Updated 21 September 2001 to correct consumption of goods by zoos.Updated 19 August 2000 to include changes introduced by Cleopatra (the addition of zoos and the reduction of bonuses for citywide coverage) and to use the term "workday" for a sixteenth of a month as suggested in later posts in this thread.A note about "days". A sixteenth of a month is a significant unit of time in Pharaoh, it is the shortest period in which the production of buildings or farms increases. Several people (including myself) have taken to calling this period a day. Conan mentioned that the Impressions programmers called this period a week, but 16 days to a month seemed more reasonable to me than 16 weeks, so I stuck with "day". What I had forgotten was that the length of a day is already defined in the game. When you right-click on an entertainment venue, the pop-up tells you how many "days" the current performances will last. It turns out there are 32 of these "entertainment days" in a month (although the number is only updated 16 times a month, so if you repeatedly right-click, you see the number decreasing in twos). At the suggestion of Jimhotep, I will use the term "workday" for a sixteenth of a month.There are two types of entertainment venues. Performance venues (juggler booths, bandstands, pavilions) are supplied with performers from entertainment schools. The other type is the senet house which must be supplied with beer and (in Cleopatra) zoos which must be supplied with straw and game meat.Functioning entertainment schools produce performers as long as they are connected by road (which may be roadblocked and may include staffed ferries) to a functioning venue with the appropriate kind of stage. If you right-click on the school, it says it can train up to 4 performers a month. Fully staffed juggler schools and conservatories do produce four performers a month (one every four workdays). Fully staffed dance schools produce eight performers in three months (one every six workdays). I did not test with partially staffed schools.The performers start walking to a venue with an empty stage of the appropriate type (presumably either the closest or the one that has been without a performance for the longest, but I didn't check that). If there is no venue with an empty stage, the performer walks to one that still has a performance running (again, I assume it chooses the closest or the one that has been without a performance for the longest, but I didn't check).
There is a maximum distance that performers will walk to get to a venue. I only checked this for jugglers going to a bandstand, so I don't know if it is the same for all cases. If the venue is more than 213 squares from the school, the performer sets of walking towards the venue, but disappears after walking 213 squares (slightly less than 4 months walking).
A performance starts as soon as a performer reaches a venue and lasts for two months. If you right-click on the venue when the performance starts, it will say the current performance will last 64 "days". The number of these "entertainment days" remaining is reduced by two every workday (sixteenth of a month), but is reset to 64 whenever a new performer from a school arrives at the venue.So under ideal conditions, each juggler school or conservatory can provide continuous performances at 8 venues and a dance school can provide continuous performances at five and one third venues. Ideal conditions mean that you don't have two of the same type of schools sending a performer to the same venue at the same time. As you will see below, you don't need to have continuous performances, you just need to have enough performers (from schools or venues) passing the right houses every six months or less.
Random walkers are produced by a performance venue as long as a performance is running. They are produced by a senet house and zoo as long as they are supplied with the required goods. The walkers wander for between 35 and 105 squares at which point they either disappear or become destination walkers and take the shortest route back to the venue and then disappear. The next random walker is produced after a recycle time of between 0 and 8 workdays.The length of the walks and the recycle time is not random, but follows a pattern that I have not been able to decipher. As with other random walkers, the pattern seems to repeat every 4 trips. In most cases, the shorter walks are more common. In most cases the recycle time seems to be about 8 workdays for senet players and zookeepers, and either 1 or 4 workdays for performers.
It is possible that the random walks are longer in Cleopatra than in Pharaoh. The longest random walks by entertainers that I have seen in Pharaoh were 48 squares, but in Cleopatra I have seen jugglers walk 57 squares and zookeepers walk 105 squares.
While running this test, I noticed a couple of strange things. The first (which has been mentioned by others) is that when one of my pavilions produced random walkers, instead of them starting at the venue, they would teleport to a piece of road about 4 squares from the venue. The second is to do with where senet players enter the senet house. Normally you can tell where a random walker will enter and leave a building by going to the North corner of the building and going clockwise until you find part of the building with a road connection, and this is the entry/exit point. This works for senet players as far as the exit point is concerned, but in some (not all) arrangements where there is a road along the SW face of the building, the walkers will enter at the S corner (where you can see the people drinking beer).
Senet houses and zoos use goods every time a random walker is produced, and the amount of goods used depends on the difficulty level. On each trip, senet houses use 60 units of beer when difficulty is set to very hard, 40 at hard, 20 at normal, 10 at easy and 5 at very easy. Each trip by a zookeeper uses 60 units of straw and 60 units of game meat at very hard, 40 units of each at hard, and 20 units of each at normal, easy and very easy. The number of trips per year depends on city layout and the actions of the random walkers, but will probably average between 6 and 12. When estimating their consumption of goods, I use 9 trips a year as a rule of thumb.City-wide entertainment coverage is reported by the Entertainment Overseer and is based on the number of stages of each type per head of population. No performers (or goods, in the case of senet houses and zoos) are required for this purpose. The level of coverage you have provides bonus entertainment points to all houses in your city. Entertainment points are one of the requirements for evolving your houses."Perfect" coverage requires one juggler stage (in a booth, bandstand or pavilion) per 400 people, one music stage (in a bandstand or pavilion) per 700 people, one dance stage per 1200 people, one senet house per 5000 people and one zoo per 7500 people. The level of city-wide coverage for a particular entertainment type (which I call the Coverage Index), appears to be calculated as follows:
[Coverage index] = [Number of stages] * [Stage coverage] / [Population]
where [Stage coverage] is the number of people served by on stage (e.g. 400 for a juggler stage).
The Coverage Index is rounded down to 2 decimal places and is never more than 1.00.
The way the Overseer describes your coverage for a particular entertainment type is shown in this table.Coverage | Overseer's | Maximum population per stage |
---|
index | description | Juggler | Music | Dance | Senet | Zoo |
1.00 | Perfect | 400 | 700 | 1,200 | 5,000 | 7,500 |
0.90-0.99 | Excellent | 444 | 778 | 1,333 | 5,556 | 8,333 |
0.80-0.89 | Very Good | 500 | 875 | 1,500 | 6,250 | 9,375 |
0.70-0.79 | Good | 571 | 1,000 | 1,714 | 7,143 | 10,714 |
0.60-0.69 | Above Average | 667 | 1,167 | 2,000 | 8,333 | 12,500 |
0.40-0.60 | Average | 1,000 | 1,750 | 3,000 | 12,500 | 18,750 |
0.30-0.39 | Below Average | 1,333 | 2,333 | 4,000 | 16,667 | 25,000 |
0.20-0.29 | Poor | 2,000 | 3,500 | 6,000 | 25,000 | 37,500 |
0.10-0.19 | Very Poor | 4,000 | 7,000 | 12,000 | 50,000 | 75,000 |
0.00-0.09 | None | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
To calculate the number of bonus entertainment points in your city, add the Coverage Index for each type of entertainment and multiply by 5 if you are playing Pharaoh or by 4 if you have Cleopatra installed. Round down the result to a whole number and this is the number of entertainment points all your houses start with even before they are passed by an entertainer. To be accurate, you need to round to 2 decimal places the Coverage Index for each entertainment type (and cap it at 1.00) before adding them together.
For example, you have a population of 730 and one bandstand.
The Coverage Index for juggling is 1*400/730 = 0.5479 which rounds to 0.54.
The Coverage Index for music is 1*700/730 = 0.9589 which rounds to 0.95.
With Cleopatra installed, the number of bonus points is 4*(0.54+0.95) = 5.96 which rounds to 5.
Note that with Cleopatra installed, the number of bonus points from a given set of entertainment buildings is likely to be lower (because the Coverage Indexes are multiplied by 4 instead of 5), but the maximum bonus (provided all types of entertainment are allowed in the mission) remains at 20.
Entertainers give entertainment points to houses they pass. Jugglers give 10 points, musicians 20 points, dancers 30 points, senet players and zookeepers give 40 points. In the case of jugglers, musicians and dancers, points are given both by performers walking from school to venue and by random walkers generated by a venue. These points last for six months, or until another entertainer of the same type passes, in which case, the timer is reset to 6 months. The Overlay for each entertainment type is a visual display of the 6 month timer counting down. The "overall" entertainment overlay is a visual representation of the total entertainment points that the house has (including bonus points).Entertainment points needed for housing evolution depends on difficulty level the as shown in the following table: Entertainment points required
for housing evolution House type | Difficulty level |
| Very Hard | Hard | Normal | Easy | Very Easy |
Crude Hut | | | | | |
Sturdy Hut | | | | | |
Meager Shanty | | | | | |
Common Shanty | | | | | |
Rough Cottage | | | | | |
Ordinary Cottage | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Modest Homestead | 20 | 15 | 13 | 13 | 12 |
Spacious Homestead | 25 | 20 | 16 | 15 | 14 |
Modest Apartment | 30 | 25 | 20 | 18 | 16 |
Spacious Apartment | 35 | 30 | 25 | 22 | 18 |
Common Residence | 40 | 35 | 30 | 25 | 20 |
Spacious Residence | 45 | 40 | 35 | 30 | 25 |
Elegant Residence | 50 | 45 | 40 | 35 | 30 |
Fancy Residence | 55 | 50 | 45 | 40 | 35 |
Common Manor | 60 | 55 | 50 | 45 | 40 |
Spacious Manor | 65 | 60 | 55 | 50 | 45 |
Elegant Manor | 70 | 65 | 60 | 55 | 50 |
Stately Manor | 80 | 75 | 70 | 60 | 55 |
Modest Estate | 90 | 85 | 80 | 72 | 65 |
Palatial Estate | 100 | 95 | 90 | 83 | 75 |
As I've been rather longwinded, here's a summary of the rules as I understand them.
- Juggler schools and conservatories produce one performer every 4 workdays.
- Dance schools produce one performer every 6 workdays.
- Performers (jugglers at least) will walk up to 213 squares to a venue.
- A performance lasts two months (described by the game as 64 days).
- If a new performer arrives during a performance, the timer is reset to 2 months.
- Random walkers walk for between 35 and 105 squares (perhaps no more than 48 unless Cleopatra is installed).
- Random walkers sometimes disappear at the end of the walk and sometimes return to the venue
- Recycle time for random walkers is 0 to 8 workdays.
- Approximate average monthly senet house consumption (assumes 9 walkers per year) is
45 units of beer at Very Hard
30 units of beer at Hard
15 units of beer at Normal
8 units of beer at Easy
4 inits of beer at Very Easy
- Approximate average monthly zoo consumption (assumes 9 walkers per year) is
45 units each of straw and game meat at Very Hard
30 units each of straw and game meat at Hard
15 units each of straw and game meat at Normal, Easy and Very Easy- City-wide coverage for each entertainment type is determined by the Coverage Index which is
[Coverage Index] = [Number of stages] * [Stage coverage] / [Population]
where [Stage coverage] is
400 for juggler stages
700 for music stages
1200 for dance stages
5000 for senet houses
7500 for zoos
Each Coverage Index is rounded down to 2 decimal places
Maximum Coverage Index is 1.00
- Bonus points for city-wide coverage is determined by adding the Coverage Index for each type of entertainment, multiplying by 5 (in Pharaoh) or 4 (in Cleopatra) and rounding down to a whole number.
- Points from performers passing houses are
10 for jugglers
20 for musicians
30 for dancers
40 for senet players and zookeepers
- Points from performers passing houses last 6 months (reset each time a performer passes).
[This message has been edited by Nero Would (edited 03-06-2005 @ 07:59 AM).]