Tiberium

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A deposit of Tiberium.

Tiberium is a fictional crystalline substance of extra-terrestrial origins featured prominently in the Tiberium story arc of the Command & Conquer series of real-time strategy video games. Within each C&C title set in this story arc (Command & Conquer, Tiberian Sun and Tiberium Wars), the Tiberium crystals represent both the tools and spoils of war and are used by players to purchase new units and buildings, with each of the series' factions either directly or indirectly battling for control over the crystals. Tiberium comes in a variety of forms, mostly the common green crystal, but also comes in the form of more rare blue crystals or in a liquid state.

Tiberium is presented as a double-edged sword within the context of the story arc of the respective video games. While it is the greatest mineral resource ever encountered, conveniently gathering many potent elements into an easily harvestable form, it also brings with it considerable hazards: areas rich with the rapdily spreading Tiberium substance are eventually exhausted of their native ecosystems, and become too toxic to support normal carbon-based life. In the context of the gameplay, Tiberium can also be seen this way with its obvious tactical advantage as a resource, and its destructive effect on infantry.

Tiberium can be thought of as, in effect, a commodity, with everything that one builds in the game costing Tiberium-based credits. It can appear anywhere on Earth, but can only be regenerated in-game by special Tiberium-generating Blossom Trees; infested trees that release Tiberium spores into the air, or by Tiberium Fissures in the Earth's crust, and is harvested by harvesters, vehicles which seek out and harvest the material. As a currency, Tiberium is collected to build structures and train units.^[1][2][3] In Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, Tiberium is generated exclusively from fissures in the Earth's crust, with Tiberium growing from underground veins within these fissures.

The substance is named as such because it was first discovered near the river Tiber in Italy, although Kane, who claims to have discovered Tiberium, said he named it after the Emperor Tiberius.

[edit] Conception

Tiberium was first introduced in the original 1995 Command & Conquer game to replace the "spice" from Dune II as the mined resource for building and expanding, and was inspired by the 1957 B-movie "The Monolith Monsters".^[4][5] According to Westwood Studios co-founder Louis Castle "It solved one of the fundamental problems we had with making an RTS, which was that we wanted to have a central resource that everybody was fighting over. Dune has spice, which made perfect sense - and it was also used when we came to the idea of Tiberium. It became the anchor of the C&C universe because people were arguing over a limited resource that represented wealth and power".^[4] For the development of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, Electronic Arts commissioned scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to provide a white paper describing the biophysics of Tiberium, its atomic structure, its method of transmutation, the form of the radiation that it emits, and the way to harness it for powering machinery and weapons — giving it the same treatment as would be suitable for a scientific journal article on a real substance.^[6]

Mike Verdu, executive producer for Electronic Arts, describes Tiberium as being at the center of the fictional C&C universe as well: "This enigmatic crystal is at the core of our gameplay as well as our fiction. [...] Tiberium is our Force, our Spice, our One Ring, and our Matrix. Everything in our game world is defined by its relationship to Tiberium."^[6]

[edit] Concept of Tiberium

In the game universe, Tiberium crystals proliferate by infecting plantlife and mutating them into so-called Blossom Trees which seed the substance across large areas of land, or, in later C&C games, by growing out of the ground from Tiberium fissures within in the Earth's crust. Verdu describes these Tiberium concentrations as "oddly beautiful fields of green crystal that [kill] everything around them". The substance is radioactive and is extremely toxic to carbon-based life, causing either death or severe genetic mutations in plants, humans and animals alike. It replicates by converting everything around it into more Tiberium either through oddly directed mutation of plantlife, or through direct assimilation of other substances on the atomic level, through this gradually covering the whole surface of the Earth. It gives off radiation, which in the game universe is harnessed both for energy and as a weapon. In Verdu's words it is both "a gift and a curse — a resource and a plague".^[6][7]

Verdu gives the following scientific analysis of Tiberium from the perspective of the game universe^[8]:

Tiberium is a dense "dynamic proton lattice" held together by exotic heavy particles. When Tiberium comes into contact with other matter, the heavy particles randomly collide with the nuclei of the target matter, smashing it to pieces (in the case of smaller nuclei) or incrementally knocking off protons or neutrons (in the case of heavier nuclei). Tiberium captures a fraction of the protons that are ejected during this collision process and incorporates them into its own structure, thus transmuting matter into more Tiberium. Whenever one of the heavy particles — a muon or tauon — collides with an atomic nucleus, fission occurs, which results in the production of alpha, beta, and gamma radiation as well as other forms of electromagnetic radiation (like infra-red). During the transmutation process, nuclei that Tiberium has come into contact with may be changed into nuclei with different (usually fewer) numbers of protons or neutrons.

– Mike Verdu, 'Living with Tiberium'

Tiberium is extra-terrestrial in origin and was introduced to the world through a meteorite impact near the Tiber river in Italy, in the year 1995. Exposure of human beings to Tiberium, which can be through touch or inhalation either results in death or extreme mutation, the mechanism (or purpose) for the latter not being revealed in the game. Verdu describes Red Zones as being "like the surface of an alien world". Part of the game storyline comprises scientific speculation that an alien species is using Tiberium to terraform Earth to its own requirements.^[8] This speculation is borne out in Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, when the alien force known as the Scrin arrive at Earth to mass-harvest Tiberium.

This effect on both humans and materials has consequences for harvesting. Unprotected infantry passing through a Tiberium deposit are at risk, both from direct exposure to Tiberium itself and thus conversion into Tiberium and from secondary radiation burns and radiation poisoning as others are contaminated and converted around them. Soldiers, tanks, and other vehicles in Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars thus have protective shielding against Tiberium. However, this shielding is imperfect, since it simply slows down the process of conversion, it being based upon the fact that some materials take longer for Tiberium to convert than others. (There are other shields against Tiberium. "Sonic resonators", devices that emit sound at particular frequencies, stop the spread of Tiberium and are used in Blue Zones to ensure that Tiberium deposits there are contained. However, such devices are too large and unwieldy for mobile use.) Partial contamination of a human, which can occur within 20 seconds, requires immediate treatment in properly equipped medical facilities.^[9]

A Tiberium-infected human.

What happens if you're exposed to Tiberium? Nothing good. If you come into direct contact with Tiberium, the green matter will start to fuse with your skin within about 20 seconds. You'll feel an intense burning sensation, similar to touching a hot pan or spilling acid on your skin. A full blown infection will manifest if you aren't treated immediately. Your flesh will begin to take on a glassy-greenish appearance as it begins to crystallize; eventually your internal organs will shut down as Tiberium extends rigid crystalline runners throughout your body. If you breathe in the crystal, then it will become embedded in your lungs. You'll lose the ability to process oxygen as your lung tissue crystallizes. Eventually you'll start coughing up blood and will hemorrhage to death.

– Mike Verdu, 'Living with Tiberium'

Tiberium, is, in Verdu's words, a "simple" and an "elegant" piece of game design. It is a resource that drives both the overall storyline and the economy of actual gameplay. Its several properties, including the tradeoff between harvesting it and the damage that it does to infantry that come in contact with it, make game strategy more complex for players. Tiberium deposits provide foci for conflict, and the depletion and regrowth of such deposits both controls the pace of game play and prevents a runaway economy.^[9]

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Dave Morris and Leo Hartas (2004). Strategy Games. Thomson Course Technology. ISBN 1592002536.  — a general discussion of harvesting in strategy games

[edit] External links

• A comprehensive overview and analysis of Tiberium (C&C Wiki)
• Tiberium Earth (Google Earth kmz showing Red, Yellow and Blue zone distribution)
• PlanetCNC Encyclopedia, containing information on Tiberium