Test Name: Balance of Goods
Forum Discussion:
http://www.atitd.net/forum/showthread.php?t=11979
Flavor Text: Egypt consist of goods and resources small and large, inexpensive and valuable. Learning and understanding these items are important in understanding your surroundings. Build a heavy vault in which to store your items, then fill it with all the Wonders of Egypt. In a weeks time, the gods will take your personal offering into consideration and decide if you are worthy of passing the test.
Goal: Score points (table below) for the uniqueness of your item when compared to other items found in ‘Offering Vaults’ of Egypt. The top seven scores per week will pass the test. Scores reset each week and the contest begins again.
Principle
- Build an Offering Vault
- Place an item in the Vault
- Place a second item in the Vault
- Check your Vault’s content (selectable vault item)
- Score at least 1 point
- Check your point total (selectable vault item)
University Requirement
- 100 Lead Sheets
- 20 Marble (any type)
- 60 Lead Pipes
- 20 Large Gears
- 500 Bolts
- 5 Huge Diamond
- 5 Huge Emerald
- 5 Huge Ruby
- 5 Huge Topaz
- 5 Huge Sapphire
- 5 Huge Quartz
University Note:
Unlocking this research will allow construction of an Offering Vault and open the test, “Balance of Goods” at the University of Harmony.
How it all works
You are allowed to construct one Offering Vault at a time within a Compound. Once built, the Vault will hold up to 200 items (regardless of weight or bulk). Once an item is placed into the Vault, it can not be removed! Adding more than one deben of any item to the Vault will have no benefit and thus not be allowed. Only the owner can use a special menu selection to view the items currently in the Vault or to check his score for the previous week. Offering Vaults cannot be made public or guild owned until after the test is complete. Offering Vaults can not be claimed by any departed persons act, but may be torn down by such acts.
All items that can be normally placed in a chest may be added to a Vault with the following exceptions: Items named by the player (such as crossbred flax seeds), Items that possess a players name (such as chits), and Items that are listed by the name followed by a characteristic (such as moss and resin – listed as resin: Royal Palm). All quality attributes of an item are ignored.
Each week ending on Sunday, all Vaults are emptied and points are awarded based on how few other Vaults have the same items. For example, if twenty people placed a deben of iron in their Vault, no points would be scored. If only three people placed a deben of copper in their Vault, all three people would score 50 points (per the chart below). The players with the seven highest score pass the test.
At the end of the Test, a list of the items from your chest can be displayed along with the point value each item earned you. This list will stay attached to your Vault until it is replaced the following week.
Building an Offering Vault
- Five Lead Sheets (6 lead per sheet in a Student or Master’s Forge with pinch rollers)
- One Marble Base (any marble should work)
- Three Lead Pipes (10 lead per pipe in a Student or Master’s Forge with pinch rollers)
- One Large Gear
- Twenty-Five Bolts
Scoring Chart
- Item found in one Vault: 250
- Item found in two Vaults: 100
- Item found in three Vaults: 50
- Item found in four Vaults: 25
- Item found in five Vaults: 10
- Item found in six Vaults: 5
- Item found in seven Vaults: 1
As you can see, quantity does not assure passing the test. One well thought out item can score enough points to beat a Vault with 200 items found in seven other Vaults.
Reward for passing the Test
When you pass the test, your Offering Vault becomes a Honor Vault (able to hold all items a typical chest can) that can hold 24,000. An Honor Vault works exactly like a tent or a house in the way it can be given or claimed.
Reason for the Test
As Egypt progresses, more and more items become available and some items are pushed into the background. What was once important to survival becomes an afterthought. By allowing citizens to consider what items they find important, valuable, and rare, they reflect on where they’ve been and where they are going. After passing the Test, the Offering Vault will be a constant reminder of the path they’ve traveled to be at the point they are at.