GDI technology of Command & Conquer

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This page lists the various technologies used by the Global Defense Initiative in the Command & Conquer series of science fiction real-time strategy computer games.

Contents 1 EVA 2 Firestorm Defense Shield 3 Ion Cannon 4 Mammoth Tank 5 Mechanized Walkers 6 Mobius' Suit 7 ORCA Aircraft 8 Sonic Resonance 9 Other Known GDI Technologies 10 Image Gallery 11 Sources

[edit] EVA

The Electronic Video Agent or EVA, sometimes confused as Electronic Video Assistant, is a fictional artificial intelligence used primarily by the Global Defense Initiative as an advanced tactical, logistical and communications coordinating console. The Brotherhood of Nod acquired a stolen version of the technology prior to the First Tiberium War, providing the group with the same tactical advantages as the forces of the GDI which significantly complicated GDI's efforts in gaining the upperhand throughout the original conflict. During the Second Tiberium War Nod utilized its own, and vastly superior, version of the GDI technology; a sinister and unlikely advanced artificial intelligence of a mysterious origin named CABAL. Other examples of EVA-like technology have existed throughout the various series as well.

While EVA is often used in the game universe as a generic term for all battlefield command and control systems, it actually refers to a specific device, a combined strategic artificial intelligence, intelligence gathering tool, communication system and console interface, giving field commanders an omniscient view of the operational theatre. This technology allows the player to give direct commands to individual units on the battlefield while receiving a live as well as completely up-to-date analytical overview of the progressing situation in the field.

In the Command and Conquer series, EVA is the routine method of battlefield control during the First Tiberium War and represents an advanced albeit still relatively limited artificial intelligence. By the Second Tiberium War in the 2030s, EVA is fully developed with highly sophisticated natural language processing abilities and complex logic subroutines sufficient to make complicated and extensive strategic and tactical decisions traditionally assigned to experienced commanders. This is made very clear during the events of Firestorm, when Nod forces attempting to reprogram a captured EVA unit are repeatedly warned by the AI itself of the consequences resulting from their theft and their tampering with the device.

The Brotherhood of Nod's CABAL (the Computer Assisted Biologically Augmented Lifeform) is the equivalent of EVA in terms of its functions, except it is vastly superior; CABAL truly has a mind of its own and could reason and act independently if it chose to. By comparison EVA at best gives logically-formulated advice, having no true will of its own despite its own advanced nature as an artificial intelligence (a classic example of Weak AI. Another major difference is that EVA is normally portrayed as either a wavelength or a simple human mouth. CABAL is always portrayed as nothing less than a type of lifeform. CABAL also has a near human tone whenever it communicates, where the EVA unit communicates with a voice the tone and pitch of which is distinctly computer-generated.

The original and authentic version of EVA is the exclusive property of the United Nations, and is in use by the executive and military arm of the United Nations Security Council; the Global Defense Initiative.

EVA is voiced by Kia Huntzinger in the original Command & Conquer as well as in Renegade, and by Jessica Straus in Tiberian Sun and its expansion pack Firestorm.

[edit] Firestorm Defense Shield

In Command and Conquer Tiberian Sun, the Global Defense Initiative designs a new defensive network named the Firestorm Defense Shield, and uses it as the primary defense in their Hammerfest base of operations. As a high powered energy shield defensive system, it is capable of destroying anything which is unlucky enough to fly or drive over it at the moment it is activated, and is primarily used as a defense against the Brotherhood of Nod's wide range of missiles. When activated, nothing can pass over it. However, it has three weaknesses:

• The Firestorm Defense cannot destroy units which can burrow under it, such as the Subterranean APC or the Devil's Tongue Flame Tank.
• The Firestorm Defense will shut down if there is not enough power to maintain the Firestorm Generator and all of the Firestorm Wall Sections.
• The Firestorm Defense cannot defend against an orbital attack, such as the ion cannon or a missile launched by a satellite. In addition the actual generator features weak armor and can be quite easily destroyed by said orbital attacks with a single strike.

The system works by first constructing a Firestorm Generator, and then constructing Firestorm Wall Sections to be laid around a base. The Firestorm Generator takes some time to fully charge, but when it has, the commander can turn the defense on and off at will until the charge runs out. Once the charge depletes, the Firestorm Generator will need to fully recharge again before it can be used once more.

[edit] Ion Cannon

In Command and Conquer, the Global Defense Initiative's (GDI) ultimate ace in the hole weapon is its satellite-based Ion Cannon. GDI commanders are given this ability to match Nod’s nuclear capability in Command & Conquer and Nod’s chemical and multi-missile capabilities in Tiberian Sun, which makes the Ion Cannon a superweapon in the Command and Conquer: Tiberian universe. This satellite was used to attack Brotherhood of Nod installations and forces; it is used at the end of the First Tiberium War to destroy the Brotherhood's command centre, the Temple of Nod. In Tiberian Sun the control station for GDI's Ion Cannon was moved to their new upgrade center, where it remained in Firestorm.

In Renegade GDI’s Ion Cannon is used to strike at a hidden Nod base, and may be called to fire at a given target through the placement of specially designed "Godsend" Ion Cannon Beacons. It is also stated in Renegade that the Ion Cannon can be fired at a Nod installation if the installation in question can be accurately located by Global Positioning System satellites. The Ion Cannon satellite itself is shown in a video sequence powering up for an attack on the Temple of Nod.

When an Ion Cannon is activated in the real-time strategy versions of Command & Conquer there is no advanced warning of the satellite's impending strike; players observe a sudden blast of blueish white light that strikes its target with the speed of a lightning bolt. In Tiberian Sun the ion strike remains the same, except that players can observe the remainder of the Ion Cannon beam for several seconds, and the ground area in the immediate surrounding area can be observed to have a ripple effect from the impact of the blast. In Renegade, an Ion Cannon strike is announced to all players on the field through EVA units and the sky over the map will become dark and stormy. Players in the vicinity of an Ion Cannon strike will also hear a series of beeps that denote the location of the Ion Cannon beacon, allowing them a chance to escape the blast or, conversely, a chance to deactivate the beacon and prevent the satellite strike altogether.

The Ion Cannon has also been seen in the newest Command and Conquer, "Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars". In Tiberium Wars, the GDI player first selects the Ion Cannon icon which is mounted on the left of the screen opposite the command bars. The player then selects the target area by moving a large white circle with a target in the middle over the location. After activating the Ion Cannon, several smaller lasers appear from the top of the screen outlining about where the outer edge of the targeting circle was. Finally, the lasers begin spiralling in towards the center of the target. When they reach the middle, the actual cannon fires, creating a massive white/blue light on nearly the entire screen, and subsequently destroying a large plot of a enemies base, possibly rendering them helpless for a conventional attack with units. The Ion Cannon also leaves a scorched section of earth where it has been fired. In Command and Conquer 3 : Tiberium Wars it is implied in several entries in both the NOD and GDI inteligence database that GDI has more than one ion cannon in orbit.

[edit] Mammoth Tank

Main article: Mammoth Tank

The X-66 Mammoth Tank was GDI's versatile heavy assault tank in the First Tiberium War and just left prototype testing phase during the game's events.

It is armed with twin 120 mm cannons and the complimentary Mammoth Tusk rocket launchers, used to engage both infantry and aerial targets. The weapon systems were mounted on a heavy four thread chassis and protected by extremely heavy armour. The tank was kept in working condition by an enginnering crew inside, allowing it to repair to 50% of its strength. However, these advantages came at the expense of mobility, extreme cost and build time.

The tank was perceived as a great threat to the Brotherhood of Nod, and measures were taken by the organization to prevent widespread use of this treaded monster, which included destruction of prototype models in research facilities in Africa.

In the Second Tiberium War, it has been succeeded by the Mammoth Mk. II, an enormous quadrupedal walker, over twice the size of the GDI "Titan" Medium Battle Mechanized Walker. This behemoth, in addition to exceptionally strong armor plating, is armed with several weapon systems:

• Twin enormous, side-mounted railguns similar to the Ghost Stalker's, but several times more powerful (and medium to long range), with the capacity to destroy moderately armoured tanks in a single discharge.
• An anti-aircraft missile module mounted on the rear of each railgun.
• Twin autocannons underneath the 'head'.

These weapons proved to be more than adequate for dispatching any vehicle, as during field demonstrations in Great Britain the Mammoth destroyed cars, walkers, aircraft and buildings with tremendous ease, and could easily lay waste to Brotherhood of Nod bases alone.

The prototype did not enter mass production during the events of Tiberian Sun. Its high price and inability to get past walls somewhat limited the Mammoth's usability, but it is nevertheless a very powerful albeit slow unit. As with its predecessor, the Mammoth Mk. II was perceived by Kane as a threat to Brotherhood's mission, and he ordered his commanders to destroy the prototype units tested in Britain.

The Mammoth Mk. II project was temporarily discontinued in the favour of the Mammoth 27, and the last unit was built at the Los Angeles San Pedro war factory, marking the end of the walker Mammoths at 12 March 2039. This move was opposed by conservative GDI commanders, among them Colonel Nicholas "Havoc" Parker, decorated war veteran.

In the Third Tiberium War, a tank named Mammoth 27 / Mammoth Mk III, which prior to having been upgraded tends to closely resemble the original X-66 Mammoth tank. Production started in 2039 in Reykjavík.

The tank has been designed with long-range operations in harsh environments in mind. Its design is a return to the basic, four-tread system with a thick, hexagonal armor to match enemy tanks head-on and defeat it in open combat. The tank is initially equipped with dual 150-mm cannons on the turret (which can be later upgraded to rail cannons via the Tech Center) and can be fitted two 4.75-inch missile pods specially designed to attack infantry and aircraft.

[edit] Mechanized Walkers

The concept of an all terrain battle walker, capable of delivering heavy firepower from any location on the battlefield, has first surfaced in the First Tiberium War in the form of a prototypical bipedal X-O powersuit. The versatile unit was lightly armoured, but could carry several different weapon systems, which included a 35mm Rocket Launcher and a high-powered laser. The results of initial tests were so promising, that the technology was extensively researched and developed.

Walkers formed the backbone of the GDI taskforce in the Second Tiberium War, following aforementione research and development. The Humvee was superseded by a Wolverine (upper right of the photo) Powered Combat suit with twin automatic cannons on its arms with recon as its role. The M1 Abrams MBT was replaced by a Titan Medium Mechanized Battle Walker (lower right) with an 80mm side-mounted cannon. The Titan had a fairly long range and was often used to take out Nod defenses beyond their range. However, the technology was still being further developed, as the mighty Mammoth Mk. II was being developed and first units fielded at the time. (lower left)

Following the events of the Second Tiberium War, GDI was expanding on the concept, developing another walker unit, the Juggernaut, equipped with three 120mm cannons, as a countermeasure to Nod artillery. (upper left)

However, the walker technology had its drawbacks. The mechanisms utilized by these units were not only expensive and complicated to built, they also required constant maintenance and were relatively weak and fragile to enemy fire, as well as being unreliable in the field^[1]. As such, the frontline walkers were gradually phased out and replaced with cheaper, more resilient tanks, such as the Predator and Mammoth 27, with only the long-range Juggernaut Mk. III remaining in active service in 2047.

Ironically, Nod managed to overcome these drawbacks and by 2047 fields its own powerful bipedal Nod Avatar, turning old GDI tech against them.

[edit] Mobius' Suit

The Mobius' Suit is a personal powered armor that superficially resembles a space suit. It was designed by Dr. Ignatio Mobius for use in handling Tiberium for experimentation (although the suit itself cannot walk through fields of fresh Tiberium without the user taking damage). Dr. Mobius’s daughter Sydney has since added additional armour and other assault type weaponry to the suit in an effort to transform the suit into an actual combat weapon. Both Sydney and Ignatio use the suit, though they are the only people in the world who know how to operate it.

Concept artwork of GDI Zone Troopers in Tiberium Wars suggests that they may be using advanced versions of the Mobius Suit, although this is currently only speculation.

[edit] ORCA Aircraft

The ORCA series of aircraft was first introduced in the later part of the First Tiberium war, in the form of an ORCA Assault Craft. The main feature of the system was the abandonment of classic rotary wing propulsion. Instead, twin jet engines with sixteen-bladed turbofans were used, and these were placed on articulated mounts. There was also a lift fan located under the centerline of the horizonal boom on the tail. Historical sources available to the public show that in real life, this type of tilt-jet experimentation did in fact occur, but that the results were not particularly encouraging. However, in the Command & Conquer universe, the work yielded a near-perfect VTOL aircraft.

The main disadvantage of the Orca technology was its susceptibility to electromagnetic interference from Ion Storms, which almost proved to be the cause of Kodiak's destruction, as it was grounded during such a storm and ambushed by Nod forces. Following the conclusion of the Second Tiberium War, the Kodiak was shielded against such interference, allowing it to secure the Tacitus at the Cairo site. However, its design was not resistant to Ion Storm lightning, which destroyed one of its engines and caused it to crash-land in north Africa.

The first model (upper left image) was exceptionally fast and lightly armoured, piloted by a single crewman. The first ORCA was armed with twin Dragon TOW launchers and a chin-mounted minigun accompanied by a searchlight (the gun is unavailable in-game, possibly due to technical limitations). Although efforts were made to keep its development secret, knowledge of the project has been acquired by the Brotherhood, which attempted to commandeer an early prototype unit and use it in a propaganda strike against a nearby village. The player's actions determined wether or not they were succesful.

The aircraft's speed allowed it to outrun most surface-to-air weapons, and it could quickly strike with surgical precision against both armored units and unprotected buildings. In addition, the first model of ORCA Assault Craft was compact enough to be transported and deployed from a specially modified semi-trailer truck.^[2]

During the gap between the two Tiberium Wars, GDI perfected the ORCA technology, adopting the acronym as codename for the series of the powerful VTOL aircraft. In addition to perfecting the technology and upgrading the original ORCA Assault Craft (middle left image), several specialized variants were developed, including a mighty Orca Bomber (lower left), carrying highly destructive explosive munitions designed to wreak havoc against buildings and armor alike, although at the expense of their speed. Another variant was the Orca Transport (lower right), a long, lightly armoured air transport craft, designed to move people and light equipment over vast distances fast. For hauling heavy military ordnance two aircraft were designed - the Orca Carry-All (middle right), a large flying crane, with engines powerful enough to airlift even the immense, prototypical Mammoth Mk. IIs, and the Orca Dropship (upper right), which could ferry large amounts of battle walkers onto the battlefield.

Another variant, the Orca Command, was also designed and manufactured. These aircraft served as mobile command centers for GDI commanders world-wide. One of the more famous, designated 3A and code-named Kodiak, served as GDI's field commander McNeil's command vessel.

In the break between the second and third Tiberium wars, GDI has developed a modernized and upgraded version of the gunship. The new version was visible during a promotional clip showcased by EALA during E3, which also contained a large amount of technical data on the craft.^[3]

According to that clip, the new version of the Orca has a maximum speed of 400 knots, with a combat range of 300 miles, or 1,180 miles when stripped of combat gear. Its maximum flight altitude is 42,000 feet, with a climb rate of up to 2,500 feet per minute. The power to mass ratio stands at 0.19 lbs/hp. The aircraft is crewed by a pilot and a copilot/gunner. It is 58.3 ft long, 48 ft wide, and 12.7 ft high.

Its armament varies, but is in every way superior to its predecessors, and can be composed of an M230 30mm Automatic Cannon with 1200 rounds, Hellfire V rockets (fictional), AIM-500 Stinger air to air missiles, AGM-240 Sidearm air-to-ground missiles, AIM-18 Sidewinder air intercept missiles and Hydra 70 unguided air-to-ground rockets.

[edit] Sonic Resonance

The technology for the Disruptor units developed by the GDI centers around special sonic crystals. These, when under power and placed in special equipment, would generate a highly destructive wave of sonic energy. The might of these waves would be harnessed by GDI, who, by using specially designed Disruptor turrets, would amplify the waves with a large, reflective dish and with the same dish project them against foes and installations on the battlefield. Due to time constraints, the vehicle the turret was mounted upon was a simple treaded vehicle, similar to the ones used for the Mobile Construction Vehicles.

However, the hasty implementation and introduction of this technology onto the battlefield had its consequences - the Disruptors had virtually no armour, and could have been taken out by even basic light infantry.

The sonic resonance technology will be used in the Third Tiberium War, according to Mike Verdu's blog, in the form of special wave generators, which are able to deconstruct Tiberium crystals at the molecular level. However, the technology requires vast energy to power it, ironically requiring GDI to turn to Tiberium itself to be able to meet the power needs of sonic resonance on large scales. In the recently released demo, Sonic Turrets carrying an advanced version of the Disruptors appear. Furthermore, a type of 'shockwave' shell can be launched by artillery into a location that can stun enemy units around the struck region.

[edit] Other Known GDI Technologies

• Discs - In Tiberian Sun, GDI reworked the concept of a hand grenade, with intentions of making it a more long-range weapon with improved damage capabilities. The disc shaped rounds carry more explosives than a classic grenade and can bounce off the ground in addition to their gliding ability.
• Drop Pods - A disposable atmosperic entry vehicle, these single soldier pods are capable of rapidly descending and delivering a single infantry unit anywhere on the battlefield. They replace parachutes as the way for rapid aerial insertion However, once it made planetfall, the pod cannot be reused. Drop Pods also have a mounted machinegun in front to soften up the enemy before the Pod lands (though it could only take out light infantry).
• Electromagnetic Pulse Weaponry - GDI has mastered generating electro magnetic pulse technology and utilized them as an anti-vehicle weapon in the Second Tiberium War.
• Hover technology - this exotic technology was developed by GDI to create an absolutely all-terrain light strike craft. The technology had its quirks and craft propelled by it couldn't be equipped with strong armour or heavy weapons, so by the time of the Second Tiberium War only Hover MRLS were fielded. GDI abandoned hover technology due to the aforementioned quirks and its susceptibility to ion storms.
• Jump Jets - During the Second Tiberium War, GDI perfected jet pack technology and developed man-portable jet units, allowing soldiers to hover and strike any target on the battlefield with relative ease. The Jump Jet technology has been further developed and by 2047 has been utilized by GDI Commando units and Zone Troopers.
• Railguns - High powered magnetic acceleration weapons were developed by GDI and used in the Mammoth Mk. II prototypical walker. The Forgotten commando, Ghostalker also possessed a man-portable railgun of considerably lesser power. It appears to be in extensive use in the Third Tiberium War with appearances on the Predator and Mammoth Tanks, with the portable version in use by GDI Zone Troopers. GDI Commandoes by the Third Tiberium War also possessed prototype rail carbines which they used in battle.
• Space - Throughout the Command and Conquer series, GDI had assets in space. In Tiberian Dawn, GDI's Ion Cannon orbited Earth. By Tiberian Sun, GDI's Headquarters was located in above Earth, on the space station Philadelphia. In Command and Conquer 3, GDI space technology had developed rapidly after the Second Tiberium War. GDI Firehawk fighters can also be equipped with stratofighter boosters that allow them to fly into orbit and back down allowing them to avoid enemy defense positions.

In Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, it has been stated that GDI focuses on Tiberium containment and environment restoration, as well as economic prosperity research, at the expense of military technology.

[edit] Image Gallery

Another view of GDI’s Ion Cannon Strike, as seen in a cutscene from Renegade

Concept artwork of what may be the Ion Cannon in C&C: Tiberium Wars

[edit] Sources

1. ^ http://www.ea.com/commandandconquer/news.jsp?ncc=1&id=6
2. ^ ftp://ftp.westwood.com/pub/cc1/previews/scrnshot/orca.gif
3. ^ http://www.candc3.com/forum/Blah.pl?,v=display,b=news,m=1147552129