Privateering





''Stop blowing holes in my ship! - Captain Jack Sparrow"''

Ship PvP (Pirate vs. Pirate) - also called Privateering is a Battle mode for Pirates of the Caribbean Online. This mode places you in the heat of a furious battle between the Pirate 'Lords' of two small islands.

Privateering is a great way to have some fun for those level 50's and earn a bit of gold.

Scores in Ship PvP are based on what ship you sink. If you sink a ship with more bounty, your score will go up more then if you sink a ship with less bounty. As a ship sinks more vessels, it's score (or Bounty) goes up.

Background


Pierre le Porc is a French Pirate "Lord" and rules over Ile D'Etable De Porc. le Porc prefers to refer to himself as a "refined gentleman of acquisition" - with his focus constantly on acquiring more territory, more gold, and more men to take up arms against his rival Garcia de Avaricia.



Garcia de Avaricia is a Spanish Pirate and the self-proclaimed "Lord" of Isla De La Avaricia. Avaricia spends the majority of his day plotting the demise of his rival Pierre le Porc. In between swigs of rum, he counts his fortune while recruiting Pirates to his cause.

Joining Ship PvP
To join ship PVP either:
 * 1) Sail out of either PvP port, Ile D'Etable De Porc or Isla De La Avaricia
 * 2) Have one member of a crew sail from a PvP port, and join them.
 * 3) Select Join a Privateer Crew from the Crew options menu.
 * 4) Go to the Lookout Menu, and select Privateer.

Ship PvP HUD
Press ~ to get the Ship PvP HUD. This shows the ships battling on your current server, their points and bounty.

Spanish ships are shown in yellow and French ships are shown in blue. Your ship is the highlighted one.

Bounty
Bounty is affected by how many ships you sink as well as the amount and quality of your ship and its crew. When you first launch your ship your bounty will be low, but not zero (depending upon the vessel's size and crew). As you sink other ships, your bounty goes up. The amount your bounty increases depends on the bounty of other vessels.

This means if another ship sinks you and you have a high bounty, that ship's crew will get more gold and salvage points. And, in turn their bounty gets higher. A ship that continues to sink others and stay afloat will gain a high bounty count and become a more likely target.

Score
Determined by how much damage you do to the other side. As you sink ships, your score increases. When you first launch your ship, your score starts at zero.

Crewing
No pirate can be successful for long alone out there. It takes a good group of gunners to lay your enemy to waste.

Adding Crew
To acquire hands for your privateer vessel, you can recruit on the beach of the islands, call upon your crewmates, friends and guildmates or turn on the Start Crew option under the Hearties menu to find pirates looking for work.

You can also select the range of crewmen you're seeking by how close they are to your pirate's Notoriety level. Higher level pirates may wish to set this number higher if gunners are scarce.

When the Start Crew is on, pirates seeking a crew will automatically be added to your list and can then teleport to your ship.

Joining A Crew
For a pirate wanting to join a Privateer crew, it's simply a matter of going to Lookout then Privateer. Or from a privateer island, go to a nearby dinghy and press Shift. Instead of choosing your own vessel, you can select from the privateer ships seeking crewmen.

Booting A Crewman
Sometimes the need may arrive for a captain to give a non-performing or troublesome crewman the heave ho. He won't walk the plank, per se - but the captain can select the crewman who needs to go and then select '''BOOT. '''A removed crewman CAN however return to the ship, if the boarding option is still set to Public.

Combat
Once you launch, your ship will appear off-shore under the protection of a glowing shield. This shield will not allow the ship to be damaged as your crew take positions and prepare to wiegh anchor. It prevents the enemy from ambushing ships new to the battle. Your ship's sails will have the colors of either the Spanish (Red/Yellow) or French (Blue/White/Red).

Unlike sea combat versus traditional enemies (Royal Navy, EITC, Skeleton, etc.) ships in PvP can withstand more damage, making strategy more important.

Crew use deck guns, while the helmsman uses the broadside guns to engage ships from the opposing team. Destroying sails, however, will NOT affect ship speed. Once, the hull reaches '0', the ship sinks and will re-appear at its home port.

If an enemy ship is sunk, the crew each receive a portion of the bounty money.
 * Note - If more than one ship aiding in the sinking, crews will split bounty.
 * Note - You CAN'T gain any plunder when sinking any ships.
 * ''Glitch - With the new Loot drops, you sometimes can get them by sinking the Royal Navy, EITC, Skeleton, etc.

Also, the victorious crew receive a Salvage Bonus, that is applied to their ship - repairing hull and sail damage up to the amount of the salvage.

Ship Repair
If your ship gets damaged by enemy fire, instead of docking and repairing at the shipwright, you can repair your ship while at sea.

Simply walk to the nearest hole in the deck by a woodpile, and press Shift. The Repair Mini-game Menu will appear. To complete repairs, the pirates must finish all the challenges:


 * Bilge Pumping - To drain the sea water from the hull
 * Plank Sawing - To cut new boards
 * Hull Bracing - Support the decks and beams
 * Hammering - To add the new boards.
 * Hull Patching - To seal up leaky spots.

In a crew, each member can take a task and get the work done that much more quickly. When a job has already been taken, the pirate's name will appear below the task being performed. Other repairing pirates can monitor their progress.

When the jobs are complete, the ship's hull and sails will be repaired. These repairs can occur even when the ship is in motion. However, enemy Grape Shot can slow down repair efforts.

Once all repairs are complete, any crewman working will stop and return to standing.

Docking
At any point, you can return to port. However, once you drop anchor your accrued points and bounty will be reset.

If crewmen need to replenish their ammunition, have them teleport to a gunsmith (there are smiths on the privateer islands as well as the main islands) and then teleport back, so your points will not be reset.

Note - Captains (ship-owners) can now teleport off-ship.


 * Warning - A ship engaged in combat will NOT be allowed to dock! You must not be under enemy attack to attempt to dock your vessel.

Sinking
If you happen to get sunk during the battle, you'll respawn back at your team's port, fully repaired. The temporary shield will already be on.

Your score will be the same and your bounty will be lower.

Ship vs. Ship Quests
To introduce new pirates to privateer combat, additional Fortune Quests were added.


 * Caribbean Struggle
 * Getting your Feet Wet (French)
 * Getting your Feet Wet (Spanish)

Completion of the French and Spanish quests will reward the pirate with special tattoos.

Hints and Tactics

 * Fire your deck guns at the water line (the part of the hull just above the water) to do the most damage. Rounds hitting too far up do less damage.
 * Your fighting style and crew size may determine what kind of ship you want. Galleons have the most armor, but are the slowest. Frigates have the most deck guns and have to widest firing arcs. Sloops have the greatest speed.
 * Light Sloops, though very weak, are VERY hard to hit, making them effective sometimes in privateering.
 * Firebrand ammunition not only does damage, but smoke from the fires may blind gunners.
 * Fury rounds may also blind gunners.
 * Grape Shot rounds are used for slowing down ship repair, as well as damaging the enemy ships in Privateering.
 * Thunderbolt rounds can hit enemies from tremendous distances.
 * When repairing, try and get away from the battle. Keep a sharp eye out for enemies sneaking up on you.
 * Use your Take Cover, Open Fire, Ramming Speed, Full Sail, and Come About skills wisely.
 * Stay away from the enemy port while their ships are under protection shields. You can't damage them, but THEY CAN DAMAGE YOU.
 * Once you move your ship, your protective shield goes away. Don't move until you're ready to engage the enemy.
 * When performing quests where you must collect damage points or sink ships WITHOUT sinking, discretion may warrant abandoning ship, instead of staying to sink and having to start over.
 * A powerful tactic is to have high level gunners at the front of a Frigate. Have them all load Explosive rounds. Then, ram an enemy ship with Ramming Speed. Use Open Fire and have them all fire their Explosives into the enemy ship.
 * You no longer have to shoot firebrand ammo if the enemy ship uses take cover, instead, the ammo that you are using does less damage than regular
 * If you see a light sloop DO NOT BE LET YOUR GUARD DOWN, many ships underestimate them. The light sloops can sink a war frigate given enough time, because they are so hard to hit.
 * WARNING - Ship PvP can cause MAJOR lag and can cause a computer to disconnect from POTCO. this is just so ya know, if you have an older computer, just be careful when getting into fights with multiple ships at a time.
 * A good startegy for light sloops that are going up against War Galleons is to go right up to the ship, that way the gunners AND broadsides cant hit you.