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Test of Dancing Waters

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Main Shard Bastet T5 Beta
Test of Dancing Waters
Discipline  
Requirements
Principles
  • Build a Dancing Waters Mechanism
  • Start the Mechanism, achieving at least 20% Mechanical Stress
  • Have Seven Judges rate your Fountain
  • Design rated Good by most judges
Demonstrated by in [[]] on .

Overview

Design an elegant water fountain using a variety of basins, nozzles and creative timing of effects.

This page contains information directly lifted from Tale 3, and has not yet been confirmed as accurate for Tale 4.
Please verify the accuracy of the data before removing this stub


First, build a Dancing Waters Mechanism, using a Small Construction Site. Then you can build basins nearby the Mechanism and install nozzles (which can be forged out of different metals) in the basins. Then the fun begins...

Basin and Nozzle Placement

Basins must be built within 8 coords of the control mechanism.

On the controller you have an option to "Adjust the Fountain." There's an overhead map of the area with the Basins and Nozzles shown as circles. As you rotate the camera, the map rotates.

  • Click on a Basin to configure that Nozzle.
  • Run to where you'd like the nozzle to aim. (The yellow dot is not very accurate.)
  • Click the "Aim Gentle" or "Aim Abrupt" button.

A nozzle can point to up to 10 different locations, a different location every second, and then the pattern repeats -- but only until the basin that it is installed in empties.

When the water level gets to 0, a nozzle shuts off. When the level gets to 10, the nozzle will turn on. You can change all those numbers from the "Config" button.

So if you want a particular nozzle to turn on when it's basin gets to 50, and turn off when it gets to 20, that's fine. You can change the length of the cycle from 10 seconds to some other number.

Design Interface

Lots to copy over yet from T3


Flow Rate and Mechanical Stress

There are two different limits that apply to fountains.

  • Water flow is the total amount of water that may be pumped at once. This corresponds to how much "stuff" is onscreen at once. That limit is in place so that nobody creates a fountain that lags everyone in the area severely.
  • Another limit is "mechanical stress." That measures how quickly the positions of all the nozzles change.(FYI: And corresponds roughly to how much bandwidth usage the fountain causes for those seeing it.)

Average Flow Rate for a nozzle is a measure of particle complexity. The Average Flow Rate reported by the controller has little to do with the amount of water you are moving around. Rather, it's all about particle count per frame. A Dirty Rain nozzle hammers your Average Flow Rate while Misty Bubbles moves the same amount of water with 1/9th the particle count. On the other hand, a Dirty Rain water jet is opaque, while you can barely see a Misty Bubbles water jet. You get what you pay for.

Flow Rate was tested by adding individual nozzles in a small basin. Single nozzles were tested at 100 periods for precision. The total is linear with the number of periods for each type of nozzle. The Average Flow Rate is anything but average. The Average Flow Rate for the controller is actually the total of the particle complexity of each type of nozzle times the number of periods defined for that nozzle.

Mechanical Stress for a single nozzle in a basin is always 33.4% (two nozzles will work but not three if there's any movement at all) regardless of the water jet target, footprint, or height. Complex water level calculations (when a lot of basins are catching water) also increases the Mechanical Stress level. The factors are the number of nozzles per basin and the total number of nozzles that are Turned-on concurrently.

Build Costs

Dancing Waters Mechanism

Built in a Small Construction Site.

  • 200 Cut Stones to lower water table
  • 100 Concrete for basic mechanism
  • 40 Glass Pipes for delicate control
  • 2 Copper Pipes for main inflow and outflow
  • 1 random 3-output gearbox

Note: The Mechanism can not be too close to another one, as it will not let you access it. Currently known 14,8 coords is too close.

Basins

Each basin is built in a separate Small Construction Site.

Size Copper Pipe Cut Stone Tar Diameter Image
Small 10 30 15 8 ft. (0.5 coords)
Medium 20 60 30 12 ft. (0.75 coords)
Large 30 90 45 16 ft. (1 coord)
Huge 40 120 60 20 ft. (1.25 coords)


Nozzles

Nozzles are made in a Casting Box.

Name Metal Beeswax Minutes Ave. Flow Rate Image
Crystal Fog 1 Brass 1 10 1.75
Dirty Rain 1 Copper 1 10 9.24
Foggy Shower 1 Copper 1 10 3.52
Light Rain 1 Bronze 1 20 3.50
Misty Bubbles 1 Brass 1 10 1.07
White Shower 4 Brass 4 30 2.45


Related Links