Sanctuary of Ra

Sanctuary of Ra Test Proposal

Abstract

Ten individuals band together to construct a altar to glorify Ra, the sun god. Every three Egypt days, the altar is blessed by Ra and accumulates a number of sun points. After 72 days have passed, the altar becomes inactive and all of the points accumulated by it are divided evenly among the 10 protectors of the altar. But wait! The altar can also be a gateway to the evil god of chaos, Apophis. Players with sinister motives can perform an unholy sacrifice to Apophis at the altar once every 3 Egypt days to steal for themselves. It is up to the 10 protectors of the altar to defend the altar from these attacks, including constructing improvements to it.

Test Mechanics

Any player signed up for the test may construct an altar to Ra within a medium construction site. The base cost is:

• 3 Green Sun Marble
• 500 Clay Bricks
• 250 Blond, Fireproof, Hard, Pliable Boards
• 1 Sunstone cut Amunet
• 25 Wheat, any variety

This constructs a central structure, the most basic part of the altar. A note to the developer: Art assets are understandably a difficult part of programming and releasing new tests. Therefore, an existing structure that is already in use can be used for the sanctuary. This could be a funerary temple, ka tomb, library, throne (without the seat), etc, perhaps 'minimized' or modified in some simple way.

Blessing and Joining the Altar

After the altar is built, 9 more players must travel to and bless the altar. To bless the altar (the initial builder is not required to do this, only the other 9 people) select the option to "Glorify Ra from this altar". You will then be prompted to donate a gift to Ra from your inventory. You must donate 1 db of any non-complex item (like sand, flax, thorns, etc) that has not been donated to Ra before. If you try to donate an item that has already been donated to Ra in the past, he will be bored by it and you will have to try again, selecting a different resource from your inventory. Fortunately, the list of already donated gifts is reset at the beginning of each Egyptian year (Akhet I-1). Upon success, you will get a message saying that Ra is pleased with your donation and you are now considered one of the 10 protectors of the altar.

If 9 unique players do not bless the altar within 1 real-life week, the altar crumbles. After 9 unique players travel to and bless the altar, the altar becomes active and a message is posted to System that notes the active status and location of the altar. Thus, the location and intent of the altar is not a secret, everyone in Egypt will be aware it is active and where it is located. The original builder and the 9 nine players will now be referred to as the 10 protectors of the altar.

Every 3rd Egyptian day after the altar becomes active, the altar gains a certain number of Sun points. Initially, this number is 24 points, and each time thereafter the number decreases by 1 (next time, the altar would gain 23 points and so on). After 72 egyptian days, the altar would contain 300 Sun points under ideal conditions.

After these 72 Egyptian days have passed, the altar becomes inactive and the accumulated sun points in the altar become permanent personal Sun points which are divided evenly among the 10 protectors of the altar (fractions are rounded down. Each protector MUST receive the exact same number of sun points when the remaining points in the altar are divvied up this way.)

Of course, it is not quite so simple as to just build an altar and wait for the points to flow in. The god of chaos Apophis encourages the populace of Egypt to desecrate these altars to Ra and submit unholy sacrifices to him.

Mechanics of Stealing Sun Points

Any player may steal sun points from an active altar. The amount of points that they steal is dependent on how many upgrades have been made to the altar, whether or not the stealer is also a protector of the altar, or whether the stealer is the protector of another active altar.

When a player who is NOT a protector of the altar or any other active altar performs an unholy sacrifice at a basic non-upgraded altar, he or she steals 7 points from it. Each upgrade to the altar reduces that number by 1, to a minimum of 1 point (the altar can be upgraded a total of 6 times.)

If a protector steals points from his or her own altar, they only steal only 1 point for themselves no matter how many upgrades have been made to it – however, a total of 7 points are lost from the altar when this happens (again, upgrades do not protect against this, so it is especially painful when a protector betrays their own altar.)

If a player is a protector of an active altar and performs an unholy sacrifice at a different active altar, they will steal an extra point in addition to however many points they would normally steal from that altar.

If there are not enough points in the altar to be taken, the sacrificer takes as many as possible (the altar cannot go into negative points.)

Now onto the actual business of stealing points.

To perform an unholy sacrifice at an altar, a player must desecrate the altar first. To desecrate the altar, select the altar while having a sheep (male or female) and a Knife:Iron in your inventory. The option to desecrate will be selectable – doing so will consume the sheep from your inventory (but not the knife). The player will then receive an unholy vision with instructions for the sacrifice. The player will be asked to sacrifice 1 randomly selected resource from among the following:

• acid, arsenic, ash, basket of cobras, camel bones, chicken bones, clinker, cobra blood, cobra skin, cobra venom
• compost, crude oil, crushed egg shells, dung, gravel, gunpowder, ink, petroleum, powdered zirconium, blue moon
• puzzle granite, monkey marble, dead ant, quicksilver, rabbit bones, rotten fish, rotten flax, saltpeter, salt
• sand, sheep bones, sharpened stick, serpent cocktail, sulfur, tar, thorns, charcoal, volatile explosives, mud
• dirt, thoth's compound extract, ra's compound extract

To perform the sacrifice, he/she must select the altar and sacrifice the required item. After the sacrifce, the player must say into main, "Oh Apophis, Serpent of the Nile, receive my sacrifice." He must say this within 60 seconds of the sacrifice, or Apophis will not heed the sacrifice and no points will be stolen. If the player is successful, he receives a popup stating the number of points he has stolen. A player can perform a desecration and receive a vision once every 3 Egyptian days. He has 3 Egyptian days to complete the sacrifice, otherwise he must ask for a new sacrifice. He can only perform one sacrifice every 3 Egyptian days.

Mechanics of Upgrading and Defending the Altar

Naturally, the protectors of the altar do not wish to have their sun points stolen. They may construct upgrades to the altar which reduce the number of points stolen by outsiders with each unholy sacrifice. Upgrades can only be made to a currently active altar by the altar's own protectors. The upgrades expand the interior of the altar and culminate with an elaborate sanctuary. (another note here: these upgrades are for the internal structure and thus are not 'visible' on the outside, again in order to reduce art asset needs) The initial upgrades are not expensive, but the final ones can be quite costly. After an altar has become active, there are initially no points in it until after 3 Egyptian days have passed. It is advised that the protectors make upgrades to it during this period when there are not sun points available to steal. It is not necessary to upgrade the altar at all, if you have enough trust in your fellow Egyptians! Upgrade costs:

Upgrade 1 (Entryway)

• 3 Cherry Travertine
• 6 Lily of the sea bulbs, any type
• 1 Ribbon: Black
• 1 Ribbon: White
• 1 Ribbon: Gold

Upgrade 2 (Atrium)

• 10 Moss: Random 2 attribute moss
• 100 Black Fish Scales
• 20 Reddish Fish Scales
• 25 Blueish Fish Scales
• 10 Greenish Fish Scales
• 10 Yellowish Fish Scales
• 1 Whiteish Fish Scales
• 50 Wool Cloth
• 500 Dirt

Upgrade 3 (Common Room)

• 8 bottles of wine, with any fruit flavor
• 5 barrels of beer, any wheat flavors
• 1 Rock Spirits of Air
• 1 Wood Spirits of Fire
• 1 Grain Spirits of Water
• 1 Fruit Spirits of Earth
• 5 Citrus fruit of a random type
• 5 Citrus fruit of another random type

Upgrade 4 (Study)

• 500 Volatile, Termite-prone boards
• 500 Black, soft boards
• 500 White, soft boards
• 1 Quill
• 100 Ink
• 100 Papyrus Paper

Upgrade 5 (Library)

• 6000 Firebricks
• 3 Random 3-output gearboxes
• 1 Quill
• 100 Ink
• 100 Wood Paper
• 3 Mountain Marble
• 3 Fire Rock

Upgrade 6 (Sanctuary)

• 3 Blood Granite
• 3 Ghost Granite
• 3 Onyx
• 3 Angels Stone
• 1 Sunstone cut Ra's Lantern
• 1 Citrine cut Solarkin
• 20 Sun Steel Sheeting: Shiny, Insulative, Non-toxic Platinum-plated purity 5+

Any player may select the altar to see what upgrades have been added, a list of the 10 protectors, the total number of sun points the altar has accumulated, how many days longer the altar will remain active, and finally a list of all players who have performed unholy sacrifices at the altar.

Passing the Test

Passing begins weekly after the first altar has been built, become active, and finally become inactive. Passing continues weekly after that point. The player with the highest number of sun points passes the test each week. In the event of a tie, no players pass that week. No passes are retained - there must be exactly 1 player who has more points than anyone else for a pass to occur. Therefore, passing is not possible by simply participating passively in the construction and defense of a single altar: you will receive the exact same number of points as your co-defenders, and thus none of you can pass. In order to pass, you must either participate in the defense of several altars over time, steal points from another team's altar, or do the unthinkable and steal points from your own altar.

Principles of the Test

• Become a protector to an altar to Ra
• Obtain 1 sun point
• Perform a desecration (requires a sheep and an iron knife)

Note that you do not have to actually perform an unholy sacrifice to pass the principles, only perform the ritual that informs you what you NEED to do the sacrifice proper and steal points.

The Altar of Ra

A player may not be a protector of more than one altar at any given time. They must wait until their current altar becomes inactive or crumbles before building or joining another. After an altar has become inactive and points have been distributed, it crumbles. However, a fully upgraded altar (to the Sanctuary stage) does not crumble after becoming inactive. The altar remains in Egypt and can provide a number of benefits based on how successful the altar was during its run.

If the altar contained 0 sun points after 72 days (meaning all points were stolen or lost), it will be renamed "A Cursed Temple to Apophis". A player can meditate at this altar and receive a boost of +7 to one random stat, and a penalty of -7 to another random stat, which lasts 12 hours (rl). They can only do this once a day. The cursed temple should have another hidden effect that should be decided by the developer, and up to Egypt to discover.

If the altar contained 300 sun points after 72 days (meaning, no points were lost or stolen during the entire duration) it will be renamed "A Blessed Altar to Ra". A player can meditate at this altar and receive a boost of +1 to all stats, which lasts 12 hours (rl). They can only do this once a day. The blessed temple should have another hidden effect that should be decided by the developer, and up to Egypt to discover.

If the altar contained any other number of sun points after 72 days (between 1 and 299), it will simply be known as a "An Altar to Ra". A player can meditate at this altar and receive a hidden effect which is unique to each altar. The effect is randomly chosen when the altar becomes inactive from a pool of possible effects. These effects should be minor boosts decided by the developer and left up to Egypt to discover. Some possibilities:

• Guaranteed rabbit pelts for 24 hours upon slaughter
• No bees lost in apiaries for 24 hours
• Etc....

New Achievement for Fun

This test will add one new achievement to the game. This will be "Ra's Betrayer". This is awarded to the player who has completed the greatest number of unholy sacrifices. It is first awarded to player who completes 10 such sacrifices, and passes between players similarly to Pharaoh's acrobat/angler.