Edgwyn

The trick to adaptions is having the right balance of respecting the source while making a tv show/movie that is interesting to more than just the fans of the books/games. Having a very large budget helps. LOTR did a pretty goo job of balancing where to follow the books and where to diverge (so I was annoyed with the divergence, but not enough to hate it) while making the story accessible to the non-fans and of course it had a large budget. The animated version of LOTR from the 70s didn't do so well.

I just started reading the Elfstones of Shannara. I remember when it was first released and I was interested in reading it then, but never got around to it. 35 years later I found a copy in a used book stand and so here I am

I think that Jeff tended to attribute changes to the maps and distances between versions as being caused by "cave quakes". I would think that the Vahnatai lands are much bigger than we see. There are seven 48x48 squares in the Vahnatai Lands, but the four 48x48 dark water squares also seem to be part of the Vahnatai Lands also and then potentially part of the Exile caves as well, plus what ever is off stage.

My impression would be that it is a bit smaller than that. With that said, consistency is not something that seems to worry Jeff too much. At least one of the signs in A:EFTP is Cotra in 3 miles, which is 18 squares, so a square is 1/6 of a mile. There is a sign by Silvar that has Mertis as 15 miles away, which is 45 squares, so a square is 1/3 of a mile. The road between Silver and Mertis has a sign that says that the Castle is 230 miles west and 40 miles south of that point. In squares, in a straight line it is approximately 144 squares west and 20 squares to the South, making each square at least a full mile in its east-west dimension and around 2 miles in a North-South dimension (not too square). And of course the interface changes made in A4-6 really throw things off. I would think that it would be closer to the size of England than of the UK, simply because there is not much camping outside. While merchants wander outside of towns, they seem to make it to the inns in towns instead of camping for the night along the road. I am not sure how fast lizard transport moves at, but I think that it would be relatively low speed. I doubt that most of the towns are more than 15-20 miles from each other. I would have maybe 10 miles between Fort Avernum and Silver or Fort Duvno with Cotra maybe another 10 miles away. And then Fort Dranlon being around 20 miles away. That is figuring that about 20 miles is how far you could travel in a day.

If you could post a screen shot, I might be able to provide some more input as I do not remember which rooms are labeled. Depending on which part you are in, there are multiple secret doors, tricks, stairs, etc.

On the top level of the fortress, in the South East there is a complex that is Zemera's bedroom. In that set of rooms, there is a secret room that has a level 3 spell book and stairs that lead all the way down to the bottom level behind the blocked off area. There is a wheel that will open the gate for you

If that screen shot is from the lowest floor (having the automap open will help me verify where you are) then that blocked off area can be entered from above

They both look really good. I like the gem in the blade of the 2nd for basically what TriRodent said, but I prefer the blade design of the first one as the first one seems more like a realistic sword (I know this is a fantasy, but . . .), so I would say the first one with the gem added.

I have the opportunity at work to shift to a 5/4-9 schedule (five nine-hour days one week, three nine-hour and one eight-hour days the second week) with a three day weekend every other week. I have not done so yet because of reasons, but next Fall I will relook at it. I will enjoy the three day weekend every other week, but to shift to the nine-hour work day, I will leave my start time where it is and make my end time an hour later.

But you can work on better handoff procedures and develop shift procedures. Commercial planes on domestic routes often have more than one crew operating them in a single day because of duty day limitations. Longer international routes travel with a larger crew so that adequate rest can be maintained. Air Traffic Control has a very strict duty day limitation as well and has a much harder handoff problem than piloting or driving do. I wonder how accurate the patient outcomes statistics really are. Our knowledge of how an airplane is put together is really how as the most complicated airplane is something that we have engineered and built and is far simpler than a human. The default finding in an accident investigation in aviation tends to be pilot error unless some other cause can be clearly identified. Even then, pilot error is often listed as a factor. That has created a major incentive to reduce the amount of human error possible (and will lead fairly soon to self-flying planes and self-driving vehicles). I wonder what portion of medical errors are obscured by the greater complexity and greater difficulty getting data on a human being. Aviation accidents tend to be fairly noticeable, medical errors can be far more subtle and I would think that they would be more likely to be under reported (they are harder to determine).

I find it interesting that the research shows that medical outcomes do not change based on work schedule much. Commercial Pilots and Truck drivers have limitations on their work rest cycle/crew duty day that were supposedly established as safety measurers based on research.

Congratulations, that is a huge accomplishment

I have only done 24 hour shifts a few times (and 36 hour shifts twice), and I have never understood why the medical profession thinks that they are a good idea. With that said, any night shift schedule is unpleasant to me as I always found it hard to sleep during the day on my days off when my family is up and wanting to do things.

I would find it hard to sleep in for the extra hour and so would rather have the extra hour at the end of the day. It would be a harder question for me if you made the choice between work starting an hour earlier and ending an hour earlier or work starting and hour later and ending an hour later.

Yes, play the games long enough and they will be running through your head with their squeaky little voices

Meaningless approbation delivered for meaningless accomplishment. Universe remains balanced.

This was addressed a bit more in this forum. http://spiderwebforums.ipbhost.com/topic/22492-mac-problems-with-fullscreen/?tab=comments#comment-293177

Contgratulations. The Army of the Tennessee certainly saw far more of the country than most of its soldiers could ever have imagined.

If you click on the portrait of one of your characters it becomes the active character. When you are in a character's inventory, you can click on an item, move the mouse to over another character's portrait and then click and the item will transfer inventories. For ease of play, weight only counts for items that are equipped.

I do not identify as Cis (as in it is extremely unlikely that you will hear/read me apply that label to myself), but, it is accurate as a label for me and so I selected it for the purposes of the poll, just like Sylae choose a term that she doesn't particularly like. Being fortunate enough to be in the position that I am in, the label is 100% accurate and has no emotional context to me, it is just not a term that I use outside of answering demographic information. I do believe that if you are going to answer a friendly poll that you should provide as accurate information as possible. While this poll is unlikely to effect anything, poll, surveys and samples have huge impacts on the goods and services that we are offered and the more garbage fed into them, the more inaccurate they are and the poorer the decisions that will be made from them.

I found it interesting that there is not a single game that every respondent reported owning. And that is despite multiple sales over the last few years where you can buy the A1-6 series for very little.

While I did not choose 72-84 for favorite video game era, I would have chosen 77-87 had that been an option.

I agree that it is important, and I think that a review would have found it important and would have better articulated why the right of marriage should be extended. It hopefully would also have resulted in a national standard (in the US, there are differences at the state level) as to what age one has to be in order to be married. The other part of the question though is why is two the magic number for a secular legal contract? The question of what is the maximum number of people who could be married to each other would need to be part of any realistic study of the secular benefits of marriage.

I agree and I did not oppose federal recognition of same sex marriages, but lots of people from every side of the spectrum like, and believe, in slippery slope arguments. My position during the debate on recognition of same sex marriages was "why does the government recognize marriage at all? I would have loved for their to have been an answer to that question first, but since that was not going to happen, marriage equality was the right thing to do. You are the legal expert not me, so I had assumed that when President Clinton signed the executive order banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in federal government employment that it was part of a broader policy. I assume that I am wrong.

Religious institutions are considered protected as one of the freedoms enshrined in our constitution. They should by treated differently because the power to tax (like many other government powers) is the power to destroy. The area subject to debate is when the church runs a commercial enterprise such as a day care or school. Everyone is allowed to be (and practically everyone is in one way shape or form) bigoted. Again, under our fundamental rights as Americans, we are allowed to be bigoted in our own personal lives. You have the right to choose not to associate with me because I am white, left handed, male, believe in Xenu, do not like ponies or any one of a thousand reasons (or for no reason at all). [please note that three of the five things listed at not actual characteristics of mine]. In general I believe that most forms of bigotry are morally wrong (including bigotry agains Muslims and LGBT individuals), but that does not take away my right to be bigoted. I do not have the right to be bigoted in my professional life (nor should I have that right). The nature of the employment that I have chosen puts me in (what I consider) the highest category of not allowed to be bigoted in my professional life. If I cannot carry out the duties of my employment without discriminating against people in any category protected by law I should resign. If I cannot carry out the duties of my employment without discriminating against people in a non-protected way (say because they like Shapers) I should really look at myself and figure out why I can't be nice to people. So, my religion gets to set whatever standards it wants for its members. That is religious freedom, free speech and free association. That does not mean that my religion gets to set standards for non-members. Tax dollars going to gay conversion camps is of course a stretch, but you can make the stretch. Realistically, I can make the same stretch to abortions after the first trimester where the life of the mother is not at risk, the mother was not raped and incest was not involved. Neither one of us is ever going to like all of the things our tax dollars are spent on.