Robot? This is flesh wars.

But there are robots too.

Sorry for the late reply.

This game takes place just 15-20 years from now. It's the near-future. In the game world, we have "near-AGI." (Of course Sam Altman calls it AGI but not everyone agrees.)

As either faction, you can choose to lean toward human labor, robot labor, or a mix. And your choice extends to both production (strategy layer) and the battlefield (tactical layer). You decide who to put in the factories and the Martian trenches.

The game doesn't nudge you in either direction. Each one is valid. Because in many ways, humans and bots fill the same role. And each one consumes on-going resources for sustenance/maintenance. But there are 2 key differences:

1. Robots don't require a salary. This makes them more attractive economically. But you don't start with robots. They require significant investment via the research tree. Because the thing is, we don't have any raw data from Mars to train the models. And training requires huge data centers which only exist on Earth. And the roundtrip lag to Earth is 20 minutes communication + bandwidth is terrible. So getting bots up and running is a huge pain. (Fun fact, this is why the company ended up sending humans into the Martian mines first and why the rebellion began in the first place.)

2. On the battlefield, robots are much stronger than humans but not as flexible. Individuals bots don't gain experience and you don't have full control over them.

Lastly, if you choose to embrace the bots, keep in mind your human workers will be pissed. So that's another wrinkle to navigate.

Let me know if you have questions or want to chime in on the lore. It's all just in my head and a work in progress.

Edit: typos.

man aren't you the optimist you really think we can get to mars with in 15-20 years lol

The premise is there's a $100 trillion reason to go to Mars. That's the incentive for the aggressive timeline.

In the 2030s, NASA or CNSA or whoever finally brings back regolith samples. And we discover a new element that unlocks the next leap forward in battery tech. It's a huge deal because batteries are basically a gateway to unlimited energy. (We don't need fusion. We already have it in the sun. I think the harder problem isn't energy generation but energy transportation/storage. That's why batteries are so key.)

So suddenly Mars becomes the biggest gold rush in the history of humanity. It's the energy revolution to end all energy revolutions. In this scenario I think we could go from zero to early colonization in a matter of years.