Edit: Deadline for submitting entries has passed. We are now voting! See "
Caucus for Five-Suite Speaking Grounds"
topic.
Construction Order for a Five-Suite Speaking Grounds
True, our every decision is perfect. True, that words from Lowest Point are the Will of Empire, and not to be questioned. Yet despite the flawless unanimity to which we ultimately arrive, there are periods of dispute where cautious arguments are made between those enabled to speak them. Brothers in spirit and purpose, yet ruthless partisans by occupation--these are the Negotiators. When a conflict of interests arises, they dwell in Speaking Grounds and don robes of advocacy. Each battles with contrived selfishness to achieve his assigned outcome.
You, humble architect, are given orders to construct a new Speaking Grounds. We have little faith in your abilities, so several identical construction projects will commence simultaneously, each led by a different architect. All will make a separate attempt, and we shall choose the best among them for our use. For a project this significant, the waste and expense is of no concern. I have already sent 500 Carvers to prepare the excavation where you will build the Grounds, and further craftsmen are arriving at the site tomorrow. You must draft floorplans immediately, and I have been asked to explain just enough that you may begin. Many things I will tell with great reluctance, since they are not meant for someone of your occupation to learn.
The most common type of dispute requiring a Speaking Grounds involves two distinct interests. I should give you a concrete example, to make it clear: One party's view is that centralized distribution of knowledge artifacts is best conducted by the Librarians of rank 17 to 60. You might well expect to hear this from the mouth of a 30th level Neuronomist, ha ha, but of course if a Numbering Initiative is underfoot, then Ecnocrats will be demanding resources from the Librarians, and will be full set against any move to route artifacts around them without supervision from a Persistence Pool. That's not the best example, but I wanted to pick something simple, so you would understand. We have, in our example, two conflicting interests and the need of resolving their dispute. In this case, two Negotiators of appropriate rank are dispatched to a two-suite Speaking Grounds. Each Negotiator is fully briefed on the interests of the party he represents (i.e. the Neuronomists or the Ecnocrats) and is charged to advocate solely on its behalf. Negotiation begins, and eventually, after hundreds or maybe thousands of rounds, the best possible compromise is determined. With such a system, we achieve unity despite conflict of interests.
A Speaking Grounds contains chambers and passageways devised especially for this type of encounter. We have many Speaking Grounds with two suites, since two-sided disputes are most common. However, disputes may have a larger number of distinct conflicting interests. As the tasks Empire undertakes grow more complex, factions arise and our capacity for disagreement increases. So it has been necessary over the centuries to build Speaking Grounds with three, four, and now... five suites. Yes, you are to create the first five-suite Speaking Grounds!
I know, I know. Of course, it's a great honor. Don't thank me--it wasn't my decision anyway.
I will now list requirements of the facility:
1. As mentioned, the Speaking Grounds must contain five suites, one for each Negotiator involved in a five-sided dispute.
2. The Negotiators will all be of unequal rank, and, of course, protocol demands recognition of rank. So the first suite will house the lowest-ranking (fifth-ranking) Negotiator. The second suite will house the fourth-ranking Negotiator, and be larger than the first suite to show rank difference. The third suite will house the third-ranking Negotiator, and be larger than the second suite. The fourth suite will house the second-ranking Negotiator, and be larger than the third suite. The fifth suite will house the top-ranking Negotiator, and be larger than the fourth suite.
3. We are concerned with the morale of the lowest-ranking Negotiator and do not wish for him to feel unimportant or sleighted. So make his suite (the first suite) larger than the fifth suite.
4. Each suite should provide rudimentary accomodations including separate chambers detailed as follows:
-
a. A sleeping chamber for the Negotiator.
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b. A waiting lobby including posted authorities to enforce queueing procedures.
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c. A very large office with a tiny desk that the Negotiator will sit behind. We find such a ratio promotes the proper frame of mind in both the Negotiator and his visitors.
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d. An archive for the storage of papers and additional adjoining quarters for the archival staff.
5. Public entry into the suite should only be possible via the waiting lobby.
6. A network of passages must be present that allow private interaction between various combinations of Negotiators. These are detailed as follows:
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a. Two Negotiators may wish to speak privately, without the other three Negotiators present or even knowledgable of the activity. Every suite should provide passages to allow for its Negotiator arranging such a meeting with any of the other Negotiators. In similar fashion...
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b. Three Negotiators may wish to speak privately, without knowledge of the other two Negotiators. Construct passages to allow for this.
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c. Four Negotiators may wish to speak privately, without knowledge of the remaining Negotiator. Construct passages to allow for this.
7. After resolutions have been reached in private, and it is clear what may be said before all parties, all five Negotiators will meet for discussion. Construct passages to allow travel to a Chamber of Final Speaking that serves this purpose. It must be equidistant from each suite, so as not to suggest an advantage for any of the five.
8. The center of the Speaking Grounds shall contain the Public Entrance, which should be farthest away from the Chamber of Final Speaking, so as not to promote too-casual observance of proceedings from the public.
9. If a visitor arrives at the Public Entrance and wishes to go to the Chamber of Final Speaking, he must first see each of the five Negotiators in their offices to gain admittance.
10. All passages are to be sinister with no rightward bent.
You don't seem so happy anymore to receive this responsibility. Shall I tell my masters that you wish a different assignment? Perhaps we will send you instead to design flow plumbing in the Fire Mines. No, I didn't think so. Excellent! You can begin work at once.
Contest Rules
To enter the contest, you need to make a hold that at least attempts to meet some of the above requirements. Ideally, you'd figure a way to accomplish them all, but something tells me that may be too hard. In fact, I would consider a hold meeting all ten requirements awe-inspiring! Intentionally, I've thrown in a few paradoxes to give you trouble and force a creative solution. There is no one way to solve this, so interpret and fulfill the requirements to the best of your ability. E-mail me (Erikh2000 at yahoo dot com) your exported hold file with "
Anyone"
editing privileges by February 15th, Midnight Pacific Standard Time. Posting your hold on the forum (work-in-progress or complete) isn't allowed. You can talk about anything you like regarding the requirements and your design, but keep in mind you might give away a really clever idea to your fellow contestants. Also, if you want to be judged anonymously later, be careful about revealing yourself as the author of one particular hold by describing it.
It occurs to me that the requirements description might be so strange and twisted that you'll have no idea where to begin. Let me help you get started. You're making a hold and it will probably have one level with multiple rooms. I think one level because some of the requirements like #9 and #6 will be difficult to set up over multiple levels. I think multiple rooms because it's going to be hard to pack all the needed chambers and passages into one 38x32 room. You must set up five "
suites"
in your hold. A suite is just a collection of chambers. Probably each suite will look a lot like the other suites, but I picked an odd number of suites to foul up any easy symmetry you might come up with. When you make one suite you need to carve out some interconnected chambers for requirement #4. Some of the things described in #4 can certainly be represented in different ways using DROD elements. For example in #4d, who are the archival staff? Goblins, maybe? Requirement #9 suggests a way to make your hold into a playable challenge. Who would you expect to show up at the Public Entrance? Why, Beethro of course. Where would a good place be to put the level exit, given how the requirements are setting up obstacles to reach it? There are three requirements that I created especially to cause difficulties in your design. I haven't figured out in advance how you would solve them--that's your job! "
Impossible,"
is not a valid answer.
Note that requirements are intentionally vague to allow creative interpretation, so it is not worth trying to nail down specifics by asking me questions. For example it would be reasonable to ask several questions about requirement #6, i.e. "
How do Negotiators arrange to meet with each other?"
, "
Under what conditions would uninvited Negotiators know that other Negotiators are meeting privately?"
, "
Does there need to be a separate chamber for each type of meeting?"
, "
Can the same passages be used for different types of meetings?"
, and many more. You should ask these kinds of questions, at least to yourself and to other people on the forum, but I'm not going to give authoritative answers.
On 2/16 I'll post the entered holds on the forum. Here's a twist: Nobody can vote for them until a period of discussion has passed--we'll call it the "
Caucus"
. Unlike the mapmaking contest that has just concluded, everyone will be encouraged to discuss the entries during Caucus so that all of their features are brought to light. You could argue about why one hold (maybe yours) is best, and try to convince people to vote for this hold. The first criterion for voting should be how well the hold has satisfied contest requirements, and I'm hoping that we'll get some nice debate going. In the end, however persuasive arguments are, everyone will cast their vote the way they think is best, and we will have one winner. The Caravel crew is free to enter the contest, and I won't be giving them any special help. I'm the only one getting left out--I won't enter a hold, vote for a hold, or discuss holds until after voting concludes.
The winner will get a choice of one item from the DROD Store. By that time, we should have a Map of the Eighth wall poster available in the store, if you are interested in that.
(Cringing as I hit "
Send Message"
. Is this thing going to be too convoluted and weird for people to get into? We'll see.)
-Erik
[Edited by ErikH2000 on 02-16-2004 at 07:57 PM GMT]
[Edited by ErikH2000 on 02-24-2004 at 03:50 AM GMT]
____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals |
twitch stream |
youtube archive (NSFW)
Now, to commit my idea to a computer with DROD on it...
