Official:Colonisation

Colonisation and Governance

The establishment of new colonies on rustic, untouched islands, and the seizure of existing settlements from rivals, represents the highest point in the Puzzle Pirates community organization, the Great Endeavor of many a Flag.

Uncolonised Islands

Islands that have yet to have any buildings or Flag owner are considered uncolonised. Some of these islands do have markets, established by the developers, others do not.

Blockading an Island for Colonisation

In order to establish rule over an Island it must be blockaded. See the documentation on blockades for details. Colonisation blockades are always 'sinking blockades' in which vessels may be lost in battle.

The victorious faction in the blockade claims the island, and the primary Flag's monarch is named Governor. The Flag may change Governor at any time by a normal vote of the royalty.

Outpost Islands

Some small islands can be blockaded and claimed, but are only suitable for small colonies. These Outpost Islands can only ever support a fort and one other shoppe of any kind. Outposts cannot have houses. If an Outpost is ever conquered, the victorious party claims both structures. The base cost to blockade an outpost is 25,000 pieces of eight.

Medium Islands

Medium Islands are restricted to five bazaars, shoppes, or houses in addition to a full suite of government buildings. Medium islands may have one attraction building. A bazaar is required before a shoppe of that kind can be constructed. If a new flag takes control of the island, all the infrastructure buildings and bazaars transfer to the monarch of the conquering flag. The base cost to blockade a medium island is 75,000 pieces of eight.

Large Islands

A large island can have all of the infrastructure buildings, and as many shoppes, bazaars and houses as may fit on the island. Like Medium islands, a bazaar is required before a shoppe of that kind can be constructed. Large islands may have two attractions. The base cost to blockade a large island is 125,000 pieces of eight.

The Role of Governor

The Governor is the official responsible for managing the island's development and taxation.

Planning your Island

The first step in developing an island is to pick the location for buildings. It is worthwhile being very careful in this process. A good suggestion is to take the island map and design your island in advance to make sure everything fits together, by pasting in buildings from established islands. Take note of the landscape; building over commodities will deplete your island's resources.

The Governor is also responsible for naming buildings, and must take special care to choose good names. Funny, alliterative or punning names are common in Puzzle Pirates and help to foster a humorous atmosphere. Many islands have a naming theme, and governors of those islands should try to name within those themes. For example, all of Turtle Island's shoppes are puns on Turtles. It is suggested that Governors work with their entire flag to have naming competitions or otherwise select excellent names.

Placing Buildings to create Construction Sites

On the Governor's Island panel a button 'Create Building' appears. Move to the location where you wish to build and select it. You have the following options:

• Building Type, for example a Tailor Bazaar or Fort.
• Facing Left or Right (southwest and southeast if north is up).
• Set Location. Pressing this button will remove the selection panel and show a transparent picture of the building to be placed, along with an outline showing the edges of the plot. If the outline shows red then the building cannot be placed there. Blue outline means that the building can be placed. White outlines are shown for other building plots, which cannot overlap.
• Name.

You can use Set Location, place the building, then change parameters and hit Set Location again to re-place the building. The building is only committed when you press Start Construction on the Create A New Building panel. Be very careful completing this process.

The building plots include a one 'tile' space in front of the building for the entrance arrow, but you should always be sure to allow more space for a reasonable looking layout. You cannot build on top of rare herbs and minerals, and you cannot build within a set number of tiles of the island's docks.

Some capital islands have been decorated with 'facades' or fake buildings. Governors are advised to build on top of these buildings, whenever possible matching their plot sizes and building types exactly.

Pressing the Start Construction button with a complete building creates a Construction Site where the building will be built. In addition, a deed to the Construction Site will be placed in the governor's inventory. If they wish, the Governor can hand over ownership of the building at this point, leaving responsibility for construction with the new owner.

The Order of Building

An island requires infrastructure to function. Certain buildings cannot be built without supporting buildings being built first. The tree below is a handy reference of this hierarchy.

Note that in order to have a shoppe of any given type, an island must first have a bazaar of that type. The palace, estate agent, market and bank require any two bazaars.

The palace is built by upgrading the fort, before which you need an estate agent and a market.

Shoppe Types

Puzzle Pirates has many shoppe types, and a few governmental buildings. They are as follows:

• The Distillery makes rum, swill, grog and hemp oil, and mugs for the drinking puzzle.
• The Ironmonger manufactures swords from iron, wood and herbs and minerals; and cannonballs from iron and wood.
• The Apothecary creates dyes, enamels, paints, varnish, lacquer, potions and paint brushes.
• The Weavery weaves cloth from hemp and dyes.
• The Tailor uses cloth to make clothes, hats and shoes. They also have a ready-to-wear rack.
• The Shipwright makes fine vessels from wood, iron and cloth, and bludgeons for the Rumble puzzle.
• The Furnisher makes items of furniture that can be placed in buildings or ships.
• The Inn encourages parlor games like drinking and card games, and houses tournaments.
• The Fort lays claim to an island and functions as a rudimentary market and palace.
• The Market harvests the raw materials of the island and offers them for sale to the community.
• The Palace allows the Governor to manage the island, its taxes and its Navy. It also contains a portrait easel at the palace shoppe, where you can also buy some trinkets and badges (on doubloon oceans).
• The Estate Agent is used to upgrade shoppes using wood, stone, iron and cloth.
• The Bank is currently defunct on subscriber oceans, but contains the doubloon exchange on doubloon oceans.
• Bazaars produce goods like their related shoppes, but a given bazaar contains many stalls, each independently operated.
• Island Attractions provide various services on islands. They include Trading Posts, Black Markets and Explorers' Halls.

The Construction Site

A Construction Site is a building-in-progress. The purpose of a construction site is to hold the commodities necessary to complete the building and provide a workplace for the construction labor.

Within the construction site the owner can transfer commodities to the site and set up buying prices. The max stock numbers reflect the total amount of commodities needed to begin construction.

In addition, the owner must use the 'manage labor tab' to offer wages to laborers to work on the building. The owner should be sure to put enough money in the coffers to be able to pay these wages.

Once the construction site is fully stocked with the required commodities then construction will begin. The owner of the site can monitor the progress in the 'Manage Orders' table.

On completion the shiny new building will replace the construction site.

The Estate Agent

The purpose of the Estate Agent is to allow shoppe owners to upgrade their shoppes into from the shady starting grade to 'Fine' grade, increasing the shop's storage and production capacity. It is also possible to downgrade shoppes back to shady from Fine at the estate agent, should the owner wish to reduce their rent.