Contest 59: Take Five: A Cleoparta Speed Contest

Welcome to the contest pages for Contest 59: Take Five
This is a Cleopatra game.

Use the links below to download the starting positions:

Take Five (Easy Difficulty)
Take Five (Hard Difficulty)
files are in zip format

To download the mission, simply click the appropriate link. The file you receive will be in a zipped format. After downloading, decompress the file (using, e.g. PowerArchiver or Winzip). You can get Winzip free from their website at www.winzip.com.

To play the game, start Pharoah/Cleopatra, go to your family, and select "Load Saved Game". You will find Take Five Easy or Take Five Hard as a saved game. It should be preset at the correct difficulty level, which is Easy or Hard.

Please make sure you play the game from the start at the correct level of difficulty. Select Options, Difficulty and check it. If necessary adjust the difficulty, select new game and reselect the Take Five saved game. Now you can play.

All players are advised to peruse the remainder of the contest pages (links to which can be found at the foot of the page), as well as the General Rules and Pharaoh/Cleopatra game features.

The Story

These are bad times for the trading caravans crossing the Sinai desert. Bedouin tribes have been attacking traders, sandstorms have been raging across the country, water holes have become dry and salty. Hardly any caravans dare to make the hazardous trip across the dangerous shifting sands. Trade relations between the Nile delta and the cities East of the Sinai desert, once thriving, have suffered from it.

Fortunately there is the small oasis at Serabit Khadim, that has stayed relatively unharmed in the middle of the desert. It now acts as a trading post, where caravans meet half way, thus reducing the length of their dangerous trip considerably. The traders are readily prepared to leave part of their earnings at the trading station in return for the safety it provides. A few cities have already decided they want to use the trading post, and others may be coerced to the same. They may need a few bribes, but then they will give in quickly, and see the mutual profit that can be made. Do not trust these traders too much, when they can get their hands in your pockets, they will, and relieve you of the burden of your gold.

Also Pharaoh has heard the rumours of the advantageous venture, and is eager to take his share. He is charging a ridiculously high interest rate on the loan he provides, and he wants a share of the profit. Not being famous for his modesty, he has decided you should donate no less than 5000 Db! Sometimes he can be very greedy, and he may take the five grand when you are unaware. On the other hand he can be patient too, you may take as long as you wish, and after 1000 years he will even relieve you of your task. He is also known for his somewhat weird sense of humour, as you may experience in the annual reminder he gives you. It is up to you to re-establish the trading relations, and make enough profit to comply with Pharaoh's request. He will reward you handsomely.

Rules

Completion Criteria:
Comply with the request for 5000 Db.
City must not be in debt.

Winning Criteria:
Speed, as measured in frames (ticks).
Money

You must comply with the request of 5000 Db from Meidum, the other requests may still be outstanding at submission.
The fastest entry wins. If more than one entry finishes in the same month, the judges will determine the exact time and day of the save. The entry with the earliest game time and date wins. If that still produces a tie, the entry with the largest amount of money in treasury wins.

This map was designed with Cleopatra, and can not be played with Pharaoh.

Designers' Advice

This is a Cleopatra game.
Competitors are reminded that the normal CBC General Rules apply to this contest. Competitors are also advised to peruse the list of Pharaoh/Cleopatra game features.

Complying with any of the smaller requests will open a trade route to the city issuing the request. Response to a request is designed to take place with a fixed delay of zero months after compliance, i.e. in the same month in which the request is met. It appears though the game gives a longer delay, which is random and may take up to four months, because reaction occurs when the goods are received, rather than dispatched. If the player needs the response quickly, it helps to vary the exact timing of the compliance, save immediately afterwards, and test the outcome.

Although the game won't let you comply with a request for Debens until you have enough money in your treasury to pay the full sum, an automated compliance to any request may occur when you have a small positive amount of cash. This happens regardless of whether or not you have selected the "compliance now possible" message to occur as a banner instead of a pop-up message. It can be avoided by either staying in the red, or complying with one or more of the other requests quickly enough, or used as a feature if the player sees fit.

A frame or tick is the shortest time scale in the game. Frames are the individual images that make up the illusion of a moving image. You can see the frames when you zoom in on a walker, e.g. a caravan, and reduce game speed to 10%. Each step of the trader consists of 6 frames. The number of frames in a month is 816, 16 "workdays" of 51 frames each, but steps can be counted easier. By counting either frames or steps until the turn of the month, the remaining number of days in the month of the save can be established. The judges will use a utility to establish the day and the hour of a submitted save, with 32 days of 25-26 hours per month, and report that in the list of results.

Take Five was designed by Joshofet, and tested by Caesar Clifford and Kach.

Happy gaming.
Joshofet

This contest will close at 11PM EST (US), on Tuesday, November 30th. Please note the date!!!!

This contest has ended.

General Rules|Pharaoh/Cleopatra game features|Results

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