A test of thought that involves up to 7 team members creating a puzzle that may cover a large portion of land.A number of lockboxes are hidden around in the area (or all of Egypt, if you desire). Each box may need 0, 1, or more keys to open it. The box may also have a hint on the outside (a hint telling where to find the keys needed to open that box), and a clue on the inside (a clue pointing to where the next lockbox is). And finally, the box will most likely have 1 (or more) keys inside it. A simple venery would have a series of lockboxes in a row, each containing both a key to the next box and a clue as to where the next box is. Lockboxes can be attached to any buildings, objects (trees, altars, etc), or people (!), but cannot be attached to objects lying on the ground.
Building a Venery
A Venery Gathering Point is the first building that needs to be constructed. It costs 100 boards and 250 papyrus paper, along with a small construction site. It's a small pedestal, about 2/3 of the height of a person and the same general size as a person. You can also set the Venery Gathering Point to be publically usable, which lets anyone sign up as a designer.
Once the Venery Gathering Point is built, and you've signed up as a designer, you can begin building and installing lockboxes (and keys) on any objects in the game.
Simple Lockboxes are built at forges and takes 2 minutes to cool. The materials required are:
Once you've signed up to design a venery, every object in the game will have a new Tests menu, with a Venery submenu. This menu allows you to do a variety of lockbox-related tasks, including adding/removing lockboxes from the object, setting the hint and clue for the lockbox, adding keys to the lockbox, and setting which keys are needed to open the lockbox.
Note: The Venery Gathering Point needs a lockbox as the final lockbox. Otherwise, the players will not be able to complete the Venery.
Solving a Venery
To actually solve a venery, one or more players need to visit the starting point and ask to join.
Then an owner of the venery needs to start the contest at which point all those signed up will get (potentially) an initial clue message, and the "Search for Keys" option will appear in the menu for all eligable objects. So, you can't run a venery without some coordination with the owner.
Some notes:
- Once the venery has begun you can find lockboxes even if you don't have the key for them. You should get a clue where the previous lockbox is to find the key for this lockbox if things are configured nicely.
- To find lockboxes on trees, and palm trees you will have to disable fast wood gathering. (As well as thorn bushes-with fast gathering on, the option for searching does not appear in the menu.)
- You can't seem to get the initial message/clues from the starting point again, so write them down when you first get them. They may appear in your main window or a popup depending on how you have your interface options set.
- While one group is running a venery, no new groups can start, so try to finish up or let the owner know you give up in a reasonable amount of time.
- Your value in judging veneries improves as you judge more and more, much like opticons or empty hand towers.
Some Venery Areas to help get started.