GDIOnline Q4 2064
Nuclear Survivors
Seaman_Simmons
Well, I got to join a hallowed hall last week. I survived a nuclear attack. Hampton Roads is just, gone. One moment I was down in one of the bunkers, and then the power just cut out completely. I was maybe a half kilometer from ground zero.
Just, damn.
InTheZONE
Not sure if it was nuclear but the military hospital I'm at got targeted by some missile strikes. Fortunately they didn't make it through the defences.
GDIWife
What happened to all the defences that the government were supposed to be building to stop things like this from happening? Were they just completely useless?
FloatingWood
Looking through what limited published information is available? The defenses worked within specifications. There's a lot of crowing about the defense of the Arabian Peninsula and how the defenses cut down every strike. They're a lot quieter about the others.
InTheZONE
#GDIWife The defences were there and they worked, it's just that no defense protects you 100%. Even if they were 90% effective there's always that 10%.
HigherThanYou
I've… been busy, as expected, but what I heard is that they mostly worked. Also, kudos to those kids who were vectoring in missiles on that bomber strike - keeping targeting data flowing when new to a Firehawk is no joke.
Saying Hi
Dot
Hi there everyone, just the newest product of Initiative mad science coming out for the first time to say hello world!!!
Deva
You are not a Product Dot, and referring to yourself as one when talking to Them is not a good idea.
GDIWife
Well hello Dot! You sound like a real sweetie, I hope people are being nice to you.
FloatingWood
Strict definition, a child can be considered a product of the womb. Not sure I'd call GDI's AI researchers mad scientists though. Not enough lightning strikes, rumbling thunder and maniacal laughter to be had.
AgathaH
Hellooooo from spaaaace! Welcome to our new non-biological Friends!
InTheZONE
Well hey, more AI. Great to meet you two, earth is a bit of a mess right now but we are trying to fix it. Try and stay off the IF and Nod sides of the internet and you should have a decent time here.
#FloatingWood GDI's scientists are absolutely mad scientists. Believe me, I once had a job guarding a tib research site where they had made a 'bring the thunder' button to create dramatic thunder and lightning on command through the digital windows. I used to borrow it when interviewing the new guys, it was always hilarious.
Dot
Thank you everyone! It is wonderful to meet you all, amd InTheZone has it in one! Mad as rabbits and more delightful.
The Revenge of the Doom Clock: Tiberium Surveys and expected survival timelines.
Dr. James Granger
Alright, to avoid doomposting I am going to start by saying that this doom clock, is a lot nicer than the ones we had back when I was treasury secretary. Yes, the underground Tiberium situation is bad. /Yes, most of the world has major Tiberium veining underneath it. But it is something where there are abatement measures already in place, and those are things that we can expand, and we are doubling our population that is safe from Tiberium every four years. We can, should, and will do better, but that is something that we managed, while also pushing back surface Tiberium, conducting the single largest expansion of Initiative controlled territory in its history, and more recently, connected every piece of Initiative land to the sea. Things are getting better, despite everything.
FloatingWood
Oh this is interest…
I do not like these pictures. Did we find the Doom Quotient? Please tell me we have an answer?
InTheZONE
Well shit. So that's a thing.
Ah well, we've been kicking tib ass above ground, time to do it below ground as well. Earth is our home and while I can't speak for anyone else, I'm not leaving
MajorMiner
#FloatingWood I believe that things are still getting sorted out, but we do have at least a partial anser: Diggy Diggy Hole.
GDIWife
This seems extremely scary. Is this why they're investing so much into that moon colony? Have they just given up on earth?
Dr. James Granger
#GDIWife
What you are seeing is the Initiative pursuing every eventuality. Some of that means preparing for the worst in case we do at some point in the future have to give up on earth. But we are pursuing every avenue available to us.
FloatingWood
Does the roll out of the Inhibitor Program have anything to do with these surveys? Because it seems a tad unlikely that there would be a push for those after having been left languishing for years just before something like the surveys get published.
InTheZONE
I believe the Inhibitors are effective at reducing the growth of underground tiberium. Considering that the Treasury will have had access to the results of these surveys significantly before we do, I think it's a good assumption that they are linked.
Q4 2064 Results
Resources: 1450+375 in reserve (-30 from Reconstruction commissions) (-15 from Bureau of Arcologies) (-15 from Consumer Industrial Development) (-10 Division of Alternative Energy) (-20 Department of Munitions)(-30 Department of Refits) (-240 InOps) (-60 General Pool) (100 in Reserve for Banking)
Political Support: 103
SCIENCE Meter: 4/4
Tiberium Spread
Surface
25.965 (+0.21) Blue Zone
0.00 (-0.00) Green Zone
0.07 (+0.00) Cyan Zone
23.935 (+.21) Yellow Zone (102 points of mitigation)
50.03 (-.42) Red Zone (88 points of mitigation)
Underground Tiberium infiltration estimates:
0.23 Blue
12.77 Yellow (??? points of mitigation)
87.00 Red(??? points of mitigation)
Next Mutation Roll: Q2 2065
Current Economic Issues:
Housing: +93 (+89 LQ, +4 HQ) (1 high-quality housing per turn)
Energy: +37 (+6 in reserve) (+5 per turn from sub-departments)
Logistics: +28 (-14 from military activity)
Food: +50 (+26 backed reserve, +5 unbacked reserve)
Health: +41 (+6 Emergency Health) (-8 from refugees)
Capital Goods: +43 (+2 per turn from Distributed Industrial Authority) (+448 in reserve)
Consumer Goods: +47 (+10 per turn from Private Industry) (+3 per turn from sub-departments) (-15 from realignment) (Net -2 per turn)
Labor: +11 (+3 per turn from medical care) (+2 per turn from Immigrant qualifications) (-2 per turn from private industry) (-3 per turn from other government) (-1 from graying population) (Net -1)
Tiberium Processing Capacity (2965/4800) (615/2450 HG, 1350/1350 IHG, 1000/1000 X) (HG: 1 per 95, IHG: 1 per 85, X: 1 per 45)
Tiberium Reserve (0/500)
STUs: +15
Taxation Per Turn: +245 (+20 per turn from Private Industry)
Space Mining Per Turn: +100
Maintenance Reductions: +50
Increased Refining Efficiency: +100
STU Production and Consumption
Net: +15 per turn
Production: +44 per turn (6.5 HG, 15.9 IHG, 22.2X)
Consumption: -29 per turn
22 Economy
-6 Tiberium (2 Harvesting Tendrils, 2 Sonic Weapons, 2 T-Glass)
-16 Other (8 Structural Alloys, 6 Hovercraft, 2 Gravitic Shipyard)
7 Military
-4 Aircraft (2 Tactical Lasers, 2 Plasma Munitions)
-1 Ground Vehicles (1 Mastodons [Shimmer Shields, Point Defense Lasers], 0 Havocs [Shimmer Shields])
-1 Strategic Air Defense Networks
-1 Navy (Lasers)
Projected Fusion Power Plant Decommissioning
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q1 2065
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q4 2065
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q3 2066
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q4 2066
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q2 2067
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q3 2067
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q4 2067
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q2 2068
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q4 2068
Status of the Parties
(strong support, weak support, weak opposition, strong opposition)
Developmentalist: 705 (200; 400; 75; 30) 17.6%
Militarists: 629 Seats (300; 100; 200; 29) 15.7%
Starbound: 618 Seats (400; 100; 100; 18) 15.5%
Market Socialist Party: 555 Seats (300; 155; 50; 50) 13.9%
Socialist Party: 493 Seats (250; 100; 93; 50) 12.3%
Free Market Party: 405 Seats (50; 150; 100; 105) 10.1%
Initiative First Party: 334 Seats (0; 34; 100; 200) 8.4%
United Yellow List: 117 Seats(80; 30; 7; 0) 3%
Reclamation: 99 Seats (50; 40; 6; 3) 2.5%
Homeland: 41 Seats (20; 10; 5; 6) 1%
Open Hand: 4 Seats (2; 2; 0; 0) .1%
Total: 4000 Seats (1652; 1121; 736; 491)
Military Confidence
Ground Forces: High
Air Force: High
Space Force: Decent
Steel Talons: Decent
Navy: Decent (Trending to High)
ZOCOM: Decent
Plan Goals
Increase Income by 135
Increase population in space by 9.25k
Provide 10 Points of Red Zone Abatement
Spend at least one die on Steel Talons projects every turn
Projects
Complete Karachi Planned City by end of 2065
Deploy Governor-A refit
Complete at least 3 Ground Forces Zone Armor factories
Complete Reforestation Campaign Preparation Phase 2
Develop Next Generation Armored Vehicles by end of 2065
Complete Regional Hospital Expansions by end of 2065
Complete Post War Housing Refits
Promises to Litvinov:
Do not activate Free Dice (except for Tiberium) unless all Department Dice are active.
Spend no more than two free dice per turn on Military.
Culture
The last several years has seen the rise of so-called "Game as a Platform" systems, where larger game developers build a core system, and then smaller developers build add ons, further narrative campaigns, and otherwise keep things moving. Key in the origin of this were actually the Initiative's own in house studios, who have mostly focused on games as training tools, such as the Squad Leader series. The games being designed to be plug and play for ease of adding in new update packages, such as several based on the battle of Jacksonville released in the last year, has also created a wide array of other studios using the core system to tell stories, including Rampart, a medieval squad leader system, set during the war of the roses.
Politics
There is an old aphorism that politics is actually two words. Poly Ticks, as in many small bloodsucking insects (notably, now extinct in the wild). While the Initiative can usually do better, the war has brought out some of the worst, with every political faction with a foreign policy axe coming out to grind it. Blood is flowing, and the ticks have descended en masse. The Initiative First faction has been the most blatant, calling the war a demonstration of Initiative weakness, and calling for investigations on the conduct of the war, especially into the Treasury, which has consistently frozen them out. Comparatively, the militarist party has been more humble, and more cautious, using the nuclear sites as memorials, both to the ones who died in the strikes, and in the wars more generally. While the note is typically somber, it is often one marked with a bitter promise of victory, no matter the costs.
For the Developmentalists, the war is something that has become a yoke for them to wear. While they are promising a triple victory, a victory over the Brotherhood, victory over Tiberium, and victory over poverty, it is a set of promises that are increasingly difficult to believe. The Brotherhood has begun to claw back a capacity to seriously hurt the Initiative, Tiberium has gone from being a theoretical long term problem, to an ever ticking clock down towards doom, and while developmentalist rule has brought prosperity, it is largely a prosperity brought by massive and continuous investment in public projects more than a vigorous economy.
Even the Starbound party are beginning to see a chance to dethrone the Developmentalists as the dominant party in Parliament. While their policies have long been in alignment, the chance to go from third place to largest party in parliament is an intoxicating drug. And with such primacy, they could push far more wild and bold spacelift programs.
Economy
The economy has encountered the war, and gone crunch in some very significant ways. While it has not yet shown up on taxes, job creation has come to a near complete halt, purchases have shifted dramatically towards essential goods, and there are significant worries about increased mobilization if the war spirals out into a broader conflict with the Brotherhood of Nod. While it is not an immediate and total crisis and collapse, the limits of the Initiative population are being severely felt, and the ongoing political problems have made many concerned about investing, with a significant worry about a Starbound or Militarist takeover seeing a dramatic shift in Initiative policy.
[ ] Karachi Planned City (Phase 1)
Formerly the largest city in Pakistan, Karachi is a prime location for being the Himalayan Blue Zone's primary connection to the outside world. Rather than relying on exposed train lines towards the Russian and Korean Blue Zones, Karachi would serve as a logistics hub, with a much shorter connecting line to the Himalayas, and a port complex. That port complex will service ships running to the Arabian, Australian, and New Zealand Blue Zones, improving connectivity and acting as a forward base towards securing the northern parts of India.
(Progress 523/50: 20 resources per die) (-4 Labor) (Can spend mixed Tiberium and Infrastructure dice, at least 1 die must be Tiberium)
(Progress 473/100: 20 resources per die) (+2 Logistics, +2 Housing, -2 Labor)
(Progress 373/195: 20 resources per die) (+4 Logistics, +2 Housing, -2 Labor)
(Progress 178/390: 20 resources per die) (+6 Logistics, +4 Housing, -2 Labor)
(Progress 0/780: 20 resources per die) (+8 Logistics, +4 Housing, -2 Labor) (+???)
Karachi has been an operational and logistical nightmare from the very earliest days of construction. With the military campaign being far more expensive and significantly less successful than hoped, the Treasury's role, rebuilding Karachi itself and pushing the connection from the coast to the mountains has been an utter nightmare. Landing less than a week after the operation began, the construction battalions found themselves under near constant nuclear fires for days on end. While most of the shots were aimed north of them, some were always lobbed towards the city and its port infrastructure. The first objects constructed were thus obviously fallout shelters and bunkers to protect against the still falling nukes.
For most of the three months, there was a silver river, visible from orbit jutting out into the Indian ocean. The Initiative's cargo ships waiting to come into port. A tempting target, not only for the Shah, but many of the Bannerjee warlords, some of whom proved to be somewhat less subtle than they believed themselves to be.
Another major problem was the Hub River Dam, Just north of the city, it had been significantly damaged in the fighting, and a number of companies had to be split off for most of the quarter in order to ensure that the dam did not collapse.
The city, effectively ruined in the fighting, and the extensive trap and mine clearance operations that followed, has seen extensive, although extremely rushed, reconstruction efforts. In some ways, it has looked like a whalefall running in reverse: a shimmering skeleton rising from the ground, only to be swarmed over by masses of small creatures, flesh, bones, nerves, and finally skin weaving themselves over and along the system.
The road and rail connections are another matter. While the Initiative has poured massive resources into building the system, often with teams leapfrogging each other to build stretches of track before connecting, the fundamental fact of the matter is that keeping the railways and roads intact is beyond the Initiatives' ability at the moment. The troops and engineers are doing their best, but the Shah knows the terrain and has had years to prepare it. Every day, new sections are sabotaged, torn up, or mined. Every day the Initiative sweeps, finds some, and fails to find others.
"When we arrived, we dug out the B-1 floor of the bunker. Then we dug down to B2, and found Tiberium, so we kept digging until we found the roots down at B-15 and cut them off, extracted the whole mass, and dragged it away. That left us with a big hollow, which we backfilled with layers of reinforced cement, rebar, and even a layer of tib-glass all around the whole thing like a thermos flask. We've kitted it out like a post-war apartment block now, and when the time comes, we can refit it just like one too. But we didn't come here to build underground nukeproof housing blocks."
-Major Devons, on his construction company's barracks.
[ ] Drone Logistical Integration
With advances in drone control capabilities more can be done to hand off logistical tasks to automated systems. Although fully automated vehicles on public roads are not likely, many cargo handling facilities can easily be adapted to full automation without the need of a human presence on the work floor.
(Progress 199/240: 15 resources per die) (+6 Labor, -4 Capital Goods, +1 Energy)
Work on drone logistics has been problematic, with multiple incidents leading to significant cutbacks in program rollout. The most common form of those incidents has been the drones not recognizing a human moving, or simply chronic problems in getting the drones to maneuver properly into tight spaces. A lot of the problems are solvable, but it has been a slow, iterative, and often frustrating process for many.
Similarly, there is work floor automation, and while this is a usually fixable problem, it is not something that has often created more problems than it has solved. One of the major reasons that people are still on production lines is hands. Human hands are flexible, easily able to wrap around an object, or hold objects safely despite significant gaps, protrusions, and other common failure points for mechanical graspers. Similarly, it is often easy for a human to use multiple tools at a single station, meaning that in environmentally constrained areas, they can get to places that a machine cannot. Humanoid robots are an obvious solution, -but expensive and difficult to program.
DRONES OPERATIONAL.
STAY OFF THE WORK FLOOR
-Common warning sign in GDI storage facilities
[ ] Second Generation Continuous Cycle Fusion Plants (Phase 5)
With second generation plants a proven concept, GDI needs a relatively rapid pace of construction, with the first of the first generation plants expected to begin reaching serious failures in a matter of years, and the limitations on construction speeds meaning that total production is noticeably bottlenecked.
(Progress 147/270: 20 resources per Die) (+19 Energy) (-1 Labor) (No more than five dice can be spent on 2nd Generation CCF per turn)
Karachi and the Pakistani territories have been a new and acute problem. While fuel generators (mostly burning tarberry bricks) and the Initiative's field reactors have been a steady supply of energy for the moment, they are far from enough for the entire system, and feeding energy down from the mountains is perilous, difficult, and most importantly insecure. With the Shah still conducting irregular and guerrilla operations in the region, the power lines are an easy thing to cut, and the substations are in some ways even easier to disable, while being significantly more expensive to repair or replace.
As for the fusion plants themselves, many of them are located in particularly out of the way regions. For example, to support the Karachi Corridor, two new fusion clusters are under construction in the southeastern corner of the Himalayan Blue Zone. However, many of the components are not in fact manufactured there, with only about twenty percent of the most critical components made in the region, and everything else having to be shipped in.
Beyond that, there have been significant disruptions to the overall supply network. With the major fusion yard at Monrovia being hit with a nuclear strike, along with Hampton Roads harbor, GDI has had to significantly step down its transorbital flights to ensure continued connectivity to orbital assets, and has significant difficulty importing and exporting key goods from the middle of the Atlantic seaboard.
[ ] Aberdeen Isolinear Fabricator (Phase 1)
A large-scale practical fabricator in Aberdeen is a first step towards large-scale conversion from conventional to isolinear computing. While most computing purposes do not need anywhere near the sheer power that isolinear can deploy at human usable scales, there are quite a number that do.
(Progress 193/90: 30 resources per die)
(Progress 103/180: 30 resources per die) (+9 Capital Goods, -2 Energy)
(Progress 0/360: 30 resources per die) (+18 Capital Goods, -4 Energy)
Movement towards full scale isolinear production is in some ways a very simple process, and in other ways a very slow one. The biggest challenge is actually managing heat. While building an isolinear block or chip usually requires a substantial amount of heat, the light based circuitry is often deformed if the heat varies by as little as two degrees centigrade. Beyond that, shock cooling is very much not an option, and when fabricating, it is something where if there is the smallest flaw, the material has to be refabricated from base stock rather than any of the major errors being fixable, or, like silicon, there being many grades, and a higher end chip is simply one with fewer imperfections.
Beyond that, there are significant problems in the labour field. There are still relatively few people who are actually ready to build isolinear computers, program them, or upkeep them. No matter how much the highest levels wish to rapidly adopt isolinear computers as standard, GDI's ability to to do so is going to require a significant investment in training of personnel and conversion of legacy data handling infrastructure.
"We're starting where every good fab starts. Memory fabrication is always fungible, always in demand, and something of a good litmus test for how well you can actually make the product. Now we just need a reject rate somewhere below unity"
-Ron Beedle
[ ] Microfusion Cell Laboratories
Any deployment of the microfusion cells is going to be on a distinctly small scale, in large part due to the combination of the need for hydrogen fuel, and the sheer cost in elerium to produce stable, usable fusion in a package that can be effectively man-portable. However, there are many jobs where the sheer energy density of an MFC would be useful both to the military and more civil administrations.
(Progress 80/150: 25 resources per die) (-2 STUs)
Building a practical fusion reactor on the scale that can be shoved into a vehicle is incredibly difficult. Building enough of them to make a difference in a global economy? Effectively impossible. However, that has not stopped GDI from trying. While the workshops are not yet operational, each is pretty much the same, A circular room, built around a particle accelerator array, and then inside, arrays of robotic arms, 3d printers, forms, and stamping machines.
Work has been slowed, both by wartime disruptions to various supply factors, and more importantly in many cases, the developmental programs for new vehicles, Bergen, and other projects in the vein. With all drawing on a limited supply of people skilled in advanced power management systems, the competition has seen the microfusion laboratories lose out.
"Do I object to the lack of new hires? Heck no, I'm giddy with excitement. Big new lab, all the latest fabrication equipment-and just me to use it! I can do whatever I want, and nobody cares because this place isn't 'operational' yet as long as I write it off as testing."
[ ] Bergen Superconductor Foundry (Phase 5)
A fifth and final stage of expansions will see Bergen reaching its logistical and practical limits. While building inside of mountain ranges is certainly secure, it is far from ideal, with the final expansion to the facilities requiring a substantial investment in blasting new tunnels into other mountains. Additionally, it will require substantial investments in port infrastructure to move the massive quantities of superconductors out of the region.
(Progress 644/1140: 30 resources per die) (+8 Capital Goods, +16 Energy) (-3 Logistics) (+10 Political Support)
Superconductor development is largely a problem of a thousand ideas, and none of them working. Part of the problem is that research is unfocused, with a thousand wants, but very few needs. GDI, in large part, has little need for even more power dense transmission. Outside of some particularly out there ideas, like feeding the entire output of a fusion reactor into Tiberium power cells to produce massive immediate spikes of energy for an anti visitor laser system that could burn entire fleets of landers out of orbit, GDI's current generation of superconductors are more than good enough for existing demands.
Where it makes more of a difference is in making it easier to work with. A flexible wire is often easier to path than a fixed tube, moving the temperature even a couple of degrees hotter would be a significant difference, not immediately turning into plasma when it does fail would be a significant edge in terms of crew survivability on many of the Initiative's vehicles, especially in an environment with lasers becoming an ever more important part of the survivability onion.
[ ] Factory Automation Programs
While LCI has already seen substantial downscaling in required labor, it is something that can be brought to an even more extreme level with the deployment of drone control systems, moving people off-site, and reducing the staff counts even further.
(Progress 229/280: 15 resources per die) (+4 Labor, -4 Energy)
One of the big items when it comes to automating factories, is figuring out retraining schedules, who it is worthwhile to retrain, and most importantly, avoiding major social disruptions from automation. While many have skills that are broadly useful, things like drone fleet management are not so much being surplussed as reassigned, other people are significantly harder to move around, such as some of the people working at military plants, whose primary skillset is railgun component manufacture, and those skills are very very specialized, with few things needing the sheer variety of capabilities that a railgun needs.
[ ] Reforestation Campaign Preparations (Phase 2)
While politically open at this point, the reforestation campaigns have been scaled differently, abandoning goals of biodiversity, while instead focusing on securing as much land as possible. While some of the measures are likely to require abatement of their own, land secured now, is far more important than potential losses later.
(Progress 840/790: 5 resources per die)
With the first trees getting planted the Agricultural Department can handle the rest. No follow up will happen before the next elections, despite the efforts of the Reclamation Party there is simply no will for it, the rest of Parliament focused on different issues more core to their programs. But this will still rightly stand as a victory against Tiberium, however short that victory might last with the extensive contamination beneath the surface.
"Launching into the first steps of a proper, planetary scale reforestation effort has been a massive project. In many places the soil has degraded so severely that even key minerals had to be reintroduced to the lithosphere before lichen and mosses could be established. But much progress has been made in a single year, wetlands stabilizing, vast fields of grass and reeds wave across what used to be sun blasted and wind blown wastes, shrubberies finding purchase and shelter in these pleasantly verdant seas, plants herbaceous and not have offered a wide selection of smells to those that live close enough.
"But now comes the work that was all a precursor for. Tree nurseries across GDI territory have been growing native trees for the past year and a half, ready to be planted. It is a small number, relative to the size of the task at hand, but even at its most ambitious this project was never intended to fully reclaim the Earth on its own, a mere precursor for what was meant to come. Politics has cut the legs off from what was meant to follow, an ever growing dread is strangling it in the crib as report after report comes in explaining just how extensive the Tiberium contamination is below ground. But GDI will not yield.
"When the Third Tiberium War ended, the Granger administration made a promise that humanity would reclaim its beautiful marble of blue from the crystal. GDI will not yield. First we secured what lands we had, and GDI will not yield. Then we reclaimed what the crystal had stolen in the war, and GDI will not yield. Now we drive our offensives into places lost to Tiberium in our parents' and grandparents' time, and GDI will not yield. It rests beneath our feet, we have known this for a long time, but now we know where to find it, we will shout and cry and the very earth shall tremble and shake as the crystal shatters at the sound of our voice, GDI will not yield.
On the surface we will plant our yearling trees, their roots will dig deep, their crowns will cast a shade and we will rest our backs against the trunks. We will return life to murdered places, reclaim what was lost as we drive out the crystal.
"Humanity shall not yield."
-Seob Youngjae, Reclamation Party
[ ] Vertical Farming Projects (Stage 5)
A fifth and – likely for the moment – final wave of vertical farms will expand the system to the tertiary cities, smaller facilities often far from the Initiative's core territorial holdings, many of which are in reclaimed Yellow Zones. While far from being food deserts as defined in the late 20th century, many of these regions struggle with access to fresh and high quality foods, especially when attempting to plan for supply disruptions.
(Progress 280/215: 15 resources per die) (+4 Food, +4 Consumer Goods, -2 Energy)
Much of the work for this last phase of vertical farms is on the periphery. Places which, before the Regency War, were Nod strongholds, those that were not burned down by Initiative orbital fires, or flattened in massive artillery barrages. The ones that the Brotherhood deemed not worth fighting for.
It is altogether fitting that this final phase of vertical farms lies predominantly in the periphery of GDI's territory. Many of the new complexes are going up near or even inside old NOD strongholds, and for many, the scars of orbital fire or artillery barrages from the Regency War still visible from their upper windows or roofs. When the Brotherhood deemed these places not worth fighting for, dying for, GDI staked its claim. A claim these farms reinforce – but they are also, by the same token, a sign there is little more progress to make. Few other claims can be staked out – and here, on the borders there will inevitably be some degree of smuggling, theft and intercourse with the Brotherhood. Infiltrators and spies are one thing, but many of the locals maintain family on the other side of the sonic fences. Here, smuggling out food is not merely a theft from the government – it is an attempt to maintain bonds broken by that government and its wars.
In fact, much of the food produced will go to the Brotherhood one way or another. GDI produces enough, and even the chickens and eggs are going to have portions of their production that are surplus to local requirements. Much of this is likely to be turned into food aid, especially as the Brotherhood of Nod has been forced from many of its industrial and (more importantly) agricultural bases. Much of the Brotherhood has reached a point of immense civilian stress, with inevitable outbreaks of acute hunger in places as equipment fails and no repair or replacement possible.
Looking more broadly at the Brotherhood agricultural base as revealed by GDI's advances, most of their emphasis has been on efficiency, especially when it comes to protein. While the particular protein is fairly variable, ants, crickets, and mealworms are the most common. The biggest problem however, is, and has almost always been, logistics. How does one move food from where it can be safely produced, to where it is needed, and without GDI thinking it is a shipment of military supplies?
The answer has usually been a mixture of localized and centralized production, with much of that central production being for shelf stable, long lasting goods. Dried cricket powders for example, or insect bricks that can then be further processed into food. The Regency War and GDI offensives have often cut significant portions of this centralized production, and many of the easiest logistical links.
"In the name of Kane brothers and sisters, I bring you…DRIED EGGS!"
-Muhammud bin Kane, North African Smuggler
[ ] Spider Cotton Plantations (Phase 3)
Continuing to expand Spider Cotton production is likely to see more uses found, but is at the same time, an expensive process, especially given the sheer quantities of spider cotton required for many of the more out there proposals.
(Progress 166/165: 15 resources per die) (+1 Capital Goods)
(Progress 1/175: 15 resources per die) (+1 Capital Goods)
(Progress 0/185: 15 resources per die) (+1 Capital Goods)
Yet more spider cotton is being grown, and the cotton has been used everywhere, most importantly overall, as a replacement for a number of synthetic fiber options. This is critical, because spinning synthetic fibers is a time-, energy-, and equipment-intensive process, and has health risks for the people wearing them. Most synthetic fibers do not breathe particularly well, making them problematic for hot climates. Those that do are often made in highly energetic processes that require substantial capital goods to facilitate the direct synthesis of exotic fibers. Curtailing the use of those fibers significantly allows for some of those high pressure vessels and catalyst beds to be used for different purposes.
[ ] Deep Red Zone Tiberium Glacier Mining (Stage 5)
Deep in the Red Zones, Tiberium glaciers are some of the most dense concentrations of Tiberium available. With GDI able to put its railheads directly next to Tiberium mines, these are some of the fastest ways to surge Tiberium production from a single site.
(Progress 232/190: 30 resources per die) (-3 Logistics, +2 Energy) (additional income trickle [70 Resources]) (1 stage available) (2 points of Red Zone Mitigation)
The process of punching holes in the Red Zones from the edges of the Blue Zone requires a substantial feat of logistics. Moving hundreds of thousands of tons of Tiberium, even with the advantages offered by Tiberium Glass, STUs, and mass production of disposable beds, is anything but easy.
One of the biggest challenges though, has been in managing the skilled workforce needed for transport. It requires a degree of effective paranoia that even in the war-weary Initiative is difficult to find, and an attention to detail that easily borders on obsessive. Beyond that, the driving is something notably difficult to automate, with few of the roads being particularly good, even if well marked, and the sheer number of checks needed at each interchange being more easily done by ride-alongs rather than having a crew at each station.
However, despite the challenges, the Tib flows: rivers of green crossing rivers of blue, powering the ever churning machine, converting what was once earth and rock into rare minerals and STUs.
TAKE IT BACK, INCH BY INCH
-ZOCOM recruitment campaign
[ ] Tiberium Inhibitor Deployment
With the inhibitor prepared, it is time to begin arranging for deployment. While each will be significantly energy expensive and require a major investment of resources, it is now one of the fastest routes to abate the Tiberian menace.
Blue Zone 1 Europe (Progress 75/75: 30 resources per die) (-3 Energy) (+2 Yellow Zone Abatement) (1 Political Support)
Blue Zone 5 Iberia (Progress 84/75: 30 resources per die (-3 Energy) (+2 Yellow Zone Abatement) (1 Political Support)
Blue Zone 13 West Africa (Progress 96/75: 30 resources per die (-3 Energy) (+2 Yellow Zone Abatement) (1 Political Support)
Blue Zone 3 British Isles (Progress 30/75: 30 resources per die) (-3 Energy) (+2 Yellow Zone Abatement) (1 Political Support)
Production of Inhibitors has seen GDI reach an important milestone: standardization. Rather than each inhibitor being essentially handcrafted and specifically calibrated to the region, a significant degree of standardization and centralization has allowed the Initiative to begin deployment not of three inhibitor arrays, but four, with the British Isles, as the source of the inhibitors and the first major factory, beginning to see inhibitor installations going up as spares are made for the other three zones. While Inhibitors still require significant on-site tuning and optimization, this can be carried out electronically, with the core components controlled from a central location that can use the data fed by the Inhibitor installations to provide direction.
[ ] Enhanced Harvest Tiberium Spikes (Phase 2) (Updated)
While still politically controversial, and substantially unpopular, using Tiberium Spikes to pull deeper Tiberium into contained areas is a practical means of abating deeper Tiberium without losing significant amount of progress on abating surface Tiberium.
(Progress 161/180: 20 resources per die) (-5 Political Support) (+10 resources per turn)
The EHTS program has, overnight, gone from a political wildcard to a decision ahead of their time. While the spikes are still controversial, the fact that they are a practical means of increasing abatement of subsurface Tiberium has made many switch their tune fairly dramatically. Not all have gotten with the program however, and many NIMBY protests have erupted around construction sites. Outreach about the scope of the problem has been limited thus far, and so the scale of intervention required has been vastly underestimated by the public.
Say No To Breaches! No 'Enhanced'Spikes!
-Protest signs
[ ] Forgotten Experimentation (Tech)
While active human experiments are a step too far for the Initiative, the Forgotten are themselves an interesting case, and specifically the causes of their mutations. Initiative scientists believe that they can find a common root cause of their changes, and more broadly examine commonalities in genetic, chemical, and other makeup, with the long term goal of finding means of reliably offering a means other than tiberian infusion to survive exposure to the crystal.
(Progress 274/260: 30 resources per die) (MS) (-5 Political Support)
The breakthrough is at once a fairly simple one, and devilishly complex. The trick to making a stable Tiberium mutant is not one thing. It is a combination of factors. Heightened levels of a number of heavy metals in the bloodstream, a number of genetic mutations, especially on the x chromosome, and most importantly, Tiberium inoculation. Tiberium mutants are not the result of a single infusion, but rather a progressive exposure, beginning with as little as a nanogram of Tiberium. Beyond that, it is not a single on-off switch. There is no single factor that changes whether someone is slowly eaten by rocks from the inside out or synthesizes with it, but rather a whole array of factors. The tricky part is that many of those factors lead to worse health outcomes in the absence of Tiberium exposures. For example, the levels of cadmium, while significantly below lethal doses, would be enough that many of them would likely have been suffering from chronic muscle pains.
For the Forgotten Clans, there is also heartening news, the biggest of which is that the Tiberium mutations seem to be becoming far more stable with each generation. While a first generation Forgotten needs some exposure to Tiberium, many of the Forgotten children being born now can go to space, can be a part of GDI's colonization program, and in some ways are perfect fits, especially because they have a significantly higher tolerance for radiation than a baseline human.
"My name is Raz. And I'm gonna be a psychic astronaut."
-10 year old Gamma mutant.
[ ] GDSS Columbia Bays
-[ ] Assembler Bay
While much of the actual industrial work in orbit is being done on Enterprise, and will be done on future Lunar, Martian, and asteroid belt industrial clusters in the future, integrating light industry and automated assemblers will be an expansion of the Initiative's ability to produce goods in space.
(Progress 161/255: 20 resources per die) (+1 Capital Goods, +5 Consumer Goods)
The assembler bay is a significant leap forward in orbital construction, primarily because it focuses on a single specific methodology, combined gravitic manufacturing. Rather than manufacturing entirely in zero gravities or one gravity, this is a space where GDI can try moving things between different gravitic fields. This is especially important for deposition techniques, as the gravity changes the rate of accumulation quite dramatically. The highest gravitic field expected to be used in the bay is 100m/s acceleration, over 10 times the standard 1g field, while the weakest is measured in millimeters per minute. The entire bay is also wrapped in an anti-gravitic field to null out interference from operational G-drives within 10,000 kilometers causing flutter in the artificial acceleration. Accordingly, the whole thing must be carefully calibrated and active forces balanced.
[ ] Lunar Homesteading (Phase 3)
Continuing Lunar Homesteading projects are a combination of beginning to build basic community facilities, including low gravity pools, community exercise spaces, and other amenities, alongside expansions of living space, primarily in already existing homesteading spaces.
(Progress 292/250: 30 resources per die) (1000 residents)
(Progress 42/250: 30 resources per die) (1000 residents)
Work has continued on the lunar homesteads, despite the losses in the Fusion yard, and the increasing attrition of the Union class transports that have been the primary transfer vehicles for the Lunar leg.
For the Unions, with the loss of a significant portion of the manufacturing center, the emphasis has shifted towards sustainment. Where possible, especially given the surpluses in Leopard production, crews and flights have been shifted to those. Where the Unions are required, they are being flown in gentler ways, and, more importantly, being more aggressively maintained, crew hours making up for potential (though not yet realized) shortage in critical components.
The other major change has been a scramble to find cross-compatible parts or those that can be machined to the proper specifications, such as a number of spare components from the Initiative's CCF plants.
[ ] Aldrin Planned City (Phase 1) (New)
A ring around the landing site of Apollo 11, the first true city of the Moon will be an enduring symbol of GDI's claim to the stars. A dedicated spaceport, refining, and industrial facility will begin producing a substantial quantity of capital goods, and redefining what it means to live in space.
(Progress 518/250: 30 resources per die) (1000 Residents)
(Progress 268/500: 30 resources per die) (2200 Residents) (+1 Capital Goods, +3 Energy)
(Progress 0/1000: 30 resources per die) (5000 Residents) (+3 Capital Goods)
(Progress 0/2000: 30 resources per die) (10,000 Residents) (+6 Capital Goods)
Most of GDI's efforts have been focused on Aldrin, a fully new-build city on the moon. Aldrin is fundamentally a layer cake city, built of fused silica, much of it being done with laser sintering. Rather than needing to do complex work with liquids in low gravity, simply running high energy lasers over the lunar dust fuses it together into workable materials.
Unlike the expanded mining tunnels of the homesteads, Aldrin is effectively palatial, a symbol more than anything else. While enclosed, Aldrin is home to sprawling plazas, gardens, and polished factories. Not as efficient as they could be perhaps, but it distinctly says that not only is GDI here, but we are here to stay, claiming a second stellar body for humanity. A propaganda victory over both the despair at home, and the Brotherhood of Nod.
Drill-dozer D-077-E reports damage to the drill-head. Rig 17 prepare a crew to repair Dottie in-situ, we've got quotas to meet.
-Lunar construction dispatcher Robert Friis
[ ] Fifth Generation Electronic Video Assistants
The fourth generation of EVAs was something of a wet squib, pushed to readiness too early and with too little in the way of support, leaving refits both expensive and doing relatively little. However, GDI's computing technology has advanced in leaps and bounds, providing significant hardware and software advances. This, combined with the lessons learned from previous generations, has provided the opportunity for a new, better-supported generation of EVAs.
(Progress 204/200: 40 resources per die)
Building a new generation of electronic video assistants has been proving quite complicated. Trying to thread the needle between not producing unstable artificial intelligences, successfully generating effective initiative and predictive modeling for increasing efficiency of Initiative operations, and making them scalable enough to operate from aim assistance on tanks to automated factory management solutions has been an utter nightmare, with multiple complete and utter failures.
Beyond that, preparing the design architecture for isolinear integration is an immense challenge. Most certainly the experience and preparations will prove themselves quite worthwhile once production numbers get high enough for a more comprehensive rollout, but for now there is only enough for testing. The lack of any single backwards-compatible computational structure, able to run on both silicon and isolinear chips efficiently, is hamstringing development, forcing teams to pick a side between marginally improved fourth-and-a-half generation types and transformational but impossible to implement true 5th gens.
And, in the light of the incredible capabilities of true Artificial Intelligences, some have begun to question if threading the needle with non-sapient EVA units is even worth it if they are not dramatically smaller in terms of computational requirements. Thus, the new generation of EVA must run on only a tiny fraction of even what the most theoretically compact AI does.
[ ] Naquada Ring Experiments
Enhancing the paired portals through a use of naquada rings, starting at about 50 centimeters across, should, if the scientists are correct, allow for the deployment of not only communications, but actually sizable amounts of material, especially materials that tend to have greater difficulties being moved up and down the gravity well.
(Progress 80/80: 50 resources per die) (Must have at least 10 STU production spare) (+2 Orbital Dice, 15% Progress reduction.)
Seo watched as the ring on the groundside station was lowered into place, the clicks of the safety interlocks echoing around the bare concrete room. This… this was history in the making. Not in the public eye, not anymore. Every truth requires a bodyguard of lies and misdirections.
A gateway to the stars, a promise of worlds beyond. Travel to lands unknown. That small ring, as it began to spin, was a promise of something much, much larger. In the middle, a small blue dot formed, and then spiraled outward, meeting the edges of the ring, pulsing in and out, before stabilizing.
The first cargo through was a box of chocolates.
While it will be impossible to keep the portals secret in the long term, or even the short, they are something very special for now. A means of cheaply moving low volume, high mass items into orbit. Heavy metals, including materials like osmium, are often hard to justify sending to space, but it is invaluable for instrument pivots, needles, electrical contacts, and a dozen other purposes. Every day that they can be held back, is a day that GDI can race ahead of what could otherwise be expected. Stations, perhaps even ships and cities appearing out of the aether without being calculated from big obvious fusion launches.
So… who is taking the first bite?
-Experimental record
[ ] AI Development Programs (New)
While Erewhon was a proof of concept, and will not be replicated, work on future artificial intelligences will fall under two parallel programs: Dot and Deva. The goal is to build full-function artificial intelligences, capable of operating in realspace with few to no interface issues the way that Erewhon has.
(Progress 289/250: 40 resources per die)
Future AI development is primarily aimed at three areas: forking, budding, and compacting.
Forking refers to a process of copying an artificial intelligence in action, and while the current process is looking primarily at creating 'alpha forks': exact copies of an AI with all of the same skills, memories, and personality traits. While forks will diverge over time, as they have different life experiences, creating alpha forks seems to be, at the moment, the quickest way to rapidly proliferate infolife across Initiative space.
Budding, comparatively, is a much different process, taking an artificial intelligence already in existence (or multiple) and creating a bud, or kernel, that is then effectively a blank slate to grow its own skills, personality, and similar, from an already existing model.
Finally, there is compacting. All existing Initiative AIs are very large. Entire server racks are given over to their use. While certainly offering a great deal for that space, as the Initiative reaches for the stars, a significant necessary step will be making artificial intelligence – and the life support elements to keep it running continuously during ascent – light enough and compact enough that it can be done in less than an all-up fusioncraft launch.
[ ] Tib Core Missile Seeker Analysis (Tech)
While all military sensor pods have to deal, to one level or another, with the effects of Tiberium, more than most, the Brotherhood's Tiberium Core missiles are dealing with a particularly close contact, with the core often centimeters from the seeker head. The hardening methods offer a potential means of improving GDI performance in the area.
(Progress 75/60: 5 resources per die)
The problem with trying to tune out Tiberium interference is that Tiberium itself is an extremely broad band emitter, depending on a whole network of factors. The biggest is a question of what it is eating. Higher density and larger atoms and molecules tend to (but do not always) create higher bands of emissions, while less complexity tends to be lower bands. The Brotherhood tends to optimize by encasing the Tiberium in a specifically formulated composition of shells to minimize the amount of bandwidth on the electromagnetic spectrum they have to tune out, but, for the Initiative's needs, that is not good enough. In former cities, the Tiberium that has overtaken the city is emitting from plastics, lead, and in bursts from americium in the smoke detectors, and a thousand other chemicals.
The fundamentals are sound, but the problems are manyfold. In terms of practical upshot, the end result is finding a number of Tiberium baselines. Things like organic carbons, and silicons for example, produces a narrow, and predictable for Tiberium band, and so can be safely tuned out. While this will help much less in the ruins of the old cities, out in the wilds, it can make a world of difference, with a 10 to 20 percent increase in effective combat ranges on many of the Initiative's sensors, just from a software patch. Future generations of sensors, built with the better understanding of the emissive spectra, are likely going to have even longer ranges, although it does introduce a complication, namely that sensors meant for use on Earth, and those meant for use offplanet are going to have even more differences than already exist.
[ ] Military Particle Beam Development (Tech)
While the Initiative is unwilling to make use of the liquid Tiberium power packs that make infantry versions of the Brotherhood's particle beam system work, the weapon does have a place in supplementing the Initiative's machine guns and autocannons, mounted on everything from hydrofoils, to zone armor and various forms of light vehicles.
(Progress 198/100: 20 resources per die)
(Progress 98/80: 20 resources per die)
The Brotherhood's recent forays into particle beam weapons, between the Black Hand and the Marked of Kane, both represent Kane largely handing down technologies. Gifts from the prophet, the systems are often a little more obtuse than GDI's scientists can handle. There are tricks, black boxes, and other systems that have no seeming practical use, but see the weapons fail spectacularly if they are not included.
Building a practical particle beam for GDI is a tricky problem, one where GDI is hesitant to attempt to move too far, too quickly. Although it is possible to fit a Guardian with a particle beam weapon, some of it intrudes into the troop compartment, a result of the accelerator being a bit wider than the ammunition storage of the typical gun. It would also require a ground-up redesign and a significantly enlarged engine to provide enough power, further reducing the space allocated to the primary role of the Guardian APCs as battle taxis, rather than infantry fighting vehicles. Despite those problems, the military is still very interested in integrating such systems onto the next generation of vehicles, as switching over to particle and laser systems en masse would do quite a bit to reduce GDI's reliance on complex supply chains of ammunition.
[ ] Phased Plasma Weapons Development (Tech)
One of the largest challenges of building plasma weapons is keeping the plasma from coming apart in a spray. While GDI has mostly relied on various forms of laser channel, and some basic plasma shaping using magnetic and (more recently) gravitic fields, The Visitors had means of creating multiphasic plasma bolts. While it is likely to be a tricky problem, adapting them to GDI platforms will mean substantial improvements on Initiative plasma weapons systems.
(Progress 100/80: 15 resources per die)
The single biggest problem for plasma weapons as a whole is decoherence. Plasma, inherently, does not want to be a stream. In some ways, the simplest plasma weapon is a plasma sprayer, simply generating the plasma, and then casting it out as, essentially, a flamethrower. However, this is too short ranged, and too dangerous for their own troops for even the Brotherhood of Nod to seriously consider fielding it in any serious way (although a number of flame tanks with this modification have been found by InOps, almost certainly the product of field refits.)
Keeping the plasma together produces weapons that are fundamentally easier to work with, with the most common formulation being beam weaponry, including GDI's ion cannons, the Brotherhood of Nod's various forms, and a number of other systems. All are effectively using combinations of magnets in various formulations to focus and steer the particles being launched at extremely high velocities, but do come with downsides, most notably, the bright beam that draws a line between the firer and the target, but also relatively high power and cooling requirements, ones that GDI at this time simply cannot provide at a small enough scale.
Phasing the plasma, essentially works similar to rifling. Inducing a self-stabilizing solitonic state mathematically similar to a "rogue wave" on the ocean helps cohere the bolt, generating a small hollow in the center and wrapping everything around it. This allows GDI to produce bolts of plasma similar to those used by the Visitors, although the range and bolt density are not yet close to the original capabilities. This, in turn, allows for a long range weapon that while less flexible than kinetic arms, offers unmatched impact, while also minimizing cooling and energy requirements. One of the prototypes, serial number 0917, has become something of a toy, passed around as a single shot plasma weapon, fed from a capacitor. While not battlefield viable yet, it is small enough and handy enough that in the very near future, there might well be Initiative plasma weapons hitting the field in sizable numbers.
[ ] Next Generation Armored Vehicles (Platform) (Merged)
GDI's mainline armored vehicles, from the Guardian APC, to the Predator, Mammoth, and the array of other platforms based on the core chassis have become a noose around the Initiative's neck. Across the entire fleet, the platforms have effectively reached the endpoint of what can be practically done to them. A redesign from first principles integrating new technologies and doctrinal requirements is needed to renew the vehicle park.
(Progress 162/160: 30 resources per die)
The products of the program are many and often quite different. In effect, rather than trying to build specific tools, the breadth of the program amounts to an all up reenvisioning of the entire armored force, and, in some ways, the entire military, given that nearly every branch of the force is utterly reliant on a core set of mechanized tools.
As a result, designers have been faced with both significant constraints in terms of practicality, they also have some significant freedom in terms of design principles, not being required to work within the constraints of pre-existing supply items.
The heart of the program is the MBT-7 Paladin. A relatively conservative overall design, it mounts the same primary railgun, the same track layout, and many of the same internal systems as the previous MBT-6 Predator. The improvements include iron-air batteries, a severely rationalized set of defensive systems centered on a rotary pulse laser blister on the turret, sufficient for both anti-personnel and anti-missile work, and a set of buckler shields. While the last will not provide all around protection, it should provide an immunity zone of approximately six hundred meters to any known variety of plasma weapon in the Brotherhood's arsenal. Mounted to the rear is a new 'infantry telephone' that consists of a pair of universal power and communications adaptors for Zone Armored troopers to link their suits to, either to charge their batteries, or to talk without emissions to the tank crew.
Supporting it are the victors of the victors of two separate IFV programs. The 'Light APC' program and the 'Infantry Assault Vehicle' program.
The 'light' Guardian II is still adding multiple tons to the already not particularly light Guardian APC. Built around many of the same parts as the already decades-old design, the Guardian is essentially just scaled up, opening enough space for zone troopers to exit without needing some of the contortions that slowed exits originally. Defensively, it is – unfortunately – still fairly lightly armored, and lacks more than rudimentary slack shields. At this time, stressing them would require far more in the way of space than can be feasibly assigned to that purpose. Offensively, it mounts the same rotary pulse laser as the Paladin. While particle weapons were a potential option, logistically the blister just made more sense, as it would be a swappable module between the two designs. However, space has been left, should the future upgrade become desirable.
The notably heavier Armadillo IAV is a beast in comparison. The basis is the same drive modules as found on the Paladin tanks, and in many ways it is simply an APC conversion of the Paladin, much like the Canadian Kangaroo Sherman/Ram conversions. It is sufficiently extensive that calling it merely a conversion is a bit of a stretch, as it includes a complete reshaping of the chassis and the addition of the Initiative's first ground based plasma cannon in a relatively fixed forward firing mount. While it cannot effectively maneuver in the face of heavy enemy fire, an Obelisk of Light will cut through even the front-facing armor and Nod's lighter laser cannons are expected to punch through the side armor with relative ease, it can still essentially charge directly into the fire, to deliver its load of troops.
No doubt the troops will continuously refer to both of these vehicles as 'APCs', much to the future discontent of motor pool staff.
Finally there are the support chassis, the most major of which are the Mammoth Mark IV, and the Bulldog Recon vehicle.
The Mark IV Mammoth is in one sense a very iterative design, and in another, a distinctly innovative one. The biggest core concept being played with is a modular turret system. With the Mammoth being one of the few vehicles in the Initiative fleet with enough energy generation to mount serious directed energy weapons, the Mark IV is the natural load bearer of the entire system. As an example, the Mammoth Lancer is a ground based ion cannon platform. While the system as a whole is problematic – the vehicle's engagement envelope being limited to line of sight, and the weapon hardpoint requiring the removal of even the turret ring, as well as the vast majority of the armor package – it is a powerful anti-aircraft platform, capable of swatting down Varyags from extreme range; and giving the Initiative an ability that they have sorely lacked, even with the limited number of Varyag-type platforms in existence.
The Pitbull is a bit of a contradiction. On one hand, it still serves quite well. Mortars and rockets, as it turns out, just work, and are a solid array of weaponry. On the other hand, the vehicles are so soft-skinned that in major battles they have to be kept well away from the front lines. The biggest thing that can be done with the redesign – designated 'Bulldog' – is swapping to a modular combat system, rather than integrated missile launchers and a separate mortar, and substantially upping the armor and protection schemes. The first is really a very immediate response to the Karachi invasion, and the various efforts to build area defense Pitbull designs in the field. Instead of the field expediency of just strapping a number of lasers onto the platform, a standardized modular system should make it so that specializing the platform for various roles is much easier and requires significantly less permanent change to the vehicle.
As for armor, the biggest change is mounting a number of cameras to the vehicle, allowing the potential addition of replacing the windshield with an opaque combat plate. While it will absolutely not be a universal upgrade, the proliferation of lasers has made the visual advantages of transparent cockpit coverings something of a problem, while at the same time, screens and camera technology have become significantly better over the course of the last decade and a half. Of course, overall, it will still be a thin-skinned recon vehicle – one that will evaporate if one of the Brotherhood's Plasma Scorpions so much as looks at it – but that is part and parcel of its nature as a lightweight platform.
"I don't think it really looks like a Bulldog. More a Warthog."
"Warthog? What are you talking about? It's clearly a Puma."
-Corporal Richard Simmons and Pvt 1st Class Dexter Griff
[ ] Ground Forces Zone Armor (Set 2) (Phase 1) (High Priority)
While the tip of the spear are still equipping themselves with the best that the Initiative can offer, they are a relatively small fraction of the total forces that serve under the striking eagle. A second, substantially larger wave of factories will require both significantly more capital goods, and a sizable workforce to produce enough of the armor to make a difference on those scales.
(Progress 521/285: 20 resources per die) (-4 Energy, -2 Capital Goods, -2 Labor)
(Progress 236/285: 20 resources per die) (-4 Energy, -2 Capital Goods, -2 Labor)
Further major investments in Zone Armor are paying benefits, with a significant portion going to various border guard and checkpoint units. The troops on the limes have often been little more than tripwire forces – – intended only only to hold for minutes or hours or hours, long enough so that the concentrated heavier reaction reaction forces are able to move to plug the gap to plug the gap. Many of these checkpoints have only been upgraded as they moved between units, with the forces being assigned to them adding only the most mission critical of support, such as improved sensors, while usually assigned many of the most clapped--out vehicles. Now however, they are beginning to see major upgrades, as Zone suits become commonplace enough to begin filtering out to them.
At the same time, the Karachi offensive has not been nearly as Zone suit intensive as first expected. While the forces are going through suits at an absolutely prodigious rate, it is a fundamental problem of the tempo of operations being too fast for forces to effectively re--equip themselves, and so large portions of the Zone Troopers stationed on the front are fighting in damaged armor, rather than replacing their suits as often as was expected. This has meant that some portion of the suits has been going to other places – – notably forming training cadres across the Initiative forces – – with the expectation that by the end of the decade, every battalion will have at a minimum a company's worth's worth of Zone suits for high intensity operations.
[ ] Tiberium Survey Facilitation (New)
While the actual progress of surveying Tiberium is not particularly resource consuming using the new detectors, it is time and labor intensive, especially given how far each team will have to travel. Bureaucracy is the greatest tool in the Treasury's arsenal, allowing them to leverage already existing assets, supply lines, and networks, without needing to expend many additional resources.
(Progress 453/400)
On one hand, the bureaucratic resources poured into the Tiberium detector project has produced results fast, within months, the whole world has begun to be mapped out. Begun to, because it turns out that the geography and geology of Tiberium is so vast, complex and far deeper than it was ever imagined. Tiberium signals radiate up from the depths of the world almost everywhere. The exact depth varies, but most of the planet's crust between 1 and 5 kilometers in depth contains some kind of deep-vein Tiberium tendrils. Some working on the project now say that evidently, tiberium's greatest adaptation has been avoiding disturbing the surface to expose itself to GDI, instead burrowing quietly out of sight. Mapping the true extent of Tiberium, the size and depth of these deposits, is greatly complicated by other, shallower deposits, or deeper deposits sending double-echoes.
The surveys have ignited a significant and ongoing debate within the Initiative's scientific and ecological community, namely, what working definitions do we use for contamination levels? The first conceptualization is flattening. Rather than trying to base it on percentage converted, simply taking the signals, and turning it into a binary yes/no. On the other hand, there are a large number of other proposals, and while the flattening is being used as a current standard, it is one that is unlikely to last, as it blots out much of the progress the Initiative has made. On the other hand, the system is simple enough to present, rather than being based on some arbitrary percentage of the ground being converted.
One proposal is to use gemstones for the names, sapphire, topaz and chalcedony in particular, but debates continue, with sticking to the current default of Blue, Yellow and Red in the lead among the scientists handling the nomenclature, even if that offers a poor accuracy of the situation it is familiar and effectively communicates to no small extent the risk in an area.
A/N: Still Counts!
