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 File links The following pages link to this file: Tiberium ... tiberium File links The following pages link to this file: Tiberium ... For other uses, see Fiction (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Crystal (disambiguation). ... Layers of Atmosphere - not to scale (NOAA)[1] Outer space, sometimes simply called space, refers to the relatively empty regions of the universe outside the atmospheres of celestial bodies. ... The most recent version of the series logo, which appears in Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars Command & Conquer (often abbreviated as C&C or CnC) is a series of video games, mostly of the real-time strategy style as well as a single first-person shooter game based on the... -1... Computer and video games redirects here. ... This article is about the first Command & Conquer video game. ...

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. Swiss longsword, 15th or 16th century Look up Sword in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Mineral (disambiguation). ... The periodic table of the chemical elements A chemical element, or element, is a type of atom that is distinguished by its atomic number; that is, by the number of protons in its nucleus. ... In ecology, an ecosystem is a community of organisms (plant, animal and other living organisms - also referred as biocenose) together with their environment (or biotope), functioning as a unit. ... // Toxic and Intoxicated redirect here – toxic has other uses, which can be found at Toxicity (disambiguation); for the state of being intoxicated by alcohol see Drunkenness. ... Carbon forms the backbone of biology for all life on Earth. ...

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 the vehicles called harvesters. Those vehicles 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. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article is about Earth as a planet. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Tree (disambiguation). ... Look up Harvest in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about Earth as a planet. ...

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. Tiber River in Rome. ... Kane Within the fictional universe of Westwood Studios Command & Conquer real-time strategy video games, Kane is the nefarious and seemingly immortal mastermind behind the ancient and secretive Brotherhood of Nod society. ... For other persons named Tiberius, see Tiberius (disambiguation). ...

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] This article is about the first Command & Conquer video game. ... Look up Melange in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty (retitled Dune II: Battle for Arrakis in Europe and for the Mega Drive/Genesis port) is a Dune computer game, released in 1992 by Westwood Studios. ... The term B-movie originally referred to a film designed to be distributed as the lower half of a double feature, often a genre film featuring cowboys, gangsters or vampires. ... The Monolith Monsters (1957) is a science fiction film starring Grant Williams and Lola Albright. ... Westwood Studios (1985-2003) was a computer and video game developer, founded in 1985 as Westwood Associates by Brett Sperry and Louis Castle and based in Las Vegas, Nevada. ... Louis Castle co-founded Westwood Studios (the creator of the popular Command & Conquer real-time strategy video games) with Brett Sperry in 1985. ... Electronic Arts (EA) (NASDAQ: ERTS) is an American developer, marketer, publisher, and distributor of computer and video games. ... “MIT” redirects here. ... A white paper is an authoritative report. ... Biophysics (also biological physics) is an interdisciplinary science that applies the theories and methods of physics, to questions of biology. ... Properties For alternative meanings see atom (disambiguation). ... Nuclear transmutation is the conversion of one chemical element or isotope into another, which occurs through nuclear reactions. ... For other uses, see Radiation (disambiguation). ... Nature, Science and PNAS In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. ...

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] The most recent version of the series logo, which appears in Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars Command & Conquer (often abbreviated as C&C or CnC) is a series of video games, mostly of the real-time strategy style as well as a single first-person shooter game based on the... “May The Force Be With You” redirects here. ... Look up Melange in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Matrix is the virtual reality simulation that is the main setting of The Matrix series of science fiction films, comic books and video games. ...

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] Radioactivity may mean: Look up radioactivity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Toxin (disambiguation). ... Carbon forms the backbone of biology for all life on Earth. ... For linguistic mutation, see Apophony. ... Plantlife is a U.K. plant conservation charity. ... The general meaning of atomic is irreducible. That is, reduced to the smallest possible part. ...

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. Exotic matter is a hypothetical concept of particle physics. ... The nucleus of an atom is the very small dense region, of positive charge, in its centre consisting of nucleons (protons and neutrons). ... For other uses, see Proton (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The muon (from the letter mu (μ)--used to represent it) is an elementary particle with negative electric charge and a spin of 1/2. ... The tau lepton (often called the tau, tau particle, or occasionally the tauon, symbol ) is a negatively charged elementary particle with a lifetime of 2. ... For the generation of electrical power by fission, see Nuclear power plant. ... An alpha particle is deflected by a magnetic field Alpha radiation consists of helium-4 nuclei and is readily stopped by a sheet of paper. ... Alpha radiation consists of helium nuclei and is readily stopped by a sheet of paper. ... This article is about electromagnetic radiation. ... This box:      Electromagnetic (EM) radiation is a self-propagating wave in space with electric and magnetic components. ... For other uses, see Infrared (disambiguation). ...

– 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. Layers of Atmosphere - not to scale (NOAA)[1] Outer space, sometimes simply called space, refers to the relatively empty regions of the universe outside the atmospheres of celestial bodies. ... Artists impression of a major impact event. ... Tiber River in Rome The River Tiber (Italian Tevere), the third longest river in Italy (disputed — see talk page) at 406 km (252 miles) after the Po and the Adige, flows through the Campagna and Rome in its course from Mount Fumaiolo to the Tyrrhenian Sea, which it reaches in... Artists conception of a terraformed Mars in four stages of development. ... The Scrin are a fictional extra-terrestrial race of intelligent beings in the Command & Conquer universe. ...

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.) Partial contamination of a human, which can occur within 20 seconds, requires immediate treatment in properly equipped medical facilities.^[9] A radiation burn is damage to the skin or other biological tissue caused by exposure to ionizing radiation. ... Radiation poisoning, also called radiation sickness or a creeping dose, is a form of damage to organ tissue due to excessive exposure to ionizing radiation. ...

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. Multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS; previously known as multiple organ failure) is altered organ function in an acutely ill patient requiring medical intervention to maintain homeostasis. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

– 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]

References

2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 149th day of the year (150th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... is the 151st day of the year (152nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 356th day of the year (357th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 129th day of the year (130th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Malay Mail is a Malaysian tabloid. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 84th day of the year (85th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 207th day of the year (208th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 213th day of the year (214th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Further reading

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

This article is about gathering crops. ...

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