Attempting to Fulfill the Plan: GDI Edition

DecaffeinatedOwl · Aug 28, 2021

Chimeraguard said:
Moving onto other subjects, I think for the rest of Military spending this plan, we should get at least one Shell Plant phase done, and probably an Ablative Phase, but after that, I'm thinking we save our investment into Consumables for early next Plan.

Because we know that, as usual, start of next plan will see us in a resource crunch. And also probably have a Mandate from the Militarists to keep a minimum amount of Dice on Military each turn (and should probably endeavor to do so even if there isn't a mandate.) Since Shells and Ablative are both 10 Resources per Die, we can use them to cover that demand, and we'll need to build them up heavily for whenever we launch our next push anyway.

Does that mean we would do tube artillery next quarter? On the off chance that we'd have to refit our shell plants?

Or should we just ignore tube artillery until the military yells at us again?

Void Stalker · Aug 28, 2021

Jadankorr said:
The turn results explicitly say a surge of resources is needed and calls it out as critical,

I can move a dice from arco over to rails

Chimeraguard · Aug 28, 2021

TripleTango said:
Does that mean we would do tube artillery next quarter? On the off chance that we'd have to refit our shell plants?

Or should we just ignore tube artillery until the military yells at us again?

Next Quarter I'm hoping to start on the next phase of Shell Plants. I'm not sure when exactly we'll be able to fit in next-gen tubes though. Right now we're still in the stage of patching up the largest and most obvious holes in the military.

tenchifew · Aug 28, 2021

[X] Plan Finishing Rollouts with URLS and Spider Cotton
[X] Plan Sorry Carter

Simon_Jester · Aug 28, 2021

Manowl said:
People what to buy nice if they can't get nice stuff they get angry and will vote for the parties that will say that they will get the nice stuff and that sounds like the racist party that wants us to become isolationist Will use that so basically you're giving them free stuff to get more people to vote for there racist policies?

Honestly, I think it's not the racist/isolationist Initiative First party I'm worried about there, it's the Free Market Party. Or worse yet, the Market Socialists breaking with the Developmentalist/Socialist/Starbound bloc and caucusing with IF and the FMP on economic issues just because they feel that Treasury has too much control over the economy and is abusing it in a hamhanded manner, though I kind of doubt that outcome will fully materialize.

HousePet said:
I know I slept late, but there was still over 10 pages of posts. I need an EVA to summarise...

Personally, I do not see enough reasons to chase Mecca/Jeddah right now.

Ongoing aggressive progress seems to be a requirement for our efforts to sway local factions to our side. If we press "pause" we give Nod time to run around shoring up their political positions and pressuring any independents or weakly associated Nod warlords that might want to flip to us.

Still unsure about trying to push URLS through when we have so many other ongoing deployments and shortages to deal with.
Would prefer to defer that a quarter as well.

The big problem with that is that Nod is really feeling their oats in the air as their production of hypermaneuverable fighters picks up. They're doing Ace Combat "outturn all the missiles" shit these days.

TripleTango said:
Does that mean we would do tube artillery next quarter? On the off chance that we'd have to refit our shell plants?

Or should we just ignore tube artillery until the military yells at us again?

Refitting shell plants is likely to be relatively easy. First off, we'll still have all the old artillery guns, which will be quite capable of using the old shells, and we're unlikely to abandon the existing old gun calibers so even many of the new guns will be compatible with the old ammunition.

If we get a shell plant refit option, it's unlikely to be critical in that it will either be small (add a production line for the seeker heads of a guided shell), or optional (do this to improve production of the new types without having to build more factories instead).

Lightwhispers · Aug 28, 2021

Other fun things that have been speculated on in Discord:
Shimmer Shields may have many non-military applications. For instance, in SPACE! Radiation and micrometeorite protection, both for space stations and surface bases. Possibly usable for retaining atmosphere, but that's speculative. It is also, a fair ways down the road, likely to be incorporated in military fusion plants to allow higher power density with less volume.

Jadankorr · Aug 28, 2021

I think theres space for Shimmer shields next turn, and we should probably just take it even if we dont deploy it militarily, just so the civilian applications (like improving Fusion power) start ticking over in the background.

Chimeraguard · Aug 28, 2021

Simon_Jester said:
The big problem with that is that Nod is really feeling their oats in the air as their production of hypermaneuverable fighters picks up. They're doing Ace Combat "outturn all the missiles" shit these days.

Hmm... Ace Combat in the Tiberiumverse sounds like it could have potential.

Manowl · Aug 28, 2021

Chimeraguard said:
Hmm... Ace Combat in the Tiberiumverse sounds like it could have potential.

It sounds insane right off the bat and Ace combat is at its funnest when it's going full insane.

HousePet · Aug 28, 2021

Chimeraguard said:
We need to keep Mecca/Jeddah going steadily because doing so is supporting InOps work to flip the local warlords, which would be a huge win for us. There was a blurb back in the Q3 results last year about how they need Granger to keep up the work developing Mecca, otherwise they could run into issues.

How about the latest blurb indicating that further action will cause conflicts?

Ithillid said:
One thing is certain, however: GDI's attempt to influence the Caravanserai has been noted– and though most NOD Warlords outside of Mecca are liable to take a 'live and let live' attitude so long as their quota systems are kept in place- others will take a forceful stance on it.

Is that something you want to drip feed investment into?

Chimeraguard said:
As for URLS, the last few turns have seen us facing not only an increasing amount of Barghests in the sky, but also more and more aggressive Vertigo bomber strikes. So we want URLS, because URLS gives us QAAMs for shooting down NOD's new aircraft, which should swing the air war back in our favor.

I don't disagree, but we are dragging our feet on a deployment that is almost two years late.

Blazblade · Aug 28, 2021

Manowl said:
It sounds insane right off the bat and Ace combat is at its funnest when it's going full insane.

If we end up having the know-how to build some of AC's superweapons, I expect that the Scrin will find things more difficult when they come back.

DecaffeinatedOwl · Aug 28, 2021

Simon_Jester said:
Refitting shell plants is likely to be relatively easy. First off, we'll still have all the old artillery guns, which will be quite capable of using the old shells, and we're unlikely to abandon the existing old gun calibers so even many of the new guns will be compatible with the old ammunition.

I swear there was a clarification on Discord that we would be replacing the 152mm smoothbore guns (originally tank guns pressed into the role) with a 155mm rifle--presumably with bagged or semi-fixed charges instead of fixed charges.

I couldn't say if a slightly thicker driving band would suffice for converting old shells to the new standard, or if bagged charges would be so much easier to produce than fixed cartridges that it just disappears into the deployment cost--but none of this sounds exactly backwards compatible.

The mortar tubes might stay the same, and there might be some specialty guns retired or introduced, but I think its the 155mm rifle that's going to be the star of the show, and the cause of our biggest changeover headaches.

Blazblade said:
If we end up having the know-how to build some of AC's superweapons, I expect that the Scrin will find things more difficult when they come back.

We've already tried the ion cannons on them. Didn't really help.

"AC Superweapon" is a bit of a step down, I think.

Lightwhispers · Aug 28, 2021

Two pieces of information regarding the practicalities of doing Grants:
1) LCI grants will involve non-Resources costs eventually, but "not for a while".
2) There will be a vote on how to target grants, likely a choice of whether to focus on new companies, existing companies, or no focus.

Exact details are subject to change, as always, until things actually happen.

Simon_Jester · Aug 28, 2021

TripleTango said:
I swear there was a clarification on Discord that we would be replacing the 152mm smoothbore guns (originally tank guns pressed into the role) with a 155mm rifle--presumably with bagged or semi-fixed charges instead of fixed charges.

I couldn't say if a slightly thicker driving band would suffice for converting old shells to the new standard, or if bagged charges would be so much easier to produce than fixed cartridges that it just disappears into the deployment cost--but none of this sounds exactly backwards compatible.

The mortar tubes might stay the same, and there might be some specialty guns retired or introduced, but I think its the 155mm rifle that's going to be the star of the show, and the cause of our biggest changeover headaches.

That's a fair point. On the other hand, the war situation being what it is, we won't be able to afford to truly retire the old 152mm guns, just push them into rear-line duties and mount them on turrets around fortress towns and so on. So we'll have to go on manufacturing ammunition for them anyway, necessitating that a sizeable proportion of the existing shell plants remain in service producing essentially the same ammunition.

There'll definitely be a retooling, I just don't expect it to be all that painful of an exercise.

Ithillid · Aug 28, 2021

Simon_Jester said:
There'll definitely be a retooling, I just don't expect it to be all that painful of an exercise.

This pretty much. And it will be folded into and a fairly minor part of getting the guns into production. Because the guns are the actual hard part.

Helher · Aug 28, 2021

[X] Plan Sorry Carter

aeiou! · Aug 28, 2021

[X] Plan Sorry Carter

Ithillid · Aug 28, 2021

Lightwhispers said:
1) LCI grants will involve non-Resources costs eventually, but "not for a while".

This is not exclusive to grants. Other people having the funding to do things equals them putting demands on some of your indicators. The military and other departments went on a major hiring spree right at the beginning of the plan.

TheFourthman · Aug 28, 2021

[X] Plan Sorry Carter

Dmol8 · Aug 28, 2021

[ ] In the Eye of the Maelstrom v1.1:
Infrastructure 5/5 dice:
-[ ] Blue Zone Arcologies (Stage 2) 35/600: 15 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 15 Resources
-[ ] Rail Link Reconstruction (Phase 3) 143/300: 15 Resources per Die, 2 Die = 30 Resources
-[ ] Mecca/Jeddah Planned City (Phase 3) 55/640 20 Resources per Die, 2 Die = 40 Resources
Heavy Industry 5/5 dice:
-[ ] Synchronized Cycle Fusion Plants 314/350 20 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 20 Resources
-[ ] North Boston Chip Fabricator (Phase 4) 288/1200 15 Resources per Die, 4 Die = 60 Resources
Light and Chemical Industry 4/4 dice:
-[ ] Chemical Fertilizer Plants 0/200 15 Resources per Die, 2 Die = 30 Resources
-[ ] Superconductor Foundries 171/200 30 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 30 Resources
-[ ] Johannesburg Myomer Macrospinner (Phase 3) 325/360 20 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 20 Resources
Agriculture 3/3 dice:
-[ ] Yellow Zone Purification Facilities (Phase 1) 0/160 10 Resources per Die, 2 Die = 20 Resources
-[ ] Wadmalaw Kudzu Development 0/40 20 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 20 Resources
Tiberium 5/5 dice:
-[ ] Yellow Zone Tiberium Harvesting (Phase 5) 226/350 20 Resources per Die, 2 Die = 40 Resources
-[ ] Mecca/Jeddah Planned City (Phase 3) 55/640 20 Resources per Die, 2 Die = 40 Resources
-[ ] Security Reviews Tiberium
Orbital 3/3 Dice:
-[ ] Gravitic Drive Deployment ???/??? 30? Resources per Die, 2 Die = 60 Resources
-[ ] Orbital Cleanup (Stage 5) 42/90 15 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 15 Resources
Services 4/4 Dice:
-[ ] Mental Healthcare Training Programs 91/200 10 Resources per Die, 2 Die = 20 Resources
-[ ] Expand Medical Schools 0/300 10 Resources per Die, 2 Die = 20 Resources
Military 5/5 Dice + 4 Free Dice:
-[ ] Long Range Sensor System Deployment (phase 1) 171/200 25 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 25 Resources
-[ ] Super MARV Reclaimator Fleet (RZ-7 North) 167/210 20 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 20 Resources
-[ ] Remote Weapons System Deployment Predator 151/350 10 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 10 Resources
-[ ] Ablat Plating Deployment (Stage 4) 45/200 10 Resources per Die, 3 Die = 30 Resources
-[ ] Governor Class Cruiser Shipyards 0/200 20 Resources per Die, 2 Die = 40 Resources
-[ ] Havoc Scout Mech Development 0/30 10 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 10 Resources
Bureaucracy 3/3 + 2 Free Die:
-[ ] Security Reviews Tiberium 2 Die
-[ ] Security Reviews Bureaucracy 1+2 Die
6/6 Free Dice
Resources 85+80+80+40+80+75+40+135 = 615/615

[ ] In the Eye of the Maelstrom v1.2:
Infrastructure 5/5 dice 90 Resources:
-[ ] Blue Zone Arcologies (Stage 2) 35/600: 15 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 15 Resources
-[ ] Rail Link Reconstruction (Phase 3) 143/300: 15 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 15 Resources
-[ ] Mecca/Jeddah Planned City (Phase 3) 55/640 20 Resources per Die, 3 Die = 60 Resources
Heavy Industry 5/5 dice 80 Resources:
-[ ] Synchronized Cycle Fusion Plants 314/350 20 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 20 Resources
-[ ] North Boston Chip Fabricator (Phase 4) 340/1200 15 Resources per Die, 4 Die = 60 Resources
Light and Chemical Industry 4/4 dice 80 Resources:
-[ ] Chemical Fertilizer Plants 0/200 15 Resources per Die, 2 Die = 30 Resources
-[ ] Superconductor Foundries 171/200 30 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 30 Resources
-[ ] Johannesburg Myomer Macrospinner (Phase 3) 325/360 20 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 20 Resources
Agriculture 3/3 dice 40 Resources:
-[ ] Yellow Zone Purification Facilities (Phase 1) 0/160 10 Resources per Die, 2 Die = 20 Resources
-[ ] Wadmalaw Kudzu Development 0/40 20 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 20 Resources
Tiberium 5/5 dice 80 Resources:
-[ ] Yellow Zone Tiberium Harvesting (Phase 5) 226/350 20 Resources per Die, 2 Die = 40 Resources
-[ ] Mecca/Jeddah Planned City (Phase 3) 55/640 20 Resources per Die, 2 Die = 40 Resources
-[ ] Security Reviews Tiberium
Orbital 3/3 Dice 60 Resources:
-[ ] Lunar Regolith Harvesting (Phase 1) 83/350 30 Resources per Die 20 Resources per Fusion Die, 3 Fusion Die = 60 Resources
Services 4/4 Dice 40 Resources:
-[ ] Mental Healthcare Training Programs 91/200 10 Resources per Die, 2 Die = 20 Resources
-[ ] Expand Medical Schools 0/300 10 Resources per Die, 2 Die = 20 Resources
Military 5/5 Dice + 4 Free Dice 145 Resources:
-[ ] Long Range Sensor System Deployment (phase 1) 171/200 25 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 25 Resources
-[ ] Super MARV Reclaimator Fleet (RZ-7 North) 167/210 20 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 20 Resources
-[ ] Remote Weapons System Deployment Predator 151/350 10 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 10 Resources
-[ ] Ablat Plating Deployment (Stage 4) 45/200 10 Resources per Die, 3 Die = 30 Resources
-[ ] Governor Class Cruiser Shipyards
--[ ] Dakar (Progress 0/200: 20 resources per die) (- Capital Goods, -- Energy, - Labor) 3 Dice = 60 Resources
Bureaucracy 3/3 + 2 Free Die:
-[ ] Security Reviews Tiberium 2 Die
-[ ] Security Reviews Bureaucracy 1+2 Die
6/6 Free Dice
Resources 90+80+80+40+80+60+40+145 = 615/615

These plans are not ready yet, but do have ideas I want to use. So for now this is just me copying over two versions of my plan that were liked before the new options came out. The 1.1 version hasn't calculated fusion dice and isn't updated to the new terms yet and the 1.2 version has some stuff in it I no longer support.

Simon_Jester · Aug 28, 2021

The good news is, we can get a lot of Capital Goods out of Nuuk starting in, oh, probably 2059 or early 2060, when we have the Resources to spare to work on it in a good way. Sinking some of those Capital Goods back into Labor-saving industrial actions is probably feasible.

Dmol8 said:
[ ] In the Eye of the Maelstrom v1.2:
Infrastructure 5/5 dice 90 Resources:
-[ ] Blue Zone Arcologies (Stage 2) 35/600: 15 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 15 Resources
-[ ] Rail Link Reconstruction (Phase 3) 143/300: 15 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 15 Resources
-[ ] Mecca/Jeddah Planned City (Phase 3) 55/640 20 Resources per Die, 3 Die = 60 Resources
Heavy Industry 5/5 dice 80 Resources:
-[ ] Synchronized Cycle Fusion Plants 314/350 20 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 20 Resources
-[ ] North Boston Chip Fabricator (Phase 4) 340/1200 15 Resources per Die, 4 Die = 60 Resources
Light and Chemical Industry 4/4 dice 80 Resources:
-[ ] Chemical Fertilizer Plants 0/200 15 Resources per Die, 2 Die = 30 Resources
-[ ] Superconductor Foundries 171/200 30 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 30 Resources
-[ ] Johannesburg Myomer Macrospinner (Phase 3) 325/360 20 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 20 Resources
Agriculture 3/3 dice 40 Resources:
-[ ] Yellow Zone Purification Facilities (Phase 1) 0/160 10 Resources per Die, 2 Die = 20 Resources
-[ ] Wadmalaw Kudzu Development 0/40 20 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 20 Resources
Tiberium 5/5 dice 80 Resources:
-[ ] Yellow Zone Tiberium Harvesting (Phase 5) 226/350 20 Resources per Die, 2 Die = 40 Resources
-[ ] Mecca/Jeddah Planned City (Phase 3) 55/640 20 Resources per Die, 2 Die = 40 Resources
-[ ] Security Reviews Tiberium
Orbital 3/3 Dice 60 Resources:
-[ ] Lunar Regolith Harvesting (Phase 1) 83/350 30 Resources per Die 20 Resources per Fusion Die, 3 Fusion Die = 60 Resources
Services 4/4 Dice 40 Resources:
-[ ] Mental Healthcare Training Programs 91/200 10 Resources per Die, 2 Die = 20 Resources
-[ ] Expand Medical Schools 0/300 10 Resources per Die, 2 Die = 20 Resources
Military 5/5 Dice + 4 Free Dice 145 Resources:
-[ ] Long Range Sensor System Deployment (phase 1) 171/200 25 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 25 Resources
-[ ] Super MARV Reclaimator Fleet (RZ-7 North) 167/210 20 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 20 Resources
-[ ] Remote Weapons System Deployment Predator 151/350 10 Resources per Die, 1 Die = 10 Resources
-[ ] Ablat Plating Deployment (Stage 4) 45/200 10 Resources per Die, 3 Die = 30 Resources
-[ ] Governor Class Cruiser Shipyards
--[ ] Dakar (Progress 0/200: 20 resources per die) (- Capital Goods, -- Energy, - Labor) 3 Dice = 60 Resources
Bureaucracy 3/3 + 2 Free Die:
-[ ] Security Reviews Tiberium 2 Die
-[ ] Security Reviews Bureaucracy 1+2 Die
6/6 Free Dice
Resources 90+80+80+40+80+60+40+145 = 615/615

These plans are not ready yet, but do have ideas I want to use. So for now this is just me copying over two versions of my plan that were liked before the new options came out. The 1.1 version hasn't calculated fusion dice and isn't updated to the new terms yet and the 1.2 version has some stuff in it I no longer support.

Problems with this plan- yes you may have already spotted some of them.

1) It does not address the need for the URLS rollout, so Nod is going to continue to get stronger in the air relative to GDI in the coming turn and it won't be until at least 2057Q3 that we can start to turn the tide. Ablative plating is highly desired, don't get me wrong, but it may be best to put it off to make that happen. On the other hand, maybe you have the right of it- maybe it'd be better to do something we can afford to invest only three dice in as our main defense project apart from shipyards this turn, so that we can "clear the air" by finishing off other projects (the MARV and the sensor phase). Although in that case it might make more sense to split your dice and throw two-and-two at Predator RWS and Ablatives, respectively.

2) Your plan does not take into account the very popular desire to immediately develop and do everything in our power to deploy the tiberium mutation inhibitor. The mutation inhibitor is tremendously important and while we may not be able to fully put it into practice in a timely manner due to costs, it would really help us to get it done as soon as possible and delay as many mutation rounds as possible. Of course, it's not your fault this is missing from your plan; you didn't know the option would be available.

3) It has become clear that Rail Link Reconstruction is an urgent, time-critical project, because working on the project slowly represents a lot of single-track railroad lines being shut down for extended periods while we do repairs and upgrades on the line. This is bad for our economy and will likely cause military disruption. We need to surge this project, committing as many dice as feasible to make it happen. We can avoid political fallout from diverting the Arcologies die to Rail Links this turn, and you would be well-advised to consider diverting one of the Infrastructure dice you've allocated to Mecca as well.

4) There's widespread popularity for doing a review of the Bureaucracy department itself this turn, because we have plans to do something important with it fairly soon and because it doesn't force us to lock down dice from other projects.

aceraptor · Aug 28, 2021

[X] Plan Sorry Carter

Dmol8 · Aug 28, 2021

Simon_Jester said:
2) Your plan does not take into account the very popular desire to immediately develop and do everything in our power to deploy the tiberium mutation inhibitor. The mutation inhibitor is tremendously important and while we may not be able to fully put it into practice in a timely manner due to costs, it would really help us to get it done as soon as possible and delay as many mutation rounds as possible. Of course, it's not your fault this is missing from your plan; you didn't know the option would be available.

Actually I suspected that there would be the Tiberium Mutation Inhibitor option hidden behind the Tiberium Inhibitor so I've left a "loose" die I could transfer to it in each of my plans. I just need to do it and recalculate for some new additions including the Yellow Zone Fortress Towns instead of the Tidal Plants.

BoSPaladin · Aug 28, 2021

Illusion of Eris said:
I'm sorry, but I'd appreciate a touch less strawmanning. My specific words were because some people were legitimately arguing for private water, rails, and electricity, as well as private military materiel production. Due to this, I have suddenly become rahter sure that those people will do their best to take grants way fucking further than I, or I think most of us want. Thus, I don't want to risk them gaining ground.

Durabys said:
All Utilities and natural occurring monopolies won't get out of our hands. EVER. I will veto any plan that does that. Not just vote for another plan, but cursing up a storm about such a plan and its poster.

Fucking this.

For fucks sake. Even during Boyle's Treasury, utilities and natural monopolies hadn't been made private. And that fucking bastard was Right-FMP who flirted with Proto-IF ideology.

F0lkL0re said:
3. The person who went on that track in discord is a bit of a troll so don't pay too much attention to them

Uhhh. Hi?

First. I'm not trolling. But. Little context, as I've said before. Here in the UK, private water, electricity, gas, and rails is you know, the norm. And for the record, in my opinion privatising rail was a mistake, at least in large part due to how it was handled, but that's neither here nor there. I mention it to make the point that I'm not a free market purist who believes in privatising everything and that the invisible hand shall sort all out. Unrestrained capitalism, leads, in most examples we've seen through history, to powerful monopolies. Which, with a lack of competition then often leads to drops in quality, spikes in prices and so on. Capitalism can be bad.

But let's address these concerns in particular shall we? Water. Here's the thing. People want to keep water solely under government control? Fine. But build water. yellow zone water purification has been sitting there with absolutely 0 interest. We don't *need* it right now because there's enough to cover water needs and the small amount of yellow zone food production. But, i'd like to secure more water in the yellow zones and if it's not something the treasury considers essential, then I'd be fine with opening a well regulated market for private companies to purify and sell water, keeping to all health and quality checks the government requires.

I've said repeatedly. Grants are us extending trust to the market, if they abuse that goodwill and trust we can and should sanction them harshly.

Nowhere is the above more true than water. If they cannot keep water clean and safe then I am wholly willing to fine them into the ground and hand out prison sentences or further punishments if needed. regarding specifically pricing. We're not selling off our own purification plants, we're keeping those and so can set a baseline. Private companies won't be able to charge too much more than us for simple fact is, why would people pay more if we're an option?

All of which is besides the point since the GM noped grants for water. And, there are good in universe reasons for this too. Nod attacked food, it's likely they'd try to attack water. Thus, it's probably smart to keep water in government hands so we can protect it. That said the concept of selling water isn't "Insane" or "trolling". It's fairly normal. There's regulations and laws in place. Both IRL and in quest, so we can prevent any attempted abuses.

Electricity. We're having issues creating enough power. Again, if they can create power plants according to regulations and safely, such as solar, wind or hydroelectric power, if corporate entities want to create more power and sell it. (again, with the governments own power plants generating electricity in competition, providing a soft cap for prices, not to mention we can legislate hard limits to prevent predatory pricing as well)

Beyond that, there's stuff like personal car factory's which haven't been touched all game. And we know there's a grey market for car parts. But if players don't want to spend the time and dice to create automobile factory's then we open up that industry to the private market for them to make cars. Once again regulated.

Lastly. Military industrial complex. Setting aside that the GM has noped it. It's not that outlandish an idea. Multiple major nations have a military industrial complex. Selling guns, tanks, planes, ships. We've got loads of areas we need to invest in. My argument is why not let them spend the time and money on developing weapons and building the factories, and if needed, we buy what we want. Apart from that... Selling to warlords.

Not as bad as it sounds actually. Again, multiple nations sell weapons, or provide aid to military allies. And we'd be selling to either non-aligned warlords, the independents. Or Nod warlords we can work with. Similar to the qatarists, or those in the middle east. Something else to take into account is nod hardliners will likely attack those who align themselves with us. So, we need to either protect, or arm our allies. It's also treating those not a part of GDI as peers, and showcasing benefits of working with us. They want to buy weapons, they can. What are they going to be buying them with? Well. Probably tiberium they've mined. We'd be subsuming their own harvesting and abatement by stepping into the role of taking the tiberium and manufacturing it into stuff the minor warlords want, that currently Nod is occupying. not to mention. GDi has a long history of working with and Arming 'Friendly' nod warlords like Hassan and Marcion. Warlords who can either be convinced to leave GDI alone, or who can be coerced into working with us.

Now, a lot of the above the GM has said is either not viable, not possible. Not our department. Or whatever other reason certain stuff can't be done after i suggested/asked if we could try some of this.

But my tldr: is this. GDI has strong regulations, we've consistently voted to support laws and to weaken the free market parties influence. And in my opinion they're pretty well cowed and under our control, or at least diminished to where they're not as powerful as they used to be. That being the case, we've got a variety of newer smaller businesses, family trades, co-ops and so on. Grants don't automatically go to line billionaires pockets as they cackle about selling faulty zone suits to GDI. We can support small businesses, our co-ops and start ups. The Plan has consistently rated certain stuff as not worth our time, some options have stuck around for extended periods of time. If we're not going to do them, why not open contracts for someone else to handle it? And beyond all else, light industry grants for consumer goods? Our citizens want consumer goods. It's all very well to talk about a nebulous 'economy' but that represents people. People who until recently were making do with patched clothes. People who've had their homes and possessions destroyed. Call it shallow consumerism if you want, but consumer goods aren't simply a thing our people scream that they want and throw tantrums for every now and again. They're things that make their lives more enjoyable and/or easier. Things they want. Things low priority for the government perhaps, but they're things people are willing to pay for. Thus, the market and grants.

TheFourthman · Aug 29, 2021

Ithillid said:
But the most significant are the inhuman. Dubbed the Afanc-class Bioweapons, it had been one of the main threats that Gideon introduced in the Battle of Chicago. The InOps had released their specs on the third-to-last major FOIA requests from the government watchdogs, so I will be brief. They were tough accounting for their frames. Body shapes and sizes had varied armament, most typically an array of laser weapons, however, though the most common had crocodilian frames. Their carapaces are unnaturally tough, a latticework of Tiberium and alloyed metal tough enough to require sustained autocannon fire to bring down. Their weapons were mostly externally expressed, with autocannons and laser weapons that were occasionally remote-operated. Others had internalized weapons, with laser-emitters emplaced within their maws that fires beams with enough width to bisect your average soldiers. The rest of the specs can be read in full- but that was the broad summary of it.

Except for one bit. Their DNA traces belonged to an amalgam of species not native to the Americas. The common pattern, as the matter of fact, belonged to Crocodylus palustris, the mugger crocodiles native to India. It was here that we first learned of the true danger the subcontinent had in store, but that's a tale for another time. For the time being though, the attack on Chicago signified two things. That in a full press assault, we will always prevail against the might of one major Warlord. But the second is that even in the absence of Kane's direct hand, and after all the well poisoning we did with General Hassan, the Warlords have shown cooperation in a worldwide manner. From the Afanc, the proliferation of Barghests, to even the Falak– it is a hallmark that NOD has as much capacity as us to innovate.

This is deeply disconcerting. So we're not just looking at cybernetic human nightmares. They're shifting through the animal kingdom as well.

Ithillid said:
However, the Brotherhood does seem to be having something of a crisis of faith. While warlords are often very reluctant to put down their weapons, a handful of smaller warlords have surrendered in the past quarter, apparently deciding that a retirement in the Initiative was better than service to another warlord

This isn't the best sign I've seen in a while.

I'm curious though. So basically they throw down weapons. Then what? The spooks pump them for info? Then they live in a Green zone?

Ithillid said:
The Caravanserai

This is very interesting.

I'll be curious to see if they are traders as well or merely ferrymen for those wishing to take their journey to Mecca. Either way we're probably looking at one of the communication hubs for the brother. Perhaps unintentionally at that.

Ithillid said:
At this point, Green Zone has gone from being a joke to an actually significant part of the earth's surface. When the zone system was established, it was a term of contamination, not political lines. However, by the late 2030s, it had become a separation. Blue Zones were GDI, Yellow Nod. With large areas of the Yellow Zones now under GDI control, a proposal to officially separate green and yellow zones has been put forward in Parliament. While it is still under consideration, all signs point towards passage in the coming months, both as a further thumb in the eye of the Initiative First party, and an attempt to reduce what discrimination exists against Yellow Zones in the Initiative.

This is a big shift. Hope we see the days green zone becomes a blue one.

Ithillid said:
[ ] 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

Really hope we get the time and resources to take this one day. Looking at the recipe in that forum section? Be nice to add to their diet. At least they have some spices though.

Simon_Jester said:
If Nod starts deploying ion disruptors to cover back-field targets more often then that becomes relevant. It won't be that hard for us to put railguns in orbit if we're so inclined. Let's prioritize the projects the Space Force actually wants: drop pods and defense lasers and, potentially, high orbit ion cannon.

It's also a giant signal flare for important location discovered.

Also I know it's not universal coverage but we can always shell such locations with artillery if they become a nut to hard to crack.

Attempting to Fulfill the Plan: GDI Edition

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