Cold start ocean launch
A cold start ocean launch is when a new ocean is made available to players with the barest possible infrastructure.
When the Ice Ocean first opened for testing, Three Rings also used the experience to learn how to fire up new oceans without experienced players, shoppes, etc. "We want to work out how to start an Ocean cold and have it smoothly ramp up without any need for experienced migration and jump-starting," Captain Cleaver said at the time.
In the Cobalt and Viridian Oceans, the cold start included: sloops for 7,000 PoE at the palace shoppes on Cobalt, sloops for 5,000 PoE and twenty doubloons on Viridian, requirements to form a crew were reduced to narrow in swordfighting & bilge, a ship deed and (for Viridian only) a captain's badge, and swill and small cannon balls for sale dockside from the palace. It also featured a ship stall at each island to be used only for buying charts.
In the Sage Ocean, the cold start included: sloops for 2,000 PoE and twenty doubloons at the palace shoppes, rum use on ships was temporarily turned off until production started, and requirements to form a crew were reduced to narrow in swordfighting & bilge, a ship deed and a captain's badge.
In the Hunter Ocean (and later on, the Opal Ocean), the cold start included: sloops for 3,000 PoE and twenty doubloons at the palace shoppes, rum use on ships was temporarily turned off, small cannon balls for sale dockside from the palace, requirements to form a crew were reduced to narrow in swordfighting & bilge, a ship deed, and a captain's badge, and startup costs for stalls were cheaper for a time.[1]
In the Malachite Ocean, the cold start included: sloops for 3,000 PoE and twenty doubloons at the palace shoppes, rum use on ships was turned off for about a week, small cannon balls & swill for sale from the markets, enhanced navy pay rates, requirements to create a crew and join or create a flag were reduced to narrow in swordfighting & bilging, a ship deed, and a captain's badge, stats & performance trophies along with Brigand King flotillas & blockades were turned off for a time, startup costs for stalls were cheaper for a time, and taxes were set to 0% on Ringer islands.[2]
At least one problem was a coalition of players buying out all the swill and cannon balls for sale at the palace. (There was no way to buy up all the sloops.)
Hunter also featured a delayed supply by merchants of minerals; for about the first day, they were not sailed, giving dockside prices a chance to climb up to reasonable levels.
On the Opal Ocean, trophies for Incredibles, Ultimate standing and eventually #1 ocean ranking were disabled in order to allow the puzzle standings to balance out.
