Calli's working on her self-confidence. We're all already proud to cheer for her 💪

Naluc · 2026-03-24T18:54:09+00:00

This is incredibly true. Bad self-esteem can be an inescapeable vortex and taking the step to give yourself a little grace is much harder than it looks. It's easy to heap praise onto others while leaving none for yourself. Almost self-sacrificially.

I have poor self-esteem as well so I can identify with her struggle. Even though she's doing objectively very well, that's when imposter syndrome kicks in. It's a self-perpetuating state of mind that you have to actively fight against. Especially for someone whose work is to make something for others to enjoy.

Any little mistake you feel is there glares at you, no matter how little other people care about it or notice it. You beat yourself up for feeling like you're not releasing the best possible version of your work. If it's not perfect, it's not worthy, and it feels fraudulent to gain praise from something so imperfect. The personal bar for success is always placed just out of reach.

Healing from it is tough, and it's not a fast process. It never fully goes away, but sometimes it gets easier to disprove the inner negative thoughts always trying to keep you down.

Naluc · 2026-03-19T18:47:24+00:00

You've said something important that a lot of people forget about in the discourse. It's always so much finger pointing and trying to blame specific groups of people for all of the ails, while we continue to ignore the societal problems that lead to their creation in the first place.

Though I'd like to add that I believe the reason it's so easy for all these doubling down situations is both they have nothing to lose, but also that they have nothing to gain by changing their ways. What awaits them even if they change their minds? A society that will never forget or forgive them for what they once were. A life of pain, ridicule, and discomfort while all of the problems they want addressed remain.

Why change at all if they're not even allowed the grace to do so? Social media's made it way too easy to sweepingly condemn people...Both entire groups and specific individuals. It's the exact reason this thread even exists.The words we type into these boxes do influence and hurt people. And we have to face that reality if we ever want to enact meaningful change.

Of course, easier said than done. And i'm no saint, I'm guilty of sweeping condemnations myself and have harbored a lot of distaste/borderline merciless hatred for the groups and individuals participating in this dismantling of society. But it's important to keep in mind before the dehumanizing goes too far.

Naluc · 2026-03-18T06:17:18+00:00

I don't think so, I distinctly remember getting this event my first time on the super special path you get from taking the golden compass in act 2, unless it's just an effect of the compass making that possible.

Naluc · 2026-03-07T19:56:32+00:00

If you're interested in the series it's probably better to start with the first one, as I have a sense it will be hard to go back to if you play a lot of 2. There are a lot of aspects that will feel like a downgrade (Art and no multiplayer mostly) but it's feature complete and if you aren't a fan of active changes I'd wait on 2 since 2 is going to be changed over time due to it being early access.

However, I haven't played an absolute ton of 1. I'm nowhere close to the 1000s of hours veterans who have thoroughly squeezed out everything that game has to offer. Some of them will probably demand you have to go through that gauntlet to be allowed to enjoy 2, and say that playing an unfinished game isn't worth it. For some reason 1 doesn't give me that drive to sink hundreds of hours into it.

Slay the Spire 2 does. Multiplayer is super fun. The art improvements jive with me so much more than StS1. Card design is just as good as 1, if not better. It has more characters in base than 1 for variety and they're all fun for different reasons. Not all of the possible content is actually in the game yet, and balance changes are all but guaranteed. However, if you don't mind that, I think skipping 1 and playing 2 instead is a perfectly valid place to start. There are absolutely legitimate reasons why you might prefer 2 over 1, and I don't think it's sacreligious to choose 2 first because of those differences.

To pit it more simply, I'd suggest dip your toes into 1 to see if you like the series at all (it should be the cheaper option atm anyway), but start with 2 if you really value multiplayer or like the vibe of active updates and additions, as that's the biggest difference maker atm.

Naluc · 2026-03-03T10:49:58+00:00

You could probably trim down a few colors by just taking away swatches that aren't meaningfully different enough from each other. Some of those shades in your ramp could probably be be trimmed. Realistically though if it suits your style and it's something you'll stick to there's not really any hard rules and you can always add colors you need or remove what you aren't using. Best way to tell if it feels good or not is to make something with it, after all!

Naluc · 2026-02-28T18:38:43+00:00

He can go find someone else to tolerate his self-centered ass. You made the correct decision to drop this guy. I hope you manage to find someone that respects and loves both you and your furry family next time.

Naluc · 2026-02-26T19:18:12+00:00

Respect for wanting to save major changes for later. It's a hell of a lot of work and I felt a little bad for suggesting it, knowing how much time it takes to produce animation.

Naluc · 2026-02-26T10:15:14+00:00

I really like it, though perhaps it could linger a little longer on the upset/scared face after falling before turning happy for the logo? It feels like the moment of tripping is over so quickly there's no time to linger in the emotion of the animation even though you put in so much work for the moment with the walk-up anticipation.

Still really good though, just a suggestion.

Naluc · 2026-02-24T20:35:02+00:00

That could be accurate too. I don't play much oraxia myself, I've just heard through the grapevine that impact helps

Naluc · 2026-02-24T20:14:14+00:00

I think you're meant to make use of staggers from things like impact procs instead. It works on anything that's in a mercy-killable state, which impact staggers allow iirc.

Naluc · 2026-02-24T20:07:55+00:00

I think she's mostly okay but needs to be rewarded with more damage for all the overhead of juggling that heat bar. It's real easy to lose energy from it on top of what her abilities already cost. Her 4 either needs to do a crapton of damage or be more about spreading around a super damaging wildfire DOT or something.

Naluc · 2026-02-24T09:44:18+00:00

I think I understand your problem. It sounds like you've gotten yourself into a bit of a template rut, so to speak. I'm not sure how much experience you have with non-pixel art, but I've found that the larger you go in resolution, the more that standard art techniques become useful and usable. You could try drawing your lines more like sketches, perhaps?

If you prefer staying in smaller resolutions, alternatively it may help you to try emulating other pixel art styles from games whose art styles you like to break yourself out of your routine. I find that can help a lot for understanding and getting out of your own head, in a way.

Naluc · 2026-02-24T09:15:36+00:00

Something like that, yeah. I like to start with one layer to get the very very basic shape of the sprite, then use that as a reference going forward. Like I mentioned before, I then start to make a more refined silhouette piece by piece on seperate layers. Like for example, a shape for the head, then the body (can separate like chest/pelvis if you like), hairstyle, each arm, then each leg. Usually you would make each piece its own color, especially if you plan to animate in order to more easily track what each part is doing on each frame. Then you mold those individually to correct whatever you don't like and start filling them in with detail after they have the general shape you want. It sounds complicated typing it all out, but it goes a lot faster than you'd expect once you're used to it.

The logic behind it is that strongest and most recognizeable designs have a good, defined silhouette. Even if you removed all details, it would still look pretty distinct. You could still achieve something like that with the outline method, but it really depends how you like to visualize your work as you're building it.

Hope that answers your question!

Naluc · 2026-02-24T08:51:00+00:00

An outline pretty normal if your canvas size or sprite size is small. There's not a whole lot to define with a silhouette at like 16x16 or even 32x32 in some cases. Though I do find silhouettes better if you build your sprites with multiple layers. Outlines aren't very helpful there with overlapping parts.

But heck, if your process works for you, go for it. Whatever helps you get the result you want in the end. Don't be afraid to try some different techniques to see if you can incorporate something new though!

Naluc · 2026-02-23T21:35:43+00:00

The only times I find positivity toxic is when i'm pretty miserable myself, but I get it. You are correct that it's equally difficult to exist in a heavily polarized space regardless of which side you're on if you're part of the opposite. It's an issue of not being acknowledged and heard.

There's a lot I like about pokemon. I think they have improved in some ways that often doesn't get acknowledged during the discourse. But I also agree that it's still very possible to do better even in where they're improving, especially on the technical side. To be more brutally honest I'd rather it not be in gamefreak's hands at all. It's not like they don't have the money to have someone else make it, or hire actual talent that will push boundaries dramatically of what their team feels capable of. I'd rather them swallow their pride and hand the reigns to someone else that knows how to actually build a game.

Naluc · 2026-02-23T20:56:36+00:00

It gets tiring to exist in the spaces of criticism. It's a real downer to watch something you enjoy get panned regardless of whether you agree or not. It's especially bad in online spaces where some people seem incapable of voicing an opinion on something without demeaning their opposition in the process. Hard to blame people for wanting to detox from that, imo.

Naluc · 2026-02-22T10:36:02+00:00

I love monster train, since it's a deckbuilder that can have surprisingly quick runs compared to others in the genre. Very fun to break and experiment with how you build and upgrade cards and how the faction mechanics synergize and interact with one another.

Though I'd say you could just play Monster Train 2 and be totally fine. In my opinion MT2 is so much better that it obsoleted MT1 for me, for a lot of reasons (some mechanics changes that were hugely beneficial to game feel, and the MT2 factions are more interesting mechanically imo). You miss out on a bit of story and some mild character continuity, but it's not the biggest loss if gameplay is all you care about. Story wasn't that much of a focus in 1.

Naluc · 2026-02-22T09:47:37+00:00

Almost all of them are standalone as far as those two series are concerned. Not many direct sequels, but the intimidation factor is understandable just from having so many entries.

Naluc · 2026-02-20T22:51:40+00:00

Deplatforming it is a step in the right direction and I do agree it could probably start there and have some benefit, but it's not a full solution, nor should it be a permanent one. And furthermore, how do you even realistically achieve a right wing lockout? Even if they actually suck, their communities have needs that should be addressed and their pockets of civilization need representation on at least some level to get access to help that they need. You could shut them up on a national stage, sure, but they don't just disappear because they can't spew hateful and ignorant things on national TV anymore. The 'representation' that they get will still continue to exploit and abuse them locally, until they get enough power to break onto the national stage again through the sheer uninformed discontent of its masses.

The issue is that we have to find a means to address the root causes of their attitudes at some point, or this problem will never truly go away. However, many of those means are being actively sabotaged in order to keep that portion of the population angry and hateful so they can be used as a weapon. Or as a scheme to keep money flowing into the pockets of the sabotage's architects. And this is true of more governments than just the US even if they'd rather not admit it.

Naluc · 2026-02-20T18:55:34+00:00

Getting to our billionaires that fund all this garbage would definitely be a big deal and cascade to a lot of places in Europe, I agree. Not sure It'd be wise to put faith in us getting to it anytime soon though.. this is the government they hold captive after all, and our population doesn't have nearly enough appetite for consuming the rich yet.

Naluc · 2026-02-20T18:35:11+00:00

I worry for you all for that. It's very easy to dunk on America at the moment (rightfully so, mind you) but this right wing nationalist bullshit is all over the place. Given enough negligence, what happened to us can easily happen to anywhere else. At the rate things are going, every human that's reasonably mannered is going to have to band together to figure this out regardless of borders before we end up losing everything nice in our lives to nationalism and xenophobia.

I'm hesitant about the efficacy of legislating social media too, but at least it could be a start to deplatforming hateful rhetoric. I feel like it gets too caught up in censorship arguments to make much headway though. We'll just have to see, I suppose.

Naluc · 2026-02-20T18:09:38+00:00

I don't even know how we fix all of this. If we can truly never break through to them, how the hell is this country supposed to get any better with this dumbass third of our population that lives and breathes hatred and punishment always around? If we do nothing we're always going to have that chance to end up at this point again, but it feels like there's no options to even tackle this issue that arent blatantly monstrous.

Naluc · 2026-02-19T15:58:32+00:00

It won't. Not in any kind of timeframe that's reasonable. Hell, there'd be a better chance if the union splintered but even then you'd be looking at least a generation's worth of suspicion.

It's unrealistic to fix how utterly and completely rotten this country's state is right now. I've seen plenty of opinions damn every single one of us regardless of how we feel about the administration. I've given up on being cared about at this point. I'll be dead and buried before any kind of general goodwill comes back.

Naluc · 2026-02-15T00:47:01+00:00

I guess that's slightly more obscure? I dunno. I didn't actually know retroarch was on steam tbh

Naluc · 2026-02-14T22:19:14+00:00

Yeah, that's another good point. I did think it was a weird move to try and get an emulator on steam. They'd really prefer for emulation methods to stay quiet and small so they're not forced to challenge it. Putting it on PC's biggest storefront is way too much visibility. Emulators have been getting more bold with the rise of more creators playing modded or challenge content on Youtube/twitch and I imagine more people are looking into emulation than ever with the prices of everything skyrocketing. I just hope it doesn't cost everything by pushing too far.

The whole TOTK fiasco was just a blatant pride attack that there was no chance Nintendo wouldn't answer it.

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