2003

The 2003 scenario is one of the two scenarios available in the Dark Skies DLC. It is based on the real world as it existed in 2003. It includes a number of adjustments to the setup of the game to emphasize the differences between the world of 2003 and the world of 2022/2026, and it is generally a much harder scenartio for the anti-alien factions.

Major changes include:

• The three starting global techs are Democratization of Space, Exascale Computing, and Digital Society, all of which cost 15,000 research to complete, and typically take at least a few years to finish.
• All factions start with an inherent -50% research production from nations.
• Factions have more access to projects to allow them to make progress in the early game, most notably gaining the ability to produce automated habs on asteroids much earlier in the tech tree than usual.
• The Servants have a much stronger set of faction projects than usual.

Nation changes

• Size of National Economy defending modifier against mission is 90% of normal value, after GDP scaling is applied.

SPOILERS INSIDE!
In practice, a 2003 game will almost always see the Alien Administration formed early (typically around 2007), and a much greater emphasis on fighting it on Earth, with somewhat less early emphasis on space development.