Abedju:

No peasants are allowed to use the ferry in this city:ferry are usually the speed killer and should be avoided in any of the monument construction scenarios,they will also lower the efficiency of farming as the the game assigns the peasants randomly from workcamps,and camps choose the closest farm as their first target--that "close" is in the means of "as the crow fly".--so I gave up the small farming land on the west bank,and built 25 farms on the northern flood plain and the land near the marsh(share a bridge with the reed gatherers).They are supported by 13 workcamps(a side note,workcamps can generate 4 peasants each month,to ensure maxinum output of farms,more camps is always better).

To speed up the constuction,I've built 30 brickworks,and not importing any bricks before all 16000 clay annual import had been made-that need some micro at the end of each year-and brick import got priority in the last year because I'd already have enough clay to support the brickworks.

Abedju is very easy,from current point of view.

Some data:

Population: 4640(should be 4760,43 common residences in large 8-block on the west bank,which is similar to the block in reply #4,smaller and only 5 space wide for the inner loop,a 15 elegant residences one in the north)
Final city fund:27318
Score:19931

Saqqara:

Saqqara is also quite streight forward:establish a big population(2000+) as quickly as possible-before the construction begins,since the stone hauling needs about 34-36 months,you should have all things ready in about 18 months.

To speed up the populations growth,fast food is needed:that means hunting:in an ideal situation(not animal pen),each lodge can harvest 6500-7500 meat each year.To reach that productivity,that need:1.Onelodge for each herd,and place it at a proper distance to the herd--about 8 tiles,too close to the herd will kill the prey too quickly,and the hunters will wander away if there are multiple herds on the map,this is also the reason for one lodge per herd.a storage yard very close to the lodge-the number of hunters sent out equals to the mumer of free space(hundreds) in the lodge(no more than 3).2.Cover the immediate north of the herd with buildings(not gardens!),that's because of animals moving patterns:they always trying to go northward,then wander clockwisely back to the original breeding ground.I've used all four herd on the map,they ensure that all houses had received food in 10-15 months(the production level was about 5000 each lodge/year-I was able to sell meat right from the begining,a good trade considering the investment).

Meadow farming was started quite late,when I had labour to spare,the consequence was,one manors(from 20!) and two fancy residences(from 47) devolved to common residence in the last few months--I should have payed some respects to Bast,the lesson was taken in the folowing city,Meidum.

To support the huge construction cost without going into debt(bailout was taken),quick money are also needed:that came from the 4 gold mines on the eastern island (with the help of Ptah's TC ).Other exports were kept at mininium: only some papyrus and linen.The dock is located on the central island which is very close to the entry point,so that I won't have to micromanage trade.

Nothing particular about pyramid construction,the site layout is a mixture of Nero Would and Cartouche Bee's,the difference is,I didn't use feeder houses,labour access were provided by the two main housing blocks.

Scoreboard:

Population:6154 -20 spacious manors,47 fancy residences,4 spacious homesteds(not enough time to evolve them into residences--the supply of beer and papyrus was tight).
City fund:20501
Prosperity:97--will reach 100 in the next quarter.
Culture:15!--only enough to ensure housing evolution.
Score:22220

The ultimate time for Saqqara should be 50-54 months,even debt is allowed.

Meidum

I've spent more time in doing Meidum,so there are more details.

Before starting buiding it,I did some test first(quite a lot):1.to see how many months will be needed for the base preparation and how many camps needed to achieve a decent speed.2.checking out the months needed for stone hauling and the number of quarries needed to make it runing smoothly.3.the productivity of flood plain farms,especially the first year(the reason will be descibed below).4.the pattern of 2x2 houses and time for the first three population milestones.

The relevant results are:1.need 11-12 months with 18 workcamps(which CB's save).2.108-110 months with CB's setup,but can be improved to under 100 months by moving the pyramid closer to the quarries(some of the quarries are too far from the construction site in Bee's save)--and the first 12 courses need a supply of 500+ blocks of stone each year.3.16 flood plain farms with two camps can produce ~5000
grain in the first season and ~11000 in th following years.There is also the possibilty of a blessing from Osiris...

So,there are the strategies:

a.Housings and food supply

Build three big housing blocks in the centre of the map,one 36 stately manor block,a 45-50 fancy residence block and a 60 comon or fancy residence block.there will be a small CR block near the entry to attract early migrants and supplying labour access for the construction site.There will be 3 groups of feeder houses in the mining area ,the islands and east bank,but they will also be common residences.

The three big blocks will get food from the three farming season and some imports(grain),the flood plain farms will be abandoned since year 3 till the pyramids has been finished(the end).The manor block will be fed first(fewer number of hhouses),they will be held at shanty level before all houses are stocked at least some fish.it won't get any food in the following years,except from Bast.The same rountine apply to the fancy residence block,they will receive grains in the second year and fish in the fourth year.It will be allowed to by some grain if the timing of Bast's blessing is not ideal.The biggiest one will receive food from the third and doubled harvest,they will not eat fish until the second block had been fully stocked.

Meadow farms will be started when population is big enough,and manor evlovement has been finished.The small block will get food when the big three have fully stocked. The restock of houses are mostly in Bast's hand.

Some granaries will be built late in the game,to raise the tolerence level of high taxes

b.Construction optimizing

One of the major discovery from the tests is,carpenter is the cause of the delay in constructing the upper levels:I was confused for a long time about the strange phenomenon of a late-last mason,he will travel in the streets for a long time while others are climbing the stairs,sometime even after the first few sledge teams.Now I know that he is waiting for the carpenter to finish the stairs--won't start climbing before that.So,the carpenters should be put closest to the stepping tile.

The second discovery is,the number of workcamps needed for hauling stones should be determined by the number of stones waiting at the gate of the "main" storage yard,not as the usual idea of 2 times of the number of masons(for the upper and smaller courses,it is still 1/2 ratio).According to my tests,the number of workcamps needed for the first 12 levels is at 16-17 range,more than that won't have a better result(if not worse).The reason is,too many peasants will empty the main SY too quickly,although there are about 6-8 "virtual loads" waiting to fill the main SY,and there should be some time(3 days to a week) for the workcamps to generate new peasants for the secondary SY.

The other decision made from the tests is,even the 72 quarries from Bee's setup is not enough for the 17camp/13 mason setup(13 masons is 1/2 optinium for the first 6 courses),I have to creat some virtual quarries(emptying SYs)to keep up the speed--I've used 13 such SYs during the run(but "only" 64 quarries).Why not start hauling earlier and allow some delay during the process?The answer is,the time needed for clearing the base is quite long and you cannot build all the buildings(e.g.camps and quarries) at a time,they can always be added gradually(the base was finished in the 37th month into the game).--I've also considered using "Brugle's SYs" to improve the mining efficiency,but that's not possible in the early years--where can I find the 32000 units to fill these SYs?!

The actually run is quite decent:no delays due to the unconsistancy of stone supply,and no significant gap between the sledge teams(there are 20+ teams at a time!).The whole proccess used 94 months,which is beyond my expectations(which is 96 months).

c.Industry and trading

I found that Cartouche Bee had made several wise decisions on that issue as the reed/papyrus industry,wood setup,and not trading bricks,so what I did was made some fine tunes on them.The major difference was I decided to trade less pottery(only when there are too many),and more papyrus,the later decision may not be very good because that interfers the fish import(need reed import which comes from the same city of Behdet) and need some micros on trading in some years.

The final result is quite ideal:the manor and fancy residence blocks are all successfully evolved and being stable under the benevelence of Bast,although for one time,she made a just-in-time blessing and the manor block was on the brink of collapse.Besides of that,the time is also very close to the possible limit.

Some data:

15425 population(all residences and above,they are 36 stately manors,57 fancy residences and 77 common residences)

Final fund:338,665 deben(100+K annual tax from 20% rate,25-26k from export)

Prosperity:100(of course)
Culture:50 (no more possible)
Kingdom:57 (lost one from debt)
Score: 126,490
City centiment: people love me (dropped from idolize in the last two years when I raised the tax rate from 17 to 20)

81 soldiers(3/3 infantry/archers-forget about the last infantry company for two years,otherwise there will be 96)

I'll submit the three cities to the downloads,not because of the new record,but also of the new housing blocks:they are newly invented wheels

[This message has been edited by Plebus (edited 05-06-2002 @ 06:30 PM).]

50 fancy residence block ("L" blcok)

I've built 45 in the real city,some of the tiles were used by shines to boost desire(near the quarries),and it had two tax collectors.

(These blocks are so big that I can oly post one in each post!)

[This message has been edited by Plebus (edited 05-08-2002 @ 06:39 AM).]

I stick to the 50 or 52 tiles "safe" length for each of the loop,but they can be bigger.The two tax office are needed to ensure 100% tax are collected(it seems tax collector should visit each house twice in half a year).

[This message has been edited by Plebus (edited 05-08-2002 @ 06:42 AM).]

The idea of multi-loop block came from the P-Olymics scenario of Harmanat,while I used a "windmill" design to let the water carrier to cover the four branches.As I stopped playing Pharoah since then,I was not able to use the idea in the game,until recently,I used it in the big C3 cities:it's major advantage is obvious:less services buildings and more houses.

I was intended to use the "Crofix"(4 branches) or "T"(three branches) at first,because from the C3 experience I know that these setup is more stable than a two branch one,since all C3/pharaoh walkers have the natural tendency of repeating the 4-choice cycle,if you put the relevant building close enough to the intersection,they will behave very predicatably,and visiting four directions one by one.
In a single or dual loop block,they will still try to do the same,but their behavier will be more affected by the nearby road system,and more irregularity will be seen when there are roadblocks near their home--that's why I placed the entrance/exit near the corners,in my point of view,almost all irregularities,including vaporising ,teleporting,are due to the presence of roadblock/gatehouse(dancers are the most frequent teleporters because their home,a combined building have some tiles regarded as roadblocks by the game-a guess).

The orientation of the block will also affect the walkers behavier:they have a preferred direction if their choice is limited by "only" two loops,sometimes they will visit the two branches evenly,but sometimes will do a 1/3,that's will cause serious result if that service is critical(FIRE or physician/apothcary in a starving city,sometimes even the architects!).In the above three blocks,north are all on the top-left,but I cannot garantee they will also work well if they are rotated.

All these blocks need at least two fire fighters to ensure no fire in the block,and scribe schools/liberaries should be close to the office for extra protection.More fire marshals are needed when the houses are below homested level,and maybe only one are needed when houses are manors and above.

As mentioned above,usually two tax offices are needed to collect all the taxes.

The other bonus of these blocks:You can achive "perfect" health easier with half number of monturies(I haven't tested with senet house,but I think it is possible to fit it into the block).You can also have a true cross road for entertainment buildings-no extra tiles in these blocks.

[This message has been edited by Plebus (edited 05-06-2002 @ 05:17 PM).]

Happy building
TEP

About the pavillions:This is a unique feature of the building(I learned that long time ago from the forum),if the 2x2 stage have a tile or two touching the inner loop and no other roads leading towards the built-in road of the pavillion,performers(all destinational and random walkers) will use the stage as entry/exit.

Some observations about teleporting dancers:I think the dancers use the four corners of the stage as the starting point of each of the walk,but due to the nature of the pavillion,at least one corner of the stage will be blocked by other buildings or the buildings within itself(musicians or booth,garden),when they are trying to use the blocked direction,they teleport,usually to a nearby road in that direction.For that reason,I think a pavillion on a true crossroad is better than the one on a "T" junction.

About the blocks:These blocks are very stable when at residence level and above,and with extra fire houses and perhaps physicains in earlier stages of housing evolution,they are also very safe.No differences between them and "Normal" blocks! As I said above,the safiest form of a mutil-loop block is the one which has four branches,the walker's behavier will be completely predicatable(they also need two fire houses and two tax collectors).

AJ,long time no see!

[This message has been edited by Plebus (edited 05-07-2002 @ 07:07 AM).]

Congratulations on the new speed records, and welcome back to Pharaoh Heaven. It took me a while to understand how your blocks worked. As far as I know, you are the first to design housing blocks that fully take advantage of random walker behavior.

Random walker behavior has been studied in much detail by StephAmon. If you haven’t done so already, you might want to check out his threads Directions and travel distances of labor recruiters near intersections (01-06-02), Quadrambles of service walkers and domains of their buildings near an intersection (03-05-02) and Predicting roaming walks near two intersections and roadblocks (03-08-02).

StephAmon’s work in those threads convinced me that blocks like yours were possible. However, I never attempted to design one. Well done.

Vaia

[This message has been edited by VitruviusAIA (edited 05-07-2002 @ 03:35 PM).]

Thanks for your kind words.

I've taken a look at StephAmon's long thesis about a month ago,but not in much details(they are too LONG). IMHO,although his effort is admirable--I never had such a "scientific" spirit for so many tests--I think his study didn't get the point:

First,such a study should start with the question:what I will do if I am the designer of the game?I would add enough variables to make the game more interesting(random),but not too complicated for the computer to handle--the rules must be simple(I think these hidden formulars will only return with a few of 0/1s).Secondly,the study should take entry/exit of each building into consideration, otherwise,they are not more than a number of complicated and confusing data?Besides,as Brugle pointed out in one of the replies,walker's behavier is always influeenced by the nearby roads(in my words,they always try to cover a wider area than they are limited to-i.e.single loop or straight raods),a sandbox of isolated crossroads might not be able to predict the walkers' behavier in a "real" city.

I'm not the the first one who used multi-loop design in housing blocks:that's Max,the most telented player.If you have seen his Baki and Heh,you would see a couple of such designs,although not so ambitious as mine.

[This message has been edited by Plebus (edited 05-07-2002 @ 04:42 PM).]

Clearly, I've got to shorten any future posts I make to this site. Sorry!

Thank you for getting a description of a beautifully functional L-shaped figure-eight block into the public record. You positioned most of your serivce buildings at locations that put the four-way intersection within their domains, and the walkers should (for the most part) go out the four roads from that intersection in a nice, reliable clockwise order. None of the temples nor the temple complex have the four-way intersection within their domains, so the meanderings of the priests could periodically cause temporary loss of the access to a second god that fancy residences require. However, as long as the temple complex is dedicated to a God other than Ptah or Osiris, chance alone should keep this block pretty safe.

The walkers from the two Bazaars located furthest to the southeast should exhibit interesting walk cycles. Since their northernmost squares are closer to the nearby corner than they are to the four-way intersection, the walkers should go around the block with the long axis oriented from SW to NE always in the counter-clockwise direction, whereas around the other block they should make first a clockwise trip and then a counterclockwise trip before turning their attention back to the SW to NE block for two consecutive counter-clockwise trips. In other words, the sellers from those two bazaars should never walk directly to the four-way intersection and turn right on the road to the northeast.

The firehouse across the street from Ptah's temple cannot see the four-way intersection and will not give you very reliable coverage. In fact, you could get by with just the other two firehouses if you exploit "initial recruiter invariance" (described in some of the replies to the first of my posts cited by Vitruvius above) to put your firemen "out of phase".

The most exciting feature of compound blocks containing four-way intersections is the very high building efficiency that can be achieved. In the interests of maximizing that property of your blocks, I wonder if you have found it strictly necessary to include all four bazaars in the L-block. Also, I am still trying to figure out why you found two tax offices to be required in the stately manor double block Incidentally, I still have not been able to find the architect in the stately manor block.

I feel very confident recommending your L-shaped block to readers of this post. I have used a number of similar designs in recent constructions. In fact, I used one in my submission to the Grain contest over at City Building Contests, but my entry fared so miserably that no one ever saw it. (I never got the hang of magic storage yards.)

The second and third compound blocks I would be a little more hesitant in adopting, because they contain some inherent instabilities and irreplicabilities. I should probably put some "for instances" behind such an assertion. So here goes. In your third block, it was a wise choice to use the position you show for the physician rather than something more critical like a water carrier. Let's consider one four-walk cycle of the physician beginning with the trip he makes to the northwest. He leaves his walk start square with instructions to head to the northwest for 37 squares and then come back. This causes him to go counterclockwise around the left block. A walk to the northeast is due next, but no road leads in that direction so he will make a default walk of 26 squares from his start square in the default direction, which for this building will be to the SE. This won't quite be enough to get him more than half way around the right block so he'll reverse course. Next, he is dispatched with orders to proceed to the southeast for a total of 31 squares from his start square, which is easily enough to let him loop. Finally, we reach the unstable walk. He will reliably walk down the road to the southwest until he reaches the three-way intersection in front of the water supply. This intersection does not lie within the domain of his building. In my preliminary studies, it sure seems like he makes a non-random, map-square-dependent choice as to what he will do at this point. Depending on which square that three-way intersection sits upon, he may may turn left or right with about 50:50 probability. But, if you move the exact same block to another position in the same map, the physician may now exhibit a strong bias for a left or a right turn rather than making a 50:50 split.

Like TEP, I am pretty risk averse, so I would feel nervous using the blocks with the paired three-way intersections. But to TEP I would like to recommend the first block you show very heartily no matter how risk averse he might be because there really is no risk. That block (except for the quibble regarding temples which is easily fixed) should be rock solid. As I remember saying in an earlier post, there is nothing random about the behavior of walkers at a four-way intersection, AS LONG AS that intersection lies within the domain of their buildings (Edit 5/26/2002: AND, as long as no unwalkable roads are placed in their shorting wings.)

Congratulations on a major contribution to Pharaoh-construction theory. I enjoyed your post enormously.

StephAmon

[This message has been edited by StephAmon (edited 05-26-2002 @ 03:05 AM).]

I'm sorry that I've mistakenly said that all three blocks have the north on top-left:the third one("8" block) has its north actually on the top-right,that will make your predictions about its walkers irrelevant(but your comments on priests are correct,several houses at the bottem-left corner won't be covered by two priests all the time).

About the number of bazaars:All three blocks have three bazaars,the 4th bazaar in the "L" block is actually a pysician(I've edited that post),but I did use 4 bazaars in the later two blocks when suppling grain to them:the numbers are determined according to the distance to the food/commodity source and the speed I want the houses in these block get food.If you've read the details about food supply in Meidum in the reply #1,you'll see that houses in these three blocks get food from 2 and a half farming seasons (the first year only have 4 months for farming) of 16 farms,so I had used 4 bazaars in each block to buy grains-the limited food should going to every house as quickly as possible-not being partially consumed during the time when bazaars were restocking.

If stability is the only concern(in a ideal situation),I think two bazaars are enough,and a third is more secure if the city has short in a certain resouce for a period of time.The other reason for excessive bazaars is,they will benifit from Bast's blessing:She will only increase the amount of resources already there,more bazaars means more likely all of them would have some of resources left when the blessing comes.

About the dual tax collectors: they are needed to visit every house frequent enough to collect all taxes.In my C3 cities,which have triple and quadro loops,one forum(tax collector) can only collect 2/3 to 3/4 of the taxes(varies from years to years,depend on when the tax collector start his first walk of that year),although the overlay shows they are all visited by the tax collector-my explaination is,houses should be visited by tax colletor(s) twice every six months,or once every quarter.Both of the L block and the manor block need two tax collectors,but the 64 houses one need only one-maybe there are still some taxes(very little) not collected in some years,but that doesn't matter.

I have not watched very closely to every walkers,because I was more occupied with the pyramids-from several tests I ran before playing these three cities,I know such design will work no matter it's "8" or a "L",or rotated to another direction-but I have to made adjustments of the locations of the buildings for their relative location to the four way intersections--I do this basically according to my intuitions,and a simple rule:short range and short effect(six months)walkers should be best placed at sounthern-western part of the intersection,long range walkers can be put further away,but within 3-4 tiles to the intersection.Besides of that, I 'll fix any of the problems qucikly if my guesswork failed--the only uncertainty to me is the the fire protection:50 or 52 tiles loop is too small for that long range walker(his long patrol is beyond that,53 tiles I think)--in my experience,walkers will behave more predictable when they are pushed to their limits,i.e.they have to use the destinational part of the walk to complete the loop,in that means,52 tiles or even 54 tiles loop is better than say 46 or 48 tiles for most of the walkers.The other evidence is,in C3 quadro blocks(I call it "Crucifix block"),all walkers used long patrol only(you are right about a walker will use a short 26 tiles walk when he is not able to go to the direction which is supposed to),and the distance of "turning back point" sometimes went beyond 37 tiles,which is almost impossible if it is in a single loop block or on a streight road.

I can only convince you that the two south-eastern bazaars had made counter-clockwise walks most of the time(congrates for your successful predictions):I can tell that because I've checked the number of houses who had got fish,to determine when I should evolve them beyond cottage level:the houses along the right hand side of the loop got fish first,and only the two houses near the intesection(on left side of the loop) got some fish when most of the houses on the other side already fully stocked.

You can find there are three fire marshalls in that "L" block,this is the only one I have to use a third to protect the block from fire below homested level,you are corret about the fire marshal opposite to the Ptah temple:I put it there for this very reason: protect that half of the block only. (in the manor block,the northwest of the three fire houses is actually the architect,I'll edit that post later) :the originally two had paid fewer visit to the upper-right loop,and that will cause fire if I changed the game speed or reload a save made in certain time-that is an important difference of Pharoah walkers to their C3 counterpart.In C3,walkers will always behave the same from the time they are staffed,but in Pharaoh,that's a different story.Many of my stable cities will get fire in certain places(not compound blocks!) if I load a game and run the city at 100% speed(but sometimes not,with the same save file!).I think Pharaoh has employed a different machanism handling temperary data(buffer),they seems to be renewed more offen than C3(perhaps changed from every game year to every quarter).

So,in my point of view,the "L" shaped one not as good as the "8" figure,at least for some orientations and location of the map(the mixed manor-fancy residence "L" block with the same orientation in my Saqqara worked fine with two fire houses,but they were in different locations).

The manor block posted above is not exactly as it was in the real city:I posted it that way because I think this will eliminate the irregular behavier of walkers.I made several in game changes to some buidings,and the exit/entry was located to the right of the first manor on the south-east half(beside the tax collector,the manor has been moved 1 tile left)--it was at the center at first.The tax collector was at the place now used by montury,because the embalmer will disappear half way though his clockwise walk towards south-east loop when it was placed at the center and there was a roadblock near its right hand side,the tax collector placed at the location of the current bazaar had his own strange taste:he only visit the north-western half of the block,if the entry/ exit is within 3 tiles to it--some of the C3/Pharaoh walkers have a different level of sensitivity toward the presence of (and distance to) roadblocks/gatehouses.The idea of "domain" can partially explain that,but not all-they will be influenced by a roadlock beyond 6 tiles,or even outside of the block.I have also exchanged the place of the Osiris/Ptah temple on the left half of the block,if not,several manors along the bottem of the block can only be visited by two gods(or lost the third god access temperarily).Besides of that,the Osiris temple in the southeast was actually had a road right at its southern edge.

About the somewhat strange locations of the buildings in the third block:That's not a standard design of a 8 block(or recommanded,actually none of these blocks are intended to be replicated).This is the conseqences of a in-game desicion:I found I would be in short for a few dozens of workers when the construction needs them,and the only place I can add more houses was that half made block(without food),I was not in the mood of restarting the game,so some of the building/houses are not at their "best" locations,but they worked.I've never used exactly the same block in different cities,even if when the size are the same,the buildings are usually at different locations.Every block is somewhat a new design--some of the designs may be done in the game--I think that's called "playing the game".

[This message has been edited by Plebus (edited 05-09-2002 @ 12:41 PM).]

.. and congrats on your achievements!

I'd be interested in your cities (esp. Abedju), do you intend to submit any cities?

I stopped playing Pharaoh and joined some C3 Competitions.
Maybe I should try to improve my very old Abedju time - I was a rank beginner in Jan. 2000

Seems my posts are way too long(and badly written) for you to follow every sentence within them...You'll see these cities in a few days,if the downloads are working well,not like C3's Heaven.

I'll be extremely surprised if you are not victorious in those C3 competitions

I've wondered why the last mason is often far behind the others. Thanks for figuring it out. (Maybe now I'll sleep better. )

Tax collection "service" wears off faster than others (which makes sense--it's the only "service" that is harmful to residents). To keep the "service", a tax collector must pass each house every 3 months or so, as opposed to 6 months for most walkers (12 months for some with Bast's temple complex).

As you mentioned, more people are covered by each mortuary in your large blocks. In my opinion, that is (by far) their biggest advantage. Several of my recent cities have been limited by linen supplies. This becomes more important at higher difficulty levels.

Unfortunately, fire risk also increases at higher difficulty levels. As you noted, even at Hard difficulty, care must be taken to give good fire protection to schools, libraries, and maybe hunting lodges and cottages. I'd expect that it would be very difficult to avoid an occasional (though perhaps rare) fire in your large blocks at Very Hard difficulty.

About South Dahshur (where construction speed depends on river imports): have you read my Over quota river imports thread?

I'm almost sure that cottage level houses in my large block need at least 3 or 4 fire marshalls at vey hard(3 meight be enough if I had a better understanding of StephAmon's Quadramble" tables-if I can timeout each marshall's walk and visit frequency).In the 90/118k C3 cities,I have 5 pretectures in a "T" block and 6 for "Crufix" block when they are below hovel level.--I yet can't have a convincing explaination about occational fire in the normal size block when running at 100% speed in Pharoah.

In my memory,Bast's TC will increase the effect of some services(water,health,etc) from 6 months to 11 months.

I ran a few tests (and calculations) on South Dashur yesterday to see if I have a chance to beat Max's record--The answer is "maybe,but you need extremely good luck":The construction time without plainstone involved(the last three course and polishing) need about 14 months(can be a few days quicker or slower),with overquota feature used from the very first year,the last load of stone will only be imported through the first visit of Meidum's trade ship in the 13th year(61th months if lucky),Pharoah's gift is useless here--So even a flawless run will only result in 75+ months--more likely just like Max did-76 months:You now know why I feel desperate aboout that record.

One more question about overquota feature:I've tried to used it in Meidum,to import 2800 fish(2500 default),but only successful in some years,I managed to let the ship trade 2400 fish in their first 2 or 3 visits,but they rarely sell 400 more fish to me when I was micromanaging it(ironiacally enough,I almost always got the extra 300 fish in surprise!)--the dock would only deliver 100 fish when micromanaged to buy other goods when he leaves the dock(no taken back action monitored),can you explain that?or I missed some key points?

[This message has been edited by Plebus (edited 05-08-2002 @ 01:40 PM).]