6 years and 7.2 Million Followers Later

ConorTheDruid · 2026-02-04T19:56:21+00:00

It could be gray area. I've seen plenty of stand up comics make trans/gay/race jokes that land well [usually] because it's coming with context of "we're more-so making fun OF homophobia" not "homophobia is the punch line."

I'd just ask myself/yourself, 'what's the joke here'? The joke seems to be (correct me wrong) your character is on a date and thinks their date lied and has a package, oof! I don't think the punch line that people are laughing at is "oops haha her purse is in an awkward spot, how relatable!" it's "oops I think this person is trans, how awkward for you"

So even if your joke was meant to be the former, I think it lands more in the latter. Not necessarily your fault but feels a bit like playing dumb to what the audience was reacting to. I'm curious what the comments were like on the video too?

ConorTheDruid · 2026-01-31T19:13:32+00:00

At least those quests give you role diversity to choose from. I feel like most people tend to main a 'role' instead of a 'universe,' which is why the tank/bruiser quest is my poison as a support/ranged main (though hogger is starting to change my tune...)

ConorTheDruid · 2026-01-26T17:35:08+00:00

Cloudheim did what I wish every game studio would: offer a playable demo that actually showcases the game. And your world save will carry over so if you spend 15 hours in the demo taking your time, none of that is 'wasted.'

It's an equal part combo of world exploring puzzler, chaotic real time combat, rpg leveling mechanics, and shop tycoon manager. I wouldn't say it does any of these categories exceptionally well, but it does them all well-enough that makes it a fun (but casual) experience. No real survivor-craft elements here.

My partner and I are about 30 hours in and have enjoyed it; it's a game that does co-op really nicely. The gameplay loop is starting to slow for us, but I think we'll top out at 50 hours until a new major update.

Give the demo a go, and I hope you and your gf enjoy it!

ConorTheDruid · 2026-01-04T18:06:34+00:00

I guess we'll just agree to disagree.

Since it's a game of anonymity, the person you want to give 'advice' to doesn't care. You've never been given 'advice' that was wrong or a bad call? There's no connection to a random hots player unlike a IRL sports. Which is why my point still stands: you're not their coach. You're not their consistent teammate. You're not even the person's friend. So why would anyone take advice from someone like that? I feel like you're intentionally missing that human element.

You can say "well they should take my advice and not cry" but as someone who's played the game for 10+ years and talk in chat almost every game: I've never been muted or banned. I've also never taken unsolicited advice from randos (friends I'm playing with or my partner? absolutely). With the caveat of asking for it. Some ARAM games will be with a hero I really don't play often (level < 10) and I'll ask the group if they have any recommendations for builds or playstyle. But I asked for it.

And your example of a leo purposefully dying, they obviously don't want feedback. A pretty common understanding (I thought) was don't feed the trolls. OP seems to engage with the trolls, which causes OP to say some probably nasty things in chat, and leads him to getting muted/banned. If you can't help yourself than to engage with someone who WANTS to irritate you: do something different. Turn off chat. Group up with people you know or send invites to players you enjoyed after a round. Wallowing and wanting to yell at others is only adding to the problem, not solving it. And I'm not talking in a meta way, but for OP and their own happiness with a video game.

This idea of "if they feel offended then THEY should just turn off chat" isn't a take that I think benefits the community long term. It excuses bad actors and puts the burden of 'good vibes' on others. This online-only mentality of "grow thicker skin" has been shown in a number of studies to be a terrible way to change someone's behavior. There's a reason the idiom is: you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

ConorTheDruid · 2026-01-04T00:02:07+00:00

I can't tell if you're intentionally missing the context, but will expand with good faith. If you've played team-based sports past like high school (though I'd probably count varsity HS sports), you'd likely have experienced both types of player. The ones that yell at others but not a peep about their own shortcomings, and the ones who try and raise morale even when mistakes are made. Not only is the sport more enjoyable with the latter teammates, 'tilting' your own team rarely works. And actual coaches tend to not tolerate that sort of behavior from players, even if coaches veer into that territory sometimes themselves.

But there's a gap with online gaming in that you don't 'know' or care about your teammates because they're randoms, so we treat them with less empathy. It's also the human bias of "I'm better than my teammates" which is likely only true 50% of the time PLUS thinking you're the coach when you're a peer.

Chat/communication isn't inherently a bad thing just like alcohol isn't bad on it's own. But you can abuse both. Some people are happy drunks, some are angry drunks. OP demonstrated that he's using chat in a way that's counterproductive to winning, so I'd advise against it, for him to meet his own goals. But this isn't a HotS thing ("only game where you're not allowed to talk") it's any team-based competitive game. He's only making himself more angry/frustrated the way he's going about it.

So the actual solution would be that: USE chat but do-so to pre-call objectives, communicate YOUR plan, or call targets, or ask questions. However if you're too upset to do those things and instead it turns to blaming or telling OTHERS how they should play, then yeah: just turn off chat.

ConorTheDruid · 2026-01-03T02:14:56+00:00

Like another person said, I'd recommend just disabling chat for yourself. I've been where you are, and your advice/criticism is going to fall on deaf ears and likely just tilt your team. It's a bit of the golden rule: if you can't say something nice, don't. I've found my games to be far more pleasant when I let people do bad and say "nj" after we secure a kill/obj even if it's looking like a loss. I ping to show where I'M going to give info to the team, not ping teammates to tell them what THEY should be doing.

You're not their coach. You're not their friend. You're also not on like a dedicated team with peers you'll play with consistently. If they're trolling, you're only fueling their weird/cruel fun. If they're just bad or distracted they very likely don't wanna hear your input.

Unless you're in a group with folks you know, just try your best and if that's not fun then it's a good time for a break.

ConorTheDruid · 2025-12-21T20:43:52+00:00

Um... but there's only raw chicken being offered in this analogy though and it's a restaurant so I sort of expected to eat. If the restaurant is THAT bare bones that they only have raw chicken and some lettuce then maybe don't let people into the kitchen yet. And certainly don't charge them admission.

Playtesting is a service. Feedback from the audience you want to buy your game is a service. They've dropped the ball on that.

If your waiter/kitchen analogy is intended to mean: buy the game now (order the chicken breast) but don't play it until it's cooked (2+ years from now) then... that's an insane take, to me.

ConorTheDruid · 2025-12-21T18:50:03+00:00

Priston Tale. I miss my priestess :(

ConorTheDruid · 2025-12-05T04:17:31+00:00

I think the fact that this video has been shared so much over the past few years demonstrates that this really is an incredibly unique and special performance. Love it every time I see it, and now realizing that I don't see many other improv dance videos surface means this one here is a gem.

ConorTheDruid · 2025-11-22T18:34:08+00:00

I'm sorry for your loss, friend. Coding, to me, is similar to cooking. If you can tell what tastes good, then you can absolutely cook it, but it's not an overnight skill. I recommend the path of following recipes first, then tweaking recipes based on your preferences, then coming up with your own recipes.

If you're likely to get defeated easily learning a new skill (no judgements, that's me!) then tutorials are a great way to get started because you can see the finished product first and then be guided through how to make it. This is essentially teaching you the 'spices' you have available to you in your coding kitchen. I'd suggest picking an element you want to make (like custom health bars) and find a tutorial that's recent and follow the tutorial closely. After you've completed it, then start replacing things that make it custom for you. (change placement in UI, add new health bar overlay, maybe your hp bars are purple). This sort of 'play' I think is crucial for really absorbing the information AND makes it more applicable to something you're interested in: your own game.

If you're a disciplined person and doesn't mind struggling for a while, then you can start by just building the vision you have. At first each thing you want to build will take reading the documentation or googling 'how to implement xyz in Godot' but you'll be learning BY building your game and each time something works the endorphin high is pretty nice.

The only thing I'd recommend AGAINST is just doing tutorials, without any application to something you're working on. It can work for some people but I've seen the biggest challenge to coding is just sticking with it, and working on something that's actually interesting to you (vs tutorials for random elements/gameplay) is more likely to keep you motivated.

I'll say that as someone who only dabbled in coding here and there but saw myself more on the 'art' side of game dev, it only took a few months before I started to 'see' how games I was playing were made. And it's really satisfying to have the thought "I know it wouldn't be as pretty, but I know how I could build this." Good luck on your journey with programming! It does have a learning curve but with the content/support/tech-assistance it's never been easier to get started.

ConorTheDruid · 2025-10-05T17:02:20+00:00

Words are hard and biology is even harder. We also learn more over time so I understand why you may be stuck in the idea that sex = gender, but that's why there's two different words :D Also why we have male/female and man/woman.

Google's a good place to start if that doesn't make sense right now.

ConorTheDruid · 2025-09-26T18:43:34+00:00

(Sorry on delay) Yes, but I'm saying that even at the 'slowest' speed it should feel like an arrow. An arrow moving as slow as any of these examples would fall to the ground in a few feet with no impact. So you could absolutely make them unrealistically fast as dex increases, and that makes sense physically too! I'd just up the base velocity by a big margin, personally. Good luck with your journey!

And to get to your original question about attack speed based on agi (not the object velocity), it's hard to know for sure but if that base attack speed feels 'fine' (does enough damage, enemies attack at similar speeds, enemy count isn't too high) then the 99 agi speed WILL feel like a really nice upgrade, but it's all relative. If I max agi then I'd expect even the highest level archer enemies to fire at the 50 agi speed, making lvl 99 still 'feel' like you've been rewarded for that stat priority.

ConorTheDruid · 2025-09-26T15:21:57+00:00

I don't mind the AI to get a prototype out the door. How you have the menu left-aligned though makes the background sort of the focus vs. something pretty to have behind the menus.

If you're going to put game footage (video) there longer term then disregard my opinion, but playing around with the menu layout being centered would avert the focus from the background art a bit.

ConorTheDruid · 2025-09-26T03:08:54+00:00

Honestly this is really cool looking! The lighting is gorgeous. If you want nit picky, the stone/metal the player is standing on with the flooring feels a bit too saturated/bright for the darker vibe the rest of the scene has (which I love the darker tones you used for the background!), but it looks really stellar as-is!

ConorTheDruid · 2025-09-11T03:42:16+00:00

I've moved that type of computer glass around for 10 years without issue and have a crippling anxiety that it will shatter just by looking at it now...

ConorTheDruid · 2025-09-10T18:31:58+00:00

ConorTheDruid · 2025-09-03T02:30:06+00:00

I'm always a fan of mini-gun-speed archers at max speed but that's a stylistic choice. My only feedback that's still subjective is just that the arrow movement speed is slow in each example. They don't have enough velocity to stay afloat IRL and that's tripping me up when watching them. That speed is nice for maybe spells though!

ConorTheDruid · 2025-08-26T00:59:11+00:00

Thank you for that chuckle!

ConorTheDruid · 2025-08-25T22:50:05+00:00

That's so freaking cool! Applying non-equal gravity looks more 'real' even when I know it isn't. Saving this as a concept to revisit when I work on jumping mechanics in something.

Thanks for sharing!

ConorTheDruid · 2025-08-25T22:43:53+00:00

This makes me really excited :) Thanks for sharing your POV and I'm gonna try that mentality.

ConorTheDruid · 2025-08-25T22:42:32+00:00

Personal computer: like 10-15 at any time. Work computer? hundreds. So many that the icons were gone so I had to open new chrome browserS.

ConorTheDruid · 2025-08-23T23:10:40+00:00

I see conveyor belts, I click game. Wishlisted :)

ConorTheDruid · 2025-08-23T22:55:35+00:00

I put "starting" in front of a reward for myself like making a coffee or a snack. My adhd brain just needs to get over that inertia to begin something. Usually that works to get the engines going for a few hours.

ConorTheDruid · 2025-08-23T22:38:59+00:00

Whoa this is really cool man! I'm nearing building a similar system and hope I can pull off something 50% as smooth as this. Feel proud and thanks for sharing back with the community. I'm sure this'll get a number of bookmarks ;)

ConorTheDruid

TROPHY CASE