8. Ships
Ships are the vehicles that carry single or multiplayer crews out to sea.
What you sail
The raft is free, always available, and where everyone starts. It is the smallest thing that floats.
The dinghy is a step up, and it is crafted at the shipwright like everything above it.
Everything bigger is earned. Above the dinghy is the ladder, smallest first: the Sloop, the Cutter, the Brig, the Frigate and the Man-o-war. Each is crafted at the shipwright. No ship is granted at signup, and none is granted at a war reset: a hull you are sailing is one you paid for.
A raft or a dinghy will carry you, fish, and get you back out after a bad run, but the hold is small. Cargo runs want a real hull.
Building a ship
Each hull costs doubloons and materials, and each one needs the hull below it. To build a Sloop you must own a dinghy, to build a Cutter you must own a Sloop, and so on up. The hull below is not used up: you keep it.
| Ship | Doubloons | Oak Logs | Linen Cloth | Copper Ore | Needs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dinghy | 1,000 | 10 | |||
| Sloop | 15,000 | 40 | 20 | Dinghy | |
| Cutter | 40,000 | 80 | 40 | 20 | Sloop |
| Brig | 100,000 | 150 | 80 | 50 | Cutter |
| Frigate | 220,000 | 250 | 120 | 100 | Brig |
| Man-o-war | 500,000 | 400 | 200 | 160 | Frigate |
The materials are ordinary trade goods. Oak logs lie around the docks as wood branches and come up with the commonest fish. Linen cloth and copper ore come up with the next tier of fish, the linenfish and the copperfish. All three sell at every trade post, Coffer Cay at the docks included, so you can buy them too.
Your first voyage pays for your first dinghy: Barnaby's wages for it are 1,000 doubloons and 10 oak logs.
Hulls reset at the end of a war, so each war the climb starts again from the dinghy.
The older hulls (the Clockwork Brig, the Wraith Brig, the Freeblade Sloop, the Merchant's Brig, the Tidesong Brig and the Phoenix Frigate) are retired. They are not crafted or sold any more and do not appear in the loadout.
The hull
A ship's health is its hull. There are no shields. A ship that used to carry one now carries those points in its hull, so it lasts about as long in a fight as it did.
| Ship | Hull |
|---|---|
| Raft | 125 |
| Dinghy | 250 |
| Sloop | 700 |
| Cutter | 950 |
| Brig | 1,250 |
| Frigate | 1,650 |
| Man-o-war | 2,200 |
The hull for your ship shows in the loadout.
The hold
Every hull has a fixed hold, measured in cargo units. Each unit of goods takes one unit of space, and doubloons in the hold weigh too: every 250 doubloons aboard fills one unit.
| Ship | Hold |
|---|---|
| Raft | 5 |
| Dinghy | 32 |
| Sloop | 60 |
| Cutter | 120 |
| Brig | 200 |
| Frigate | 300 |
| Man-o-war | 600 |
When the hold is full, it is full: chests you sail into stay in the water, and a fish you cannot stow gets away. Sell or extract to make room. The hold for your ship shows in the loadout, and the map screen shows how much of it you have used.
To see what is aboard, open the Ship's Hold. On the bigger hulls that is the cargo hatch on deck. The raft has none, so its hold is the lashed crates at the front of the deck, and the dinghy's is the cask by the stern seat. Walk up to it and press the interact key.
Ownership
Ships are ordinary inventory items. They are not NFTs and do not need to be, and no ship is gated behind a purchase.
Customization
More ships, classes, and customization options are planned.