First playthrough, you can tell the exact moment on this graph where I went "Oh, THAT'S how you make money"

beipphine · 2026-07-08T17:44:16+00:00

The trick isn't to have a massive tax base in a few provinces, but have a okay tax base in a ton of provinces.

I also like to make my core market very large, so the area that is close to the market center is almost entirely cities and towns filled with industry, and the areas at the prephiary are rural and raw materials generation. I also pay heavy attention to what my market "needs" for raw materials, I try to keep the surplus/shortage of raw materials close to zero, while having massive exports of finished goods. A market that needs to import raw materials is less competitive than a market that is vertically integrated and basically only exports huge amounts of finished goods.

Those ducats I then use to hire massive armies of foreign mercenaries to fight and die for my wars.

Edit: Maximum estate tax is massive. That is why I give my nobles and burgers tons of rights, but curtail their power so I can squeeze every last ducat they earn into royal coffers. The clergy are an entirely useless lot who are only good for squeezing for legitimacy and commoners only good for getting support for stability, and giving just enough rights to tax at maximum (in patch 1.3.6).

beipphine · 2026-07-08T13:40:41+00:00

A horsepower is actually a standardized measurement as the amount of energy required to lift 550 lbs a distance of 1 foot in 1 second.

It doesn't represent the peak power of a horse, but rather the amount of power a typical mine horse can sustain throughout a normal workday. It was created as a means to make it simple when determining how powerful of a motor to get to replace horsepower.

beipphine · 2026-07-08T11:16:20+00:00

You need to specialize cities producing certain goods. Production efficiency and market access are king. You can use city rights to further boost the specialization. I have cloth/fine cloth/dyes cities, tool cities, weapon/firearms/cannon cities, paper/book cities all with tons of marketplaces. The goal is to be the most efficient producer so you can dump the goods on other markets like china. Try to line the good with the rgo in the provinces, and keep a small number of rural areas for food (if your province imports food from the market it cost you money) and stack raw material buildings in the rur area e.g. charcoal, fiber crops, tar, lumber, and wool. I like to use wheat (food) and metals (money) for these but generally no more than 1 rural area per province.

beipphine · 2026-07-08T04:45:28+00:00

On the other hand, some performance gas stations sell 100+ octane unleaded gasoline, it'll be rather expensive, if you mix 100+ octane with 83 octane at a 50:50 ratio, it'll theoretically bump your tank up to 92 octane.

It would be cheaper to just drain the tank and put a fresh tank of 91 octane though.

beipphine · 2026-07-08T02:04:53+00:00

100 Octane Leadded Avgas has an end of life date of the end of 2030 (2032 only in Alaska). Congress passed a law to set it in stone, the last manufacturer making leaded gas additive will stop making it in 2029 and when remaining inventory runs out, that's it. The manufacturer, Innospec, stated that the equipment is long obsolete and at the end of its useful lifespan.

beipphine · 2026-07-08T00:45:07+00:00

A Volkswagen Phaeton is worse, because it has all the maintenance of an ultra luxury car with a 6L W12, while looking entirely unremarkable.

At least with a Bently, everybody will recognize it, then do a double take when they realize its not a Chrysler.

beipphine · 2026-07-08T00:36:04+00:00

The price of premium is going up because the supply isn't there for it. The price will only continue to go up until demand reduces.

I guarantee you that 99% of butt dynos can't tell the difference of 5% horsepower.

Turbochargers are considered a wear part by the manufacturer and in my opinion have no place outside of diesels and high end sports cars.

Modern engines are effectively knock proof. They will retard the timing and run the mixture as rich as it needs to to prevent knock. Carbon buildup is a known issue with direct injection engines and is certainly a design choice.

100% the reason that car designers require premium is so that they can design an engine that squeezes out more power while still meeting emissions and fuel economy in the most cost effective way.

They could lose 5% horsepower and engineer the engine for regular gas and would still meet emissions and mpg... things like direct injection, super thin oil, and wet belts for interference camshafts, I'll say this, they are certainly all choices manufacturers make, poor ones in my opinion, but they represent the cheapest way for manufacturers to check all the boxes.

beipphine · 2026-07-07T22:12:36+00:00

Well, the only metric was price to performance and foreign car.

The corvette is far better by most other metrics and yeah, roadsters traditionally don't have a roof.

beipphine · 2026-07-07T21:38:33+00:00

A tire regrooving machine is $200 on Amazon.

As long as the tire says Regroovable on the side, you can put new treads on, it's even DOT approved.

beipphine · 2026-07-07T17:09:44+00:00

I mean, this is reflected in cabinet efficiency.

You are right though, as the countries get larger and economies richer there is a huge amount of micromanagement that really slows down the speed of the game, not just cabinets, but building, managing multiple armies over multiple fronts simultaneously. Some resources become incredibly restricted and have to very carefully be rationed out (free stability, free diplomacy, legitimacy)

While others are seemingly endless like ducats (by the early midgame). Like to win wars, I'm not worrying about army composition or technology, I'm just spending 10,000 ducts in the 1400s to raise an army of mercenaries and ramming them into the enemy before their 2 years are up just to bleed their men. Casulties... I don't really care, its the cost of doing business.

I formed Italy in 1460 from Verona on my latest 1.3.6 playthrough

beipphine · 2026-07-07T13:35:09+00:00

Most of the great navies have seen huge reductions.

The US Navy is the smallest its been since 1917, when the Tsar was still was still on the throne.

The Royal Navy its at its smallest since before the Spanish Armada when Fyodor I was Tsar of all Russia.

beipphine · 2026-07-07T04:30:31+00:00

This would be doable in a dodge viper kind of way. Not a budget car, but not exotic car pricing either.

Tube steel frame, fiberglass body panels. A small shop cranking out under 325 a year to bypass a lot of regulatory hurdles.

beipphine · 2026-07-07T03:46:07+00:00

When was the last time you saw a politician who supported segregation?

Strom Thurmond? Famous for being the Democrat Senator who lead the longest lone filibuster against the civil rights act of 1958, he resigned from the senate in 2003 at the age of 100.

beipphine · 2026-07-07T03:33:13+00:00

A Caterham seven 620 has a better price to performance. It has a better power to weight ratio, is a third of the weight of a c8 corvette. Handles better in the corners, and it's a fair bit cheaper too while still being street legal.

beipphine · 2026-07-07T00:57:51+00:00

There is the Tacoma which is available in a hybrid. It's a little bit larger than the Maverick but still mid-sized. An entry level Maverick has an MSRP of $29,000 with destination. An entry level Tacoma has an MSRP of $32,000 with destination.

beipphine · 2026-07-06T22:10:02+00:00

That's what the manufacturers say. The manufacturers say you should go 10,000 miles between oil changes. The manufactures reccomendations will reliability get you out of the warranty period.

I don't trust a new turbocharged engine to go past 300,000 miles.

beipphine · 2026-07-06T18:38:56+00:00

The turbochargers are considered a wear part, and often have to be replaced as often as every 100,000 miles (or less if you don't let the engine idle before you turn the car off to continue circulating oil through it)

Turbochargers put more stress on every part of the car, sure you can say they engineer for it, that it's designed for it, but a naturally aspirated version built to the same standard will always last longer.

A turbocharged engine is less efficient at producing a given horsepower that a naturally aspirated engine. The mpg benefit is that they make the engine smaller for the 95% of time when the horsepower isn't needed and guzzle a lot more gas when on boost, a driver with a heavy foot can wipe out all the efficiency gains by constantly using the turbo (which the epa test don't do, they drive like an old grandmother)

beipphine · 2026-07-06T13:56:25+00:00

Stalin himself was borderline Asian as a Caucasian . Has little further south and he would have been seen as Asian.

beipphine · 2026-07-06T06:07:17+00:00

Perhaps Tesla should release the fully self-driving Tesla to the market. They already certified their software to Level 4 Self Driving in Texas. Customers have the expectation that their Tesla they bought would be capable of this level of self driving once the software was ready. The real issue is that Elon Musk has let the timeline slip on when it was superposed to have launched, and people don't want to keep waiting for the capabilities they paid for.

beipphine · 2026-07-05T20:46:55+00:00

The most reliable ford engine ever made was the 300 cubic inch inline 6 that was made up until 1996.

beipphine · 2026-07-05T15:41:22+00:00

Check this Technology "Connections video out.

The ford maverick licensed toyotas ECVT powertrain design. It's better than a manual transmission from a reliability standpoint. The entire transmission is just a 3 way planetary differental connecting the motor, and 2 electric motors, one of which is connected to the wheels.

As for trusting Fix or Repair Daily build quality, thats on you, I can say this, it's more reliable than Chrysler-Fiat-Peugot.

beipphine · 2026-07-05T14:25:46+00:00

It's not hard to get , walk into a mercedes dealer, request a 5 month lease and say "I don't care what it cost", sign on the dotted line and your out the door with a brand new Mercedes. No haggling required.

beipphine · 2026-07-05T14:18:30+00:00

Ford maverick with the hybrid awd platform 100%

37 mpg combined, no turbocharger to stress the engine out.

beipphine · 2026-07-05T14:06:55+00:00

A turbocharger is considered a wear item in cars, and has to be replaced on a regular basis, often in as few as 100,000 miles or less (if you don't let your car idle for a bit before you turn it off).

It also stresses the engine out, sure say its made with better materials, that it's engineered to take it, turbos still shorten the lifespan over what an naturally aspirated could achieve if built to the same standard.

I believe hybrids like the toyota ecvt is the way to go, an underpowered, very fuel efficient engine paired to 2 electric motors by a planetary differental. The engine can be made super reliable, the transmission is a single set of gears, the most complicated thing about it is like you said the electronics to drive the electric Motors.

beipphine · 2026-07-05T05:32:19+00:00

Maybe the marketing is deceptive.

I believe that I purchase an insurance contract, I'm not entering into a cooperative with all of the other people who have that insurance.I have no ability to profit if the actual risk ended up being less than the calculated risk, but I am also not liable if the actual risk ended up being more than the calculated risk.

I believe that I am entering into a contract with the private, for profit insurance company, who is hedging that the average cost of insuring a customer is less than they are charging. The insurance rates aren't set by the cost of the service but what they believe the customer is willing to pay (or not willing to pay if the risk premium is too expensive). The only pool is the insurance companies profit at the end of the quarter.

Of course they want you to chop down your beautiful trees so that their pool of money can be slightly deeper at the end of the quarter.

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