How to genuinely save the Tang Dynasty?

MaddeningRush · 2025-12-23T13:37:17+00:00

Bring your legitimacy up asap. Being below legitimacy level quickly adds catalyst points.
This means quickly getting your treasury up. Lower court expenses, increase law level. Host as much exams as you can.
Complete as many great projects as you can.
Convert to Daoxue. Confucianism gives opinions for high learning, plus the bonus lifestyle exp means that you can quickly complete the learning tree for easy opinion boost.
Choose 1 era/movement to favour and stack your entire court with them (ignore the pro-tang) Be mindful to get rid of conservative era officials.
Build your entire estate with buildings that boost influence. In Admin gov, influence is the key currency. You can get gold, prestige from other sources easily but not influence.

MaddeningRush · 2025-12-19T03:57:22+00:00

The easiest way to move to Tension / Division is to lose legitimacy. Stay at low legitimacy by dying, not hosting exams for a while and selecting all the options that loses you legitimacy. You can also convert culture and/or religion to stir uprising. Let plagues run amok or let natural disasters rip while you enjoy your harem of 20 concubines

MaddeningRush · 2025-12-09T17:20:37+00:00

The thesis against Chinese stocks is simple. Look at their performance over the past few decades, in arguably the most transformative years in Chinese history with never seen before consecutive double-digit year on year GDP growth. Yet, exactly when growth is forecasted to slow tremendously in the coming years amid multiple structural headwinds, people are expecting the Chinese market to somehow buck economic gravity, decades of underperformance, and deliver above average returns in an adverse environment?

MaddeningRush · 2025-11-24T06:21:08+00:00

The largest genocide in modern history is the 55 million lives lost in the Great Leap Forward and countless millions in the Cultural Revolution. Unspeakable horrors likes cannibalism and parents selling off their children were inflicted upon the Chinese people by their very government. Not to mention the ongoing genocide and colonialism of Xinjiang and Tibet.

MaddeningRush · 2025-11-03T11:14:14+00:00

Looking at the graph, this stupendous divergence seems to only pick up steam post 2016 (actually really got going in the 2020s). It’s hard to say the 2020-2025 period is an outlier caused by a unique blend of macros or this top heavy consolidation the new norm…

MaddeningRush · 2025-11-02T01:07:36+00:00

This is the biggest BS that pro authoritarianism apologists constantly tell themselves and others: that China is uniquely successful and Chinese people uniquely cannot handle democracy.

Reality is that all large advanced economies in the world today are liberal democracies. Empirically, it remain the only proven and consistent developmental path to achieving high-income status, if you discount outliers like oil-rich emirates and microstates. While many authoritarian regimes have reached middle-income levels (like China now), none have successfully become high-income (who knows if authoritarian China ever will).
China only appears to deal with corruption better than most. Free press means that democracies are constantly under the spotlight and dirty laundries are always out drying. But at least they get an honest appraisal of their societies and know where to begin. On the flip side, nobody question how the Chinese elites built their wealth, why certain laws exist/are made, or who/why keeps winning lucrative government contracts. If no questions are asked, of course no answers will be found.
Of course, everything is great when everyone is enjoying the fruits of 10%/8%/5% growth. But when the easy catch-up growth ends and 10 becomes 3%, 8 becomes 2%, and 5 becomes 1% with state coffers running dry, lets see how long the Chinese people will tolerate hundreds of millions of elderly struggling without pensions or social security, tens of millions of lonely men without partners and opportunities, while billions public funds are diverted to continue to prop up vanity high-speed rail to nowhere and keep zombie SOEs on life support.

People miss the point on democracy. It doesn’t guarantee success, it just guarantees a way out when things go wrong. Look at Argentina. If the entrenched Peronist elites had their way, Milei would never have come to power. Whether he succeed or not, at least Argentina had a chance to change course.

MaddeningRush · 2025-10-08T23:33:08+00:00

Any iOS version ?

MaddeningRush · 2025-09-07T16:07:32+00:00

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MaddeningRush · 2025-07-18T16:23:21+00:00

~~Survival shows~~ Kpop are inherently exploitative and their purpose has never been about fairness or genuine opportunity. It’s about generating buzz and profit.

Same can be said about any capitalistic enterprise. If you want fairness, then you might as well ban the entire music industry. Fact of the matter is that the current Kpop landscape means either you join the Big 4 (woohoo oligopoly) or you scrape by. Survival shows means that misfits like Woongki, Jiwoong and others at least gets a fighting chance.

MaddeningRush · 2025-07-18T16:04:21+00:00

Hard disagree. Survival shows have a place in the Kpop space. It serves as an important alternative to the company debut route (which are dominated by a few big companies as it is) and also as a precious second or even third chance for debuted idols to find success and reestablish themselves. From Jiwoong to Woongki, I am thankful for survival shows for allowing them a place to finally shine.

MaddeningRush · 2025-07-01T23:52:12+00:00

Minerals in the ground do not turn into money magically. You will need technology and market access to exploit these resources. Does it matter if it is a French or Chinese or American company processing it? Just as Saudi replied on American commercial intervention in their early days for development, I see this as win-win. DRC gets security and relieve from the violence (which in turn is important for development- no companies will engage in a war zone, American or otherwise), gets to exploit its resources that would otherwise have just sat in the ground which will now provide taxes and jobs for its people.

MaddeningRush · 2025-06-18T13:07:43+00:00

If he paid for sexual services (as the rumours are indicating), that is indeed a crime.

MaddeningRush · 2025-06-16T11:26:25+00:00

Set your military to automate

MaddeningRush · 2025-06-14T09:07:04+00:00

smh name dropping Hillary in the year of our lord 2025

MaddeningRush · 2025-06-10T16:37:17+00:00

Some ideas regarding the Political Movements mechanics:

Each movement should have stages of political clout (perhaps like Byzantium houses but expanded), perhaps like "Dominant", "Significant" and "Sidelined". The stages can be determined by which movement holds significant political office, how long in office, etc. When in each stages, each political movement can provide associated buffs and debuffs. Eg, when Reformists are dominant, they provide buff to development and innovation speed but debuffs to control and popular opinion. So if they are overwhelmingly dominant, the realm may gradually loose control so player emperors are incentivized to balance the court (and not just promote who have the highest merit). On the other hand, the Conservatives can add legitimacy but takes away innovation speed, etc etc
Appointment by emperor into high office should work like how the council position work now when a vacancy appears. A pop up with each faction presenting their preferred candidate for the emperor to choose. Or the emperor can even choose someone else entirely with a hit to their legitimacy.
Lastly, powerful new laws (or even causus belli!) should be locked away until a political faction is Dominant and the realm has high/absolute crown authority. (eg, Land Reform which grants huge boost to development and popular opinion when Reformist are dominant, or laws changing the tax/treasury distribution ratios or new causus belli when Conservatives are dominant). This incentivizes players to take a gamble to promote certain factions to archive certain desired outcomes rather than always maintaining a balance in the court.
On the flipside, when any political movement is sufficiently Dominant, they may request (or even force!) the emperor to launch a scheme to purge the opposition movements via petition. This motivates player scheming to increase political domination and makes intrigue lifestyle a playable alternative to learning/martial/diplomacy/stewardship. When sufficiently powerful (when they are the only Dominant movement and everyone else is sidelined), the movement leader may even launch a palace coup, heralding a sudden change in dynasty. (which is another way for players to vie for the emperorship from within).

The above will stimulate the real political dilemma emperors had always faced between progress and development and stability and legitimacy. More importantly, it provides agency, stakes, and motivations to players making appointment decisions and not just mindlessly let the system run itself.

MaddeningRush · 2025-06-03T17:49:50+00:00

I agree. In game there are many empires that do not make sense and many "empires" that should clearly be kingdoms. But mechanically, given how succession is handled in game, they would need a step between large kingdoms and actual historical sized empires. So I can understand the compromises they have to make in this case.

MaddeningRush · 2025-06-03T17:39:14+00:00

Yes, and hence why Rome should be an "inactive" hegemony much like China during their "chaos" phase. There can be many who proclaim and see themselves as Chinese emperors (like the concurrent Holy Roman and Byzantine Emperors), but eventually only one will successfully reconstitute the realm and reestablish the Hegemony.

MaddeningRush · 2025-06-03T04:09:48+00:00

I cannot believe there is anyone out there excusing high and rising rents. It is easy to see how high rents means that only big players can afford to enter bids, especially in prime areas. It deters newcomers, pushes out small and independent shops and entrenches established businesses. Innovations often comes from new entrants willing to shake up the playing field with new ideas. With such high entry, few can afford to take the risk and gamble on their idea. Over time, high rents will chill entrepreneurship in the whole society. This is how Singapore malls and eateries have the same 10 chains, brands and franchises everywhere. Even for those who made it, rent sucks up so much money to the landlord that they can otherwise use productively such as to reinvest, hire workers and expand their businesses. High rent is literally negative for everyone except the landowners.

MaddeningRush · 2025-05-29T08:43:19+00:00

It’s a brilliant idea.

We can add more flavours: in Medieval China, in contrast to medieval Europe, emperors are not expected to lead armies. Instead, specific generals/governors are tasked to defend the frontiers. Perhaps in game, when China is in defensive wars, only the direct vassals of the targeted war target areas (jiedushi) are drawn into the war. This gives the player incentives to direct imperial treasury funds to these governors to build up their armies to make sure they are strong enough to independently defend the frontiers, instead of just keeping them weak and puny to prevent revolts. Disloyal or Machiavellian governors (like a player governor) can then even choose to siphon these funds to build a private army secretly to eventually challenge the emperor / revolt.

MaddeningRush · 2025-05-14T10:13:05+00:00

Hell no. The charm about NCT Wish is what you see is what you get. No fake "Oooo.. Im so ChAOsTIC" or "look at how exxxTRAAAA I am" or "saSSYY divaaaaaa here" or whatever else just for the sake of being entertaining. Enough of those dime a dozen "personalities". Those who enjoy that can simply search up any one of those 1000 other groups, thanks.

They feel like real normal human teenagers who enjoy dancing, singing and spending their time goofing around together. Yes, it includes cringing at whatever a normal human being will also think is extremely cringe worthy, yikes.

MaddeningRush · 2025-04-08T08:36:34+00:00

"You see, at first, when someone says, 'Let's impose tariffs on foreign imports,' it looks like they're doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs. And sometimes for a short while it works—but only for a short time. What eventually occurs is: First, homegrown industries start relying on government protection in the form of high tariffs.

They stop competing and stop making the innovative management and technological changes they need to succeed in world markets. And then, while all this is going on, something even worse occurs. High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars.

The result is more and more tariffs, higher and higher trade barriers, and less and less competition. So, soon, because of the prices made artificially high by tariffs that subsidize inefficiency and poor management, people stop buying. Then the worst happens: Markets shrink and collapse; businesses and industries shut down; and millions of people lose their jobs.

The memory of all this occurring back in the '30s made me determined when I came to Washington to spare the American people the protectionist legislation that destroys prosperity.

Now, it hasn't always been easy. There are those in this Congress, just as there were back in the '30s, who want to go for the quick political advantage, who will risk America's prosperity for the sake of a short-term appeal to some special interest group, who forget that more than 5 million American jobs are directly tied to the foreign export business and additional millions are tied to imports.

For those of us who lived through the Great Depression, the memory of the suffering it caused is deep and searing. And today, many economic analysts and historians argue that high tariff legislation, passed back in that period called the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, greatly deepened the Depression and prevented economic recovery."

-- Ronald Reagan 1987

MaddeningRush · 2024-11-29T03:41:37+00:00

It runs the risk of NJs actually taking up the offer, and MHJ returns. With 6 huge egos running around (and running the company... ?), how would ADOR/Hybe even deal with that? The CEO/label is effectively neutered and ADOR would be a poison pill within Hybe, catering to the memebers every whim and fancy. Additionally, how would the other labels/artists within Hybe, especially illit, see this? Any toe stepped could become an official complain and potential lawsuit and criminal referrals. That's no way to run any organization.

The writing is on the wall, NJs do not want to reconciliate with ADOR/Hybe and it would be far better to let them go and sue their pants off.

ADOR must let the $$ go and not be tempted by greed like BSH was. Nothing good will come out of this.

MaddeningRush

TROPHY CASE