Test of Magnificent Gardens

Summary (This is a Legacy Test that was placed on the T7 Monument of Architecture)

Show off your building prowess by building a magnificent towering garden. Enlarge your garden, and maintain its flora to impress all of Egypt. The largest blooming garden that stands in all of Egypt will noted as being "magnificent", and the owner of such a garden will gain points towards passing the test the longer their garden holds the title of "magnificent". The player with the highest score will pass the test each week.

Flow of the test

First, the main frame for the garden must be constructed. This houses the holding area for water and fertilizers, and has a limited amount of space for growing flowers. After the garden has been built, it will be in a state of "growing". This is to allow the flora to settle in and stabilize. After 24 duck-hours, the state will change to "blooming".

Once in the blooming state, a garden must be maintained. The supply of water and flower fertilizer will slowly deplete. They can be refilled to max as often as desired (and permission to maintain can be set to allow others to help with this chore). Refilling the garden takes equal amounts of water and flower fertilizer, which must be added together at once in the same amount. If the garden runs out of fertilizer and water, the flowers will begin wilting! The flowers will lose their vibrancy, and the garden will enter the "wilting" state. If this happens, fertilizer and water must be added again, and the state will enter back to the "growing" stage, and thereafter return to the "blooming" stage 24 duck-hours later. Only a garden in the blooming state can hold the title of "magnificent" and earn points towards passing the test.

A garden in the blooming state can also be expanded. Choosing to expand it will allow room for more plants. Expansion costs do NOT scale with size, but are a fixed amount for each size increase. The actual garden will change in size slowly as you expand it - a size 1 garden is about the size of a thistle garden, but a size 1000 garden is as large as a people's pyramid. To expand, materials for more flower beds as well as the flowers themselves are added. The initial structure is made with sea lilies, but you can choose which of the four flower types to use when expanding. Also, the garden can be expanded by 1 to 10 sizes at a time, but no more. (over expansion can stress the soil and the flora already planted).

Once the building expansion has finished, the garden re-enters the "growing" state, and will take 24 duck-hours for the flora to stabilize. (thus, many small expansions will take much more time to complete than one larger expansion).

Scoring

All blooming gardens are judged against each other according to their size. The largest garden in Egypt will have the status of "Magnificent". There must be at least 8 gardens built in Egypt before the title of "Magnificent" begins to be awarded after the test is opened. If there is a tie for the largest garden, the garden that has been expanded the most number of times will be the one to hold the title of "Magnificent". For example, consider if the two largest gardens are size 50: if garden A reached size 50 in 5 expansions of 10, and garden B did it in 10 expansions of 5, garden B would be the winner. If still in such a case there is a tie, then the garden that has been expanded the most evenly among the four flower types would be the most magnificent (in other words, the garden with the least variance among flower types would win). In the incredibly unlikely event that there is still a tie, no garden will be considered magnificent until a higher size is reached in Egypt. At any point, if a garden in Egypt blooms larger than the current largest garden, the title of "magnificent" will be transferred to the new, larger garden. When a garden holds this title, the owner of the garden will gain 1 point towards their score for each 30 duck-minutes the garden retains that title (they must hold the title for at least 30 minutes to get the 1st point). Points are cumulative over time!

Note: It is only during a blooming state that a garden is eligible to become "Magnificient" and earn points. If a garden "wilts" or is expanded (thus becoming "growing"), it will lose this title, and the next largest garden will gain that status. Furthermore, a garden in the "wilting" state will actually cause the owner to lose points - they will lose 1 point for every 24 duck-hours the garden remains in the wilted state (you lose points much more slowly than you gain them, but this allows players who start the test later to catch up with older players who are only half-halfheartedly participating). You may have only 1 garden to your name at one time; if you tear down your garden you lose ALL points you have accumulated. It is not possible to have negative points.

The garden score will be displayed on the garden information for anyone to see. However, there will be no skill introduced to allow players to check the size of other gardens in their area (like meditation on obelisk sizes does currently). Thus, the only way to get a feel for the competition is to roam around and look, or simply build large enough to claim the status of "Magnificent".

After passing the test, your garden is not longer eligible to claim the 'magnificent' title and you cannot continue earning points or pass the test again. However, the garden you built will be blessed by the Sun God Ra and will no longer wilt or cause you to lose points, so that you can continue to proudly display your winning garden as part of your camp decoration.

Passing

The player with the largest point total in Egypt passes each week, with some stipulations.

1. They must have accumulated at least 300 points in order to be eligible for passing (in other words, they must have held the "Magnificent" title for at least 150 duck-hours, which is approximately 1 rl week)
2. They must have accumulated at least half of the points the last winner of the test had, unless they are the 1st person in the telling to pass the test.

The above stipulations ensure that those participating put forth some minimal effort to show they are a good gardener, in the event that the test becomes non-competitive due to lack of participation, say late in the telling.

Garden Maintenance

Each Garden only has a limited amount of storage for water and fertilizer for its plants, so the larger the garden is built, the faster these resources will be depleted! Thus, these stocks will need to be filled more frequently the larger the garden is built.

The garden can be loaded with up to 500 water and flower fertilizer. There is an optional upgrade to the garden that expands this to 3000.

The option to refill these resources can be set to "anyone" to allow others to help with this chore. These resources can be placed into the garden, but cannot be taken out. If the water and fertilizer level runs out, the garden will enter the 'wilting' state, and must be restocked with water and fertilizer, causing it to return to the 'growing' state for 24 hours and thereafter the 'blooming' state. Remember that a garden cannot earn the title of magnificent and gain points for its owner if it is in the wilting or growing state.

At size 1, the initial 500 flower and fertilizer stocks will last one real life week. The rate at which the garden consumes water/fert increases gradually with expansion so that at size 100, it consumes 500 per RL day. From size 100 the rate of consumption doubles as the garden size doubles. At size 200 or higher, the 500 water/fert will last 12 rl hours, at size 400 6 rl hours, and so forth.

Construction Costs

Main Frame

300 clay bricks
30 cut stone
300 dirt
120 nails
500 termite resistant, rotproof, volatile boards (for trellising and bed construction)
30 rope (for trellising)
10 silver bowls (decorative bowls for planting)
21 copper pipes (for irrigation)
2 small barrels (for water and flower fertilizer storage)
7 sea lilies (any type)
14 papyrus seeds
14 grape vines (any type)
21 flax seeds (any type)

This will produce a size 1 garden. After building, the water and flower fertilizer levels will be zero, and must be filled within 24 duck-hours to prevent withering.

Expanding the size of the garden

When you expand the garden, you must select which type of flower you adding. (Example menu items: "Expand this garden with Roses of Ra" etc.) Expansion costs will depend on how much you decide to expand and are NOT based on the current size of the garden. Each expansion of "1" costs:

3 flower bulbs (the type depends on which flower type you are expanding with)
7 papyrus seeds
3 grape vines (any type)
3 flax seeds (any type)
3 copper pipes (for irrigation)
10 dirt
3 clay mortars
50 termite resistant boards
10 clay bricks

Remember, expansion steps can be anywhere from 1 size larger to 10 sizes larger all at once, therefore the above costs can be multiplied by up to 10 for the expansion. You cannot expand your garden if you have passed the test.

Adding an semi-automated watering system

You may optionally choose to install an expensive steam-powered automation fertilization system to your garden to reduce the burden of keeping it watered and fertilized. This upgrade will change the capacity of water/fertilizer to 3000, effectively letting you go 6 times as long without refilling the water/fert. You will still need to refill before the amount reaches zero in order to prevent your garden from wilting. This is optional and has a small negative effect: the garden is a little less attractive in the eyes of the pharaoh and thus will only gain 1 point per 45 minutes, instead of 30, while it holds the "Magnificent" title. After installing this upgrade, you can choose to remove it from the garden via the menu, which will reduce the capacity back to 500. This does not return your materials. The costs for this upgrade are:

1 small steam engine
25 Sun Steel Sheeting: tarnished, plastic, non-toxic
25 ?? Sheeting: ductile, non-toxic
5 Lubricating oil
20 platinum medium gears
10 thoth's metal straps
5 ghost granite
1 cistern

Garden Statistics

Selecting your garden or anyone else's will provide the following information:

The current garden's size, score, and state
The current water/fertilizer level (this does not show for passed garden)
If the garden is "magnificent" or previously passed the test
How many times the garden has been expanded with each flower type (ex: "This garden has been expanded with Sea Lilies 4 times",etc.)

As an example, here is what a theoritical garden's stats could be:

This is a blooming garden size 41, with a score of 300
This garden has already passed
This garden has been expanded with Sea Lilies 3 times, Roses of Ra 1 time, Sand Blooms 0 times, and Orchids 1 time

How did the garden above reach those stats? There are a number of possibilities, but one would be if it had been expanded in the following manner: Sea Lilies size 10, roses of ra size 9, orchids size 10, sea lilies size 1, sea lilies size 10. It then was declared 'magnificent' at size 41 and held that title for 150 duck-hours, and then passed the test during weekly passes.