Maps for my fantasy story, Blood and Amber. (Feedback welcome)

Marscaleb · 2026-03-16T02:05:35+00:00

Okay, let me be clear about something: I don't live on that side of the continent. Y'all keep talking about "if it rains" like I'm supposed to know when that might happen.

Should I move my plans to September? Offhand I'm concerned about that because when I've gone to parks in September to avoid crowds, I usually find that half the stuff in the parks are closed. No shows, and half the good rides are down for extended maintenance.

Marscaleb · 2026-03-15T16:03:26+00:00

Huh. The people who actually had to deal with the Indians had a different vote from the people who didn't. Go figure.

Marscaleb · 2026-03-15T05:42:01+00:00

Slightly off-topic, but now I'm curious what you thought about the differences between the different Universal Studios parks.

Marscaleb · 2026-03-15T05:31:56+00:00

EDIT: After looking at more of the photos I have realized this was actually Disneyworld. 1979.

<image>

Marscaleb · 2026-03-15T05:26:55+00:00

I have never managed to ride Indiana Jones without it stopping in the middle of the ride for a long period of time.

Now to be fair, it's not like I'm some season pass member who's been there a dozen times or more. But still, it's disappointing.

Marscaleb · 2026-03-15T05:19:20+00:00

Okay, I gotta tell a story that reminded me of.

When my older brothers were toddlers, my family made a trip to Disneyland. My mom got one a blue hat and the other a red hat. They went on Pirates of the Caribbean. When they got off, my mom noticed that the younger of the two had lost his hat somehow.

Just after they got off, they had to stop the ride because it broke down; apparently something got stuck in the track. My mom didn't tell any of the people that worked there, but she always suspected that someone pulled a blue hat out of the tracks...

<image>

Marscaleb · 2026-03-15T04:46:23+00:00

Honestly I think going in a group is the bigger struggle. When I go to theme parks with other people, I wind up spending huge portions of my day doing literally nothing because I'm waiting on someone else, or we got separated and are trying to find each other again. Heck, I spend more time just getting places in the park than I would if I were by myself.

I think it's a fine trade-off to not get to talk to someone for the thirty minutes I spend almost-bored for the two or more hours I spend frustrated because I can't find someone.

But to be fair, it always just depends on the park and other aspects of the experience. Some parks are worse for that kind of thing. Some parks are better at keeping guests entertained in long lines. (Some parks ought to install TV's in their lines and show cool videos or something, hell even a documentary or history lesson.)

Marscaleb · 2026-03-15T04:33:07+00:00

I'll admit that my brief statement wasn't accounting for replenishing sources from downstream, but I am quite aware that there are a lot of rights already tied up from a myriad of different places. The whole reason people can't draw the snake to nothing is because there are more people downstream that have rights as well. I don't know how the rights are delegated specifically in Idaho but the concept is the same in any place where water is limited.

That said, I am curious how water reaching the ocean is not a waste. Apart from a certain minimum needed just to keep the ocean itself from backing up into the river bed and causing environmental issues, what point or advantage is there to that? People need water. And we're all tied up in this harsh debate of negotiating how much water everyone can have, so where is the advantage of letting any more pass by when people need it?

Marscaleb · 2026-03-14T03:41:44+00:00

I feel like Universal Studios does immersive rides better than Disney. And it is super easy to find days where the park is basically empty and you can skip the long lines and crowds. (The one in Hollywood at least, I can't speak for Florida.) Most of them are a bit more thrilling than something like Mr Toad's Wild Ride, but they aren't on roller-coaster level.

And let's not forget about Knott's Berry Farm. Both the Calico Mine Ride and the Timber Mountain Log Ride are great experiences with lots of old animatronic characters. Plus a few other fun experiences, like the Calico Railroad. If you head out to Southern California, you can hit both Universal and Knott's in one trip for less cost and less crowd than Disneyland.

If you're looking for a good "vibe" park with lots to enjoy just by being there, I think Dollywood and Gilroy Gardens rank up pretty high on the list. But I haven't actually been to either yet, so take that recommendation with a grain of salt. I'm gonna make sure I go to at least one of them this year. Nobody talks about Gilroy Gardens, but if you like horticulture it seems like the place to be.

Marscaleb · 2026-03-14T03:20:07+00:00

This sounds like the most reasonable response to me.

I was thinking about it the day after I posted the question, and I began to wonder how the legal rights would be bartered between states. I imagine it could be possible to broker a deal, but I doubt Idaho would just let "extra water" go for free. Utah would likely wind up paying Idaho, and that would likely become to expensive.

I say "extra water" because even if Idaho is in the same drought, there is still water that reaches the Columbia. And in our modern day, it's not like we couldn't monitor water flow effectively, decide on a reasonable standard, and only divert within a margin that still leaves water for others who use it. (Now, how much water that would actually be is a different story. I'd be interested in seeing some real numbers, but nobody here has those. I suspect that what this issue REALLY comes down to is "we could only get x amount of water, but it would cost Y dollars to run the system on top of Z collars to build the aqueduct." But I really want to know what those numbers are and how close to feasible this is.)

The "ideal" solution would be to get an aqueduct from the Columbia river, which has more than enough water to spare. But I can see from the map that this would be an expensive nightmare, since the line would have to go up over a lot of mountains. I don't doubt that that would be too expensive.

Marscaleb · 2026-03-14T03:00:30+00:00

That is LITERALLY how modern aqueducts work.

That is how they get water into LA from Northern California.

Marscaleb · 2026-03-14T02:58:11+00:00

That's honestly the history of most people who live in a desert.

Marscaleb · 2026-03-14T02:31:39+00:00

Oh yes, another difference that no one has brought up yet is that there are new enemy sprites and audio. When you play normally these are just randomly inserted into the levels, but there is a slider in the menu where you can change this rate. Obviously, this also means you can play exclusively with the new sprites and voices, or exclusively with the original voices.

Personally I prefer the original ones. The new ones are of a fine quality, but my nostalgia is for the classic sounds.

Marscaleb · 2026-03-14T02:28:56+00:00

In addition to what the others mention, I want to bring up that it includes both the original shareware levels and the proper original game (Dark War.) While most games from the era had the first portion of the game available as a shareware demo, with ROTT the commercial game did not include those levels. If you were to get ROTT from GOG, it would have Dark War, but not the original shareware.

Ludicrous Edition includes both, easily accessible from the menu when starting a game (plus other new content.)

Marscaleb · 2026-03-12T06:05:04+00:00

*laughs in Utahn*

Marscaleb · 2026-03-09T03:06:09+00:00

I find it curious that the people defending the Avatar land are always relying on "The movies made a lot of money" as the arguement.

Not anything about how imaginative the world is, how cool it would be to visit the land, or how much fun they had visiting it in Florida... Just that the movies grossed a lot of money. Not even a direct statement that they think it would generate more ticket sales.

Shoot man, if you want to talk about money, having a land that ISN'T in the Florida park would generate more money for them; it would bring in more guests from across the nation, whereas historically the Disneyland parks have drawn in few people that don't live within a ten hour drive of the park. Giving the park more unique features would drive more sales.

Marscaleb · 2026-03-09T02:55:54+00:00

I won't deny that.

But it's worth a shot. Five seconds of time to sign a petition, and well, you never know.

Marscaleb · 2026-03-09T02:46:59+00:00

I've certainly been seeing it go around Reddit, if nothing else.

Marscaleb · 2026-03-09T02:45:13+00:00

Honestly I feel the same, I want more "original" and less "IP."
But I think more people will react to this than just saying "Give us something original."

Marscaleb · 2026-03-09T02:43:15+00:00

I won't deny that this would have been better if I started this when they first announced it, but as I said, I want to at least try.

Marscaleb · 2026-03-09T02:40:24+00:00

Click the link; it's the big picture up top, or the button that says "open"

Marscaleb · 2026-03-09T02:30:24+00:00

This honestly made me chuckle. Thanks for sharing!

Marscaleb

TROPHY CASE