Guilds/Obelisk Construction Guild/Updated Aperio

The Obelisk Construction Guild aim to provide an open forum for the discussion and co-ordination for the building of Obelisks in the region of Shabbat Ab. All residents are welcome to join the discussion.

Due to the increase of the time required to pass the Test of the Obelisk to one Egypt Week (2 days 8 hours in realtime) the previous system of using queues has become unusable. When using the queue, new players will need to wait 3 months or more to build. This leads to players deciding to do it alone and ignore the queue system.

Proposal made by Aperio

Aperio, one of the Guild Elders, made a proposal for the values of the Guild and how to proceed. This proposal was accepted by the members of the guild on 2 January 2009. The original text of the proposal is still available.

Core values

1. Provide an open forum to discuss the coordinate the building of Obelisks in Shabbat Ab.
2. Open to all Shabbat Ab residents
3. No citizen of Egypt is more worthy to build than any other.
4. Citizens who have been part of the organized guild should receive consideration for having waited (over holdouts and new players).

Overview

The Test of the Obelisk is an Architecture test that requires the Consent of your peers to pass because your obelisk must stand for 7 Egypt days (or 2 1/3 real time days). It will require at least the cost of the obelisk (plus construction site) to pass, however if it is overbuilt before the pass, these materials are lost and a second (or third) obelisk will be required, each at higher cost as it must be bigger that the overbuild.

• In a truly disorganized build environment, build rights go to the biggest bully on the block with less industrious players not only having to rebuild but having to rebuild at exorbitant costs because the bullies will try to protect their builds with large skips in build size.
• In a semi-organized build environment (as is typically provided by the queue system), build rights are assigned to an arbitrary builder generally based upon a first-come; first-serve policy which doesn't start with an equitable order assignment, does not ensure the next builder is ready to build, nor does it offer protection other than anger and indignation against the biggest bully model.
• In an organized build environment, as proposed be the guild, equitable assignment of building rights, ensure that the assigned builder is ready to build quickly by securing the materials in advance, and offer protection against the biggest bully by distributing the risk of having to overbuild among its members making the burden of competing against the rogue builder negligible for the member.
  • As an incidental benefit of being sanctioned by the largest minority (or even majority) of the region's citizens, passes by rogue builders can be stopped, thus deterring these rogue builders trying to usurp the consensual build system.
  • This is a benevolent bully system. In order to deter rogue builders, it will be required to prematurely overbuild them. However it is still up to the mutual consent of the members of the guild to overbuild.

Issues

During the drafting of these values, some issues were identified. Various options were identified, but after discussion the following solutions were sanctioned by general consent by the guild:

• How do we select the next builder?
  • Weighted Lottery - Prospective builders are selected by lottery. Members are assigned entry to the lottery based on their readiness to build the next size Obelisk. Members that has been ready to build for previous build rounds are alocated extra entries to the lottery.
• What happens if the selected builder is prematurely overbuilt?
  • The selected builder is entitled to rebuild. The guild will provide materials from guild stores to assist the builder.
• How does the guild assemble materials for guild hall expansions, obelisk builds, and obelisk rebuilds?
  • Guild Hall Expansions - New members pay a nominal association fee
  • Obelisk Builds - The selected builder already deposited the materials required to enter the Lottery. The Guild return these materials to the builder to build his/her Obelisk.
  • Obelisk Rebuilds - The Guild provide these materials, drawn from the guild stocks. See below for how these stocks are secured.

Build Right Lottery

• To enter the lottery a member must deposit materials. These materials are to be used to build and if required, to rebuild the Obelisk for this round. Any materials not used this round will stay in the Guild in the name of the contributing member and will go towards his entry for the next round.
• Each time a member enters the lottery, he/she take the risk to losing some of his/her materials in case of a rebuild. This is acknowledged by giving that member multiple entries in subsequent lotteries.
  • If a member previously qualified for 2 lotteries and has now qualified for the current round, he/she will have 3 entries.
  • If a member does not qualify for the current round, but did qualify for previous round(s), he/she will not take part in the current lottery, however the previous entries will still be counted for any future rounds.
• For each lottery, the participants will be announced and ordered alphabetically with multiple entries being ordered sequentially (i.e. taking up 2 or more spots). Each entry will be assigned a number starting with 0 and the total number of entries will be announced.
• The lottery will run as follows:
  • A short period will be announced on the Guild Chat for the lottery. (An elder will say 'GO' and an arbitrarily period later 'STOP'.)
  • During this period anyone in the guild can call out a number between 1 and the number of entries.
  • All these numbers will be added together and divided by the number of tickets. The remainder is the number used to select the winning ticket.
    • Eg.: There are 15 qualifying entries. The numbers 12, 10, 7, 3 and 9 are called out between the 'GO' and 'STOP'. The total is 41 divided by 15 gives 2 with a remainder of 11, thus entry 11 is the winner.

Costs

All contributions are non-refundable.

• Initiate: All players are welcome to apply for membership. Memberships are accepted as space is available to the guild.
• Associate: Initiates must provide 250 boards, 500 bricks or they may be dropped from the guild at the guild's discretion. Once the fees has been paid the Initiate will be promoted to Associate.
  • WHY? Initiation materials are used to expand the guild hall ensuring a spot for the next member.
• Member: Associates must build a chest (NOT a box) in the guild compound and provide the materials to build a 7-cubit desert obelisk, and turn the chest over to a guild elder (to be transfered to the guild, assigned proper permissions, and probably re-arranged as described later).
  • 231 Bricks
  • 23 Boards
  • 24 Clay
  • 3 Dried Flax
  • 1 Flint
  • 7 Linen
  • 5 Slate
  • WHY? These materials are a token expression of interest in the test. Depositing these materials allow you to have a say in the running of the guild and give voting rights in matters that require a vote.
  • These materials also represent an emergency reserve against which the guild can draw for a rebuild. Materials may be used by the guild causing this deposit to drop below the levels above, however that will not affect membership status. (See below)
  • To enter the Lottery the member will add materials to these initial contribution.
• Lottery Entry: A member must MAINTAIN enough materials to build the next larger obelisk (current size +2) in his/her assigned chests (which may be moved around as the requirements will exceed the capacities of chests quickly) This allows the member to compete in the lottery.
  • The material requirement for Lottery Entry will be listed on a sign in the guild hall
  • If no rebuild is required, the member will keep his entry materials, however to qualify for a next lottery the member will likely have to supply additional materials, as the Obelisk size will be higher.
  • If a rebuild is required, materials from these deposits may be used by the guild. This cost will be distributed amongst all the Lottery Entrants, thus limiting the impact on the individual, but the member will still have to supply additional materials to qualify for the next Lottery
    • WHY? By opting into the Build Lottery the member is embarking upon building an Obelisk which, as described above, is a risky venture. The member is agreeing to share this risk even if he/she lose the lottery and these materials are the first line of defense if the designated builder must rebuild.
• Builds: The winning entrant have already provided the materials as part of his entry to the Lottery. These will be used to build the Obelisk.
• Rebuilds: The guild will provide the materials to rebuild, spreading the risk amongst the other entrants. (like insurance, you have already paid your premium).

Summary (What must I do)

• Provide 250 boards and 500 bricks to advance to associate to justify your spot in the obelisk community.
• Build a chest in the guild building with materials for a 7-cubit obelisk to justify your voice in the obelisk community.
  • This chest must be transfered to an Elder to be guilded.
• Maintain the materials in your chest(s) in the guild building for the next obelisk build to justify your build intent in the obelisk community
  • It may be required to build more chest to store the extra materials. The Guild Elders will provide instructions.
• Be ready to build (and rebuild if required) your obelisk if you win the lottery.