Official:Voyages
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Voyages
Contents |
Introduction
Arr, cheer up me buccos. We know that a Pirate's nothing without the taste of the salt air and a fair following wind. Get yerself to the Port and, by clicking on the jetty, see if ye can board a vessel.
The information below covers all you need to know to run a voyage. You can also learn more about voyage types.
The Port Interface and Boarding a Vessel
Clicking on the jetty exit should present you with the Port interface and a list of vessels that you might board.
Click on a ship to go aboard. Vessels belonging to your crew that are in your current port will be shown, along with any vessels manned by your crewmates that are presently out at sea but not engaged in battle. If your crew is in battle you can you can join them after the melee is concluded. Many crews require that you ask permission on crew chat before boarding.
Charting a Course
The ocean is a large grid of 'League Points'. A voyage takes place by setting a course between two islands and then puzzling along that course. Before a ship might sail the course must be plotted by the Commanding Officer. To do this, go to the Helm, or to the Navigation Table, which is either below decks or in a cabin.
Clicking "Chart a Course" brings up the Sea Chart interface. Shown are the islands and routes between them that are known to the Navigator, contained in the Charts held by the Navigator, or contained the Charts currently on the Chart Table. The Navigator can move charts back and forth between the table and her inventory by dragging them.
Click on an Island to plot a course between your present position and the Island, then select Chart Course to fix the course before you sail. Commonly most Officers leave their Charts on their Ship for ease of use by other Officers. In particular a diligent navigator should avoid ending a voyage at an island known only to them (from memory, or from a map in their inventory), thus stranding the vessel at that island for the purposes of their fellow crew mates.
Rum!
Woe betide the Captain that sets sail without any Rum stocked aboard, as any landlubber knows that Pirates need their rum to sail. If the vessel is out of rum murmurs of discontent will soon be heard amongst the crew and performance will suffer. Going into the swordfight at the end of sea battle without rum will leave your crew fighting the effects of Rumsickness, a great disadvantage in the swordfighting puzzle. Rum can be ordered from Distilleries and may usually be bought directly from the Trade Commodities interface on the Ship's Hold. It comes in three strengths; swill, grog, and fine rum. The strength of each (40 proof, 60 proof and 100 proof) determine how long each type lasts.
Cannonballs
Likewise any salty Captain knows to stock her vessel with cannonballs before setting out pillaging - no use in having a master gunner aboard if there be nothing to fire! Cannonballs are likewise stowed in the hold.
Putting out of Port and Setting Sail
The Commanding Officer can leave the Port and Sail from any Duty Puzzle. The requisite buttons lie below the Sea view and above the chat box. In most cases the Commanding Officer undertakes the Navigation Puzzle.
Vessel Panel
Ship Status Dials
Whilst Puzzling at Sea you will notice three dials towards the top of the right hand panel. These reflect the three status indicators of the vessel: its Speed, Damage, and Bilge levels. A cannon symbol next to them is the cannon counter.
Speed
Speed is fairly self-explanatory. Each vessel has a maximum speed which can be reached by an appropriate number of skilled sailors working in concert (for example, two for a sloop, ten or more for the greatest warships). Sailing is a constant battle against friction, so if nobody sails the ship will gradually slow down until reaching its minimum speed. Thus even if the sailors mutiny and desert the Captain, it's still possible to return the ship to port, albeit very, very slowly.
Damage
Damage is incurred when the ship collides with rocks or is struck by cannons during Sea Battle. In addition the vessel accumulates a little damage just by sailing around. Carpentry repairs the damage. Damage currently reduces the effectiveness of Sailors during Sea Battles, and increases the rate at which Bilge will enter the ship.
Bilge
Bilge indicates the water level of the vessel. Bilge impacts the ability of the sailors to bring the ship up to speed, such that with a full Bilge, it's very hard to accelerate the vessel at all. Bilge always come in as ye sail, but damage to the ship by cannons makes the waters rush in! Fear not, though, for outside of warfare even a ship full o' damage and bilge cannot sink. Vessels can usually be kept with a minimum of Bilge by one or two diligent bilge-pumpers.
Cannons
The cannon counter tells the Captain how many cannons are currently loaded on the vessel. This is particularly useful during Battle Navigation.
Advertising for Jobbers and Swabbies
Often a Pirate Captain or Officer will want to set sail without a full compliment of crew, and there be a handy way to call up Pirates eager for a job at sea. Use the 'Hiring Jobbers' checkbox:
This will do two things; post a notice on ye noticeboard in yer home archipelago, and bring aboard up to four Swabbies to help yer sail.
Swabbies
Swabbies are non-player Pirates who love to sail at your beck and call. They are uniformly Able in their abilities, but are glad to take orders, charge no wages and drink only a little rum. They will even fight by yer side in a battle! Just do not expect them to be terribly clever or witty.
Hiring Jobbers
When yer vessel is hiring jobbers then players who come to the noticeboard and apply for the post will send ye a message. If you like the look of 'em, simply type /job <pirate name> and they will be offered the job. When they accept they will be whisked aboard. Swabbies only stick around to make up the numbers, so in most cases hiring a player will cause a Swabbie to exit the vessel and go back to dominoes or whatever amused them before.
Taking down the notice
An Officer can take down the hiring notice at any time by clicking the button again. If the vessel becomes full the notice will be taken down automatically. Any existing Swabbies on board will continue to stick around after the notice has been taken down. Thus it is possible for solo-minded pirates to simply put up the notice, get their compliment of Swabbies, and then take down the notice before hiring any real pirates. We hopes ye likes the company of Swabbies. If they start to get on yer nerves Swabbies can always be fired manually by using their radial menu. Note, however, that a vessel has a minimum might so ye cannot 'fly under the radar' by simply firing all yer swabbies.
Configure Voyage
The Configure Voyage screen, found on the helm, allows ye to specify the type of voyage ye'd like to set out on.
Pillaging
The pillage option is set by default and the most common voyage. The mechanics of Pillaging are discussed in the Sea Battles section. Be sure to read over it carefully before setting out!
The difficulty slider allows you to adjust the difficulty of vessels you would like to encounter, from Easy to Very Hard.
The Targets slider allows you to adjust if you would like more Brigands, more Barbarians or a mix of both.
Both sliders do not guarantee that you get what you set exclusively, however, the better one does at the Navigation duty station the better chance you have at getting what you're looking for.
Checking the "Attack player vessels" box will auto-target player vessels as well as Brigands and Barbarians. Even if the option is unchecked other player vessels are still able to attack your vessel.
When attacking other players if both vessels are set to target barbarians instead of a swordfight the fight will be a rumble instead.
Taking a Pillaging Job from the Noticeboard
Officers of Crews can post vacant positions on the noticeboard as they sail, so that young Pirates arriving in port can apply for work on the ocean wave. Ye can examine the crew info before you sail, to see what sort of folks they are and how the booty gets divided. This information is also included in the job description, along with the pay rate and the type of vessel.
Once you've selected a ship to job with, click on apply and wait a few moments, while the Officer has a chance to review your request (she will probably be busy puzzling at the time).
Should you be successful the Office will /job you and invite you onboard the vessel. Accept and you will be whisked out to them.
Trading
If instead of attacking other vessels one is looking to move some cargo between islands they can set their vessel to Trade. When trading, jobbers are paid for their labor directly from the hold as long as there is enough PoE in the hold to pay out. The average PoE paid per league can be set in the configure voyage screen but the amount paid is determined based on the jobber's performance. Better performance means better pay!
In addition, the better the navigation the less chance of being engaged by brigands or other players.
Blockade
Flag royalty may post job offers for their flag in a blockade from the "Blockades" tab of the notice board. Essentially, these offers allow the flag to pay all dutying pirates aboard their vessels within the blockade based on a selected payscale. Once the job offer is set setting the voyage to Blockade allows players to be jobbed onto the vessel to enter the blockade.
Greeter Pillage
Greeter Pillages are pillages run by Greeters intended to introduce new players to the mechanics of pillaging. Only someone on duty as a Greeter can start a greeter pillage, however anybody can join after. Before starting a greeter pillage the vessel's hold must be completely empty. Player vessels cannot attack or be attacked by vessels on a greeter pillage.
As greeter pillages are intended as introductions and training, less booty is won from brigands as opposed to traditional pillages. However, new players are automatically paid per league for their work depending on how well they do, much like puzzling on the Navy, as well as an automatic split of the booty.
Swabbie Ship Transport
The Swabbie Ship Transport voyage option is an automatic way to have your vessel moved between islands, for a fee. As with Greeter Pillages, the hold must be empty before the swabbies will transport the vessel. Once the hold is empty and the course is set clicking "Sail" will bring up a message showing how much the swabbies demand for their efforts. Once that amount is placed in the hold clicking "Sail" again will set the vessel on its way. The longer the course, the more the fee will be.
Swabbies will sail the vessels automatically, without any players being onboard. The vessel won't be able to be attacked by brigands or players nor will the vessel make any stops. Once the destination has been reached the vessel will be put into port.
Flotilla Attack
The Flotilla Attack option advertises on the Notice Board that the vessel is set to attack a Brigand King's Flotilla
Sea Monster Hunt
This option advertises that the vessel is intending to hunt sea monsters and loot the treasure they're guarding. In order to set this option, the vessel must already be charted to a Sea Monster Lair
Ordering Swabbies and Pirates Around
Swabbies and Jobbers can be ordered to do a task by clicking on their name in the vessel panel:
Swabbies will jump right to your assigned task, but real Pirates are unfortunately more wilful and might take a while to hear yer orders, let alone act on them, even though such commands are made quite obvious:
Make 'em Walk the Plank!
If a player Pirate continues to ignore yer orders it may be time to give 'em the plank with the handy /plank command. This sends jobbing Pirates walking off the side of the vessel and removes them from yer crew as a jobber. Very useful if that jobber ye hired turned out to be foul-mouthed and lazy. At least Swabbies don't talk back. A member of yer crew will simply be ejected from the ship, so they'll be able to come back again; you'll need to remove them from yer crew first to exclude them. It is, however, very useful to be able to /plank fellow crew members who have fallen asleep at sea.
