ABSL AMC: Net profit up 53.7% at ₹208.4 cr vs ₹135.6 cr, Revenue up 23.1% at ₹365.6 cr vs ₹297 cr (YoY) (Positive)
*SBFC: Net Profit Up 72% At Rs 73.4 Cr Vs Rs 42.7 Cr, Revenue Up 34.4% At Rs 278.8 Cr Vs Rs 207.5 Cr (YoY). (Positive)
Shakti Pumps: Cons revenue at Rs 609 cr vs Rs 183 cr YoY, Cons PAT at Rs 89.6 cr vs Rs 2.2 cr YoY (Positive)
Utkarsh SFB: Company reports Q4 earnings, Net Profit up 19.4% at ₹159.7 cr vs ₹133.8 cr, NII up 31.8% at ₹539.9 cr vs ₹409.6 cr (YoY) (Positive)
Force Motors: Company reports Q4 earnings, Net profit down 4.3% at ₹140.3 cr vs ₹146.6 cr, Revenue up 35% at ₹2,011.2 cr vs ₹1,490.3 cr (YoY) (Positive)
Sanghi Ind: Net Loss At Rs 19 Cr Vs Loss Of Rs 105 Cr, Revenue Up 26% At Rs 285 Cr Vs Rs 226 Cr (YoY) (Positive)
Yes Bank: Net Profit At Rs 454 Cr Vs Rs 202.4 Cr, NII Up 2.3% At Rs 2,153.1 Cr Vs Rs 2,105.2 Cr (YoY) (Positive)
Eveready: Cons net profit 80m rupees vs loss 144m, Q4 revenue 2.8b rupees vs 2.9b (YOY) (Positive)
MHRIL: Net profit up 46.1% at ₹82.4 cr vs ₹56.4 cr, Revenue up 12.5% at ₹800.2 cr vs ₹711.6 cr (YoY) (Positive)
NBCC: Company gets an in-principle approval to form a wholly owned subsidiary in Dubai (Positive)
Ircon International: Company gets order worth Rs 1,198.09 cr from the East Coast Railway (Positive)
Apollo Hospitals: Keimed merger will help in a unified pharmacy biz and will allow for sustained improvement in margin (Positive)
IREDA: Company granted ‘Navratna Status’ from department of public enterprises. (Positive)
Hinduja Global: Company arm acquires 51% stake in Seven Star Balaji Broadband. (Positive)
BATA: Company approved monetizing the co.’s freehold industrial land admeasuring approximately 11.54 acres for a consideration of 156 cr rupees (Positive)
Ajanta Pharma: To consider buyback of equity shares at its board meet on May 2.. (Positive)
NLC India: Coal Mine approval to accelerate profits, New CMD (Ex-NTPC) to drive execution. (Positive)
Macrotech: Company expects pre-sales to grow about 20% in the year to March after reporting its highest-ever quarterly revenue. (Positive)
Tata Steel: Company has agreed detailed terms with the UK Government on the proposed grant package to support the £1.25 billion investment (Positive)
CRISIL: Company’s unit gets SEBI license to commence the business of ESG Ratings Provider. (Positive)
Indusind Bank: NII at Rs 5376 crore versus poll of Rs 5472 crore, Net profit at Rs 2349 crore versus poll of Rs 2403 crore (Neutral)
IDFC First; Net Profit At Rs 724.3 Cr Vs CNBC-TV18 Poll Of Rs 738.6 Cr, Gross NPA At 1.88% Vs 2.04% (QoQ) (Neutral)
RBL Bank: Net Profit At Rs 352.6 Cr Vs Poll Of Rs 320.7 Cr, Gross NPA At 2.65% Vs 3.12% (QoQ) (Neutral)
Craftsman: Net Profit Down 20% At Rs 62.3 Cr Vs Rs 77.6 Cr, Revenue Up 12.7% At Rs 1,105.3 Cr Vs Rs 980.4 Cr (YoY) (Neutral)
Mastek: Net profit up 22% at Rs 92 Cr vs Rs 75.3 Cr, Revenue down 0.5% at Rs 780 Cr vs Rs 784 Cr (QoQ) (Neutral)
Usha Martin: Net Profit up 0.9% at ₹106.3 cr vs ₹105.3 cr, Revenue down 3.1% at ₹829 cr vs ₹855.2 cr (YoY). (Neutral)
HCL Tech: Net profit at ₹3,986 cr vs poll of ₹4,084 cr, CC revenue growth at 0.3% vs poll of 0.4%. (Neutral)
SBI Life: Net Profit up 4.4% at ₹811 cr vs ₹777 cr, Annualised premium equivalent up 17.1% at ₹5,330 cr vs ₹4,550 cr (YoY) (Neutral)
SBI Cards: Net profit up 11.5% at ₹662.4 cr vs ₹596.5 cr, Revenue up 15.6% at ₹4,347.7 cr vs ₹3,762.2 cr (YoY) (Neutral)
Vodafone Idea: ATC Telecom Infrastructure has exited the telecom operator by selling its entire shareholding of 144 crore equity shares (Neutral)
Maruti Suzuki: Company‘s Chairman RC Bhargava say a fourth unit at Suzuki Motor Gujarat to start production by end of this year. (Neutral)
L&T: Co gets GST penalty worth Rs 43 crore from Jaipur GST authority. (Neutral)
Everest: Company MDH Row: Indian spice manufacturers may face an export ban if the presence of ethylene oxide is confirmed (Negative)
BSE: Company gets regulatory fees & interest remittance demand worth Rs 99 crore from SEBI for FY2007-2023. (Negative)

The Netflix series changes a few things from the books, such as adding/removing characters or providing answers to questions left unanswered. How canonical do you consider the Netflix series vs the books?
I watched the first season of the Netflix series before reading all the books, and I'm conflicted on what I consider to be the true canon. If I had to decide, I would probably say the books are the true canon that Daniel Handler intended, but the Netflix series is adapted to suit screen better. That being said, there are parts of the Netflix series I prefer to their book equivalents and would rather believe.
Also, as an avid fanfiction fan, I am strongly of the opinion that canon is very flexible lmao

01 A Paradigm Shift Decades in the Making - Are You Ready? Go on a life-changing mission with Ben as he fights his way back from severe brain fog, fatigue & depression using strategies employed by the military, the Pentagon, & top peak performers that haven't been shared before;
You'll discover a paradigm shift decades in the making that finally puts to rest the question, why does self-help works for some, but not for others?
Why people have a hard time changing & default back to self-sabotaging behaviors
The REAL issues holding people back from becoming successful, that isn't being discussed ANYWHERE!
Why you really make excuses & how you can short-circuit this to unleash your true potential
How to upgrade your focus, energy & motivation using advanced, scientifically proven biohacks
How to reboot your brain, reimagine your life & reawaken your soul's purpose to become Unstoppable
How you compare to the more than 50,000 people we surveyed internationally & how to apply this information to your own life
The biochemical reasons we FAIL & how to diagnose these in your own life so you don't beat yourself up in the process
The problem with outdated models for treating low energy, depression, anxiety & stress & the 4 BRAND NEW models being used for success by psychologists, doctors, nutritionists & biohackers 02 Unlocking the Keys to Your Kingdom (Interactive) Next, together, we'll explore a new & profound way to track & manage your progress using a combination of neuroscience, psychology & biology in this interactive chapter to pinpoint what's TRULY holding you back;
You'll discover which one of the 4 unique Success Identity Types you are & how it impacts every facet of your life, from your energy & focus to your mood, behavior & more
Through the interactive FREE online quiz, you'll discover your biological & psychological strengths & weaknesses, that will change the way you look at peak performance foreve
The best way to uncover your self-sabotaging efforts & how to combat the tension that new goals place on your need to change.
Understand the biological & psychological symptoms of the 'Snapback Effect' & how to cut them off at the knee so you are free to succeed.
How to combat the no. 1 productivity killer, 'Decision Fatigue', so you can begin feeling more energized, focused & driven... sooner.
The single best Formula for Success & how this one model explains why so many get left behind while others skip to the head of the pack - this is your secret weapon!
Your 2 energy sources of life explained - how psychological/spiritual and biochemical energies play an equal & comprehensive role in how you feel & the type of game you play in life.
Why you can't outthink bad biochemistry by medicating with self-help and the explanation of why you may get "better"... but not necessarily "well"! 03 Under the Radar - Hack Your Emotions, Take Control of Your Energy" You'll walk away after reading this chapter thinking, "this should be taught in schools!
Discover how your emotions, thoughts & behaviors are getting hijacked by everyday influences that no one is talking about and what you can do about it
The 7 secret triggers that are blunting your brain, zapping your energy, mimicking psychological disorders, clouding your thinking & creating self-sabotaging behavior without us even realizing, including;
Medication
Food sensitivities
Nutritional deficiencies
Digestion
Hormones
Allergies
Toxins
How to use this Under The Radar model of unintended consequences to identify psychological & biological influences that knee-cap your performance
The top 7 medications that can cause everything from anxiety & depression to mood swings, aggression & even suicidal thoughts - you most likely have at least one of these in your medicine cabinet right now!
The conflicting reputation of caffeine - let's breakdown the science of whether it's helping or hindering you, you'll be surprised! 04 Fueling for Success - Upgrade Your Energy, Upgrade Your Life" Discover the connection between the need for willpower and your physical (and mental) energy levels as we look at how your body produces and consumes its energy. You'll learn;
Why applying willpower is a LOSING strategy & what to do instead
What happened when I drank pure ketone ester (a breakthrough product that's the result of 15 years of research & $60 million in funding)
History of the ketogenic diet and its effectiveness as a treatment for depression. Warning: don't do it if you have these health issues...
You & Your Mitochondria: A 10-step 'Fuel Yourself For Success' plan
The gut/brain connection broken down into easy-to-understand language
Breaking research into the gut microbiome and the key to better health, more energy, & better mood
Find out if your diet could be killing your healthy microbiome & triggering inflammation
How I linked my depression to my gut health by taking this easy to use test
Why a one-size-fits-all approach to nutrition doesn't work & the 13 factors to focus on when it comes to food & nutrition instead
Why you should consider this popular eating protocol to improve your energy, mood & focus 05 The Transformational Biohacker - Sharpening Your Mind with Nutritional Supplements We look at ways to boost your energy, reboot your brain & dial in your focus to support you on your journey of transformation into 'The Catalyst'.
How nutritional deficiencies will amplify many negative emotions, making you your own worst enemy
Discover my pick for the top six supplements that will help you reboot your body & brain as well as;
Improving your mood, concentration & memory
Boosting your energy, memory & brain health
Reduce cravings & stabilizing your energy
Maximizing your mental health & sleep
Balancing hormones, increasing immunity, & aiding in nutrient absorption 06 Enter the World of Nootropics - Improve Focus, Concentration, & Drive" I'll take you through how these brain boosting "smart drugs" can help you to feel more alert, concentrate with more ease & supercharge your energy. You'll discover;
The 4 things you MUST know before using any nootropic to sharpen your focus, concentration & drive
The difference between natural & pharmaceutically derived nootropics & why I prefer those that are naturally found in foods you already eat
How to find the right dose for emotional, cognitive & energetic regulation
My top 7 picks, that are readily available & affordable, to help optimize your health as well as;
Reduce anxiety, promote relaxation without sedation & enhance attention
Decrease stress, promote healthy mood & boost cognition
Increase focus & attention while reducing physical & mental fatigue
Support circulation and protect against cell damage
Get a complete breakdown of which nootropics you should & shouldn't be trying based on your unique Success Identity Type ( you discovered this in chapter 2)
Learn how to avoid buying into the hype so you can find what speifically works for you
My pick of the top 3 nootropic stacks for easy consumption and additional firepower & focus, including all the pros & cons for each
This is a pseudoscience free-zone, backed up with clinical & academic research 07 The Switch - Brain Training/Sleep Tracking Wearables Understand how your body & brain react to real vs perceived dangers & how your behaviors, patterns & habits are formed while exploring the latest scientifically proven wearable technology designed to reduce stress & train your brain for success. We'll dive into;
The REAL secrets to success as you learn how to reprogram your brain
Habits & Highways: How we form new behaviors & break old patterns
The 4 signs of being stuck in 'fight or flight mode' so you can cut short the impact
Discover the truth behind sleep & fitness trackers and find out just how accurate they really are
How to distinguish between the facts & the pseudoscience of their marketing campaigns
Know exactly what to look for with my Sleep& Fitness Tracker Buyers Guide so you don't get ripped off!
Be introduced to the latest in braintraining wearables that will upgrade your cognitive function while;
Providing a drug-free solution
Creating new neural highways
Reducing stress within minutes
Taming your fight/flight response
Providing a mental/emotional recharge
Make choosing the right device for you even easier with my buyers guide to the latest wearable brain training devices, all of which are less than what you paid for your smartphone 08 The Cusp of Brilliance - Advanced Strategies for Priming Your Brain Your unique biochemistry can be the key to achieving your soul's purpose & in this chapter we explore ways to align these two as we look at improving your sleep, reducing stress & helping you find calm in the chaos. We explore;
How to biohack your sleep so you wake up feeling rested & ready to go every morning;
Explore the 4 key stages of sleep & why you're most likely missing out on the MOST important one right now
My top 9 tips for increasing deep sleep to prime your brain for success
The no.1 sleep supplement to AVOID that could give you nightmares!
The basics of NLP & how you can manipulate your perception of things to make life easier & stress-less
How to neutralize negative past events using these 9 simple steps
Learn my Quickfire Visualization Technique that is used by athletes to prepare for competitions and how you can apply this advanced technique to prepare yourself to overcome any challenge as you go after your goals
Discover how you're likely to experience visualization/meditation based on our survey of over 50,000, with personalized tips on how to get started as you improve your energy, focus & mood 09 Uncovering Your Purpose - The 2 Different Types of Purpose & Why it Matters Not all purposes are created equal, but understanding yours can lead to greater optimism and a higher likelihood of achieving your goals.
Discover the 2 different types of purpose & how one of them increases inflammatory genes, while the other decreases your nervous system's response to fight/flight making you more likely to be successful. This information alone could transform your life!
The 3 reasons why people without a purpose can't find it & what you can do immediately to help uncover it
Find out if your Success Identity Type is more or less likely to achieve your goals. An understanding that will help to show you precisely what you need to focus on right now!
Get your 4 step process for uncovering your new purpose, or amplifying an existing one, so it draws you to your goals like a magnet
How to use my 5-Step Progressive Overload technique to expand your comfort zone without the risk of giving up on your goals when things start getting tough 10 Your 13 Weeks to Unstoppable Personalized Plan I share the outcomes of my own 90-day mission as we begin to look at how you can plan to overcome the stress, anxiety, depression, fatigue & more that has been holding you back from achieving your goals & living the life you were meant to.
This chapter includes a 13-week outline to plan your very own 90-day mission to biohack your way to an Unstoppable version of you!
Read other success stories from people who lost weight, regained their focus, boosted their energy & identified key triggers that had gone left unchecked for years.
Learn how to personalize your unique 13-week plan to optimize your chances of success
5 Steps to ensure you make the most out of this plan
I show you how to work within your personal budget requirements because there's no need to go out & spend money you might not have on supplements & wearables you don't specifically need.

Looking for advice on the Tonal vs Speediance! And user experience with each. Price isnt really a concern so Im not using that as a pro or con. If you have experience with one or both of these machines, please let me know! And/or if you agree or disagree with my pro/con list below. And advice is appreciated!!
Things Ive heard or possibly observed about both:
Tonal: Has better functionality with the use of all different angles, positions, and heights Less accessories and workouts - for example, we like rowing machines... are there equivalents on this like the speediance allows? No ankle straps either.. Better for tall people Company less likely to bankrupt and therefore a more reliable company Bad customer service Cant install yourself Nicer quality hardware
Speediance: More workouts and accessories - rowing, ankle straps, etc Better customer service, company takes customer suggestions seriously, better updates Currently being sued by Tonal lol Smaller company and therefore less reliable? Can be used without subscription and also can be used without wifi (dont care about the price aspect but this is good if the company were to go under?) Narrow and short for tall people Screen likely to be hit when using central overhead pieces of equipment? This may be a tonal flaw too but i only heard it with speediance

Looking for advice on the Tonal vs Speediance! And user experience with each. Price isnt really a concern so Im not using that as a pro or con. If you have experience with one or both of these machines, please let me know! And/or if you agree or disagree with my pro/con list below. And advice is appreciated!!
Things Ive heard or possibly observed about both:
Tonal: Has better functionality with the use of all different angles, positions, and heights Less accessories and workouts - for example, we like rowing machines... are there equivalents on this like the speediance allows? No ankle straps either.. Better for tall people Company less likely to bankrupt and therefore a more reliable company Bad customer service Cant install yourself Nicer quality hardware
Speediance: More workouts and accessories - rowing, ankle straps, etc Better customer service, company takes customer suggestions seriously, better updates Currently being sued by Tonal lol Smaller company and therefore less reliable? Can be used without subscription and also can be used without wifi (dont care about the price aspect but this is good if the company were to go under?) Narrow and short for tall people Screen likely to be hit when using central overhead pieces of equipment? This may be a tonal flaw too but i only heard it with speediance

Hi folks - I am trying to decide between these three cooktops and would really appreciate any help from the community. As far I understand it, the higher wattage output means faster heating time and higher temperatures. What I can’t figure out is whether more than 3700W (roughly 25K BTU equivalent, efficiency adjusted) is practically beneficial. here are some questions I had:

1. How much faster would water boil with 3700W vs 5500W vs 7000W?
   
2. We do high heat cooking a few times a month (like a stir fry). Would this be better with the higher wattage? Or not really?
   
3. The rest of the appliances we are buying are Wolf/Subzero. Should this be a consideration?
   
4. Is SKS similar quality/service as Wolf?
   

I have tried researching this question but to no avail hence the post but if I missed a previous link please let me know!
Thanks in advance friends, MS

This year I’ve started hearing analysts and casters start to use the word ‘timings’ extremely frequently to describe the game. Reminded me of an old fencing thing I learned years ago in hs, so whatever I’ll ramble abt it.
In sport fencing the most important things you need to control to win a bout with a near equal opponent are (in this exact order): Distance Timing Technique Tactics Training
I believe this ranking also holds somewhat true for valorant and I’ll explain why.
Distance is self explanatory: to score points you have to hit your opponent. Controlling distance in fencing comes down to your footwork, your ability to determine the spacing between you and your opponent as they constantly try to impose their own favorable distance on you. The valorant equivalent here is line of sight and peaking. Unlike fencing however, it’s not just your character’s movement that controls distance as there are abilities (primarily smokes but also recon darts, boombots, anything that messes up crosshair placement) that can artificially change your ‘distance’. This is obviously the most important thing in the game: aim doesn’t matter if you literally cannot see your opponent on your screen (we’re ignoring spams which make up a minority of kills in a match).
Timing is also pretty obvious. In fencing, timing comes down to doing the right action at the right time. In foil fencing (which used the tip of the blade), this can mean parrying an attack, counterattacking, hiding your blade, and more depending on what you see your opponent doing. In valorant, timing applies to utility usage, taking fights, lurking and more. A good ‘timing’ gives you a ridiculous advantage over an opponent by being able to get the first shot off. Assuming you’re not bronze, most of the time, you will win that fight and help win the round. Another tangent of timing is ‘tempo’, by which both fencers and teams can control matches. Imposing a fast or slow tempo on your opponent makes them uncomfortable and gives you a definitive advantage. Think how Kwanghyun Lee or Yuki Ota compensate for their small size by having ridiculously fast footwork and bladework, or how paper rex forces teams to adapt to their fast pace ‘w gaming’.
Technique in fencing is analogous to ‘mechanics’ in valorant. Where technique in fencing means the way you parry, move, and lunge; mechanics in valorant refer to your aim, movement, and crosshair placement. If you’re an Olympian fencing a novice or a radiant vs a silver player, your technique will be so far superior that nothing else will matter. But for a C rating vs a B rating (using the US standards), or a plat vs gold, technique matters far less than distance and timing as defined before. That is how a ‘worse’ competitor can win against better opponents: by taking favorable engagements on their own terms.
Next up is tactics where this analogy starts to break down. In fencing, tactics refer to preplanning actions and reactions based on what you’ve gauged from your opponent, whether earlier in the bout or beforehand. If I know my opponent likes to make aggressive direct attacks in the middle, I will preplan a fake attack, then parry repost in the box. For valorant, tactics are so much deeper and matter far more. On an individual level, this means possessing an understanding of the game and how to use your positioning and util to your advantage to win rounds. Game IQ minus the timing and distance knowledge essentially. The reason they matter so much more in valorant is because of the lack of knowledge of your opponents and because it’s a team game as opposed to an individual sport like fencing. There’s just so many more possibilities with what people could do during a round. On the other hand, in fencing, the tactics are all similar, so the execution becomes so much more vital. Little differences in preplanned movement result in completely different outcomes.
Finally comes training, which refers to your physical conditioning in fencing. Fencing is an inherently physical sport. If you’re not fit enough, you cannot win against a near equal opponent in a full 15 touch bout, much less fence the 4-5 15 touch bouts in a row to get to tournament finals. However, fitness doesn’t mean as much as some people think in fencing, and that’s why it’s at the bottom. I remember when I was like 14, I fenced against some 60 year old, who was a former Olympian in the 70s, and he absolutely whooped my ass. Didn’t matter I was much faster than him moving up and down the strip, when it mattered most, he was deadly quick at the right distance and timing. What’s the valorant equivalent of training? This one I couldn’t say. Perhaps how comfortable you are with your mouse, perhaps how strong your mental resilience is, so you’re not giving up after a string of lost rounds.
​
I'd be interested in other people's opinions on this!!

1/ know the only deterrent would be UV rays but maybe the dosing of red light you need timing wise makes it that it’s lesser than the dosing that would cause damage from UV rays anyways .
So for people living in really sunny country all year long ( and lets say that have a private area to be naked at the sun if there a concern ) , is RLT even useful ?
(Trying to see when it is useful if it’s not for overcast days or because we don’t have enough time to go outside in our busy working schedules or just for winter .)
(Edit /addendum )
2/ CONTACT (panel) vs NON CONTACT (sun):
Does a ton of irradiance from the sun can go as deep as less but placed directly contact with skin. We know that with a little panel and deep waves like maybe 810nm or even 1064nm and contact you can go deep even to inside the bone.
Can a bright sunny day do the same thing ?
(Otherwise it would make me think in those studies for Alzheimer with brain helmets why don’t they just expose those people to the sun by shaving their skulls basically and spent 30mins outside ?)
Thank you

Sorry my bad english but here's my medications that I take and doses;
Venlafaxine 375mg daily Quetiapine 300mg daily Risperidone 3mg daily Fluoxetine 20mg daily Lamotrigine 400mg daily Clonazepam 4mg daily
Venlafaxine is 150mg in the morning, 150mg in the evening and 75mg in the night
Quetiapine is 300mg in the night
Risperidone is 3mg in the night
Fluoxetine is 20mg in the morning
Lamotrigine is 200mg in the morning and 200mg in the night
Clonazepam is 1mg in the morning, 1mg in the evening and 2mg at night

Hi everyone. I've (25f) just started Lamictal (I also already take Seroquel and Venlafaxine) for my schizoaffective disorder. My most troubling symptoms are disorganized and racing thoughts with irritability when hypomanic. To the point where I can't get out of bed cuz I can't even think straight to get myself to shower or take care of myself. When I'm depressive I'm glued to my bed and sleep for 14-16hrs a day, no motivation to the point where I will hold my pee til I almost pee myself on accident. So basically I'm not functioning. I constantly feel overwhelmed and exhausted. Can Lamictal be the addition to my regimen that fixes things for me? I'd not, and you were like this, how did you get yourself help and what did you do? Im on week number 2 and im just needing some support while i wait to get to my theraputic dose. TIA

Hi everyone. I've (25f) just started Lamictal (I also already take Seroquel and Venlafaxine) for my schizoaffective disorder. My most troubling symptoms are disorganized and racing thoughts with irritability when hypomanic. To the point where I can't get out of bed cuz I can't even think straight to get myself to shower or take care of myself. When I'm depressive I'm glued to my bed and sleep for 14-16hrs a day, no motivation to the point where I will hold my pee til I almost pee myself on accident. So basically I'm not functioning. I constantly feel overwhelmed and exhausted. Can Lamictal be the addition to my regimen that fixes things for me? I'd not, and you were like this, how did you get yourself help and what did you do? Im on week number 2 and im just needing some support while i wait to get to my theraputic dose. TIA

When Lies of P and Lords of the Fallen came out, they were understandably pitted against each other as competing soulslikes driven by very different design philosophies. This was just one recent example of the phenomenon where real games come to play a larger symbolic role in game design discourse. (We’ve seen this more recently with Dragon’s Dogma 2 vs. Rise of the Ronin.) The story went that Lies of P was tight and disciplined - focused almost entirely on super tight combat mechanics, an innovative weapon system, and immaculate boss design. Lords of the Fallen, by contrast, was a bloated, underperforming, janky, ganky mess. On release, this was accurate! But of course these kinds of comparisons can be as reductive as they are illuminating.
Lords of the Fallen has gone through several updates and is regularly on sale now, and I want to suggest that Lies of P fans might really enjoy the game at this point. This is especially so if you love Lies of P but miss some of the aspects of Souls gaming that LoP (wisely!) doesn’t attempt to replicate. The core mechanics and bosses are underrated IMO; still, they do not match LoP. The combat will feel weird or “off” at first. But if you stick with it, it’s a really, really fun game:
-The world design is incredible. This is easy to miss if you bounce off right away, but the structural intricacy really builds over time. You will get that unique feeling of surprise and delight when, after a long and torturous journey, you suddenly find yourself overlooking the hub from a new vantage point. Nothing feels obvious or handed to you, but there are also far fewer “I never would have gotten that without Googling” moments than in Souls games. They’ve done a good job here.
-Exploration. When you die, you come back to life in a shadow version of the world (called Umbral) that contains hidden loot, light puzzling, and added enemies. Sometimes you need to be in Umbral to progress. Die in Umbral and you’re back-to-checkpoint dead. You can also choose to enter this realm at any time, but you can only leave it at specific check points, and the longer you’re there, the more enemies start spawning on you. Initially these are trash mobs, but eventually you are being stalked by terminator reapers. This feature’s not for everyone, but it might be for you. I really like it.
A lot of the complaints about enemy density and ganks are related to Umbral. If you don’t want to get overwhelmed, you can approach it systematically. I generally clear an area, then backtrack through it in Umbral and see what I missed. Otherwise, most of the gank complaints are just about not using the game’s tools properly, especially pulling and ranged attacks. Again think Dark Souls 2.
-Playstyle variety. The approach to ranged weapons is excellent and should be stolen by future projects in this genre. I won’t go into detail but it removes the scarcity dynamics around ammo, and I haven’t tried yet but I’m pretty sure you can straight up archer main. The actual button mechanics for both ranged and magic use are better than their Fromsoft equivalents. I’m at about 1.75 playthroughs and the only build that seems to suck is melee dex. Hybrids in general are stronger but that’s nothing new for this genre.
-A just-released patch includes a “pre-upgraded loot” mode. The idea is that new weapon drops are automatically upgraded to scale with your level. This makes the game somewhat easier of course, but the main thing is that it lets you actually try every weapon you pick up. I usually play soulslikes with 2 or 3 weapons at most because I’m not farming upgrade materials. This mode feels like old RPGs where you find a new magic sword and it’s just better than what you’re currently using. It’s really fun! There are also some new challenge run modes that are pretty interesting.
If anyone is going to try Lords, a few things worth knowing as you begin:
We have to talk about endings, because you may end up choosing one earlier than you think. The main plot revolves around cleansing a series of beacons. You do not have to cleanse them when you first get to them - you can always come back later. This is important because if you cleanse even one beacon, you are locked into an ending with an incredibly underwhelming final boss fight. There are good incentives to run multiple playthroughs, but if that’s not your thing, consider picking an ending early.
-The first area after the hub, Pilgrim’s Perch, is a classic noob hazing zone. If you want to reduce the frustration, 2 hints:
Your Souls senses are already tingling, so I am just affirming you: yes, there’s a jerk behind that pile of boxes waiting to cross check you off the ledge. Adding insult to injury, the shoves don’t even do damage, just massive displacement.
You will come to a fork early on in Pilgrim’s Perch where you can go up and inside, or go down and stay outside. You don’t have to go down right away, or even in the early game. If you are prone to frustration, just come back later. If you’re as stubborn as me, you’ll spend a few hours here learning the platforming and umbral mechanics in order to get through an area that you can clear in 15 minutes later on. A lot of people say the game is frustrating, and I’m convinced most of them are reacting to this stretch.

I have been taking 20mg of Adderall and when I went up from 15 to 20, I am not sure I noticed a major difference. I was actually considering asking about trying 25mg, because I wasn’t sure it was doing what I needed. I had 3 pills of the 15mg prescription left over and took one of them this weekend to experiment if I notice a difference when taking less.. and it feels MORE effective than the 20mg. I don’t know if this is a brand change or if it’s a more suitable dose for me. Has anyone ever found they have better results on a lower dose, rather than stepping up? Is this possible?
The results are that I feel less “stuck” and on 15mg I actually get more done. On 20 I can still spend all day doing nothing, which is why I was thinking I need to step up vs down. And getting off track at work really bad.
I have an appt on Tuesday for a med check and now I am kinda confused and not sure if I should ask to go up or down. I do know 20 hasn’t been my sweet spot.
TLDR: has anyone had better results on a lower dose?

A bit of an explanation on terminology before I start. I’ll be listing national spirit bonuses as either permanent, limited, situation, short term, or one-time. One-time bonuses don’t provide any lasting effect, like instant units that don’t come attached to any other bonuses. Short term bonuses are bonuses that eventually expire, and no longer provide their bonus. Limited bonuses are permanent, but some outside factor limits the quantity of bonuses that can be given out. I’m not going to include domain powers with increasing cost under this category. Like being tied to a power that increases in cost. Situation bonuses are permanent bonuses, but they may only be useful in specific circumstances, or may be invalidated by such circumstances. Permanent bonuses are, of course, permanent. They’ll be active for the entire game, even if the bonus itself lacks impact in the late-game. I will also be listing any innovation bonuses as a separate section, under whatever above category the specific bonus applies to.
Arts - Great Masters - Grants Access to Spawn Artist domain power:

• Permanent bonuses: Artists can upgrade to Master Artists (one free master), Bonus wealth from artwork/masterpiece (+7/+12), +2 luxury from Artwork/Masterpiece, Upgrades domain power Immigration to Guild Training, Upgrades domain power Reduce Unrest to Public Exhibition. Conservatory building unlocked.
  • Innovation bonus: +1 culture from artwork/masterpiece.
• Situational bonuses: Modifies culture power Local Reforms into Golden Age.
• Legacy requirement: +3 Master Artists
• Guild Training: +1->+2 pops, Cooldown 6->3 turns, removes progressive cost, and pop limit
• Public Exhibition: removes cooldown, increases Unrest removed.
• Golden Age: Region Efficiency x1.25->x1.2, Duration 8->4, effect now applies to all regions.

Like before, we’ll be starting with the worst national spirit. However, Great Masters is not a bad spirit because of what bonuses it gives. Rather, it’s bad because its main mechanic is actively annoying to use, and its capstone ability replaces the Local Reform culture ability with what is effectively a strict downgrade in many situations. While Mercenaries are probably the actual worst national spirit, I’ve got more issues with Great Masters. So, let’s start with the positives. This tree improves artwork and masterpiece goods, and masterpiece goods in particular also produce Arts XP, so this spirit has decent built in synergy for producing its XP. The Conservatory is also a phantastic building, being the best source of building-based culture in the game. Plus it also produces Art XP. I’ll also note that apprentices can also produce artwork, and artwork is a one-per region good. So you can’t double down on artwork by using both an apprentice and an artist. On the other hand, this does mean you can use all of your artists for rushing culture, and artwork no longer costs Art XP to create. I’ll also note that this National Spirit unlocks the Spawn Artist domain power, which means it’s the only way to spawn artists if the Age of Blood occurred. As for the issues; you can only recruit an apprentice if the city “has an apprentice available”. As far as I can tell, each city only has one apprentice, and there’s no UI element that shows you what cities have an available apprentice. So it’s up to the player to keep track of what cities they’ve recruited from, Additionally, Golden Age is effectively a downgrade from Local Reforms. There’s a number of one-per-nation buildings that you’ll probably have in the homeland, and your homeland will also typically have more population/improvements than any other region. So a x1.25 bonus for 8 turns on it will typically produce more knowledge, culture, and XP than a x1.2 bonus for 4 turns on all regions. I think you’d need to have at least 4 other decently developed regions to make the most of the Golden Age ability. I’ll also note that this ability is made worse if you enter the Age of Utopia, as underwater cities are extremely goods focused cities, and don’t benefit much from region efficiency bonuses. In conclusion, I think this spirit suffers from a bit of anti-synergy. It wants you to have a large number of regions, to maximize its bonuses. Golden Age’s changes only make sense if the dev’s assumed you would have 5+ regions, and it needed to rebalance local reform’s effect to reflect that. And it’s not like Golden Age is optional, it’s the capstone ability. At the same time, you also need a large number of AI cities around to acquire as many apprentices as possible. And these two goals are a bit incompatible. The larger your presence is on the board, the less of a presence the AI has. I also think that there’s some built in issues with how the tree tries to operate. There needs to be a UI element to show what cities still have apprentices. Also, the Golden Age itself could use another pass. It’s functionally a downgrade to the original ability, unless you go quite wide. I feel like it should either not replace Local Reforms, or it should be an optional ability instead of the capstone. Perhaps make Guild Training the capstone instead?
Warfare:
Mercenaries

• Permanent bonuses: Contract Termination Warfare domain power, +25 wealth when killing units, Call Ambush Warfare domain power, Mercenary Training Camp outpost improvement, Guns for Hire diplomacy action, Leader Units Security Detail Ability,
  • Innovation Bonus: Privateer upkeep cost x0.7 *Legacy Requirement: 6+ mercenary units.
• Call Ambush - Convert one unaligned army/navy (barbarian) into one mercenary/privatire
• Hire Mercenaries - Spawn one mercenary/privatier in your territory.
• Security Detail - Spawns one mercenary on leaders tile, ending turn. Unit must have at least 10 movements remaining.
• Contract Termination - Disband friendly army, gain wealth per unit disbanded. (25 per unit, +25 per merc)
• Guns for Hire - Requires Envoy. +40 wealth to you, +20 Warfare XP to them.

Mercenaries are interesting in concept, but I think they have a lot of anti-synergy. The main concept is simple; mercenaries are about as powerful as age 8 units. Mercenaries being the equivalent of the early machine gun, while privateers are the equivalent of destroyers. Both favor higher attack over defense in those comparisons. The main drawback of these units is their upkeep cost (40), and their summoning cost. Security Detail is the only ability that does not cost any Warfare XP to use, but comes at the cost of slowing down your leaders. Hire Mercenaries is relatively cheap, but unless you use aggressive outposts as forward bases, you can’t exactly use it offensively. And while Call Ambush can be used offensively, it removes barbarians from the map, reducing the amount of XP you can generate from fighting them. It’s also quite expensive to use. All in all, this means that you’re not exactly going to be able to use these units to aggressively generate Warfare XP. I also think that their expensive upkeep directly competes with chaos mitigation, making these units unsuited to fighting aggressive wars. Which, of course, is a bit of an anti-synergy. On the other hand, these units do seem to be ideal for fighting a defensive war. You don’t exactly care about leader movement if your leaders are being attacked, or spawning expensive units in your territory if that’s where the enemy is. I’ll also note that there’s a niche use of ambush to destroy the larger Revolutionary armies in the Age of Revolution, but it’s so expensive to use that it’s not exactly practical to rely on it if you’ve got a large territory. I’ll also note that the mercenary units themselves are probably not as good in practice as they appear on paper. Due to the extremely high upkeep cost, you likely won’t be able to keep them around for very long. Which means that they likely won’t be in a position to gain veterancy levels. And veterancy is quite the important force multiplier. A veterancy 4 Arquebus has similar stats to the Early Machine Gun. So a high veterancy army can actually match the stats of your mercenaries. Outside of the mercenary units, there’s not a whole lot left to go over. +25 wealth from killing units is nice, but it suffers the same issue as the Age of Blood killed unit trigger. Namely, it doesn’t work if the army is killed out of combat, and units that are broken but not killed do not count. The mercenary training camp is honestly a bit bad. It is an outpost improvement, not a castle improvement, so it doesn’t exactly compete with the armory. But it’s 3x the cost of the armory, so it’s quite expensivie to build. And it only provides +3 wealth, which doesn’t exactly cover the 40 wealth upkeep of the mercenary units. Overall, I think this spirit costs too much to use. Its units cost too much Warfare XP to generate, they cost too much upkeep to be used offensively, and the units themselves aren’t actually that good once you take veterancy into account. Adding to all that, this spirit also doesn’t provide ways to generate the Warfare XP or wealth it needs. Sure, you can generate cash from defeating units, the mercenary camp provides some XP and Wealth, and Guns for Hire can generate a bit of wealth, but it’s not really enough to pay for the costs this spirit imposes. As such, I don’t think the spirit is all that useful. I will note though, that there is a bit of synergy with an earlier Age of Blood, or the Raiders National Spirit. As both of these add ways to generate more Warfare XP. Which can help pay for generating the mercenary units.
Commanders - Spawns unique Field Marshal:

• Permanent bonuses: +1 tactics + x0.5 promotion cost, 5th veterancy level, Battlefield Medicine ability on leaders. -50% forced march cost.
• Situational bonuses: Old Guard Grenadier, Old Guard Cavalry, Field marshal targeting down (base 99 - 199).
  • Old Guard units +5 defense and +5 morale.
• Legacy Requirement: Field martial Veterancy 3+.

Commanders are a bit unique as military national spirits go. Not only does it give you 3 new units, it also does really focus on empowering those units. Rather, it’s focused on empowering your leaders and standard army units. Between the +1 base tactics and +1 tactics from Veterancy Lv.5 - your leader units will have +2 tactics on leaders of their equivalent age. Which means your armies will be hitting at least x1.2 harder than anyone else. Additionally, the Old Guard units are quite the powerful units in their own right. They have the distinction of being one of the few player controlled units with more than 50 health. Adding to that, the Cavalry is effectively a reskinned early tank, while the Grenadiers closest equivalent is the Elite Task Force Heavy, a unit specific to the Age of Visitors. Of course, like most National Spirit units, they cannot be upgraded when they become obsolete. In addition to the direct strength bonuses this national spirit gives, it also reduces the cost of Forced March, and gives leaders the ability to heal their armies at the cost of 15 Warfare XP, and a full turn's worth of movement. The final situational bonus is limited to Commanders unique leadership units; the field marshal. The field marshal is essentially a Leader VI, with +2 base tactics and a higher retirement value. It also has a lower baseline targeting than a standard leader (according to the wiki), with the last National Spirit bonus reducing that into the negative. Needless to say, a leader that will not be attacked is quite useful. Overall, this is a great military national spirit that will empower your military for the rest of the game. This national spirit also has some decent synergy with earlier national spirits; Warriors passive combat XP combines nicely with the focus on added veterancy levels and leaders.Raiders +Warfare XP helps to fuel Forced March + Battlefield Medic. And Shogunate’s Leaders benefit from the added tactics bonuses.
War Priests

• Permanent bonuses: Jaguar Warriors x1.5 attack/defense, Pyramid temple improvement, Human Sacrifice Warfare Domain power, Human Sacrifice spawns Jaguar Warriors at Pyramid Temples.Jungle Farm improvement + faster expansion into jungle.
  • Innovation bonus: +1 Warfare and Arts XP on Pyramid Temples.
• Situational bonuses: +30 faith in capitals (includes vassals) when killing enemy units.
• Temporary bonuses:Musket, Dragoon, Pike can side-promote into Jaguar Warriors.
• Legacy Requirement: 3+ Pyramid Temples

War Priests is an extremely situational tree; and is also unique for being the only non-age 2 national spirit with an expansion reduction bonus. It goes without saying, but you’ll need jungles to really use this tree. For what it’s worth, this tree is quite good. The Jungle Farm is one of the best farms in the game, and is the only way to produce Maize (+1 food compared to wheat, can be used as wheat in all related production chains). The Jaguar Warriors are also a strong unit, if a bit specialized. They are unique in that they can actually be acquired by having certain line units (Dragoon, Musket, Pike) undergo a LEADERSHIP promotion - this is not an upgrade, it’s specifically a promotion (even though Jaguar’s don’t have tactics - oversight?). I’ll also note that it’s best to use pikes or dragoons for this, as musket’s have a higher leadership promotion cost (45/54 vs 84). As for the units themselves, They trade the x2 attack against cavalry the units they upgrade from possess, for a x1.5 attack/defense in jungle. Additionally, the National Spirit imparts a further x1.5 base attack/defense. I’ll note that it’s actually a bit hard to find a unit to compare them against. They are stronger than the musket they upgrade from, but at baseline are weaker than the assault rifle those upgrade into. Of course, the x1.5 bonus turns them into an extremely overpowered unit. It does mean they technically might end up with less overall attack than units with a situational attack bonus, but I think the bonus is comparable, and the higher defense more than makes up for the lower attack (though, I do wonder why it’s a percent bonus instead of a flat attack/defense increase?). I do find it odd that they don’t count as a pre-gunpowder unit, but it’s probably for the best that they don’t benefit from the raiders healing ability. Overall, these are a solid unit that can benefit from pre-existing veterancy levels if generated by promoting units. As for their other aspects - Pyramid Temples themselves are a great faith improvement. They produce a base +6 faith, with an added +6 from being worked, and if they are adjacent to another jungle tile they produce a further +6 faith by producing religious text (this is what the tooltip means by x2 faith for an adjacent jungle tile). It’s the best tile based way of producing faith. That said, abbeys are still better in practice. But you’ll still want to build a number of temples, so you can maximize the number of Jaguar units you can generate via human sacrifice. Which is the only realistic way to use that ability. Human sacrifice produces 20 culture, 100 faith, and with the upgrade produces one Jaguar Warrior in each jungle temple you have (including in vassal territories). Personally, I don’t know why this generates faith? It seems like the ideal use case would be to convert captured cities, but it can’t be used on vassals. And unless there’s more to the mechanic, producing faith in a city that already worships your religion 100% seems to do nothing. The culture is also not that useful, 20 is easy enough to produce per turn from your religion, so not sure 2 pops is worth it. So the only remaining use-case is for spawning Jaguar’s at your temples. But since temples are a one-per-region improvement, you’ll need a lot of regions around jungles to get a lot of use out of this. In other words, YMMV. All in all, I do think this is a rather strong military spirit, if you have the jungles to actually use it. This is also quite faith focused, but that’s sort of a side effect of how it works. I don’t think it prohibits switching to a secular government later on, though you will lose some of the bonuses for building temples and the faith bonus from human sacrifices. I also don’t see why this is an age 6 spirit, instead of being an age 4 or 2 spirit. If it has to remain an age 6 spirit, I’d like to see the Jaguar Promotion revised. It should probably be handled as an ability with a defined cost, rather than replacing the leadership promotion. Additionally, I would like to see it expanded to more units, or have the text explain what units specifically benefit, instead of just saying all “line” units.
Diplomacy - Colonialism:

• Permanent Bonuses: Culture Power Placer Claim. Transport ship buff (+20 movement, +1 sight) (2 free settlers), Trade always enabled and +2 culture from colonies, Trade Factory (upgrade to Trade Post), Vassal max prosperity +75% (2 free merchants), Culture Power Demand Fealty
• Situational Bonuses: Culture Power Eminent Domain,
  • Innovation “bonus”: +5 wealth, +1 Warfare XP, +1 chaos from Tea.
• Placer Claim: Instant outpost (colony), built on a tile occupied by one of your armies. Tile must be a valid location for a colony.
• Eminent Domain: vassalize one minor nation that you have vision on.
• Demand Fealty: +50% prosperity on all vassals for 4 turns, can exceed vassal prosperity cap.

Colonialism is a bit of a situational pick. It gives a lot of good bonuses, but the primary bonuses it gives are culture powers, so you’ll need a high culture income to really make the most use of those bonuses. Which this tree can help with, provided you already have the needed setup. Its +2 culture from colonies provides a small buff to culture generation that synergises with Placer Claim, but the main bonus to culture generation is the +75% vassal max prosperity. Which does mean that colonialism needs a large vassal swarm to take full advantage of all of its buffs. But it’s also worth noting that the above bonus is the only way to boost vassal prosperity permanently without staying a feudal monarchy. As for the other bonuses colonialism grants; the transport ship buff is quite nice, allowing your transports to outrun barbarians, and the added vision helps to avoid them. Trade Factories are also nice, if perhaps a bit anti-synergistic? They double outpost goods production, but is that really necessary when you can just spawn more outposts with the Placer Claim culture power? They also synergise poorly with the free trade posts from Spice Traders. The only real situational bonuses are Eminent Domain, and the added chaos to tea. Eminent Domain lets you instantly vassalize any minor nation that you have vision on. Which basically means it’s a niche power that can only realistically be used on an island map. After all, it requires that minor nations still exist, that you have units nearby, and that those units are either non-diplomat civilian units, or naval units (After all, if you have army units near enough to have visions, you could just conquer them instead.). As for tea, I don’t like getting chaos events, and I’m not sure if the wealth income offsets the cost of paying for chaos events. So I’d probably just take the wealth from the innovation, instead of the permanent bonus.
Explorers - Scholars:

• Permanent Bonuses: +1 education from Books, Great Library Building, Translator Improvement, Knowledge bonus from knowledge culture power (Eureka, SETI) , Scholarly Society building, Scientific Process exploration domain power, +1 All Domain XP from Great Library
  • Innovation bonus: +1 Government XP from Books.
• Legacy Requirements: 3+ Scholarly Societies.

This spirit is one of my favorites, with several nice bonuses to knowledge production. Books are one of the most unique goods in the game, as there are many age specific innovations that add Domain XP or other production to the good (Renaissance +1 Arts, Discovery +1 Engineering, Conquest +1 Warfare, Enlightenment +2 Education, Alchemy +1 Arcana). It’s also a luxury good, so benefits from the +1 production from the Republic's Fine Delicacies innovation. So, all in all, quite the versatile good. The Scholarly Society provides a decent amount of education, as well as a free book. While the Great Library provides 1 foreign manuscript per allied nation, which you can convert into books with the Translator improvement. On top of the added knowledge production from having more books, Scholars also improves the knowledge culture powers, and gives you an expensive domain power to generate even more knowledge. All in all, a nice set of bonuses. The only issue I’ll note - is that perhaps the Great Library should generate manuscripts by having open borders or allies. Previously how it actually worked was a bit arcane and unclear. But it definitely didn’t need 5 allies to generate 5 manuscripts. And because the AI is so likely to go to war with each other, and war automatically calls allies into it, it’s rather difficult to maintain a large number of allies. So this change, while clarifying the mechanic, seems to make the building itself worse overall. Particularly if the intention is to suit a more peaceful playstyle. If you want peace, you actually just want to have open borders with everyone, instead of being allied with everyone.
Engineering:
Inventors - +2 Innovation when purchasing ideals (excluding one-time bonus ideal)

• Permanent bonuses: Cutting Edge +10 innovation, +2 Engineering XP from university buildings, homeland +3 power and upgrades Inventors Laboratory (+1 power draw, +1 inventions), Host World's Fair culture power.
  • Innovation bonus: +5 unrest suppression on capital.
• Situational bonuses: Construct Inventors Laboratory engineering domain power, Voltaic Pile improvement
  • Innovation bonus: +1 innovation when building Inventors Laboratory.
• One-time bonus: +50 knowledge, +20 Innovation, and +100 Specialists.
• Legacy Requirement: 3 Inventors Laboratories.

Inventors are the early access and innovation national spirit. Purchasing their ideals generates innovation. They get access to specialists, even if they can’t produce more of them. They have access to power production via the Voltaic Pile. Their Inventors Laboratory improvement is part of the Laboratory improvement chain, and all of that an age earlier than anyone else. And while inventions don’t produce as much knowledge as books, they do so without needing a long resource chain. And, in one lucky city, you can spawn the world's fair, which can convert inventions into exhibitions (3 knowledge, 1 culture, 25 weatlh. 1 per worker, 2 worker slots). I’ll note that you will probably want to keep one of the Inventors Laboratory improvements un-upgraded. The upgraded building produces 1 good per worker, while the Inventors version produces 2 goods for one worker. So it’s more worker efficient to use inventions for the world's fair, instead of the analytics goods the Laboratory produces, even if analytics technically produce more knowledge. As for the other bonuses, university buildings producing Engineering XP is quite synergistic, and a pretty good bonus if you’ve got multiple regions. And having Cutting Edge produce 20 Innovation is a very nice bonus. All in all - I think Scholars is better if you want a general Knowledge bonus, but Inventors is more focused on generating innovation. I.E. getting through ages faster vs getting more out of the ages. I do think inventors could be improved slightly if the +1 innovation bonus from their innovation was a per-turn bonus, rather than being one-time. You aren’t exactly incentivised to build more than 3 Inventors Laboratories, and it’s not like there aren’t improvements that give per-turn innovation already in the game (Age of Utopia).
Sultans - Tier 2+ ideals provide +3 population to the region with “The New Palace”: Tier 2+ ideals require The New Palace to be built.

• Permanent bonuses: Construct The New Palace engineering culture power, Several new buildings; Theodosian Walls, Engineer’s Quarter, Trade Advisor’s Quarter, Education Advisor’s Quarters.
  • Innovation bonus: +1 Engineering XP from Quarter buildings.
• Situational bonuses: Courtyard Homes improvement, Basilica siege engine,
• Legacy requirement: 60+ Population in a single region.

Ah, the Sultans. They have a heavy focus on increasing their population in the capital region, while at the same time using powerful buildings to provide for the utility needs of the increased population. While this would suggest that they are intended for a tall playstyle, their buildings can be built in any region - even if they don’t produce as many resources in those other regions. Which which should be able to free up some tiles and workers for other uses. So they do still provide decent bonuses if you’ve gone wide. Overall though, I think the main bonus they grant is the +18 pops to your “capital” region. Between the new population, and the improved needs production the quarters provide, that’s a rather massive production bonus to your capital region. In addition to all that, the innovation bonus XP production is some nice self-synergy. As for their more situational bonuses…. The Courtyard Homes could use some improvement. It’s a better version of the Age 6 house, but personally I find myself always using the “unrest” housing in all my regions. And the Age 5 versions of that produce twice the housing (30). So I’m not sold on it being a useful alternative. Tile space is always quite tight in large cities, and the population bonus from Sultans kind of means you need to use tiles more efficiently. And the Courtyard homes just aren't efficient enough. As for the Basilica? It’s a siege engine. It’s got pretty good stats all things considered, but it has no unit-based attack multiplier, and has low defense/moral. So it has all the same problems I have with other siege weapons. As such, I don’t find it a compelling bonus. As for synergies, there’s three notable national spirits that synergise quite well with the sultans. Both of the Age 2 Engineering Spirits have some interesting synergies: Mound Builders half food need combos quite well with the sultans mega region focus. On the other hand, the God Kings have increased influence production, and so should have regions large enough to support the influx of workers without issue. The Age 4 Shogunate also combos quite nicely with the Sultans. Since the Sultanate produces a lot of non-good needs production, the Shogunate’s x1.1 and x1.2 region efficiency bonuses multiply that, letting the quarters support an even larger population.

tl:dr: it seems way too contrived
Please, if someone can help me make sense of this., Because I am starting to feel like Jim Cornette. I should sate that I am a big time WWE fan, which is why I am nitpicking this. After XL, it seemed like wrestling was becoming a global sensation again, but then I see Backlash's booking and I become concerned.
I take issue with two Bookings in particular. It seems like they are glorified squash matches, which spoils the match outcome for me and in turn gives me no reason to watch them.
A) Priest vs Uso (World Heavyweight Title) B) Rhodes vs Styles (WWE championship)
Given the atrocity that was the Uso match at XL,, none of the brothers should be anywhere near a championship qualification. This is the equivalent of rewarding people for bad work. Since this booking seems very "deus ex machina", and that we have Jey in this match, we have two possible outcomes, neither of them good:

1. Squash match in favor of Priest (Which I am inclined to believe will happen)
2. Blatant Nepotism in favor of Uso (which again makes me not want to watch)

Furthermore, the Styles / Knight match at XL was brilliant, with LA knight as the victor. So naturally, Styles beats Knight in a TV match and goes on to become the contender for the WWe championship. What was the purpose of Knight winning at XL then? How is Styles not here to clearly put over Rhodes. Again, its too contrived, and it makes Styles look like a Job guy.
Am I wrong in my read of this scenario? I am just trying to look at this from a booking angle. I get that you have to let talent rest after big events, but I feel like we could have had somewhat more believable matches than this.

I have heard people using psilocybin mushrooms to wean off Venlafaxine. Has anyone done that successfully? I am on 37.5mg ER Venlafaxine and have trying to wean off my removing about 24 beads from the capsules and taking it every other day. I've been trying to "cure" my depression, anxiety and Asperger's induced anti-social tendency by taking shrooms. I've tried it 3 times, 3 grams, 5.5 grams and 10 grams of psilocybin. None of them gave me a trip. But each time it delayed my Venlafaxine withdrawal symptoms for a couple of days. The 3rd time, even though there was no trip, but I did get a insight into myself and that has helped. All times my depression got better for a few days.
I want to microdose the shrooms and use it to go longer and longer between the Venlafaxine doses. Has anyone done this successfully? How did you do it? Take a 1 gram of psilocybin every day and take venlafaxine every two days for example?
My psychiatrist is aware of and supports what I am doing. Thanks for any advice.

150 SR twice daily vs 150 XL. Has anyone here had experience on both doses? If so, is there a difference in how this made you feel? Did you find one more effective than the other or was it just the same?
I’m on 150SR twice daily but taking 250SR right now since I had weeks worth of 100SR left. Basically, I’d like to know if 150 XL is like a highedose or version of 150SR twice daily. Is it more effective or would the next stop after 150SR be 300XL.

Hi, I'm just going to be writing down some crazy speculative ideas I have regarding the climax and post-egg-head arc regarding certain characters from Saboady Archipelago arc; and really just why I think this would be an interesting direction for the story to take post-egg head.
I previously commented on someone else's post stating what I believe will happen for a certain character when Egghead is over: as in what will happen to Kizaru, but now increasingly I have started thinking about all the other characters that have been pictured together in relation to the events of the Sabaody archipelago situation that is: Kizaru, Kuma, Sentomaru and Vegapunk(s), and Bonney now as well.
In chapter 1100 ‘Thank you, Bonney’:
they laugh with each other as they do the nika dance
Oda depicts Bonney, Kuma, Kizaru, Sentomaru and Vegapunk as they party and laugh with each other as they do the Nika dance. The dark reality shadowing these sweet moments is that all these disparate characters have been brought together in the first place in the ongoing research funded by the world government programme to turn Kuma into a robot among other reasons not fully stated at this time. We are aware that Vegapunk has been researching devil fruits as he states in this arc for a long time allowing him to extract the lineage factor of Kizaru's devil fruit and thus allowing him to implement its destructive powers into the future variations of the Pacifista's. (The most recent development of these aptly named MK11's which although as side note: I think is a nod to the dark past of American scientific experimentation, that being the MK ULTRA experiments).
The point I am trying to get at is that this arc, like many others, has provided insight into the dark potential of science in the world of One Piece or really just the extent to which it can be manipulated for nefarious purposes. We have been given a really poignant backstory for Kuma, and especially the orchestration of this in particular by a certain member of the Gorosei: Jay Garcia Saturn. He is claimed to be a 'man of science' or whatever he said: and I believe now that it is looking like at least two of the vegapunks will remain 'alive' in the One Piece world, or rather actively participating in the further development of the story: and those two in my theory are: Lillith, and York.
Lillith will be the only Vegapunk to make it out of the island alongside the strawhats, as one by one, it seems the rest are dropping off, the most recent from my memory has been the smallish automaton character (either pythagoras or edison...). York is shown to be trying to stabilise the situation unfolding with the stella's broadcast for their own concerns and wellbeing as if they fail to stop the broadcast but it seems that it will not be stopped at this point in the story. What I envision for these two characters as two different sides of the same coin and for the two opposing factions in this arc: The Strawhats, and the Marines (World Government).
When Lillith is first introduced they are seen to be operating the first mecha outside of Franky's own Iron Franky model witnessed in Wano. It is called the: Vega Force 01. She is also seen to be controlling the mechanical sea beasts, and so, at the very least, is being positioned in relation to the engineering of Vegapunk. I think this is really important for the development of Franky going forward: he will not only be able to show all his own mechanical innovation of the sunny, and himself, but have a vegapunk to potentially work alongside him in developing the sunny into what I believe will be a mecha of its very own. How I envision this looking will be kind of like the power rangers:
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Something like this...
If you think back to Thriller bark with the straw-hats docking: where each part there was a member. In addition to the many different vehicles he has made which interestingly debuted in the punk hazard arc:
Some of the straw hats docking...
I actually found someone else’s creative interpretation of this when trying to look up images:
<https://www.reddit.com/OnePiece/comments/gg9qk1/ultimate_docking_mugiwarazord/>
They will all combine into different parts of the humanoid form of the new sunny mecha. It is also even more interesting when you take into account Franky's most recent bounty poster containing the face of the thousand sunny instead of him which seems to be relevant in terms of how Franky will be operating the sunny as a mecha for his final power up in the main story.
York will play a very different role in the story development however, as York has the equivalence of any of the Vegapunks but hasn't shown any particular feats or interests in terms of what they have implemented on Egg-head. I believe they will be able to replicate everything we have seen in the story so far but this time without the restriction of Vegapunks 'morals', as ironically, despite Lillith embodying evil as of yet they haven't displayed any malice. York on the other hand knows only ambition, and 'greed' which has been shown to be a far more dangerous thing than such an abstract thing as 'evil'; which even has relevance to what Vegapunk was just saying in the most recent chapter broadcast: I think he knows that scientific development is not limited by such a binary as good vs Evil, and that what can appear as a wholly good thing in the wrong hands or indirectly, can lead to cause harm and destruction...
York will basically repeat what we have seen Vegapunk (stella) complete without the resistance of his 'morals', or other parts, as in, the other vegapunk satellites to keep him/her (now York) in their place.
This will have devastating effects on the already increasingly apparent dystopian world of one piece. The characters we have seen so far all have a connection to vegapunk: in that they were personally involved or being researched by them: Kizaru, Sentomaru, Kuma, and Bonney.
How I see post-egghead development will be this: The rest of the crew, including Lillith and Bonney will be displaced by the defunct Kuma: as this arc keeps displaying the soul and genetics of people, especially clones and cyborgs play an active role in the world. They will be teleported dramatically at the last moment as Kizaru puts the knife into Kuma's back, the last action he will take before his own demise. The giants I think will either escape or be put to death because they will act as a sacrifice for the escape of the main characters forming in this arc, and the iron giant too will be brought down by either Kizaru or the Gorosei. The vital thing for the world government following the broadcast is now securing Egghead and in particular the source of the mother flame so that they can continue their goal of flooding the world.
Yet what this will allow for in addition is: the maintenance of the seraphim, and rest of the clone army of Pacista's (although I am not sure if Baron Ethan discovered that Bonney could control all Kuma related clones hence his statement about Bonney levelling an entire nation, it seems they are aware at this point...) However there is an authority hierarchy:
The authority hierarchy for Pacifista is the following:[10]

1. Five Elders
2. Vegapunk (Stella + Satellites)
3. Sentomaru
4. Authority chip owners (Kaku,[10] Stussy,[12] Kizaru[13]) [just taken from the wiki lol]

As we can see the hierarchy even before those with authority chips are as follows: Any of the Five elders, any of the vegapunks (which in my estimations will be just Lillith and York), and finally most interesting of all is: Sentomaru.
So excluding Bonney (and this only applies to Kuma modelled pacifista and seraphim), and Lillith. The only people capable of overriding any authority chips in the world of One piece are York, and Sentomaru. I didn't really realise how important this was until today which is why I started chaotically writing this post: this is a big reason why I think sentomaru was brought back into the story and why he will potentially play a bigger role in the final war.
My idea is that how the world government will deal with Sentomarus betrayal and utilising his authority hierarchy will be to turn him into a robot. This will in their own estimations make him subservient to them and maintain him as a core part of the SSG and the bodyguard for York: alongside the 8 seraphims, and an army of MK11 pacifista clone army. And yes you read that correctly because like many others I believe there may be one extra seraphim in production which is another reason perhaps why the world government maintaining egg head island will be important: I believe that there may be an S-Clown, and what will be recognised as the strongest of the seraphim (this is pure speculation unlike the rest of my write up of course…).
However, in addition to the robot sentomaru: there has been another unexpected betrayal at the hands of the world government during this arc which has been subtly hinted at unfolding. There is only one character remaining, and who is arguably the most influential out of all the others, Kizaru. He is a really interesting character that throughout this arc has shown two sides: a dog-like obedience to the marines and by extension World government, whereas simultaneously maintaining his own views which he seems to privately hope will play out in the final war. Kizaru has been kind of MIA in the most recent chapters and he has shown himself to be deeply conflicted about this mission and turning against vegapunk, and Bonney, and Kuma: but he is an admiral of the navy, and has professed that he is a ('cog in the machine', I think also a salaryman in another instance). It is clear in my reading of his 'unclear justice', that what he desires is not something that he actively wills into existence, and this indecisiveness, or rather weakness in following his dreams and robotic completion of orders which he is finding trouble with is going to be used against him in the development of his character.
Alongside Sentomaru: I believe that Kizaru will literally become just a 'cog in a machine' in the form of a robot admiral who will directly will the world governments ambition in the marines and possibly also lead the SSG in the future war. The Gorosei will see first hand that Kizaru is not to be completely trusted and is an asset that is not worth losing especially with the revealing of their true purpose in the world of One Piece.
I do not, however, believe that the seraphims, Sentomaru, and Kizaru will just simply play to the tune of the world government so easily either. As in true one piece fashion which has been displayed in this arc in particular: just because someone is programmed to do something doesn't mean that their spirit will not resist these orders. The world governments weapons will eventually turn on them: Bonney will lead the MK11 pacifista clone army against them with her own authority hierarchy, and the seraphim Kuma will have surprisingly already learned of its own past ( do you remember it teleported away during the altercation with Zoro and Luffy? or who's to say it didn't discover Kuma's humanity before in the lab ); but it will already be the Kuma we and Bonney knew. In the case of the rest of the seraphims: they will turn on each other and potentially there own 'real' counterparts at different points in the story, as currently all the 'real' original shichibukai are still alive and will also play a role in the final saga of the story. They will act independently, as they are biological weapons, and are essentially 'alive' or their own people as compared to the MK11 pacifista’s: with their own wills which will play out to the surprise and dismay of the world government.
As I said these are just my speculative ideas: not original theories by any means. I just wanted to share what goes on in my head in a forum where it may potentially spar some conversations. I miss when there were loads of ideas posted on this reddit instead of just porn and shit so I wanted to make this write up in less than a day so sorry if this rushed and poorly written...
TLDR: The characters shown during Kuma's flashback, and featured during Sabaody archipelago arc: that is Vegapunk, Kizaru, Kuma, Bonney and Sentomaru will all play different roles in the final saga. There will only be two vegapunks ‘alive’ by the arcs climax: Lillith who will help turn Franky and the sunny into a functioning mecha (like the vegaforce 01), and York who will help the World Government flood the world: and maintain the SSG: the seraphim's, and MK11 pacifista by turning Sentomaru into a robot (who is the only person with authority hierarchy after the Gorosei, and vegapunk (York/Lillith) before those with command chips). Kizaru will truly embody 'unclear justice' by becoming a puppet of the world government as their robotic admiral in the final war.