Monument Tests > Test Of The Orchestra Final On The Monument

The test of the Orchestra will be a test requiring team work for the Maestro to produce good music. Judgment of the music during concerts will bring points to pass the test, passes being limited to one pass per week. The larger the crowd listening to the music, the more points the maestro is likely to get so they will have to publicise their work if they wish to progress.

Due to lag problems, the musicians in the orchestra will not actually be playing their instruments live, musicians hence do not actually need any artistic skill and so do not receive any points from participating in the Orchestra, other than the pleasure of helping to make music and keeping a sample of the music they helped make in the form of three "single-use" music boxes.

creating music

The maestro builds a music stand (not difficult or expensive to build, several boards, some nails and some copper wire). The music stand will contain the interface that will actually allow the Maestro to create the music; a simple copy of a music sampler with lines for twenty different instruments and a basic volume option (soft, medium, loud?). The total length of the music is up to the maestro but will not exceed three minutes.

The Instruments will be held by the musicians that the Maestro has assembled. Each Musician will have one instrument in their inventory. To start editing the music the Maestro must assemble all the players they want to use as musicians, anywhere between one and twenty. Each musician clicks on the music stand to "tune their instruments". This act will fix who is playing what instrument, combination that must then be respected through all the stages if the Maestro does not want to start with a clean sheet of paper again!

The instruments can be made by any player; as such they could become a traded item! There will be a range of instruments to choose from, respecting the classic groups: Strings, Brass, Woodwind, Percussions and whilst remaining close to historically valid instruments: Horns, Harps, Drums, Tambourines etc. Each instrument will be able to make a defined note or range of notes, again realistic. A full list of suggested instruments will be on the Art legacy test page, with their characteristics and suggestions for their construction. Drums for example would be made on a barrel vice using pliable treated boards, copper bands and leather. Making instruments should vary in difficulty depending on the instrument.

• Pharaoh may wish to include a new skill for playing instruments. This is not a fundamental requirement for this test since the musicians do not actually participate actively in the music however, by creating a Musician skill, only skilled musicians could participate in orchestras. The advantage for learning would be that musicians would improve their skill level when participating in successful concerts and a high skill could bring advantages, such as improving vegetable yield (Plants are believed to grow better if you play music to them)

Whilst the Maestro is editing their music, to maintain a minimum level of team work, the Orchestra will have to re-convene for "practice". After the first "tuning of instruments", the maestro will be able to edit during Three Egypt days, and will be able to do unlimited "test runs" during that period. After that further editing will be possible but to conduct new test runs the whole orchestra must re convene for practice. Practice allows another Three Egypt day period of test runs. This cycle can be repeated an unlimited number of times until the Maestro is satisfied with their work.

During composing and practicing, the Maestro can pick up and carry their music stand, in the same way that a fireworks mortar can be carried between editing. It can also be kept in a chest. A music stand placed on the ground does not disappear and is subject to the same DPPRA rules as a fireworks mortar.

As with a real Orchestra, “practice” can be with one or two instruments or the whole orchestra, in the test this is done by allowing the maestro to have different members of the orchestra to have signed up for practice at different places at different times, however ALL of the musicians must have signed up for practice within the last three Egypt days for test runs of the editor to be possible.

Presenting the music to an audience for voting

Once the Maestro is satisfied with the music they can present a concert either at a Banquet or within a certain radius of a U Art (this radius MUST be LARGER than the building ban around a public building). To produce during a Banquet the Maestro need only request the permission of the host; these concerts will clearly be quite rare though. Concerts at U Arts must be "booked" at least three Egypt days in advance at the U Art that the maestro wishes to perform at. Anyone visiting any U Art will be able to see a list of all concerts booked throughout Egypt over the next seven RL days; this will allow critics to see when concerts are happening around Egypt and hence reduce the risk of "private concerts" with the inherent risk of gaming.

At the given time booked at the U Art, the maestro will dispose of a three Egypt hours window within which to actually perform their concert, giving necessary time for any "missing" musicians to be re-found. Outside of this delay the Maestro will not be allowed to perform their work and must re-book a concert session. Each "booking slot" lasts thirty Egypt minutes, allowing potentially several concerts to be organised at ten RL minutes intervals for those who desire to coordinate a music festival!

When at the U Art within the allotted period, or in the vicinity of an ongoing Banquet, the Maestro drops the Music stand used to edit their work and must ensure that all their musicians click on the music stand to "tune their instruments". Simultaneously the audience can click on the music stand to signify that they wish to judge the upcoming concert. The number of signed-up audience will appear on the music stand menu for the Maestro to see. Once all the musicians are present and "tuned", the Maestro can start his concert when they wish. (There will be a "cancel concert" option, to clear all tuned musicians and judges, which may prove useful)

Once the maestro has pressed "Play" (with a "type play" window like "LAUNCH" for Pyro), the music stand will be sealed and no longer be editable (reason will soon become clear) The musicians and the judges must remain within the range of the music throughout the duration of the music. This range will be the same as the "this is too far" range of the music stand itself.

Once the music ends, all signed-up judges will receive a pop-up window to judge the work. There will be no "fraud" option, just the seven normal descriptions. These descriptions will correspond with a score of -3 to +3 (+3 for monumental, 0 for good...). The score for the concert will be the sum of all these scores. If the score for the concert is negative, it will NOT be removed from the Maestro's existing total points, if it is positive, it will be added.

The First Maestro in any week to reach a score of 200 points passes the test, with a message in System, and a note to any Maestros planning to "play" a concert from then to the end of the week.

Other Maestros will be able to produce concerts from then until the end of the week and their score will count towards their total however; if the score from a given concert will bring the Maestro's total score to over 180 points, they will be capped at 180. This cap will ensure that it will be difficult to organise a "private" (fraud) concert in the first hours of the new week, to quickly reach the threshold score to pass.

Each judge will be able to judge the same work by the same Maestro only once, hence the music stand being "sealed" after it has been performed once. The maestro can perform again the same piece of music, but will have to find a new audience; alternatively they must start with a clean sheet of paper!

Musicians can be tuned into the music stands of more than one Maestro at a time, but not more than one stand belonging to the same maestro.

Test of the Orchestra rewards

Each piece of music that enables a Maestro to pass the test will be recorded for posterity on a set of music boxes. Each musician and each member of the audience will receive three music boxes and the Maestro will receive forty nine. The music boxes can be used at any time to add musical atmosphere by dropping them and playing them. They are consumed when played.

• Musician skill, if adopted, will provide rewards to be decided upon by Pharaoh.

the test as it was initially proposed by me:

• Test Of The Orchestra