Scene

A scene is a virtual 3-dimensional space which pirates can walk through, see, and interact with. All scenes contain a number of square floor tiles and 3D objects.

A scene can be:
 * A room in a building or ship.
 * The outdoors of an island.
 * The series of decks on a ship (all decks are part of one scene).

Most scenes can be traversed by pirates, NPCs and pets. Any pirates in the scene can interact with other pirates, NPCs and pets within the scene in real time. Additionally, pirates may interact with some elements of scenes such as the furniture found in inns and duty stations aboard ships.

Scenes are linked by yellow portal arrows on the ground. Many scenes collected together form locations such as buildings and ships. The outdoors of an island is one large scene.

Parts of a scene
All scenes comprise four basic parts:
 * A base layer is the floor of the scene, and displays static textures like wood panelling or mud on floor tiles. All but a few textures can be traversed by pirates. The exceptions are known to include lava, bog, water and fissures. Additionally, the tiles immediately adjacent to non-traversible tiles cannot be traversed either. The base layer is flat, although the effect of elevation can still be produced by carefully selecting floor tile textures and objects. (See island for a very good example of this). Some floor tiles will contain yellow portal arrows, in addition to a texture, which allow pirates to move between scenes. No objects can be placed on these tiles.
 * An object layer displays static 3D objects which populate the scene, for example trees, rocks, buildings and furniture. No tiles containing objects can be traversed by pirates. Of all objects, only buildings and furniture can be placed from within the game. Objects on islands may also be known as charm, and can only be adjusted when the game is offline for a reboot.
 * A dynamic object layer displays the dynamic 3D elements of the scene. Unlike objects, the elements in this layer can traverse (and possibly move between) scenes. Elements in this layer include pirates, pets and NPCs.
 * A sprite layer allows 2D elements and icons to be displayed in scenes. These include speech bubbles, text labels (on some furniture items, and also the names of pirates, pets and NPCs), activity icons above pirates and NPCs, and the mute symbol.

Types of scene
There appear to be two main types of scene within the game. It is possible to distinguish between the two due to the way they are bounded, and how they handle the /speak chat command.


 * A room is a series of floor tiles and is always bounded by an empty black expanse. An example is a room in a house. This type of scene typically includes two walls, on the farthest two sides towards the top of the game window. The walls can sometimes be painted, and some furniture items may be placed on flat areas of the wall. Note that gardens and lobbies of houses (such as villas are still rooms, although outdoor furniture may be placed in them. Pirates in these scenes are able to communicate with one another using /speak without the need to join a chat circle.


 * An outside scene is not visibly bounded by a black expanse, and is not bordered by the walls seen in rooms. The two examples of an outside scene are islands, which are bounded by water, and the decks of a ship, which are bounded by the hull of the ship. On some ships, banners can be hung along the side of the hull. Pirates in these scenes cannot communicate with one other using /speak unless they are part of a chat circle.

Interaction in scenes
In all scenes, pirates can interact with one another by sending trade and challenge requests, as well as hearty and crew invitations. Additionally, pirates can interact with some placed objects by clicking on them.

Communication in scenes
In rooms, pirates may communicate using the /speak command. In outside scenes, pirates must be part of the same chat circle to speak to each other (or they must use other chat channels, for example tells or vessel chat).

Movement in scenes
Pirates, pets and NPCs may all move within scenes. However, without player intervention no pets or NPCs are able to move between scenes. The known exceptions to this rule are NPCs found on limited edition ships such as the Phantom class sloop, which may move within scenes and between scenes on the ship. Pirates may move between scenes using the yellow portal arrows on the ground. There may be a small delay between clicking the arrow and entering the scene, as the new scene must be loaded. While the scene is loading, a blue screen is displayed.

Pirates, pets and NPCs cannot traverse tiles containing objects such as furniture, charm or buildings, nor can they traverse tiles containing certain types of terrain such as lava or water. However, in many scenes, such as rooms or outdoors, a path can be found to move between any two unoccupied squares. If this is possible, the pirate, pet or NPC will walk there; if not, pirates will receive a message stating "Avast! I can't find a way to walk there.". Ship decks are a notable exception to this rule, given that all decks belong to the same scene. Different decks are accessible by means of the yellow portal arrows on the ground.

Scrolling
A pirate may adjust their view of a scene by right-clicking a location. This pans the view to center at the location which was clicked on - but will not allow the pirate to go out of sight.

Each time a pirate arrives at a new destination tile, the field of view centers on the tile the pirate is standing on after a delay of about 2 seconds. If, however, the pirate reaches the edge of the screen, the view automatically centers without the delay.

Pathfinding
A path through a scene is only valid if each tile is adjacent to the one which preceeded it. Additionally, only the squares currently in view of the pirate at the time are considered by the game when planning the path. Thus, journeys across large scenes (for example, outdoors) must be made slowly and in small stages, scrolling to reveal the next segment of a path at each stage.

If the destination is a portal arrow, and no valid path can be found, a pirate will "warp" - travel immediately - to that location shortly before exiting the scene. This is also true for interactive objects which have been clicked on, unless there is no room around the object - in which case the pirate will not move. Pets which are following pirates will also do this.

Editing scenes
Players can edit many scenes in a number of different ways. For example, building owners and ship deed-holders may arrange furniture and paint some scenes. They may also set pets to roam in some scenes.

Island governors may add pets to an island, and may place buildings.

Historical notes

 * Before a release of unknown date, it was possible to place furniture over portal arrows in scenes. This was commonly used on pillages aboard large ships. While the ship would be waiting for boarders, parlor games tables would be permanently placed in the ship's cabin to keep jobbers entertained. When sailing, the owner would place an inexpensive furniture item (such as a on top of the portal arrow to prevent access to the tables. This prevented the expensive games tables from crumbling into dust due to repeated placement, and also helped to ensure that jobbers focused on their duties.