The Monument Guide

The Monument Guide

DON'T PANIC

There's loads of time before the monuments become available for building. We haven't dug out the old ones yet(Done), and no one has gotten Christmas presents(Done and done).
So you'll have plenty of time to read this, whenever you feel like it.

I'm writing this because I was the lead Oracle of Arch in T5, and there was loads I was confused about. So this is here to help future Oracles, and supporters.
I've attempted to write it so that as supporter you really only need to read the supporter part, and as Oracle you only need to read the Oracle part. But feel free to read it all, and of course improve it if you can :-)

Concepts

Monument Chat

Each monument construction site will have a chat, so the supporters can chat with each other, and coordinate efforts.

The Oracle

You've got the toughest job of them all. You've probably got to coordinate any voting on test ideas. Coordinate the donations. Manage who gets what position in the monument. Get all positions filled, and get everyone to come back and confirm support. But don't worry, we'll take it step by step.

Finding the Oracle

In some of the disciplines there will be plenty of people that have reached the rank of Oracle. In many cases people do not wish to lead the monument, but if there are multiple applicants for the job, there's usually a vote for the job.
In other disciplines only one player reaches the rank, then that person is the natural lead for the monument, and will have to take on the mantle of leadership. If they choose not to, no monument can be built...

Voting

This is usually done by choosing a Oracle that does not want to lead the monument(vote handler). A voting period is decided, and anyone that wants to vote chats the vote handler and expresses their vote.
The vote handler then notes the vote in a spreadsheet, and returns a voting number to the person that voted.
After the vote has ended the votes are posted to the wiki, with the voting number associated with the vote. That way each voter can check that their vote is correct, and the votes are anonymous.

Finding the test proposal

This is done in much the same way as finding the Oracle. If there's only one proposal, then that is picked. If there's more a vote is usually performed, in the same way as with the Oracle.
Test proposals can be made through the entire tale, and discussed through the entire tale. And it's very nice to have the test proposal in place, before construction of the Monument begins. You'll see why this is later.

Building the Monument

When you reach the rank of Oracle in your discipline, you usually get the option to build a Monument construction site(If Teppy has it ready). (If you're Oracle of Arch, you get the option to build a Pyramid of Many Wonders, even though it's not opened yet).
When you've built the site, don't panic, it'll say that you can remove your support as initiate. DON'T. It's an error in the Monument code, don't worry about it. And most important of all, don't remove your support. If you do, you'll loose the Monument chat, and it'll have to be restored by Teppy.
At first there's not much you can do, except loading the "brief test description" into the monument. And when you've done that, you CAN'T change it again. So either you have to have the proposal ready, or you can put in a dummy text. Something along the lines, "The full test proposal can be found in the full description". Because you'll get to load the full text when you've finalized the brief text.
When you finalize the "brief test description" you'll get the needed materials list. This is the list that everyone will be eager to see, so they can get started on gathering the materials. And you'll be able to input and finalize the "full test description".
Your supporters won't be able to confirm their support on the Monument, before the "full test description" is finalized. So it's nice to have the test text decided before building the monument.
Now the monument construction site has a timer of 30!!! days. You might think that is a lot, trust me, it is not! So you'll have to pay attention to the next part. Because you're able to reset the timer. Whenever an item needed for the monument is loaded, the timer resets. So consider not loading the last 100 of something, until you've got all the support you need. That way you'll also have time to plan a completion party and sleep properly at night ;-)

Getting supporters

The Monument needs support. Exactly 1 Oracle, 2 Sages, 4 Masters, 8 Scribes, 16 Journeymen, 32 Prentices and 64 Students. A total of 127 people need to support the monument. When the monument is completed, they don't have to be paid. They don't even have to be paid when they support, so if Teppy decides to hold a welcome back weekend, during Monument construction, it might be a good idea to be ready at the Monument, to accept supporters so they can confirm right away.
Now, you'll be getting people that are Oracles applying, but there's only 1 Oracle spot. Don't worry, when you accept them you can put them in whatever slot you have free positions. You can even put them as Students. And if you try to add too many of one kind, the Monument will complain and not let you do it.
At some point you'll notice that people are not flocking to your site to support. This is not because they don't want to support, but because they're lazy, or not online particularly often. And at some point you'll have to start advertising in all microphones about the monument. Don't worry about it, it has to be done and every lead Oracle does it. So just start it right away.
And you can have a waiting list, when all positions are filled, it's still possible to apply.

Getting them back!?!

When you've finalized the full test description, all your supporters have to come back and confirm. Yes ALL.
This means that anyone who have quit or expired, can't help you. And you'll have to find replacements. But fortunately you can boot people from the monument. You've got the power ;-)
So at some point you'll have to start chatting people, asking them to get back to the monument. At some point you'll probably have to threaten with booting them, so you can accept others into the site.
In extreme cases Oracles have been known to extract the entire system logs, to find active players that have passed tests. I sincerely hope you don't have to do that, because it's quite a long process.

PARTYYYYY

When you're finally done, and you've got the energy, you can plan a party for the completion of the Monument.
The Monument is complete, when all materials have been loaded and all supporters have confirmed, including the Oracle. So if you want to control when it's finished, you can either wait with confirming, or wait with loading the last materials(set usage option to private/oracle).
And when you finish it, there should be music, a notice in system, and the monument should appear. That is, in theory. I have yet to see a site that actually does this, Teppy haven't been that good at getting this to work, even though he has had 5 tales to try it ;-)

The Supporters

As supporter you have an easier job than the Oracle, but there's still a lot you can do to help out.

What can you do?

Contributing Materials

The Monument will be needing a lot of different materials, and often it will be stuff that is hard to come by.
Normally the Oracle or someone else will post the list of needed materials on the wiki, so keep an eye out for that.

Supporting the Monument

The Monument will need 127 different supporters, the following is needed: 1 Oracle, 2 Sages, 4 Masters, 8 Scribes, 16 Journeymen, 32 Prentices and 64 Students.
The way to show support is simple. Run to the Monument construction site, click it, and offer support. You then get the option to add support as the rank you have achieved in the discipline, plus all ranks below it. Choose the best one, even if it is Oracle. The Oracle can put you at the slot that is needed on the Monument, so don't worry about the rank you pick.

Confirming support

When the description of the test that is to be stored is decided, it will be loaded into the monument. After that all supporters will have to return to the Monument, to confirm support. It happens that people remove support, if they don't want to support the test. But it is considered bad form, as the decision is usually made through a vote.