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 scenario for the anti-alien factions because of slower early game progression.

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 various penalties, including -50% research production from nations. These penalties can be remedied by researching various global techs or faction projects.
• 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.
• Aliens have quietness mechanic, which limits alien actions while aliens are quiet.

List of penalties

• -50% research from control points in nations.
• -30% research to Material, Energy, Life Science, Military Science, Information Science, Social Science, and -50% research to Space Science and Xenology
• -50% construction speed of ships
• -50% construction speed of hab modules
• -75% space mine size (reduces build cost and upkeep of mine, and yield from mine)
• -25% influence from public opinion
• -35% IP to boost national priority
• -25% IP to mission control national priority
• -50% IP to environment national priority
• -40 control points capacity

Nation changes

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

Other changes

• Faction HQ provides 2 daily research, rather than 1.
• Faction HQ provides 20 engineering projects, rather than 1.

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.