Configure voyage

The configure voyage menu is accessed via a button located on the radial menu of a ship, and is available to officers of crews. This menu allows an officer to change the type of voyage that the ship will have. There are eight types of voyages: pillage, trade, blockade, greeter, swabbie transport, flotilla, Sea Monsters and evade. When a ship is set to a particular type of voyage, an icon appears on the vessel tab displaying the type of voyage that ship is currently on. These types of voyages can only be changed at an island either while in port or at the league point - the exception is Evading, which may be set at any time, but may only be unset at an island.

Pillage

 * See also: Pillage

An officer may specify the type of pillage the ship undertakes. By sliding the two arrows, the officer can decide how difficult a pillage he or she wants to take. If auto-targeting is enabled, the ship will automatically target any enemy whose might ring has a color in the range set by the officer, although an officer can also target a ship manually as well. If auto-targeting is disabled, an officer must manually target ships to attack them. However, brigand and barbarian ships can still engage the player vessel.

The officer can also specify whether to target only brigands or barbarians, or enemies of either type. Better performance by a player at the navigation puzzle will improve the chances of finding the types of enemies that the ship is set to look for.

The ship can also be set to automatically target player vessels, or to only attack them manually.

If two player vessels engage in a PvP and both ships are set to target barbarians only, or one ship targets barbarians and performs better at navigation, after grappling they will engage in a rumble rather then a swordfight.

The navigation puzzle helps to spawn the types of ships that the voyage is configured to hunt. It is also notable that when attempting to engage a player ship, one may receive a message saying "She's outmaneuvered us!" This message will appear if, on the ship under attack, there is a pirate aboard who is outperforming the attacking ship on the navigation puzzle. This means that pirates can avoid being attacked by doing well on the navigation puzzle.

Trade

 * See also: Trading

When set to trade, the officer has specified that the ship is moving cargo, and will probably not pursue enemies in battle. The officer can then set an average amount of PoE that each jobber will earn per league point. The amount that a player will actually earn is based on his or her performance during that league, compared with the rest of the crew. A player who performs better than average will earn more PoE than a player who performs below average.

In order to pay players, there must be enough PoE in the hold to pay jobbers.

Better performance at the navigation puzzle will reduce brigand spawn while en route. This was hinted in the Release_2007-06-14.

Evade
Evading functions in essentially the same way as the trade setting, but no PoE is offered to jobbers. It may be set at any time while sailing between league points - unless the ship is configured to swabbie transport. The evade mode may only be unset at an island.

Blockade

 * Main article: Blockade

A ship may be set to participate in a blockade. A ship may only be set to blockade if it is at an island where the flag is currently seeking blockade jobbers. Jobbers on board are then paid through the blockade job offer of the flag that the ship belongs to. Blockade job offers are set by the royalty of the flag.

Greeter pillage
This setting is for training missions, to be run by a greeter. This setting helps new players learn how to play the game. In order to set the ship to greeter pillage, the hold of the ship must be empty and the ship must hold 15 or fewer pirates maximum (I.E. a longship or smaller.) Cannonballs and rum are magically supplied during this pillage. If there is no one on guns at the beginning of a sea battle then the guns will be automatically loaded at the start of that sea battle. During a greeter pillage, it is not possible to attack other player vessels, nor be attacked by them.

When holding a greeter pillage, greeters should be prepared to be patient with the large number of green players aboard, and preferably have multiple greeters on-hand to deal with questions as they pop up. A greeter pillage is meant to be an introduction to the world of piracy, thus players should only run these voyages if they are able to exhibit patience and are willing to take time to explain things to the new players.

Players should not use greeter pillages (or the greeter status, for that matter) to recruit people for a crew or flag. Specifically, this means that there should be no active recruiting on training pillages. However, if a pirate is approached by a greenie while on a training pillage and they ask to join the crew without any prompting whatsoever, then that pirate has the option of signing them up.

During a greeter pillage, less loot is won from enemies. New pirates are paid an average of 10 PoE per league in addition to their share of the booty. Only new players (with green names) earn a split of the booty after battle according to the 50% booty division. Older players only receive booty at the final division of the booty at port.

Expedition maps are not available, and cannot be used, during greeter pillages.

Pirates cannot memorize league points when the ship is in greeter pillage mode.

Only players who are greeters can run greeter pillages. All players on board who are eligible to be a greeter are automatically placed on duty, and a greeter cannot go off duty while on a greeter pillage. Eligible greeters who job onto a greeter pillage are placed on duty as soon as they accept the offer to job.

New players who apply to the pillage are automatically jobbed on board without a jobbing request coming up in Ahoy! tab for the officers on board the vessel. All other jobbers will appear in the Ahoy! tab as normal.

Swabbie ship transport


A ship may be set for transport by swabbies. Swabbies will safely and automatically transport vessels along the charted route for a fee. The price for swabbie ship transporting is 5 PoE per swabbie on board per league point travelled. Each ship has a set number of swabbies that will staff it during transport (see chart at right) which determines how much an officer will have to pay in order to set sail. Firing swabbies does not reduce the per-league price. Any player who remains aboard displaces a swabbie -- this, again, does not reduce the per-league price -- and a swabbie will come aboard when a player leaves.

Unlike the other voyage options, a player does not have to be aboard for the ship to continue moving. The swabbies will automatically set the ship to sail at each league point and port the ship when it reaches its destination. No officer is necessary to do this.

In order to set the ship to swabbie ship transport, the hold of the ship must be empty. Once the hold is empty and a course has been charted, click the sail button. If there is not sufficient PoE in the hold to pay the swabbies, the officer who has clicked the sail button will receive a message stating how much is required for their efforts. This required amount will be removed from the hold in its entirety at the start of the voyage.

During the course of the trip, the ship cannot be pursued by other ships and will not pursue other ships, and the voyage cannot be reconfigured or the route altered.

Limitations
The only limitation placed upon players who are aboard a ship configured for swabbie transport is that a pirate who works the Navigation puzzle during transport will not receive any credit toward memorizing league points. However any work on the navigation puzzle will still count toward the player's experience and for/against their ranking.

The only puzzle that cannot be played while aboard a ship under swabbie transport is Gunning, as there will not be any cannonballs in the hold to load into the guns.

Aborting the transport
While the ship is sailing under swabbie ship transport, it is not possible to reconfigure the voyage or change the course of the ship. The Commanding Officer must abort the transport early at an island to do this.

Aborting the transport requires porting the ship at an island preceding its destination along the route during the brief period the ship pauses at the league point. Porting the ship early will refund to the hold of the ship the transport cost for the leagues left in the original route.

Free ship repairs!
Another use of the Swabbie Ship Transport (SST) is to repair damage and pump bilge water on ships. Swabbies on SSTs are good at their duty. If the Commanding Officer would not like to sail from Point A to Point B but utilise the repair/bilging efforts of Swabbies, he/she can chart a short-distance voyage to Point B and repeatedly turn about back and forth till the damage and bilge are 0, before porting at Point A.

Station coverage
The swabbies will automatically assign themselves posts from which they typically will not move. On the larger ships they tend to spread themselves out in such a way to ensure good coverage on sails, carpentry and bilge, allowing the officer to put the ship to sea and leave without really having to worry, though on medium-sized ships (Merchant brig, for example), an adjustment or two may be necessary.

On the smallest vessels, however, such as the sloop and cutter, the bilge station can be neglected by the swabbies, leading to a full bilge mid-voyage, and significantly increasing the amount of time necessary for the ship to reach its destination.

After putting the ship to sea but before leaving it, ensure all stations, especially bilge, are properly covered to keep the swabbie transport time at its lowest if this will be a concern.

Historical notes
Swabbie ship transport was introduced in Release 2007-06-14. Release 2009-03-18 changed the number of swabbies assigned to the ship when choosing swabbie transport - a side effect of related brigand strength changes. Two days later the cost per swabbie per league was dropped to 5 PoE from its previous 10 PoE.

Flotilla

 * Main article: Flotilla

A ship may be set to participate in a flotilla. Notice boards will signify ships that are hiring for flotillas attacks. Better performance at the navigation puzzle will reduce brigand spawn while en route.

Any job postings for flotilla attacks appear under the heading "Flotilla Attack" on the Voyages tab of the notice board.

Sea monsters

 * Main articles: Atlantis, Cursed Isles, Haunted Seas

This voyage mode can only be used for trips to Atlantis, Haunted Seas and the Cursed Isles. A ship may be set to Sea Monster mode only after being charted to a Sea Monster location with the corresponding map. Better performance at the navigation puzzle will reduce brigand spawn while en route.

Any job offers posted after this appear under the "Sea Monster" heading on the Voyages tab of the Notice Board.

History
Greeters were initially permitted to take out any size ship on a greeter pillage. This was restricted to ships with a single mast in, and later changed to ships with a capacity of 15 or less, to include the fanchuan.