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[Great Order]

It might be, dig deep enough and you're going to stop running into "X happens because of Y which happens because of Z" and start hitting "X because that's what the laws of the universe *are*". Could be the product of some mathematical pseudo-random chaotic system, but it could literally be that it's random because the universe is just built that way.

[Kagus]

A sufficiently complex system with enough variables cannot readily be distinguished from randomness at a glance.

As exemplified by the off-hit playable demo for Half Sword. ...at least according to the sweats on the Steam forum swearing up and down that all the flailing is skill-based.

[None]

How do you learn to sketch? I'm gonna ramble through the library and nose around online a little, but it's nice to ask local talent first for specific recommendations.

[McTraveller]

Practice, practice, practice.

Basically: look at what you want to sketch, and keep practicing sketching until you get the fidelity you desire.

I think reading tutorials or whatever would only give you techniques and tips like when you want a fine-edge stylus versus a wedge versus a brush, or when to use side-shading, stuff like that.  That's just information though - no substitute for experience!

[Kagus]

I've heard the tip before about trying to draw things upside-down, so as to work your brain into drawing the shapes of a given thing, rather than the essence of it.

So, instead of trying to copy a picture onto paper, you first turn the picture upside-down, then copy that. This adds a layer of abstraction that stops the brain from trying to think "that's a person" and following up with "I'll draw a person". What you want is to draw the shapes and lines that make up an image of a person, not whatever your brain thinks "a person" is.


Note that I haven't applied this at all and am in fact awful at sketching, so a few lumps of salt are recommended as a side.

[Eric Blank]

Drawfee says practice practice practice. They also offer lots of videos showing how they go through specific processes and answering patrons' questions. https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDUoOYLKP1C7dsrXdvVDI8aVJfZbuMqqg

I learned the basics of sketching in high school but never really practiced much. Never did human figures at all as a matter of fact. So I can't help much more than that.

[None]

Techniques and tips and the like are what I'm after, since the most recent thing i've drawn would be some sludge in Gartic Phone six months ago and beyond that, I don't put a pencil to paper but to draw lines in the shapes of letters. Practice will be good, but starting (and knowing where) will be better, yes?

[Eric Blank]

Does anyone have the link to the official dwarf fortress discord?

[Ziusudra]

The only official one is the Kitfox one: https://discord.gg/kitfoxgames

[Eric Blank]

ah. I thought there was another.

[Ziusudra]

There've been a couple unofficial Bay12/DF ones, which hav seen various amounts of drama; only one is active now, though not very. DFHack has their own, which is pretty active; the link is easily guessed and is linked on their various sites.

[McTraveller]

What would you do if you had an extra:

$100?
$1000?
$10k?
$100k?

Spoiler: for myself... (click to show/hide)

$100: not complain when family wants to eat out an extra time this month
$1000: not complain when family exceeds their clothing/personal budget this month
$10k: save/invest it
$100k: save/invest it.

I'm seriously boring.  But I wish I had better ideas of what to do with my money.

Note: the only debt my household has is our mortgage, but because it's at 2.25% it's not worth paying off; we gain more from saving/investing than we would by paying that off.

[hector13]

What would you do if you had an extra:

$100?
$1000?
$10k?
$100k?

Spoiler: for myself... (click to show/hide)

$100: not complain when family wants to eat out an extra time this month
$1000: not complain when family exceeds their clothing/personal budget this month
$10k: save/invest it
$100k: save/invest it.

I'm seriously boring.  But I wish I had better ideas of what to do with my money.

Note: the only debt my household has is our mortgage, but because it's at 2.25% it's not worth paying off; we gain more from saving/investing than we would by paying that off.

See, this is why I get bothered by politicians saying we need to give tax cuts to high earners. They’re not going to spend it.

Instead, you give a tax cut to a low earner, they’ll spend it. I think a major reason why major donors don’t want this is because they can’t be bothered competing for that money.

[McTraveller]

So saving/investing isn't spending?  I have always seen savings/investing as deferring my spending "into the future" because I sure don't want to buy literal tons of canned food or something right now, and spend money on a storage facility just to be able to eat in 30 years.

I'm talking in middle-class levels here, not the "I have account balances representing more than several times per-capita GDP times the median number of working years of a person" kind of levels.

Maybe it's a generational thing? I'm fast approaching the half-century mark...

(That said, I do agree the tax structure in the USA has some perverse incentives.)

[hector13]

Sorry, that wasn’t meant as a dig at you personally - I would have the same answers as you - more lamenting politicians appeasing the wealthy as a means of “stimulating the economy and job growth”, which is tangential to the question you posed. You give a million people $100, they’ll spend it, which is better than splitting that $100,000,000 between a handful of people who could very easily just pocket it.

Saving money works for you and the institution you’re saving with, while investing merely allows a company more capital to invest where they want it. The company doesn’t have to do anything with that money.

Someone spending money is actually creating demand for a product or service, and that should be the primary driver of economic growth. A company has to respond to that before their competitors do or they’ll lose out on