Shoppe

A shoppe is a building where pirates combine labor and commodities to make products. All shoppes start off as a construction site, which may only be placed by the governor of the island. Once the construction site is put up, the governor immediately receives the deed to the construction site; the deed may be traded straight away or the governor may keep it. After a shoppe is finished being built, it may then start trading and rent will be required from this point onwards. As the space on an island is limited, shoppes are often sold for large sums.

A flag shoppe is the term for a shoppe owned by a flag, though there is no distinction made by the game. Usually the owner is the monarch and royalty are managers. Flag members are commonly given discounts.

Differences from stalls
Shoppes are charged more in weekly tax than stalls, but offer several advantages for the cost.


 * Size - Shoppes are larger, offering more storage space than stalls. This is most important for Shipyards, which can manufacture any size ship, whereas a stall cannot hold enough wood to make merchant galleons, war frigates, or grand frigates.
 * Location - Shoppes have their own storefront, so if someone is looking for an ironmonger, say, they probably won't check the bazaar first, and so draws more pirates in for labor and sales.
 * Managers - Shoppes can have up to five managers; a deluxe stall can only have two.
 * Name - All shops have unique names, whereas stalls are named based on the stall owner (e.g. Poseidon's Ironmonger stall).
 * Deed - Unlike stalls, shoppes have a deed that can be traded just like a ship deed. This allows a pirate to use the store deed portrait item in portraits.

Upgrading and renaming
Shoppes can be painted by the owner or a manager, and upgraded at the estate agent. Shoppes can only be built on player-owned islands, though player-owned shoppes exist on Ringer-owned islands as a result of special events.

Shoppes that have been upgraded can be downgraded. At the start of the upgrade/downgrade process the deed is surrendered to the estate agent. The shoppe is untradeable until this process is complete and the new deed is picked up at the estate agent. Anyone standing inside the building at the time the new deed is picked up will be thrown outside.

Shoppes can be renamed.

Shoppe dusting
Dusting is the process of allowing a building to be destroyed by failing to pay the property taxes for four consecutive weeks.

External/other links

 * Tutorial on shoppe management
 * Howto:Use building news
 * Commonly discussed ideas from Game Design
 * The Shop Tool and Whiplash's Shop Spreadsheets are useful spreadsheets for managing shoppes and stalls.