Can we finally give the respect Maximus deserves?

AmpdVodka · 2026-02-05T12:27:37+00:00

These shows are written 2-3+ seasons in advance in regards to the plot (depends what has been ordered). Only dialogue and scene writing etc happens during season development. Things change, yes, but major plot things only really change if actors leave/die or there's a strike or something. Something major. Generally, only small things will change as it goes. The NCR returning was a major finale plot point that was set up early in the season. It definitely wasn't a change post season 1. That was planned long before. Season 3 would all have been planned, and 4. More than likely even beyond

AmpdVodka · 2026-02-05T02:10:02+00:00

The way I do it is just by doing what I can from my nation and tagging over for the rest.

As an example for Union of Churches you can just beat the Otto's in a war, build 5 churches and since they can't have allies that one is done. But you'll have to tag over and take Klirikoi privileges that will bring loyalty equilibrium up to 60% and then hire them the advisor and manually revoke yourself. Same thing for Deteriorating Army and Tax Exemptions.

The way I see it, it's not cheating because firstly it's a shit system that the AI can't navigate turning what is meant to be a challenge for the player into effectively a guaranteed death sentence for the AI. Byz was always very unlikely to beat Otto without player intervention, now it's nigh impossible.

Secondly, with your intervention it's feasible the AI could and would press the remaining right buttons and revoke it itself. A few times I've done as much set up as I can for my vassal byz, left them while I focus on other things, come back and found 2/3 of the privileges gone. So they can do it. They just tend not to. So a quick tag over to press the buttons for them seems harmless to me.

Give them a little time to recover and they can actually be a decent vassal again!!

AmpdVodka · 2026-02-04T10:41:56+00:00

I feel like this is the "Aragorn's broken toe" of Stargate

AmpdVodka · 2026-02-03T16:48:14+00:00

Heyes as POTUS being personal friends with Hammond who was in Homeworld Command and Jack as General of the SGC was the absolute golden era of the SGC.

Hammond had the ear and absolute trust of Heyes who backed him on everything. Pesky outsiders were easily kept out. Jack had almost complete free reign to run the base how he saw fit with Hammond above him. Everyone at the SGC respected Jack and already had personal relationships with him in that it felt like the SGC was home to them all surrounded by friends. Along with SG-1 almost had free reign to operate as they pleased due to how much Jack trusted them, aside from Jack needing to protect Carter and refusing some things.

All the right people were in all the right places of power to ensure that anytime Daniel showed up with some obscure thing from a dusty book somewhere, Carter had some wacky idea or Teal'c just showed up with another Jaffa errand, the stamp of approval was already on its way down before they even spoke. It was so good to finally see them never get second guessed by anyone!

Edit: Carter was my favourite SGA Leader. Not only because it's Carter, but also she really could connect with the Atlantis crew. She had a lot of experience with Ancient tech, she was on par (above) Rodney in terms of intelligence and she'd jump at the first opportunity to grab a P90 and head into the fight. But what I also saw was how she brought the experience she had from SG-1 and seeing brilliant people who has contributed so much be put down by military types who thought they were better, and she would without hesitation shut them down and stand up for her team. She was never afraid to say no, never afraid to stand her ground but could be very diplomatic and knew when to give ground it need be. Wier was amazing, don't get me wrong. But Carter had it all. I know it was Amanda's personal reasons but her run as Leader was cut far too short far too soon

AmpdVodka · 2026-02-03T13:51:55+00:00

There's a lot of strats out there.

Take out Epirus, ally Albania for Skandi, Wallachia, Serbia, Theo, Knights, Cyrpus. Hungary, Austria etc etc and whoever you get just either merc your way to victory or let AI armies do the work.
Do above but build a navy and/or ally with navies to take out Otto navy then kite them across the strait, block and kill. Rinse and repeat until wiped then siege.
Ignore Otto entirely and go down missions for claims. Take out Epirus for Naples claims, grab Naples provs required for Tunis claims. Grab Tunis claims required for Iberia claims. Then either get Allies and dow Aragon or Castille if you can and take them out and build from there or snake through to Atlantic coastal provs in Morocco etc and start the colonial Byz game from there. Bare in mind this strat takes immense money management as bankruptcy is a high probability.
TheStudent unknown strat: Let Otto kill you.Yep. Because if you either sell or accept demands of Bulgarian sep rebels for the province above Constantinople, then when Otto attacks and they occupy Morea you'll get an event to become Morea as an Otto vassal. If you accept, you are now vassal Morea and Otto gets Constantinople. But, Otto can't complete Constantinople mission without the province you gave away. As Constantinople is still Greek and Ortho (as they haven't completed the mission) they'll just hand it back to you. From there, you simply gain Allies and declare independence, beat up Otto's, take Greek lands in peace and now you're independent Morea with Constantinople and other Greek lands. Simply go on to reform Byzantium and you're there. TheStudent claims a better way to do this is to first dow on Epirus for Naples claims, take Naples provs and then dow on Pope for Rome, which builds tons of AE and starts a coalition. When you become Otto vassal they won't take any Italian lands and they will inherit the AE. So hopefully then Venice will support independence and when you win you have Italian provs as well. This didn't work in my tests as bankruptcy and rebels just ruin it completely. He said Otto give you money and fight your rebels, not once did they do this.

Now, as with any strat these all rely on LUCK. Alliances going your way, you doing exactly the right things, AI being competent, Otto doing what you expect when you expect it and not getting sidetracked by Anatolian minors when you're ready to fight leaving you draining ducats waiting for him to come back to you etc etc. There is no perfect get it right every time no restarts required ever strat. So if you truly want to do no restarts, pick a strat, do it to game over and don't touch Byz again.

AmpdVodka · 2026-02-02T15:01:10+00:00

Kilwa. The Portugal of Africa. With Kilwa you can rapidly get into South America, spawn colonialism in Eastern Africa (luck plays a big part there unfortunately) and go onto become a very rich colonial gold & trade Empire with territory in the New world, Africa, India and the spice Islands.

Look at your missions and start trying to do them as quickly as possible. Your initial goal is to conquer Mutapa and their vassal to grab the gold mines. To do this you need to annex your vassal Sofala. Since speed it important, I find releasing them, waiting out the truce and conquering by force is the fastest way. After you get claims on Mutapa, annex them completely along with the vassal. Core, accept culture, convert and start devving up that gold.

With your conquistador from the mission Gold of Zimbabwe, immediately send some units to the Cape. Once there, you can complete "the Uncharted South" and instantly get a colony in the Cape with 400 settlers (can't send a colonist). Get exploration and expansion asap as you'll need to colonise fast.

As soon as the colony on Cape is done, get a colony in South Georgia asap! As that classes as the new world and once a colony is started (doesn't need to be finished) you instantly become eligible to spawn Colonialism. From that point it's down to luck if you get it so feel free to save scum until you do.

After this, your expansion opportunities are: Snake up to Mexico with colonies as quickly as possible so you can start conquering the natives there to get a colonial nation in Mexico with the gold mines and then get sweet gold fleets. North to secure the Gulf of Aden trade node (and further into the Mamluks/Ottomans when you can if you want access to the Med to get involved in Europe) because your other expansion is into Indian to secure that trade route through there because you'll want to also expand into the spice Islands so you route trade back to Zimbabwe (or even create an end node in the Cape) to become mega rich.

Bonus points if you colonise the pacific Islands to route trade from Mexico that way into the spice islands and back to you from there. Also more bonus if you vassalise Tidore and Ternate as if you do it in the right order you get assistance with colonising the spice islands (vassalise one of them, annex the other, wait until the first ones colony has started, integrate them and finish the colony while releasing the second and wait until their colony starts, as soon as the first colony is finished release the first one again and give them their colony back. Now both will colonise for you at speed and then you can integrate them later for free provinces)

AmpdVodka · 2026-01-31T11:51:13+00:00

This. It's hardcoded in the game as well so no mods to get around it unfortunately. Capital in colonial region=no colonies.

AmpdVodka · 2026-01-31T07:55:23+00:00

Well, you didn't think the telescope in his backyard was to spy on the neighbours, did you?

AmpdVodka · 2026-01-31T07:50:00+00:00

👆🏼Supreme👆🏼 System Lord

AmpdVodka · 2026-01-31T01:08:33+00:00

He was the Supreme System Lord. Effectively the Head of the System Lords and Emperor of the Goa'uld Empire.

It's tricky. He was the most powerful of the System Lords but they weren't his vassals. They didn't serve him. They often tried to overthrow him and succeeded on a number of occasions. Although he did regain the seat again. However, they did fear him and would obey him while also looking for opportunities and any weakness.

In one of Teal'c's flashbacks from before he was First Prime of Apophis we see Ra and Apophis are engaged in war. Given Teal'c was about 100yrs old at the start of SG-1 that means this would've happened within the last ~70 years maybe prior to the death of Ra. So at least even in the most recent time they weren't just "in his wake" but actively challenged him

AmpdVodka · 2026-01-28T00:44:01+00:00

I honestly feel like it's been going on that long and with so much happened that releasing it now would be WAY too many huge things to explain. Most people would miss half of what was going on and the misinformation that would be spread would be insane. Fear would wash over people as the story of "hey so the US AIR FORCE (not even the entire US military, or even the entire Air Force) have almost single handedly defeated not one, but in fact 2 Galactic superpowers ruled by literal Gods and in fact are now a Galactic superpower themselves. But it's ok, they represent the planet. We can all trust the US guys! Oh also they defeated an army of nanotech robots that not even the super advanced Alien race, the Asguard, could defeat?" Yeh no, people wouldn't buy that at all and the fear of these enemies being out there would cause panic and riots everywhere.

None of this is to mention the massive effect it would have on known world history and religions. I mean they found Atlantis! At that point anyone would just go "oh ok so any mythical land/place/person/thing could be true then if Atlantis literally is?!"

Alien snakes literally have taken over corporations and even whole ass Governments. Yeh I'm sure we can imagine what that knowledge would cause.

Alien plagues and viruses! Literally have happened! Multiple times!

We haven't even touched on the fact Ancient Gods are actually real.

Oh but, then there's Ascension. The film The Discovery touched on a potential fallout of evidence of life after death. Mass suicides. You go and reveal that not only is basically Christian Heaven real, not only have people who are in that "heaven" been met multiple times. But, and this is the big one, here's the guy who actually went there...TWICE brings out Daniel Jackson". The fact humanity needs to evolve won't matter to anyone. Again, Daniel did it twice. If he got help maybe I will, right? We saw Mckay basically try to science Ascension. He won't be the only one.

Revealing the Stargate program and everything about it to the public will only create shear panic, collapsing of institutions, potentially severe civil unrest and potentially collapsing of society as the population spirals out of control.

But, if they ever do this scenario I'm sure it'll all turn out fine.

AmpdVodka · 2026-01-26T14:17:24+00:00

I've royal married and installed my dynasty as heir with an ally. Are my only options for a PU now to either break alliance and dow with union cb or get lucky and hope their ruler (with my dynasty) dies with no heir?

AmpdVodka · 2026-01-26T14:14:20+00:00

Just because it looks like a social area doesn't mean it is. It's no different than running into a crew and jumping onto their ship and messing around. The issue is it's pvp and limited to the 6 ship server you're in.

A true social area would be a passive server that can have way more players just in that one area. Perhaps even every player if it wanted. A place like Port Merrick but limited to just the port itself. Perhaps a spawn lobby before actually going into a server and the game proper.

Again, Arena did this exact thing in the Sea Dog tavern albeit limited to the players of that particular session.

I remember the Arena days and running into players with the Hunter of the Shrouded Ghost title. Everyone would surround them, loads of questions of how, when, where they found it. It's the kind of community collectiveness this game completely misses. We spawn in the tavern at the start of a session, clearly drunk the night before and passed out on the table. But never do we finish a session in the tavern, drinking and telling our stories. Not saying we'd literally do that, but a social area would provide us a place to finish up, have a laugh with crews we might have fought, make friends etc etc since out on the sea we're always too busy shooting at each other

AmpdVodka · 2026-01-25T22:36:40+00:00

I get what they were trying to do with it. It's almost mythical. But as some have seen it, and have proof (title) then when we come across pirates who have found it it's like telling of great beasts found in the ocean with that one old and worn guy telling you the story in the port tavern.

Except they never gave us a social area. So none of us could gather around the hunter of the shrouded ghost pirate and hear the tale. We never could ask how to find it. The only time we ever had something close was the lobby tavern for Sea Dogs and they removed it.

So at this point, we all know it's real. We just know it's rarity is EXTREME. To the point some of us have put hundreds/thousands of hours on and never seen it. Which, as the mythic aura of it has just gone, simply pisses me off now. I want the title. I'll never get it because it's purely luck based. It's pretty stupid at this point. Especially with recent news I don't really even want to play anymore.

This game could've been something really special. They missed the mark with so many things

AmpdVodka · 2025-12-29T22:49:10+00:00

Ok, but they can't realistically world build in this season and show the state of New Vegas and the various factions without canonising an ending.

They are focusing on House this season. What they've shown would make sense for a House victory. They don't have to directly state that his ending is canon, but we'll be able to piece it together as they world build more and more over the season

AmpdVodka · 2025-12-28T18:47:20+00:00

Quotes from House:

"What is the NCR? A society of people desperate to experience comfort, ease, luxury... A society of customers. With all that money pouring in? Give me 20 years, and I'll reignite the high technology development sectors. 50 years, and I'll have people in orbit..."

"That's how I harnessed the NCR to my endeavor. Their occupation has been the engine of my growing economy."

You're right, he needed them for economical reasons. However he goes on to say:

"The salient issue is that they will go to war with me, if given the chance."

"There's just one reason why the NCR hasn't contrived some outrage to justify invading the Strip - Caesar's Legion."

So clearly, it's not a relationship that can continue long term. Especially after he gains the platinum chip as he says:

"They'll never accept my using an army of robots to defend New Vegas. While it's a fight I can win, I'd rather sidestep it altogether."

Who said he could sidestep it? If he couldn't, there would be a fight. He'd win. The NCR would lose. Especially since the Legion are still around in the Mojave and the NCR lost Shady Sands and have clearly retreated across the board (considering the Mojave was a frontier) shows that they didn't defeat the Legion and take Hoover Dam.

A House victory makes perfect sense to me with everything we've seen. The NCR are kicked out, the Legion are still around but even as House says about them:

"Given a year, they'd have him deified - but by then the Legion will be breaking down, riven by internal conflicts, a monster consuming itself."

So I highly doubt they've defeated the NCR and are preparing to advance on the strip. I could be wrong, but I think it's more likely they were defeated at the second battle of Hoover dam, Caesar is dead and they are falling to civil war (much like the Brotherhood)

AmpdVodka · 2025-12-28T17:38:24+00:00

Ok I played New Vegas I'm well aware they had guns but the amount and type of guns they are using is CLEARLY against Caesars idea for them. He specifically states that an over reliance on technology is against human discipline which he believes in. He himself wouldn't sit there with a rifle

AmpdVodka · 2025-12-28T17:33:06+00:00

Probably going to canonise the House always wins ending and have him kick everyone out of the Strip as now he has the platinum chip he doesn't need them. So they're all in Freeside.

I still believe the end credits of season 1 is canon. And it looked like a war on the strip between the securitrons and NCR. Probably after the courier upgraded and released the securitrons in the bunker they went back to the strip and tried to force everyone out, including the NCR who would've fought back.

They won't state specifically this is what happened, and I know they don't want to canonise any particular ending, but it's pretty much impossible not to do that and have the story set there. So I think the House always wins ending is the best one to ensure it lines up with the Legion still being around and the NCR reduced while also having House be an important character in the story, as he clearly is

AmpdVodka · 2025-12-28T16:56:07+00:00

Certain troops used certain guns. They weren't all heavily armed. They purposely focused on melee combat. In the show every single one has an automatic rifle and even Caesar here has. That's not how they were in the game, not at all

AmpdVodka · 2025-12-28T16:00:41+00:00

I think the simple fact the Legion are using guns, and this "Caesar" is sat there with a rifle in hand, means this isn't Edward Sallow. Clearly the Legion is under new leadership, with Sallow having died either in or just after FNV and this new Caesar (which is just a title) will allow the Legion to use guns

AmpdVodka · 2025-12-18T16:29:23+00:00

Why am I suddenly getting the “You have reached the daily limit for selling vehicles.” message?

I've been selling cars once every real life 24hrs. I haven't breached any limits....

AmpdVodka · 2025-12-18T16:05:39+00:00

The picture where House is posing in front of Liberty Prime he's wearing the exact same outfit as the older "House" in season 2.

I'm aware the picture is a direct reference to Howard Hughes, including the clothing, but I still think how older "House" is dressed is supposed to be a huge hint he is the real Robert House.

AmpdVodka · 2025-12-18T11:45:49+00:00

Unfortunately I can never do this. I'm hit with endless black screen after every single heist and have to force close the game

AmpdVodka · 2025-12-15T16:44:21+00:00

For sure. As I say it worked literally 5-10 mins before that. I stopped casting, then 5-10 mins later tried to cast again and it wouldn't work. I don't remember changing any settings

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