Blockade event

Player controlled event blockades
With, player controlled blockades have now been made possible.

Only governors of islands can initiate an event blockade, by clicking "Schedule Event Blockade" on the Blockades tab of the notice board. Governors can specify many different options for the blockade:


 * Time and date, from 60 minutes to one month in advance.
 * Sinking, non-sinking, or non-sinking/no removal.
 * Cannons or no cannons (bumps still gives damage).
 * Ignore alliances.
 * Enable use of maneuvers
 * Number of rounds, from one to seven.
 * Obstacle distribution on the board: Normal, Sparse, Dense, Rocky, Turbulent, Windy.
 * Types of ships allowed on the board.

Other:


 * Only one blockade can be scheduled on an island at a time. Additional events can be scheduled immediately after one ends, so there can be a minimum of ten minutes between event blockades.
 * Blockade events happening during the normal weekend blockade times must be set at least two weeks in advance.
 * Blockade events can be modified and cancelled up until one hour before it is set to start.
 * Ship types which are restricted from the event can't enter the blockade at all. ("Sloops are not allowed in that blockade")
 * Vessels do not have to enter an event blockade; they can simply port/deport like usual. In order to enter the blockade the officer must push the "Join Event" button from the vessel menu.
 * The side a ship enters the event blockade from depends on whether the ship is ported or deported when the "Join Event" button is clicked. However, ships that exit event blockades will all be forced ocean-side.
 * Players may be injured in sinking event blockades.
 * In the event of a tie, the team that entered first is awarded the win.
 * The defending faction is the flag of the island governor, rather than the controlling flag of the island. If the governor who declares the blockade is not from the island-holding flag, then the event blockade will be announced as having been declared by the governor's flag.

With these new options available, the number of practice blockades has increased, allowing more preparation to be made before a real blockade.

The league point of an event blockaded island is also different to that of a normal blockaded island.

Notes on event timing

 * If a governor wishes to schedule an event blockade on the weekend and does not have two weeks notice (ie spontaneous events, out of town, etc) their blockade must end by 11:00 AM Pirate time (assuming a Saturday morning) or start after 8:00 PM Pirate time (for Sunday evening). The game mechanics include a one hour "reserved" window prior to the start of a blockade to allow factions to assemble their jobbers and calculates the longest possible blockade time before re-opening an island for event blockades.  These time constraints are enforced by the game mechanics even if a blockade is not declared against the island by the close of the war chest dropping window.


 * If a flag wishes to drop a war chest on an island with an event blockade already scheduled, the war chest must be dropped such that the blockade doesn't overlap with the event blockade. A real blockade and an event blockade can happen during the same weekend, just not at the same time.

Historic note
Prior to the release of player controlled event blockades, Ocean Masters maintained islands on each ocean that could be used for "old-style" event blockades. Those were real blockades against a Ringer owned flag. Once a player flag won that event island Ocean Masters would revert ownership to the Ringer flag in the following week. This practice was discontinued on September 10th, 2007. Players can now request "new-style" event blockades on all Ringer islands.