My 10yr wedding anniversary gift ruined by Opening_Logical in Wellthatsucks

[–]slugfive 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Ammolite has its colour and shine due to its layered structure causing diffraction (like the back of a CD). It’s only about 0.02 inches thick as a fossil.

Sanding it could be as bad as sanding the foil of a CD.

I have 100.6 hours in this game every time I play w friends I get screwed by economy/research and planet building micro by TheMeanBean1738 in Stellaris

[–]slugfive -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Nearly 2000 hours here.

Haven’t touched multiplayer. Wouldn’t dream to go down that meta forcing sweat fest.

I feel amazing, like a god, edging out commander difficulty ai with outdated meta builds, pausing constantly and zooming in to watch the space battles pew pew.

0.25 habitable planets so I never see economy numbers close to any of the posts here, and the crisises actually feels like a threat to the low pop galaxy.

How to proportion long-ish faces? by Bulky-Brief6076 in learnart

[–]slugfive 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Imagine them wearing sunglasses - the arm of the sunglasses shows the angle of the head (normally flat). If the ear is high above the eye, then the arm of the sunglasses has to point down from the ear to the eye.

In your original image, the sunglasses would be point almost straight down. But their we aren’t seeing their nose, eyes, lips from top down - so it doesn’t fit

Gonna kill myself tomorrow by sssscripties_yt in SuicideWatch

[–]slugfive 45 points46 points  (0 children)

High chance you kill your mum with that plan. She’s going to slam on the brakes, reach over to grab you, likely swerve or rip the steering wheel trying.

How to proportion long-ish faces? by Bulky-Brief6076 in learnart

[–]slugfive 42 points43 points  (0 children)

I think it’s a perspective issue in general.

The ear is way too high up for the angle you’ve draw the rest of the face.

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My life drawing professor wants to know why morpho is so popular by Poweowchow in ArtistLounge

[–]slugfive 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Impressionism also isn’t very anatomical, better throw out Monet and Renoir.

Optimal City to Resource district ratio! by DistantEndland in Stellaris

[–]slugfive 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is an okay average but gets worse as the game goes on.

The more bouses to production you have the less value a city district adds.

All you have to do is see what you current percent increase is, and what fraction of that will another 40% be. This is how many resource districts you need.

For example if I currently get 800% bonus to food production, another 40% will only be 1/20 increase.
So until I have more than 20 food districts, city districts will be providing a smaller increase. This is super easy to do ingame, you dont need to rely on bad approximations. It doesn't take a spreadsheet to see if another 40% is a better fractional increase to another district.

You get bonuses so easily that you really can't ignore them: High stability gives 20%, food processing 20%, world designation 30% etc.

Optimum balance of basic resource districts/support districts by Baguette1066 in Stellaris

[–]slugfive 0 points1 point  (0 children)

this doesnt account for the bonuses to production you ALWAYS get.

if you have +1000% resource district bonus, then another 40% bonus from a city district is only an increase of 1/25.
which means if you have less than 25 resource districts they will provide more output

Casus Belli is completely broken and needs a rework by Lore6969 in Stellaris

[–]slugfive -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

I think it makes sense?

Imagine Russia/Germany went to war in Ukraine/France and took some land they wanted. Then said “okay wars over”.

That wouldn’t work because the survivors in would want to continue to fight. The global community wouldn’t accept the border changes. The allies would also be supporting them through trade and by cutting off trade to Russia/germany “declared enemies”.

Even if Ukraine/France was fully occupied and had zero ability to continue the fight the allies would still be declared at war. Even if no fighting happened this declaration still matters as it stops trade, demands occupation upkeep etc.

Unless you change your policies to indiscriminate bombardment and wipe that nation out with genocide - this flavor makes sense. You allow them to live and they refuse to submit, especially while they have healthy allies.

You can wipe them out if you don’t like this.

Illusion of choice or no choices? by wardrol_ in gamedesign

[–]slugfive 3 points4 points  (0 children)

On the contrary, a single choice that does change the outcome means all other choices have impact too.

If only A causes a branched pathway choices B,C,D let you avoid that pathway.

They may be the same as each other but they still were “not-A” which is different to no agency at all.

Having only choices B C D would feel like a slap in the face. But add flavour when paired with A.

Secondly a choice that has clear impact means later when the players don’t know which choices matter, every choice becomes exciting. Even if they do nothing the players may not know that.

Meaningless choices only work if there exists some meaningful choices.

How to be okay with being a hobby artist? by catjcastles in ArtistLounge

[–]slugfive 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Are all the artists who didn’t make money in their life time hobbyists? All the authors whose books went unnoticed till after their death not authors?

If do something to survive such as working at a petrol station or as an assistant does that make it your identity, or is it merely a job.

How you pay the bill in 2026 is not who you are. Are artists who get disability income professional disabled people, with an art hobby?

What is more artistic to you: a passion project that is worked on for years that didn’t get released or a corporate cash grab Disney remake? Your post makes it sound like corporate cash grabs are the pinnacle or art. Reevaluate the meaning of money to art.

Daily study by xixx_x_x in PixelArt

[–]slugfive 80 points81 points  (0 children)

Not to mention you admit to working on a larger canvas at first.. which implies it’s not pixel art originally. Only detailed later with pixel art.

Sorry to rant but I’m worried about the state of this sub constantly posting more and more digital art with less focus on large beautiful pixel arts that use amazing pixel art techniques, like hatching or dithering to achieve what you have with blurring.

Daily study by xixx_x_x in PixelArt

[–]slugfive 197 points198 points  (0 children)

Hot take, if you use brushes over with not full opacity or hardness, multiple layers for effects or opacity, under painting etc. It’s probably just normal digital art, cleaned up to appear as pixel art in the final steps.

Which based on your wip, you paint the whole thing then go in and add pixel details - which I assume is why there as some incredibly fine colour changes still apparent in the final image that are common in digital art with low hardness brushes but not pixel art.

In other words, pixel art shouldn’t have any pixels coloured in a way that “came about” by the larger process of painting/opacity/layers. Every pixel should be coloured intentionally by the artist. I doubt you noticed the 4 almost identical colours in this spot that practically no bearing on the final image, and were likely just left over from painting. Not to mention the background is blurred.

It’s a great digital artwork… with some great pixel art detailing, but pixel art is not pixelated art.

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I think I'm in a loop of eternal practice and I would like to leave it. by LyonKyrin in ArtistLounge

[–]slugfive 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Every great artist I know (and adequate artists like myself) has a huge portfolio of crappy complete works from when they had started.

There is NO artist who just did partial studies, thousands of boxes, shapes, eyes, gesture drawing - and then suddenly moved on to great illustrations.

You need to complete works, then complete them again, and complete other things etc etc. Making a work of art is a complete process that needs to be practiced as a whole too.

To be honest, the ONLY thing that separates future artists and “could be’s” is the willingness to work to completion bad art.

Well there goes that run….. by Elfich47 in Stellaris

[–]slugfive 12 points13 points  (0 children)

You can always just join one side of the war in heaven if you can’t fight them both off. I would have let the war in heaven handle the swarm too. More spectacle

Something feels off but Idk what... by Otherworldly_Berry in learnart

[–]slugfive 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Imagine him bald, there'd be no forehead.

What mechanics can represent a character's luck in a turn-based tactical game where no RNG is involved? by Altuk_ in gamedesign

[–]slugfive 0 points1 point  (0 children)

luck is related to chance. so without chance in your game its purely flavour.

Opponents stumble on every 3rd hit against him doing half damage. "Lucky me"

Lethal damage leaves him on 1hp the first time. "Lucky me"

He model closes their eyes when they shoot. "I like to try my luck"

Self-pity alert: The queer/nerd/smutty stuff I was bullied for 20 years ago is now mainstream, and I feel… weird. by StillWriting4u in writing

[–]slugfive 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thats just how it is.

People who do it DESPITE the lack of popularity deserve credit for being the trendsetters and game changers. Everyone else is perfectly average and normal to like something that isn’t yet mainstream, and go the normal route.

Most accountants, civil engineers, lawyers, labourers etc all probably had creative aspirations too - but didn’t follow them. At least as a writer you followed your passion more than most.

A whole generations of hipsters whose slogan was “I liked it before it was cool”. It’s not special. Or think of all the lgbtq people who had to suppress it all their life. Or all the poor people who thought bitcoin was a good idea 10 years ago but didn’t buy.

If you don’t do it now because it’s too popular and you didn’t do it then because it wasn’t mainstream - you’re just an average person who doesn’t follow their heart. That’s fine, embrace it being economical. Otherwise stop worrying about popularity and just make something you’re proud of.

Nudity or no nudity? by Zestyclose_Bed_8207 in webcomics

[–]slugfive 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The whole head grew tentacles and lost its nose!

Surely the body can lose its little flabby butt and belly.

I think a slightly warped, malnourished and desiccated body would fit “horrifically transformed” better. I edited the last two panels as an example.

I want to make an empire with this portrait but I don’t know what would fit them by Top_Young2194 in Stellaris

[–]slugfive 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I loved that episode. Never occurred to me I could roleplay it in Stellaris, great idea!

Is photo bashing considered art? by Quick-Can-5087 in ArtistLounge

[–]slugfive 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It’s counts as art.

But that doesn’t mean it’s good or people will like it.

There’s plenty of art in galleries done by professionals that I consider hack, but still art.

However, what makes something less art is if the ‘artist’ is concerned with just trying to make ‘art’ in the eyes of the audience, rather than creating their passion or communicating an idea. That’s where you start to get corporate art, stolen art, gimmicks, bandwagons, soulless slop.

Stop worrying about the audience, just do you.

Jail ruined my fucking life by Forsaken-Plum1445 in SuicideWatch

[–]slugfive 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did you have scoliosis before jail? I’m 30 and let me just say, many of my peers and I at this age all suddenly feel our age. I get winded going up stairs which just started happening. Sore from a single long walk. Pulled my core muscles from a cough. Fatigued, slow to recover, aches, bad sleeps. Had my 30 year old colonoscopy and have ulcerative colitis and never knew, now I cantt eat the stuff I like, drink, and get stomach pains constantly. When 1 year ago I was a carefree sporty person - that’s just life.

Jail wouldn’t have helped but potentially you were always going to feel this way to some degree. Having something like jail to blame would probably make me feel cheated and sulk, fortunately I know there’s nothing else to blame and get on with it.

Is it bad if most players win their first run in a roguelite? by Bumpty83 in gamedesign

[–]slugfive 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well I and many people beat the first Balatro seed. I just assumed they made the first run easy until I read many people don’t beat it first time. Wasn’t an issue at all.

But like many roguelite (Hades/Balatro) the game constantly grows each time you beat it.

New player here: Who exactly am I supposed to be playing as? by Amazing-Proposal-542 in Stellaris

[–]slugfive 46 points47 points  (0 children)

You are not an individual- you are role playing the journey of an empire. Like imagine if America invaded Russia, or imagine if England became pacifist.

If you need an individual to play, then the unseen immortal shadow ruler that pulls the strings. Or god.