|
Crews have three options for their governance, or politics, system:
- An autocratic crew is governed by the captain. Only the captain can promote senior officers and change the crew articles. This effectively prevents crew "theft".
- An oligarchic crew is governed by the votes of the senior officers. They, along with the captain, may propose issues for a vote. If a majority of active senior officers vote in favor of a resolution, then it passes. If the issue remains up for a vote for three days without reaching a majority, it will pass if over half the senior officers have voted and, of that half, the majority is in favor.
- A democratic crew is governed by the votes of all members of rank pirate and above. Decisions in democratic crews require either a majority vote of the membership or, as with oligarchies, a vote of a majority after three days. Any member of pirate rank and above can post an issue.
A crew's politics may be changed at any time via the procedures of decision-making stipulated by its current politics setting. In all three systems, dormant crew members, including the captain, do not get a vote. If the captain leaves an autocratic crew, the crew automatically becomes oligarchic. If they become dormant, the politics will change if an event occurs that would post a crew issue (even if it's something that would normally be immediately bypassed such as a senior officer changing ranks). Also, if a dormant pirate is promoted to captain in an autocratic crew, the politics are immediately changed to oligarchic. Crew politics will never automatically change to democratic, even if a crew has nobody ranked above fleet officer.
|
|
A flag is a collection of crews who ostensibly work together for mutual benefit or protection, but it is actually a social grouping more than anything else. They are the largest political units in the game. Flags are the only political units that can blockade an island to take control of it, and flags are also the only groupings that may go to war with one another.
Flag Creation
The Captain of a crew may create a flag if the crew has achieved Established or greater fame. On doubloon oceans, there is also a cost of 20 doubloons and the captain must have a Captain badge for the function to be available.
Joining a Flag
A crew may also join a flag rather than create one. A flag may invite any crew with fame of Rumored or greater. A crew with the required fame may also request such an invitation. Any royal of the flag may send such an invitation, and no flag issue is raised when an invitation is sent.
Once invited, the crew must then vote to accept the invitation. Voting follows the applicable voting procedures of the crew's politics.
It is best if one or more royals speak with at least the Captain of a crew before inviting them to join a flag. Sending an unsolicited invitation is an easy way to annoy the invited crew along with potentially souring the inviting flag's reputation.
|
|
An alliance is a formal political agreement between two flags.
Alliances are usually formed for one or several reasons, including:
- mutual defense of islands in blockades
- coordinating blockades on other islands
- trade or shopkeeping agreement
- courting friendly relations with like minded flags
Alliance webs can become very complex. Declarations of war are often difficult as war cannot be declared if the two flags have a common ally three levels out. This often leads to temporary dissolution of alliances to declare wars.
How Flags Become Allied
 Royalty can form an alliance, or declare war, on another flag's info page. Royalty of a flag can find an option to form an alliance with another flag on its info page. Doing that sends a message to the other flag, stating, "<Flag A> has proposed an alliance. If ye propose an alliance in return, ye will be allies!" It also places a statement on the original flag's info page that, "This flag is trying to form an alliance with <Flag B>."
If a royal in Flag B were to propose an alliance in return, it would then go to a formal vote among Flag B's royalty, and the motion will be one of the following options:
- carried when a greater amount than one-half of the royals vote in its favour
- defeated when greater than one-half of its royalty vote against it
- carried if the vote is still evenly split after three days
Once an alliance is approved, it is listed on both flags' info pages on the left-hand side.
Sending out alliance offers without first consulting with at least one of the royalty of the flag you are proposing to is generally considered bad etiquette.
|
|
Piratical Parley and Politics
|
|
Piractical Parley and Politics is the section of the Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates Forums where players talk about the political aspects of the game and announce blockades and wars and other such political things.
Most flag, crew, and pirate want-ads have their own stickies in this forum for which to post your want-ad. Only make a new topic for want-ads if your ocean doesn't have a sticky for the type of want-ad you wish to post.
Depending on who you ask, Parley is either fun or notorious for the level of discourse that goes on within it. While most topics are well-behaved, those with especially weak dispositions are advised to stay within the safe realm of Shore Leave.
|
|
War is very fun and very dangerous, and knowing what to do is extremely important, both as an attacker and as a defender. Warring is not just something that one or two people do in a flag, it is a comprehensive flagwide effort to sink your opponent's boats, and to protect your own. Tactics to accomplish this are far reaching, and some push the boundaries of the Terms of Service, so adherence to either a War Convention, Common Sense, or both is highly advised.
Gathering Intelligence Part One: Keeping Tabs on the Enemy
Every officer in a flag at war is responsible for gathering intelligence. Use the /fwho command on the enemy flag to determine who is online. Run down the side tab, clicking on each pirate online, and determine their location. For any that are on boats, click on the boat and determine whether the boat is in the war flag, or they're jobbing for another flag. This is how you take inventory of all the enemy boats at sea. These boats may be potential targets, and they also might be potential hunters, out to sink boats of your own flag, so it's important that every officer in the flag be appraised of their location and staffing levels, repeatedly. Someone in the flag should update the rest of the flag on the boats of the enemy often, as frequently as every five minutes, for use in both offense and defense. This isn't as hard as it sounds - someone can do it while playing parlor games if they have a second account open.
Gathering Intelligence Part Two: Protecting Yourself from Attackers
If you are running a boat, be it a pillage, a trade run, memorizing routes, or any other activity, you must be aware of the potential attackers before they nab you. That means first and foremost monitoring the flag officer channel for updates on enemy positions, but also means protecting yourself. If an enemy boat is called out over the while you're at sea, do a "blank" /who command. This will bring up a tab indicating all the boats at sea in your archipelago, who their navver is, and how many players are aboard. If the enemy boat is in that list, chances are high they're hunting you. At this point you can run to port, abandon your boat at a league point, get more jobbers from your flag onto your boat to help you defend it (should they find you and attack) or just trust in your skills to either evade or sink them. It will behoove you to do a /vwho on their boat, look through their jobber's statistics, and evaluate whether they're within the same general might rating as your boat. You can also get an idea whether the match is even, or in one side's favor. Don't forget that people can jump onto or off of a boat right before an engage.
Gathering Intelligence Part Three: Initiating The Hunt
If you see a potential target flash by on the flag officer chat channel, and you'd like to set out and try to sink them, /vwho that boat directly. Go aboard a nearby boat, and do a blank /who to determine whether they're in the same arch as you. If they are, ferry about the archipelago and start buying drinks for old salts. You should know what port they were last seen in from the /who command. If you can establish their destination from an Old Salt, then you can infer which route they might be on. Crew up a boat and head out for the kill!
There are many other creative means by which your flag can help you track down the location of the boat. You could /pay someone on the target boat a bribe to tell you their location. You could have your flagmates monitor the archipelago by deporting boats at every island and watching for the target to sail past. You could see if the target boat has a hiring notice posted on the notice board, and actually take a job aboard their boat.
Be careful with the use of alt accounts in any aspect of war, because the criteria for suspensions and bans during war are nebulous and difficult to pin down.
|
|
