The Test Of Towers

Build towers and control an area equal to that of all of Egypt to pass the Test of Towers in the dicipline of Architecture.

The Hour of Towers occurs about once every three Egyptian days. A schedule for upcoming Hours may be viewed at any University or School of Architecture. The Hour lasts for one Egyptian hour (i.e., about twenty minutes).

During the Hour of Towers, participants may build towers. Each tower will control all the land that is closer to it than to any other tower. A single uncontested tower would control 100% of Egypt. (The amount of land controlled is based on Voronoi diagrams quantized with quadtrees. See the images here 1 and the Java applet here 2 for an visual representation of how this works.)

A tower must be built at least 1000 feet (or 64 coordinates) from any other tower. (It's possible to circumvent this, but the second tower will score no points.)

There are seven different types of Tower. Only one type may be built during each Hour of Towers. The type will be listed on the schedule available from the Universities of Architecture. Towers may only be built by people who have signed up for the test.

A Tower may be given to another player using the "give this to another player" menu option.

At the end of the Hour of Towers, the percentage of Egypt controlled by each tower will be calculated. The contestants with the top seven total percentages for that hour will have that percent added to their cumulative score. All other contestants will receive only 1/7 of their percentage for that hour. All Towers crumble at the end of the Hour. It is possible to circumvent this by building a small construction site dedicated to the tower, but not adding the last of the materials until the Hour ends. Towers built this way will vanish at the end of the next Hour, and will not count towards either.

A player passes the test when their cumulative score from all Hours reaches 100%. The option to build a tower will not be present until the Hour of Towers has begun. Your current score may be viewed from your Tests menu.

Towers are built at a small constuction site. Costs are:

Tower of Rich Soil

1000 bricks, 1 candle, 500 dung, 20 onions, 20 carrots, 20 garlic, 20 leeks, 20 cabbage, 7 medium topaz

Tower of Solid Land

1000 bricks, 1 candle, 10 cut stones, 25 white sand, 7 medium quartz

Tower of the Hand of Man

1000 bricks, 1 candle, 2500 clinker, 250 firebricks, 5 medium rubies, 25 rope, 5 iron bars

Tower of Racing Mind

1000 bricks, 1 candle, 100 papyrus paper, 1 cut amethyst: lens, 3 quicksilver, 1 cobra bite extract from Cobra pits

Tower of Living Land

1000 wood, 1 candle, 280 honey, 70 dates, 7 medium emerald

Tower of New Life

1000 bricks, 1 candle, 7 eggs, 7 medium sapphire, 1 Leek Seed, 1 Onion Seed, 1 Garlic Seed, 1 Carrot Seed, 1 Cabbage Seed

Tower of Night

100 Slate, 1000 Bricks, 4 Marble: Night Granite, 1 candle, 7 medium diamond, 3 Mushroom: Slave's Bread, 3 Mushroom: Toad Skin, 3 Mushroom: Sand Spore, 3 Mushroom: Earth Light, 3 Mushroom: Cat Nip, 3 Mushroom: Bleeding Hand, 3 Mushroom: Dung Rot

Pharaoh here, with a message to those that have completed the Test of Towers...
You'll find a new option on Small Construction sites, to build a Monumental Tower - a permanent version of a Tower of the Rich Soil.
And, to those that captured an area of land not just equal to 100% or egypt, but rather 110%...
You'll be able to build a Monumental Tower of the Solid Land.
And if you went as high as 140%, a Monumental Tower of the HAnd of Man.
Other tower types are available at 200%, 300%, 500%, and 700%.
Monumental Towers are decorative only - they don't claim land.

Once you pass the test you gain the ability to construct a Monumental Tower.

tower	points needed
rich soil	100
solid land	110
hand of man	140
living land	200
racing mind	300
new life	500
??	700

In order to get the higher towers you have to build more towers after you pass. Some consider this wasteful or griefing since it reduces the number of people who will eventually pass Towers. Others consider it a medal of honor for an industrious architect. There was a petition to outlaw the building of Monumental Towers, which failed 110 to 102.

(See also: tests, Test Of Towers Schedule)

Discussion

homegrown

Can we delete this last paragraph? The wiki is supposed to be non-political and this smacks of passing "moral" judgement on a group of people (or in this case, one particular person) :).

Nephte

I don't see a moral judgment here. The paragraph presents both points of view in a neutral way. It's good for people who start the Test of Towers to be aware of this issue.