Teaming

From YPPedia

There are two pirates targeting Heartless O'Shea, as indicated by the two multicolored dots next to him. The large, orange dot next to Captain Sweeg represents five pirates, so five pirates are targeting him.

This player has selected Meek Mort, since the border around his board is white. The border around the boards of the other opponents are orange.

Teaming is an important skill in sea battle and brawling. Both of these involve two groups fighting against each other with swords.

Your team will be on the left-hand side of your screen, illustrated with their heads, their swords, and a small rectangular box that represents their personal puzzle. The enemy will be on the right-hand side of your screen with the same items (head, sword, and box).

Once the fight starts, there will be small, dual-colored dots that appear next to the rectangles of both teams. These dots indicate how many opponents are currently focused on that particular person (i.e. if your pirate's head is next to a box that has two dual-colored dots next to it, two enemies are currently attacking you). The exception to this is the large, orange dot. This indicates a total of five opponents—five of those little dual-colored dots combine to make the large orange one. Thus, two dots means ten opponents, and so on.

The dots themselves are colored based on the two colors of each person's sword. So, if you happen to have a sword that is blue and purple, your personal dot will be a small purple dot surrounded by a blue circle to be the small, dual-colored dot that is specific to you.

It is easy to know where your personal dot is residing, as the enemy you are currently focused on will have a white rectangle around his box (as opposed to the orange of all the other enemies' boxes). This lets you know who you are focused on at any given moment, if you look over to the right-hand side of your screen.

The phrase "teaming" refers to "ganging up" on the enemies (typically in groups of two or three, depending on what your side's leader dictates). The easiest way to tell if you are currently "teamed up" with someone else is to look at the enemies on the right-hand side of your screen for the tell-tale white rectangle. What you want is to have several of those dual-colored dots to be next to the white rectangle. If there is only one, then you are not teamed. You should look up and down the row of enemies for an orange box with less than the ideal number dual-colored dots next to it. The ideal team size in swordfighting is three (because above that, bots start stalling). In Rumble, bigger teams of 4 or 5 seem to be more effective.

The next step is how you change from one enemy to another. Once you have located an enemy that you wish to target, simply take your mouse and click on the orange rectangle next to his head. You may also scroll through the enemies using page up and page down, "A" and "S", "[" and "]", or the mouse wheel. Once you have clicked on an orange rectangle with at least one dual-colored dot, that rectangle should now become white, and your personal dot should join the one (or more) that was there before you clicked.

Different players may give you different instructions regarding teaming, such as how many people per team there should be or perhaps who you should focus on. In sea battle, for example, many captains ask that their crew attack the more powerful swords first—typically cleavers, skull daggers, and scimitars— however others focus on the instakilling tendencies of lesser swords like foils. Always listen to your captain or team leader. If you have questions about anything, ask them.