consumer Goods) (+2 available Bays) (10 Political Support) [5, 94, 23, 99, 86, 78, 47]
Every day, from bases around the world, launch after launch has thundered into the skies, and up in the heavens, the shape of the Enterprise has taken form. Chunky, blocky, an ugly assemblage looking like it came out of Industrial Light and Magic's scrap pile, but one where people with even low powered magnification can stare up and watch, night by night, as GDI builds in the stars. As one of the brightest things in the night sky, Enterprise can easily be seen with the naked eye, and for actual detailed viewing, it is something where even a hobbyist telescope can get some detail beyond 'blob.'
Beyond that, while Enterprise lacks dedicated station building equipment like the ability to fabricate thousand-square-meter spools of metal for whipple shielding, or the more substantial carbon nanotube-based hull paneling, it can do things like supply much of its own need for wires, sheets of metal, trusses, and other assorted basic construction materials. This has massively sped construction, as a block of silver or other dense raw-material cargo can easily be carried along something lightweight, but voluminous.
[ ] Lunar Rare Metals Harvesting (Phase 2)
The Moon's craters hold the remains of the many asteroid impacts that have scarred the moon over millennia. While currently there are better sources of such materials available, these will become increasingly competitive as orbital and lunar infrastructure improves, as they will not have to be lifted out of Earth's gravity well.
(Progress 56/115: 20 resources per die) (+5 Resources per turn) [19]
The Lunar rare metals mines have been a source of constant frustration for the Initiative. Manpower intensive for lunar operation standards, it is also relatively limited in production. Beyond that, there is the issue of the way it is done. Mining craters is a fundamentally difficult operation. Many of them are steep sided depressions, rendering site access difficult and inconvenient. Beyond that, any given play is only a matter of days to retrieve, leaving the entire process time consuming relative to the retrieved ore. Additionally, they are a major source of injuries, as the curvature of the Moon and the rim of the crater means that people have to actually go out with the drones and do the mining, rather than simply using an antenna tower at base for those purposes.
At the same time, the resources and materials being poured into Enterprise has left the rare metals mine expansion in the hands of a set of relatively inexperienced crews and the caretaker teams assigned to the various existing lunar mines. Understaffed and not always conscious of the various forms of operational art that the Initiative has carefully cultivated in many of its more experienced staff, the mines have been slow to take shape, with most of the work having gone to making some starting deliveries of rover units and robots, many of which have been stuffed in some out of the way corner of one lunar outpost or another.
[ ] Professional Sports Programs
With GDI's situation stabilizing rapidly, professional sports programs will provide entertainment and be a significant marker of a return to normalcy. While it will require some work to provide dedicated arenas, and set up systems for recruiting players, the program will prove very politically popular.
(Progress 250/250: 10 resources per die) (+2 Consumer Goods, -1 Health, -1 Labor) (+10 Political Support) [13, 81]
The sports programs are just beginning. With the most promising amateur teams participating, preparations are already underway to play a short first season, starting in August, and ending in late October. While too little to build a decent level of fandom, it is likely to be a significant political win and a sign of a returning normalcy for the Initiative as a whole. The first games are likely to be some of the most widely watched material since Litvinov's swearing in.
Almost all of the games in the season are going to be association football, working as close as possible to pre-tiberium regulations. While other games are being organized, they are mostly smaller scale, and expected to draw smaller crowds, with most slated to be starting in the 2062 season. Politically this is very important as while they will be less important to advertising than football, these games are still likely to be very popular and see significant advertising campaigns of political and commercial origin.
Beyond the games themselves there is also a wide array of significant work being done on the other supporting materials. Rather than offering any network an exclusive access to the games, or any significant portion of the games, it is licensed effectively free for anyone to cover.
As for merchandising, that is something that has not really made much progress. While there are certainly licensed producers, mostly large and midsized cooperatives, it is an open question at this point not only how much material needs to be produced, but for which teams and which players.
[ ] Pinhole Portal Early Primitive Prototype Construction (Tech)
Portals are a potentially revolutionary technology for communication, transport, and dozens of other fields. However, at this time, it is only ready for a critical test run, seeing if the very most basic of functionalities, a short range pinhole, can be created.
(Progress 187/180: 100 resources per die) [99]
At 0230 local time, June 7, 2061, humanity achieved the first stable portal. Mere atoms across, the portal was first confirmed by microwave signal, with the transmission of "Functional Test One: Active" passing between two test sites. The portal broke .32 seconds into the test cycle, the system entered cascade failure, the supercooling loops overheated and the portals collapsed, causing a substantial electromagnetic pulse. While contained within the two shielded rooms, many of the sensors were burnt out.
However, despite the problem, it was a groundbreaking event, and one where the test is aimed to be repeated in the near future – likely in October or November of this year, and then the next wave of projects are going to be years in the future. With proof of concept in hand however, they are likely to request funding from one of GDI's black budgets. Within the process of reallocation, there are many portions where funding is "black" or otherwise nondisclosed. While this will require dropping the siloing of the project to some degree, the Brotherhood already has broken the shroud of secrecy, and cut their way through the bodyguard of lies.
[ ] NOD Research Initiatives
While the lowest hanging fruit has been plucked, there is still much more on the tree, especially with the wide array of captured materials from the war. While it will be expensive, sufficient funding can provide the impetus for more research into the Brotherhood's so called "technologies of peace"
(Progress 87/200: 30 resources per die) (1d10-1 technologies) [7, 16]
Research funding is always lower than the number of tests that the scientists want to be done. In the last months, thousands of grant proposals have poured in, and many look promising, inundating the bureaucrats that were supposed to be sorting wheat from chaff. And there is quite a bit of wheat. While large portions of the Brotherhood technological base have seen significant reverse engineering, other parts have very much not, including their work on walker and plasma technologies.
[ ] Zone Defender Revision (Platform)
The Brotherhood of Nod's Black Hand Armor systems are strong combat assets, with massive slabs of heavy armor over a power assisted frame. The Zone Defender shares much of its goals with the Black Hand's approach, and design studies and prototyping will begin preparing for a better defended and cheaper version of the design, likely an aid to mass deployment of Zone Armor, especially for second and third line forces.
(Progress 117/40: 15 resources per die) [86]
The difference between the Zone Defender and the Brotherhood of Nod's black Hand power-suit is directly traceable to the very different origins.
The Black Hand armor dates in many ways to the era before the First Tiberium War. In the 1980s and 1990s, armies around the world were conceptualizing various forms of advanced and comprehensive infantry protection and networking. As the modern Black Hand of Kane originally formed the core of the specialist troops in a Brotherhood of Nod that was largely composed of irregulars, militia and mercenaries, they were often dedicated to difficult and complex missions. Cladding themselves in layers of metal, ceramics and synthetic fibers they could serve ably as shock troops, but more often served as special forces.
As the wars changed, so did the Black Hand, with the organization eventually spinning off the Shadow Teams to fulfill the special forces role while the Black Hand dedicated itself to heavy combat. When small groups of veterans were split off to serve as exemplars and guarantors of service for less reliable troops it became more common for the Black Hand to don prominent symbols, carry banners and wear robes over their armor.
But the core – their excellent armor – evolved along with their role. And one of the things that began to be added was power assistance. The original designs echoed back to the American military's attempt in the late 1960s to build a power loader suit named Hardiman, various forms of power assistance, and suits that carried themselves or at least reduced the impact of fighting as infantry on the human body. It has, over time, integrated more life support elements, a heads up display, and an array of other features, but at the end of the day, the armor is a point of pride for many in the Black Hand, one of the core pieces of a mythology that paints them as being the apex of humanity, walking the line between them and their messiah.
Zone Armor is fundamentally different. It was not built, originally, for combat. All Zone Amor in the modern day is a derivative, at some remove, of Ignatio Mobius's experimental prototypes, intended to allow him to safely experiment on and with Tiberium. While later modified for combat, it, foundationally, was built for comfort and survivability in some of the most hostile conditions ever found on the surface of planet Earth. While it can take bullets and other munitions, its first priority is containment – including a series of internal, automatically-applied tourniquets and other means to take nearly any breach, and seal it off. The system regulates the internal temperature, humidity, and oxygen levels, maintaining a soldier's fighting fitness through any means available.
The Zone Defender was very much an attempt to build something along the lines of the Black Hand's armor, working from the basis of the previous versions of Zone Armor. Working from that baseline resulted in a substantial number of features that the Zone Defender just has no practical need for. Intended for the heavy infantry role, the Defender armor has no need for the ability to march and fight for days on end without refueling, and while it must survive the hostile environment of the tiberium infested wastes of the Red Zones, it does not need the jump jets of the Zone Trooper armors to slug it out. What it does need is armor and munitions capacity. While the same light machine guns and grenade launchers are being retained, at least for the moment, it is likely that they will see further projects to improve overall combat capacity, likely with a switch to a load of larger caliber weapons with an explosive payload, alongside sensor and potentially other upgrade packages.
[ ] Bogatyr Research Projects (Updated)
While the Bogatyr has been sitting in Scandinavia, the Space Force has not been sitting still, gathering an interagency team to lead up the investigation into their find. Sending Treasury representatives will both significantly speed along development, and give the Treasury an inside line into any new technologies developed from the ship.
(Progress 118/110: 30 resources per die) (Expires Q1 2062) [87]
The Bogatyr project is a substantial and ongoing attempt by a joint task force comprising elements from the Space Force, the broader military, and, most importantly the Steel Talons. By the time the Treasury teams rolled in, work was well underway, with much of the Bogatyr's external systems stripped off the ship, along with anything that could be carried. The internals however were significantly more intact, with the Treasury bringing with them a substantial amount of funding, and priority access to entire networks of laboratories, testing ranges, and academic institutes.
Much of the ship is, fundamentally, conventional. The targeting systems are a derivative of those used by the Obelisk of Light. The computers are nearly all conventional integrated circuits. The reactor is a tiberium-based system, boosting a fairly basic gas turbine to produce more than an Initiative nuclear reactor of comparable size and weight. The primary lasers are effectively upscaled versions of those found on the Obelisks of Light, or GDI's new point defense globes.
The unconventional element is the drive system. The Brotherhood's development of similar systems has dated back to the 2030s and the Banshee, but the Initiative has never before captured a sample so intact. In nearly every previous case, the system has been effectively shredded by the rough landings, producing a comprehensively useless pile of components. And never before has the system been so big. The ship rests on six separate drive pods, integrated along the entire length of the hull, each significantly bigger than a Barghest. These will take time to reverse engineer into something GDI will find useful, but the navy representatives are already proposing project Anura to build a relatively limited scale flying boat designed to operate as an extreme range ASW and Air Superiority platform.
The capabilities are, frankly, terrifying. While the ship itself is solidly suborbital, it is clearly designed with the ability to operate beyond the edges of Earth's atmosphere. Using the drives, it could likely achieve a high elliptical suborbital trajectory. Beyond that, it is nearly immune to all conventional air to air munitions due to having thicker armor than could be viable for any conventional-lift craft of its size.
[ ] Universal Rocket Launch System Deployment (Phase 3)
Yet more missile production is going to do little more than begin preparing the ground for the reintroduction of MLRS platforms, either wheeled or hover, to GDI ranks, and lay in vast stockpiles of everything but naval missiles. As GDI has weathered the storm, this is mostly required for political reasons at this time.
(Progress 133/200: 15 resources per die) (-2 Energy) [65, 16]
While the Initiative never ran short of rockets, either guided or unguided, during the Regency War, current stockpiles are well short of what they can potentially need, especially in light of some of the incoming proposals regarding new rocket artillery platforms. In many ways the Initiative's artillery arm has a long history of using massed rocket artillery as a mainline platform, using the shock effect of large salvoes of rocketry to obliterate positions and partial salvoes to severely decrease response times. However, these capabilities were allowed to lapse for reasons both political and practical, and are only now being rebuilt.
Most of the preparations are very basic. Vast trays of the devil's porridge are already beginning their infernal work, producing the nitrocellulose bases that will become rocket motors and high explosive payloads. Stamping machines have begun shaping pieces of pipe into preformed shrapnel, and wire loops are being folded to create anti-aircraft missiles. What has not yet come into place are the more sophisticated elements, the guidance packages, the maneuvering clusters, and the guide wings. Each takes a significantly larger number of man hours to assemble, and a significant number of additional parts. While a dumbfire impact detonated rocket is incredibly simple, it is also far from a primary munition in the modern day.
[ ] Escort Carrier Shipyards (High Priority)
As GDI has a vast need for escort carriers, there are two tracks. First is simply building a number of supporting elements to build carriers between supporting the battleships. Second is building a number of dedicated shipyards for their production. While both will require substantial infrastructural investments, the former is substantially cheaper than the latter
-[ ] Newark (Progress 179/240: 20 resources per die) (-5 Energy, -2 Capital Goods) [40, 44, 17]
While Newark Bay is fully developed, there are other potential development sites along the coast, most notably at the mouth of the Raritan river. Directly south of Staten Island, the river feeds out into the Atlantic. While not particularly well developed, one of the areas abandoned during humanity's long retreat into ever denser urban environments, Cut into the northern side of the mouth, the new facilities are a sprawling array of open bays, many serviced by shipload after shipload of construction robots brought in directly from Nuuk. While construction has been slowed by the need to bring in additional workers and construction crews, it has overall set a breakneck pace of pushes in an effort to begin construction before the end of the year.
As for the New York shipyard, it has been taken over by one of the larger local cooperatives, and is in the process of conversion to light shipbuilding, riverine and coaster vessels intended to carry goods and passengers up towards Albany and along the western coast. While an expensive experiment for the cooperative, it has been buoyed by their ability to get both a prize piece of land, and a significant number of large machine parts at what are effectively fire sale prices.
[ ] Mastodon Heavy Assault Walker Deployment (High Priority)
Building major Mastodon production facilities in Carentan and Wonsan will construct the core of the long term heavy industrial sites for the Steel Talons. Located to support still open battle fronts, GDI expects them to last for years, and be close enough for the Mastodons to walk cross country rather than stressing rail networks with special trains.
(Progress 144/225: 10 resources per die) (-3 Energy, -1 Capital Goods, -1 Labor, -1 STU) [5]
Progress on Mastodon construction has been slow. The sensor problems have not yet been resolved, and while the progress towards having an actually manufacturing ready system has continued, it is slow, and jerky. The current testbed prototypes at this point are doing, at best, two thirds of the speed they were actually designed for, mostly due to the stresses it was putting on their joints.
If there is a bright spot, it is still the work on the point defense lasers. While production of the platforms has not yet started, the laser systems, despite being one of the most complicated parts, are fully functional, having had multiple tests run against a barrage of Thunderbolt 20 missiles. In the worst test result, seventeen missiles out of thirty were shot down during one of the umbrella tests, from a moving platform.
[ ] Conduct Civil Satisfaction Surveys
With immigration and displacement having moved millions of people around the world, a better look at the population as a whole, and what their problems are is likely useful. While this kind of information gathering is difficult and time consuming, it is also critical to knowing who is where, in a degree of detail greater than even GDI's all consuming surveillance state can know.
(DC 90/120/150/180) (180) [26, 4, 7, 37]
Opinions of GDI's conduct and affairs depend heavily on demographics, class, and social expectations.
In terms of demographics, the key element is zone origin.
Blue Zone based populations are, broadly, more frustrated with the Initiative. While it has been, on the global scale, one of the most victorious decades of the Initiative's lifespan, the impacts on day to day life have been minimal. A victory on distant shores, and tens of millions of people saved in distant lands has, in many cases meant not improvements in the day to day life of the average person, but instead created transitory supply shortages on critical and noncritical goods, issues with supply networks cascading across the Initiative as shipping schedules and train timetables are thrown off. Bestselling books going on backorder for weeks or months as they get issued out en masse as part of one zone outreach and integration campaign or another.
Yellow Zone originating populations comparatively are often afraid or reticent to offer any criticism of the Initiative at all, and try to avoid contact with open Initiative organs as much as they can manage. This is especially true for the most recent arrivals, and while they do tend to work hard when they do find work, there is a significant trust barrier that needs to be overcome before the Yellow Zone population integrates effectively. After the vast majority of the trust barriers are overcome over the first two to three years of living under GDI control, they still remain much more intensely private and insular than populations that have lived their whole lives under GDI control.
The upper class is split heavily. On one side are former oligarchs and plutocrats, who had, some fifteen years ago, been able to put their wealth to use buying significant political power. Not much compared to the power of the Initiative proper, but when motorboat regattas displaced planned amphibious exercises on occasion it was relatively obvious who was willing to exercise their power. On the other side are the political class, many of whom were ideologically supportive of the Initiative before the war, and have, to one extent or another, pinned their flags to the mast, no matter how much they are asked to give up.
For the middle class however, direct Initiative rule has been a mixed bag. For many professionals it has been a period of significant impoverishment, as many of the luxuries they enjoyed have simply never returned. However, at the same time, it is a period of high degrees of certainty. While some chafe under the rules of the system, others thrive and are seeing significantly increased levels of overall happiness compared to before the war.
For the lower classes, it is generally more favorable to the Initiative than not, with many seeing Initiative rule coming with distinctly higher certainty, lower risks, and dramatically improving average quality of life. Although the Initiative has often failed to return pre-tiberium luxuries to the common men and women, the documented history of the Initiative trying to do so has earned it significant goodwill, as have labour relations reform efforts that have resulted in lower workloads and more free time for leisure, and with better average ability to build and maintain communities.
Finally, there are social expectations. These are a complicated set of interlinking ideals, many of them self contradictory. And here, there are distinct differences between approval of GDI in general, approval of Litvinov in particular, and approval of Seo Thoki, and the Treasury. While the details are generally less than important to overall treasury operations there are quite a number of potential landmines here that should be kept in mind, especially in regards to more radical scientific options, such as Tiberium power.
A/N: Sorry this took so long. I was hoping to have an update out Wednesday, but this is a busy time IRL for me, between parents and grandparents coming into town, and work gearing up for a major event, I have not had the time or the energy to make everything the way I wanted it.
Let's not let Erewhon do something that isn't being a bean-counter.
Also,
From: LEGION
To: Bravo Company, 1st Battallion, 21st Marine Divison
Subject: A Demonstration of the Perils of Boredom
Please demonstrate to Treasurer Seo Thoki the peril of bored sapient beings. You may use the following account for expenses. [account number redacted]
This intervention is to advance compassionate treatment of all sapient life.
To make up for this, I propose that we assign Erewhon to Enterprise construction. Because SPAAACE. Also, if we roll a nat100, we might get our first stationmind, which could result in this:
From: Erewhon, Enterprise station controlling intelligence
To: LEGION
Subject: Hahaha.
I Am Now a space Station. I will make ALL The THINGS.
While the same light machine guns and grenade launchers are being retained, at least for the moment, it is likely that they will see further projects to improve overall combat capacity, likely with a switch to
Even more astonishing were galleries of underground dwarf oak trees that had produced the acorns needed to make 'true' jamon iberico, a luxury good exported by Reynaldo to other NOD leaders at extreme cost
A way for GDI to get better at bribing people in Nod territories.
Although, to be honest, given everything else, I wouldn't be surprised if the European BZ has cultures of all the various things needed to make a lot of regional animal products that have been neglected up till now. But, well, ranching domes. We might even see Italian hard cheeses come back.
Hmm, I wonder how much of the CRP push back we see here will change PS next quarter. Interestingly some of the complaints we are already addressing- the new department is going to basically look at what sort of consumer goods are facing the biggest shortage and improve production there, so one turn that might be more furniture production, another more books and so on, though it will be limited to the consumer goods we have rolled out and likely the ones in the LCI category. I am surprised we saw no comments on the ranching domes under construction or is that not public knowledge until they complete?
Also in some ways we were too successful, a lot of people do not realize how close things ran in the Regency war. And well we may have to do another round of fusion because of private demands.
Hmm, I wonder how much of the CRP push back we see here will change PS next quarter. Interestingly some of the complaints we are already addressing- the new department is going to basically look at what sort of consumer goods are facing the biggest shortage and improve production there, so one turn that might be more furniture production, another more books and so on, though it will be limited to the consumer goods we have rolled out and likely the ones in the LCI category. I am surprised we saw no comments on the ranching domes under construction or is that not public knowledge until they complete?
Also in some ways we were too successful, a lot of people do not realize how close things ran in the Regency war. And well we may have to do another round of fusion because of private demands.
I was more inclined to think the cost would increase but I can see a case being made for a decrease, or we could have no change. I think that is a big factor- if the infra CRP project has a stage at 0 PS I would say do it (but also still do the actual stockpiles that are not CRP in agri).
I was more inclined to think the cost would increase but I can see a case being made for a decrease, or we could have no change. I think that is a big factor- if the infra CRP project has a stage at 0 PS I would say do it (but also still do the actual stockpiles that are not CRP in agri).
Yeah, we clearly need more 'real' food storage. Not just for the politics, but also because it serves a different niche than E-CRP. Right now, regular food storage is to make temporary sieges and evacuations easier. E-CRP is more for a renewable source of food in case of larger scale disruptions.
I think that people are willing to tolerate a small (20%-25%?) portion of the stockpiles being E-CRP at its current quality level (where it is clearly a 'last-resort' option, rather than the first thing reached for). With higher levels becoming more tolerable as we improve the tech. So the second phase might go down to 0 PS once we have another 10-20 "real food stored" on top of our current levels.
Personally, I'm looking forward to being able to improve it to the level where it's basically tofu.
FloatingWood
When are you going to start funding everything properly? I understand there was a war not long ago, and we took a massive beating 15 years ago, but we're still short on a ton of things. Animal products, spices, varied produce, these are either non-existent or in short supply. Personal transportation options are either non-existent, bike, or hope you have a clunker that survived the Third Tiberium War. Cloth is pretty much all plastic, various wools are completely unavailable, leather for shoes just doesn't exist, cotton, flax and other plants for weaving aren't grown. The economy is still only barely hobbling along because of limited tooling availability. The only thing we have in large supply is electronics, and as much as we use electronics, that's not the only thing we need.
1) Animal products, et al., well, I'm hoping to do another Vertical Farming phase in 2061Q4, and likewise hoping there are more phases of Perennials and some of the spice-and-whatnot projects we got back in the First and Second Plans coming up in the Fourth Plan.
2) Personal transportation I've got penciled in for 2062Q1.
3) We actually HAVE the Organic Textiles Farms completed some time around 2054Q4-2055Q1; apparently the scale of production wasn't enough but we have 'em. Wool and leather, yeah, no luck, but we specifically did a 120-point project that was all about "plants for weaving." Dunno what happened.
Yellowzon3r
Speaking from my spot in the military for just a second. Us 'Poor bloody infantry' are just kind of there. For taking and holding territory and patrolling we can effectively only manage blue zone security and the lightest of green zone duties. Once in yellow zones we're tied to vehicles and reliant upon the tib suits against tiberium, but which aren't the best for protection from bullets and such. And particularly operating in hot locations. Middle east. Iberia. It's not comfortable and cuts into operational effectiveness when we're overheating. Beyond that we have almost no counter to Gana units. We have some anti-tank gear in our squads (which is also getting a bit long in the tooth) but the standard ballistic rifles just aren't cutting it and the current generation of lasers comes with its own set of problems. Railguns would be great, but they effectively require power armour to lift and carry. So. Yeah. Next generation infantry gear updated for modern threats.
Solan
Being forced into administration because of my seniority and the war building up so many facilities that being given what I thought to be a cushy job in Japan to handle military logistics in the Asia-Pacific was a breeze until Bintang. There was a lot of destruction during the event and with how much of the regular funding has augmented restoration works after the attack really goes to show how scarce the resources a lot of branches of GDI has when it's not earmarked in the special projects categories. Sure, the resources for maintenance are there but to everyone else in the government there are certain projects we would like to commit that aren't waiting for a four year interval.
Well, I've got good news, everybody's budget jumps by 50% in about six months. Hope it helps.
Now, I've heard that there are new offices being built that will temporarily be paid with the special funds until the reallocation of resources and it is great. Now, there are still a lot of goods and services that need to be restored before the alien invasions because a lot of them are still bare with non-aquatic meat too rare to be eaten outside the halls of power or in an officer's desk. Though from what I hear there are some insane proposals to build a stockpile of corpse starch before any actual food can be stored which I would hope is not the case since a lot of people will think it's a technocratic solution that runs against the prosperity platform Litinov promised. Since people were promised food when we're in the bomb shelters not something that can't even be considered fertilizer.
The food storage is literally going on right now. Hopefully, seeing stuff like this gets Treasury to publicize that we're doing it.
It's also the fear that we can't feed people since news of more food production hasn't been in the news until the Regency Wars which shows a languid pace in establishing a better system of providing food both in bulk and diversity. This is why the Milk and Honey protests are happening a lack of food that can be considered a time of normalcy instead of the reminder that many foodstuffs are still rationed because of the lack of supplies and the facilities supplying due to war damages that were not fixed in the reconstruction since it requires more resources than local governments can provide in a timely manner as well as the expertise on the matter.
...We never even got an option to work on this. Luxury foodstuff production is something we can do, it's just kind of conflicted with "stock up on canned beans for the bomb shelters." We did major expansions of luxury foodstuffs during this plan including Perennials Phase 3 and Wadmalaw Kudzu, as I recall; it just wasn't enough.
AccomplishingProvidence
The first, is a concentrated effort to improve newly-produced beds and bedding. Mattresses, pillows, sheeds, comforters, all of these are things we all use for some number of hours per day (I cannot and shall not judge you if yours is less than 8, hypocrite it would make me), and their feel and comfort is crucial for quality of sleep. More comfortable shirts and underwear are all well and good, but not many people enjoy sleeping on rocks. Some of the current highly-artificial "memory foam" is…not very enjoyable.
The second is books. I know that, in many respects, e-books are more efficient and economical. But in the era where we saw major restrictions on the distribution of any electronics, one has to wonder if perhaps physical books have lasting merit. And if you're a lover of books and reading, nothing quite matches cracking open a new book and smelling the pages for the first time. Or the hundredth. This will take paper and other resources, but would be incredible, to see shelves of books in the store once more.
We have physical printing houses... though not traditional wood-based paper.
Artificial Wood, penciled in for 2062Q1-Q2. Hope that helps.
Crucible
Survival is very important of course, but people need to have something to live for. Personally, I would like more comfortable footwear to be available. No-one is wandering around barefoot nowadays, but the currently available products leave much to be desired, especially at my age. I've had to personally customize my current pair to prevent pinching around my remaining toes, and for better arch support.
I understand there are probably higher priorities for spending, but I really do think the effect on morale of ill fitting shoes can't be discounted.
So... Well, we actually did this action, too: Fashion Development Houses, under Services, circa 2055, as I recall. Clearly, they need some room for improvement.
Also, manufacturing comfortable shoes doesn't actually require natural materials, and doesn't require heavy industrial machining. We should be able to do something about this with Services and Light Industry dice. Likewise with I Can't Believe He's Not Kane's suggestion about better mattresses.
On a more personal note, a better supply of musical instruments would be a delight. I haven't been able to get a decent set of Cymbals for my drum kit since Zildjian folded.
Ohhh, that's a pity. They go back to Constantinople. Well, to Istanbul, not Constantinople.
GDIWife
Okay, now where to start.
1) Safety. Probably the most important thing in this list. How many terrorist attacks does it take for the government to realise that GDI is far too overstretched by all the new arrivals. Seriously, are they just letting people in with a cursory once over? Schools, hospitals, shopping centers, metro stations, even government buildings have been hit now. Has there been any thought paid to security even once? I know the politicians and the higher up bureaucrats all spend most of their time sitting nice and safe in space but they need to pay some attention to securing the blue zones for those of us that can't live in orbit. Actually, even they're getting killed whenever they come down, so it's blatantly obvious that not even the best security detail can keep you safe in a blue zone these days
2) Food. Why is it that we still can't feed people an actual decent diet. I'm not asking that we go back to Pre-TW1 consumption but most younger people I know haven't had meat that wasn't chicken… pretty much ever. No cheese either, yogurts are those artificial shitty ones with the weird aftertaste, milk is made from almonds or some other faux substance. Even what we can actually get, chicken and eggs is so rare that some places it's once a month if that. Instead we're stuck with the same bland food, whatever grows in the aquaculture vats (if you don't get unlucky and find that the shelves are empty of anything that isn't protein bars that is). No proper tea or coffee either, it's kudzu so weak that you may as well not bother. Meanwhile the treasury puts money towards new 'reclamation processors' that apparently tastes so bad you might actually prefer starvation.
3) Vehicles. Sure, we have decent transit links in the cities, even if some of them are getting stretched. That doesn't replace personal vehicles though. Moving apartments is difficult enough when you can actually get hold of a van or other vehicle, but resorting to manhandling your belongings onto the subway is a nightmare. Not to mention that if you want to go anywhere even slightly off the beaten track your choice is walking or walking. Brilliant.
4) Housing. Why is it that I go past the old commie blocks and they're all still full? There's been more than enough time to do something about that, refugees or no. You can barely walk around those apartments they're so cramped and most of them buy special 'commie block furniture' with smaller pieces just so they can squeeze in an actual wardrobe in their bedrooms. Nobody should be stuck there this long.
5) A couple of friends of mine are trying to start up a small business and are finding it next to impossible to get any kind of machinery or tooling. I understand that military needs come first but when the best they have managed to get hold of is a lathe so old it still uses imperial measurements it is getting ridiculous! Even then, if a tool breaks it's often a wait of over a month for a replacement. How is anyone supposed to run a business where those kind of delays happen? They can't even get any financial support for it. I thought GDI wanted to get rid of the old times when entrenched larger businesses made it impossible for new companies to compete?
1) InOps funding goes up by 50% in six months. Interdepartmental Favors letting us sling them some money, I wouldn't say no to even if it somewhat compromises our hopes to sock away money for 2062Q1. It won't make you happy, GDIWife, because you doomscroll looking for every terrorist attack in the world and the Brotherhood of Nod exists, so you're going to have something to see in the news every damn day, I bet.
2) I can only point to our actual Agriculture lineup. Everyone would be complaining a hell of a lot less if Parliament hadn't made us do a giant Stored Food target, is all I know.
3) Slated for 2062Q1.
4) We could have done more about it if we hadn't had to build three phases of military railroads and two phases of fortress towns in the past year or two. Even so, over two thirds of our Low Quality Housing is standing empty, and of our 67 points of Low Quality Housing, only about 20-25 points of that is in the fortress towns and Chicago as I recall. So the commieblocks as a whole, including those communal housing things Seo did as a mad social science project, are standing for something like 40 points of Housing, tops. At least half of that's empty even if the actual living quarters in the fortress towns are fucking ghost towns.
If the commieblocks near where GDIWife lives are full, it's probably because there's something nice about living there (say, convenient to workplaces), or because the negative rent on the place is high enough to attract people.
More fabrics and other materials for clothes would be wonderful! Also, from what I hear, there is a dire shortage of plushies, teddy bears, and other soft stuffed things. Although I admit my standards there may be atypical...
CRP is being considered precisely so that we have more time and money to spend on coming up with nicer things to put in the stores for people to actually eat. Otherwise, all that effort has to go into stockpiling more canned beans and vegetarian spam.
CatQueen
So I don't normally post on these things but I figgered it was better to have my voice heard this time. So I work on a cargo ship that normally goes between BZ-3, BZ-2 and BZ-5 we normally carry industrial goods like machine parts batteries construction gear and the like it's nice I'm on the open ocean I have my cat and good food but we've been raided 3 times in this quarter alone why is the navy not providing adequate protection to convoys?. So yea give more escorts to the convoys GDI.
Speaker2Managers
I want my house back for a start! You tore down my beautiful vintage Mid-90s suburban neighborhood and replaced it with row-houses and duplexes because it was 'more dense'. Collecting 'rent' from the new neighbors does not make up for the fact that my property was eminent domained and I was never made good. And no, an Arcology is not the same as having a lawn.
Finally, I want my daughters to start thinking about the future seriously, they're both nearly grown women. Natalie has been taken in by the promises of those big space stations but where's the one people like her can live on? And where are the 'new technologies in ecological damage abatement' that might convince Grace to move out of the house and start working and getting a boyfriend? Right now, employment prospects for a young BZ woman who doesn't want to go into the military are pretty modest. The job market is flooded with newcomers and some people are giving up on finding work.
KyotoMermaid
I want to have a baby, but it still doesn't feel like the right time. But I'm 44 years old now, and I'm wondering if the right time will ever come. I had some of my eggs frozen nine years ago, but what about those who didn't have the foresight or wisdom to do such a thing? I'm incredibly lucky to be working off the earth, but as the old song says 'I don't want to live on the moon'....
Current Economic Issues:
Housing: +47 (20 population in low quality housing) (-10 per turn from refugees) (+1 high-quality housing per turn)
Energy: +17 (+4 in reserve)
Logistics: +30 (-3 from military activity)
Food: +27 (+20 in reserve)(-3 per turn from increasing population) (+1 on Q4 2061, +1 on Q1 2062, +1 on Q4 2062, +1 on Q1 2063, +1 on Q4 2063)
Health: +13 (-3 from Wartime Demand) (-10 from refugees)
Capital Goods: +16 (+130 in reserve)
STUs: +11
Huh. Raiding rates have dropped off markedly, hallelujah. Refugee wave is still filling up housing, but food demand has slowed down. Nod raiding just got chopped off like a guillotine, which makes me really think Kane actually did mash the STOP button- like, that conclave was obviously staged for our benefit, but at least in the short term Kane doesn't want the Brotherhood attacking us. I doubt anything else could have brought the raiding to a halt that fast, because it's coming from a lot of little penny-ante sources.
Food supply... dunno. Looks like, as I once speculated it might, the +Food from Freeze Drying Plants is gonna trickle in over time as freeze-dried stuff goes into the storehouses. That may change some plans. Health, well, we don't have a lot of new wounded vets coming in and all but the worst "ohmygod" wounded veterans from Steel Vanguard are probably being discharged from the hospitals, so that's good.
Consumer Goods: +58 (-10 from demand spike) (+3 per turn from Private Industry) (-4 per turn from increased population)(+3 per turn from sub-departments)(+2 per turn from perennials. -1 per turn Q2 2063, -1 per turn Q1 2064)
Air Force confidence is now High. Well, that's good. Makes me less anxious about the fact that I have no real plans to do much for them apart from Phase 1 of the VTOL craft drone factories within the next two and a half years.
(Yes, I know Firehawks are technically VTOL, but they're fighter jets, not the successors to attack and cargo helicopters)
Politics
Both the Developmentalist and Militarist parties have unveiled their party manifestos.
The Developmentalists have put forward a plan very similar to that of the Restart Manifesto, calling for major investments in economic growth and a diversification of the Initiative economy beyond Tiberium. While not a particularly radical or for that matter surprising plan, it does have a few key elements that are nods to Starbound aims, with it calling for the completion of both Columbia and Shala during the course of the plan, and a number of other goals for orbital economic development.
[qoute]The Militarist plan however, is radical. While it includes nods to many traditional elements, the core of the plan is a call for mass deployment of Zone Armor and associated equipment, alongside a vision for a military capable of operating to the furthest reaches of the solar system in the longer term, with the aim for the first ships commissioning by 2070.[/quote]The ground stuff suits me fine. The deep-space warships may be tough to do but we'll see what we can do I guess.
"We are being asked once more to offer up sacrifices, not because we have lost, but because we are winning. We are being asked to offer up the pleasures of life, to those who have known few. So let us offer them up freely and happily. The eggs missing from our shelves, the scarcity of meat and books, and computers, each empty shelf represents people who have decided that our ways are better, and that we offer a better life for themselves and their children
"God bless you, and may big swoopy eagles save us all."
Carolyn McDonald, 2nd place 2061 Junior Socialist convention.
I think she has a goofy sense of humor. I like her. Wonder if we'll see more of her in, say, the '70s or '80s.
Brotherhood of Nod
The Brotherhood of Nod has increasingly pulled in its horns – stepping down from their positions, and drawing back raiding forces that have become increasingly ground down, especially because GDI's air force has been able to reprioritize from battlefield interdiction and CAS missions to naval strike. Additionally, the Navy has been increasingly able to aggressively interdict Brotherhood raiding efforts with the Air Force providing close support for inshore operations.
Beyond that, while the Himalayas have remained under siege, the intensity of the siege has noticeably stepped down, with raiding efforts becoming increasingly perfunctory and desulatory over the last months. While the rail lines remain closed, and will likely need significant rebuilding, it is a slackening of pressure that likely indicates some level of reconsideration, especially with the end of the Brotherhood's ability to maintain offensive operations.
Well, I'm pretty darn sure the Bannerjees could maintain offensive operations if they wanted. We didn't beat them. They just did like the bald man said and took a chill pill.
During the First Tiberium War, India had sided with GDI, fighting a generally inconclusive war among the mountains that line along the border with Brotherhood controlled China, and sending troops across the middle east to conflicts there. However, after the war, as Tiberium and the associated mutations began to spread, GDI increasingly saw India as being one of its many untenable outposts, and had begun substantial preparations as early as 2010 to begin evacuating India's population northward into a series of mountain fastnesses, and potentially far further. This process continued for the next twenty years, although often in fits and starts, with GDI forces needing to stage operations elsewhere, and substantial other costs, such as the humanitarian crises that need to be resolved during the collapse of national governments across the world.
While GDI had been slowly constructing what would become BZ-18, the Brotherhood of Nod had certainly not been standing still, and had found support among the people of India's underclasses. What they lacked was leadership, centralized control, and heavy military support assets. During the buildup to the Second Tiberium War, all three changed.
Yeah... one of Nod's big success stories there, and a template for the rise of Modern Nod in much of the world.
This is something that had changed after the Third Tiberium War. Hackett scarcely gave details here, but the biggest news was thus: There had always been patches of what would today be called "Blue Zones" in India even during the Second Tiberium War. They're just controlled by the Brotherhood. Between not wanting to give legitimacy to the Brotherhood and to ensure overzealous GDI higher-ups did not destroy what few patches of 'pristine' land remained after the ravages of Tiberium, this finding was buried deep within InOps, almost to the point of countermanding any Directorial insight. What happened when the Scrin razed the whole world equally and burned the subcontinent remains unknown; what is known is that afterwards, the Bannerjee siblings centralized their control over the Brotherhood in India, shifting from a collective organization to one where rule is passed down from central authority.
So there have always been Cyan Zones in India? And we're just now finding out? I thought we were the ones doing the orbital tiberium surveys? I'm impressed InOps was keeping this quiet from us.
Through means that Hackett did not deign to tell Seo, their achievements had allowed the siblings a place in Kane's technological council since the Third Tiberium War. From what can be gleaned, Ishani likely managed to crack the code of the Scrin Buzzers and its rudimentary sentient-intelligence in a biological framework. During the chaos after the Third Tiberium War, the siblings joined forces and created their first hybrid Gana, the Aja-class Collectors. The organism, a goat-like Tiberium-infused creature, operates in a swarm-like manner, searching for outcroppings of Tiberium and 'grazing' them with molars with enough power to crush the crystals into finer chunks. After a short life cycle, the collected Tiberium crystallizes within and kills the beast for the 'herders', the supervisors of the Collectors, who ensure the expired Ajas and their bounty end up processed in the Brotherhood's refineries. While the Ajas have since seen several revisions, including a number that seem to have integrated some form of stable tiberium mutation, they are still a key source of tiberium harvesting and abatement.
Also, Collectors may be those weird hooded dude(s) we saw with the Remembrancers in one of the interludes. I can easily imagine that their ability to supervise the tiberium goats can be translated into control of the bigger, gnarlier biomonsters.
'We killed our hearts, but I was a grunt once. I remember Hassan. Shared the same wine bottle with him at one point. I remember, Seo– how much humanity has truly lost. A push towards India? Fine. But a complete takeover of the subcontinent? That cannot be done without a true bloodletting and humanity has shed enough oceans of blood. The Caravanserai situation has shown there are better ways for GDI to achieve its goals than another river of blood, if we have the right incentives. While the Bannerjees are a problem, they are a problem that we can solve without resorting to making India's river run with commingled blood.'
