Official:Economy

=The Economy=

Player merchants and craftsmen on archipelagos of islands scattered throughout the ocean cooperate and compete to refine commodities harvested from each island into products for player consumption. From rum for sailing, to the ships to sail, fine clothes and furniture to cannonballs and mysterious potions, everything is made by player puzzling and plotting.

Informative Examples
A few examples should provide a good basis for understanding:


 * Sugar cane, wood and iron are harvested and delivered to the distillery where they are processed into rum. Pirates take rum aboard their vessels and drink it while they sail from port to port.
 * Iron and wood are harvested and delivered to the ironmonger where they are processed into cannon balls that are purchased by crews and taken aboard ships so that they may fire upon their enemies.
 * Herbs are harvested and delivered to the apothecary where they are processed into dyes. The dyes are delivered to the weavery, where along with hemp, colored cloth is made. The colored cloth is delivered to the tailor where it can be fashioned into the finest in piratical attire.
 * At the shipyard, wood, iron and cloth are used to construct magnificent vessels for sailing the oceans blue on adventures.
 * The shipyard itself is constructed from stone, wood, iron, and cloth in varying quantities.

Labor
In addition to the commodities required for creating a particular product. Labor is needed, which is provided by the able-bodied pirates themselves! At the various places of business, a pirate is able to take employ and receive a wage in exchange for labor performed. The varying shoppes require different kinds of labor, each of which has an associated puzzle that is performed by the laboring pirate.

On subscription oceans an account receives 48 hours of labor a day. Each character divides the labor evenly with the others. One characters gets all the hours, two get 24 hours each, and three get 16 hours each. Each character can have up to three jobs. When multiple jobs need labor the characters labor is applied to the job that will offer the highest wage. Otherwise it simply goes to where it would be used. In order to provide labor at a shoppe or stall with a crafting puzzle you must have done that puzzle within the last week (otherwise your skills are too rusty).

On doubloon oceans each pirate on an account can purchase a Labor Badge which allows them to receive 24 hours of labor a day or a Deluxe Labor Badge which allows them to receive 72 hours of labor a day.

Commodities
All goods in Puzzle Pirates, from rum to feather hats, are made using commodities. Commodities originate when they are produced by Markets or Forts, where they must be purchased by bidding upon them from a shoppe or vessel in port.

Commodities vary from the basics, wood, stone, iron, hemp and sugar cane, to herbs both rare and common, and a variety of minerals that are used to make potions and swords with varying properties.

Bidding for Commodities from Markets and Forts
Islands have the potential to produce various commodities depending on their natural features, but will only farm these commodities when a bid is placed at the Market or Fort (for the purposes of commodity product, a Fort acts like a Market).



The market bidding panel shows the commodities available at a particular market, the current high bid price and the quantity of commodities ordered at that price.

Bids are placed by entering a price and a quantity, then paying down the total purchase price for the bid along with a fixed fee. The bidder receives a Bid Ticket recording the transaction. When the order is complete the ticket changes from 'unfilled' to 'filled'. Tickets may be traded and left on-board vessels or in stores so as to allow yer mates to collect orders for ye.

A Bid Ticket may be delivered at any time, delivering the commodities and any pieces of eight left over from a partially filled ticket. Unsuccessful bids may also be delivered, refunding the gold for the bid price, but the Fee is always lost, discouraging frivolous bids.

Merchants
Many islands are not yet colonized, but yield bountiful reserves of valuable commodities. A sprightly host of non-player Pirate crews known as Merchants ply these islands for their goods and ship them across the seas to willing buyers.

In order to purchase commodities from Merchants one must simply set up competition buy prices at your stall. Take a look at the local market to decide what these might be.

Occasionally Merchants can be seen at sea and pillaged for their valuable supplies. The Old Salt at the Inn may know more of their whereabouts.