Tests > Monument Tests > Test Of The Seas

Test of the Ocean

Who created this test ? I've been trying to find out but it was an anonymous edit, and I like the flavor and think the idea I had can really make it a real good test of Arch, of trade and strategy along with the expensive costs of building. If I cant find out who made it by next week I will push forward a proposal including mu ideas and credit "Anonymous" instead of just having a chat with her/him and see what s-he thinks. -Pandemonis

Sorry for the anonymous. Feel free to amend/change as appropriate. My suggestions below are just something you can use to get the inspirational juices flowing

From the earliest of civilizations, the Egyptians made extensive use of boats for transportation. On the Nile, extensive use was possible as it is a highly predictable thoroughfare – wind always blows from north to south, and the current always flows from south to north! As such, each boat uses sail power to get to the sea, and rows to get back. However, a dilemma faces all those who utilize the river – that of safety. It is therefore paramount to construct lighthouses along the riverbank.

To construct a lighthouse, the following resources will be needed:

• Mirror (during the day, a mirror was used to reflect the sun)
• Oil (at night a fire was lit)
• Cedar Wood
• Stones and Rocks
• Paint
• Gems

So that a lighthouse doesn't interfere with any other lighthouse's effective range, and to avoid confusion, a lighthouse must not be built 500 meters / 1600 feet / 100 coordinates of another, and must be located along Nile River.

You will note that one of the resources required is Cedar Wood, which is not native to this region, but comes from Lebanon. To obtain this, you will need to construct a Byblos boat and go get your Cedar Wood. To build the boat, you will need various resources including:

• Bronze Finial (to which the ropes are tied to)
• Fulcrum (Rope)
• Anchor (Rocks served as anchors)
• Oars for steering and rowing (made from wood and treated boards)
• Sail (connected to the bipedal mast)
• Eye (decoration for the front, gems for this)
• Thick planks, lashed together with rope fed through mortises
• Reeds or Papyrus to caulk the seams
• Paint
• Close Set Dowels
• Bolts
• Thorny Acacia (gum, very much like Kyrenian Lotos)

This will, of course, use many different types of Rope.

In order to set sail, you will need to construct a harbor and labor. A harbor is capable of holding 10 boats. To construct a harbor, large numbers of resources including the following will be needed:

• Bricks
• Boards
• Wood
• Nails
• Iron works such as Rivets and Pins
• Rope

This stage should be targeted as a group project.

The boats need 30 people to row it. You will need to find 30 different people who will donate 1 hour* of Waypoint time to your project (similar to signatures, but instead of a signature, it will take 1 hour of waypoint from the donating person). Once 30 people donate 1 hour of WP to the project, you will be able to launch the boat.

(I say 1 hour, this is changeable to what people think would be an appropriate use such as 1 day?)

The boat will take a predetermined time to get to Lebanon and back, bring with it enough units to build one lighthouse.

'''Technical Notes:

• A lighthouse location can utilize the same mechanism that Papyrus planting uses.
• A lighthouse location will be checked with other lighthouses using the same method that raeli ovens use.'''

Feedback/Opinions/Questions

How do you pass the Test? -TheMazeEcho

this sounds like it will take a couple of months to pass - CJ-the-dj15

This has been my favorite test idea so far. The lighthouse idea is good, but is a bit like towers. And integrating the harbor and shipbuilding helps differentiate it, but then it begins to resemble the Mega. -Philly

A few comments -Pandemonis

That doesn't sound very fun as it is, although the flavour sounds really interesting.

A few random ideas to maybe make it more than just one expensive building.

• The lighthouse need a total of 7 different resources that are collected from 7 different places around the Mediterranean (and therefore you need 7 different kind of ships).
  • Building on this idea a bit, maybe as players build their own harbors along the sea, they find "This harbor trades in cedar," or "This harbor trades in cotton." Or maybe these could be the actual lighthouses the player builds, and the test could focus on how many different trade items they find. ~Sly-Hotep
• The length of the trip is directly proportional to the number of hours "injected" into the trip, with a cap.
• When Egypt makes contact with each of these trade ports, news spread of what they are buying this week (they will take orders until Sunday passes).
• Once a boat arrive her port of trade, the trade will occur during Sunday passes. The total of 100% of one resource needed to build the lighthouse will be distributed proportionally amongst the boats at port at this moment, according to the number of merchandises loaded in the boats. (IE, Byblos is selling 100 Cedar for Papyrus Paper; Ramses' boat holds 500 papyrus paper and Nefertiti's boat hold 2000 papyrus paper : once the boat return to Egypt, Ramses get 20 Cedar; Nefertiti get 80).
• The boat take as long to return as it took to go there.

• Building a full lighthouse gets you a zap.

Variations :

• A boat not holding the current request (if it took too long to go there, for example) will anchor in the trade port. It can be recalled to Egypt at any time, or stay there in case the demand for its merchandise reappear.
• Instead of being a fix cost to build a lighthouse, you can build of several sizes (à la cartouche), biggest lighthouse each week gets the zap.
• Different sizes of harbours can have small or larger trade navy.