User:GHawkins/ThoughtTest2

The Test of the Engineer

Egypt, our marvelous devices run not just on charcoal and petroleum, but on the ingenuity and genius of its citizens. You are hereby tasked to challenge one another to build gearboxes of astounding complexity and strive to meet the requirements set forth by your fellows with a minimum of resources.

Summary

The test designer creates a valid gearbox, which then has random ranges appended to it. Participants then try to build a gearbox that meets the requirements of these ranges, either as well as or more efficiently than the original designer.

Setup

Designers build an Engineering Table (which looks remarkably like a Gearbox Assembly Table) and then lay out a set of gears into a valid gearbox. The speed of the outputs then have a small randomization applied and then a range added to be similar to a typical gearbox challenge.

For instance, perhaps all outputs will randomly have a range from 5-20% be added and subtracted from their original values.

Hence, if the designer created a gearbox with outputs of A-463 D-463 G-231, once opened the Engineering Table might call for:

A: 393-512 (15.12% below the original value, 10.58% above the original value) D: 420-550 (9.39% below the original value, 18.79% above the original value) G: 200-264 (13.42% below the original value, 14.29% above the original value)

Scoring

In addition to the test itself, a new skill should be created: Engineering Prowess.

Your Prowess score is raised by building gearboxes at Engineering Tables at a lower cost than both the creator and Egypt's average for that particular gearbox. Cost is calculated as 1 point for each Small Gear, 5 points for each Medium Gear, and 50 points for each large gear.

The reason that Egypt's average needs to be included is to prevent deliberately wasteful puzzles from being able to increase everyone's prowess score; participants need to excel even above the talent of the average Egyptian working on these puzzles.

Construction Cost Suggestion

One or two 2 output gearboxes, sprocket cut gems, a handful of gears, treated boards.